2 goals for Aiden Morris against RSL. 3 goals given up by Beavers but I think only the 3rd was really on him. AIDAN MORRIS COMES IN HOT. 🔥@ColumbusCrew takes the lead 1-0 against RSL. pic.twitter.com/kSULH0ZbcI— Major League Soccer (@MLS) April 1, 2023 And that's a Morris brace. 😤Aidan Morris keeps the lead for @ColumbusCrew tonight. 🙌 pic.twitter.com/BqFhIPo4H6— Major League Soccer (@MLS) April 2, 2023 Jalen Neal also just had his first goal. Right place. Right time.19-year-old Jalen Neal scores his first goal in MLS! #LAGalaxy pic.twitter.com/x5r7T6MTMS— Major League Soccer (@MLS) April 2, 2023
What a rough debut to MLS for Gavin Beavers. Didn’t watch the game but two of the goals scored against him were his fault.
Literally turned in on at about 83', it's 90' now ... dude is just balling. Just served up a PERFECT cross to Kamara that got barely saved. He might actually be the best passer in the pool ex Reyna and Ream. Everything is weighted perfectly and calmly. I would encourage anyone to watch this 10 minutes and not love his game.
Let me emphasize…. When we watch these young players, we tend to hype youngsters when they hold their own or when they have bright moments. Gutierrez looks too good for these two teams.
He’s without a doubt the most skillful player in this game…. And that doesn’t even look close. I’m going to have to watch his games more often.
He does. I can't imagine he's in Chicago long. I've been watching part of his games all year, and he definitely took a massive step forward this year. He showed flashes last year. He's the best player on the field today. I mean, it's DC and Chicago, so the competition is pretty damn weak there, but still.
Gutierrez was robbed of the game-winning assist. Peach cross w/ his off foot on a platter for Kamara, who hit it too centrally. He was dealing all night. Paredes-level prospect.
I watched all but the first 20 minutes or so of the Fire game. Gutierrez is really, really good with his vision and decision making in tight spaces. I did think his movement off the ball was not that good, though.
Yes, but that's still Chicago. They'll promptly put him on the bench when Shaqiri is back, and then won't release for U-20 WC as he would be too valuable.
Some kid Becher had 2G, 1A, 1 RC on him. So 3 goal and an assist in 114 minutes, what is below his CL rate (1G in 15 minutes), and last year rate (1G in 8 minutes). His second goal today was a real striker's goal as well. Who is this guy?
23 year old Simon Becher breaking MLS records… never heard that name before maybe in the book version he‘a called Owen Meany Simon Becher is now the fastest player (87 minutes) in MLS history to score his first four goals. 🔥 pic.twitter.com/0KeZ81nM7E— Major League Soccer (@MLS) April 2, 2023
I'm no rocket surgeon when it comes to this stuff but you have to think that the MLS is not like other established leagues in that they are still trying to grow a fan base. Is locking behind paywalls or double paywalls going to help? If you do not live in a city with an MLS team, I would imagine that they will be attracting almost no new fans, maybe they don't care. On a side note, for all of the talk of which leagues are"superior" in the sense of translating to the international game, less discussion is given to the entertainment value. I watched Norwich play in the Championship yesterday and I would again liken the experience to that of getting a root canal, it always is. Seattle, LA last night was such an enjoyable breath of fresh air relative to that. From what I have seen from watching the playoffs last Fall, and then a few cool weather marquee games (the few are actually available without paywall LOL) this year, MLS has an entertaining and steadily improving product.
Seeing those goals one could think that he did a phenomenal job on each one of them, or that he was phenomenally lucky each time. Weirdly, MLS' website, as of now, shows him with 3 goals.
@RalleeMonkey as well. I think it is more that they've been trying it that way for years, and it hasn't worked in terms of attracting a TV audience. MLS has really strong attendance numbers but they can't get critical mass at home. They were on locally in a number of different situations: a few over the air stations but mostly Regional Sports Nets. Most teams were taken a net loss on production over TV rights. RSNs are about to all go bankrupt at this point, so they aren't a long term, and possibly not even a short term option for local viewing. Baseball is going through this right now. Their national packages were small, poorly paid, erratically broadcast, and very poorly produced and supported. Ratings were not good. So they went with a different strategy. There's actually more cable national games this years, though they are still poorly supported and at erratic times. But if you are a fan -- and all season tickets holders get it free -- you can now get MLS with fantastic picture -- true 1080 and they say 4k in the future -- strong production values, pre and post game, wraparound show, etc. with no blackouts. And MLS gets a TON more money in rights fees. There's still about 40% of games free through the apple app or website this year -- no Apple+ subscription needed. And still national games. Just no local team on OTA/cable. It is a risk and a gamble on a changing marketplace, where most young people don't have cable anyway. There's no doubt that. But the other way wasn't working, and there was no good ESPN+ bid. The big question is whether MLS should have foregone some of the $250M / year that Apple game them in return for a cheaper subscription price. I can see that actually being a good investment, though the largest barrier is any fee at all. ($99 for the season is a pretty decent deal for me -- I'm probably going to watch something close to 80 games even BEFORE the playoffs and Leagues Cup.) The bigger issue is that someone has to hunt it out. If MLS invests that money above and beyond the old contract, then maybe that works. A bunch of it is going to production costs ($60M? $80M?), but at least about $40M of the money is going to salaries defined in the CBA on top of the already prescribed salary increases in the CBA. There may end up being more. MLS is going to increase salaries over 50% in the next 5 years; much of that has to be coming from here. I much prefer watching MLS to pretty much anything except the very top European teams even once I adjust for any emotional ties/familiarity. So that's one attempt to draw more fans. Leagues Cup is another big one, marketed directly to soccer fans of another league. Man City - Arsenal is awesome, or Bayern - Real, but matches between teams just a bit down the table can be somewhat of slogs. MLS should do everything it can to avoid the negative or cautious play that seems to sort of circulate through leagues over time.
The Colorado v LAFC was a dreadful game to watch last night as neither side seemed to have a clue how to actually connect passes and get any kind of a rhythm. Not sure if it was the altitude but a yery lethargic performance by the entire team including Tillman. Here is Tillman's post Dallas match presser for those who have never seen an interview.