I couldn't find anything earlier than this post about the MLS Title Belt. https://www.reddit.com/r/MLS/comments/1t81pd/mls_championship_belt_idea/ "I went through and painstakingly compiled every "champion" in MLS History(vacant titles option... non-vacant titles option)...all the way back to MLS Cup 1996, where the first champion was determined (1996 was a sort of battle royal, if you will)."
Here is the tweet from the title belt twitter account. They have too much free time..... All the way back to the first game between SJ and DC. Total of 794 matches since. https://t.co/woU2pxwmpt— MLS Title Belt (@MLSTitleBelt) March 3, 2018
KC vs Dallas. USOC. Level 2 - 2. 89th minute. Johan Croizet hits a full volley from 22 yards out, off the outside of his left boot. Ball slices into the upper 90. WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER! An absolute cracker of a goal. Take the time and track down the highlights. You won't regret it.
They have got to fix MLS All-Star voting next year. The amount of Atlanta players in this is cringe worthy: https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2017/06/25/2018-mls-all-star-fan-xi-presented-by-target I expected Zlatan to be there for obvious reasons, but blegh. (I know many don't care, but that's kinda just wrong. Notably because players get monetary rewards for being a part of this, and this just screams unfair. Almiron, yes. But Guzan and Parkhurst?)
It shouldn't exist. I get the tradition but other US leagues aren't playing to a schedule where dates are at a premium. At the very least, scrapping this thing would free up a couple of dates that currently overlap things like FIFA dates or even the World Cup. In the past, I've proposed keeping the date but modifying the event to still keep the Supporter's Summit, but replacing the ASG with a double header of an international friendly between two foreign teams (to bring the spectators) and the final of a newly-scheduled US Open Cup (to increase the profile of that competition).
Rooney has officially joined DC United. I am going to make a prediction that this will be a colossal failure. Rooney looks done despite only being 32 (turning 33 soon). He started his career very early (16 I believe), and he did not take care of his body at all. The reason Rooney had been dropping deeper and deeper in the EPL was because he didn't have the legs to play striker, or even center forward. Maybe playing in a lesser league will help, but I just don't think Rooney will work in this league. The MLS is very athletic and Rooney needs patient build up play.
TL;DR: Might work out if they deploy him as a pure #9 but they probably won't and he'll just look knackered half the time. I think we've seen plenty of examples over the years where this lower standard hasn't helped at all. In fact, by my observation, players who come in with that mentality (not saying that Rooney necessarily is) tend to get a very rude awakening. FTR, I see him as more of a Gerrard. Wayne has never been one for positional discipline and despite his reported lack of dedication off the field, I've never known him not to give his all on it. In fact, when Fabio Capello started with England, he expressed frustration at Rooney doing one of the things the British media (in their infinite wisdon) always praised him for: running all over the pitch. The problem is, as we saw with Gerrard, that approach isn't compatible with older legs, especially combined with travel, environmental conditions and even some of the playing surfaces in MLS. As soon as I hit post, I've pretty much guaranteed Rooney a 20-goal season! Now there is a hope for him but I don't think DC will play him this way: One thing about Rooney's play that I have noted consistently during his time at Man United is that he has a slightly strange approach to playing role. Whereas you can play some players in a number of positions but generally get the same kind of game from them, Rooney is the opposite. There are a number of roles that he's performed very capably, yet quite differently. Play him as a midfielder and he'll play distributor, link-up man and playmaker. As a #10, he'll link-up, take long shots and get goals by crashing into the box from deep. As a #9 he poaches and becomes an aerial threat and hold-up player. For a guy with a penchant for covering every blade of grass, he's strangely rigid and disciplined about the type of player he's deployed as. In his United days, I actually saw this as mildly negative. To my mind, it points to a lack of creativity and natural in-game dynamism. Basically, beyond the lung-bursting heroics, he'll operate as coached. So basically, if DC deploy him as a #9 and he can hit some form, he might actually be lethal for opponents as long as he conserves his energy and stays up top. Unfortunately, I don't see them doing this. They'll likely play him as a support striker and he'll just gas himself. Again, if you're into gambling, now might be a good time to put some money on him leading goals and assists and covering every blade of grass to devastating effect!
Am I the only one that would be excited to see East vs West? I was a kid the last time we did that and I remember loving it. But, I'm alright with getting rid of it altogether.
I watched DCU vs VAN last week to see the debut of Rooney and DCU's new stadium. It was a great game to watch so I'll report my random thoughts here: If you went by Rooney's physical appearance alone you would be wondering why this overweight rec player was wandering onto the field. But from his very first touch he changed how DCU were playing, much to their benefit. The greats make the game look so easy -- Rooney was no exception. Coming in around the 6oth minute his game consisted entirely of 1 touch passes mixed with continuous smart movement off the ball. But what 1-touch passes they were - a mix of very short, medium and long passes that were quick, precise and to the right person at the right time. Rooneys soccer IQ (at least in this debut, who knows how he will follow up) was off the charts. He saw the game quicker than anyone else on the field and always knew what he was going to do with the ball before he received it. His Opta passing chart was 90-95% green and probably half of them were forward passes - an unusual combination. Rooney actually played the connector/creator role that Gio lovers used to fantasize about. As I mentioned his teammates fed off Mr. Rooney and pretty soon they were playing some lovely tiki-taco soccer (tm Galaxy) and quit their over-dribbling, force- the-pass, force-the-shot style that had been so unfruitful for them. This game also had several amazing goals; four of them ranged in quality from goal of the month to goal of the year candidates. And there were LAG connections for most of these goals. Our former own Brian Rowe was the victim of three of them. In fairness all were beauties and I don't think any were Rowe's fault. Asad started off with a beauty curving ball to the upper corner and then former LA Academy player Paul Arriola (boo!) followed up with a pair of deadly strikes. One of these was the end result of 5 or 6 consecutive 1-touch passes showcasing the teams new Rooney-ball style of play. And then around minute 90 there was an irrelevant (to the game) but also very relevant (to the player) goal-of-the-year type strike from VAN's soon to depart 17 yo wonder-kid All-Star Alphonso Davies. This goal was likely watched by at least a few Man U fans tuning in to see Rooneys debut and it couldn't have been a better advertisement of his potential to his rumored overseas suitors (which include Real, Bayern, and yes, ManU) . Check out the highlights - it will be worth 4 of your precious minutes: https://matchcenter.mlssoccer.com/matchcenter/2018-07-14-dc-united-vs-vancouver-whitecaps-fc/recap
And today Rooney absolutely stunk up the joint.Showed a little foot skill, but had about 5 completely unforced giveaways, one of which allowed ATL to tie the game at 1. What a crap performance.
So I haven’t really been paying much attention to the rest of the league. Josef Martinez is ridiculous. The most hat tricks in MLS history? 22 goals in 22 games this season? Though Zlatan is only just behind in goals per 90
Well a surprising trade happened. Dallas traded Acosta to Colorado. I haven't watch really any FC dallas games this season, so I have no idea why they trade Acosta. I did see the deal is pretty good for Dallas, but this looks so bad on Acosta. He seemed to be a breakout star for USA, and then essentially has fallen off the map. I was expecting Acosta's next move to be to Europe.
I'm only a little surprised. That's why I qualified my praise with "well, at least in his debut." A lot of players shine in their debuts and then fade after. My (possibly bs) theory is that players start with a mentally clean slate the first time they play an official game with a new team. They tend to see the game as a whole and focus making the simple plays, which is a good way to play soccer. Over time that initial clarity fades and over-thinking the game becomes a problem. But a more likely explanation of Rooney not looking worse was that you saw him as a starter on the road on artificial turf against league leading ATL while I watch a 2nd half sub Rooney playing at home on grass vs bottom-tier VAN. I'm thinking maybe Olsen pushed him into the starting lineup too early - Rooney didn't look close to being in starter shape last week against VAN. It will be interesting to see which Rooney we see over the rest of the season - the sharp, confident debut game Rooney or the out of his element "crap" Rooney that you describe? Probably somewhere in between.
I assume most of you are aware of Vancouver's 17 yo Bayern-bound-highest-MLS- transfer-fee-ever Alphonso Davies. Anyone have any compromising pics so we can get him to switch from the Canada NT to the US? In case you haven't seen him play, these are his 3 ridiculous goals from his last two MLS matches (he also had 2 assists). He has some work to do on his touch but what a talent: https://matchcenter.mlssoccer.com/m...c-vs-minnesota-united-fc/details/video/165083 Even better: https://matchcenter.mlssoccer.com/m...c-vs-minnesota-united-fc/details/video/165026 And finally this quick, powerful strike against DC from a couple weeks ago: https://matchcenter.mlssoccer.com/m...s-vancouver-whitecaps-fc/details/video/162709
This is fantastic Cc: @SJEarthquakes https://t.co/ozmouU9icE— Cozmo LA Galaxy (@CozmoLAGalaxy) July 31, 2018