One Strike and You're Out: The 2015 MLS In-Season Thread

Titans Bastard

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1-1. Sublime chip by Mauro Diaz and a great first time finish by Hollingshead. Probably too little too late, but it keeps things semi interesting
 

Titans Bastard

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Milano with the dagger, fantastic goal. That was nasty.

And right after Borchers' last gasp block on Perez.

2-2, and it is over. Portland travels to MLS Cup, hosted by whoever wins the East.
 

nickandemmasuncle

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Jul 15, 2005
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C'mon Timbers. Finish this. Whatever happens this has been a hell of season. Didn't expect them to make it this far.
Great result. Congrats.

How terrified are you about the prospect of starting Urruti in the final if Adi can't go? (Or is he better than I think he is? Outside of that goal against KC in the conference semis, I haven't gotten the impression that he's particularly effective, but I don't watch the Timbers religiously, so I may be missing something.)
 

steeplechase3k

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I felt like I was going to throw up for just about the entire match. I cried at the end.

In 10+ years I've seen the Timbers win a regular season conference championship twice. They didn't make the final either time.
 

SoxFanInPdx

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Great result. Congrats.

How terrified are you about the prospect of starting Urruti in the final if Adi can't go? (Or is he better than I think he is? Outside of that goal against KC in the conference semis, I haven't gotten the impression that he's particularly effective, but I don't watch the Timbers religiously, so I may be missing something.)
Not as terrified as I was with being without Ridgewell tonight (hopefully he can be fit by next weekend). Urruti and Milano are viable replacements. For the most part, I've been extremely frustrated with Adi this season. He's caught fire the past month and a half. Reason being, he's got no awareness at times where he is on the pitch (has to up there in being whistled for off-sides). Still trying to get my pulse rate down.
 

Titans Bastard

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OH MY GOD. What an almost insane end to that one.

Portland @ Columbus
 

nickandemmasuncle

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OH MY GOD. What an almost insane end to that one.

Portland @ Columbus
That was nuts.

To be fair, I think that in most leagues that RBNY goal would have been disallowed because BWP impeded Clark, and then BWP looked offside on that last chance that he headed off the post, but still...that was exciting as hell.

Now I'm thinking back to the final 2 years ago, when SKC hosted and the game was a giant crapfest because it was played in freezing cold weather on a rock-hard field. Hope we manage to get better conditions for a more entertaining final in Columbus, but I'm not counting on it. Entertaining conference final series, in any case.
 

Titans Bastard

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That was nuts.

To be fair, I think that in most leagues that RBNY goal would have been disallowed because BWP impeded Clark, and then BWP looked offside on that last chance that he headed off the post, but still...that was exciting as hell.

Now I'm thinking back to the final 2 years ago, when SKC hosted and the game was a giant crapfest because it was played in freezing cold weather on a rock-hard field. Hope we manage to get better conditions for a more entertaining final in Columbus, but I'm not counting on it. Entertaining conference final series, in any case.
It's very early, but NOAA currently says the high in Columbus next Sunday will be 50, which would be excellent. That SKC game was played in 20 degree conditions, the coldest MLS match ever played.


RBNY's late run aside, I was impressed with Columbus. They're really playing well and limited New York's opportunities for almost the entire series. Last night, NY couldn't create much danger with their possession - Kljestan wasn't effective and BWP couldn't connect with the rest of the team. Out wide, Waylon Francis was absolutely dominant and shut down the right side of NY's attack, while Mike Grella lacked the quickness and athleticism to create danger on the left and wasn't able to combine with Kljestan and BWP either.

NY's midseason DP signing Gonzalo Veron looks pretty useless so far. Last night, all four of NY's wingers (Grella, Sam, SWP, Veron) were pretty toothless, though.

Disappointing for them, but nobody expected them to get this far at the beginning of the season.
 

candylandriots

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I have not really ever watched more than a few minutes of MLS here and there prior to watching the two semifinal legs. I was considerably more impressed with the quality of play than what I expected. All four of the games were really fun to watch.

I was kind of hoping that the Red Bulls would make it so I could go and support the Timbers here next week, but I'll have to be satisfied watching on TV. Looking forward to it.
 

Titans Bastard

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MVP: Sebastian Giovinco
Coach of the Year: Jesse Marsch
GK of the Year: Luis Robles
Defender of the Year: Laurent Ciman
Rookie of the Year: Cyle Larin
Newcomer of the Year: Giovinco
Comeback Player of the Year: Tim Melia

“The Comeback of the Year thing embarrasses me,” Melia told reporters earlier this week during Sporting Kansas City's end-of-season media day. “I don't know what I came back from.”

Giovinco and Larin were very obvious and very easy picks. Marsch is a deserving winner, though I can see the case for Pareja as well.

Larin would have won anyway, but they really need to change the RoY to a Young Player of the Year award, given the decreasing importance of the draft.


Best XI:

GK: Luis Robles
DF: Laurent Ciman, Matt Hedges, Kendall Waston
MF: Ethan Finlay, Dax McCarty, Benny Feilhaber, Fabian Castillo
FW: Sebastian Giovinco, Robbie Keane, Kei Kamara
 

Titans Bastard

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Actual good news for the Miami bid.

"Miami Beckham United has secured a stadium development site at 650 Northwest 8th Street in the City of Miami's historic Overtown neighborhood," Miami Beckham United said in a statement. "We intend to create an assemblage of private and County-controlled land totaling approximately 9 acres in Miami's urban core, within walking distance of multiple public transit options and the up-and-coming Miami River District. The private properties, which comprise the majority of the land, are under contract and we intend to purchase the County land at fair market value pending approval of our site by the MLS Board of Governors."
I don't know Miami at all, but the site is fairly close to downtown and near a MetroRail stop. There still could be regulatory and/or political shenanigans but acquiring the site is a concrete step.
 

Titans Bastard

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MLS Cup kicks off in less than eight hours. Yesterday, there were reports that Kei Kamara picked up a knock in training and will be a game-time decision. Maybe the Crew are just hamming up the possibility to create confusion, but if Kamara can't go it would be an enormous blow to them.


The league announced a bunch of things that came out of the Board of Governors meeting this week.

- They expressed the support for going to 28 teams, but did not state a timeline
- Expressed support for the new Miami stadium plan
- MLS will break for two weeks for the Copa América next year
- Players who are ruled out of the All-Star Game due to injury will be automatically held out of their next club match. Honestly who cares about the ASG though.
- Lowered the temperature at which hydration breaks occur
- Update to the "Targeted Allocation Money" rule coming soon.
 

steeplechase3k

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MLSCup final is today. 4pm Eastern.

Over 2000 of my fellow Timbers fans made the trip to Columbus. I wasn't able to make it. :(
 

Titans Bastard

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Lineups:


Kamara starts. He bears watching early on to see if he's playing hurt.



Melano picked over Asprilla, which answers the biggest question about what Porter would do with his lineup.
 

Titans Bastard

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Kamara scores, it's 2-1 now.

Not a GK clinic tonight, that's for sure.
 

Titans Bastard

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Well, that was definitely one of those entertaining-but-still-shitty-quality halves.
 

SocrManiac

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I desperately want MLS to succeed and I recognize that cup finals are often rough, but this is awful soccer.
 

Titans Bastard

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I can only imagine that steeplechase is really drunk right now. Congrats to the Timbers.
 

biollante

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I have trouble believing the MLS is real too.
I was suprised by the mistakes. The Crew looked like they were on drugs.
Something needs to be done but I don't know what it might be.
Perhaps more games against teams in other leagues ?
The MLS seems stuck in some sort of middling twilight zone.
 

Titans Bastard

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I'm sure Crew and Timbers fans had different experiences, but as a neutral observer I will say that I thought the final was a big letdown. The playoffs had been pretty great up to that point, but it was a sloppy game and it was poorly officiated, too. All three goals were marred by either bad goalkeeping mistakes or officiating errors. Definitely a disappointment on the quality front.

Ah, well. 2.5 months until the 2016 season starts.