Concacaf Champions League 2020 draw: Pots, time, how to watch as CCL bracket is decided https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2019...-draw-pots-time-how-watch-ccl-bracket-decided How David Tepper fast-tracked Major League Soccer’s path to Charlotte https://www.charlotteagenda.com/189...acked-major-league-soccers-path-to-charlotte/ Five top players now free agents after MLS Re-Entry process https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2019...ents-after-mls-re-entry-process-charles-boehm Sixteen years after Freddy Adu, why 14-year-old pros are no longer an oddity in MLS https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2019...why-14-year-old-pros-are-no-longer-oddity-mls Reported Inter Miami CF coaching target Patrick Vieira says he's very happy in Nice https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2019...arget-patrick-vieira-says-hes-very-happy-nice Happy One Year Anniversary MLS Cup 2018. We love you. https://www.dirtysouthsoccer.com/va...one-year-anniversary-mls-cup-2018-we-love-you Strange moments, stale beer, and unicorns https://929thegame.radio.com/articles/strange-moments-stale-beer-and-unicorns-2018-mls-cup Rhode Island is the Perfect Market for a Professional Soccer Team https://www.trifectanetworksports.c...erfect-market-for-a-professional-soccer-team/ US Soccer to spend $9m fighting lawsuits in 2020 fiscal year https://www.sportbusiness.com/news/us-soccer-to-spend-9m-fighting-lawsuits-in-2020-fiscal-year/
FOR THOSE WONDERING HOW YOUNG FORMER MLS PLAYERS ARE DOING IN EUROPE: ALPHONSO DAVIES (former vancouver whitecap, now with Bayern Munich) makes the all-europe team for november along with such as messi and van dijk https://www.whoscored.com/Articles/...nth-Six-time-Ballon-dOr-winner-Messi-features
And the stranger thing is that Davies is doing it as a LB, which is a position I don't recall him playing in Vancouver. It also highlights a difference between a German team and and English team. On an English team, Davies likely would have been loaned out to a Belgian team and wouldn't have developed nearly as far as he has during his time with Bayern.
I kinda like a few of the things the NBA is proposing. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bo...11/24/nba-schedule-playoff-format-changes/amp
I think the NBA "final four" idea makes sense to have a better chance of the best teams in the finals. The "plan-in" to the playoffs is similar to what MLS has done for the last few years, and I'm OK with it. But I don't know about the "Cup" idea without more detail. Without knowing how it is structured, it seems like just another way of re-packaging regular season games. And if all teams are involved, as the "cup" progresses and teams are eliminated, what do they do, just sit around for a couple of weeks for the cup to finish? Even if they did WC style group play to give everyone some games it still would eliminate a lot of teams early.
I think it is more an acknowledgement that the NBA season is too long and that some teams are basically eliminated from the playoffs relatively early in the season. But yes, it sounds like a repackaging of regular season games.
The US big four franchise model is the envy of the soccer world for its anti-competitive profit hoarding benefits, and yet here they are running headlong toward the virtues the soccer world already has now that people are starting to wake up to what thin gruel so many of their games are.
Agreed, but I do like the idea of a mid season tournament. Good news is, the MLS has one.... the US Open Cup. Bad news is that no one really cares all that much. I’m not sure how you fix that. The USSF (and perhaps the MLS) could get a decent broadcast partner and throw some actual prize money behind it. It does get you a slot in the CCL, so that’s a plus. Might be cool to shorten it. Get some momentum going from round to round. Finish the last four rounds in a month instead of two and half. Perhaps actually showcase the final by not scheduling league games that day.
A single-elimination cup would require five rounds, so it sounds like there would be five designated dates in November and December in the midst of the regular schedule. To make it work they would need to create some reason for the teams to care about it, and the only way to do that would be to throw tons of money at it. The top teams will probably treat it as a nice opportunity for "load management."
A quote from the story on mlssoccer.com. “Both Robert and Jonathan Kraft acknowledged that building a soccer-specific stadium in Boston is still a goal for the club, but Jonathan Kraft said that project “is going to be a longer plan” and it could not be at the expense of finishing the training facility. “A big part now across the league is world-class training facilities,” Jonathan Kraft said. “Brian and his staff really put a lot of thought into what you see here … and hopefully sometime, while we're all still walking this Earth, we will be at a similar event, announcing a stadium too.”” Welp.
Weirdly, this NBA development could be very good for the USOC. One of the hardest things I've ever had to explain to new soccer fans was not two-leg aggregate, nor pro/rel, but rather the existence of multiple competitions in a single season. If the NBA goes this route it could help it not be so mind-blowing. Or a higher playoff seed than they'd otherwise 'deserve,' but yeah, even in the FA Cup a lot of teams play their reserves in the early rounds.