News: 2018 Other Teams Discussion Thread (spoilers)

That's a better opponent than all but a few national teams.

In other news, remember the MLS College Showcase? Neither do I. Literally zero follow up coverage on that aside from this Dave Barry takedown of Caleb Stanko from Dirty South.

 

https://thecup.us/2019/12/17/readin...-due-to-schedule-change-more-teams-to-follow/

 

I call whining. Look, those teams are never competitive. The NCAA player pool is largely irrelevant to MLS these days. In 1996, the schedule change might have been "abhorrent" but today, it just means that NPSL and League 2 are irrelevant except as for summer jobs for college players. Sorry, but that's reality.

 

As a fan of an NPSL team, all I really feel like saying in response is ******** you.

 

A lot of teams are dropping out due to this unneeded schedule change. It's sad, really - that cup is more about the smaller clubs out there than MLS.

I do like they added lower-ranked MLS teams in a round earlier. I wish they'd add a rule that the lower-division team automatically hosts if they draw an MLS team.

 

That rule would make the open cup even less interesting and notable if that were possible

 

I think they should divide the USOC in two different competitions, one with MLS, USL Pro etc and maybe some lower tier teams that did really well the previous season, and one with all the small teams.
In Italy we have Coppa Italia with all the serie A and serie B teams and some serie C ones who did position well the previous season, and then we have Coppa Italia serie C and coppa Italia serie D etc.
Serie C teams that play the major Coppa Italia and that get eliminated, automatically shift to a Coppa Italia serie C round.
Maybe it's not the best, but it is certainly better than seeing small teams dropping out bcs they can't field players at that stage of the season.

 

I think that makes too much sense. The USOC is interesting, but it is in many ways a cultural relic imported from European soccer. I'm thinking of the other major sports in the US: baseball, gridiron football, ice hockey and basketball and none of those sports on the professional level have anything like the USOC. If you want to continue that type of open competition, then acknowledge that the lower level teams aren't competitive with the top tier and give them their own cup championship.

 

Removing the David vs. Goliath element would ruin the tournament. Remember that the last time we won the U.S. Open Cup our opponent was the Chaleston Battery, who gave us a pretty good game.

 

David v Goliath is a myth perpetrated to make the tournament "interesting" to the no-hoper teams. Maybe at the 3rd and 4th Division level a "lower" team may spring an upset, but given the development of MLS, there is no reason to ever expect even a USL Championship team to make it to the Cup final. Or, put another way, IIRC, that game with Charleston was the last time that a team from a lower league was in the final and MLS was a much different, and inferior, league at that time. I think @Theopisa was on the right track, make the tournament on different levels, then a Christos might have a David v Goliath moment against an NPSL or USL League 2 team -- maybe.

 

The last time DC United won the Open Cup, it was against Real Salt Lake.

 

Watched part of the Hartlepool/Oxford United FA match today. Sort of David v. Goliath in that Hartlepool is in the National League (5th Div.) and Oxford is in League One (3rd Div.). Hartlepool got a goal and then went to Bennyball on steroids playing 11 men in their own half before even the first half break. If that's what you want, then more power to you. The fact is that lower level teams can't play open flowing soccer with higher teams, so if they have any chance they have to Bennyball their way to victory. I don't find that riveting entertainment. The only reason I tolerate it here is because DCU is my team, but jeebus Bennyball is awful to watch for 90 minutes.

 

The FA Cup and the U.S. Open Cup are still riveting because of the David vs. Goliath possibilities. Upsets still happen; in part, because first division teams usually rest star players in the early rounds. Going to a class based system simply makes tournaments less interesting - why deprive Christos, the Harrisburg City Islanders or the Pittsburgh Riverhounds of the opportunity to test themselves against the big boys?

 

If you want David v. Goliath, watch the Wizards against any NBA team. How many here do that?

 

Wayne Rooney has gone 90 minutes twice now for Derby County, both wins

He is playing deep central midfield, where he should have been playing for dcu.

I would guess he wanted a last chance at striker for us and we obliged. Maybe he insisted.

 

His best attribute is his finishing. Especially in relation to our team and what we needed.

He's not mobile anymore. His passing is good, but he's no Paul Scholes, Michael Ballack or Andrea Pirlo.

 

Man United moved him back to midfield...

 

He shifted around from striker to attacking mid to outside mid several times during the run of play. The same as he did for ManU and a Everton.

 

Then got rid of him because it wasn't good enough.

 

You can have David vs Goliath between USL Pro teams and MLS ones. I can't see Reading Utd making all the way to the final and beating Seattle Sounders.
The David vs Goliath factor became virtually non existant in the moment the USOC winner was assigned a CCL spot.
Tha last non-MLS team winning the USOC was Rochester, in 1999, twenty years ago.

 

I would like that rule applied throughout, and I would go to rounds of 64 to start, where the winners play the next 32. Every MLS team starts with an away game to a lower division team.

 

The future standard of excellence

Introducing the new vision for our home 😍

➡️ https://t.co/0EzNe8yTsI pic.twitter.com/pyPSd9Gag4

— Maryland Men’s Soccer 🐢 (@MarylandMSoccer) January 8, 2020

Interesting rendering of future Ludwig Field in College Park.

 

I'm still not sure if that's supposed to be impressive or simply permanent.

 

Well "retirement" refers to the "European Dream" which is a true statement. Other than that, time to move on, nothing happening here.