2011 MLS Season

[azsouthendzone]

I think you guys are taking things personally, and I'm not sure why.

We all seem to agree that MLS is an inferior style to the other European leagues, and I still think my opinion that it's tough to be used to European soccer for 6 months and then see MLS. I still love the Galaxy, but the fact is that the skill level is low. Very unfortunate, but it is what it is. The hope is that it will improve. This isn't some insult to you guys that like MLS.

Your take and the take of others is very different. You still watch MLS. The folks that are too good to give it a chance are the ones that quite frankly piss me off. Pick a team, love a team, and watch a team and I promise if you MLS will fill the void. My favorite sport is soccer even over the NFL. How did it pass the NFL? I started attending Galaxy games, following MLS, and fell in love with the US MNT. Almost every player who has worn the stars and stripes has played in MLS. I remember Bocanegra, Bradley, Beasley, all of em for the most part playing in MLS.

MLS is the single most important factor in the success of US Soccer. The league is building the foundation of the game in our country. You hope for improvement in MLS....which is what every US fan wants to see out of US Soccer....the league and the National Team's success are parallel and I really wish so called US Soccer fans could see that. Most do. Some don't and that is frustrating.

I started following MLS in 2002. I doubt many on here did. I can tell you by expansion alone the league has improved big time in the last 5 years at a very rapid rate. In 10 years the league will be a lot different but there will always be the people, no matter what, that write it off. To those people, I feel sorry for them because they are missing out.

Mulli has been to Fire games. Did you attend the 2009 playoff game vs. New England? If you were, can you really say that wasn't an awesome game?

Here is the highlight reel from that game. Blanco's goal at about 4:50 that was the aggregate winner still gives me chills. Doesn't look like people at Toyota Park were too upset comparing the quality to EPL in this video. Enjoy the ride. Go Galaxy. Go MLS.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdoYRfw6gRk

 

[dreamcastrocks]

Your take and the take of others is very different. You still watch MLS. The folks that are too good to give it a chance are the ones that quite frankly piss me off. Pick a team, love a team, and watch a team and I promise if you MLS will fill the void. My favorite sport is soccer even over the NFL. How did it pass the NFL? I started attending Galaxy games, following MLS, and fell in love with the US MNT. Almost every player who has worn the stars and stripes has played in MLS. I remember Bocanegra, Bradley, Beasley, all of em for the most part playing in MLS.

MLS is the single most important factor in the success of US Soccer. The league is building the foundation of the game in our country. You hope for improvement in MLS....which is what every US fan wants to see out of US Soccer....the league and the National Team's success are parallel and I really wish so called US Soccer fans could see that. Most do. Some don't and that is frustrating.

I started following MLS in 2002. I doubt many on here did. I can tell you by expansion alone the league has improved big time in the last 5 years at a very rapid rate. In 10 years the league will be a lot different but there will always be the people, no matter what, that write it off. To those people, I feel sorry for them because they are missing out.

Mulli has been to Fire games. Did you attend the 2009 playoff game vs. New England? If you were, can you really say that wasn't an awesome game?

Here is the highlight reel from that game. Blanco's goal at about 4:50 that was the aggregate winner still gives me chills. Doesn't look like people at Toyota Park were too upset comparing the quality to EPL in this video. Enjoy the ride. Go Galaxy. Go MLS.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdoYRfw6gRk

I agree with Chap and I feel like I don't have a dog in this race. I'm relatively new to soccer. I'm far from an aficionado, in fact, like I stated before, I didn't even know Messi played for Barcelona.

I'm trying to follow the Galaxy as they are the closest team geographically; the play is just different. I may have watched a dozen MLS games within the past year, most of them Galaxy games. Conversely, I watched a very large portion of the World Cup last year.

I don't want to write off MLS, I want them to have a local team that I can follow. Other leagues though, are just more exciting to watch, especially as there is no local team her to root for.

 

[Zeno]

I watch MLS for what it is, OUR domestic league that is improving that produces the majority of our National Team. I don't watch it trying to compare it to Int'l soccer (which I enjoy FAR more than any club soccer).

I used to watch it without any rooting interest but when I was in DC for work I attended pretty much every DC United match from March - July 2008 and found a team to claim (although they haven't made the playoffs since I became a fan and were the worst team in MLS last season). I now make it a point to fly to attend at least a game a season and I have MLS Direct Kick too.

The biggest current problem with MLS is expansion was done too soon and too fast and as a result watered down the league. Eventually the talent will catch up but the quality of play suffers for now.

 

[Chaplin]

It's pretty simple. I will continue to watch the Galaxy throughout the season because they are my MLS team. But the quality of play is not very good compared to other leagues. That's just a fact. Does that stop me from watching? No. Does it frustrate me? Absolutely. It's not that we have mediocre players--the MLS actually has decent players, we're talking about basic fundamentals.

To me, the lack of those fundamentals in the MLS is mind-boggling. Do they not watch foreign soccer? It's really strange that a professional league like this can be so far behind other leagues--not in attendance and other business aspects, but in the simple play on the field. Personally, I think it's a big deficiency in the coaching in this league. Ziggy Smidt, Bruce Arena, great coaches in their day, but really aren't very good compared to the Pep Guardiolas and Jose Mourinhos of the world.

 

[Dr. Jones]

It's like saying the Phoenix Mercury is your favorite WNBA team. Everybody and their mother would rather watch an NBA game.

Or that the local pop-warner team is your favorite team to watch on Sundays. My ass will be watching the NFL.

It's the reason I have never been able to sit through an MLS game without fast forwarding. The play is so crappy, and so devoid of any consistent technique.

 

[Zeno]

The Dallas Cup is going on right now (one of the largest and most well regarded youth tourneys in the world) and a lot of MLS youth sides are competing, the "Super Group" includes Japan U18's, Arsenal U18's, Eintracht Frankfurt U18's, Barcelona U18's and Tigres U18's.

FC Dallas is the best of the MLS youth sides, they won their group beating Japan 2-1 and Barcelona 3-1 and they play Tigres in the semi's--Eintracht & Arsenal face each other in the other semi. Good showing for a MLS youth team IMO no matter how they do in the semi.

 

[coyoteshockeyfan]

Beckham scores on a corner kick:



HD version here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=bn71IqxE5A4

 

[Shzm13]

I gotta say, I'm not a huge fan of this league, but this past weekend, I saw a game between Por-Sea, and I was glued to the tv. The atmosphere is phenomenal. The fans are really starting to catch on to soccer!

 

[Zeno]

I gotta say, I'm not a huge fan of this league, but this past weekend, I saw a game between Por-Sea, and I was glued to the tv. The atmosphere is phenomenal. The fans are really starting to catch on to soccer!

The fans in the NW have been surprisingly the best in the league, not sure why that is. The Sounders have more season ticket holders than the Mariners and have a huge supporters group and now they have their natural rivalry with Portland so it's pretty cool.

NY fans on the other hand can't sell out their games in a new stadium with the second best record in the MLS and high priced names like Henry and Marquez.

On another note...I am heading to DC's friendly against Everton next week...my first MLS event this year. Look forward to it.

 

[coyoteshockeyfan]

MLS All-Star First XI (voted by fans):

Goalkeeper: Kasey Keller (SEA)
Defenders: Omar Gonzalez (LA), Sean Franklin (LA), Rafa Márquez (NY), Tim Ream (NY)
Midfielders: David Beckham (LA), Jack Jewsbury (POR), Brek Shea (DAL)
Forwards: Landon Donovan (LA), Thierry Henry (NY), Chris Wondolowski (SJ)


I like the way MLS does their All-Star game compared to other sports. The fan ballot winners are on the team, but are not guaranteed to be in the starting XI which is instead decided by the coach.

 

[Shzm13]

Manchester United v NE Revolution on espn2 right now.

 

[MigratingOsprey]

The fans in the NW have been surprisingly the best in the league, not sure why that is. The Sounders have more season ticket holders than the Mariners and have a huge supporters group and now they have their natural rivalry with Portland so it's pretty cool.

Here is a good article on NW soccer

The moment when the Pacific Northwest succumbed to soccer nirvana came during—what else?—a steady downpour at 8:03 p.m. last Saturday at Qwest Field in Seattle. On the night the Seattle Sounders and the Portland Timbers resumed the fiercest rivalry in American club soccer, a sellout crowd of 36,593 watched in awe as the Emerald City Supporters unveiled a 23,000-square-foot display of nine green-and-blue banners telling the pictorial story of the Sounders' DECADES OF DOMINANCE over their Oregon neighbors—like cave paintings of a modern-day sports culture.

Over in the stadium's northeast corner more than 500 members of the Timbers Army had their own defiant banners proclaiming themselves KINGS OF CASCADIA and announcing WE'RE THE TIMBERS ARMY. WHO ARE YOU? And if the visuals weren't enough, well, there were the songs. Like the one Portland fans sing to the tune of Oh My Darling Clementine:

Build a bonfire, build a bonfire,
Put Seattle on the top,
Put Vancouver in the middle,
And we'll burn the bloody lot!

Or this serenade from Seattle fans:
Port-scum, Port-scum,
Seedy little city on a river of piss,
We'll drink your beer and shag your sis!

While last week's game was the first Seattle-Portland meeting in MLS, the rivalry dates to 1975, when the North American Soccer League's Sounders and Timbers had some legendary battles (SI, Aug. 11, 1975). Seattle, Portland and Vancouver all competed in the NASL with the same franchise names, leaving a mark with fans who are still around. "When you tie in that history, it creates a sense of community and it adds a sense of richness to your club," says Keith Hodo, the copresident of Emerald City Supporters, the Sounders' leading fan club. After the NASL folded in 1985, the enmity between the Sounders and the Timbers only continued as the teams competed against each other in minor leagues and in the U.S. Open Cup, a knockout tournament like England's FA Cup. "Any other rivalry in this league has sort of been a created rivalry," says Seattle coach Sigi Schmid. "This rivalry has history. It's been there the last 30-plus years, and that makes it the best rivalry in the league."

There was the time in 1975 when Portland beat Seattle on a sudden-death goal in the NASL playoffs and Timbers fans stormed the field like a college basketball crowd rushing the court after a huge upset. Or the time when the Timbers Army created a 20-foot-high banner display of Timber Jim, the team's mascot, taking a chain saw to the Space Needle. Or the time in 2009 when forward Roger Levesque scored for Seattle against Portland and celebrated by impersonating a falling tree, with teammate Nate Jaqua taking simulated ax swipes at his feet. (So despised is Levesque by Timbers fans that when he joined Portland for one game as a guest player in '07 they still booed him every time he touched the ball.)

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1186007/1/index.htm

 

[MigratingOsprey]

I know I'm in the minority, but I still think that MLS messed up by not putting a team in usptate NY - especially with growth into toronto & montreal, teams in columbus, NY/NJ and Boston

I know the corporate draw is fairly limited - but there are still some good corporations in Rochester, they have a good history, great area fan base, little competition and were willing to build whatever as a stadium ..... would of been one of those solid, grass roots type markets that allows them time to build into larger metros

Right now it would be too much of an uphill battle I think and the time probably has passed them by .... maybe a future 2nd division club is such a structure ever develops

 

[Zeno]

Good stuff on the history of the rivalry Osprey...I didn't know much of that history.

Rochester would have made sense when the league first started because of the success they had in the former A League and the already solid fanbase but I doubt it will ever happen now as MLS is bound and determined to add a second team in NYC. I don't agree with it myself...the NYRB can't sell out games consistently when they have a market of millions, not sure how adding a second team to that would help. The same city shouldn't have 2 teams--while they are at it Chivas USA should move to San Diego county somewhere too.

They need a team in the southeast whether it be Charlotte, Atlanta, Florida, somewhere--that part of the country has no representation in the league. Tampa & Miami failed in the past but the league is different now and with the right ownership group you'd think they'd see some success (meaning $$).

 

[Zeno]

Watching LA against Real Madrid...the gap in talent is enormous, if not for Saunders playing such a strong game this could easily be 4 or 5-0 and it isn't even half yet.

 

[dreamcastrocks]

Watching LA against Real Madrid...the gap in talent is enormous, if not for Saunders playing such a strong game this could easily be 4 or 5-0 and it isn't even half yet.

Agreed. That 2nd half goal by Ronaldo was one of the finest goals you will ever see.

 

[azsouthendzone]

Is Real Madrid better? That is a silly question. Real Madrid beats teams like that in their OWN LEAGUE all the time. They are Real freaking Madrid. They better be better. That said, LA is beat up by injuries and didn't take this game as anything more than an ill-timed exhibition. A lot of the players LA used literally never play or have played mere minutes this season. To look at this game as anything more is short sighted. I saw LA battle their ass off vs Barcelona at the Rose Bowl and draw vs AC Milan two years ago and just last year LA put up a good fight vs RM. This game wasn't the same. Only reason it sucks is because the occasional fan or new fan won't see it that way but it is what it is. The Ronaldo goal was ridiculous BTW.

 

[Zeno]

Don't be so defensive about the Galaxy, Real Madrid is a legit top 5 club team. The lack of talent on display was as apparent as it should be, RM was missing some players too..Di Maria for one was busy playing (and losing) with Argentina in the Copa America.

I went to see Real Madrid play DC United in Maryland in 2009, it was much the same type of game with Josh Wicks making a bunch of incredible saves early only for RM to turn it on later and win 3-0.

I am going to see DC United play Everton this weekend and I don't really expect much from DC and this Everton team, while good, is nowhere near the class of RM. The fact DC plays a Wednesday game won't help things either. It would be nice to see DC actually make it tough for Evertone though, especially when you consider they have a payroll of under $4 million (Tim Howard along makes almost $3 mill for Everton).

 

[Mulli]

Chicago Fire looking decent so far v. Man U today. 1-0 Fire in second. Lots of offsides for Man U. Lots of USMNT missed chances for the fire.

 

[Mulli]

10 minutes later....2-1 Man U. Backup keeper for Fire

Still an okay showing for Fire.

 

[Zeno]

I was at the Everton match...it was hot & humid, terrible weather, heat index was 106 at kickoff. DC didn't start at least 5 regulars--Pontius, DeRo, Davies, Kitchen & Simms and Everton jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead...Pontius & Dero came on at halftime and DC quickly scored but then Everton took control again and won 3-1.

The talent gap is huge but the experience for MLS teams in invaluable as they move forward.

 

[Shzm13]

Manchester United vs MLS AS today.

I expect MLS AS to do better than last year, but still lose to MU.

 

[Zeno]

Man U scores fairly early but MLS is making it a game. Beckham is playing pretty well.

 

[Zeno]

3-0 now and MLS not playing as well in the second half as they did in the first.

 

[Shzm13]

The game looked pretty even for about the first 30 mins or so. Shame they couldn't even score this year.