View: https://twitter.com/RyanTClarke/status/1626261016379297795?t=br5M6CuBswzZEHAGkHsr4A&s=19BREAKING: The Portland Timbers are trading defender Bill Tuiloma to Charlotte FC.
In exchange, Portland will receive $800,000 in GAM plus an additional $100,000 based on incentives.
Love them sneaking Sacramento Republic in there as a subtle dig.Interesting map of MLS fandom:
https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/matt.sorenson/viz/MLSFanMap/MLSMap
That's fun, but some of those small sample sizes...Shelby County, IL goes for San Jose because they have 2 twitter followers there!Interesting map of MLS fandom:
https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/matt.sorenson/viz/MLSFanMap/MLSMap
I got a polo shirt with a cherry blossom print very much like that kit and my wife was horrified.Love the DC United cherry blossom kit. Nashville’s man in black is also very nice.
My wife asked if I was going to an ugly sweater party when I wore @dirtynine’s USA sweater. What do wives know?I got a polo shirt with a cherry blossom print very much like that kit and my wife was horrified.
Achievement unlocked!My wife asked if I was going to an ugly sweater party when I wore @dirtynine’s USA sweater. What do wives know?
Amazing, thanks!T-Mobile is offering the MLS package for free. Got the notice yesterday and activated it.
For anyone interested, similar to T-Mobile's mlb.tv offer, over at Slickdeals people are trading their activation codes for $5 (or less, the MLS package does not seem like a super hot commodity) Amazon gift cards. I did that yesterday and it was pretty easy since it's just a code you redeem at apple.tv.T-Mobile is offering the MLS package for free. Got the notice yesterday and activated it.
A reminder that there are serious people in American soccer who genuinely believe MLS should switch to a winter season.Portland has almost a foot of snow right now and it's not supposed to warm up much before Saturday when more moisture is forecast, as a result the Timbers v SKC match has been delayed until Monday.
View: https://twitter.com/TimbersFC/status/1628927953538281472?t=y71sYbjg61Q68oM3Eo06WQ&s=19
They should go back and watch old Hitmen games when the XFL tried to play February games in NJ.A reminder that there are serious people in American soccer who genuinely believe MLS should switch to a winter season.
Now it sounds like El Trafico will get moved because of the huge storm pounding California.A reminder that there are serious people in American soccer who genuinely believe MLS should switch to a winter season.
I guess 35 isn’t experienced enough for Heitz - the Fire send $250k to Montreal for Kei Kamara.Heitz is struggling to find someone to take his money?
Zahavi has 22 goals in 2250 minutes across all comps this season. The previous 2 seasons combined at PSV, Zahavi hit 20 non-PK goals in 3500 minutes.
But dude is 35 and 8 months ago moved on a free. What’s the plan here?
Like you said, though, the club has resonated. The conference semifinal (vs FC Cincinnati) and the conference final (vs NYCFC) were nuts. That stadium has become an intimidating place to play.
I think so. This is the most I’ll brag about my club tonight — we’re authentic. No knock on Atlanta, but if you check the drivers licenses at an Atlanta United game, they’re from all over the place because that’s just the place to party. You’ve got 50,000 people getting together to party. My dad sat next to a few and they were great people but they were just like ‘we’re SEC football guys and we’re just here because we heard this is a great party.’ What they’ve done is amazing, there.
But we’re kind of authentic and we did it kind of slowly. The city was with us along the ride, and through the hard times, too — our fans literally got one of our presidents fired. They’re part of the growth. I’m proud of it. Our crowd is a real crowd.
Is that something that’s unique to MLS?
This league is crazy. It’s unpredictable. The coaches are from all over the world now. Think of the Argentine league. The coaches are local. Look at Serie A. They’re pretty much all local. Go to Mexico. Most coaches in those areas all have a similar way of thinking. In MLS? One week I’m going against Patrick Vieira, then the next week against Frank de Boer and the next week Jesse Marsch or Jason Kreis. Insert whoever. And then the climate, and the travel — you play Bob Bradley at LAFC and then Adrian Heath (in Minnesota) and you travel all that way and have to play two guys who see the game completely differently. It’s complicated. I’m not saying it’s the best, but it’s so unique.
You’ve always commanded a certain level of respect amongst other coaches in the league. You’ve been sort of like… every musician’s favorite band, if you will. But your profile is much higher now.
I’m in danger of being overrated. I call it the “Scottie Pippen effect.” You go from being like “man, this guy is so underrated” to being like “wait a minute, is he a top-50 basketball player of all time?”
I mean it sounds interesting?
We don’t have enough villains in our league. We have too many nice guys. MLS used to have so many jerks. There were so many a–holes on every team. We may have the closest these days with Jose (Martinez.) Back in the day there were real guys that would kill you. Mike Petke. Joey Franchino? He would just beat you up if he saw you in the tunnel.
What teams and coaches do it right, globally and locally? Meaning, you like the way they play, all of that.
When people ask me what teams I like to watch, I don’t say Bayern Munich or Man City. Because I know how good they are and I respect how good they are, but it doesn’t relate to what we’re trying to do here. I’ll look at a team like Brentford. I’ll look at what they’re doing there in their recruitment, their coaching, how they play. I look for smaller teams that are punching above their weight because that’s us. We’re not gonna go buy all the best.
In our league? I like Steve Cherundolo at LAFC. He navigated a lot of things behind the scenes that people don’t see. It’s not easy when ownership wants eight or nine new players coming in at the end of the season. I thought Wilfred Nancy did an amazing job in Montreal. He’s another one who learned from five or six coaches and gathered a lot of different ideas. I think he’ll do well in Columbus pretty quickly. To have a beer, though? Adrian Heath.
Pat (Noonan) and Dom (Kinnear) will have Cincinnati flying, I think. That team is going to take off like a rocket. Nashville is a pain in the ass to play against. There are just so many damn teams now. I find myself having to look at the league standings to answer this question.
We saw your podcast appearance where you said you’d leave the Union to be a USMNT assistant. What about you would translate well to the national team?
Whoever gets in there now has to preach simplicity. Don’t over-complicate it. We have really talented players. They don’t need a ton of information right now and a super-detailed style of play. For lack of a better way to put this, I’d sort of revert to the Bruce Arena approach — put the best eleven guys out there and get the f— out of the way, they’ll figure it out. That is what the team needs right this minute.
I don’t know whether it’s what the team will need in four years, but they need a period where they’re allowed to play together. Pick your key guys and stay out of the way. People always ask about Brendan Aaronson, what did I do (to aid his development)? I didn’t do s—. I just said “go out there and have fun and play.” He was a creative player. In this country we treat players like robots too much and end up producing players who are average at everything. We need specialists. That’s what wins at the highest level. We had nothing like that at this past World Cup.
How impactful could 2026 actually be on club soccer in the United States?
Americans are a-holes. We only want to support what we’re the best at. We are not the best at soccer. If we go on a deep run in that competition, I do think it would have a real impact on MLS. My meathead football friends will say “well f—, we just upset France, maybe I’ll give these guys a little credit, maybe this sport is a real sport.” We saw it in Philly getting to the final this year. When we walk around the city now, Jakob Glesnes, myself, whoever, the amount of South Philly “Broad Street Bully”-types are like “great run, we’re proud of you.” They love that s—.
I see all the young kids in my neighborhood wearing soccer stuff. Not just Manchester United stuff, Union stuff. I think that’s really cool. If we succeeded in 2026? That element would explode. Maybe I’m drinking the Kool-Aid of the league, but it’s getting good man. And the people are involved, the men and women that own teams now? They do not lose. They will shove it down people’s throats until it works.
You have no interest in revisiting the match, I know. It was messed up from your perspective because in the end, it had to be Gareth Bale.
Soccer gods do exist because Bale scores that goal. he scores against the USA (at the World Cup), and then I’m sitting here in the first week of preseason in our Clearwater hotel and I have to watch Gareth Bale golf. Like, he’s golfing! This m———– is just rubbing it in and he’s a hell of a golfer. I’d probably love to hang out with him, but I’ll hate his guts for the rest of my life. That’s the beauty of the sport, you know?
That’s cool. The Revs gave me a sheet of stickers.That Curtin article was tremendous. Seems like a fun coach.
Got my season ticket membership box in the mail today. Pretty cool looking. I heard some teams give out shirts plus scarves. We got a scarf and a pin.
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What they've thrown together so far on extremely short notice is amazing. I think the whole package is likely to be even better by the end of the year.The MLS360 thing needs more focus on the games and less on the people in the studio, but other than that I'm loving the AppleTV coverage so far.
I assume it will get better too. But I switched from a single game to the 360 thing a few times and for 2-3 minutes all I was was the backs of the 4 people on stage and a 1 match on a big screen behind them. That's not good tv. If it were up to me the 360 would have 3-4 games on the screen and sometimes one shot of the person talking.What they've thrown together so far on extremely short notice is amazing. I think the whole package is likely to be even better by the end of the year.
The extent to which a lot of fans have already been won over by the new TV deal is remarkable. The picture quality is significantly improved and the programming around the games is what people have always wanted, and will get better over time. I was agnostic about this deal when it was announced, but with 40% of the games in front of the paywall and freely accessible, and strong word-of-mouth, I've become optimistic that this situation will pull in more new viewers than hoping to lure channel-flippers on a mediocre ESPN/Fox broadcast.
Matching up with what the best broadcasts have been in traditional American sports -If they can create a sense of “this is what’s going on in the league,” with hosts that people like, it will go a long way.What they've thrown together so far on extremely short notice is amazing. I think the whole package is likely to be even better by the end of the year.
The extent to which a lot of fans have already been won over by the new TV deal is remarkable. The picture quality is significantly improved and the programming around the games is what people have always wanted, and will get better over time. I was agnostic about this deal when it was announced, but with 40% of the games in front of the paywall and freely accessible, and strong word-of-mouth, I've become optimistic that this situation will pull in more new viewers than hoping to lure channel-flippers on a mediocre ESPN/Fox broadcast.