The 2017 Major League Soccer Thread

Titans Bastard

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I'm feeling a little better about the chances of tonight's NYRB-Toronto game not sucking.
 

steeplechase3k

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I'm feeling a little better about the chances of tonight's NYRB-Toronto game not sucking.
All that matters to me is NYRB getting through. That's the only way the Timbers can host MLS Cup. :)

The Timbers-Dynamo could be good too. The Timbers don't play that well in Houston (0-3-3)) but many of those have been in the summer heat/humidity. Knowing how the Timber like to play they won't sit back and try to defend for 90 minutes.
 

Titans Bastard

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There's a sense of inevitability about every Giovinco free kick just outside the box. He's a great player.
 

SocrManiac

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There was some interesting discussion on Reddit about whether or not he should sniff the national team, and the consensus is still no. Balotelli is playing well and he can't catch a call. Italy isn't short on attacking talent. Managerial talent, however...
 

Infield Infidel

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Grant Wahl proposes changing the playoffs from two-legged knockouts to East and West group stages
https://www.si.com/soccer/2017/10/31/mls-playoff-format-fix-solution

I found this part intriguing but very unlikely:
Group stages also allow you to reward regular-season excellence: In our proposed MLS playoff format, the top seed in a four-team group gets to host all three of its group games; the No. 2 seed hosts two of its three group games; the No. 3 seed hosts one, and the No. 4 seed goes on the road for all three group games. If the No. 4 seed can find a way to get the necessary results, more power to it! But it will be a heck of a lot harder to do so than in the current scenario.
I would like to see the playoffs shortened, it seems to drag on too long.
 

Titans Bastard

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I would like to see the playoffs shortened, it seems to drag on too long.
The two-week FIFA international break between the end of the conference semifinals and the start of the conference finals is a real momentum-killer. I think that timing is perhaps the major contributor to how the playoffs drag on.
 

Titans Bastard

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Seems like a halfway decent crowd in Columbus given that their ownership is attempting a real-life reenactment of Major League.

And Columbus goes up 1-0 early.
 

Titans Bastard

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Wow, Villa got it back to a not-a-total-catastrophe 3-1 scoreline, but Harrison Afful scored a dagger in stoppage time.

Very tough road back for NYCFC, especially with Callens suspended. Steffen looked good again. Sean Johnson....did not.
 

Titans Bastard

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The three Eastern Conference games so far have all been entertaining. The three Western Conference games have all been dreadful.
 

Titans Bastard

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Yikes. Houston's starting GK is suspended after being arrested for misdemeanor assault:




Elsewhere, the judge overseeing the USSF v. NASL fracas is expected to issue a ruling on the NASL's request for an injunction that would restore D2 status for 2018.
 

Titans Bastard

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Seattle is moving their USL team to Tacoma next season, which has been in the works for a little while. It makes sense - locating the second team in Tacoma may help them sell a few more tickets, but it's not very far so it won't sever the connection between the USL team and the first team or the USL team and the U19 academy team.



Also, this is weird:



Dread-less Beckerman is basically unrecognizable.
 

Titans Bastard

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Some of those who missed the playoffs are already getting busy:

  • RSL exercised their option to buy on-loan Venezuelan winger Jefferson Savarino. I don't know what the fee is, but unless it's totally exorbitant this was a no-brainer. He was quality and he's 20.
  • Philly became the first team to announce whose options have and have not been picked up. Among those whose options were declined are Maurice Edu, Charlie Davies, and Oguchi Onyewu, who are no longer partying like it's the 2009 USMNT. Edu has been a huge bust at $800k and zero games played since 2015 due to injuries.
 

ThePrideofShiner

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Of course the Sounders announced the move to Tacoma two weeks after I moved away from Tacoma. Alas.

Good win tonight. I didn't get to watch, but sounds like Seattle's defense was great and it's always nice to have Deuce get in on the scoring.

I caught the very end of the broadcast and they said that Dempsey is definitely coming back next year, which surprises me a bit. Figured they'd let him go and spend that money elsewhere.
 

Titans Bastard

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Good riddance to the Whitecaps. They've never been particularly interesting to watch.
 

Titans Bastard

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Elsewhere, the judge overseeing the USSF v. NASL fracas is expected to issue a ruling on the NASL's request for an injunction that would restore D2 status for 2018.
Injunction denied. No D2 status for NASL:



I'm not sure where they go from here, but it's more likely than not that the league will fold. The USSF invited them to apply for D3 status, but they refused to do so. I highly doubt there are many fans or sponsors who make a large distinction between D2 and D3; minor league soccer is minor league soccer for the most part. This all feels mostly like a classic dick measuring contest and now Silva/Commisso feel like they can't back down.

Court documents have already confirmed that North Carolina FC is heading to the USL and the San Francisco Deltas are folding. It would be unsurprising if Indy Eleven jumps ship to the USL now, possibly with Jacksonville Armada in tow. FC Edmonton is rumored to be heading to the new Canadian Premier League. Puerto Rico FC wasn't in great shape before the hurricane, so their future is in doubt. I also doubt that the USL will take Miami FC or the New York Cosmos. It's equally unlikely that those clubs would try to join the USL anyway.

Of the two announced expansion teams, the USL might be interested in San Diego. The Orange County team will most certainly not be of interest, as the USL already has a club in that market.
 

Titans Bastard

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Just tuning into the playoff game now. Altidore and Kljestan got straight reds for an altercation in the tunnel at HT? And now NYRB is up 1-0?

2-2 on aggregate - Toronto currently ahead on away goals.
 

SocrManiac

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The gap between Altidire’s perception of his skill and his actual talent level may be the largest in MLS, if not the world.
 

Titans Bastard

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The gap between Altidire’s perception of his skill and his actual talent level may be the largest in MLS, if not the world.
So apparently he got a yellow in the first half by diving when Kljestan put a hand on his chest, and then the two of them had another scuffle in the tunnel.

Between getting red carded in this game and complaining about how he and Bradley were booed all game at Red Bull Arena.....just not a great look.

Speaks more to a lack of mental toughness than even a skill issue, IMO.
 

Titans Bastard

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Speaking of soft, Toronto just had a goal called off for a VERY questionable foul call...

EDIT: it was an offside call, apparently, never mind
 

Titans Bastard

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Toronto squeaks through. Both Altidore and Giovinco are suspended for their next match (likely the Crew).

It would be epic to see Columbus host MLS Cup this year.
 

DJnVa

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Portland finds the net in 38th minute, up 1-0 (1-0 on agg).

EDIT: Houston ties it up, 1-1 on agg. Timbers need a second, as Dynamo gets an away goal.
 

ThePrideofShiner

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Man, that Portland loss was stunning.

On one hand I find it hilarious they lost, on the other I kind of wanted them to win for the epic Sounders-Timbers showdown (would've been reminiscent of a Yankees-Red Sox playoff series in how much they hate each other.
 

Titans Bastard

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The Revs are after Brad Friedel:


Friedel doesn't have much coaching track record with which to judge him. He has been coaching the US U19s and has a UEFA Pro license.
 

SoxFanInCali

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Man, that Portland loss was stunning.

On one hand I find it hilarious they lost, on the other I kind of wanted them to win for the epic Sounders-Timbers showdown (would've been reminiscent of a Yankees-Red Sox playoff series in how much they hate each other.
I'm going to be up in Seattle for Thanksgiving, and was planning on going to the first leg of the West finals against Portland at CenturyLink. Houston winning blew that plan, as now Seattle hosts the second leg.
 

Titans Bastard

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Ron Waxman, who is one of the more prominent agents among American players, is bringing the heat tonight.


1/5 If indeed reports of Brad Friedel as next #NERevs manager are true, this is GM Michael Burns hiring his friend and former roommate

2/5 who has zero experience as a professional coach. I am not making any judgment about Brad’s abilities. Just stating facts.

3/5 Michael Burns is a terrible GM. He hired Jay Heaps who had no coaching experience. No other teams want to deal with #NERevs. No other

4/5 agents want to deal with #NERevs. Michael is not good at his job. He treats people poorly. He is the one who should have been fired.

5/5 if and when #NERevs fail next year, I hope that the Krafts will wake up and get rid of the guy who is responsible.


How often do you see an agent publicly bash a GM? Especially in a league where the agent frequently operates?
 

Senator Donut

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Not the most rock-solid source on soccer news, but Ives is reporting the Revs have hired Friedel.

 

Titans Bastard

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We'll see about Friedel. I don't know what to expect from him tactically. Even if he's good, he won't have the resources he needs to be especially successful.

That Galarcep report also says the Revs reached out to Arena, but went with Friedel instead.


--

In LA, Robbie Rogers has retired. He missed the entire 2017 season with an ankle injury. His career would be viewed as more of a bust and a disappointment if it weren't for the knowledge that he was struggling with being in the closet for most of it.

--

Orlando announced their offseason decisions on contract options.

Options picked up:
GK - Edwards
DF - Ramos, Redding
MF - Higuita, Rocha
FW - Dwyer, Larin, Rivas

Declined:
GK - Saunders
DF - Hines, Donovan
MF - Nocerino, Carrasco, Powers
FW - Barnes, Barry

Out of contract
DF - Alston, Garcia
MF - Kaka (likely retiring)

Not too many shocks. Giles Barnes ($781k) is definitely not worth it. Orlando has accumulated a stupid number of random CMs and they've cleared out a bunch in Nocerino ($850k), Carrasco ($115k), and Powers ($325k). Orlando's roster-building has suffered from too many cooks over the last few years and they badly need a reconfiguration.

A big question for the offseason is Cyle Larin ($192k), who is making big noises about going to Europe. If he's sold, they won't come close to matching his production at that salary. However, losing Barnes and Kaka ($7.1m) will clear up more than enough salary expenditure to make a big signing. On the other hand, with Dwyer on board maybe they focus elsewhere on the roster for a big ticket signing.

I'm a little surprised they held onto Rivas ($375k) who hasn't delivered on his promise during his three years in Orlando. Nobody in MLS takes more dumb/terrible shots from way outside the box.

Powers will definitely find a job somewhere in the league.
 

SocrManiac

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I'm going with "net win."

The Revs' play will probably be a wash, but at least we won't have to hear him in the booth.
 

Titans Bastard

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Uh, Precourt Sports Ventures' lawyer said this last night:


Admitting that moving Columbus to Austin is doing an end run around the expansion process WHILE Precourt was on the expansion committee AND when there's evidence that Precourt has been interested in Austin for a long time is a really bad look. It totally undermines the argument that he ever truly tried to be successful in Columbus - especially in light of the bizarre local TV deal that cut off access to games for a segment of the local market. Honestly, fuck these guys.

Oh, and here's a screenshot of the astroturf MLS2ATX group....tweeting with geolocation turned on:

 

Titans Bastard

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LA Galaxy hires Kurt Schmid as Director of Player Personnel and Scouting. He's the son of LA Galaxy manager Sigi Schmid. Impressive work from an organization that has made some terrible personnel lately!


A fun MLS Overpaid XI:

 

Titans Bastard

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Some long-time MLS vets have announced their retirement. Brian Carroll (Philly), Chris Rolfe (DC), and Justin Mapp (unattached) have officially hung up their boots. Rolfe has been dealing with concussion issues. Justin Mapp, a.k.a. the Mississippi Maradona, was a waste of talent who didn't take fitness seriously - the rumor is that he only kicked a smoking habit late in his career.

Last night the San Francisco Deltas beat the New York Cosmos in the NASL Championship. Quite a send off for the Deltas, who are very likely to fold this offseason. It could also be the last NASL game ever played depending on how things shake out over the next 1-2 months.

Montreal signed two academy players, goalkeeper James Pantemis and defenders Thomas Meilleur-Giguère.

Based primarily on my knowledge of players who have come through the Impact's academy, the Québécois have an inordinate number of hyphenated last names.
 

SoxFanInCali

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California. Duh.
Last night the San Francisco Deltas beat the New York Cosmos in the NASL Championship. Quite a send off for the Deltas, who are very likely to fold this offseason. It could also be the last NASL game ever played depending on how things shake out over the next 1-2 months.
Ha, I didn't even realize the game was at Kezar or I would have gone. Would have been a nice bookend to seeing the Cosmos at Giants Stadium when I was a little kid.
 

Spacemans Bong

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Based primarily on my knowledge of players who have come through the Impact's academy, the Québécois have an inordinate number of hyphenated last names.
There's a weird and interesting reason for that, which is due Quebec's different legal system and 70s feminism.

Basically, Quebec's legal system is based off the French civil law system, which says your birth name is always your legal name. Forever. So a woman named Marianne Ouimet might get married to a Jean Lacroix and be known socially as Marianne Lacroix, but her legal name will always be Marianne Ouimet. This is true for Louisiana as well, which also practices French civil law. And Belgium.

The Parti Québécois had a very strong second-wave feminist plank, so in their charter of rights they enshrined gender equality, and it was felt this extended to the social practice of taking your husband's surname. So they banned this in 1981.

The knock on effect of this social change is double-barrelling your kid's surnames became very common for a while in Quebec. It's declining now because of the usual reasons - kids are having kids and coming up with up to 16 options for a surname, feminists aren't seeing names as a structural issue worthy of attention versus the pay gap or rights at work. So it's gone from about 25% of kids to about 10% now.

Weirdly, although it seems common amongst Impact academy players, and Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, a guard for the Chiefs, has a Québécois double-barrelled surname too, only one NHL player from Quebec has ever had a double-barrelled surname. Pierre-Luc Letournay-Leblond (wow). I wonder if that says something about who plays hockey in Québec, you've got to think people going double-barrelled was a middle-class liberal city dweller thing.
 
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Spacemans Bong

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Ha, I didn't even realize the game was at Kezar or I would have gone. Would have been a nice bookend to seeing the Cosmos at Giants Stadium when I was a little kid.
$38 tickets and $9 beers according to a friend.

The Deltas could have worked if they weren't charging major league prices for Division 2 soccer. And the name, look and attitude alienated people.
 

Titans Bastard

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There's a weird and interesting reason for that, which is due Quebec's different legal system and 70s feminism.

Basically, Quebec's legal system is based off the French civil law system, which says your birth name is always your legal name. Forever. So a woman named Marianne Ouimet might get married to a Jean Lacroix and be known socially as Marianne Lacroix, but her legal name will always be Marianne Ouimet. This is true for Louisiana as well, which also practices French civil law. And Belgium.

The Parti Québécois had a very strong second-wave feminist plank, so in their charter of rights they enshrined gender equality, and it was felt this extended to the social practice of taking your husband's surname. So they banned this in 1981.

The knock on effect of this social change is double-barrelling your kid's surnames became very common for a while in Quebec. It's declining now because of the usual reasons - kids are having kids and coming up with up to 16 options for a surname, feminists aren't seeing names as a structural issue worthy of attention versus the pay gap or rights at work. So it's gone from about 25% of kids to about 10% now.

Weirdly, although it seems common amongst Impact academy players, and Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, a guard for the Chiefs, has a Québécois double-barrelled surname too, only one NHL player from Quebec has ever had a double-barrelled surname. Pierre-Luc Letournay-Leblond (wow). I wonder if that says something about who plays hockey in Québec, you've got to think people going double-barrelled was a middle-class liberal city dweller thing.
Very interesting, thanks.
 

Senator Donut

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Weirdly, although it seems common amongst Impact academy players, and Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, a guard for the Chiefs, has a Québécois double-barrelled surname too, only one NHL player from Quebec has ever had a double-barrelled surname. Pierre-Luc Letournay-Leblond (wow). I wonder if that says something about who plays hockey in Québec, you've got to think people going double-barrelled was a middle-class liberal city dweller thing.
The name Patrice Bergeron-Cleary appears on the Stanley Cup, but of course he is known professionally by the truncated version. Maybe once they get on a team, equipment managers decide they don't want to bother sewing all those letters?
 

Titans Bastard

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The name Patrice Bergeron-Cleary appears on the Stanley Cup, but of course he is known professionally by the truncated version. Maybe once they get on a team, equipment managers decide they don't want to bother sewing all those letters?
It's a hassle!

 

Titans Bastard

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Some USL news:

Louisville City won the title last night against Swope Park Rangers. While not reaching Cincinnati/Sacramento heights, Louisville has fairly quietly done a very good job in the USL on the field obviously, but also off the field. They are well supported and working on a new stadium for the club.

The league has announced a late entrant for 2018: an Atlanta United team playing at the Gwinnett Braves' stadium. Normally it's irresponsible to announce an expansion club with so little lead-up time to the season, but it's different with MLS2 teams, which have different goals. From a US soccer perspective, I'm pleased with this development because Atlanta has so much young talent right now.

Local news quotes the USL President saying that Memphis is in for 2019. The USL has really expanded its coverage of the southeastern quadrant of the country in the last few years - Nashville & Atlanta in 2018, Birmingham & Memphis in 2019, with at least two defections from the NASL as well in Tampa (2017) and North Carolina (2018). I can't understand why Jacksonville wouldn't want to switch at this point.

One of the legends from the annals of Chivas USA history is back:

 

Senator Donut

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On the other hand, it sounds like Rhinos might be on the verge of folding.

The Dworkins plan to hold a news conference to discuss the future of professional soccer in Rochester on Wednesday, November 15, 2017 at 2:30PM.

"We are proud to be part of the storied history of the Rochester Rhinos soccer team. We expect to have more announcements this week to explain the critical needs of our organization and where things stand," said David Dworkin.
http://www.rhinossoccer.com/news_article/show/856415?referrer_id=2442447

Their coach just bolted to take another USL job.
 

steeplechase3k

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The Expansion draft for LAFC will be on December 12.


MLS has announced the 2017 MLS Expansion Draft, in preparation of the Los Angeles Football Club joining MLS for the 2018 season, will take place on Tuesday, December 12 at 2 PM ET.
Generation adidas players and off-budget Homegrown Players are exempt from selection. Current MLS clubs may protect 11 players prior to Expansion Draft. LAFC may select five players from the eligible player pool. Only a single player can be drafted from any 1 club.
 

Titans Bastard

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On the other hand, it sounds like Rhinos might be on the verge of folding.


http://www.rhinossoccer.com/news_article/show/856415?referrer_id=2442447

Their coach just bolted to take another USL job.
The Rhinos were once the minor league titans of their day, but have been on a slow and steady decline for years now. I'm not intimately familiar with the story, but I know a shady owner didn't help.

They haven't folded yet, but today they announced they need $1.3m in investment by 11/30 to play next year.



Elsewhere, another one of the USL's financial weaklings has rebranded. Harrisburg City Islanders are now Penn FC. Interestingly, they have a partnership with Rush Soccer, a massive youth soccer organization, and it sounds like they are trying to position themselves at the top of the Rush organization. Nobody in the US minor leagues has ever made a concerted effort to give youth players an early pro opportunity and quickly sell them on before. Harrisburg is a random place to try it and one big challenge is that MLS rarely pays transfer fees for minor league players, but it's something I'll be keeping an eye on.



Bad news for a young GK in Orlando:

 

Jed Zeppelin

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Awful, rare disease that mostly just affects young people. A good friend passed from Ewing's sarcoma a few years ago. Sounds like his early prognosis is promising, all things considered.