You can never score too many goals... for the record, we have won games 5-0 and 6-0... thanks New England (they hate the RioT)
The thought that you guys might somehow get another DP quality striker scares the hell out of me. I have to be honest.
it's about selling tickets. young players don't make teams profitable because they don't sell tickets. Brek Shea ain't putting an extra 10k people in seats cause he's young. And an over the hill Henry is better then pretty much everyone in the League. so it will raise the quality. the fact is he was on barcelona's bench two months ago. Who in MLS could make Barcelona's B team two months ago? Nobody. And considering that average americans will choose to watch the U.S. national team but then not watch MLS should tell you that a lot of americans, not eurosnobs, have issues with MLS. They'll watch soccer. MLS just isnt' interesting to them. They showed it last month. And MLS is growing but it has problems. It's often not the most attractive soccer to watch. Henry helps that. But whining about all the eurosnobs when MLS does have issues with the attractiveness of it's product is just cry baby excuses. Turn MLS into an attractive, technical, attacking league where players can trap, pass, and shoot clinically and people will watch.
Ah, but we won't get to have a league like that if no one supports MLS. It's a catch 22. Fans won't support the league because MLS doesn't have top players. MLS can't afford top players, because fans won't support the league.
Umm... coming from a Sounders fan you probably won't listen, but there is more history between the three PNW teams than the whole rest of the league. Timbers, Sounders, Whitecaps have been rivals since the NASL days (1974/75 is when all 3 started playing together) and that's not mentioning the last few years they were in the USL. There is definitely a lot more heat between the Timbers and the Sounders than most if not all the other rivalries in MLS. How many of MLS's rivalries would sell out a USOC game because they were playing each other? Not many, if any that I know of. The Sounders-Timbers USOC game in Portland was sold out. So don't go dissing all the hype when you totally ignore the history (and hate) between these teams. On topic, I'm sure it's been covered at least a little by now. I don't watch much on ESPN besides games, but Henry stories are all over ESPN Soccernet about him moving. I'm sure it will get more publicity over time as well. I look forward to watching him play in the MLS even if he only brings "above average" form, which I think he will bring more than that.
I think there is actually a pretty large amount of people who genuinely don't know MLS exists, or don't at all understand the connection between club and international soccer. I can't keep track of how many conversations I had in the last 6 weeks trying to explain how the whole word of soccer works to interested parties who were following the world cup a bit. Of course these people aren't what we consider 'soccer fans' though, so they're always going be down the pecking order of who the league should be after. First and foremost we need to win over soccer fans who actively follow another league. And there is indeed a catch 22 there.
Oh, gosh. Thanks for the history lesson! I had no idea about this Pacific Northwest rivalry. We should all so grateful that you've decided to grace us with your presence. I can't believe I hadn't heard about this before! It's almost like the teams were irrelevant nobodies for decades that couldn't fill half a high school football stadium.
Right and all those years of inactivity must have really harbored some strong feelings of hate. The thought that the PNW has more heat than our mid-Atlantic rivalry (the one that wasn't manufactured to help the league), the LA rivalry, hell, even the Colorado-RSL rivalry is more interesting to me... Your rivalry is in the past and in the modern-day, its nothing more than manufactured... Did you ever think the game sold out because the 2 teams don't play each other otherwise?
Umm... You are aware that Seattle, Vancouver, and Portland were in the same league just two years ago, right? And that Vancouver and Seattle have been playing each other since 1994, with the Timbers joining in 2001? Trust me.. Nothing manufactured about that rivalry other than playing the crap out of each other.
Whatever Sounders. Crabtree is right. Sounders aren't Timbers rivals. You guys are too terrible for most to even care. If any one pays attention it is just the kind of attention that car accidents get. And the vancouver fans, they're just too nice to be rivals. USL support? Youshou surely that can't be your argument. There were like 12 of you Sounders supporters and 50 or so Southsiders. I'd imagine that comment about half a high school stadium was directed at you lot. The PNW "rivalry" only exists among like 12 soccer dorks on Big Soccer.
Bright? Is that you? As far as terrible, what's Portland's record against Seattle? 6W-5D-33L or something like that? I think you mean Portland is too terrible for most to even care. Tsktsk.
This thread has totally derailed. Anyone pretending to know about a "manufactured" rivalry among the PNW teams needs to get a grip. If you don't live there, you likely don't know what the heck you are talking about. I don't live there, but I at least know that those teams were all strong rivals from the USL days. I don't see what there is to hate about rivalries in that region. Any "our team's rivalry is bigger than your team's rivalry" is nothing but internet dick measuring. Anyway, back on topic, I wonder if ESPN will make any mention of the Henry news on tonight's SportsCenter.
No idea if he'll be on SportsCenter tonight, but I saw him on MSNBC this morning. Go fig. CT isn't that far from NYC is it?
That's exactly it. No one cares about other rivalries. So how would you know about ours? I can't say I care about yours. Just because you or anyone besides Sounders, Timbers, Vancouver fans don't care doesn't mean it isn't there. ACES (All Clubs Except Seattle) is not just something made up for fun by Timbers fans they truly despise Seattle (from what I've seen around here a lot of people have joined their hatewagon). You know the history but you ignore it is the problem. Rivalries are all about history and proximity, both of which apply in the PNWs case. So say what you will, when next year comes is what will be telling.
https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1485439 Way to go start a new account after you humiliated yourself.
Yeh, I just caught that video on MSNBC's website. They were calling it football, and raving about the sport. If ESPN even gave it half the positive publicity...
The top stories on ESPN's website right now are: 1. 2011 NBA Free Agency Not only not a story, but it's a preview of a potential NBA story a year from now. Front page news apparently. 2. Rory Mcelroy hits a 63 For you golf fans, some guy you've never heard of just tied a record! Wow! Points for being the only story to speak of. 3. Round 1 Highlights! Subtitle: Tiger is four behind! 4. Fantasy Football Preview Not only not a story, but it's a preview of a different non-story that will happen in a few months You'd think soccer would have some importance directly following the World Cup, but alas. Goodbye soccer coverage! See you in 4 years!
I've already come to realize that ESPN is a joke and will never show soccer the respect it deserves. Many of their commentators bag on soccer anyways.
I follow all the main sports and I've learned that ESPN is like the worst of the popular kids in high school. Either you're big news (Kobe/LeBron/A-Rod/Pujols/Farve/Manning/Ovechkin/Crosby) or some hot button topic ,or you're considered irrelevant trash.
Halftime coverage during the DC-Seattle game was pathetic. The majority of the time was talking about how the league wasn't accepting transfer offers for Donovan. Was a phone interview with Lalas really more important than Henry? I'm usually not a conspiracy theorist, but ESPN has to be doing this on purpose.
The Henry transfer was mentioned on ESPN's "Pardon the Interruption". The question was "What word best describes the impact Henry will have on MLS". Michael Wilbon said: "NIL" Bob Ryan responded: "Negligible"