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Welcome to the 27th season of Major League Soccer Seen here: not the wildest MLS Cup victory celebration as no strip clubs were involved (only because Portland lost this one...most strip clubs per capita, look it up) For those of you who are lost, this is the season thread for Major League Soccer Soccer Dot Com, the tier 1 league for the US (and 3 Canadian teams). We're the bastard redheaded middle stepchild of soccer leagues: we don't have the money and glamour of the big Euro leagues or the scrappiness and chaos of your South American leagues but we do have two things those others don't have: actual competition and fiscal solvency (which hopefully isn't solely being propped up by expansion fees resembling a Ponzi scheme...). In this thread we'll talk about stuff that happens in the league outside of the whistles; there will either be a monthly Gameday Thread as per usual or maybe we'll go to a permanent GDT. I'll let someone else figure that one out. For the regulars, welcome back. This year we've got a new team in Charlotte FC (  ), which pushed Nashville (who will be opening their new soccer-specific stadium in May) to the West so that we have 2 conferences of 14. Still have the 34 game schedule (newcomers: yes, that means it's an unbalanced schedule; no, you pointing out that's not how it's done in Europe is going to change anything, so STFU), but things are a tiny bit compressed so that the season wraps up before the FIFA Quick recap of last year: Austin joined the league, scored a hilarious percentage of their goals against Portland and opened their SSS, but ultimately sucked. Columbus and Cincy also opened new stadiums and coincidentally also sucked (  ). New England blitzkrieged the rest of the East to set the single season points record while Colorado sneakily took the West on the last day of the season by a single point. All of the CA, TX and OH teams missed the playoffs ( ). Said playoffs featured lots of games decided by penalty shootout: Seattle lost at home to RSL, who didn't even register a single shot in 120'; Nashville went 0-4 (!!!) in their spot kicks to get bounced by Philly, who then had to play the Conference Final without most of their starters due to COVID; NYCFC took down the Shield winners at New England by acing their kicks 5-3, made it to MLS Cup by beating Team Quarantine and prevailed in PKs again (Portland's equalizing goal should've been called off due to a foul in the leadup, don't @ me  ), with Sean Johnson coming up big twice to give them the trophy (and the celebration seen above).This offseason saw a bunch of young domestic talent get sold overseas and lots of rather sizeable inter-league trades as well. Some of the big name imports include Lorenzo Insigne (Toronto), Xherdan Shaqiri (Chicago) and Douglas Costa (Galaxy). Oh, and Portland's FO being an absolute dumpster fire is not just limited to the Thorns, with them covering up a domestic violence incident involving one of their players last year, giving him a contract extension before dumping him only after the victim went public on Peruvian TV. Don't want people to forget that (and not just because I'm a fan of their biggest rival, but because heads need to loving roll over this poo poo but sadly probably won't). If you want to be a cool kid and watch MLS, you should see games in person. Failing that, your local team (hopefully) has a local broadcast deal, which varies wildly from "every game on an OTA broadcaster" to "regularly picks fights with the cable monopoly for the region, screwing over fans". Out-of-market games that aren't nationally televised are on ESPN+ (and I really hope they stay there with the next TV deal because all of the other options suck, blow or somehow both suck and blow). Said nationally broadcast games will be on some combination of ESPN1/2, FS1, UniMas/Univision Deports/Twitter (generally one game on each every weekend) with a select few being broadcast on big-boy ABC and FOX. After a two year hiatus due to *gestures outside* the US Open Cup returns as a concurrent competition (everyone but the Canadian teams, because duh; starts April for most teams) along with the CONCACAF Champions League (NYCFC, Who's ready for 476 regular season and 13 playoff games? (Me, and hopefully you too) Will Cincy pick up their 4th straight Wooden Spoon? (Maybe, let's see how the first game against Charlotte goes) Will people keep fellating LAFC simply because they have Carlos Vela? (Yes) Will Chicago win the World cup now that they have The Powercube? (Only if gets moved to CB like Schweinsteiger) Are you still reading this? (Paradoxically, no) Source of thread title: https://twitter.com/Topbin90/status/1491892041307103236 (They had a DP signing in the wings that got scuttled at the last second because he had legal problems back in Spain) whypick1 fucked around with this message at 14:17 on Apr 11, 2022 |
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Feb 25, 2022 07:19
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gently caress Merritt. gently caress Gavin. gently caress Mike (Golub, COO of the org). And gently caress Jim, the ex-cop head of security that does middle of the night problem solving (covers up instances of DV) for the aforementioned shitheads. It loving sucks. We hosted an amazing MLS Cup final and I have no real desire to be at the match on Saturday.
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Feb 25, 2022 07:42
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NYC fraud champs, only beat Philly because of COVID (seriously, NYC was not inspiring that game) Philly may actually have a striker, this is our year. Probably hopefully maybe
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Feb 25, 2022 07:44
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I have no idea what to expect from the Red Bulls but I hope they’re good with another year of experience under Gerhard Struber’s belt. Also if Klimala can figure out how to finish even a marginal amount we should be half way decent with Long coming back.
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Feb 25, 2022 17:05
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Just purely looking at the offseason moves made and the injury status of Alan Pulido, I shouldn't expect very much out of SKC this season (The four signings from overseas all look to be projects, and the other relatively major signings we made were Kortne Ford and Ben Sweat, both quality but injury-prone defensive players), but I am as optimistic as I've ever been right now. I expect a relatively big jump from a few of the homegrown players on the senior roster (Hernandez, Duke, Pierre and Rad in particular) and the production from Russell and Salloi last year makes me optimistic even if Khiry Shelton will be in all likelihood the starting striker all season. This is one of the first times in a while that I genuinely don't have a good sense of who's going to be in the initial starting XI for the year, though, which is both intriguing and a little frightening Mostly, though, I am just so excited to get back to going to matches in-person! I went to like ten last year, I think, and I'm intending to see more this season - especially with the Current playing at Childrens Mercy Park, also apparently SKC II is playing most of their home games in the town I live in, so I intend to go see them as well. I don't know what to expect but it's always nice to have some optimism at the beginning of the season, even if it might feel unrealistic.
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Feb 25, 2022 18:20
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Go Austin. I have no idea about any of the players they brought in and haven't bothered to look into them but its fun to watch the games. I'll figure the team out as they go unless someone has a handy link to a 'meet the team' style post from a reporter or someone.
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Feb 25, 2022 18:52
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Apparently Kevin Thelwell just got the director of football role at Everton.
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Feb 25, 2022 18:57
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humpthewind posted:Go Austin. I have no idea about any of the players they brought in and haven't bothered to look into them but its fun to watch the games. I'll figure the team out as they go unless someone has a handy link to a 'meet the team' style post from a reporter or someone. Subscribe to the Striker Texas, Chris Bils has a write-up on the squad.
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Feb 25, 2022 19:10
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The Caps seem to have done all their offseason buying last summer so aside from losing Crepeau for Unspecified Personal Reasons (which, according to the LA Times, come down to being unhappy that they fired Dos Santos, who he's always been close to), they're basically the same team that gave us that whole crazy fall ride, except now with an entire season at home. So I'm optimistic, but as ever prepared for disappointment because That's MLS Baby, Welcome Back.
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Feb 25, 2022 21:07
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Edward Mass posted:Subscribe to the Striker Texas, Chris Bils has a write-up on the squad. Thank you. I have no idea how I have missed this site for so long.
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Feb 25, 2022 21:32
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Dallan Invictus posted:The Caps seem to have done all their offseason buying last summer so aside from losing Crepeau for Unspecified Personal Reasons (which, according to the LA Times, come down to being unhappy that they fired Dos Santos, who he's always been close to), they're basically the same team that gave us that whole crazy fall ride, except now with an entire season at home. I really hope it works out for Vancouver this year, I would be happy to see Vanni Sartini as a character in MLS for a long time
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Feb 25, 2022 21:39
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MDT up
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Feb 25, 2022 21:40
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There's a bunch of good preview content floating around mls soccer dot com and the athletic and some other places, this is a pretty nice summary of the state of things though (sub required): https://theathletic.com/3149519/2022/02/25/welcome-to-mls-season-27-where-one-key-factor-could-supercharge-the-next-four-years/. Here is 538's opening projections:  https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/soccer-predictions/mls/ And opening MLS Cup odds: quote:MLS Cup 2022 odds – Week 1 I look forward to LAFC being overrated all season yet again, and betting against them most weeks. Nashville looks like the best MLS Cup value on the board to me. I think Chicago and Dallas could surprise some people. I dunno if anyone else here is degenerate enough to bet on MLS but I think there tends to be some good value out there in game lines, if you factor in the ...eccentricities of MLS that don't necessarily map to models that work across other leagues. The 538 odds really highlight how much parity and unpredictability MLS has though, relative to every other league in their model. I'm cautiously optimistic that Houston is finally heading in the right direction, or at least a direction - Segal seems willing to spend and there seems to be a desire to actually develop young players too. Long road to go and Houston should be firmly bottom half of the table, but at least worth caring about again.
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Feb 25, 2022 23:41
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And we're off to a roaring start https://twitter.com/CincyLe/status/1497341316619026437
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Feb 26, 2022 00:59
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Crew's offseason was the definition of  . We lost our starting right and left back on a team that is crazy reliant on them. We got a new solid CB and a mid tier winger and that's basically it. We are playing an old man at left back (Santos) which is not his natural position and if he gets injured I guess we are just hosed because we basically have no depth there.The bright side is that this is still essentially the same team that won MLS Cup 2020 so if we stay healthy unlike last year then who knows. There is a 0% chance of a Supporter's Shield but I think a 5th place finish is likely and a MLS Cup run could happen as long as we make the playoffs. Strengths: -Our Spine (CBs, DMs, CAM) -The best direct freekick taker in the league (Zelarayan) Meh: -Striker (Zardes and Berry should be able to do a serviceable job but if they slump or are injured we are in for some pain). Weaknesses: -Everything on the outside (l/r backs and wingers) -Slow -Predictable If I was coach my strategy would be to: 1) get ball 2) get ball in area directly in front of box 3) draw fouls 4) let Z drain freekicks all day
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Feb 26, 2022 01:14
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BelovedWebPatron posted:And we're off to a roaring start lmao cinati bingos
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Feb 26, 2022 01:19
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BelovedWebPatron posted:And we're off to a roaring start Good
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Feb 26, 2022 03:48
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This is the best time of the season. The anticipation, the hopes and dreams, the fears. Any team could win it all right now, even Cincy.
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Feb 26, 2022 04:38
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binge crotching posted:Any team could win it all right now, even Cincy. Mods?
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Feb 26, 2022 05:36
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binge crotching posted:This is the best time of the season. The anticipation, the hopes and dreams, the fears. Any team could win it all right now, even Cincy. Cincy has less of a chance this year than Sacramento and St. Louis.
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Feb 26, 2022 08:04
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As a Rapids fan I feel attacked by this thread title! Relying on the rotting husk of Diego Rubio or Shinyashiki who didn't really push on from his Rookie of the Year season to score goals... 
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Feb 26, 2022 17:12
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i’d like Big Xherdan to do some sick bicycle kicks and for Chicago to make the playoffs, thanks in advance
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Feb 26, 2022 17:31
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paddyboat posted:i’d like Big Xherdan to do some sick bicycle kicks and for Chicago to make the playoffs, thanks in advance 
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Feb 26, 2022 18:44
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Cincy: "We're committed to fixing our defense so we don't get a fourth straight Wooden Spoon. This includes upgrading at the keeper position" *gives up 5 goals without a single save on opening day*
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Feb 27, 2022 02:11
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Holy poo poo, Austin is top of the league?
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Feb 27, 2022 03:16
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Moktaro posted:Holy poo poo, Austin is top of the league? Stop the Count!
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Feb 27, 2022 03:17
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whypick1 posted:Cincy: "We're committed to fixing our defense so we don't get a fourth straight Wooden Spoon. This includes upgrading at the keeper position" 
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Feb 27, 2022 04:34
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Here’s hoping they get a new GM soon and that streak extends to 5. For the first time in the 11 years I’ve had season tickets the team played some hype video, that included piped in P-T-F-C chanting, in the moments before kick off.
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Feb 27, 2022 16:45
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All 4 teams who competed in CCL during the week lost this weekend, scoring 0 goals and conceding 7. Vancouver and cincinatti seem bad Some things never change edit: next thread title should be As team captain I want to apologize and take full responsibility for what happened last week https://twitter.com/LuchoAcosta94/status/1498377453483565056 G-Hawk fucked around with this message at 00:22 on Mar 1, 2022 |
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Feb 28, 2022 15:22
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whypick1 posted:Out-of-market games that aren't nationally televised are on ESPN+ (and I really hope they stay there with the next TV deal because all of the other options suck, blow or somehow both suck and blow). I think I jinxed it: https://twitter.com/GrantWahl/status/1498424713575604233
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Mar 1, 2022 07:12
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That's only for national team games and the U.S. Open Cup. MLS' contract is separate now.
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Mar 1, 2022 07:13
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Derp, but that could still be a harbinger for MLS' rights if neither ESPN or FOX Sports gets the USSF contract. It's kinda sad how the Disney network is the least worst option out of all of them (see: me throwing a shitfit over FOX Sports bumping the Sounders CCL match to the web for the start of a loving college basketball game).
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Mar 1, 2022 07:20
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I mean, ESPN isn't innocent of neglecting MLS and U.S. Soccer in general. It's customary for college softball games to force coverage to ESPNews, and let's not forget the fiasco that was the USMNT-Mexico match last fall:Edward Mass posted:They've bumped the college basketball game off of ESPNews, so there we are.
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Mar 1, 2022 07:26
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They're bumping off Cincinnati/South Florida to ESPNews and putting USA/Mexico on ESPN2 WITH ONE MINUTE BEFORE KICKOFF.
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ESPN has a long standing policy of not cutting off live sports for other sports, it happens across various leagues and sports all the time. MLS fans take extreme offense to it but its not really a big deal (and it prevents what Fox did the other day) The vast majority of matches are going to be only available by streaming anyway so I'd prefer its on a reliable streaming platform full of other good content like ESPN+ and not banished to some lovely service that no one has. I really hope ESPN keeps MLS but I suspect ESPN isn't gonna pay as much as MLS is looking for and its gonna end up with turner or amazon or some poo poo. ive seen some reports that a MLS deal will be done by the end of march so we'll find out I guess edit: https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Closing-Bell/2022/03/01/Turner-soccer.aspx confirmed now, USSF getting 25-27m a year for English rights, it goes through 2030. HBO Max will stream all of the games live. TBS and TNT have committed to carry about half of them, which will be simulcast on HBO Max. This means that HBO Max will carry around 10 games per year exclusively. G-Hawk fucked around with this message at 21:04 on Mar 1, 2022 |
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Mar 1, 2022 20:18
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https://twitter.com/LuisOmarTapia/status/1498776071344377856 Hector Herrera reportedly signing with Houston, will join in the Summer. Biggest signing in club history, if accurate.
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Mar 1, 2022 23:12
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I’m guessing NYCFC will have fewer conflicts with Yankee Stadium being in use for the foreseeable future.
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Mar 2, 2022 00:39
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Edward Mass posted:I’m guessing NYCFC will have fewer conflicts with Yankee Stadium being in use for the foreseeable future. I have to imagine that Major League Baseball will have to fully restructure the schedule if they miss a few more deadlines, which might actually create more conflicts between NYCFC and their two baseball stadium homes. I guess we'll see what happens if we get to that point. NYCFC is playing a lot of games at Citi Field in April and May, though, way more than I thought before I checked just now. I don't want an extended lockout, I like baseball (and I actually would be sort of optimistic for the Royals this year), but I do wonder which MLS teams would theoretically benefit from an extended lockout, as in a few months in length, games not getting started until June or July. I imagine the formula is having a good MLS team, a dormant MLB team, and no NBA/NHL team in an extended playoff run? So Atlanta, maybe? Toronto? I think Houston has a lot to gain if they have a good start to the season, people blame the Astros being good and their stadiums so close for their lack of visible fan support sometimes.
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Mar 2, 2022 05:12
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G-Hawk posted:Hector Herrera reportedly signing with Houston, will join in the Summer. Biggest signing in club history, if accurate. Es oficial ahora. No dollar amounts given, but I can definitely believe that it would be their biggest signing.
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Mar 2, 2022 18:17
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So in KC's match at Atlanta Vermes made a sub at 50' then yanked the sub at 74' This is that sub: https://twitter.com/TheBackpost/status/1499073200315056129?s=20&t=Zv-n2L81sY_9K8O-L39bSA
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Mar 2, 2022 19:22
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whypick1 posted:So in KC's match at Atlanta Vermes made a sub at 50' then yanked the sub at 74' The trajectory of this mans career due to a single goal against Juventus is unbelievable.
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Mar 2, 2022 19:38
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