MLS 2018: More Barco Than Bite

Titans Bastard

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That's more like it. Osorio has been huge all tournament.

1-1, but Toronto needs to get it in gear. They look all out of sorts.
 

Titans Bastard

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1-1 HT. Toronto sleepwalked through the first 20 minutes and paid for it, but they've controlled play since. They could easily have a could more if their finishing was a bit better......which ALWAYS makes me nervous.
 

Titans Bastard

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DAMN it. Chivas scores, totally against the run of play, on a FK that was meant as a cross.
 

Titans Bastard

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VERY dubious no-call on a potential foul on Giovinco in the box.
 

Titans Bastard

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The second leg of the CCL final is tonight. Toronto is down 2-1 and needs a historic result on the road in Guadalajara. It's very likely not going to happen, but if anyone in MLS history can pull it off, it's this squad. But, of course, they won't.

I embrace the forthcoming suffering.
 

Titans Bastard

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Welp, it turns out that literally all of Toronto's center backs are injured right now, so Van Der Wiel and Bradley are starting at CB. RIP.

 

Titans Bastard

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Goal Chivas after a giveaway in midfield.

Toronto always needed two goals, but now two goals only gets them to PKs.
 

Titans Bastard

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Wow, Jozy!

That goal was mostly Nico Hasler, who made something out of a crowded situation in the box.

Game on.
 

Titans Bastard

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2-1!

Very nice pass by Marky Delgado, setting up a good finish from Giovinco. We're tied on aggregate and on away goals now.
 

Kliq

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It sucks that I get about 500 different sports channels yet I still can’t watch this game.
 

Titans Bastard

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Yikes, Godinez off the post.

Chivas is ramping up the pressure now.
 

Titans Bastard

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There's nothing Mexican soccer fans like more than the faggot chant at goalkeepers.
 

Senator Donut

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Streamers, punching the other side’s best player inches away from the referee, accosting medical staffs… I’m worried what Concacaf levels we’ve yet to see.

Edit: this reminds me of the old weeknight Superliga matches when every Revs game ended in a red card spree.
 

Titans Bastard

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Second sub for TFC now, Chapman on for Vazquez.

Chapman doesn't have Vazquez's quality, but he also doesn't have the rust. After the injury layoff, Vazquez was unsurprisingly not that good tonight.
 

Titans Bastard

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Altidore off injured.

Good thing there's no extra time before PKs because TFC don't have much left in the tank right now.
 

Titans Bastard

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Welp.

That was brutal. Good night, and good luck.

No telling when anyone will get as close as TFC did this year.
 

moly99

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MLS gets a bit closer every year. It's not as if Toronto making the finals were a fluke; obviously the Red Bulls made the semis and Seattle was also in the quarterfinals. MLS and Liga MX is at least competitive now even if Liga MX still holds an edge.

I think one issue attracting unfair criticism of MLS is that people ignore the growth of other leagues and countries. Mexico's teams are improving at the same time as our teams, so some of the improvement is lost in a direct comparison. Moreover the overall quality of players in CONCACAF is noticeably increasing. USMNT has Pulisic, but Jamaica has Leon Bailey at only one year older. (https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/leon-bailey/profil/spieler/387626)

Soccer fans are far too impatient, IMO. Slow growth is the only realistic path for development for the USA and Canada, and people need to learn to enjoy marginal gains rather than expecting the USA to be beasting the world like we do in basketball. Toronto making it to penalties in the final is an improvement on last year's result even if it was disappointing.
 

Titans Bastard

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I think that the extra several million dollars in salary that most MLS teams are spending on their rosters compared to a few years ago is making a difference. Still, it's hard not to be bitter about the result on Wednesday.

Toronto deserves huge props for their run. They beat two of Mexico's best teams in Tigres and America and then nearly beat a team that frankly, wasn't as good as TFC's previous opponents. They did so while missing a variety of key starters for almost the entire stretch - Vazquez, Mavinga, Morrow. In the second leg of the final, they won in Mexico even though they were missing every single CB on their roster and had to pull Bradley out of the instrumental DM position he usually plays for them.

Even though they didn't win, you can make the argument that TFC has more quality than anyone else in CONCACAF right now. And that's a big part of what makes their loss so shitty. Will Toronto be able to replicate this performance in the future? And more importantly, is this reflective of what we can expect all MLS representatives in CCL to do in the future? For the next few years, I'm skeptical. NYRB did well and should have beaten Chivas, but despite their total dominance in possession and shots, they just didn't have the quality to create real danger. I'm not impressed by Seattle's "run" to the QF. They beat a team from El Salvador, were wasteful at home, then got trashed away by Chivas. That's not exactly new and exciting stuff from an MLS team.

RSL's near-miss against Monterrey felt close to a breakthrough. It wasn't. My hope is that the extra spending and extra quality that's coming in will make the difference in the near future, but I don't have much stomach for more rosy MLS-in-CCL predictions that I've been hearing for so long, with little result.

Here's to hoping TFC-like runs are the rule in the future, but we'll see in the next few years whether anyone can compete with what the best MLS team of all time could do. And until it happens, I'll be hung up on that Marky Delgado miss in stoppage time...
 

Senator Donut

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If Orlando, playing at home, doesn't beat an NYRB team composed almost entirely of backups, Jason Kreis' seat is going to be awfully warm.
Since TB posted that, Kreis has rolled off five straight wins and Orlando is sitting pretty in third place. MLS never fails to surprise.
 

Titans Bastard

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Since TB posted that, Kreis has rolled off five straight wins and Orlando is sitting pretty in third place. MLS never fails to surprise.
You're welcome, Jason.

We'll see how they do when their schedule toughens up, though. This stretch included wins at home over a CCL-weakened NYRB team, Portland and SJ and away at Colorado and Philly. There's no "signature win" in that group. I'm being a little harsh though - five in a row is decent enough regardless of opponent.

Their defense is not very convincing. Only one team in the East has conceded more goals.

Speaking of teams pulling out wins despite an unconvincing-looking defense.....New England is in a respectable fourth place thus far. (At least in NE's case, the defense just looks a little sketchy so far; they have a good goals conceded record. There are some tough games coming up, though.)
 

Senator Donut

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The Lee Nguyen saga is mercifully over.

New England Revolution trade midfielder Lee Nguyen on May 1, 2018 to Los Angeles Football Club in exchange for $350,000 in General Allocation Money, $350,000 Targeted Allocation Money, and conditional compensation to be determined.

Apparently, the window closes in central time, so the Revs were able to get this done right before the deadline. Depending on incentives, the Revs could get an additional $250,000 in allocation money and suoerdraft picks. The return is underwhelming, considering Columbus received $1,050,000 in allocation for Justin Meram, but it sounds like the Revs took less money to keep Nguyen away from Eastern Conference playoff rivals; Chicago and Montreal were the heavily rumored destinations.
 

Titans Bastard

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I'm glad that the Revs converted Nguyen into some assets. I was pretty sure they were going to sit tight with him until at least the summer window.

Meram went for more money, but he's also two years younger. Age 29 vs. age 31 is a significant difference, I think. The achievability of the conditional compensation for Nguyen makes it hard to fully judge the return. A big deal was made out of Atlanta's $1.5 package for Darlington Nagbe, but a significant chunk of that was made up of absurd, unrealistic incentive clauses. The Nguyen deal supposedly contains $250k of incentives.
 

Senator Donut

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Jeff Carlisle reported an additional $100,000 in allocation money and a draft pick is essentially a poison pill provision, which is triggered if Nguyen is traded in the summer window. It's an assurance to the Revs that he won't eventually end up with a conference rival this season. He also confirmed Twellman's report that there was an offer from an eastern team for more up front allocation money.

The other condition is that if LAFC were to re-sign Nguyen for more money prior to the expiration of his contract, then New England would receive $150,000 in allocation money.

http://www.espn.com/soccer/major-league-soccer/story/3480453/lee-nguyen-joins-lafc-from-new-england-revolution
 

Titans Bastard

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The Revs went down 4-0 to crappy Montreal (albeit on the road) before coming back to a slightly more respectable 4-2 scoreline.

NYRB is annihilating NYCFC at home right now, which is a setback to the Supporters Shield chatter around the latter. Atlanta will take pole position if they get a result at Chicago.
 

Titans Bastard

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Vermes is the longest-tenured current MLS coach, having been at KC since 2009. He's been quite successful there and has a nice gig as one of the managers in MLS who also has full control of the club's transfer strategy.

Vermes' name sometimes bubbles up as a candidate for the USMNT job. I'm not into that.
 

Senator Donut

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Not sure why MLS put its cup final rematch on a Wednesday night, but hopefully TFC will have to rotate a good portion of their squad on rainy Saturday night on turf in New England. The Revs actually stole 6 points from TFC last year. One match was during an international break and another was immediately before of after a Canadian Championship match, if I recall correctly.
 

Titans Bastard

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This video created by the Timbers is pretty hilarious.

As somebody who has seen the Ken Burns Civil War documentary several times, this is totally awesome.

Not sure why MLS put its cup final rematch on a Wednesday night, but hopefully TFC will have to rotate a good portion of their squad on rainy Saturday night on turf in New England. The Revs actually stole 6 points from TFC last year. One match was during an international break and another was immediately before of after a Canadian Championship match, if I recall correctly.
Toronto FC probably won't have too much squad rotation simply because they have so many injuries right now that they don't have the personnel. On the bright side, the Revs will face a tired TFC.
 

Senator Donut

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Toronto FC probably won't have too much squad rotation simply because they have so many injuries right now that they don't have the personnel. On the bright side, the Revs will face a tired TFC.
That makes sense. I was wondering why they were playing so many of their star players for a midweek game against the Western Conference.
 

moly99

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Wayne Rooney has apparently agreed to join DC United this summer.

http://www.espn.com/soccer/soccer-transfers/story/3491946/evertons-wayne-rooney-agrees-to-deal-in-principle-to-join-dc-united-sources

Huge win for the Sounders at Toronto tonight playing without Lodeiro, Dempsey, Alonso and Torres. Season's not over yet, I guess.
I know it's heresy, but I really think it would have been better for the Sounders if Dempsey had retired after last season. Playing Dempsey with Lodeiro causes the Sounders a lot of problems in both attack and defense. IIRC last year Joevin Jones created the most goal chances for them from open play.
 

ThePrideofShiner

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I don't think it's heresy. I was pretty stunned when they resigned him honestly. Then again, it's hard to fault the Sounders for their poor start when they lost Jordan Morris. I have to remind myself of that when I watch them go multiple games without scoring. This isn't the team that was supposed to be on the field.
 

Titans Bastard

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