Atlanta may play the most attractive soccer ever in MLS. Watch one of their games if get a chance. Tata is a hell of a coach and Almiron, Villalba and Gressel are great players.
Enjoy it while it lasts. They're soon going to be a turf team and therefore be re-categorized as an irrelevant organization.
When the Falcons finish building their stadium, they will. Garber should block any expansion bid for teams trying to play on turf.
Do you really think Garber values quality soccer and player heath over money? If he did, we wouldn't be watching day games in the summer most US cities. I doubt that either of those are in his top 10 lists of concerns relative to his responsibilities as commissioner.
And Garber is just reflecting the will of the owners. He's the mouthpiece but he doesn't craft the message.
I just had a flashback to the Return of the King and the character whose name was the Mouthpiece of Sauron. Somehow it seemed almost appropriate.
Update to this non-MLS-but-still-commie-ball news: NASL will expand in OC and will play at Titan Stadium beginning in the 2018 season. I'm still not sure it will work out but this commentary thinks it will.
Saw the progress on the stadium a few weeks ago at the “Great Park” More recent photos. http://imgur.com/a/uZ9mE I might actually go to some games there. It’s super close, it’s not associated with LAFC and there’s no conflict of interest with the Galaxy.
Damn. You’re right, I thought it was for the new NASL team, looks like they’ll be playing at Titan (good memories, but too far to justify attending). Well I guess I can go to GII games at least.
I'll probably check out the OC NASL team so long as their schedule doesn't conflict with the Galaxy's. I'm not sure I would adopt them as second team though. The trend of having pro soccer teams play at Titan Stadium is short-lived (see the LA Salsa and LA Blues (now OCSC)). They'll have pay rent to CSUF and who knows how much that is and if OC NASL lose money over some time, they may move or fold. They'll need to market well in an already crowded sports market to gain fans. NASL expanding into LA/OC doesn't make much sense. I think they would've been better off in San Diego.
Saw this on reddit and thought it was remarkable: Chad Marshall has not missed a pass in the last three games. Following up on @AaronCampeau's tweet, the passing maps from Marshall's last 4 games. Pretty damn clean. Last misplaced pass: v KC on 17 May pic.twitter.com/MB1Yv6HCwL— Charles Boehm (@cboehm) June 5, 2017
Used to play with a pick-up team not too far from there. Of course, just a few years ago, there was nothing at all in this space.
I could watch Atlanta play all day. Watching them totally dominating against COL right now and they are looking like a mini-Barcelona at times. They aren't getting the results yet - just inches off away from scoring over and over. But when they are all healthy and on the field their passing and combination play is better than any other team in MLS history. They just a little bit small and not as physical as most teams. While I'm writing this Martinez takes a really nice bicycle but not enough power and Howard handles it easily. And now they finally break through!
Definitely better passing but overall not as effective overall as our '14 team. Our Tiki-taco team was capable of some beautiful interchanges for brief periods - mostly due to the play of three or four players - and we had game changing speed in Landon and great finishing in Keane. But Atlanta's game is based more on shorter passes, more intricate and sustained than ours. They really do look like Barcelona at times. And like our '14 team they are averaging 2 goals per game. But we had a very strong defense while Atlanta's defense is pretty sucky so far.