The MLS 2017 Season Thread

Some of them seem so arbitrary, Dallas and Chicago with the Brimstone Cup for example.

 

With some of them I think it's about as sophisticated as throwing * at the wall and seeing what sticks.

 

I didn't even know those trophies were a thing. And I have been a RBNY supporter for years.

 

Yeah that one is totally arbitrary. There is absolutely no rivaliry between Chicago Fire and FC Dallas its just another game on the fixture list.

 

Cascadia Cup is the only one that really holds any weight.

 

Just wanted to give some love to FC Dallas. The first team is on top of the league right now with the most homegrown players of any club in the league, and with one of the lowest payrolls. Their U-18 and U-16 sides (there is no U-17 or U-19 club level in the US, so that's it for young professionals) just won the US Development Academy this weekend, and did it with talent rather than athleticism. They could easily field a team of SPL quality players produced by their academy despite the fact that it's only been alive for about four years, and by all accounts it's only getting better. They seem to be the only MLS club (aside from maybe LA, but they don't give any of their youngsters playing time to allow them to grow) to realize that they have a monopoly on a city which is the size of some countries. Just an incredibly well-run organization.

Given how huge the US is, it's pretty crazy to think that in just a few years their academy could have produced two starters for the US national team (Kellyn Acosta and Emerson Hyndman) and two for the Mexican national team (Jesse Gonzalez and Alejandro Zendejas, although hopefully they will change their minds and play for the US), while they already have a regular (if not starter) for the Argentina national team in Rodrigo Funes Mori. I really hope that they win an MLS title under Pareja. He's done everything right, immersing himself so much that he was seen recently refereeing an FC Dallas U-12 match.

 

Yeah but * Dallas.

In all seriousness though, I slept with a girl at a wedding a few weeks ago who lives in Dallas and now I have a free place to stay down there, might go check it out. Austin would be much more up my alley I'm sure.

 

401 Derby today. Toronto could go top of the table!!

Also, someone made a new Giovinco edit with some of his latest wonder goals. What a * player.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Lcl0Z3QzUQ[/ame]

 

Seen the USA played Saint Vincent and the Grenadines earlier, quite funnily names players in their team that mob

Lemus Christopher
Nazir McBurnette
Emerald George
Theon Gordon
Myron Samuel
Danroy Edwards
Cornelius Stewart

Look like made up names.

 

Same with some African names like Goodluck Jonathan.

 

Dallas has now won the two major youth cups and is 2/3 of the way to the treble. The other conference winner, New York Red Bulls, is the only other club that plays a comparable amount of minutes to their youth players. Other clubs need to realize that young Americans can win. I would love to see Dallas get MLS Cup in order to validate their strategy. The list so far:

US U-16 Development Academy
US U-18 Development Academy
US Open Cup
MLS Supporters Shield

 

Dallas no.10 has torn Achilles (Mauro Diaz), so they probably won't win, but it would be cool.

got to respect Dallas, they are doing it the right way. They were the first to start an academy, the first to recruit under-12s, they also didn't focus on big names to sell tickets and instead used money on Latino American youth.

 

MLS headquarters must be so sad now. Instead of New York derby in Eastern finals, they get two Canadian teams. Instead of Seattle-LA derby in the West, they get Colorado with its dead crowds and negative play style.

 

It's about time Canadian clubs took centre stage. Montreal will have sold over 60k tickets for the Eastern final and Toronto has probably the best atmosphere in the league and the return leg will show just that. MLS has rightfully acknowledged that the clubs up north have been setting the bar in the past couple years. Sure a New York derby would have been great but Toronto/Montreal will outshine what could have been, guaranteed.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

That guy looks excellent. Two footed as well, very classy stuff.

 

I remember seeing a game not long after Drogba signed and the crowd were really impressive, I didn't realise they took it so seriously, I thought it was Ice Hockey, Curling and basically that was all. Good to see them into football.

I don't know if a New York derby would have been good, aren't those two teams miles apart? Last two games I seen I'm sure the Red Bulls were way ahead of City? Even though it's sad to see David Villa retired when he should still be playing with the big boys, guy has incredible talent.

 

New York derby could've had record ratings. I think I didn't make it clear, but that was what I meant.

US viewers won't care much about two Canadian clubs.

Matches themselves could be ok, and atmosphere, and Canadians should watch it, but ultimately for MLS HQ this has to be major disappointment.

Don't take it as some insult for Canadian clubs. Toronto historically is a very important club for MLS. When it joined the league, the league was pretty shaky. Toronto was big success and seeing that success changed the league. MLS has basically been following Toronto blueprint ever since (i.e. build a stadium in urban location and target young hipsters, not soccer moms).

Even more important was the fact that a big city like Toronto would put public tax dollars into an MLS stadium. That was a major breaking point and must've really changed perceptions among business people. MLS finally had something to show to potential new investors and started attracting billionaires instead of millionaires.

 

Sounds like Canada is reaping what it sowed. They sound quite visionary. Mind you, one day the whole world will realise football is the most entertaining sport because it's the ultimate test of athleticism, teamwork, improvisation and skill and you only have to have one of them in abundance to make it but if you've got all 4, then you're watching something special, an extreme innovator you don't see in any other sport

 

Not sure I understood this, do you mean they are too far apart?

RB are maybe a bit better at football, they destroyed NYC a couple times, but NYC won one as well.

More importantly, it drew attention, it looked like a rivalry. There was some tension among players, tension in the stands, fans even trying to start some trouble after games.

Sure, much of it is posing, some would say fake rivalry. Can't really build a real rivalry all of a sudden. But that doesn't matter, people watch it.

MLS always wanted to make some noise in New York, to get noticed in New York. They invested a lot of effort into creating the second New York club for that reason. Red Bulls just weren't relevant in New York. To have this NYC and NYRB rivalry develop this season was a dream come true for MLS top folks, and I imagine they would've loved for it to continue in the playoffs.

 

I understand what you're saying, of course it would be great for New York and 'football' to have a special rivalry and a derby day so the fans could go wild not knowing what was going to happen but it looks like the Red Bulls are so far ahead that to compare it to the English league Red Bull are Man City and New York City are Red Devils which is a stretch at analogy. I'm sure those two teams will become hot head fearsome warriors one day but right now it looks like Red Bull has the horns and City has no pity. It's going to take a while for a derby to happen, so much culture has to develop it can't happen overnight. If it happens overnight then it can disappear overnight it means it was manufactured. Rivalry takes time and momentum. As they say some game are momentus. Have there been many momentus games between these two?

The MLS needs a Messi or Ronaldo and it would be quite easy because it's not a hard standard to beat but if fans can see a player dribble past one two three four gol gol gol gol goooool then they are going to go mental and the sport is going to become el numero uno del mundo y america!

It's seems so ironic oil country Dallas is developing talent and the Canadians are showing how to keep something flowing on a smooth surface while the rich expect the famous and the famous expect the riches. It doesn't happen like that, you have to want to play the game. That must be why the Canadians are successful and the American teams aren't. The Canadian teams are still hungry for the game and the American teams are retirement homes.

Apart from Dallas of course which sounds like it's developing a brilliant youth system.