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whypick1 posted:[citation needed] Sure, what the hell, I'll give it a go. I'm totally stealing stuff from last year's though.
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Mar 6, 2016 05:35
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Are you spending a rainy weekend away from a tech job drinking an IPA while smugly looking down upon others to buoy your own self-loathing for having sold out to the man? We have a team for you! Seattle Sounders FC  Inventors of Soccer Established 2009, but let's pretend it was 1974 Home Stadium: CenturyLink Field "The Clink"  Your stadium may be an SSS and have grass or less lovely turf, but is it in FIFA? No? Heh. Shut up, Vancouver We also may end up playing Open Cup games at the prestigious Starfire Sports Complex in Tukwila. It's a small stadium on the Sounders training grounds, but it has a beer garden! Ownership Adrian Hanauer (majority owner, owned the USL Sounders, used to be GM), Joe Roth (Hollywood producer of classics such as The Jerky Boys Movie), Paul Allen (owns CLink and roughly half of Seattle), Drew Carey (knows the value of the Showcase Showdown) In addition to the real owners, season ticket holders elect an Alliance Council of fans that is consulted on FO decisions. From people on the Council, it's not been much besides a focus group, and they've not had the control some have wished. Season ticket holders also get to vote on the GM every 4 years. Coaching Staff  Head Coach Sigi Schmid: Still here, still no MLS Cup despite being the winningest coach in MLS History. Plays relatively conservative, but generally able to grind out wins and find diamonds in the rough. Lets the foot off the pedal too early, depends too heavily on "his" guys, and subs very late. Bitches about the refs. Some fans are frustrated, ready to court Jason Kreis, but Sigi is still here.  General Manager Garth Lagerway: Just came to the Sounders from RSL last year, replacing Adiran Hanauer. Has been part of finding some great guys last year during the dry spell. Team Likely Starting XI (Just guessing from the CCL match we just had) code: Sigi Changed the Formation We're now rocking a 4-3-3, from our 4-4-2 of past. I've not watched enough to tell if this will really be that much different, but I expect a little bit more crossing into the box from Friberg and Ivanschitz rather than attempting to dribble it in through Dempsey and Martins magic. Torres is still injured as far as I know, Brad Evans has been filling in for him, which is not ideal. Friberg and Ivanschitz will likely have some competition and rotation, especially when Alonso gets injured. Jones is a complete guess if he'll keep the starting spot. 2016 Schedule I think you should check out this website. soundersfc.com. Just check it out. 2015 Recap   Seattle started out looking like world beaters, winning and winning, despite Evans being at centerback. And then on June 16th, they played Portland in the Open Cup. It was not pretty. Three red cards, including Dempsey receiving a longer suspension for ripping up a ref's notebook. Martins injured, and out for weeks. More people got injured, some got called up for the Gold Cup. And that explains the summer of our discontent you see up above. People healed, we picked up some new guys, brought back an old guy, and gritted our teeth through the Evans Centerback Experiment. Seattle still made the playoffs, though that's partially thanks to them increasing the number of playoff spots. We managed to beat LA in the play-in game, who had long been thorns in our side, but then couldn't get it done against Dallas who advanced on penalties, and had to deal with the ignominy of seeing Portland eventually lift the Cup. Yeah, gently caress last year. Developmental teams The Sounders also have a second team that plays in USL, with the creative name of Sounders 2 (or S2). The nifty thing about S2 is that season ticket holders for that team can actually buy into being part owners of the team. There's also an U-23 team that plays in the PDL, and U18, U16, U15, and U14 youth academies. Notable Transfers In for 2016:
Notable Departures
Yep, this is a rebuilding year. History The name "Seattle Sounders" was first used as the name for an expansion team for the 1974 season of the original NASL. They made it to the Soccer Bowl twice, but never won. The name was revived for an A-League/USL team in 1994, where they managed to win 4 league championships despite having an orca for their mascot. In 2007, MLS awarded an expansion slot to Seattle, essentially "promoting" the USL team. Despite including the USL owner, the owners wanted to rename the team to get away from the "minor league" Sounders name. They offered up Seattle Alliance, Seattle Republic, and Seattle FC because someone must have been a huge Force Dork. The fans wrote in Seattle Sounders, and the owners acquiesced, only adding on an FC to the name. Seattle Sounders FC started playing in MLS in 2009, the invention of soccer. Since then they have done quite well at winning, making the playoffs every year, but not so much at actually winning MLS Cup itself. They've also done quite well at having annoyingly smug fans. Titles
Notable former Sounders
Rivalries
Fans / Media
Why you should invest heavily into the Sounders FC:
Sounders Goons:
foobardog fucked around with this message at 05:38 on Mar 9, 2016 |
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Mar 6, 2016 08:17
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gently caress, that took more work than I thought.
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Mar 6, 2016 08:17
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Perhaps we'll do well to have a man with giant fingers on the back line. I'll call Rainbow Dash and start him on a course of crystals. Best off season acquisition for Seattle? There's now a streetcar that takes me from my apartment right to Temple, ready to watch soccer and drink beer. And at least one of the cars is pink!
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Mar 6, 2016 20:05
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Tigren posted:Stephen Goff's annual sitdown with Bruce Arena was just published and it's as fun as ever. Some highlights: I like to hate Bruce Arena. It'll be weird to not have him to moan about everything.
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Mar 6, 2016 20:07
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Xylorjax posted:Goddamnit who do I have to to bug my eyes out and yell at to get onto this list when I'm not the one putting the effortpost together?  DOOP posted:what the gently caress is the difference between the two anymore? Looks like TAM can only be used on the guys earning more than the max, and for paying down DPs. If a DP is paid down, they must then sign a new DP. So in theory, Seattle has a DP coming. But that's weird, because they already had a DP slot open from Martins leaving. Could that mean two DPs? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCgS079ZkPU
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Mar 9, 2016 05:47
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Xylorjax posted:Haha. I was about to object to my title there, but then I thought about it and you know it might actually be true. Unless Qu or Taters rachets up the rage level, that is. Yeah, honestly, if I were to think about it, I'd pick Tzen or DR AIDS probably, but really why be angry? Just enjoy the legal weed. Xylorjax posted:When Oba left I read we moved Ozzie back into the DP slot. If we have a bunch of TAM again we can buy him back down out of there and bring in a new shiny toy and roll with 4 DPs long term instead of having to dump one after the season because we're out of magic beans. Right now, Roster Page says only Valdez and Dempsey are DPs. I think once we pay down a guy, he's paid down as long as we don't increase his salary again. But yeah, with the limitations of TAM, that implies either Lagerway or Sigi are being bilked or that something big is in the pipeline.
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Mar 10, 2016 05:13
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African AIDS cum posted:Its funny how the lovely Timbers won the MLS cup and the Sounders haven't C'est le sport.
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Mar 10, 2016 21:43
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whypick1 posted:No Toledo or Salazar anywhere? That's rather bizarre. Maybe they got called up to work CCL matches? I mean they're next week, but perhaps they have to prepare.
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Mar 11, 2016 02:17
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B.B. Rodriguez posted:It never ceases to amaze me how MLB and NFL teams can get cities to basically bankrupt themselves for the privilege of housing a team. I'm sure many of the politicians know they're getting screwed, but they also know that voters don't usually care as long as they get a team. In an election, "I brought/kept a sports team" wins over "well yeah, but now we're broke".
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Mar 12, 2016 23:02
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It's easy to say that when your daddy is rolling in kickbacks from the great recession due to giving banks a big sloppy kiss as Treasury Secretary.
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Mar 12, 2016 23:15
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MechaFrogzilla posted:The 2016 Seattle Sounders are both bad and not good. It's been two games, and neither ones have been shellackings or getting completely outplayed. I think the players have hurt themselves with some bad choices leading to cards and injuries, as well as some bad luck. I think the group of players, though is sound. They are controlling the ball more than ping-ponging it around, and that's good. SKC and RSL are no slouches. I mean part of me worries that I'll become the Baghdad Bob of the Sounders, but we'll see.
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Mar 15, 2016 17:49
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DR AIDS posted:Interesting you've become this optimistic after we lost our first 2 games, as you were saying before the season we'd miss the playoffs. Yeah, I was mainly thinking that before I really saw the current group of guys playing, I think the only game I'd seen was the Club America away leg. And honestly, probably downgrading my expectations because I assumed Evans would keep playing centerback. Losing Martins did not supply as big a drop as I think it would have before the season started. I don't know, consider it more evidence that I don't know what the gently caress I'm talking about, really, I just like screaming at the kickymans.
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Mar 16, 2016 17:16
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Star Man posted:When was the last time that the Sounders didn't get a playoff berth? The Sounders are completely a HENRY rear end in a top hat complaining that their $250k salary isn't so big once they've paid for private school and savings for Tyler and Dakota.
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Mar 17, 2016 16:52
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Errant Gin Monks posted:I already love the defeatist fans here in this thread. Where have you been all my goon life? American Soccer has a huge inferiority complex that is only partially deserved. They've talked about changing it, but for example, the MLS All Star game is a set of MLS All Stars against an European Team in some sick attempt to prove "hey guys, we have good players...". Henry mentioned it when he was doing his retirement lap here, confused at why we hate ourselves so much. Basically between most American sports fans considering American soccer fans effete liberal pansies and European soccer fans considering American soccer fans naive posers, everyone is kind of touchy. That both complaints are often true adds to it! e: You also might find some good conversation in the US Lower Leagues thread: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3762847 Go to games, have fun, heckle guys that make less money than you, hate people from a different city. It's what sports is all about! foobardog fucked around with this message at 22:57 on Mar 18, 2016 |
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Mar 18, 2016 22:54
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I missed tonight's Sounders game. On one hand, two PKs would screw anyone over, on the other hand, depression just seems the right feeling right now.
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Mar 20, 2016 06:37
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Hungryjack posted:When I hear about an MLS team in San Antonio, all I hear is "three hour road trip" and that's enough for me. MLS should make sure every team has a road trip about 3 hours away, it's a good balance between accessible and not too close.
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Mar 21, 2016 18:25
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I kind of want the Rowdies in MLS because they could get added to the Heritage Cup, and that might move Vancouver and Portland, and it'll be an interesting little mini tourney.
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Mar 22, 2016 14:14
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Hungryjack posted:
This image is breaking my brain. 
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Mar 22, 2016 15:41
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I'm back to ride out the rest of this terrible year. Though I guess it really was to be expected. Been trying to spend less time posting stupid poo poo on SA, but I think I can wander back.Was Taters posted:Hope LeToux took that better than when Seattle let him go. He took it poorly? I only remember waving him off at the going away party we had and him signing my scarf. Le Toux... 
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Aug 4, 2016 19:55
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Your Boy Fancy posted:Seattle has going away parties. Yep, there even was one for Sigi just last week, but I couldn't make it.
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Aug 4, 2016 21:00
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joshtothemaxx posted:Holy poo poo that Halsti interview. That's amazing. I don't know that I've seen too many ex-player interviews more damning. I think we DC fan goons should organize to overthrow Goff, then Olsen, then RFK. Just leave the raccoons alone, please.
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Aug 12, 2016 17:57
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Your Boy Fancy posted:The raccoons all retired. Concussions, you see Well, at least they do better at color commentary than most in MLS.
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Aug 14, 2016 02:51
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whypick1 posted:In the not-exactly-breaking-news department, Minnesota United FC will start play next year at TCF Bank Stadium and will be keeping their name. Yay! I'm glad that they'll keep their name. In Super MLS 2 Turbo HD Remix, all teams will have an Euro sugar daddy with a prerequisite Europoser name.
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Aug 20, 2016 03:09
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That's pretty good. It'd only be more MLS if the team only had standby seats and he was the one that got bumped to a later flight.
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Aug 22, 2016 21:02
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Torres is off the DL, and expected to get minutes against Houston today. It's time to switch to mania.
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Aug 24, 2016 17:31
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B.B. Rodriguez posted:Y'all supporters are crazy man. The amount of clamoring for Schmetzer to be the permanent coach I'm seeing and hearing is staggering. Do they really think Sigi wouldn't have had the same run of form once Lodeiro showed up? He is the one piece they were missing from being a really good team. They were missing a player to link the attack to the rest of the team. If they had waited one more week, Sigi would have been hailed a genius. I guess that's why Garth didn't wait. I think Lodiero may have been a big bump, but no, I do think there were serious interaction problems in how Sigi ran the team. Basically, the players just were playing so timid and playing to not gently caress up rather than seeking winning. Player psychology is extremely important. There was a point that I could see that Portland's players had already given up on Sunday, and perhaps that's Porter playing a heavy hand with Adi and having it backfire. (I don't know, a Timber fan would know better). I'd not give Schmetzer any credit for it, or even Sigi all the blame for it. I think the pressure to get MLS Cup from fans and the FO were sky high, and prevented really blowing it up and starting from scratch, which I hope a good run towards the end doesn't make us hold on to the Dempsey-based Sounders forever. As long as the Sounders are so dependent on the stars, I'm not going to be surprised if at least one bad random thing happens that derails the team's chances every season. I think both this year and last year show a huge depth problem. I also think that it's a sort of perfect storm scenario, with a lot of little pieces combining into a big mess. Sigi has been having health issues and is relentlessly conservative; pressure to win is high to avoid people getting fickle; and many of the most important team members are aging/injured/called away on international duty/leaving the team, without clear replacements to step in. Particular to Sigi is his seemingly black-and-white relationship with players (Mario Martinez), his conservatism leading to poor experimentation (Shalarie Joseph), and his affinity for players that are great in the club house, but not on the field (Pete Vagenas). The time for the Sounders to win it all was either last year or the year before. Sigi was dealt a really bad hand this season with the injuries and losing Martins and in my opinion, Rose, and having increased pressure due to Portland winning it all. However, he did not play that hand very well. It's not Sigi's fault 100%, but he wasn't helping the situation. I felt this Sounders year was a lot like the last year John Fox coached the Panthers, a good team that had burnt out, but was forced to shamble on for one year too far. But Fox was way more hosed over by his FO than Sigi's been. In comparison, Arena strikes me as a bit more cutthroat with players, and definitely more secure in his position due to the many MLS Cups, allowing him to be more flexible and less scared in his coaching. If Sigi was in perfect health and managed to hang on for Lodeiro coming, he may have been able to become like Arena. But, with his health problems, it was probably the last year for Sigi no matter what. Schmetzer may be interesting because he does not yet seem to be trying to really become the place where the buck stops as much, allowing the team to begin to organize itself rather than to march to Sigi's tune. But that's also possibly because the pressure significantly dropped when the playoffs seemed impossible right before Sigi got let go. At the same time, Schmetzer finally got Dempsey to move back to CAM, rather than trying to be a striker, which I think has always been a bad fit for him. But honestly, we'll see. I hope we have some young CB cooking for when either Torres or Marshall turn into pumpkins so we don't have to go back to the Brad Evans Centerback Experience. e: And this is not to deny our fans are fickle and insane. People have been calling for Sigi Out for about four years, but I don't think it made sense until last year or now.
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Aug 24, 2016 19:50
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highme posted:I'm sure there will be more players in that age range brought in from Argenitine teams. Lodeiro, Higuain, Valeri are all good examples of the quality of that can be had there. Really, MLS has started to be pretty good at managing to find and prove these diamond in the rough players that would probably never even get a glance from Top European teams, and are not good enough to be prominent within their nation. This can even include European players like Andy Rose. So more like diamonds that fell through the sieve. It'll also be nice to see if academies help break through pay for play. I feel good about the chances for continual improvement and settling into a niche within the soccer world assuming upcoming expansion doesn't ruin everything.
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Aug 30, 2016 16:31
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And on my actual team, I kind of want Dempsey to move on (but obviously not in the way he's doing). These offenses and teams built around The Good One just completey fall to pieces when The Good One is gone, as the game against Portland on Sunday showed. Yes, they can often be reorganized at half time, and be surprising in "garbage time", but I'd rather not go down 4 goals in the first place. In theory, I should blame the defense more, but like how Keller buoyed them, Dempsey draws marking and extends attacks, which lets the defense take too long to organize. AND Frei saves their asses. Torres might pick it up a bit, but then he may become The Good One but for defense. This used to be Alonso, but he's had to focus up more and I don't think he can get back as quick anymore. Basically, the Sounders seem to train assuming the first team will always be healthy, and I almost think it'd make more sense to assume the worst.
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Aug 30, 2016 16:42
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Seltzer posted:Isn't Seattle's bigger problem that you had two good players and went down to one who also leaves for extended periods to play with the NT. Seattle doesn't seem as reliant on top stars like say Toronto. Btw it's cool to have the best youth academy in the league and beat people with players no ones heard of before. More teams should start trying it. I'm not sure how the first statement isn't exactly describing "being reliant on top stars."
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Aug 30, 2016 17:33
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Seltzer posted:You said the problem the team was built around one good player when it seemed to me that Martins was just as integral to Seattles success. The Dempsey stuff would be less of an issue if he was still around was what I was getting at. Right, but I consider Martins part of the design around Dempsey. Martins had a level of skill to respond and improvise with Dempsey that most other players in Seattle's attack did and do not. Morris could possibly do that eventually, but I think he's better in a starring role. Lodeiro is the new person fitting in Martins's role, but a lot like Martins without Dempsey, if Dempsey is gone, it's not quite enough. The hope is that Morris moves in for Dempsey's when Dempsey is gone, but I don't think he's there yet. I think maybe I've used bad terms, but I feel like Seattle creates too much of a power/strategy gap between its starters and B team. Obviously, at some point having multiple starters out will break the back of any team, but I feel that number is much too low for Seattle.
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Aug 30, 2016 18:15
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The team post for Vancouver should be just "Mostly harmless."
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Sep 6, 2016 07:33
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XyrlocShammypants posted:No football but college final exams, people readying for the holidays and generally forgetting soccer is in December. Eh, things being on Fox rather than FS is pretty important. It's kind of a dark irony that "nationally" televised games are harder to catch than local ones for the Sounders at least. But yeah, I remember the last few times it was between MLS Cup and the Winter Beer Fest, and well, I chose the beer fest. e: vvv Yeah, that's a bigger problem. The playoff games have been really poorly spaced out the past couple of years. foobardog fucked around with this message at 02:29 on Sep 7, 2016 |
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Sep 7, 2016 02:22
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Dallan Invictus posted:The fact that we insist on having two-legged series and also on respecting the November international break kinda makes this inevitable, though? (that and the two-week break before the final, which I guess is logistically necessary if they don't know where the final will BE until that point?) The international break is a good point, as is the two legged fixtures. And if you add avoiding football to that... Though, I don't think it's that logistically necessary, even though MLS is a smaller league, other leagues like the NHL, the NBA, and MLB have undetermined final locations, and with multiple games too. It's not a good comparison, though, those leagues normally play multiple games per week. Additionally, some break is probably ideal if you want players to have some time to rest and recover so they're at their best. It's really not easy, I guess, though more evidence for single table with Supporters Shield being the championship. I don't think it will happen, too many benefits to conferences with travel, and with conferences, best record as championship makes no sense.
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Sep 8, 2016 02:16
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Wait, I saw that Landon was back and assumed it was just a retrospective click bait article, but he's back? WTF? I'll allow it as long as it eventually leads to an MLS version of Space Jam.
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Sep 10, 2016 05:28
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Moktaro posted:Those are bad examples because they all have final SERIES, with the games alternating between the contestants in some fashion. Now if MLS Cup was a two-legged final you'd have less need for travel lead time, since each team's fans would have a home game to attend while the hardcores will find a way to make both. But that would be weird to our silly American sporting sensibilities. Right, that probably should have been called out too. I think the big reason you even see UEFA Champions league pick up the one final game is because it makes it easier to advertise and schedule around a single date, which means more money. The Super Bowl so punches above its weight as a global event, so everyone wants to be the Super Bowl.
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Sep 12, 2016 22:31
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Crazy Ted posted:Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I'm pretty sure the Champions League final has always been a single game at a randomly-chosen venue, and that dates back to the early 1950's. Oh, shows how stupid I am.
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Sep 13, 2016 00:43
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Seltzer posted:I hope when Ronaldo/Messi retires to mls every team throws 1 million into a pot and the team who acquires the player is picked out of a hat. You say that as if they wouldn't be the banner player to cement the Miami Beckhams.
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Sep 14, 2016 06:27
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Jack2142 posted:IS SKC actually in Kansas or is it in Missouri? I then again both states are abysmal so it doesn't really matter. SKC is actually in Kansas City, KS, which is not the more familiar Kansas City, MO, but its sad knockoff sibling right across the border.
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Sep 20, 2016 08:02
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I mean I'm a little sad Zach Scott will be retiring, but I don't expect anyone else to care. He was a cool dude who played for our team and wasn't completely terrible. gently caress, even with how much I dislike him at centerback, Brad Evans retiring will be worth a toast. Osvaldo Alonso will be even more so. They Are My Guys, And I Hope They Are Better Than Your Guys, And Even If They're Not, We Still Are. This Is Sports.
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Sep 21, 2016 23:29
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