posted by kidpurple
November 12, 2006
Well I guess I don’t have a lot of thought about the actual game play itself, it was a pretty good game and my future news was wrong, as usual.
I can’t beleive ABC just doesn’t seem to get it. Every fuckin sunday every channel (it seems) has pre-football shows on all morning, probably even channels that aren’t actually going to show a game even…. The MLS Cup rolls around and leading up to it, they have a fucking infomercial for the nu-wave oven or some crap. come on ABC, just a half an hour would be great. The actuall kickoff wasn’t until 15 minutes after the coverage started, but it seemed like it was all pre-recorded shit about Taylor Twellman and Brian Ching. They deserve it, but it would have been that hard to ditch the infomercial?
Well enough of that. I know it went to extra time and PK’s, but after the game they were as quick as they could be to drop coverage and go to news. This is a final ABC, show us a little bit of it. Even though I was kind of cheering for the Revolution, I still wanted to see the trophy presented to the Dynamo. They are a good team and they deserve it.
The most impressive part of the game for me was the Dynamo fans. That looks like a fun crowd to be in. Maybe its just something about the orange teams, the orange the fans wear really sticks out. It was quite a bit more impressive than the last Minnesota Thunder game I saw.
Even though I don’t consider myself a Revolution fan, I hope that team gets one soon.
Can’t wait until next season starts!!!!
posted by kidpurple
November 12, 2006
With the new playoff system I mentioned earlier today, this years playoffs would have looked like this:
East:
1. DC United
2. New England Revolution
West:
1. FC Dallas
2. Houston Dynamo
Wild Cards:
Chicago Fire
Chivas USA
Colorado Rapids
LA Galaxy
I don’t know how they’d all be matched up in the first round, and this is only based on my own 1 table standings. The only difference being LA Galaxy in, NY Red Bulls out. Thats not so bad I guess!
posted by kidpurple
November 12, 2006
New England Revolution win their first MLS Cup later today!
posted by kidpurple
November 12, 2006
Some new rules were announced this weekend that will take effect for the next MLS season.
Teams will be able to have one designated superstar spot on their roster. The league will pay up to 400K/season for that player, the club is responsible for the rest. This gets teams around the salary cap for situations like LA wanting to get David Beckham. Each team gets one superstar allocation, which can be traded, but no team can have more than 2.
With the addition of Toronto to the league, I had thought they would go to a single table and not have the east/west division. But instead they plan to keep everything the same and then add Toronto to the east. Playoffs are messed up too. Top 2 teams from each division go to the playoff, in addition to 4 wildcard teams. And hopefully in 2008 only the east division will add a designated hitter, for the situation that a game goes to a shootout, and the goalkeeper is supposed to shoot, in comes the designated hitter to take that shot for the keeper! stupid….
but one good thing they did was worked out some deal so that 100% of the games are going to be televised lived. I doubt that will benefit me too much, but that would be awfully cool to be able to choose what game(s) I wanted to watch each weekend instead of letting espn/fox soccer channel decide for me.
posted by kidpurple
November 10, 2006
Starting next year the MLS is following a bit of world soccer and starting MLS youth programs for each MLS team. This is something entirely new in US professional sports, and I think it will be a great benefit for the MLS all around.
The youth system works like this. Young players that live in an MLS home area for at least 1 year can join their youth teams. Each MLS team will have 6 different aged teams, from U15 to U25. As long as a player is the member of a youth team for 2 years, they can be signed to that MLS team without the team having to draft them.
This youth system can do nothing but good for the MLS and American soccer in general in my opinion. Teams will have a wider base of players to choose from, it will give players access to professional coaches that they might not otherwise have, it will create more home-town players in the MLS, and none of this will effect NCAA eligibility for any of the players who do not move onto the MLS before they could play college soccer.
Its nice to see the MLS taking a bit from world soccer. Most world soccer teams have similar youth systems. Manchester United probably had one of the best classes of players from their own youth system when they won the treble in 1999. Players such as David Becham and Paul Scholes came up from the Manchester United youth system. Without such youth system, you may well have never heard the phrase “Bend it like Beckham”.
Well done MLS. I fully expect to see the MLS become a respected league throughout the world and see the US national team win a world cup in my lifetime!
posted by kidpurple
November 8, 2006
Aparently the Los Angeles Galaxy are interested in bringing David Beckham to the MLS and the most glamourous club in the MLS. The Galaxy have one MLS Cup to their name, a couple US Open cups, and did not qualify for the playoffs this year, but are supposed to be the glamour team of the MLS. Well either way, they want David Beckham.
Beckham may be wanting to get out of Real Madrid if he does not get a starting spot back, but I’d be kinda surprised if he came to the MLS before going somewhere else. The MLS would probably have to ditch a salary cap to get Beckham here to play, which I’m sure they would do, but will it really happen?
It would be great to see Beckham in the MLS before he is too old, and he did say on that commercial that he’d never say no to coming to play in America. I’d be surprised, but I hope it does happen, even if he does play for the Galaxy.
posted by kidpurple
November 5, 2006
NE Revolution vs Houston Dynamo for the MLS Cup, just as my prediction was. Finally I get a couple of games right.
posted by kidpurple
November 5, 2006
Taylor Twellman scored right at the beginning of the eastern conference final vs DC United, and thats all the Revolution needed to put them into the MLS Cup. Overall the 2nd half was not too exciting. It looked like there would sure be more goals scored both ways at time, but overall the 2nd half was not the most exciting football seen this season. New England didn’t look too good, but they got done just what they needed to do.
posted by kidpurple
November 2, 2006
I really wish I could have watched the Dallas/Colorado game from this past weekend when the Rapids dumped FC Dallas out of the playoffs to see what waranted a six game suspension for FC Dallas goalkeeper Dario Sala. Six game suspension seems pretty harsh. I don’t remember there ever being a suspension longer (or even that long) in the history of the MLS. I have been a fan since the league started, but I do admit there were years that something like this could have eassily gone un-noticed by me.
Mike Petke, Ricardo Clark, Claudio Suarez and even Steve Nicol were all fined while Juan Pable Garcia got a two game suspension. That must have been an exciting couple of games last weekend.
I sure am looking forward to the games this Sunday! Predictions? Based solely on the play that I saw this last weekend I see NE Revolution vs Houston Dynamo playing for the MLS Cup. Based on what I think from my usually completely wrong instincts, I see DC United vs. Colorado Rapids. Final anwer: DC United vs Houston Dynamo.
