My suggestion would be to play a certain number of games outside your division, but not play every team outside of the division every year. Just rotate which interconference teams you face every year. That might make some people very unhappy, but the idea of "balance" in a playoff system is misplaced unhappiness. So long as you play your conference opponents an even number of times, and each team gets a home game against their conference opponents, the rest just doesn't really matter that much. I don't think MLS is going to have the national appeal that the NFL had (I'm not sure any league will ever attain that kind of appeal again), so you might as well zero in on the regional rivalries and play up the now more rare matchups against out of conference opponents. This is how MLB handles interleague play. This might hurt my argument a bit as I actually hate interleague play, though that's because they don't play by the same rules rather than due to the infrequency in which they face each other.
How exactly did the Gals qualify for this leagues cup if they didn’t even make the playoffs last year?
Watching Portland vs. Seattle and both teams are wearing green. Its kind of difficult to tell them apart.
I assume the POR fans are protesting the banner policy, but what is the meaning of 33 in their period of silence?
It's a reference to 1933, the year the Nazis took power in Germany. https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/so...political-displays/ar-AAGfSZ2?ocid=spartandhp The Timbers Army shows what a bunch of historically illiterate wankers they are. The Nazis weren't the first fascists. The idiot Antifa crowd in Portland might have selected the 22nd minute in recognition of the Italian fascists coming to power in 1922. Fortunately, these virtue-signalling twats went home unhappy.
By the way, the Timbers Army flagrantly violated the Fan Code of Conduct on national television with their Iron Front flags, seemingly with no consequences, showing what a cowardly and hypocritical bunch resides in MLS HQ. https://www.oregonlive.com/timbers/...-on-iron-front-symbol-political-displays.html
Merritt Paulson, plantation owner, telling the unpaid Timbers Army they "********ed" the team because they were silent for the first 33 minutes. What about $15-per-hour minimum wage, Merritt? What about the 13th Amendment ending slavery? What about no profane language in the stadium? I was one that he was yelling at and that is precisely what he yelled. I yelled “Merritt Fight for us!” He said “You can yell Anti-Fascism all you want but you fucked this team tonight!” I yelled “be a humanitarian”. There was more yelled but honestly couldn’t hear everything— Jeff Ball (@papez107) August 24, 2019
I admire that the owner showed some emotion after losing the match but his priorities do seem a bit mixed up. The statement he gave to a reporter later on was more cleaned up. I saw some tweets about Merritt Paulson’s interaction with fans after the game. I asked him about it. Here’s what he said (1/4) #RCTID #MLS #PORvSEA— Jamie Goldberg (@Jamiebgoldberg) August 24, 2019
"...MLS has decided that the best policy is a blanket ban on fans making political displays. No anti-fascist, or anti-ICE, or Proud Boys, or Trump 2020 signage allowed..." As it should be, I watch sports to get away from politics.
OTOH, I was heartened by seeing the fans wave their banned flag. I understand the reasons for the ban. But without football fans, there would be no Arab spring and no Istanbul United. Of course those movements failed miserably. But stadiums were the only place where dissidents could meet openly as well as protest
In actual results, our friendly friends Real Vallodolid tied Real Madrid yesterday! Go friendly purple team, show them that La Liga has some parity!