Anybody know this story about Matt Reis's experience during the Boston marathon bombing? I had never read anything about it. Video is about 8 1/2 minutes and well worth it.
Well with the news about ATL joining MLS there has been a lot of talk about conference realignment. What's more than likely going to happen is Houston and KC joining the western conference when ATL and Miami enter the league. Which means the west is going to be this: Colorado Dallas Houston Kansas City LA Galaxy LA ....whatever Portland Salt Lake Seattle Vancouver And maybe Chicago for balance? East will be: ATL Columbus DC Miami Montreal New England NYRB NYFC Philly Tampa Bay Toronto Meaning that since the year 2000 the west will have won at least 12 of the 17 MLS Cups. The west (based on recent years) will be so ********ing strong it will be ridiculous. Just eye balling it right now, it's clear that pretty much the top-5 teams in the league will be from the west and of the top-10 the west will more than likely have 7 or 8 teams. That's not to say things can't level out in terms of conference power, teams can definitely rise and fall even within a year, but the early prognosis for conference power after realignment is looking like a West super conference and an East second tier level. One funny comment I read was that there should be promotion/relegation between the conferences, the Eastern conference champ gets promoted to the West and the West loser gets dropped to the East. The East will have had the last 5 expansion teams in a 5 year period. Yikes.
Houston will move to the West next year to make room for NYCFC. Rumor has it they will make an announcement regarding conferences and playoffs during the All-Star game.
So now that we seem to have 22 teams in the MLS, who will be the next two to get us to that magical number of 24? Sacramento? St. Louis? Hooper, Utah?
Well, if that happened, they would probably have to rename the conferences from West and East to First or Second or something along those lines. Thinking about the promotion/relegation scenario, if the MLS went this way, you could add alot more teams without the league being too unwieldy. The only problem is if relegation is seen as a big step down. I would assume that the MLS Cup would be played between teams in the upper division if you have a relegation scenario. Or it could be something like MLB where the winner of the National league plays the winner of the American League for the World Series but the two leagues play most of their games only between teams in their own division. I could see this being something that would have a better chance of succeeding since there wouldn't be any type of relegation and each league would have a chance at the MLS Cup and the winner of the respective league would get a trophy like the Pendant or something like that that would mean a bit more than a division winner. Each league would have a few different rules, a la pitch hitter, to show that they are actually separate entities. It will be interesting to see exactly how the MLS decide to run this, if it ever gets to that point.
Miami's not official yet, but will likely be #23. Garber's been talking about Minneapolis, where there are two possible ownership groups: one that wants to build a SSS somewhere downtown, and the other is the Vikings owner, and will have their soccer team play in the same stadium as the Vikings.
UpinSLC's list already shows 11 teams in each conference, so Miami is already included, ergo, we need a #23 and #24. I'm pulling for Hooper, Utah. We'll name them the Hooper Cowpies. Just think of the rivalry.
Don't you mean Hupper, Utah? I played in a tournament out there when I was younger (Tomato Days), and the locals quickly corrected you if you pronounced Hooper like it phonetically reads.
I spelled Hooper like it is supposed to be spelled, but everyone from around there knows that it's pronounced "hupper". As for Layton, the proper Layton pronunciation is "Lay-un" (two syllables, remember to swallow the 't'). Utah is pronounced "YEW-taaah" (emphasis on the first syllable) and corn is pronounced "carn" (a hard "arh" sound like in garage). For all of you who are trying to perfect your Utah accent, remember, a "sun-day" is what you get a Dairy Queen, "sun-dy" is when you go to church (or watch pointy-ball football).
Watching Rapids-Josers right now...I don't mind expansion, because the new fans (with probably the exception of Chivas) have shown they will show up. But do we really need to dilute teams via expansion when NER, DCU, and CRap can't get a decent turnout? Why not just re-locate those franchises to a place where they will get support? Or better yet, have those teams that lack acceptable turnout have to offer up more players in the expansion draft (or teams that have turnout get to protect more).
I think that's a bit harsh, especially for teams like DC, NE, and SJ. Hell, until Seattle and Portland showed up DC had what was widely considered the best home fans/game experience in the league. They've been massively let down by their owners over the last 5+ years, those first 10 years or so were amazing for them, winning championships and basically the first powerhouse team in the league. Really though, what needs to happen in NE and DC is for a repeat of what happened in KC. They need to sell those teams and find them a proper home to play in, look at the revival that happened in KC. KC went from having probably the single worst gameday experience/fan support in the league, playing in Arrowhead Stadium and that crappy baseball park, to one of the best with their own great stadium and a revived fanbase that is loyal and strong. I think in SJ you'll see something similar once they move into their new stadium. And once someone buys Chivas and gets that franchise back on their feet they will get better. I've got no explanation for Colorado except that their stadium is way the ******** out in the middle of nowhere and the team is has just been so mediocre for so long that nobody cares anymore. They really did prove that the championship they won was a total fluke and couldn't capitalize on that victory at all, unlike RSL who used the championship win to propel them to among the league's elite for 5+ years.
Will Johnson with some harsh words for his team mates. I often wish our team would not always shove "the bright side' in our faces when we don't perform well.
I really like Johnson, but is he really going to get after his teammates for poor finishing??? The Johnson I remember probably shouldn't say anything about that. Unless he's trying to teach them how to hit it hard, and directly at the keeper...
It was either row Z or.... I think JLaw is thinking about Yura who was the master of getting in behind defenses for 1v1 opportunities and a whole goal to shoot at.....only to put it right at the keeper 99% of the time. Findley fell prey to this quite a bit as well.
don't forget the post. The guy had a knack for hitting the post or keeper that made (early RSL) Yura blush Edit: DAMN YOU UP!
Yes, Johnson did sky a lot of them. Either way, not exactly what I'd call a clinical finisher. I wouldn't take to kindly to him telling me I like quality if I were his teammates.
He's the captain - he is supposed to get on the guys. I prefer that to get on the guys. He is your box to box middy, he shouldn't have the best finishing on the team. I think it's a good thing that he is open with them. Knowing the kind of player Will is, he'll raise his hand and say he could do better too.
That's fine, but mouthing off to the media is a different story. If you've got a problem with someone work it out with them. No need to let the whole world know.