When I don't watch them, the Galaxy finally win a game, over DCU, no less.

And the kind of game that would make dalliance weep a river. Hilariously entertaining. I can't decide if it was a great advert for MLS or a shocking reflection of the dreadful standard of the league's defensive play and paucity of roster depth.

Almost as funny as Chicago being shit ever since Brian McBride came back. It seems that while proclaiming the return of the prodigal EPL hero and national team stalwart, no one bothered to think about how he would fit into the Fire side that had been playing so well.

It was comical enough to laugh despite rooting for the losing team. I mean, between the comical/non-existent defending, DC's new mad goalkeeper turning every save into one that required a twisting leap, and the downright hysterical refereeing, it was fitting that the game was on against Saturday Night Live here on the east coast...

To be honest imp, we weren't playing very well in the month or two before McBride arrived, either.

The bigger problem appears to be Blanco, who is playing at the speed of a dying tortoise, and the ever-enigmatic Justin Mapp.

Welcome back, goldstone.

Antonio Gramsci wrote:

QUOTE:
Welcome back, goldstone.

Thanks. I should be around these parts a bit more regularly again now.

Sunday's Fire match was quite spectacularly atrocious. The extent of my disgust was measured in corn whiskey afterward, and the result was not pleasant.

What AG said.

At least the welcome back bit. I've not read the rest of the thread, and I'd hesitate to associate myself with owt else he may have spurted forth.

imp wrote:

QUOTE:
I can't decide if it was a great advert for MLS or a shocking reflection of the dreadful standard of the league's defensive play and paucity of roster depth.

I would more describe it as the dreadful standard of Tom Soehn's professional intellect. How about picking natural central defenders to play in the center of your defense, not converted right and left midfielders. Burch and McTavish. Jesus wept.

So, TFC finally play something close to a full 90 minutes and beat the Fire 3-2. I think it's the first match they'd won at home since June or so. Good times. Sadly, they were eliminated from playoff contention a few hours later as NYRB won their game. How we stayed in the playoff picture as long as we did is a bit of a mystery, but whatever.

The plus side is I got to meet goldstone, who joined the lad and I for a pub breakfast to watch Arsenal play 45 minutes of beautiful football against Everton (the less said about the other 45, the better). Also heard loads about section 8's travails with the club this year...fan politics in Chicago seem much more interesting down there than they do up here.

At the south end, there was a large banner saying "we deserve better". This, in Toronto's passive-agressive manner, is as close to "Mo out" as we're going to get, I think.

First MLS goal scored by a goalkeeper, on his debut no less.

Oh dear. That bounce is just silly. The MLS really should think about staging more games on grass pitches.

Pardon if this is an ignoramus question, but is it still common to see soccer games on gridiron fields? I thought that went out with NASL.

Well, it's not like they want to have them on turf football fields. NY is building a new soccer specific stadium, but until then, it's Giant Stadium and the American football lines.

Currently, the Revolution, Red Bulls, and Toronto FC all play on turf (Real Salt Lake used to, but just moved into their new stadium a few weeks ago). And the Revolution, Red Bulls, and the Dynamo share their fields with football teams.

Can I confess something?

I've lost interest in MLS.

It's not the standard of play that bothers me, it's that nothing really seems to be at stake in the matches. At least, nothing for DC United.

A lot of other people have pointed this out, but somehow it didn't really hit me until this season. I just haven't enjoyed going to games as much this year as in years past and watching it on tv is less compelling than ever.

The supporters shield feels sort of empty because it's followed by the playoffs and that's what the teams really work for and what the media and the league focuses on.

The playoffs are fairly exciting, but the ending is sort of anti-clmatic. Also, the struggle to be one of the last teams to get into the playoffs doesn't feel very compelling. I mean, if DC were to somehow sneak in and then win the MLS Cup, it would be a bit silly to "win the league" with a losing record and it would feel sort of cheap and also anti-climatic.

The MLS clubs don't seem to take the US Cup very seriously, so DC's win in that seems hollow.

The worst part is how the teams and the league treat these international competitions as we've discussed here. If they're not going to bother than I'm not either.

It's particularly hard to care in the fall when baseball is in the post-season and my sports focus shifts mainly to Penn State football. Even without a proper national playoff system, college games just matter so much more. The rivalries are more meaningful because each team only plays the other only once a year and the conference titles seem to matter a lot more than something like winning the Eastern Conference in MLS.


It seems very unlikely that we'll ever have relegation in US pro soccer, but it would improve a lot of if they went to a straight table and not fret about the extra travel. Finishing a top a list of 16 or 18 teams would feel like a big deal, especially because in MLS the race would probably be close.

Instead of the MLS Cup, they should shift the later rounds of the US Cup into that time period and give the clubs some financial incentive to care about it.

And, of course, they need to find a way to let MLS clubs compete in these international events with well-rested first-choice teams. If that means cutting out some fixtures from the other comps than so be it.

I don't blame you for losing interest. It's hard to maintain an interest in a season that seems to have little meaning. It seems like ages ago that we saw DC beat up on Toronto to kick things off.

You say that for you it isn't quality of play - I'd have to say that for me, it does play into it. I mean, do I want to see the reserve team of any MLS team play? No, not really. Even if it's in international competition. But MLS teams are not big or strong enough to field teams in multiple competitions. Over a long season, there will be injuries, suspensions, fatigue, etc. Managing through that, and maintaining a level of play above amateur, is almost impossible with the salary cap that they now have. You can't have players working non-soccer jobs during the season and expect them to be fit enough to play more than one game a week. When players go abroad from MLS, the one thing they always seem to comment on as the major different is the training/fitness levels of everyone on the squad. Until MLS can afford to pay its whole squads enough to live without secondary employment, seasons will continue to stumble and lurch at the end. And we'll continue to turn on the odd midweek int'l competition and look at the players in the MLS jerseys and say "who is that?"