MLS Flavors of the week: 2019 Edition

I disagree. The Bills of the 1990s were a great team that went to 4 Super Bowls. To say that they sucked or weren’t great is just wrong.

 

Perhaps I'm biased as a NYC supporter, but James Sands is who I'm most excited about right now in the U-20 MLS group. Not just because I think he's got it, but because i have been hearing for a couple years now that NYCFC has an elite academy system. With James Sands being the first real product of that (when the club launched in '15, they started out with the younger ages and added older age teams as these originals aged into them) hopefully we have many more to come!

Anyway, I'm very disappointed that he won't be able to go in the WC. Tough timing for this injury.

 

Garza has recovered from his injury and returned to the Cincinnati starting XI, but Saief is out with a hamstring injury. Lovitz starts as usual for Montreal.

 

Fatai Alashe subs on for Cincinnati and immediately makes an impact, receiving a cross from Lamah at the top of the 18 and scoring.

Jesus Ferreira also make an impact for FC Dallas as an early sub. A Badji injury gets him in the match in the first half, and Ferreira heads a deep cross from Hayes into the net. Lazy defending by NYRB, I think he found a gap too easily.

Altidore returns to the 18 today for Toronto, as does Aaronson for Philadelphia.

 

Brutal MLS schedule makes Toronto v Philly a tired legs vs fresh legs affair instead of an intense competitive game between the two leaders in Eastern conference.

Toronto plays today 5/11, Wed @ Atlanta 5/8, @ Orlando 5/4, v. Portland 4/27

Today is their 4th game in 15 days and 3rd in 7 days after playing first two away in the south.

League should care more about product quality. This isn't any fun to watch regardless of outcome.

 

I agree. Fewer international dates would really help.

Oh, but FIFA and the national federations make bank off those.

 

Seriously do we expect good football in Phoenix and Miami in July and no football in those places in December - February? Sounds like a recipe for poor product quality. MLS should go to North-South alignment with football year round. Give south off July/August, give North off December/January. (those dates could be fine tuned a little).

There's a ton of New Yorkers in Florida over the winter. A Red Bull or NYCFC v. Miami or Orlando game in Feb with a big away fan section would be cool. There's also tons of Canadian snowbirds in Florida. So you line up Toronto, Montreal, NYC, Red Bulls and Philly to play v. Miami and Orlando (where their pre-season training would be anyway) to kick off the season, as an example.

Warm winter teams: SJ, LAfc and Galaxy, Phoenix, Dallas, Austin, Houston, MIami, Orlando, Atlanta, Sacramento, Nashville (San Antonio, S.Diego, L.Vegas?)

Cold weather teams in December and January: Portland, Vancouver, Seattle, Minny, Chitown, KC, Toronto, Montreal, NYCfc, Rbulls, Philly, NE, Columbus, Cincinnati, DC

I would dump the Open Cup and I'm not sure about the CCL. I'd figure out the league schedule then go to Concacaf and say here are the dates we can do.

 

I’m just about to start bragging about what a good defender Nick Lima is when Juan Agudelo sneaks in front of him and pokes a goal in.

 

Who is Rodriguez?

 

Memo Rodriguez(23) plays for Houston.

Lapper drops the possession % to 26 and the Revs are throttling San Jose. Pragmatism over ideology. Gotta learn to walk before you learn to run.

Agudelo will certainly make Team of the Week.

 

Watching Rapids game for first time all year because they now have Lewis. He looks lively and lightning fast as always but unfortunately Rapids are still awful. They have their 16 year old homegrown RB Anderson playing LB and he gave up first goal via a penalty and then got beat by Baird over the top for 2nd. Don't see it with that Anderson kid as he has no pace at all.

 

Roldan with a scorcher from outside the box....now if he can just play for the USMNT like he does for the Sounders....

 

nycfc is straight up anti-american...no one can convince me otherwise.

 

Rapids 2-3 RSL

Glad should've been red-carded. His game has plateaued and declined.
Saucedo and Baird did good jobs on the flanks. Both wingers defended well and covered ground.
Acosta had a nice goal from his a-mid position. He needs games and needs to improve his physicality.
Lewis: was lively. Helped set up a goal. Needs games to improve his consistency.
Anderson: Baird made for a difficult matchup. Needs to be playing in USL2.

 

You're still an idiot... no one can convince me otherwise.

 

I fast forwarded to 76' when Keaton Parks came on. He played a great game. Sean Johnson made an ass of himself. I have no idea why US Soccer insists on calling him in as our 3rd best GK. It's just idiotic. Sean Johnson is why the rest of the world holds American soccer in such low esteem.

Go to 2:40 and watch to end

 

Now these are the types of highlights that really get Coach B excited.

 

Hope Frei's save on Ellis makes gotw competition. Starts at 3:37 of hilites

 

Nice skill, but the Roldan shot would have been saved by a decent international goalkeeper.

 

Oh, come on. There may be 10 keepers in the world who'd save that shot.

 

Yeah, that wasn’t getting saved. Two weeks in a row he gets a clear whack at a bouncing ball outside the box and scores both. On a roll! May the bounces keep coming.

 

well duh! it's part of their mission statement! haven't you read it?

 

It wasn't moving all that fast and had no wiggle and the placement wasn't all that far in the top corner. You should take those shots and this shows why.