For those who havent heard or figured it out, Parkhurst calls it quits after this season: https://www.atlutd.com/post/20...parkhurst-announces-retirement I hope he gets one more apearance this season as that would mark his 300th in MLS overall. Parky was my favorite player the first two seasons as he seemed the consumate gentlemen and professional while also being a damn fine defender. His positioning was excellent, his communication was excellent, and he did well in playing within his abilities. I'm thankful he was able to hoist the Cup with Atlanta and wish him nothing but the best going forward. Thank you, Parky.
Not from an official medical test and diagnosis, but Martinez to miss several weeks with knee injury. "Atlanta United’s Josef Martinez will miss several weeks with a knee injury, according to a person familiar with the situation. The timetable would mean the striker could return by the MLS playoffs."
Yeah, here's hoping that Parky gets at least one more run-out as a starter in a home game, if for no other reason than to allow the crowd the opportunity to give him a standing ovation when he's subbed out. Defending is all about mental quickness, positioning, and reading the play. Even when Parkhurst was not the most athletic man on the pitch, he was almost always the best defender. I was reasonably impressed with his ability as a makeshift winger, too.
https://www.ajc.com/sports/soccer/b...eeks-with-knee-injury/3BI3rfL68nvFF2CnXMqkrL/ Roberson now saying no broken bones, no ligament damage, just pain atm, per de Boer, and that Josef will miss Wednesday but is day to day. I think we'll see him again before the playoffs if we beat NYC and have a shot at East 1. Captain Parky, you've led a champion. Thank you. Maybe you can get one more on the way to the FO...
It’s time for Villalba to step up... —————Pity————— Villalba——————Gressel —-Emo/Barco—-Nagbe— —————Remedi———- Meram———————Escobar ———-LGP——Miles——— —————Guzan—————
DSS reporting that Meram has declined the callup from Iraq this time. I'm impressed by the commitment, especially when he knows he's probably going to come in for Barco if Barco isn't healthy or can't produce. OCSC fans need to stop talking bad about that mang.
He knows who pays the bills. A bit much to ask him to travel halfway around the world for meaningless games against Thailand and who ever else Iraq play when his club is in hunt for the Cup. He is an American playing for Iraq, not the other way around.
Josef back in training, per AJC. https://www.ajc.com/sports/breaking...d49dfHnEbkG_51q5Q05WE9eqVazao0vxIoid0hYZ2zHJA I'm not looking for him to start Sunday just yet. Best case scenario IMO is he doesn't play and we win anyhow. If we can beat New England without him, it'll save him and it'll give Bruce Arena less to look at for the 19th. The Revs and Minnesota really stepped up this season.
That's the conundrum, IMO. We finish third and win the first playoff match, we go to Yankee Stadium to face a fresh NYC team. But by finishing second, we give NYC a chance to lose to someone else before we have to see them again, or perhaps have a key player unavailable if we do have to go back there. I wouldn't wish an injury on an opposing player, but a card suspension would be great. Not writing off any team, but I'm unapologetic about being positive enough to believe we will win the first round matchup regardless of who it's against.
Maybe I’m being cocky, but I honestly believe, if Atlanta can keep all their players healthy, and try to get the most out of Pity, then there’s no team that should be able to stop us from repeating the MLS Cup. People can say what they want, but we basically didn’t have our best player, Barco, for the entirety of the season. When he’s healthy and in form, he’s been running through opponents like butter. Not to mention, Villalba. Likewise, with Meram, who has been a revelation for us this year; I like our chances more. The only caveat is that FdB doesn’t get in their way. ————Josef—————- ————Pity——————- ——Barco—-Nagbe——— Meram—Remedi—Gressel —-LGP—Miles—Franco—- ————Guzan—————- Bench: Kann, Parkhurst/Pogba, Big Red/Adams, Emo, Pereira, Villalba, Vasquez 1st sub Villalba 2nd sub Emo Reserve: Kratz, Bello, Carleton, Moore, Shea (Injury), Luiz Fernando, Ambrose
I agree with you here 100%, and I don't think there's anything wrong with being cocky about who we are... when we're not playing on a tiny pitch that our opponent can (has) tailored its lineup and style to fit. I don't fear any MLS team on an average-sized pitch, but I'm very concerned about playing NYC in Yankee Stadium. I like our chances anywhere else, period, including @ LAFC if it happens. This. It's difficult to say what the balance is between his way and the way of the players he has. We've won everything we've competed in with Frank as the manager except the CCL, and I wouldn't hold that against anyone managing an MLS team in its preseason. That's the standard he should be judged by, and he's done fine. But now he has to win single-leg rounds, and that doesn't play to the better team's advantage as much as a two-legged round. We're not playing the beautiful ball we did last season, but Almiron leaving is as much to do with that as FdB being here. I kinda still hold out hope that we can really get Pity and Barco going and become that freewheeling South American team again, even as led by a European manager. Not sure we're gonna see Josef, so I'm taking that into consideration. Starting Tito pushed up on the right (and Gress behind him). Between Tito and Vasquez, somebody oughta score. Barco pushes up on the left and we ask Remedi only to wreck stuff in front of the back three while Nagbe plays kind of sideline to sideline between the boxes. Between Nagbe and Gress, we should have enough support for the four guys up front, and we get a fresh Meram as the first sub. -------Vasquez---------- Barco-----Pity-----Villalba --------------Gress-------- -----Remedi---Nagbe--- It's a shame we can't get Parkhurst a sendoff as he's subbed out. Hope we can get him subbed in before this is all done.
I never not want to see Gressel the furthest to the right possible. I would move Josef before I’d move Gressel from the right ever again.
Point well taken about Gressel needing be out wide on the right. I was simply noting that Tito would be on the left and Barco on the right if they are both playing. The real question is do we want the NY Yankees to win tonight to hopefully force NYCFC to move their home playoff games, or is that just wishful thinking on my part?
I think Yankee Stadium sucks to play at, because Yankee Stadium simply is a sucky place to play. It’s like watching an entirely different sport at that stadium. Honestly, I wish MLS would kick NYCFC out of the league, a la Chivas USA style because they’re such an embarrassment.
MLS wanted two teams in metro NYC and they allowed it to happen. I get this --it IS New York, after all-- but the real embarrassment is having one team connected to a larger club from another federation. Same with Chivas USA. It would be doubly embarrassing if NYC were to host.
Just as bad is the hosting situation with the playoffs. If the Yankees stay in the playoffs, NYCFC could have to play both home games at Citi Field. Only in MLS.
I'm not gonna let MLS slide on the Yankee Stadium thing but there are some pretty poor stadiums around the world, too. People forget there's more to world soccer than the UEFA Champions League.
Yep, and It's embarrassing either way. On one hand, it'd serve MLS right to have to broadcast a league championship final in a baseball stadium with a tiny pitch. OTOH, of course I'd prefer they broadcast it from the Benz. They also seem to forget that there's more to UEFA than the top ten or whatever leagues. Social media is full of trolls who seem to troll MLS more than they do, say, the Azerbaijani or Cypriot leagues. "Sorry, I can't abide garbage football, so I watch Europe" translates pretty easily to "I'm a plastic who doesn't care about the bulk of European clubs, either, I just watch the top teams in the top leagues". I swear I just don't get why they chose us to pick on. All of this is the result of USSF putting the cart before the horse after the '94 World Cup. They knew full well the US didn't (doesn't) have a footballing culture, but they wanted the "World Cup bump" in interest so they could make money and have a nationwide domestic league to support the USNT. Instead of letting small, regional leagues grow naturally without the pressure of having to appeal to large numbers of new and/or casual fans, they threw a "big" cartel league at all of us at once with playoffs and running PKs and whatever other "uniquely American" twists were added at the time. Rules designed for the lowest common denominator. Now, we're stuck with playoffs (playoffs that include more teams than they should, at that) because there's no pro-rel to keep the bottom teams honest. And we can't have pro/rel because 1) there are too many teams for a proper double round robin, which is the only thing that would be fair to pro/rel and 2) nobody is going to invest MLS money in a team that could get relegated. The whole shebang would now have to shrink in visibility and cost, but the truth is, it never should have been this big in the first place. And then they do this Shield thing, which is pissing down my leg and telling me it's raining because it isn't the title. The league tile is the MLS Cup, and that's MLS' fault all day long. They were supposed to let the game grow until a NYC team could afford to have its own regular-size pitch and not be affiliated with a foreign club or an energy drink, for example. What MLS should have done is used a double round robin single table and taken whatever fans they could get while America got used to supporting teams that play in glorified HS stadia with no TV deals, and used to supporting a club that wasn't necessarily in the top flight. AUFC wouldn't be here, but the game would be healthier longterm.
They'd have been screwed. It's one thing to develop a league in a sport when you're the only game in town. But now you can watch practically every game in every major league in the world live, here in the US. NBC pays more for the US broadcast rights of the EPL than MLS gets here at home. Home attendance is nice, but at the end of the day it's the TV money that makes the difference (see MLB not really caring attendance is down, since they're making bank with their broadcast deals). MLS knew the importance of being on TV. It's why they paid for airtime in the beginning, instead of getting money back. Besides, we did the high school stadium thing. What you get is the Silverbacks. I was a season ticket holder for a few years. I enjoyed it; but there wasn't any real passion, and they never were going to get more than 1-2k every game. As for Yankee Stadium, their situation is a result of the league learning the lessons of the first SSS boom. They're nice to have, but when you put them an hour away from the city you basically shoot yourself in the foot. The newer SSS that have been built are much closer to the city, if not in the city. Finding enough room in NYC for a stadium is going to be difficult, as well as extremely expensive. Which is why it hasn't happened yet. Or might never happen.
You're absolutely right that they would have been screwed. But it's because they were trying to develop a "big" league with a national footprint and a TV deal without waiting for a footballing culture. They were able to accomplish it, but that came at the cost of a traditional footballing system (ladder, table). Even now, this year, we've tweaked the already dodgy playoff system to turn it into one that isn't even two leg rounds anymore. I can't recall whether that was done to finish early and avoid competition with late-season gridiron and baseball or not. Either way, every step seems to take us further from traditional ball and closer to NFL ball. Well... never's a very long time. I get that it wouldn't have happened anytime soon, but if we'd have had a proper league and ladder, the game would have eventually grown to the point where it is now. And when it got there, whenever it got there, it'd have a single table, double round-robin schedule and pro/rel. And there'd be no trolls. I don't think we're in that much disagreement, just talking around one another. There are three or four sports ahead of soccer in this country and it shows the most and ugliest (Yankee Stadium) when we try to shoehorn a sport into cities with little space. NYRB has a stadium. If NYCFC couldn't find a venue that would house a full-size pitch, they should never have been allowed to join the league. You'll have to forgive some of my rant. At this point, I really don't like anything about NYCFC, and I think they're just cynical enough to lime out a shrunken pitch in a venue that would accommodate a regular one, just so they could have a built-in advantage. And I don't care much for Red Bulls, either. If you get attacking talent and a big pitch, you can't easily play a high press or bash/barge opponents into submission, and as a result the fans get a more open, beautiful game, with attacking at both ends. At this point, we're still kinda holding up our end...
In terms of the stadium situation I'm sure we're in agreement. I imagine NYCFC had all the intentions of being in their own place by now, but eventually someone with some common sense said "does it really make sense to spend close to $750 million for a 25k stadium?" and now we're here where we are today. I'm not that sold though on promotion/regulation. Don't get me wrong; I'd like it to be in place. I think it's a really cool mechanic, and it would give MLS something unique in the American sport landscape. But I don't think the survival of the sport or the notion that we've "made it" is dependent on whether we have promotion and relegation. If MLS starts getting the TV numbers that warrant getting that NBC EPL money, then they'll have made it. And if I remember correctly last year's playoffs dealt with two international breaks. That's why they moved things up, so the final happens before that second break.
Yeah, there is that... I agree that the game can "make it" without pro/rel, but for me, pro/rel gives everyone hope. Or, at least, the technical right to have hope. And it would force the media to shine the occasional light on the lower leagues, especially when a big team like Newcastle or Leeds is playing in them. The downside is that the other US leagues offer a legitimate championship because there's currently no ladder, and they'd lose those with pro/rel. In, say, England, finishing atop the Championship table isn't a real championship, because the second place team is just as happy as the table topper (promotion). Got it. Thanks!