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Welcome to the 29th season of Major League Soccer Tomorrow is opening kick for the league, and what better way to acknowledge the accomplishments of last year's Shield winner FC Cincinnati or Cup winner Columbus Crew by having...neither of those teams play, but instead having Inter Anywho, that kick off will mark the beginning of a whole slew of changes to the league, such as...what's that voice in my imaginary ear piece? There aren't any major changes? No new teams? Same regular season and playoff format? We are talking about Major League Soccer, right? *shrug* Hmm, ok then. Joking aside, there are a few minor rules changes are coming:
As before, 34 regular season games with an incredibly imbalanced schedule that ends on Decision Day October 19 with a pause for Leagues Cup going from the end of July to the end of August (but no break for Copa América because that doesn't directly bring money to MLS), a playoff format that's easier to get into than <redacted so as not to get probated>, all culminating in MLS Cup on December 7. All games will stream on AppleTV+'s MLS Season Pass (English and Spanish commentary, with Canadian games also having French commentary; optionally, the home team's radio feed may be selected if available), with the majority of them taking place on Saturday at 7:30PM local time (goddamn I wish they'd have put in some wiggle room on the start time this year) and midweek games on Wednesday at 7:30PM local, with a whiparound show MLS 360 (new this year: a Spanish version that I will definitely not watch because I don't need any more reminders of how incredibly rusty my high school Spanish is). Games that don't take place at 7:30PM local are probably ones that FOX Sports 1/FOX will be nationally broadcasting in the US. Quick recap of last year:
And now for the obligatory video the cap off this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HV0UGXYwQh0 whypick1 fucked around with this message at 17:59 on Feb 23, 2024 |
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Feb 20, 2024 19:24
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Today I learned that the Herons now play at Chase Stadium, as the naming rights changed yesterday.
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Feb 21, 2024 20:38
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Edward Mass posted:Today I learned that the Herons now play at Chase Stadium, as the naming rights changed yesterday. tbf you are more on the ball than whoever runs PRO's Twitter account granted they are probably a bit busy warming up to be a replacement AR this weekend
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Feb 21, 2024 22:12
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whypick1 posted:Joking aside, there are a few minor rules changes are coming: These scab refs trying to enforce 1 and 2 in that list is gonna be hilarious. Pretty salty that the first MLS game back isn't the rightful Crew but a Messi game tonight...
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Feb 22, 2024 00:01
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insider posted:These scab refs trying to enforce 1 and 2 in that list is gonna be hilarious. Apple knows who butters their bread, and that knife’s name is Lionel.
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Feb 22, 2024 00:06
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I'm 99% certain that if Messi wasn't in this game Apple would have this kickoff match be free for everyone. whypick1 fucked around with this message at 01:00 on Feb 22, 2024 |
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Feb 22, 2024 00:10
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insider posted:These scab refs trying to enforce 1 and 2 in that list is gonna be hilarious. The league agrees with you, so those three new rules are postponed until further notice.
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Feb 22, 2024 00:12
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apparently tmobile isnt offering mls pass this year actually. ah well. fwiw, it appears my subscription from last season doesnt expire until Saturday. Not sure if thats uniform or based on signup date.
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Feb 22, 2024 00:56
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G-Hawk posted:apparently tmobile isnt offering mls pass this year actually. ah well. Weird, I saw some posts from people saying they asked T-Mobile reps and they said yes and I bought a code on eBay, so I figured that was true.
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Feb 22, 2024 01:00
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whypick1 posted:Weird, I saw some posts from people saying they asked T-Mobile reps and they said yes and I bought a code on eBay, so I figured that was true. yeah, seemed some confusion but tmobile said today they aren't. its only like 80 bucks (if you have apple+) so whatever i don't mind paying
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Feb 22, 2024 01:05
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The Galaxy landed Paintsil: Officially official. I gotta say, it's weird to see the Galaxy call and then actually land their two top choices (or, at least, these were the ones everybody seemed to know about). I know the days of agents musing that maybe their guy wants to go live the high life in LA are long gone (it must be Miami these days, I guess) but, these are the ones that everybody seemed to know about and report on. So... maybe we didn't miss out on anybody big? That's an enormous step in the right direction. Oh, and they're both young and are supposed to actually be good. The Galaxy obviously have a long, LONG way to go before they're ready to contend for anything and the first few weeks are probably going to be a poo poo show but, it's nice to feel hope again.
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Feb 22, 2024 19:24
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PSRA's open letter to Don Garber, pretty much telling him he/MLS are being greedy cheapskate assholes Matt Miazga got his suspension reduced by a game 
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Feb 23, 2024 18:31
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Is there a place that is good to read a season primer for Austin FC? I follow some people on Twitter but haven't seen a real offseason retrospective or anything that is mostly objective. Maybe I'm not searching in the right place.
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Feb 23, 2024 18:39
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humpthewind posted:Is there a place that is good to read a season primer for Austin FC? I follow some people on Twitter but haven't seen a real offseason retrospective or anything that is mostly objective. Maybe I'm not searching in the right place. I know there might be some hesitation to go right to the league's page, but they do at least put out some semblance of content whereas to your point it can be hard to find anything of note elsewhere. It's not lengthy by any means but its at least something. https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/austin-fc-2024-season-preview You'll have to Ctrl+F on this second one: https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/ranking-all-29-mls-teams-by-tier-for-2024
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Feb 23, 2024 22:02
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Jovial Cow posted:I know there might be some hesitation to go right to the league's page, but they do at least put out some semblance of content whereas to your point it can be hard to find anything of note elsewhere. It's not lengthy by any means but its at least something. Thanks for this. Is this an Austin thing or do all teams have a lack of official beat reporter type guy that keeps up with the team?
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Feb 23, 2024 22:42
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Sports reporting in general has been getting decimated the past few years, and soccer is pretty low on the pecking order in this country, so they were particularly hard hit. As such, coverage has very much fragmented. Thankfully Sounder at Heart keeps a list of resources for all of the teams. For Austin: Verde All Day (Substack) Capital City Soccer (website) r/AustinFC (Reddit) Moontower Soccer (podcast) Austin American-Statesman (newspaper) $ But to answer your initial question, the tl;dr consensus for Austin seems to be "pray everything goes right and for a meteor to hit one of the better teams". Although maybe you get a repeat of 2022 out all that nay-saying 
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Feb 23, 2024 22:51
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Thanks!
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Feb 24, 2024 02:29
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I've read/listened to a lot of previews, and it sounds like the Western Conference is ripe for chaos. As such, I believe Austin could sneak into the playoffs with a few breaks and a good summer transfer window.
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Feb 24, 2024 04:29
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The whole first few months will probably be a mess anyway with the scab refs. It wouldn't surprise me if someone like Toronto, who last year had what was probably the worst season in MLS history, started off 5-0 because of terrible refs.
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Feb 24, 2024 06:54
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learning about football DJ’s this morning https://twitter.com/mlsist/status/1761952255266127884?s=46&t=Jl91I_6B7i5oyOtlhhpf1w https://twitter.com/grevstv/status/1761972350780572142?s=46&t=Jl91I_6B7i5oyOtlhhpf1w
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Feb 26, 2024 18:06
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Portland Timbers sponsor DaBella CEO accused of sexual harassment, unwanted advances, former executive saysquote:A much-needed bright spot for the Portland Timbers’ corporate leadership appeared late last year in the form of a major new sponsorship deal, following more than two years of public criticism and investigations into the organization’s handling of alleged sexual harassment, coercion, domestic violence and workplace misconduct. THEY GOT THROUGH ONE (1) GAME WITH THIS LOCAL CONTRACTOR AS SHIRT SPONSOR Jesus loving Christ
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Feb 29, 2024 00:40
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Feb 29, 2024 00:58
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whypick1 posted:Oh, and the league is trying their damnedest to torpedo the US Open Cup because they don't want to participate in it due to "schedule congestion" (*stares incredibly hard at the Leagues Cup*), but it looks like they will kinda sorta still participate it in this year Update: they're kinda sorta going to participate. tl;dr - Top 7 teams from last season not in CCC + Houston (as defending champs) will enter in the round of 32; the other teams not in CCC will send their MLS Next Pro teams in the first round; the CCC teams, Canadian teams and DC United (not having an MLS Next Pro affiliate) will have no representation in this tourney.
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Mar 1, 2024 20:31
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pretty soft path to a concacaf champions slot now!
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Mar 1, 2024 20:46
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What a weird set of teams.
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Mar 1, 2024 22:12
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So we're just going to pretend that Miami is even kind of sort of abiding by roster construction rules huh?
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Mar 2, 2024 02:41
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Correct, thats the plan
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Mar 2, 2024 03:30
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Ceterum autem censeo MLS esse delendam
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Mar 2, 2024 03:33
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Nothing to see here folks, everything's normal https://twitter.com/MLSRefStats/status/1763949948968570926
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Mar 2, 2024 21:49
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Surprising almost no one, it'll be MLS All-Stars vs. LigaMX once again.
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Mar 4, 2024 17:39
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Good! I liked the format when they did it that way.
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Mar 4, 2024 21:21
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I have to say I really enjoyed the sample size of one of watching Robinson and Miazga and Murphy in the back line. Here's hoping we get at least another four or five games in a row before Miazga gets himself suspended again.
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Mar 4, 2024 22:36
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mls vs liga mx seems like the optimal all star game format for the time being. its fun, has a built in narrative and incentives to sort of care and gets away from the inherent weirdness that is an actual club playing against all stars
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Mar 5, 2024 00:40
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Are other fans with teams in the current tournament kind of hoping their team gets bounced out early? I'm extremely skeptical of Cincinnati winning the entire thing and I'd rather not play an extra six or eight games over and above everybody else.
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Mar 5, 2024 15:36
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Eifert Posting posted:Are other fans with teams in the current tournament kind of hoping their team gets bounced out early? I'm extremely skeptical of Cincinnati winning the entire thing and I'd rather not play an extra six or eight games over and above everybody else. If you're referring to the Concacaf Champions Cup, I'll give you the best anecdote I can think of. In 2022, the Sounders won the Champions League, becoming the first MLS club to win the tournament in 20 years. Also in 2022, the Sounders missed the MLS Cup Playoffs for the only time in their history.
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Mar 5, 2024 20:22
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i'd rather win the concacaf champions cup than mls cup so no. also winning concacaf cup this year gets you an invite to the u.s. based expanded 2025 club world cup, which i know a lot of people are going to hate on but i think its gonna be fun as hell
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Mar 5, 2024 21:31
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G-Hawk posted:i'd rather win the concacaf champions cup than mls cup so no. also winning concacaf cup this year gets you an invite to the u.s. based expanded 2025 club world cup, which i know a lot of people are going to hate on but i think its gonna be fun as hell Yeah, I get the impact a deep CCC run has on your chances in the league and the slim chances of winning it, but especially this year it's really cool if you do win and that "but, hear me out, what if we did the thing?" hope of winning even the most ridiculous mismatch is half the fun of being a fan, right? Tigres was always a big ask so I'm not, like, angry at my guys for not beating them but no, I'm not happy to have been knocked out early even if we get to Focus On The League mostly I'm just in my corner raging at the draw G-Hawk posted:mls vs liga mx seems like the optimal all star game format for the time being. its fun, has a built in narrative and incentives to sort of care and gets away from the inherent weirdness that is an actual club playing against all stars If you're going to have an ASG at all the key is to make it fun, nobody will ever care about it as much as an actual game, nor should they, so lean into anything that makes it Just A Fun Exhibition and away from anything that takes away from that. Skills comps are great too, gimme more of that poo poo. Nobody cares enough about other teams for East V West to work yet and arguably even if they did MLS v MX would be a better format, even if the whole duet between them is kind of overexposed with all three (well, two and a half) regional cups. that's kinda difficult to avoid since they're the only other teams close to MLS level (in either direction) within several thousand miles though Dallan Invictus fucked around with this message at 22:07 on Mar 5, 2024 |
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Mar 5, 2024 21:44
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Cash Grab Cup schedule is out
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Mar 14, 2024 18:14
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Such a stupid schedule, but I guess Friday night games are a thing again.
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Mar 14, 2024 19:44
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Leagues Cup owns
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Mar 14, 2024 22:35
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