Major League Soccer Fan Blog

MLS SuperDraft 2012

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 12:44:17 -0600

The MLS SuperDraft is happening live on ESPN2 right now. I went home to get some food and watched a little bit. The Sporting KC fans are rocking it! They are louder than most basketball crowds ever get!

Get all the SuperDraft info here: http://www.mlssoccer.com/superdraft/2012/superdraft

i hope he comes out of retirement to play in the mls , also what i believe for sure is that, even though he might seem quite old to still be playing football, it doesnt really matter actually, he's the greatest player ever to me and to most and i dont see him getting any worse on his balling abilities,, i hope he does come down here to new york though , it would be nice to see him play in the league here, at least he will teach our mls boys some skills and some reason to be calm on the ball lol

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 20:12:52 -0600

I’m not sure if this was supposed to really be a question or what.

cool…

MLS Cup 2011 Predictions

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 23:36:11 -0600

Well well, who expected the Houston Dynamo to make it to MLS Cup 2011?

Without Brad Davis?

If you answered yes to the first question, you are probably a Dynamo fan. If you answered yes to the second question, I call BS.

Plenty expected the Galaxy to be here.

So who is going to win it? I guess I have to go with the Galaxy. They’ve got a few things going for them:

They are playing at home
Brad Davis is hurt
They’ve already lost 4 MLS Cups. Certainly they don’t want to lose another.

So I’m gonna say Robbie Keane gets a hat trick and the Galaxy win 4-2. What do you think is going to happen?

WHAT MAKES YOU FEEL BETTER WHEN YOU ARE IN A BAD MOOD?

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 23:22:59 -0600

Watching Sporting KC win something!

MLS Cup semi finals are upon us!

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 22:06:33 -0600

Real Salt Lake vs LA Galaxy
The Home Depot Center, Carson
Sun, Nov 6, 9 pm ET/6 pm PT

Real Salt Lake survive a close one in Seattle after thumping the Sounders 3-0 in Salt Lake. The Galaxy took care of NY 3-1 and their fans developed a special place in their hearts for NY forward Luke Rodgers for this:

Houston Dynamo vs Sporting KC
Livestrong Sporting Park, Kansas City
Sun, Nov 6, 5:30 pm ET/4:30 pm CT

Meanwhile in the much weaker Eastern conference, Sporting KC cruised to a 4-0 victory over the reserve squad of the defending champion Colorado Rapids (they had a lot of injuries). Houston Dynamo played against an un-inspiring Philadelphia Union team that seemed just fine to be down by 2 goals at the end of their second leg. These teams finished 9th and 12th in the league last year, neither of which was good enough to make the playoffs.

Predictions

Sporting KC look too damn good to be stopped by the Dynamo, especially at home.

Real Salt Lake are up and down. They were horrible at the end of the regular season but then put a thumping on Seattle before going to get dominated in Seattle. The Galaxy should be consistently really good, but probably not great. If RSL play a great game, they can beat LA. I think Donovan and company will do exactly what they need to do to get back to the MLS Cup.

Sporting KC at LA Galaxy for the MLS Cup

So LA/NY is now the game to watch

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 05:51:47 -0500

The first legs of the round of 8 are over. RSL was very impressive in getting a 3-0 win over SSFC. The result may have been a surprise to a good number of people, but the score was a surprise to most all non-RSL fans. It will be very hard to Seattle to overcome 3 goals. I expect RSL to advance. Sporting KC won 2-0 on the road over Colorado. Due to the crazy number of injuries the Rapids have taken, their reserve squad will have to travel to KC on Thursday. Sporting KC should advance pretty easily. Houston got a 2-1 victory on the road, so this serious could go anywhere now. Philly has the potential to get a road win and end Houston’s season. I don’t expect it to happen though. Houston advances after a draw in Houston. LA went to NY and got a 1-0 win. I didn’t see this whole game but from the looks of it the most exciting part of the game was right after the final whistle. Rafa Marquez decides to throw the ball at Landon Donovan after the game which ends in a red card for himself and one for Juninho.

“Marquez fell down, maybe a fly went into his eye”

So the Red Bulls weren’t able to win the first leg. The next best thing must be to start shit and then fake an injury in hopes of getting a Galaxy player ejected. That is some stupid shit that shouldn’t be in MLS. It should make for a spirited game when these teams return to LA on Thursday night. I expect LA to win that one as well and advance to the semi-finals.

Colorado Rapids or Columbus Crew?

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 22:06:08 -0500

Columbus Crew @ Colorado Rapids

So one team finishes their season and one team goes on to play Sporting KC. I got off to a bad start on the playoff predictions last night with the NY win, but I’m sure the Rapids are going to put me up to .500. I have to go with the Rapids because I’ll be able to watch the game because I happen to be close enough to Colorado that I get Altitude Sports and Entertainment on my satellite! Don’t miss this last wild card playoff game. Who do you got in this one?

Wildcard Weekend!

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 01:40:55 -0500

Now that the Dynamo have finished off the season we finally know what the playoffs are going to look like. Next weekend the wildcard teams will play.

NY Red Bulls (4) @ FC Dallas (1)

Columbus Crew (3) @ Colorado Rapids (2)

The the rest of the team join in on the fun. The winners of those 2 games will be placed based on which is the higher seed of the winners. The rest of the schedule will look like this:

WEST:

1. LA Galaxy
Lower seeded wild card winner (NY Red Bulls, Columbus Crew, or Colorado Rapids)

3. Real Salt Lake
2. Seattle Sounders

EAST:

1. Sporting KC
Higher seeded wild card winner (FC Dallas, Colorado Rapids, or Columbus Crew)

3. Philadelphia Union
2. Houston Dynamo

So it is time for some predictions. I’m think both of the higher seeded wild card teams will overcome their weaker Eastern Conference opponents. Both of the West team will be at home. That would send the Rapids to play the Galaxy and FC Dallas to Sporting KC.

What do you think will happen on Wild Card Weekend?

Playoffs are set!

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 21:39:30 -0500

Well not really, but at least we know who is in and who is out.

The in teams:

WEST: LA Galaxy, Seattle Sounders, Real Salt Lake

EAST: Sporting KC, Philadelphia Union, Columbus Crew

WILD CARDS: FC Dallas, Colorado Rapids, New York Red Bulls, Houston Dynamo

There is still a whole lot to be decided in the last couple days of the season. FC Dallas and the Houston Dynamo could move into a top 3 spot and out of the wildcard group. Real Salt Lake, Columbus Crew, and Philadelphia Union could all drop down into a wildcard position. That might not be all bad for Real Salt Lake actually.

The first round of the playoffs will be two game involving all the wild card teams. the top seed will play the bottom seed and the middle two will play each other. Of those winners, the team with the lower seed will play the LA Galaxy. The winner with the higher seed will play the winner in the East.

Right now FC Dallas and Real Salt Lake are tied for 3rd place in the West/1st wild card seed. Assuming they are able to win their wild-card round game, that means one of those teams will enter the East side of the playoffs against some combination of Sporting KC, Philadelphia Union, Columbus Crew, and Houston Dynamo. That sounds much easier than having the Galaxy and Sounders to get through.

The downside to FC Dallas or RSL for finishing 4th would be that one extra game they’d need to play just to get to the round of 8. That extra game will be against one of Colorado Rapids, New York Red Bulls, or Houston Dynamo. So you’ve got the defending champions, and the Red Bulls who a lot of people thought were going to be the top team in the league this year. Maybe it wouldn’t be beneficial to finish 4th over there?

On Saturday Real Salt Lake is at home to play Portland Timbers. FC Dallas goes to the San Jose Earthquakes. I’m sure both teams will be going for a win, but are you sure you’d want to win if you were in their situation?

Who is where in the playoffs?

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 02:22:48 -0500

The Galaxy have had the top spot wrapped up for a while. The Sounders and Real Salt Lake have also had their playoffs spot for a few weeks. Now there is one position remaining that 4 teams have a shot at with New York in the best position to take it.

The East side is kinda crazy right now. Sporting KC and Philadelphia Union are tied on points with Columbus Crew and Houston Dynamo 1 and 2 points back. Any of those teams could take 1st and any one could fall to the 3rd wildcard position. There are a ton of scenarios for those teams in the East. An article on Down The Byline makes it clear as mud what Sporting KC have to do.

I do hope Sporting KC end up on top, because when everyone else was saying NY was going to win the east, I was probably the only guy that was even thinking about KC as a playoff contender. It could be that KC finish only 2 points up on NY, so that isn’t such a big win, and you can’t blame anyone for thinking NY should have been up there, they have the team do it.

No matter what happens, it will be an exciting weekend for a bunch of teams starting with Portland Timbers and DC United. Likely one team will be eliminated and one team will still have hope after that game. Then Thursday night New York and Philadelphia will have big impact on several teams. Then the season is ended on Sunday with the LA Galaxy visiting the Houston Dynamo.

I see KC winning the East, with New York holding on to that last playoff spot. How do you see it all ending? Who gets in and who wins the East?

Kasey Keller's last regular season home game

Sat, 15 Oct 2011 20:20:57 -0500

So Kasey Keller is retiring after this season :(

He is one of the greatest keepers we’ve ever seen, there is no doubt about that. But instead of showing of his complete awesome-ness in goal, I wanted to find a video of a goal he gave up to Mexico sometime in the 90’s. I remember seeing the goal on TV when it happened, but I don’t remember exactly what year or competition it was in.

It was probably a back pass to Keller that was being chased by Luis Hernandez. Keller smacked the ball directly into the oncoming Mexican striker’s head which went straight into the goal.

I searched a little bit for the video but maybe my memory is not working right. I know it was USA vs. Mexico, I’m pretty sure it was Keller, and it might not have been Hernandez. But anyway….

In the 1998 Gold Cup semi-final the US beat Brazil 1-0. According to Wikipedia, Brazilian legend Romario said “That is the best performance by a goalkeeper I have ever seen” about Keller’s game in that shutout. Keller was the MVP of that tournament even though the US went on to lose to Mexico in the final. A song was written about Keller’s performance in that game. So that is what you are left with here because I couldn’t find the goofy goal he gave up sometime in the 90’s.

Kasey Keller by Barcelona:

I was supposed to be at the game tonight in Seattle but due to shit I couldn’t control, I’m stuck at home. It is going to be a special time in Seattle. They expect over 60,000 in attendance!

If you can think of the goal I was trying to find, leave a comment and let me know what game that happened in.

Major League Soccer on social media

Sat, 15 Oct 2011 03:21:53 -0500

I put together a Twitter list that is each of the MLS teams’ official Twitter account. You can follow the list here: http://twitter.com/#!/mlsfanblog/mls-teams

In the process of putting this list together I started noting the other social network-y type sites some of these teams had accounts with and thought it might be interesting to share here. Almost every team had Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube covered. A few teams had some extra links in addition to those standard three.

Chicago Fire only seems to have an account at Facebook.

Chivas USA also had Facebook and YouTube.

Colorado Rapids on Facebook and YouTube.

Columbus Crew on Facebook and YouTube.

DC United on Facebook, YouTube, and Flickr.

FC Dallas on Facebook and YouTube.

Houston Dynamo on Facebook and YouTube.

LA Galaxy on Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn.

New England Revolution on Facebook and YouTube.

New York Red Bulls on Facebook and YouTube.

Philadelphia Union on Facebook, and YouTube.

Portland Timbers on Facebook and YouTube.

Real Salt Lake on Facebook and YouTube.

San Jose EarthQuakes on Facebook and YouTube (a little bit out of date).

Seattle Sounders on Facebook. Apparently they do videos on their own website - and might not have a YouTube channel.

Sporting Kansas City on Facebook, YouTube, and Flickr. Sporting KC even have a page with links to many Twitter accounts of players and staff. You can see that at http://www.sportingkc.com/social-media

Toronto FC on Facebook and YouTube.

Vancouver Whitecaps on Facebook and YouTube.

Important game of the week: Houston Dynamo at Portland Timbers

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 04:52:08 -0500

The Houston Dynamo at Portland Timbers game on Friday night could determine the playoff fate of both teams. pts (games played) 43 (32) Houston Dynamo - [in the playoffs] —————————————- 40 (31) Portland Timbers - [out of the playoffs] After this game Houston goes to play at LA Galaxy to end their season. The Timbers get DC United and Real Salt Lake to end their season. Since Houston won the last game between these two team at home, I’m going to pick the home team again and say the Timbers get a 2-1 victory and go on to play in the post-season.

Galaxy win Supporters' Shield Again

Mon, 10 Oct 2011 02:30:24 -0500

The LA Galaxy have clinched the Supporters’ Shield for a 2nd year in a row and a 4th title overall. The 4th title pulls them into a tie with D.C. United for most times having won the Supporters’ Shield.

Last year the Galaxy won the Supporters’ Shield and what happened to them in the playoffs? Will this year be different? The Galaxy haven’t won an MLS Cup since 2005 and a lot of people will be expecting one this year.

Will this be the year the Galaxy get the MLS Cup back?

How good is Rafa Marquez?

Sat, 24 Sep 2011 03:13:19 -0500

This is the question everyone wants to know the answer to - how good is Rafa Marquez? Okay, maybe everyone isn’t waiting to find an answer to that question - but Marquez certainly knows. Better than the rest of the NY defense. After a recent 3-1 loss to Real Salt Lake Marquez had this to say according to mlssoccer.com

“I think this is a team game and, unfortunately, there isn’t an equal level between my teammates and me,” Marquez said through a translator on Wednesday. “I am trying to play at my level [and if] that doesn’t mean that the whole back line can perform at that same level, that’s a problem.”

These comments were rewarded by his head coach who gave him the weekend off. Saturday NY will host the Portland Timbers in a very important game to determine who will go to the playoffs and who will be staying home. I previously predicted that the Timbers would win this game, but now that I know NY is so good they can not even play their best defender I’m a little skeptical about my prediction. What do you think - was this right to suspend Marquez for this important game because of his comments?свети георги

2011 MLS Playoff race is on!

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 02:58:52 -0500

With just over a month of the MLS regular season remaining the LA Galaxy are the only team to have secured a playoff spot. Seattle Sounders FC and Real Salt Lake are looking to wrap up their playoff spots this weekend. 58 LA Galaxy * 51 Seattle Sounders FC 48 Real Salt Lake 46 FC Dallas 41 Colorado Rapids 41 Columbus Crew 40 Sporting Kansas City 39 Philadelphia Union 39 Houston Dynamo 36 New York Red Bulls ————————————— 36 Portland Timbers 34 D.C. United 31 Chivas USA 30 Chicago Fire 30 Toronto FC 29 San Jose Earthquakes 27 New England Revolution 22 Vancouver Whitecaps FC With the current standings the way they are right now, the match in New York on Saturday evening will have huge playoff implications.

Portland Timbers @ New York Red Bulls

Saturday, September 24, 2011 7:30pm EST

Red Bull Arena

The teams are currently even on points with 36 which has New York in the last wildcard playoff spot and the Timbers on the outside looking in. My prediction is a 2-1 victory for the visitors which will leave NYRB on the outside. What is your prediction?

So you want to play in Major League Soccer?

Wed, 23 Mar 2011 02:54:08 -0500

I get a lot of emails and comments from people that want help getting onto an MLS team.

I have no idea what to do.

but I did a tiny bit of research and found this:

Most teams will want you (or more likely your agent) to send them your soccer resume along with some video. That is pretty much a minimum.

So this is what you have to do:

Go to http://mlssoccer.com and click on any one of the team pages. Typically toward the bottom of the page there is a big block of links with one being a “contact us” link. Click on that, find an email address or a phone number and get in contact with someone there to find out what that team wants from you, then give it to them.

Keep this in mind: Major League Soccer is a professional soccer league. If you are not a professional soccer player already - chances are not good that you just walk onto a team. MLS may not have the history, prestige, fan base, or the best players in the world like the top European leagues, but it is a very competitive professional soccer league.

Good LuckИкониikoniПодаръциикониикониПравославни икониикони на светцииконописikoni

MLS Preseason Predictions

Sun, 06 Mar 2011 03:57:22 -0600

Recently the owner of One Match Ban emailed and asked a few quick questions about what I’d predict for the upcoming MLS season. I decided to write them down and make a post of it right here.

1. Tip for the MLS Cup?
Los Angeles Galaxy. The best team through the regular season last year has added Juan Pablo Angel and Frankie Hejduk. At 35 and 36 years old they aren’t building a team for the future, they want something right now. There were good to start with and now they’ve got a lot of experience and one of the best goal scorers the league has seen in a long time.

2. Eastern Conference Winners?
Sporting KC (formerly Kansas City Wizards). ~~The Wizards~~ Sporting KC will start the season with a new name, eventually they will open a new stadium called Sporting Park, and they’ve got some new blood on the team that has been performing fairly well so far this pre-season. According to their website, Sporting Park will be the first MLS stadium to be fully lighted for HDTV. How can they not win the Eastern Conference?

3. Western Conference Winners?
Los Angeles Galaxy have been a very good team the past couple of years and been close to the MLS Cup, but this is the year they finally get it again.

4. Player to watch?
Charlie Davies is on loan with DC United. After missing the World Cup due to a terrible auto accident he is back. It was uncertain if he’d ever play again but here he is with DC United. Hopefully Davies can get back to the level he was at before his accident.

5. Rookie to watch?
The first pick in the draft was US U-20 national team member Omar Salgado. He has been getting playing time and scoring goals for the Vancouver Whitecaps. He could be an important player in Vancouver.

6. Match to watch?
Seattle Sounders vs Portland Timbers. Nothing beats a good rivalry and these guys will have it. I wish I was able to get to one of these games.

7. Top Scorer?
Juan Pablo Angel in his new home at the Galaxy.

So what do you think? Where have I gone horribly wrong and where have I come close to making some reasonable sense of anything?

2011 TV Schedule

Mon, 28 Feb 2011 02:46:45 -0600

The 2011 MLS TV schedule is available. After looking at it a bit I decided to count up the number of games each team gets on national TV. Keep in mind there are only 2 Canadian team which might give them better chances to get more games shown on the Canadian channel.

It is no big surprise that the Galaxy top the list. The Galaxy will be on TV 4 more times than San Jose, Real Salt Lake, and Columbus combined. What did the Crew do to deserve this?

19 LA Galaxy
17 New York Red Bulls
16 Toronto FC
15 Vancouver Whitecaps
13 Houston Dynamo
12 Chicago Fire
12 Chivas USA
12 Colorado Rapids
12 Portland Timbers
12 Sporting KC
11 DC United
11 Seattle Sounders
10 Philadelphia Union
8 New England Revolution
7 FC Dallas
7 San Jose Earthquakes
5 Real Salt Lake
3 Columbus Crew

A new year, a new playoff format

Fri, 25 Feb 2011 05:07:25 -0600

As another MLS season is upon us, so is a brand new playoff format. With the addition of Vancouver and Portland the playoffs have expanded to 10 teams in order to keep with the stupid tradition of sending at least half the league into the playoffs.

The playoff system does get one thing right at least - they reward the winners of the Supporters’s Shield, but just barely. More on that later.

This year the top 3 teams from conference will get seeded into their half of the tournament. Then the next 4 teams reguardless of conference will be seeded #7-10. The first round of playoffs will see #7 vs #10 and #8 vs #9. Of those two winners the one with the lower position will go to play the Supporters’s Shied winners and the other team will play the #1 seed in the other conference. From there everything else is pretty much like before, win and move on to play the other winners.

I would still like to see the conferences go away all together. Why not have a single table and make the playoffs 1v8, 4v5, 3v6, 2v7? This is an easy system to understand and it rewards the teams that do good in the regular season. We shouldn’t need a flow chat to figure out who will play who in the MLS playoffs.

What do you think about the new playoff format?