2019 MLS Playoff Race/Discussion About Other Teams [R]

We're within five points of the six teams ahead of us. However, they've also got 1-2 games in hand. And Portland is playing almost exclusively at home the remainder of the season. So from that perspective it's not looking good.

However, with so many teams within striking distance, if any of those hits a real poor run, we could sneak in. And I think there's a decent chance that one out of the six will fail down the stretch. Just a question whether we're good enough to take advantage.

 

I think we're capable of winning all the rest of our games. Of course, we're also capable of losing almost all the rest of our games.
If we can put some $%^&* shots on goal and quit gifting goals on defense, we have a decent chance to get in.

 

If Dallas can keep the goal explosion working they might win a lot of their remaining games and sneak into the playoffs. Should we be expecting them to continue this streak after having a non goal scoring streak earlier? Seasons are odd birds with teams changing on the fly. BTW, I am very encouraged with Ferreira's dribbling and think he is starting to channel his Dad's ability there. It really creates an extra worry for other teams who can't just shut down Barrios and Pomykal. That it makes it easy for Cobra to just hang around and score easy goals is what we will be watching. Oh and can someone work with Acosta to put his knee over the ball before shooting? He has a good hard shot but kicking field goals almost every time isn't working. Servania is much more dangerous on long shots.

 

Acosta has become our designated Carlos Gruezo distance shooter, spreading joy to the fans in the endzones as he gives them the pleasure of catching an actual MLS game ball. Way to step up, Bryan!

 

I'd like to know the Bryan Acosta drinking game rule covering a shot going out of the stadium. Triple Mai Tais? He was pretty close in the second half when he hit the Soccer HoF sign. Double Mai Tais for that?

 

his shots may have gone to hell, but his role as a single pivot holding mid, has improved leaps and bounds and that is a BIG part of why the team has been winning of late.

 

I was about to post after the game that I'd rather see Servania in that role but saw Acosta's stats and changed my mind. He is doing a sort of unnoticed great job other than his shots which may be mental at the moment.

 

I'd give a shot to Cerrillo who is made for that role (he had some ridiculous amount of touches recently in a NTSC game). If players who excel at NTSC don't get shots when they're available they'll start not giving their all like when Hyndman was in charge and they knew no matter what they did in practice they wouldn't get minutes.

 

I like him a lot as our dmid. I just wish he'd either stop shooting or figure out how to do it.

 

So I'm really pulling for the Rapids this week. Would really help FCD if they won both games. Hard to pull for Houston but that would be a big help if they knocked off the Loons. They might even have a chance because Minnesota usually counters against good teams but that's Houston plan too. SJ-RSL I'm hoping for a tie. I guess that's what I want with KC-Portland too. LAFC is so far ahead it really doesn't matter how they do against Orlando unless another loss causes them to lose their confidence. Unlikely. They'll probably smash Orlando.

 

. holy crap, someone actually listens to it. praise be.

 

I know them, but they're embarrassingly small.

I once believed it was the content or the quality of the pod, but after speaking to a couple of other local soccer pods, knowing what we do w/ the KickAround pod version and the metrics we see for stuff posted on DMN - it's clear to me the team just isn't very popular and the audience for FCD specific stuff is, tiny.

The Athletic chose not to hire a FCD specific writer because any articles they had posted received very low traffic. To pull the curtain back, articles about the academy and youth (not NTXSC) posted at DMN tend to traffic equal to, or better, then an average FCD senior team article.

So, my official answer to your question has been - "the podcast equivalent
to the level of attendance of FCD home games".

 

that wasn't my intention, and I should probably provide some perspective: I come from a radio background and come from broadcasts that expect a listenership of tens of thousands (at a minimum) and have been close to a million.

podcasting is so very different. there are those that will tell you once you break that "2 thousand" downloads/streams mark, you're on to something. I find that ridiculous, but again, I'm 99% sure none of the very few making real money from podcasting are running a listenership of four digits.

our podcast isn't even close, anywhere close, to four digits. And maybe that is totally normal for a MLS team. Just because our traffic at DMN is low, and the podcast listenership isn't in the tens of thousands - I can't tell you that any other MLS team's numbers are that vastly superior. Like, is the best ATLUTD pod getting 10000 downloads? Does the paper in PDX stories on the Timbers even get close to the Trailblazers? No, idea.

My point was, our metrics are in line with what you would expect from a team that can't fill it's own 20K stadium more than just past half way.

 

Did the paywall for DMN come down during the recent transition? That's what was limiting me to specific stories (practice reports, OTB, FCDY, and podcasts when possible). Most of the other "news" is covered in multiple places, just missing ya'll's journalistic twist .

 

No the DMN paywall is still up, they simply changed the site experience. Paywalls are the future, whether we like it or not.

I think Buzz is considering putting all content he post at DMN, at the same time, on his new Pateron page. That way, you can donate whatever amount works for you and get access to his specific content. Not sure if he's done that yet or not.