MASL News

I agree it's really dumb. It's like somebody at the owner's meetings said, "We need to justify these meetings. Come up with some rules and we'll approve them no matter how poorly thought they are."

And this one is really poorly thought out:

1. Like Kit said, it sounds like the goalie can

 

I agree it's really dumb. It's like someone said at the owners' meetings, "We need to justify these meetings. Come up with rules, and we'll approve them no matter how poorly thought out they are."

And this one is poorly thought out:

1. Like Kit said, it sounds like the goalie can cross midfield without the ball. Why the restriction?

2. If a goalie commits a penalty across midfield, does that mean he has to serve it? A team can make the argument the goalie was playing as a sixth attacker, which would mean he has to serve the penalty himself.

3. Some teams do dress up backup goalkeepers in the regular season. Let's say Goalie #1 gets hurt in the first quarter. Goalie #2 comes in. He goes across midfield without the ball. Why do I have a feeling the opposing team is going to argue he's playing as a sixth attacker, which will now be against the rules?

4. Why is it okay for a goalie to go across the field with a ball in the fourth quarter but not any other quarter?

 

The goalie could pass right the ball to a field player right before midfield, then go across midfield and have the ball passed back to him. For teams that like to use a roving keeper, that's what they're going to end up doing.

Okay, so it won't create a situation of where the goalkeeper was being a factor in the penalty.

So if a team for some God knows reason wanted to use their backup as a sixth attacker, they could just keep the designation as GK.

I don't understand why a backup goalie not being allowed to be a sixth attacker was made. It sounds like a cure in search of an epidemic.

I'm aware the NFL has a ten second run-off within the two-minute warning to prevent clock manipulation. The league also takes away team timeouts during injuries within the two minute warning. There is logic behind those.

In your rebuttal to my post, you didn't write what the justification was. What is the point of the rule? Safety? Does it somehow increase or decrease offense? Is there some sort of survey that was taken where fans said they find it boring when a goalkeeper goes past midfield with the ball? Does someone not like Hugo Silva or William Vanzela, who are known for dribbling across midfield and shooting?

I'm not a big fan of the roving goalkeeper, but it's up to teams to decide what their strategies are.

 

Seems I failed again. The goalkeeper cannot have the ball on the other side of the lone, period. Also, my reply wasn’t really supposed to be a rebuttal...just a clarification on a couple things.

 

But the way the rule is stated, it doesn't say that the goalkeeper can't have the ball on the other side of the halfway line. It says the goalkeeper cannot cross the midfield line with the ball until the 4th quarter. Therefore, a coach could argue that as long as some other player carries the ball over the halfway line, the goalkeeper can possess the ball in the offensive half of the field.

I still would like to see the logic behind this rule if there is any.

 

Again, not rebutting, just clarifying...it’s important to remember that the feature on the website was not quoting the actual rule, but summarizing it. The actual rule as it is written in the rule book clarifies that the designated goalkeeper cannot possess the ball on the other side of the half.

 

so they havent settled on a playoff format. It would make sense to have each round be home and home, and have the top 2 teams from each division except the Southeast go. Perhaps have a 2-3 playin from the southeast, recognizing that conference has more teams.

 

OK, but what is the logic behind the rule? I thought indoor soccer was all about encouraging more scoring. This rule seems to do just the opposite.

 

Any guesses as to the "TV" deal? My guess is ESPN+ (which I have and is cheap at $5 a month), though I would prefer over-the-air Stadium Network, whose big properties now are Ultimate Frisbee and Big Sky football.

 

Yes, he was. As I said last year, they suffered when their marketing director left the Titans/Rampage organization.

Side note: the Titans changed their name to the Cedar Rapids River Kings (I think realizing that the Titans had become a tainted brand). They rehired a bunch of the successful people who made them winners, including the former Coach of the Year of Indoor Football. Wish they were soccer fans.

 

I find it interesting that ELVN broadcasted that exhibition game a few weeks back between Columbia and Mexico. Don't know if it means anything long run....

 

Yes, they have. It's the same as last year.

 

So your odds are very good of seeing a bad team three times, but only two teams will host more than one playoff game.

 

One rule change I would like to see changed.
When a team is playing shorthanded the 3 line rule should not be enforced for the shorthanded team. This would be similar to Hockey where the shorthanded team cannot be charged with Icing while shorthanded.

 

You want teams to be able to boot the ball high into the night? You don't have to kick the ball in the air to clear it and you might even kill more time with a roller, wouldn't you?

 

Agreed. It's way easier to clear an indoor soccer ball than it is a puck.

 

And yet for 2017-2018 a team in the MASL scores 40% of the time on the Power Play while an NHL team scores 20% of the time.

 

The NHL is in an era where defense rules. The MASL is going to have more scoring on 5-5 and sixth attacker/empty net. I would venture to believe you could remove Baltimore and Sonora's home stats from last year, and that would still be the case.

If you waived three-line violations for the short-handed teams, that number would probably plummet to 10%. Power plays would turn into into short-handed teams repeatedly kicking the ball to the opposing goalie.

 

But clearing the ball in soccer only kills about 5 seconds.

 

Baltimore Blast are bringing back the roving game day announcer position, and Mickey Cucchiella is in the role.

https://www.baltimoreblast.com/news/the-baltimore-blast-welcome-new-game-day-addition

Thoughts: This would've been a big deal a decade ago, when Mickey was the king of Baltimore morning radio shows. He quit his radio show a decade ago because of severe depression. Hopefully, he's having sunny days now.

I'm not familiar with Mickey's work, so I won't comment on the quality the Blast could be getting.

What I do hope is that Mickey isn't the kind of roving game day announcer who takes over games. The Blast had one such person in Joel D. some years ago. That guy loved a microphone and wouldn't put it down. Blast games felt more like "The Joel D. Show" than they did an indoor soccer game.

 

Mickey Cucchiella was the #1 rated morning show host for years on 98 ROCK

 

Joel D. was definitely the worst part of Washington Warthogs games. He would often stand and interact with the crowd in the middle of play and I was frequently tempted to punch him.

Ironically, he is on TV now and gives the Harrisburg Heat a lot of coverage and does a great job.