Major League Soccer

I watched it because the Hoops Tourney was so bad. Great crowd (I'm really happy for Seattle after the Sonics debacle), but not really good soccer. I'm hoping it is just first game rust and all, but outside of Montero both sides looked pretty sloppy and tentative, with the worst aerial work I've seen in ages. Guys looked happy just to get a head on it and then look around to see where it went.

NY looked terrible, the desperate long aerial passes HAVE GOT TO GO. That was a problem all last year too, though. I can't diagnose the problem in any more detail because I don't really understand where everyone is supposed to be on the field and whose responsibility it is to be in certain places.

I can say that we would have probably scored two goals with no extra effort last night if there had just been ANYONE in place to catch rebounds off of Keller.

The game was crazy in part because of the hype surrounding the new team and the start of the year. I've never seen an MLS game be so frantic as it was in the first 15 minutes or so.

I'm no fan of the long aerial game either, but unfortunately that's the nature of the league sometimes. It would be great for New York if Dane Richards could use his left foot once in a while, but since he can't it's off to the races. Seattle's defense really seemed to know where to hold the line to stop New York, which has got to be a coaching thing.

It's definitely a coaching thing that we played a 4-5-1 with no one who could get the job done in the midfield.

Our Chicago, we love you so! Like heroin, Fire a drug for Chicago! Just like hashish, or LSD, for the Fire it's complete insanity!

I'm going to a watch party at a bar this evening that is hosted by a bunch of Polish skinhead guys. $2 Okocim drafts. It's going to be great.

looooove the old Okocim graphics, need to be posted all the time, every thread
http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/embarchie/b-okocim3.jpg

http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/embarchie/Photo0055.jpg

I hate how all the teams have foreign sounding names. Just call yourself the goddamn Pasadena Bobcats or something.

http://media.timeoutchicago.com/resizeImage/htdocs/export_images/209/209.x600.feat.polish.bars.zimneP.jpg?

Excellent. So THAT'S why you were sending drunk texts on Saturday. Sorry it wasn't under better circumstances.

First tailgate of the year, coming right up....

maybe tilt-shift is starting to feel a little played, but still, this is cool, from the sounders/nyrb game
http://seattlest.com/attachments/seattle_seth/sounders_tilt.jpg

makes the turf look like it's made of plastic or something! oh wait

lol

Alexi LOLas has his own snarky vid-blog feature on MLS's website.

facepalm

http://www.mlsnet.com/imgs/about/MLS_world_players_09_15_08.jpg

nice. need more africans imo.
and le toux is from france, time to color that one in

imo one of the great things about soccer/futbol in general is how your interest can spread because of players you like. Because of Bakary Soumare and Gonzalo Segares from the Fire's back line, I'm going to be looking out for the scores of Mali and Costa Rica's qualifiers this weekend in addition to the Fire and USA games.

That being said, the fact that the league does not take all international dates off is pretty hilariously stupid.

shit got real in Columbus over the weekend

http://www.mls-rumors.net/2009/03/report-trillium-cup-tear-gas-and-tasers.html (scroll down past the ads)

personally I blame the Crew, people were shitheads when we went there in the fall and we had 10% of the numbers that came for TFC

TP was looking sort of shiny today.

http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/1456/sspx0014.jpg

Note benches w/o seatbacks at the bottom -- it's almost a terrace!

so bummed i never got to a Fire game in Chi

lol @ toronto's 'best in mls' fans streaming out of there

1-0 feels pretty good after 35 degrees, windy, pissing rain, and a red card.

is there any explanation why Real Salt Lake would use Barcelona's colors?

is there any explanation for why they would put Real in their team name???

well copying successful team names has a long and proud history throughout world soccer, and i think they have some sort of relationship with Madrid

do mls teams have prominent shirt sponsorship?

some do.
wait what do you mean by prominent?

http://www.subsidesports.com/uk/images/product/large/SheffUtdHSS0607.gif

yes, all but new england, dallas, kansas city, and colorado i think.

Real Salt Lake: Xango
LA Galaxy: Herbalife
San Jose Earthquakes: Amway

there is a trend here

HOUSTON: ARE YOU READY?

loooooooooooooooool

"the next Darren Huckerby"?

zomg I met Brian McBride 2nite

"the next Darren Huckerby"?

Not likely - Akinbiyi's built like a tank; I vaguely remember him having an OK turn of pace, and he's a solid worker, but his confidence as a finisher got badly knocked when he moved to Leicester for £5million and flopped hard. Still, MLS is a much less pressured environment, and Ade's played a lot of football between the Leicester catastrophe and now - there's a decent chance he might end up doing a job for Houston.

Before Huckerby went San Jose, he'd been basically the key player in Norwich's attack - up til his move there, Darren's career had been characterised by brief purple patches followed by very long periods where he looked disinterested and frequently seemed to not really be trying. When he went to Norwich, he basically grew up very quickly and became a bit of a hero. I gather he's been a bit of a star for San Jose too?

He was awful at Sheffield United.

Oh gosh, was Sheffield United the place where he had a dressing room scuffle with someone then announced "I won't confirm or deny whether a razor was involved", despite no-one having asked him?

Ah yes, him and Claude Davis:

It was reported that Davis approached his team-mate while holding a razor but Akinbiyi said: "I'm not saying he did or didn't pull out a razor. There was a row that lasted about two minutes."

i'm guessing claude davis's parents don't let him use a cut-throat. this was probably a butter knife.

I gather he's been a bit of a star for San Jose too?

Yeah, he came in when they were having a really rough time. The team just re-started play last year due to the vagaries of MLS franchising and had a very inexperienced roster. They didn't make the play-offs, but he started helping them score some goals. This year things look a little better for them, though I'm still ready for Chicago to beat the piss out of them this weekend.

It's not so surprising that aging lower-division English players are trickling over here. A lot of people say that the level of play in MLS is comparable to the Championship. San Jose picked up one-time USNT midfielder Bobby Convey from Reading over the winter.

btw: flags? we got yer fuckin' flags right here.

http://i43.tinypic.com/2j5kz6h.jpg

hey laurel, my week in nyc has disappeared into a world of work stuff. new york city takes the international year of astronomy way too seriously. anyway, i am going to be working on sunday now, so no mls for me :( thanks anyway!

What an enormous bummer! That's too bad, especially as we won (FINALLY) on Saturday so spirits have lifted a bit.

Too bad you'll be missing NY v. DC, that's quite the rivalry game as far as I've heard.

The Fire played the best 75 minutes I've seen this year on Saturday, unfortunately they then decided they didn't need to try to control the ball any more and ended up with a 2-2 draw 15 minutes later. We did get to see one of these, though:

Okay that was fun.

I got distracted (read: drunk) right after the half and accidentally called Conway an asshole (not having adjusted to the switch). Now that I'm sober, I'm probably more embarrassed than I need to be -- but it's hard to pay attention with tall people holding scarves in front of you, and while you're signing and listening to the drums & capos. Eeep.

I can basically never see at home games so I just kind of zone out and try to follow along.

Just start standing on the seats!

yeah, i am bummed. i would arrive in town the week this circus comes through: http://www7.nationalacademies.org/bpa/Astro2010.html

is there a good bar in chelsea to watch it, or is that a silly question?