The [Horribly Unpopular] Soccer Thread

Terry Boss is the assistant coach at the University of Tulsa now. I coach there as well and was kind of surprised he came back.
anyways, carry-on.

Wooo broke our winless streak. Thank god. Nice to see zakuani(sp?) Able to play again.

Yeah, it's been a long time running for Zakuani to get back out there. Pair him up with Johnson and you've really got something there.

Hope so. Im hoping that benching montero will light a fire under him

Any one have anything to say about these can's? I know nothing about them. A lot of old ones, I got collection from my dad!

Yes i have something to say. WTF are you doing?

Punity said:

Yes i have something to say. WTF are you doing?

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Cool

awill said:

Cool

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Yes of all the threads why this one?

awill said:

Any one have anything to say about these can's? I know nothing about them. A lot of old ones, I got collection from my dad!

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Wrong thread. Nobody cares.

But hey how about LA pulling their heads out of their asses? Woo! Even missing 3 starters they ground out a win.

Thats how i feel about seattle Haha

Seattle was lucky not to give that game up at the end. Off-sides call saved their arse

Could be said about alot of games

Wow.... John Spencer got the sack from Portland. That's a huge shock, especially considering they just beat SJ which isn't easy this season.

He's also one of the best expansion managers the league has seen. It's a real shame.

Reno_eNVy said:

It's a real shame.

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I agree, but I'm not shocked. The lack of results on the road had too many fans calling for his head, not to mention that he had too little tactical flexibility in the second half. That's an experience thing, in my opinion, and it's a shame that Paulson hired an inexperienced coach and then fired him without giving him a real shot at growing in the role.

Portland is a funny team. For a game with Seattle, they're all in, end to end. You watch them play somebody else and big segments of the side seem almost asleep at the wheel. If they could have channelled half the energy they use when playing seattle, the team would have better standing and the coach would still be there.

Seattle's heating up. I hope we keep it going. Lets make it happen!

Seattle!

I feel they are looking for a miracle here in Portland rather than giving things a bit of time to sort themselves. We have been changing so many players its nearly like a first season again, and I don't see sacking Spencer helping much.

Damn, people are moving like crazy now.

- Spencer sacked
- Chiumiento to Switzerland
- Braun to RSL for a 2014 draft pick (really?!?!)
- de Guzman to FC Dallas in exchange for Wiedeman (good for FCD, don't know so much about TFC)
- Levesque is retiring next week


EDIT: Also, the New York Cosmos are back. Not MLS, but to the NASL, a league of the same name as the one they played in back in the 70's and 80's. I just hope they keep their classic crest.

Id like to see the cosmos make the mls jump

I thought MLS was what they were shooting for - were they blocked?

FlyDoctor said:

I thought MLS was what they were shooting for - were they blocked?

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Well there are a lot of hurdles to jump when joining MLS. Unlike many many many many other leagues, MLS is single-entity which means everything associated with "MLS" is owned by MLS... that means clubs, player contracts, etc. To enter MLS you're basically buying a franchise and the fee is astronomical (it's up to $100 million now from $20mil just two years ago) and that buys you squat. You still have to fork-over millions, if not hundreds of millions, of dollars to buy/lease land and build a stadium. And stadia (apparently my spellcheck dictionary doesn't like that pluralization of stadium, even though it's correct) issues are bigger in this stage of MLS... it's expected to have your stadium in a downtown area that is ridiculously easily accessible (see: Portland, JELD-WEN field, and public transportation) and downtown land ain't cheap my friend.

And then after all that bull you have the other normal business aspects of starting a franchise. And on top of that you have the concern of there being enough support. Yes, people will go nuts online and say, "WOO COSMOS!!" but there needs to be a core group of season-ticket holders that become ravenous supporters. I think the cheap(er) cost of operations (and thus, cheaper tickets) in NASL is the perfect springboard to get NY2 in MLS.

Also, cool article on MLSsoccer.com from Matt Doyle the Armchair Analyst:

Armchair Analyst: Existential questions answered by now


Some good/fun tidbits --

“There is no chance it will survive,” Nye Lavalle said to The Sporting News about MLS in 1994. “Absolutely no chance whatsoever.”

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(on Cosmos entering NASL):

That right there is the long and short of it. A rising tide lifts all boats. A healthy first division begets a healthy second and third division, and vice versa.

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It’s simply good business to have some sort of academy structure – it makes fans feel like you’re part of the community in a way the typical NBA or NHL team simply isn’t.

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Punity said:

Id like to see the cosmos make the mls jump

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I would have liked to see the Cosmos instead of NYRB, but now I'd much rather see a new team in a new area before a second in NY area.

Order of cities I think should get an MLS club:

1) Atlanta (huge city and there needs to be a club in the south)
2) Las Vegas (I actually used to be opposed and thought it would never work but it seems plausible now)
3) St. Louis (big soccer city)
4) Orlando ("promote" Orlando City)
5) Miami (always top 5 in viewership for US matches and MLS matches on ESPN)

Wow I'm surprised there's no chatter after this crazy-eventful weekend.

The big talk of MLS is the Portland vs LA match... holy crap that was nuts. I won't say anything more than that, though, since I really respect Portland and their supporters.

On top of that, Houston routed DC 4-0 and San Jose proved they were #1 with a ridiculous stomping of Salt Lake (5-0!!!!)

Was a rough weekend for me my grandmother died so ive been out of the loop. What happened in portland vs la

Oh dude, my sincere condolences.

Portland went up 1-0 early but LA scored 4 goals in a span on 10 minutes before the half. Second half was intense with Portland getting in close but eventually ending 5-3 to LA.

That sucks thatd have been a good game to watch

Anyone else heading to today's Sounders vs. Chelsea friendly? I'm hoping its at least competitive. Its nice to know we don't have a game this weekend so hopefully our starters will stay on longer. Everything last year seemed to be going alright in the first half against Manchester United. Then we put in our seconds, and they put in Rooney, and then it became 7-0. Hopefully this game will have a better result.

no i wish i was, im going to the Chivas and Quake match though. I hope they put up a fight show that there is actual talent on this team.

All in all it was an entertaining game. Montero's goals were great, Eddie Johnson should have had a couple. They both need to work on their killer instinct to finish, even if it isn't pretty. Too many extra touches. Jeff Parke looked absolutely horrible. I think he was directly involved with 3 of the goals, either by deflecting the ball into our net, or by falling asleep and letting them streak past him or push him out of the way. Its too bad Sigi waited until the 60th minute to sub him out for Ianni. We really need to address our back line. Chelsea's new Striker Lukaku is HUGE. He caused a lot of problems for our guys. I was a little disappointed that Chelsea didn't bring more of their stars to the pitch. Fun night none the less.

They've had Lukaku (mini-Drogs) for a while now. He just doesn't get many minutes because of his age and the people ahead of him. Rumor is he might go out on loan this season.

What's with all the soccer games being played in baseball stadiums? I understand some capacity restraints with some purpose built soccer stadiums, but surely a football stadium is better solution.... I smell stupid marketing stunt here.

aygov said:

What's with all the soccer games being played in baseball stadiums? I understand some capacity restraints with some purpose built soccer stadiums, but surely a football stadium is better solution.... I smell stupid marketing stunt here.

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Yup, stupid marketing stunt.

But hilarious marketing stunt: MLS on facebook has created a poster contest for the MLS All-Star match in Philadelphia. This is by far my favorite:




These other ones are also worth a nod:

classic! not a chelsea fan. however, winning a champions league tournament sitting back and packing in the whole time still has me a little shocked.
f'ing wankers...and they will still hose the mls allstars.

I have come to the conclussion that I cannot watch the Timbers and drink beer at the same time anymore. All my beer is starting to taste watered down and salty.

Why the baseball fields for games? Natural grass. Not many football stadiums have Natural grass anymore. IN Seattle, they build a grass field and bring it in on top of the field turf to play these international friendlies. A lot of leagues and players for that matter won't play on anything other than grass. Having been years ago to Wales National Rugby stadium, the grass was mowed everyday an 1/8 inch, one of the most beautiful surfaces you'll ever walk on. A 70k seat stadium at the time they only used for international matches. Field turf is an American concept as demand and number of games played make natural grass pretty hard to maintain.

I went to the Aston Villa - Fire friendly over the weekend. Nice match, Fire fans are AMAZING! Fire ot so impressive, but they had a lot of the second team out thtere to get playing time. The one goal of the match was very nice cross-header. Fun time!! Wish I had MLS closer. Will need to make more of an effort to follow the MN NSC Stars - not MLS but fun!