The thing is, we still don't know what Almeyda said or did to get this suspension, other than being really slow to leave the field. Did he touch Mariscal the 4th Official? Did he verbally threaten him? Did he verbally threaten the fan? I have heard various stories, but none of them officially corroborated by anyone.
Oh haha, i just realized why we don't know the details about the suspension. It's because we have no sponsors. So no sponsor is questioning what's going on. In fact, I'll bet that contributed to Tom Fox's having very little pull. He couldn't go to Don Garber and say, Avaya is pulling out if you put our season at risk. Sutterhealth is pulling out if Almeyda can't be on every press release...
That kind of thinking got the 2005 winners of the Supporters Shield relocated to TexAss. The league will never care about us, but we don't care. This ain't just a song!
MATIAS - NO BAN CAN STOP US - SJU pic.twitter.com/Hd9UlREufp— San Jose Ultras (@SanJoseUltras) September 1, 2019
Is Matías Almeyda’s suspension fueling #Quakes74? pic.twitter.com/nvKTEmbtb9— Joel Soria (@soriajoelfutbol) September 1, 2019
This could have impacted potential deals though. For example Telemundo aired a few of our games and I think that was due to excitement around Almeyda. i'm sure the Quakes got extra money from that deal. However the deal apparently wasn't extended to last weeks match when Almeyda was serving his suspension. Who knows - maybe telemundo could have picked up additional games but decided not to because Almeyda wasn't on the sideline? I have no idea if that's true but I suppose Fox is always trying to work deals like this and having Almeyda suspended can't help.
No TV deal decisions are made on that short of notice. The Telemundo deal (which was not with the Telemundo network but with the local affiliate KSTS-48) was announced for three games from the outset. Also note that KSTS and the NBC Sports cable channels that show most of the games have the same owner, NBC Universal.
That does seem like a good question to verify with Tom Fox at his next talk — did Almeyda’s suspension affect whether or not there were Telemundo vs NBC broadcasts. I was pretty surprised to finally see a Quakes game on the Comcast Sports Channel on Uverse — I couldn’t even remember the last time I had been able to record one there.
Not that this is any consolation, but Andrew Wiebe's Instant Replay bit on MLS.com agrees that we should have had a PK on Harvey's tackle (~3:02 of this edition). For that matter, they agree Accam should have seen straight red for stomping Espinoza (~5:56 of this edition). Sure, lots of teams have something to complain about on any given week. But these two are pretty infuriating for us Quakes fans, especially given that Accam didn't have any announced punishment for his violent act and the sanction for Almeyda seemingly had no consideration for the circumstance. Whereas other situations have resulted in DISCO actions for less or rescinded red cards (Almeyda was not shown red when ejected, but still): https://www.mlssoccer.com/topic/discipline Grrr...
How do they identify who is holding the signs? I’m pretty sure the don’t have pictures on file of all their season ticket holders. Maybe some of the employees could recognize the fans but why would they do that? Why destroy their fan relations just to enforce Garbers stupid policy? They could revoke season tickets based on what seat the sign holder is in but that is error prone. They have to allow for cases of mistaken identity. But some percentage of people won’t even know they were banned until they show up to the stadium- what if they claim mistaken identity then? What a pain in the ass. I suspect the press release is the entirety of the action taken. Maybe a reminder of league policy will be sent out?
The fans should just show up with one "arrow" and then stand in groups of three and align the arrows as is on the flag. What are the Gestapo going to do then?
I wonder if that’s a part of what ThreatMetrix does? (I mean identify who fans really are- not coerce people into talking).
A point of clarification: The changes to Laws 5 and 12 requiring referees to show bench personnel yellow and red cards came into effect on June 1. Given that the MLS season began in March, NONE of the changes made to the LOTG in IFAB's 2019/20 publications will be enforced during the 2019 MLS season, so it would have been incorrect form him to be shown a red card during/after the incident in the LAFC game...
I laughed out loud. https://en.onefootball.com/tomas-boy-highly-critical-of-matias-almeydas-managerial-style/
Here’s an idea .. if the USMNT head coaching job opens up, then Almeyda would become the next USMNT head coach for the next 2 cycles. Plus, the US National training center can move to SJ. Up or down votes are welcome
I don't think MA's scheme can be taught to a National Team in the time that is available to train a national team. You would need at least 4 to 6 weeks to make it work and an insane amount of fitness which I think most National Team players don't normally have. If one or two players are not doing the right thing then the whole scheme falls apart. As a motivator he is outstanding but he would need to get more out a vanilla offense.