Monday 22 Apr 2019

Has a

Has any "franchise" fallen in the eyes of US soccer more than Rochester in the last 20 years? I remember when there were still 12 teams in MLS after the initial round of expansion and it was a common thought that Rochester would be a lock for #14 or #15. I guess it's more that MLS has outgrown the Rhinos more than they've dropped off. After all, those were the days that we were excited that MLS made it's way to Fox Soccer Channel. And for the record, the name Fox Sports World is still ten times cooler than Fox Soccer Channel ever was.

 

Speaking of teams that fell---how about neo NY Cosmos? From wanting to be in MLS, to dropping to Tier 2 NASL, to almost defunct, to now starting in Tier 4 NPSL with no idea if they will ever be able to climb back up into relevance.

It's a shame because once up on a time they could've been up there competing at the highest levels. I'm sure that if the $$ had been right and more importantly if the attitude had been right, MLS would've eventually allowed 3 teams in the NY area (yes i am aware that Cosmos exploratory talks came before NYCFC was ever a part of the picture) but hubris led to a downfall as it so often has in human affairs. There was a very small window of opportunity and ownership let it go to waste. Barring a miracle of some sort, it seems as if the neo Cosmos will forever be a great "what if" scenario in american soccer....

 

Rochester used to get decent crowds.

When they finally built the SSS, it was on the cheap. Turf, empty stands, little amenities, shit neighborhood. And most importantly, local ownership went to shit. Despite the crowds they were barely liquid.

 

I have to respectfully disagree.

When the fake Cosmos rebooted, they were so full of poop MLS smelled them out a mile away. They never had the wherewithal to be a major player. Stover summoned his inner Max Bialystock and failed miserably.

Other than poseur nit-wits (hey, where is Onionsack?) nobody thought the Cosmos name was worth anything. And since they went belly up twice in a few years, I don't think my two cents worth is that far off the mark.

 

Heh...

1120124439058731009 is not a valid tweet id

 

Rep for The Producers reference...

 

Ah, who can forget Springtime for Hitler?

The problem with the original reboot - the liars from England - was their narrative about how they had considered joining MLS but decided that the fee - then maybe $100 million - would be better spent "building a world class club"

Then they went out and signed up Danny Szetela and a bunch of other MLS rejects.

If they had actually done that - spent a pile of dough building a serious roster - and won some stuff, like CONCACAF cup and US Open cup, MLS would have had to sit down with them and worked something out.

As it was, they had no intention of ever handing over their trademarks to MLS/ SUM, and MLS had no intention of letting them in without that.

They probably spent more hiring Eric Cantona to coach a team which didnt exist than they ever did on building this "world class club"

 

That's awesome.

 

Newspapers can't overcome cost-cuts, or the internet, to screw up headlines.

 

AKA, the song most likely to pop into my mind at least once a month, along with Mel Brooks' voice uttering the lyric "Don't be stupid, be a smarty; come and join the Nazi Party."

 

Is the light blue / dark blue contest over?

 

I dont understand what that was all about--why were the teams in teal and navy for every single game this weekend?

 

It was a league-wide environmental awareness project in recognition of Earth Day. The kits were made by Parley out of plastic reclaimed from the ocean. There were a variety of environmental projects undertaken by the various teams.

https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2019...-day-fourth-annual-greener-goals-week-service

The Greener Goals project has been going on by MLS for 4 years but in 2017 they started the special jersey part of it for 4 games. That was upped to all of the games in 2018. The 2018 jerseys were all black or white.

https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2018/04/10/mls-celebrate-earth-day-third-annual-greener-goals-week

The two shades of blue this year attracted a lot more attention, good and bad. And jersey sales. The blue shirts sold out online for most teams in a few minutes. Here in Houston you had to line-up on Friday at noon to get a chance to buy one. They sold the entire allotment (which wasn't many) just to people in line, if you got there at noon, no luck.

By comparison, I remember the white Parley jerseys hanging in the Houston team store for a long time last summer.

 

U.S. Soccer faces suit from Relevent Sports over planned match in Miami

Multimedia sports and entertainment company Relevent, a promoter of international soccer matches, has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation and its secretary general, Dan Flynn, after the USSF refused to sanction the playing of an Ecuadorian league match in Miami.

According to the filing, Relevent was attempting to stage a match between Ecuadorian sides Barcelona SC and Guayaquil City FC, to be held May 5 at Miami's Hard Rock Stadium. As the national governing body for soccer, the USSF is charged with sanctioning all applications for international soccer matches held in the U.S.

The suit alleges that the USSF's decision to deny permission for the match violated its stated purpose "to promote, govern, coordinate, and administer the growth and development of soccer in all its recognized forms in the United States for all persons of all ages and abilities, including national teams and international games and tournaments" and that the USSF is required to sanction a match unless "the Federation decides by clear and convincing evidence that staging the match would be detrimental to the sport of soccer."

The suit goes on to contend the reason for the USSF's decision is that it "is economically conflicted and is abusing its authority, in order to protect Major League Soccer ["MLS"], a for-profit entity with which USSF has extremely close financial and personal ties."

Relevent competes against MLS' marketing arm, Soccer United Marketing (SUM), to promote soccer matches in the U.S, and it is in this area that the suit could have a broader impact.

More info in the link above.

 

Personally I think the whole thing was a scam to see how much MLS was willing to pay for the Cosmos name. Stover & Co. badly miscalculated the worth of North America's most famous team and the "Holy Shit" screamed from Uniondale was deafening when MLS turned around and gave CFG the NY2 franchise.

 

Considering that 80% of the teams have a white secondary kit, probably a good move to steer clear of white for the Parley kit. I thought the shades of blue looked sharp.

That Vela captain's armband is great. I think that was the armband my son's U10 coach bought for his "captains" (i.e. whoever he sent to call the toss) just so they could look like a captain.

 

That suit is laughable.

National Federations are under no obligation to permit regular season matches between teams from another country and in fact would be stupid to allow it. And any interpretation of FIFA rules or USSF bylaws which contends that USSF exists in order to allow anybody to play any game they want anyplace they want and anytime they want is too stupid for words.

Maybe they think it's clever to point out that USSF has an interest in protecting and promoting the interests of the designated professional Division 1 league in the US, but every federation on Earth has a vested interest in promoting their own domestic leagues.

USSF has every right, and lots of reasons, to say no.

As for Relevant Sports "competing" with SUM, well, in their dreams maybe.

 

Friday, April 19
CIN (dark) 0-3 RSL (light)
TFC (dark) 4-3 MIN (light)
LAG (light) 2-1 HOU (dark)

Saturday, April 20
CHI (dark) 4-1 COR (light)
PHI (light) 3-0 MTL (dark)
ORL (dark) 1-0 VAN (light)
ATL(light) 1-2 FCD (dark)
CLB (light) 1-3 POR (dark)
NER (light) 1-0 NYR (dark)
SJE (light) 4-1 SKC (dark)

Sunday, April 21
DCU (light) 0-2 NYC (dark)
LAX (dark) 4-1 SEA (light)

Dark Blue went 7-5, just one game over .500.
Goal difference for Dark Blue was +2, also pretty close to even.

EDIT: Dark Blue only had 5 home games so it probably did better than I first realized.

 

Mr. Charlie Stillitano and Relevent Sports have been able to promote high-profile exhibition games in the U.S. before (and recently) a la the International Champions Cup. So, looking at that history perhaps Relevent Sports should just take USSF's comments at face value. Certainly there has been plenty of other opportunity for SUM or USSF to get in the way of Relevent.

 

Related question, how was it determined who wore dark and who wore light?

Seemed like the Quakes SKC game was backwards, with the Quakes wearing a color akin to Sporting's usual kits, whereas the darker kit is closer to the Quakes' regular black.

 

All I can tell you is that at the Crew shop on Saturday that crap was flying off the shelves. To each his own I guess

 

I thought they should have been a tint of green since green is normally used to symbolize recycling. I guess they were blue for the ocean? I mean if they were doing it to call attention to recycling I feel like they missed the mark. There was no indication of what they were for and I only heard it mentioned in one of the many games/highlights I watched.