That's the preseason standings, but Ontario is the only team that did stats for their preseason games.
New turf in Baltimore looks very traditional and much like they had before. New turf in Sonora as well. I like the red but the highlighter yellow lines will take some time to get used to.
MetroStars Canada Cease Operations https://www.maslsoccer.com/news/mas...9tFXp-JB327uhzdzqWi7yZruRUlkCqUxl-jU6DfWgOPdg
It looks like Baltimore finally got rid of lines that they've had on the field since the days of MISL1!
Canada folding was not a surprise. trying to move around their home games was a sign they couldnt get a lease at any of them.
#10 and #24. Sockers actually let them get behind them on break aways and score. This San Diego roster simply isn't going to be good enough to uphold the Sockers tradition. They needed to bring in younger, faster talent.
Today, one of my favorite fringe sports died. The AFL has filed bankruptcy. In many ways this sport mirrored our favorite on here. The Origin of the AFL is a large result of the MISL coming into existence. (Thank you Earl and Ed) I will be in attendance at the Mesquite Outlaws vs Dallas Sidekicks game Saturday and will give out an overview following. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours! Enjoy! TEE
One big difference is that indoor soccer is bigger than the top professional league. It's even played recreationally. The AFL was the entirety of arena football (the rebound net game, there are some leagues that still play the non-rebound net game of indoor football).
MASL Primetime https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=538631136984926 My takeaways: 1) Commissioner Schaub mentions during a phone interview the creation of an "M3" to continue to build a pyramid of arena soccer. Considering the massive changes in M2 this past off-season, interested to hear more about this plan and how it might all come together. 2) MASL Primetime comes through as very well produced with great graphics, highlights and interviews. With a running time of about 22:00 minutes, it was specifically developed to run on television stations with set commercial breaks. Well done for the first episode.
As promised, here is my report on tonight’s game at Mesquite vs Dallas. I will sound critical, and somewhat biased I am sure but I only do so in hopes that people are seeing and listening in order to get better. First off, getting the tickets I wanted were not easy. A lot of emails not responded to, a couple of phone calls, and 10 days went by after talking to sales and thinking things were solidified. Still no charge to my card, a couple more emails asking about the tix-nada, and so texted and finally got a call saying oh-let’s run that charge now. Went through immediately. Show up 4 hours early to will call, and tickets are not in will call, but had to be printed in the outlaws office on a word document template and cut with scissors, which were hard to find. These are temporary tix they said, and so if you have a hard time getting in the door-have them call me on this biz card. Show up 45 minutes to game time and of course, they are looking for a bar code. Girl is confused-gave her the biz card. Asks for a supervisor and he clears us... The setup is really good! The boards and team boxes are the Baltimore variety. The heavy duty plastic filled with water I think based on the caps I see on the boards. The waitstaff is excellent overall. The game is delayed five minutes after trying to kickoff and then we are told the scoreboard is not working. Kicks in up to date about 5 minutes in. Very little glass in play, except ends and corner wraps. I am right by the Kicks bench. There is a ton of physical play in this game, and as much verbal abuse of the refs as I have seen. The calls are very Pro Mesquite much of the way. Sidekicks got the first goal but they trailed the rest of the way. Now for the fun parts... The Sidekicks spent most of their time arguing calls, especially the senior members of the team, Ricardinho who’s retirement from one season ago was cut short, argued constantly. Cameron Brown scored a brilliant goal at one point, but spent the entire night shaking his head and got 5 in the box for dissent. The chemistry for the Kicks is a far cry from Mesquite and it is important to note that they carry 6 former Sidekicks on their roster, not to mention Stavrou, Tatu and Sagu as coaches. The Sidekicks have a new player named Lide, typical Brazilian rolling the ball from side to side-real shifty and quick with missiles for shots on both feet. He will be a star if they use him enough and in the right way. He bagged a goal-great rocket late on the 6th attacker. Arthur Ivo sent in a rocket for a great goal. Freddy Moojen in his second stint with us after going to two of Andrew Haines teams is back. Scored one but missed a critical shootout-great effort by him as a target forward. We were unlucky at times... Shaun David, Vcmor Elegwe, Jamie Lovegrove and Clark Binning-all former Sidekicks score goals against us. Vcmor is a handful as a target player and is dolling out several chippy bows during play. Great player.... Game is over-the crowd is very pro Outlaws, and I hear and see the former Booster Club President of the Kicks wearing... Outlaws gear. At one point during the game, he is seen and heard ripping Bozas. People flood the floor and interestingly enough, lots of former Sidekicks have appeared. I’m talking those who are not even playing. The consensus, the Kicks franchise has lost its way. Simon Bozas has created such a division when he arrived and did not listen to Stavrou and his my way or the highway mentality has submarined everything since” Ronnie Davis was the owner”. The pedigree of guys like Sagu, Stavrou, Molano, Powers...all unheard. Makes you wonder why 6 players and coaching have joined Tatu. Also, one former Kick tells me, and this shouldn’t surprise anyone, that the league since he grew up with it, just gets more watered down and is just a shell of itself, each year gets a little less better than the next. What is surprising though is that he says that there are several players on the Sidekicks roster who shouldn’t even be in the league but Bozas says they are and everyone lives with it. It is safe to say, this is a very dysfunctional organization. Storied past and little to latch onto. Even the couple in attendance with me didn’t know who to cheer for. I did meet Michael Hitchcock finally-owner of the Kicks. Nice guy! Will he continue to put up with all the griping and headshaking and ship jumping? Time will tell...
Oh, gat dang it... congrats to Mesquite on their first game-first win and all the accolades deserved to Tatu, staff and the players who graciously signed my Sidekicks Jersey. A great night for any old man and fan of the game!
That and one of their fat players lost a little weight. Keep that up, maybe add about 5 more seats to that rec center bleachers, and they someday may end up at a semi semi pro level.
AMBUSH ANNOUNCE CHANGE IN OWNERSHIP GROUP https://www.maslsoccer.com/news/ambush-announce-change-in-ownership-group
As an observer in Saint Louis, more than one of us here was hoping this new guy would become majority owner. The current majority owner just won't spend enough money on players to be competitive. The best players leave or get traded every season. Yes they have brought in Tony Walls, a decent player, and some futsal guys this season, but so far the team doesn't look close to being competitive with the better teams. I am not opposed to the influx of futsal players but they haven't come close to filling the void left by players who left or got traded (Reget, Stinson, Jer Jer Gibson, Acosta, Clayton 'Pedalaria' Matheus). I don't expect them to keep every single good player or sign a bus load of all stars, but its frustrating to see such little effort to improve the roster. If this season starts 1-10 or something, how many fans will be buying tickets? Only 1,400 this past Sunday at home. Winning isn't everything but your team needs to at least be .500 over time to keep and build a fan, sponsor, and season ticket base. I wonder how much longer the franchise survives at this rate. Right now, they are not much better than an expansion team, in their 7th season.
My concern is that there will always be some teams who are under .500 in the long run. I don't know if a sport can last if you know that the bottom of the standings is going to fold each year. Also, trying to attract investment when it's a near-certainty that a few bad seasons in a row will end the franchise seems hard.
Some owners either don't care or are just clueless on franchise development. Other times, you get drawn a bad hand and are stuck playing against teams that are just that superior to you in almost every way. Take for instance in the ECHL, where the Central Division every year is dominated by three teams; Toledo, Fort Wayne, and Cincinnati. This leaves the fourth playoff spot to scramble amongst the division's also-rans; Kalamazoo, Indy, and Wheeling. Does this mean these three teams are terrible at what they do? It depends on your perspective. I mean, I would love for Indy to make the playoffs more often (they've only made it once in franchise history, having been swept by Toledo), but sometimes, in an arms race, you are stuck with the crappy firearms and the difference between 4th and 5th place is one or two games. I do not see this example apply to the Ambush, however, given how much turnover has happened in the MASL and that in spite of constantly playing against consistently good teams, they've still had a chance to build a decent enough team to walk over the truly inept clubs like Orlando/Cedar Rapids, Mississauga, and Florida to make a run for the playoffs, but didn't. Especially in a very niche sport like indoor soccer, this has me surprised they've lasted so long.
Frankly, I am also a bit surprised they have made it to year seven, despite only winning @ 25% of their games since 2013, and enduring the two seasons from 2016-18 with a pitiful record of 4-38. I think the two different owners groups we have had, have done a decent job of community outreach. A lot of kid's soccer clubs buy group tickets, and they have a sales staff helping sell tickets. I think at this point, they will have trouble finding repeat customers if the losses on the field continue. Long time fans are becoming disenchanted. Winning isn't the only factor in attendance success but losing a lot deflates the fan base over time. They can't count on soccer parents attending a game or two a year to sustain the franchise at this point. Folding after this season is possible, as it could be for a lot of MASL teams. The Ambush have to win some games, show signs of life on the field if they want to keep going into the future.
https://www.stlambush.com/news/ambush-sign-forward-qudus-lawal The Ambush sign Qudus Lawal, who can allegedly score goals. At least the owners are doing something to address their anemic offense. The Ambush traded rookie of the year Zach Reget to Florida in exchange for Andre Braithwaite. However, Braithwaite is now working for a sports academy in Kansas City, and doesn't appear as if he will suit up for the Ambush this season. We will see if this new signing sparks the offense against the Comets on December 15. I will pick the Ambush to squeak out a close win against the Comets on Sunday. The Ambush have more at stake, the home crowd will add some energy. The Comets are somewhat better than the Ambush at this point, but I don't think it's a huge gap between them.
The problem is that there will always be somebody at the bottom of the standings. If teams don't get a chance to rebound from a bad stretch, you end up with an endless string of Washington Generals-esque teams. eventually fans and prospective owners catch on and you're down to only the good teams, who keep failing in succession as they become the new bottom of the league.