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

Pesky Pole

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Union and Red Bulls about to start. A big swing of emotion already for me. FS1 comes on the air with JP Dellacamera’s voiceover (yay!) only to pan to his color guy - Alexi Lalas (ugh).
 

Titans Bastard

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This Philly-NYRB is another bonkers game.

Andre Blake did his best to give away the game for the Union, but now it's 3-3.
 

Titans Bastard

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How about in the next game?
Who even knows. It's amazing that the playoff games have been so crazy and we haven't even seen the club that alternates between the Zlatan Show and being a total dumpster fire.

Minnesota will have a really excellent atmosphere.
 

SocrManiac

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This has been my first MLS exposure in awhile, and it’s been a fun watch.

I am curious as to why the Red Bulls’ preferred facial hair style is 80’s cop.
 

Titans Bastard

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High fives all around in MLSHQ, as we're getting an LAFC vs. LA Galaxy playoff game
 

The Gray Eagle

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This round was amazing, I enjoyed the MLS more than any other sport this weekend, except for YED obviously.
Never thought that would be the case on a mid-October weekend.
A week from now, I will have watched more MLS playoffs this week than in the last 10 years combined.
 

MetSox1

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Was at Union/NYRB yesterday and I have no voice today. I was hoping all week that it would rain because I thought that would bring out the die hards, and while attendance could have been higher in the seats, the atmosphere was rocking. Andre Blake has been maybe the cornerstone of the organizations turnaround, so he will get a pass on what was his worst performance in Union blue.

I still like the two leg playoff format, but there's no mistaking the way teams went for it this weekend and the atmopshere that one and done provided.

Union/Atlanta looks like a battle of the walking wounded at the moment. Gotta favor ATL, but the east is really NYFC's to lose right now. Their biggest remaining game is probably this Wednesday.
 

steeplechase3k

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DJnVa

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That was heartbreaking, but about what was expected from the Timbers. Their defense was just not that great this year.

I drove to Salt Lake City for the match, it was about 60 hours total time for the trip, a bit over 20 hours of that was driving. Over 1500 miles.
That's awesome. Not the result obviously....
 

InstaFace

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I wasn't sure if I was going to like the new playoff format, but the games yesterday were awesome.
I think it's fine for a first round of the playoffs, but I think the QFs and beyond should still be two-legged, just in the interests of the result reflecting the teams' underlying quality. Much harder (though obviously not impossible) for an inferior team to win a two-legged tie. And that would mean that a team who won the first round would be guaranteed to host a playoff game, whereas right now that's not the case.
 

Titans Bastard

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I think it's fine for a first round of the playoffs, but I think the QFs and beyond should still be two-legged, just in the interests of the result reflecting the teams' underlying quality. Much harder (though obviously not impossible) for an inferior team to win a two-legged tie. And that would mean that a team who won the first round would be guaranteed to host a playoff game, whereas right now that's not the case.
I'm not so sure about this. Yes, a one-legged game is a smaller sample size and thus makes it more likely that an inferior team will win, but does that effect counterbalance the of effects of the inferior team playing on the road?

Anecdotally, it felt like inferior teams won all the time under the old system. However, we'll need at least a few seasons for the current system to make a meaningful comparison.
 

Senator Donut

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Much harder (though obviously not impossible) for an inferior team to win a two-legged tie.
Considering home teams vastly outperformed road teams in the regular season (1.82 and 1.28 points per game respectively), I don't believe this is accurate.
 

InstaFace

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Considering home teams vastly outperformed road teams in the regular season (1.82 and 1.28 points per game respectively), I don't believe this is accurate.
They'd still need to score more on aggregate. Having two legs just gives them a fair shake.

If you just want the higher seed to win a disproportionate amount of the time, then sure, one-legged ties accomplish that more directly. But that wasn't what I was arguing for, in my mind the "better team" might not necessarily be the higher seed in all cases, in terms of how they're doing lately and given the unbalanced schedule.
 

Senator Donut

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They'd still need to score more on aggregate. Having two legs just gives them a fair shake.

If you just want the higher seed to win a disproportionate amount of the time, then sure, one-legged ties accomplish that more directly. But that wasn't what I was arguing for, in my mind the "better team" might not necessarily be the higher seed in all cases, in terms of how they're doing lately and given the unbalanced schedule.
The MLS schedule is balanced; all clubs play each conference opponent twice and the opposite conference once, so I think "better seed" and "better club" are the same for most purposes. Obviously, home field advantage for the MLS Cup final may be determined by strength of schedule, but throughout league history it has always been a one-off event, never over two legs.

In an ideal world, I think Liga MX Apertura has the best playoff schedule. Like MLS, they squeeze the whole tournament between two international windows, yet still play all rounds (even the final) over two legs. If sides are tied after two matches, the team with the better regular season record advances. However, Liga MX has fewer teams in the league, fewer teams in the playoffs, and probably far fewer issues with stadium availability.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apertura_2018_Liga_MX_championship_stage
 

Titans Bastard

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Today, MLS announced that Sacramento Republic will join the league in 2022. Sacramento has been a bridesmaid for a number of rounds of expansion. Despite a solid stadium plan and very credible crowds in the USL, the issue with Sacramento was that their ownership group was insufficiently deep-pocketed. There's since been a reshuffle and now Sacramento is finally in.

When you follow the expansion tea leaves, it's pretty obvious when certain projects are viewed by the league as high priority (NYCFC, St. Louis) and when they're not. Sacramento felt constantly back-burnered, perhaps because it's clearly the fourth-largest market in CA. Still, Sacramento is pretty big — larger than quite a few other teams. I've always thought it was silly how some fans think California gets "too many" teams, as though arbitrary state boundaries are more important than where people actually live. Their fanbase is proven and they should develop some nice rivalries with San Jose and the other California teams given time.

2020: Inter Miami & Nashville SC
2021: Austin FC
2022: St. Louis & Sacramento

I've followed the league pretty closely since 2007, so in that context this is really remarkable:

View: https://twitter.com/PaulCarr/status/1186356794496565249


29 teams is a lot, but the United States is country with 330m people. The Liverpool urban area is the sixth largest in the UK and at 864,122 would slot in at #66 in the US, just between Albany, NY and McAllen, TX. I think it makes sense for the US to run with an extra-large league given how many large metropolitan areas we have. That being said, at some point expansion will have to end.
 

Monbo Jumbo

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Toronto has opened a path for Atlanta to reach the finals. But I fear the back line injuries will be too much to overcome. I'm very concerned about tonight's match. Robinson and Parkhurst are both out. "Mr Yellow" Gonzalez-Pirez is playing with one, if he gets another he's out of the conference finals. Pogba does not have the legs to go 90. Ugh.
 

Titans Bastard

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Wilmer Cabrera is out at Montreal, after his short term contract expired. He was more or less fine for them, but the Impact owner likes to constantly change things up, mostly to the detriment of the club. It's not that Cabrera is the greatest manager ever, but the constant churn is a problem. Joey Saputo once fired Jesse Marsch, after all.

Meanwhile, this appears to be a done deal, as many other journalists have confirmed this report.

View: https://twitter.com/KristianRDyer/status/1187410955497553920



All the signs have been that Tab Ramos doesn't have a role in the new USSF hierarchy beyond his contract to be U20 manager through 2021. Having reached the quarterfinals at back-to-back U20 World Cups, his stock is about as good as it's going to be in this role, so snatching an MLS gig is a good move for him. That said, the Dynamo have been struggling for a while and have a notably poor academy, so he'll have his work cut out for him. I do think Ramos has improved as a manager significantly over his early years with the U20s, but working in MLS will be a tougher test. I don't have high expectations in terms of tactics, but I think he could be useful as a manager who gives opportunities to young players.
 

InstaFace

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Zlatan is kryptonite to LAFC. Wins the ball and makes a brilliant pass to set up the first goal, takes a tough angle on the second and somehow gets it to trickle in. And the other 90% of the time he looks like he doesn't give even the slightest hint of a fuck.
 

Warning Track Speed

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Zlatan is certainly.... judicious with his energy expenditure. But these Trafico games are always white-knucklers. Kind of a shame it's late on a Thursday night although this time of year that might be better than fighting for eyeballs on a football/World Series weekend.

Edit: And just like that LAFC buries two in two minutes. The second largely obscured by smoke bombs triggered by the first. Crazy.
 

DeadlySplitter

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LAFC can get away with their stupid defensive lapses right now, but not against Seattle or Atlanta following.
 

Leskanic's Thread

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This game is nuts...two quick goals gave LAFC a 4-2 lead, but Galaxy now back within one, and could easily have it tied up.

edit: and almost immediately another goal from LAFC to make it 5-3, 79th minute. Diomandé just ran past half the Galaxy to score. Wow.
 

Titans Bastard

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That game was crazy. Such poor defending on both sides.
The playoffs have reinforced the notion that as spending on players has increased, more investment has gone into attackers than defenders.

Teams have also just made some misbegotten signings in the back. Over the last couple of years, the Revs spent fairly big money for Claude Dielna and Michael Mancienne. These guys were Championship mediocrities and - lo and behold - also turned out to be MLS mediocrities.
 

Monbo Jumbo

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I've never seen public opinion of a manager change so drastically for the better as Atlanta's opinion of DeBoer. He was on the gallows' steps a few months ago. There is serious sainthood consideration now.
 

Warning Track Speed

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It's semifinal time.

Tonight: LAFC v. Seattle, 7 p.m. Pacific Time, ESPN
Tomorrow: Atlanta v. Toronto, 8 p.m. Eastern Time, FS1.

The L.A. stadium is about 20 miles from the nearest fire. There's talk of water breaks if air quality is an issue.
 

Leskanic's Thread

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It's also rough to have the semifinal games end up being against games 6 and 7 of the World Series. I know that sports can't always schedule around competing leagues, but...not the best set up here.
 

InstaFace

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Everyone schedules around the NFL, can't schedule around everything. Maybe MLS should have rolled the schedule back a week, even 2, but I think they got rid of the whole two-legged thing just so they could finish earlier, in (slightly) warmer weather, so rolling it back might have defeated the initial purpose.

That said, just double-screen it. There's enough inaction in a baseball game (commercials, pitching changes, throw-overs, waits for replays or reviews or just time between batters) that you can watch soccer 80% of the time and not miss anything in the WS.
 

Titans Bastard

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One major impetus for the format challenge was to eliminate the momentum-killing international break by playing MLS Cup before the November window. With that as the driving logic, pushing back playoff games is a no-go.