Major League Soccer 2023: Now With League-On-League Violence
- Thread starter Titans Bastard
- Start date
That's honestly been the wildest thing to me. People seem to respect him so much they won't even give him a normal MLS welcome. I can't believe how little he's been fouled. And the amount of ball watching by midfields against Miami in this tournament has been insane.
Game on? Beautiful, albeit lucky, goal from Bedoya to pull one back.
I think Philly has had like four or five open nets and blown all of them. Some clinical finishing completely changes this game.
I think Philly has had like four or five open nets and blown all of them. Some clinical finishing completely changes this game.
Absolutely beautiful curler from outside the box by Hany Mukhtar. 1-0 Nashville early on against always-scary Monterrey.
Ugh, overturned on VAR because one Nashville player in an offside position allegedly interfered with the GK's line of sight. Very dubious in my view, based on where the player was standing.
View: https://twitter.com/PaulTenorio/status/1691630261899870225
View: https://twitter.com/PaulTenorio/status/1691630261899870225
A bit of karmic justice as the ref chooses not to give a penalty to Monterrey after a VAR review. It easily could have been a pen.
It's anybody's game right now.
It's anybody's game right now.
Nashville up 1-0!
Header from Zimmerman in midfield off a Monterrey goal kick, falls to Hany, dishes it to Sam Surridge, who buries it. Surridge has hit the ground running since arriving from England recently.
Header from Zimmerman in midfield off a Monterrey goal kick, falls to Hany, dishes it to Sam Surridge, who buries it. Surridge has hit the ground running since arriving from England recently.
76th minute, Nashville makes some subs and adds a third CB. Parking the bus time for the next 15+ minutes...
Picault with the stoppage time DAGGER. 2-0, and it's over.
It'll be Nashville hosting the Messi Show on Saturday in the final. Liga MX is done in this tournament.
It'll be Nashville hosting the Messi Show on Saturday in the final. Liga MX is done in this tournament.
Philly beat Monterrey 3-0 in the third place game. From the box score, I see that Monterrey started a handful of guys with triple-digit jersey numbers (which is Mexican for "reserve team player") so it looks like they rotated.
Still, a consequential result because the top three in Leagues Cup get into the new CONCACAF Champions Cup format for 2024. There are actually going to be ten MLS clubs in that competition: five from the league, one from US Open Cup, one from the Canadian Championship, and now all three Leagues Cup slots.
The Nashville SC vs. Inter Messi final is coming up at 9.
Still, a consequential result because the top three in Leagues Cup get into the new CONCACAF Champions Cup format for 2024. There are actually going to be ten MLS clubs in that competition: five from the league, one from US Open Cup, one from the Canadian Championship, and now all three Leagues Cup slots.
The Nashville SC vs. Inter Messi final is coming up at 9.
everybody from Miami is coming back to the gather the ball against the Nashville press, nobody's going long
Zimmerman did pretty well! It's just...Messi.
View: https://twitter.com/willparchman/status/1693078449156497684
Zim’s extendo-leg was risky! How many attackers drag a back foot over that and look for the foul? But Messi just skips over it and with a defender charging right in his face, takes a shot from wide of the post and bends it back into the upper 90. Like, how?
It was good d with one man closing down and 3 others positioned to block any forward dribble. A normal world class player passes back there or send one into the stands.
It was good d with one man closing down and 3 others positioned to block any forward dribble. A normal world class player passes back there or send one into the stands.
It is the Ronaldo Statue of trophies and the whole thing is the Ronaldo Statue of competitions, definitely. But hey, for something they threw together only half-baked, it's gone just about perfectly for them, nearly every game a banger.
It's a bit like the first pancake. It's practice, you're supposed to throw it out.
Zim and Macnaughton have been prettty immense for Nashville, snuffing out troublesome crosses left and right
Holy shit, that ending. Surridge's header was one thing, Campana's debacle was on another level.
Good lord, Drake Callender's PK was a lightning bolt.
Elliot Panicco's was...not.
Nice to see Messi cap his career with a true highlight — Leagues Cup! But seriously, this tournament was awesome.
Elliot Panicco's was...not.
Nice to see Messi cap his career with a true highlight — Leagues Cup! But seriously, this tournament was awesome.
Well, fuck. I'm not sure who I wanted to win but I feel bad for that keeper.
That game was incredible and I'm not sure how anyone bags on the Leagues Cup after that.
That game was incredible and I'm not sure how anyone bags on the Leagues Cup after that.
I mean, if Messi doesn't show up for this tournament you probably see a lot more teams fielding their bench/youth players for this right?
I don't think so. It's not a midweek tournament; both MLS and Liga MX shut down league play for this.
EDIT: There was a ton of great non-Messi stuff in this tournament, but of course it wouldn't have been as good without the Messi factor.
Monterrey had already qualified, so a win for Rayados would have qualified Léon (the reigning champions). This one mattered a lot more for the Union.
So, hand up, I was wrong about Messi coming to MLS.
He’s been electric and has transformed a last place team into one of the best teams in the league almost single handedly.
That goal from last night was absolute vintage Messi. It wasn’t a free run at goal or a completely unmarked laugher, it was pure magic in a big moment.
He’s been electric and has transformed a last place team into one of the best teams in the league almost single handedly.
That goal from last night was absolute vintage Messi. It wasn’t a free run at goal or a completely unmarked laugher, it was pure magic in a big moment.
Don’t rest on Busquets, either. There are passages of play where the guys around him are emulating his heads-up style. If that continues to build it will really start to separate them.
The post he hit was as magical except without the finish. The turn was world class. Just an incredible, magic player.
In that same vein, the Sounders sure made great use of their month off - by rolling out the same old, tired group of players and losing at home!
I guess falling 2-0 to Atlanta is certainly better than their southern neighbors who got housed 5-0 by Houston.
Since the Red Stars also lost to the Pride 5-0 yesterday, that's an aggregate 8-1 Orlando over Chicago. Ouch.
Timbers have fired Gio Savarese... He was a good coach for a while, but it was time
View: https://twitter.com/TimbersFC/status/1693782928210395620?t=34cqTrJPvtpFsgUsQsiiRA&s=19
View: https://twitter.com/TimbersFC/status/1693782928210395620?t=34cqTrJPvtpFsgUsQsiiRA&s=19
Ha, is Leagues Cup actually a sneaky backdoor way to change the MLS calendar? If you think about it, they are almost playing year round (like Europe). It just depends where you mark the start and end of the season.
They currently play the regular season from Feb to July, break for the Leagues Cup, and then start up again in late August and play to December. Theoretically, if they tinkered a bit, the Leagues Cup could open a new season - call it a glorified “preseason”, really - and then start the MLS season now, in mid August. Play to December, break to February, then play til mid May and have the post-season finish up by July.
If they tweak the calendar in that direction a little bit every year, at some point they could just switch “when” a season starts.
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Too clever by half. There are plenty of MLS cities you can't play in, in December or February, and others you couldn't play in in August but they're gonna try to do it anyway.
I just don't think there's demand for a fall-to-spring schedule. The handful of prospects for whom it would be more convenient for them to get sold to Europe through it aren't enough to justify that change for the whole league. Much as my "country over club" fanhood here would like it.
MLS critics forget how common the calendar-year league season is, worldwide (including UEFA), just because it's not present in western Europe. Just for example, leaving aside small countries:
- Belarus
- South America: Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay, Venezuela (notably not Argentina or Peru)
- Canada, and Puerto Rico (duh)
- China
- Dominican Republic, Haiti, Cuba, T,&T, various other Caribbeans
- Baltics: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania
- Nordics: Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden
- Georgia
- Ireland
- Central Asia: Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, others
- Korea (both)
- Nigeria
- Sudan
- Vietnam
Like it's just not some sort of shameful thing on the part of MLS or USSF. Not that you're saying it is, but you hear that online a lot and I just don't think serious US Soccer people consider it to be any real problem.
Creative thinking though, I'll grant.
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Yeah, I’m not really in favor or against… just seeing a big summer “break” got me thinking that way. It made Messi’s onboarding so easy, I started to realize how much closer MLS has gotten to mirroring the Euro calendar than they were before. They are playing later into the winter and starting earlier in the spring (really, still winter) too. The change has been very gradual, but (squinting) I can almost see something there.
nice clean finish by Brandon Vazquez to go up 2-0. Miami looking like a team that played 7 do-or-die games in the last 4 weeks.
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