Other MLS games and Teams/Players [R]

They are good at what they do and elevated what us, nyrb and Toronto have done.

Almiron will be sold and Pity Martinez from river plate who just won the Copa Libertadores cup this weekend.

They are buying big and young to sell on and have tapped the Argentina pipe line

 

The league must be drooling to have the Galaxy and Atlanta in a final.

 

I'm drooling for that as well.

 

Trade: @ColoradoRapids trade 'keeper Zac MacMath to @WhitecapsFC in exchange for midfielder Nicolas Mezquida and TAM: https://t.co/eHLdFcSjUX pic.twitter.com/WeiTrveHQQ

— Major League Soccer (@MLS) December 10, 2018

Wow in the whole off season shuffle I missed this. I cant believe Rapids are finally trading MacMath now

 

Duck
Duck
Gregus

We've signed Jan Gregus as a Designated Player. pic.twitter.com/qOhnqSGn7H

— Minnesota United FC (@MNUFC) December 20, 2018

I think they have our old social media person. Romain Lettuce Allessandrini

 

Isn't Duck, Duck, Grey Duck their version of Duck Duck, Goose in Minnesota? Don't ask me why. The explanation is long and boring and has to do with the large proportion of people with Scandinavian, particularly Swedish, backgrounds there.

So this doesn't even make sense to me.

At least Chamipons of the Stu-Hub Center could at be explain by laziness and a lack of attention to detail.

 

Mark Geiger is hanging up his whistle 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/jnLLgSnA4d

— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) January 10, 2019

 

It's not real new, but TFC signed Ciman. TFC made 2 trades to secure his rights.

 

Read some rumor of Zardes to the premier league. Right back zardes gonna tear it up there!

But in seriousness, it's probably all bs. Zardes is not good enough for the premier league.

 

Is he enough of a USMNT fixture to qualify for a work permit?

 

If he doesn't I am sure he will probably have them by Gold Cup.

If he goes to England, Championship seems more at his level.

 

I would agree, but that didn't stop Altidore, Eddie Johnson and a few other marginal talents to give it a try.

 

To me Austin FC is already on my bad side. Between trying to take the crew away and then jumping San Antonio who's has played the MLS expansion game and every year just miss on getting chosen.

I'll enjoy the league beating up on them.


Edit

"Thank you, Anthony Precourt, not just for bringing MLS to Austin, but for *the way* you brought MLS to Austin." - Steve Adler, Mayor

Yikes. #MLS2ATX https://t.co/OkwpBqBs5c

— Jeff Rueter (@jeffrueter) January 15, 2019

Disgusting

 

I live in Austin and I am just happy to have a team here. Plus I no longer have to drive to Houston or Dallas to watch the Galaxy play.

 

Most of my family lives in Austin and may retire there. So I love the idea of the town getting a franchise. I was there over the holidays and spoke with my nephew-in-law about MLS coming there. He is a big soccer fan, coached his daughter's team, etc. so I thought he would be excited. So I was surprised when he told me he gave an MLS franchise about 0% chance of lasting long term in Austin. He thought they might do well for a couple years but then attendance would drop off and the franchise would move to a more soccer friendly, higher population area.

He had several reasons for his pov that I don't remember now -- some about the viability of the stadium financial arrangement and location, traffic getting worse by the year, etc. But his biggest one was that he doubted fans would show up over the long-term based on his own experiences. He said he used to go to USL games (Toros?) and even when the team was having a great season the stands were often mostly empty. Same with college games. He just didn't find Austin to be that much of a soccer town.

I really don't know how accurate his take is -- I was just surprised by it.

 

Mexico's penalty takers weep.

 

Interesting. That doesn't match experience in any other market does it? Which MLS team has lost substantial attendance within the last decade? Perhaps LA Galaxy to a degree, but I don't see any stability issue here. Was Columbus' attendance down?

 

I would never have guessed that Atlanta was a soccer town, either. But boy, has that been proven wrong.

 

I can probably give some more insight to this.

I think the team will do great. Austin is a huge soccer city. If I remember right, we are the biggest soccer watching city without a team in the US.

We used to have the Austin Aztecs which I regularly went to, and the attendance wasn't terrible. I'd say it was normally 2,000-3,000 most matches, but this also had to do with the stadium being in Cedar Park which is probably the equivalent of putting the galaxy II in Santa Clarita.

The MLS stadium will be basically smack in the middle of austin. Austin is set up in a weird way where downtown is pretty far for a lot of suburban families and traffic is bad. The stadium will make it so most people will have a 10-20 minute drive to it, and it will avoid the brunt of downtown traffic. The area where the stadium will be is growing heavily. Literally 3 years ago almost nothing was there, but now it's a huge outdoor mall/bar are that rivals downtown. Plus a lot of IT business have taken up shop there.

Honestly, I think they will do fine. Austin is huge. We have a lot of surrounding cities that also have large wealthy populations. The stadium is in an amazing spot, and it's the only pro team here.

 

Austin will be as huuuuuuuuuuuge as the Dynamo are in Houston..just Huuuuuuuuuuuuuge.

 

I hope you are right since I might end up there. As far as the stadium it looks like they got as good a location as possible. But your estimate of being a 10-20 minute drive for most Austinites is waaay over-optimistic. My family lives in northwest Austin and the site is 30 minutes by toll road and 40 minutes using regular routes. From 3pm-8pm the TX-1 loop has sections that barely move.

But glad to hear your optimism for the franchise. I'm guessing my source was just being overly pessimistic. And having an MLS team there would be great for me personally if I do end up there.

PS - On a personal note Austin traffic is one of my hesitations about retiring there. I hate being stuck in traffic with a passion. The Austin MSA population grew 23% from 2010-2017 (!) which was the fastest in the US for MSA's above 100k. Under the best of circumstances that rapid pop growth is hard to accommodate traffic-wise and Austin's transit planning hasn't been close to good. Not many would guess that even in 2013 it was ranked US's 4th most traffic congested city -- after LA, Honolulu and San Francisco. And with the continual influx I don't see that improving soon.

 

I live on lake pflugerville and work at the domain (where the stadium is being built). Traffic is a bitch. Some mornings it takes me 20-25 minutes, and others like today it took me 50. It's all about if there is an accident or not.

But I can say with accuracy, that getting to the domain from my house around 6ish only takes me 20 minutes. My wife and I go to the domain at least a few times a month for dinner and drinks so we know that drive well. Matches will be either friday night, or the weekend so traffic will be minimal.

But to add, Austin is a great city. I am 27 and own a house. Never thought that would happen. Traffic does suck though. I had a job that I needed to go downtown for and I had to work 7-3 to avoid the traffic which worked. Still the city is awesome and if you can find a good paying job somewhat near home, you'd be happy here.

 

Really excited to launch the Allocation Disorder podcast with @PaulTenorio and @empiregass.

We think we're uniquely informed about MLS. We think we're doing this differently. We *know* the world needed another podcast.

Let us know what you think! https://t.co/8Wk1dlxqEK

— Sam Stejskal (@samstejskal) January 18, 2019

I have not listened to this yet but if your into soccer podcasts this will probably be a good MLS one

 

Stejskal and Tenorio usually have their finger on the pulse of everything MLS. Should be a great pod.