Kind of amazing that with all the talk of how good the east is the FCD is tied for 2nd with Spork for PPG.
Saturday, July 7th Los Angeles FC vs Orlando City SC, 3:30 pm (KDFW-4 Fox, Fox Deportes) Philadelphia Union vs Atlanta United FC, 6:00 pm (ESPN+) Montreal Impact vs Colorado Rapids, 6:30 pm (ESPN+) New England Revolution vs Seattle Sounders FC, 6:30 pm (ESPN+) Sporting Kansas City vs Toronto FC, 7:30 pm (ESPN+) Houston Dynamo vs Minnesota United FC, 8:00 pm (ESPN+) Real Salt Lake vs FC Dallas, 9:00 pm (KTXA-21) Los Angeles Galaxy vs Columbus Crew, 9:30 pm (ESPN+) Vancouver Whitecaps FC vs Chicago Fire, 9:30 pm (ESPN+) Portland Timbers vs San Jose Earthquakes, 10:00 pm (ESPN+) Sunday, July 8th New York City FC vs New York Red Bulls, 6:00 pm (Fox Sports 1, Fox Deportes)
I'm going to enjoy where we are right now because I don't really know how the team is doing it. A few re-reinforcements and improvement back to normal for Barrios and Acosta and they might have something. I do agree that losing Diaz removes a lot of creativity so they need a new signing to take care of that or the remaining players need to step up.
I have the same confusion about us being in 1st place as I do about Toronto tanking so hard this season. What the hell is going on over there?
It must be very difficult to take CCL seriously and lose. That's two teams in consecutive years with a similar meltdown. Maybe the league needs accommodate those teams more and allow a couple more spots. Have different rosters for both with some players only there for the spring when CCL is going on.
15 games to go and we are top of the league if we win our game(s) in hand. Hard to believe when you look at us and still feel like we're missing something. A true #9 and #10 would basically make us instant MLS Cup favorites as far as I'm concerned.
We're basically in a four way tie in points per game. Two tough road games will be a big measuring stick. Not sure a true #9 or #10 makes us favorites as they would need time to gel but sure wouldn't hurt.
Wednesday, July 18th Minnesota United FC vs New England Revolution, 7:00 pm (ESPN+) Saturday, July 21st Atlanta Untied FC vs DC United, 2:30 pm (KUNV-23 Univision, Twitter) Seattle Sounders FC vs Vancouver Whitecaps FC, 3:00 pm (ESPN+) New York Red Bulls vs New England Revolution, 6:00 pm (ESPN+) Philadelphia Union vs Los Angeles Galaxy, 6:00 pm (ESPN+) Chicago Fire vs Toronto FC, 6:00 pm (ESPN+) Columbus Crew vs Orlando City SC, 6:30 pm (ESPN+) Houston Dynamo vs FC Dallas, 8:00 pm (KTXA-21) Real Salt Lake vs Colorado Rapids, 9:00 pm (ESPN+) Portland Timbers vs Montreal Impact, 10:00 pm (ESPN+) Sunday, July 22nd Minnesota United FC vs Los Angeles FC, 6:00 pm (ESPN+)
It almost certainly is tied to their KTXA deal. Betting the station wants to, or is required to, air their syndication content starting at 9pm. FCD has almost zero leverage in these TV deals, so they take what they can get. A similar explanation is why when an eastern Canadian team rolls into town and the game starts early - the TSN TV deal requires a certain broadcast window. Same for UniMas games.
That's actually a reasonable reason for that start time. If we have to suffer a bit more to get a good TV deal it's worth it. Thanks Mr Media for that insight.
That seems a better explanation than my Hunt conspiracy theory that the Hunts want me to sweat my nuts off on the sunny east side at 7pm until I fork over more $ for tickets on the shady west side.
Wednesday, July 25th DC United vs New York Red Bulls, 7:00 pm (ESPN+) Houston Dynamo vs Philadelphia Union, 8:00 pm (ESPN+) San Jose Earthquakes vs Seattle Sounders FC, 9:30 pm (ESPN+) Thursday, July 26th Orlando City SC vs New York City FC, 7:00 pm (ESPN, ESPN Deportes) Los Angeles FC vs Los Angeles Galaxy, 9:30 pm (ESPN, ESPN Deportes) Saturday, July 28th Montreal Impact vs Atlanta United FC, 6:00 pm (ESPN+) New York Red Bulls vs Columbus Crew SC, 6:00 pm (ESPN+) Toronto FC vs Chicago Fire, 6:00 pm (ESPN+) DC United vs Colorado Rapids, 7:00 pm (ESPN+) Sporting Kansas City vs FC Dallas, 7:30 pm (KTXA-21) Portland Timbers vs Houston Dynamo, 8:00 pm (ESPN, ESPN Deportes) Vancouver Whitecaps FC vs Minnesota United FC, 9:00 pm (ESPN+) San Jose Earthquakes vs Real Salt Lake, 9:30 pm (ESPN+) Sunday, July 29th Seattle Sounders FC vs New York City FC, 4:00 pm (ESPN, ESPN Deportes) Los Angeles Galaxy vs Orlando City SC, 8:30 pm (Fox Sports 1, Fox Deportes)
That's how Seattle used to do it when you could buy home games. Does seem to be something that needs fixing but if it's just coin flips and they've won them all not sure how to change it. Would like to see more cross country games against opponents that aren't the same year after year but I do understand the expense and travel implications. US is too big for that. If they ever change the schedule to a more world schedule I'd prefer a spring and fall MLS schedule with champions in each so two a year just to keep more teams involved and perhaps a pre-season spring US Open Cup tournament at a warm weather site over a few weeks. Teams that are knocked out could play each other for pre-season reasons. Leave summers open for World Cup, Gold Cup etc.
I'm against the "2 champions a year" thing but I might be persuaded. The Open Cup needs to change to lower league teams automatically get the home game. Yes, that means that Houston needs to drag their ass up here to play the Rayados in the Round of 32 at Richland or UTD or wherever. I'm ok with them doing a "random draw" for teams within the same league. Kind of like the idea of Open Cup being a 2 week tournament in one site as like a "summer break" for MLS but I'm not sure who would want to host and what kind of money they could recoup on it.
I suspect MLS will grow way past what it has now. Two titles a year keeps a lot more teams and fans into it. Can then have a yearly super cup if one team doesn't win both.
Correction to the above... Wednesday, July 25th DC United vs New York Red Bulls, 7:00 pm (ESPN+) Houston Dynamo vs Philadelphia Union, 8:00 pm (ESPN+) San Jose Earthquakes vs Seattle Sounders FC, 9:30 pm (ESPN+) Thursday, July 26th Orlando City SC vs New York City FC, 7:00 pm (ESPN, ESPN Deportes) Los Angeles FC vs Los Angeles Galaxy, 9:30 pm (ESPN, ESPN Deportes) Saturday, July 28th Montreal Impact vs Atlanta United FC, 6:00 pm (ESPN+) New York Red Bulls vs Columbus Crew SC, 6:00 pm (ESPN+) Toronto FC vs Chicago Fire, 6:00 pm (ESPN+) DC United vs Colorado Rapids, 7:00 pm (ESPN+) Sporting Kansas City vs FC Dallas, 8:00 pm (ESPN, ESPN Deportes) Vancouver Whitecaps FC vs Minnesota United FC, 9:00 pm (ESPN+) San Jose Earthquakes vs Real Salt Lake, 9:30 pm (ESPN+) Portland Timbers vs Houston Dynamo, 10:00 pm (ESPN+) Sunday, July 29th Seattle Sounders FC vs New York City FC, 4:00 pm (ESPN, ESPN Deportes) Los Angeles Galaxy vs Orlando City SC, 8:30 pm (Fox Sports 1, Fox Deportes)
Yeah, I thought about it some more and came up with this (assuming the league eventually caps out at 30 teams)... Western Conference Pacific Division -Vancouver -Seattle -Portland -San Jose -LA Galaxy Mountain Division -LAFC -Sacramento (Expansion) -Salt Lake -Colorado -Phoenix (Expansion) Central Division -Minnesota -Kansas City -Dallas -Austin/San Antonio (Expansion) -Houston Eastern Conference Midwest Division -Chicago -Columbus -Cincinnati -Toronto -Montreal Northeast Division -New England -NY Red Bull -NYFC -Philadelphia -DC Southeast Division -St. Louis (Expansion) -Nashville -Atlanta -Orlando -Miami Schedule (Spring & Fall) -18 game season, 2 seasons per year. -Play everyone in division home/away [8 games]. -Play 2 teams from every other division on a rotation season by season, one home and one away (alternating) [10 games]. -Spring (March-June); Fall (August-November). MLS Cup Playoffs (June & November) -Top team in each conference gets automatic Conference Final berth and gets to host. -Top team in remaining 2 divisions play home & away series to see who plays them. -MLS Cup between Western Conference winner and Eastern Conference winner. MLS Super Cup (December) -Winner of Spring vs winner of Fall (if teams are same, no game). US Open Cup (July) -16 team single elimination tournament in one host market. -8 MLS teams (best 4 American teams in each conference from Spring season). -8 lower division teams.