Major League Soccer 2019: Your Humble Local League (and a little USOC too)

67YAZ

67YAZ

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Chicago Fire have been sold. From the team:

Longtime Chicago Fire Soccer Club Chairman and Owner, Andrew Hauptman, today announced the sale of his controlling interest in the Club to Joe Mansueto. Effective immediately, Mansueto will take on the role of Chairman as sole owner of the Fire. Under Hauptman’s leadership, the Club also concluded an agreement with the Village of Bridgeview that allows the Fire to move back into the city of Chicago, and received approval from the Chicago Park District board to move toward an agreement that will enable the team to play its 2020 season at Soldier Field.
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Manseuto, who founded the business research company Morningstar, is worth a reported $3b. Since retiring from Morningstar in 2017, he has been busy buying up real estate across Chicago, so the Fire are keeping with a theme.

Last year, he purchased 49% of the Fire. The team then went about escaping their suburban stadium lease for $65.5m. Last week, the Chicago Park District gave the approvals for the Fire to begin playing at Soldier Field starting next year. It would seem Mansueto got involved with the Fire last year with a plan to get the team into the city - and once successful, he bought the whole damn thing.

Getting their own place in the city would be the next goal. Manseuto has the resources, connections, and a big ol' foot in the real estate market. The new mayor and city council have been pulling back from these major real estate projects following Rahm's wild Amazon proposal, a few new federal investigations of alderman, and two major, unpopular tax-payer-subsidized development projects that Rahm pushed through on his way out. But Manseuto has a generally positive local image, and if he can be patient and engaged with community stakeholders, he can make this happen.
 
Titans Bastard

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67YAZ said:
Chicago Fire have been sold. From the team:



Manseuto, who founded the business research company Morningstar, is worth a reported $3b. Since retiring from Morningstar in 2017, he has been busy buying up real estate across Chicago, so the Fire are keeping with a theme.

Last year, he purchased 49% of the Fire. The team then went about escaping their suburban stadium lease for $65.5m. Last week, the Chicago Park District gave the approvals for the Fire to begin playing at Soldier Field starting next year. It would seem Mansueto got involved with the Fire last year with a plan to get the team into the city - and once successful, he bought the whole damn thing.

Getting their own place in the city would be the next goal. Manseuto has the resources, connections, and a big ol' foot in the real estate market. The new mayor and city council have been pulling back from these major real estate projects following Rahm's wild Amazon proposal, a few new federal investigations of alderman, and two major, unpopular tax-payer-subsidized development projects that Rahm pushed through on his way out. But Manseuto has a generally positive local image, and if he can be patient and engaged with community stakeholders, he can make this happen.
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This is a big deal. Chicago is a huge market (with a huge Hispanic population!), but the Fire are in worse shape and even more of a non-entity in the mind of locals than the Revs are in Boston.

Getting a new owner and moving downtown feels like checking the Fire off the list of the league's Big Problems. Of course, finding a permanent home may not be easy, but it's hard to imagine the Fire not improving off the Hauptman baseline.
 
67YAZ

67YAZ

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Titans Bastard said:
This is a big deal. Chicago is a huge market (with a huge Hispanic population!), but the Fire are in worse shape and even more of a non-entity in the mind of locals than the Revs are in Boston.

Getting a new owner and moving downtown feels like checking the Fire off the list of the league's Big Problems. Of course, finding a permanent home may not be easy, but it's hard to imagine the Fire not improving off the Hauptman baseline.
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The Fire actually have a strong presence in the city. They have a very active philanthropy that has built a couple dozen mini-pitches in parks across the city. They also built an excellent facility on the north side with a restaurant, gym, and two full size pitches that get used for camps and leagues year round. (Full disclosure: I play in a league there and the refs are universally horrible. Last week one gave my captain a straight red for complaining...after the match had ended. That was something.)

The suburban stadium has been the killer. Not only is it a traffic nightmare getting to and from, they also charge $20 to park in a lot never more than half full. And then you get in the stadium to see a team that more often than not is pretty crappy.

Hauptman was clearly happy to reap the benefits of an exploitative lease deal with Bridgeview and see the return on his $35m investment skyrocket. The active philanthropy was great, though, and hopefully something that Manseuto keeps up.

Moving to Soldier Field will help some. Unless they have a very clever plan that I can’t imagine, it’s gonna suck to watch matches there with a quarter-full stadium. It’s an ok place to see international matches or touring European clubs in the summer because the rocking atmosphere makes up for the distance from the pitch. Sitting in a silent cavern while watching the Fire play a turd of a match will not be fun.

That said, just being accessible by public transportation means that I’ll probably go to more than one match a season now. So there you go. But, honestly, if Manseuto can invest wisely in the team and its leadership, just rolling out a squad that consistently competes for the eastern conference will cover over a lot of problems.
 
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Titans Bastard

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67YAZ said:
The Fire actually have a strong presence in the city. They have a very active philanthropy that has built a couple dozen mini-pitches in parks across the city. They also built an excellent facility on the north side with a restaurant, gym, and two full size pitches that get used for camps and leagues year round. (Full disclosure: I play in a league there and the refs are universally horrible. Last week one gave my captain a straight red for complaining...after the match had ended. That was something.)

The suburban stadium has been the killer. Not only is it a traffic nightmare getting to and from, they also charge $20 to park in a lot never more than half full. And then you get in the stadium to see a team that more often than not is pretty crappy.

Hauptman was clearly happy to reap the benefits of an exploitative lease deal with Bridgeview and see the return on his $35m investment skyrocket. The active philanthropy was great, though, and hopefully something that Manseuto keeps up.

Moving to Soldier Field will help some. Unless they have a very clever plan that I can’t imagine, it’s gonna suck to watch matches there with a quarter-full stadium. It’s an ok place to see international matches or touring European clubs in the summer because the rocking atmosphere makes up for the distance from the pitch. Sitting in a silent cavern while watching the Fire play a turd of a match will not be fun.

That said, just being accessible by public transportation means that I’ll probably go to more than one match a season now. So there you go. But, honestly, if Manseuto can invest wisely in the team and its leadership, just rolling out a squad that consistently competes for the eastern conference will cover over a lot of problems.
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I know they spend some money on small pitches, etc., but what I mean is this: how much of the "mindshare" of Chicago sports fans does the Fire take up?

You could spend a weekend in Boston, walking around, and see plenty of reminders that the Big Four sports teams exist. You might not see any Revs stuff at all. I've always been under the impression that in Chicago, it's the same or worse.

I mean, when you google "Chicago Fire", you get a TV show.

I don't live there, though, so if they don't have as much of a mountain to climb to gain in relevance as I imagine they do, that would certainly be good news.
 
67YAZ

67YAZ

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Titans Bastard said:
I know they spend some money on small pitches, etc., but what I mean is this: how much of the "mindshare" of Chicago sports fans does the Fire take up?

You could spend a weekend in Boston, walking around, and see plenty of reminders that the Big Four sports teams exist. You might not see any Revs stuff at all. I've always been under the impression that in Chicago, it's the same or worse.

I mean, when you google "Chicago Fire", you get a TV show.

I don't live there, though, so if they don't have as much of a mountain to climb to gain in relevance as I imagine they do, that would certainly be good news.
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Right. The mini-pitches and facility are the main avenue they have into the White and Black communities in Chicago. The Blanco years have created a real bond between the Fire and the Mexican community, which is huge considering there’s somewhere over 400k Mexican/Mexican-Americans in the metro area.

Chicago is a hard place to break though. In addition to the Bears, Cubs, Bulls, Blackhawks, and White Sox, there’s tens of thousands of Big10 and Notre Dame grads who still love the alma mater. And then there’s the WNBA Sky and the AHL Wolves, who have dedicated fan bases. Hell, the Brewers and Bucks are only 90 minutes away.

Access by public transportation will probably generate better attendance from existing fans like me. If they can create great match day atmosphere - which I think will be a huge challenge, but maybe they have a vision for this - then casual fans will be pulled in. But they have to put a consistent winner on the pitch to break through. They need to be in the highlights package during the local news sports segment, they need to make the front page of the Trib sports section, they need to be a worth at least a mention on sports radio. Continuing to stink in Solider Field won’t help that.

Edit: their ranking in Google search is the downside of choosing a super-obvious team name. I don’t think it’s worth changing the team’s name, but some cleverness or distinctiveness at the outset would have paid off.

Also, update the kits. They are so ugly and haven’t changed basic template in years. I guarantee that some stylish jerseys would sell and be seen around town.
 
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67YAZ

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Maybe the Fire were inspired by their new owner today as they jumped on Dallas with 4 goals in the opening 40 minutes. The first was from an egregiously careless pass from Reggie Cannon. The next 3 were just plain old shoddy defending. Looked like a Fire training session, not a competitive match.

Was really excited to see Pomykal and Cannon play. Pomykal had a rather pointless day - didn’t get the ball in many good positions and didn’t have many good options ahead of him when he did. I wouldn’t say Pomykal played poorly. I’d say Dallas’ shitty defense undercut any effort to go forward. And Cannon’s screw up started the death spiral. Not a good day for any one in the Dallas squad.

My friends and I circled this match for our annual odyssey to Bridgeview, which included stops at 5 Rabbit Brewing & Al Bawadi Grill. The one plus to the stadium being remote is that we get to revisit some great spots we never otherwise get to. Maybe if the Red Stars stay in the stadium another season...
 
Titans Bastard

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67YAZ said:
Maybe the Fire were inspired by their new owner today as they jumped on Dallas with 4 goals in the opening 40 minutes. The first was from an egregiously careless pass from Reggie Cannon. The next 3 were just plain old shoddy defending. Looked like a Fire training session, not a competitive match.

Was really excited to see Pomykal and Cannon play. Pomykal had a rather pointless day - didn’t get the ball in many good positions and didn’t have many good options ahead of him when he did. I wouldn’t say Pomykal played poorly. I’d say Dallas’ shitty defense undercut any effort to go forward. And Cannon’s screw up started the death spiral. Not a good day for any one in the Dallas squad.

My friends and I circled this match for our annual odyssey to Bridgeview, which included stops at 5 Rabbit Brewing & Al Bawadi Grill. The one plus to the stadium being remote is that we get to revisit some great spots we never otherwise get to. Maybe if the Red Stars stay in the stadium another season...
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Pomykal has played way more minutes at the pro level than ever before, plus he went to the U20 World Cup and the recent NT camps. It seems like he's hitting the wall that young players often encounter when they are deeper into their first real season.

If FCD holds their core together for another year, they could be really fun. There's a lot of young talent on that team that's still figuring out how to be consistently influential in games. For example: Jesus Ferreira, who apparently didn't have a good game because he was subbed off at halftime, but who has a respectable 7 goals in his age-18 season despite being used in the midfield from time to time.
 
Senator Donut

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Montreal won the Canadian Championship, continuing the tradition of sending mediocre MLS clubs to Champions League.
 
Titans Bastard

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Domer said:
Montreal won the Canadian Championship, continuing the tradition of sending mediocre MLS clubs to Champions League.
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Well, when the options for one of the slots are basically limited to Montreal, Vancouver, and non-2017 Toronto...
 
Titans Bastard

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It's the last day of the season, so there will be 12 matches kicking off at 4pm.

LAFC locked up the Supporters Shield weeks ago and NYCFC has already clinched the top spot in the East. In the East, the top seven are set, though #2/3 is still up in the air between Atlanta and Philadelphia, and there could be some jostling among #4-7.

In the West, Portland, Dallas, SJ, and Colorado are competing for the last two slots.

1. On the local front, the Revs are at Atlanta; if they lose this will also be a preview of their first round playoff game. If they tie or win, they might wind up at Philly.

2. In the West, Seattle vs. Minnesota will likely settle who gets second place, though AFAIK LA Galaxy could take #2 if LAG wins and SEA-MIN is a draw.

3. POR-SJ is probably the highest-stakes game. SJ is in 8th place, but will leapfrog Portland with a win. Portland could get knocked out entirely if they lose and Dallas win at home. SJ has played some fun soccer this season but has been in a total tailspin. The Timbers have struggled lately, too, and tend to suck at home this season.

4. Colorado has made a late charge for the playoffs despite their godawful start, though they've been aided by the collective suckage of the other bubble teams in the West. They can still make it if somehow (a) they beat LAFC and (b) SJ and Dallas lose.

5. FC Cincinnati will have one last opportunity to extend their all-time record for goals conceded.
 
Titans Bastard

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BernieRicoBoomer said:
Am I missing something? Why haven't the games started?
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It's common for national team games to have the starting time bait-and-switch where the kickoff is ~30 mins after the advertised time, and suddenly it's happening in MLS too...
 
SoxFanInCali

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California. Duh.
Titans Bastard said:
It's common for national team games to have the starting time bait-and-switch where the kickoff is ~30 mins after the advertised time, and suddenly it's happening in MLS too...
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In this case I'm guessing they were waiting until the USWNT game ended on ESPN so they could go right to kickoff of Portland-SJ.
 
Titans Bastard

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DC United still hasn't scored on 9-man Cincinnati while playing at home.

When will BennyBall end??
 
Titans Bastard

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Jozy and Walker Zimmerman both subbed off with injuries in the last ten minutes. Nasty head collision in Zimmerman's case. Jozy went off with a limp.
 
Titans Bastard

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So it looks like:

East
(1)NYCFC bye
(2)Atlanta vs (7)NE
(3)Philly vs. (6)NYRB
(4)Toronto vs. (5)DCU

West
(1)LAFC bye
(2)Seattle vs. (7)Dallas
(3)RSL vs. (6)Portland
(4)Minnesota vs. (5)LAG

I have a hard time imagining someone other than NYCFC or Atlanta coming out of the East.

LAFC will be heavy favorites in the West. The rest of the bracket is anyone's guess.
 
Titans Bastard

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Good luck to Tim Howard and DaMarcus Beasley, who both just played their last soccer game.

Howard made his pro debut in 1997. Beasley's came in 1999.
 
67YAZ

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InstaFace said:
You can't play goalkeeper any better than this:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHdbLRuHHtw


That game should have been a 5-0 laugher, the talent differential was staggering. What a performance, among many fine ones.
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Always a joy to watch Howard in this clip. It’s fantastic how he angles and pushes away rebounds. The only one that gets left in a dangerous spot is #16, and finally a defender helps him out.

God, what shoddy central defending.
 
Titans Bastard

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Orlando fired James O'Connor yesterday. O'Connor hasn't been great, but it felt to me that he wasn't given all that much time to turn around an extremely dysfunctional team. Orlando canned their GM in the meantime, so he probably wasn't favored by the new guy.

Orlando still hasn't made the playoffs in five seasons, which is an impressive achievement in this league.
 
Senator Donut

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I'm excited about the new playoff format. Last year, it felt like every first leg was a dull nil-nil draw. Teams rarely showed any urgency until the second leg. I think single elimination will make things more interesting, with the added bonus of rewarding teams who finished higher in the table.
 
scottyno

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Is atlanta new england supposed to have SAP on univision for English? If so it doesn't seem to be working for me, though I can't believe it wouldn't be an option for a playoff game.

edit: nevermind, working now
 
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Monbo Jumbo

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the other Athens
scottyno said:
Is atlanta new england supposed to have SAP on univision for English? If so it doesn't seem to be working for me, though I can't believe it wouldn't be an option for a playoff game.

edit: nevermind, working now
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FOX Sports Southeast carrying it in the Atlanta home market.
 
Titans Bastard

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InstaFace said:
9W-10D-4L for the fightin' Bruces. Not too shabby for a team that was 2-2-8 when he took over.
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I don't think I've ever said this before, but I'm legitimately excited to see what happens in the offseason for the Revs. Bruce did a very good job with middling talent. Shedding some mediocrities and adding a few more good pieces could go a long way. The Revs broke their transfer record twice in the last 12 months (first for Gil, then for Bou) and actually recruited good players. If that turns into a trend, there's real potential for success.
 
Titans Bastard

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Wow, it's surprising to see FC Dallas rallying on the road. There's a real game in Seattle right now.
 
Titans Bastard

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Crazy end-to-end stuff here. Both teams with a real chance to win the game late, but bottled it — especially Bryan Acosta on the break.
 
Titans Bastard

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Pomykal has quickly become one of my favorite young players to watch in the US pool. His game just exudes class.
 
ThePrideofShiner

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Can't believe Dallas took that quick corner instead of trying to get the hand ball call.

Also, the Dallas goalie should have been sent off when he ran 50 yards to put his hands on Nouhou's neck.
 
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