It would be nice to cheer for a team of all-locals, but I think the majority of prospective supporters would tire of seeing them get pounded game after game. I don't want to see an entire team of European semi-retirees either. The purpose of bringing in foreigners like Henry should be to mentor the younger Americans, creating a blend of athletic, enthusiastic American players who will improve while playing with skillful, savvy older foreigners. Hopefully we can get to a point in MLS where we won't need the foreigners to mentor. Dare to dream.
The Quakes won the Supporters Shield last season with three of their four MLS All-Stars being Bay Area locals: Wondo (Danville), Steven Beitashour (San Jose) and Ramiro Corrales (Salinas).
Should FC Dallas finally win the SS (or MLS Cup for that matter) in 2013, the ghosts of being featured in this poll will be banished once and for all...
Before FCD rescued a point versus Portland on May-8, New York was top of the overall standings for a brief while (albeit having played 2 more games than most other opponents), on the virtue of most goals scored. So far, the best regular season finish they had was 3rd place in 2000 & 2010 (winning their conference in both instances). Anything in the Top-2 this season would set a new watermark for the franchise, .
TFC is like the town drunk who can't stay on his feet ... after struggling up off the dirty floor, he leans off to one side, and steps sideways until he falls over again. Then he lays in his own vomit and sleeps. They've had more head coaches than yrs in the league! Its the same assinine routine .. 1. Hire inexperienced coach, 2 promise that everything will be different 3. get bad players. 4 after poor start, get more bad players to replace the bad players. 4 fire coach. 5. Go to 1.
I believe the Fusion did spawn the "looked like more" meme, though, didn't they? Or the "I was there, I know it was more because I can tell" meme, one.
Actually, I was just referring to the fact that in 2001, the Fusion played two games at the Orange Bowl, with one of them a doubleheader.
Oh, that, too. I wasn't contradicting you, just adding context for the benefit of those who weren't around before soccer came to America in June 2002.
Do you guys think Red Bulls would get more support if they start pandering to the New Jersey population?
not necessarily. The biggest issue is the vast amount of options sports fans have in the area, so if the team is not good, casual fans have less of a reason to come. Also the historic turnover in the team made it difficult for fans to develop deep bonds to the team because the team identity was always changing. I think the current regime is going to start getting the fans to come back.
NY lost an USOC final (I think at home) and a MLS cup in LA against CBUS I believe. That puts them ahead of Chivas who have never been to a final of any kind. TFC gets a break for being Canadian champion and making to the SF of the CCL by beating the LAG no less at LA NE is not as bad as it sounds- the fact they got to 3-4 MLS finals to loose and lost 1-2 USOC cups still shows the team had something to keep making those finals , once again more than Chivas SO from bottom up, worst Chivas, followed by NYRB, then TFC
Just a footnote: Chivas did "win" the West (Reg. Season) in 2007 as Runners-up to Supporters' Shield: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C.D._Chivas_USA#Achievements They also finished as Runners-up of Reserve League in 2007: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MLS_Reserve_League#2007
Per http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_...nd_statistics#All-Time_Regular_Season_Records I've found a consensus leader for worst all-time record. As of the end of the 2012 regular season Toronto had the worst all time record in points per game and goal differential. Discounting teams with 2 seasons or less (Philly, Montreal, Vancouver and Portland) they are the only team to never have gotten to at least fourth place in the combined table. They have never been in the playoffs and have never finished higher than 11th place.
If we're talking least successful as in, wins and losses.....Toronto. They have yet to make the playoffs. If we're talking about least successful as in, success in their city......Chivas USA, hands downs. They're not even a blip on the radar here in LA.
IIRC, The Mutiny never had an ownership group and MLS was running the show. When they couldn't offload them, they folded them. The franchise actually did quite well on the field.
Going into this season Toronto had the worst alltime ppg, at 1.011. They're doing even worse than that this year.