The two cities are roughly the same population. Melbourne reflects a different attitude towards public health and human life. Harris County is averaging 2000 cases a day. Melbourne (Aus) you're talking 600 cases or so a day. We are cavalier about life and death and bickering about basics, masks, giving bar owners a platform to beef. They consider 600 people an unacceptable outbreak and are locking down. To me it has to do with taking human life seriously. They also are at lower numbers where they can conceive of roping off the virus in a particular province, and the rest can relax. We have let the zoo out of their cages and are just coping. There is no safe area in the US right now. On and off lockdowns are just public health reality for a couple years if you are actually trying to preserve life. We have written lives off as a cost of doing business. Trump won't say it but we have quit trying. BTW in Victoria they have paid pandemic leave as well as payments to those who don't work. If you rewire the rules of the game then it's not pandemic policy "versus" the economy. If you let companies lay off workers and then limit benefits, and then allow evictions, yeah, get a job or become homeless or bankrupt, and at risk of getting sick. The worst part is I see no evidence that our outcome is economically superior, in part because our structure allows mass layoffs shifting the burden to the government, who can then as now balk at their responsibilities. This helps corporations fight but disempowers the working stiffs who are the actual economic engine. The suggestion is then made by the right wing rich that this is best for the economy, but 11% unemployment cannot be good for an economy driven by consumers buy buy buying. At least part of the game here is to pretend like we are the only truly capitalist country in the world and pretend like any policies or benefits they offer in other industrial countries are incipient socialism or nazism. Last I checked Taiwan, New Zealand, these countries were not run under waving hammers and sickles.
MLS does many corny things and I had low expectations, but it is good. But Zimmer did the scores for a lot of good movies eg Lion King, Inception. Though we will see how rock ages as opposed to classical. It is of the quality of (though more of a rocker than) [which was fairly ripped off from ] [Although few things are as bad as this music/video paired theft which put together become ]
Yes but with The Verve, they walk on the other side of the street in Britain. So, there is that difference.
https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2020...e-resumption-2020-regular-season-home-markets He seems to suggest games back in the respective cities, but other than that he is short on specifics, particularly timing. ""What drives MLS is this soccer culture and getting into our markets and getting our players back and getting them home, getting them to play in their stadiums and being able to train in their training grounds," Garber said. "We will get back to our markets, we will be announcing our schedule soon. We are going to be able to play with fans where we can, and not play with fans in most of our markets." In other words this isn't even that announcement really, it's a placeholder. Setting aside my baseline concern of should any of this be happening (MLB is trying this approach and PP'ing a bunch of games), are pro sports, empty stadia or not, even legally allowed in each area? The Blue Jays are currently playing "road" home games in DC because Canada doesn't want our teams crossing over, with an eye to playing in Buffalo soon.
To underline the little margins that make a difference, we lost to Portland 2-1 and they are on to the final. We had leads in the two LA ties. Either one advances us. LAFC made the quarters and went out on kicks. NYCFC that took the wild card also made the quarters. I think a few years ago I went through and showed how many league games we had a lead or tie and lost that result, and how that was your 10 point postseason margin end of the season right there. To be unfair, a better staffed team like the old 00s team doesn't need the margins, it grinds out Ws and Ts with superior players. But it underlines how with a hit and miss offense and mediocre defense, the games that turn against you can multiply, and that accumulates, and that's your season. We have, what, 3T 2L this season, no wins, 3 points, and only one of those losses was a no-chance dog (SKC). Points to payroll. Points to having a system where you can control results and finish games off. The reason many relegation battlers in England play negative soccer isn't for the heck of it, it's to try to negate superior firepower and try to get across the finish line with any results fate hands you.
Why do you care? I thought you were boycotting watching MLS at all due to their reckless bubble concept? Don’t you want the season cancelled to protect us all from COVID?
One can hold competing thoughts in their head. I like the Dynamo. I like soccer. I don't feel comfortable personally watching games under the circumstances. I do watch the highlights the next day. I still figure people might be interested besides me, and want to pass things on I see, to contribute, to inform. Contrary to stereotype, most lefties have jobs. Are essentially capitalists. Most industrial countries have more benefits than we do. They are not socialist hellscapes. You can be a little of both. Everything doesn't have to be Coke or Pepsi. I can have passion for the team but think watching the games live is supporting broader stupidity and just dragging things out. Re The Bubble, I have come to see it as the superior solution, if you are going to play. Setting aside personal feelings. I don't get why we're switching from the working NBA model to the malfunctioning MLB model. And before you get started, IF you are going to play such games, you have to test before the event starts, and exclude not just the players BUT TEAMS with positive tests. The combination of the bubble plus excluding sick teams gets you healthy teams to play each other, in a controlled environment that can be maintained the rest of the event. You will lose Nashville at the outset, but if they are kept apart the whole time, the rest can finish it out. In the MLB version you have uncontrolled players in dozens of cities interacting with normal people, some of whom may be sick, then with their teams, then with visiting teams. And then as we see with the Miami games, it's like, teams don't want to play the last team Miami played, or their future fixtures, and it multiplies. I also think it's fair comment to say that if you are going to say you're Back, that sounds committed, announce your Plan. If they aren't so sure, tone down the tournament name, offer soccer, and take your time after sorting out the appropriate next step. All I am doing is holding them to their own marketing.
Yea I see no way that 3 MLS teams get an exemption that an MLB team, who has a hotel inside their stadium, couldn’t get. Could be saying hi to the San Antonio Whitecaps soon.
Actually, I understate my right to talk. My college roommate bought me a 2020 ticket plan that I got to see LAG out of. I had a few games left when things imploded, and have long since rolled it over to 2021 on the theory it shouldn't be happening, will likely be closed door, and if it is ticketed, I don't want to take that risk. That LAG game involved a little too much concern whether my neighbors were well. Which is probably why on some level I have normalized. I don't normally speak from a ticket holding perspective, and in a sense I don't anymore. Been months since that game -- which at this point feel almost like years -- and I forget. By 2021 things may be different. Or maybe not. I have already punted. But anyhow, I did have a plan when this thing started. A free one I didn't even pay for. Maybe on some level that's where my frustration comes from. Whether I thought this was going well, I had tickets for some games. In spite of myself almost. Which creates an odd sort of intimate dissonance. Maybe that and feeling trapped by the bad policy ideas of people who want pretend normalcy at risk that ensures actual normalcy with no risk is further off. I think sports is pretend normal we haven't earned. [Within that pretend, the bubble is probably the safest choice. That at least seems to acknowledge and address the problem with measures designed to maximize health. Even if I think it is a bad message and takes too much risk, particularly for those around the players.] On that basis alone you don't get to chase me off. Odd thing where the right disses cancel culture right up until they don't want you talking for whatever reason.
Now, this would be an interesting reason to be delayed. An interesting question is if the Canadian or other teams can’t play home games, do they stay in Orlando? Do we move them to the nearest MLS team’s stadium? Do we test drive current or future expansion cities? Do we move them to the nearest market to their hometown? This could be a rare chance to test drive an expansion city without giving them a team. Like you say, someplace like San Antonio, San Diego, or the like. Some city that’s been asking but got turned down because we’re not sure whether it would work. Here is a rare chance to see, if they would play ball. Mind you, without crowds. But you could see whether enthusiasm gathered, owners got interested, locals watched TV games, bought merch, or seem indifferent. Hmmm If that's the delay, trying to negotiate that, hmmm But they could also play in the nearest MLS stadium that's open, or do something like Toronto Blue Jays in Buffalo. It might also depend how safe your options are. For the same reasons Florida blew up as a location I would question SD or SA. You'd have to look down the expansion candidate list and see if there were 3 safe places to play, or whether you'd be better off nearer the border for safety and marketing or just in a MLS fieldshare to get the games done. If they do something creative, that would be a useful expenditure of time. If their solution is fairly prosaic (homeless teams stay in Orlando, Vancouver plays in Seattle as the closest US MLS team, Toronto plays in Rochester or Buffalo for proximity) this is a waste of momentum, should already be resolved and announced (with contingencies planned out if teams/games can't be played). They know what Canada thinks, they know how the virus is playing out, they know how hard Trump is trying and whether there is any hint of policy change. In plain English, there will be no "waiting this out." We finally start to reverse the dumber aspects of opening only to open schools. Exchange one vector for another. This isn't fixing itself and Canada isn't letting us in anytime soon. Not based on numbers, not based on how Trump treats them.
I think that with the Verve it was not really a ripoff as they received permission prior to using it. The lawsuit and settlement was over the length of the piece used which was basically the entire song
Hey @juvechelsea , I bet you love this move by a former Dynamo player https://www.espn.com/college-sports...ses-3-players-suspends-3-others-holding-party
The signing sucked too the first time you did it Canetti Happy to have signed @DaMarcusBeasley a 2nd time. 😂 Excited to have him joining the board of directors for the @Hou2026WorldCup bid committee. As a 4x @FIFAWorldCup star for the @USMNT & former @houstondynamo he brings tremendous value to our bid. pic.twitter.com/C2zVxLVxyp— Chris Canetti (@ChrisCanetti) July 29, 2020
I would like to focus on the few good things Canetti did for our club when he took over. Instead of the fact that we have only made the playoffs once since 2013. Our club has been run into the ground since then and it is mentioned all the time on TV or on line. I mean Beaz brought leadership and filled a role at leftback, a position that was needed at that time when Canetti signed him. Was the money splashed out too much, meh. It is an honor to have had DMB play for our club, end his career with our club. He is a tremendous ambassador for the sport here in our nation. Here is how our guys celebrated him as he played his very last game. I love this type of image for our club! I always stay positive amigo Westie!
Ashe was coming off an All-Star appearance when they signed Beasley, wasn’t he? Think he even got national team call-ups in ‘13 that he missed because of injury. Beasley’s signing always struck me as a media move by Canetti versus really trying to address the needs of the team. Not going to argue that Beasley was better, just always felt we could have put our scant resources back then to better use than a DP leftback.
Correct. Ashe was called into the Toulon Tournament side by Bradley iirc, the U-23 tourney played in France. For us, Ashe backed up Brad Davis. Ashe as a younger man saw most of his minutes under Dom as a winger...who couldn't cross the ball past his man marker. Which when having Ching inside our opponents 18 looking to feast on aerial flighted balls was a sever detriment to Ashe's game. Thus he got slotted to leftback. So with the signing of Beasley, we got a player that could play left wing or leftback and thus allowed Brad Davis to play higher up the field or more centrally. If we can be the club that overpaid for one of the best players our nation has produced and stack his play and leadership next to overpaying for a Landin who showed no leadership nor awesome play, then I will be content to say the money was better spent on a Beasley than a Landin and move on. I mean how much did we spend on Caraccio? Or Cubo???
well Dan Friedkin just spent $700 million to buy AS Roma but for some reason no one wants to invest in the Dynamo
Expect @HoustonDynamo schedule news later today. First game back will be on Friday, Aug. 21 @BBVAStadium vs. @FCDallas (7 p.m. kickoff). Sources tell me that no fans will be allowed on site. That stance will be re-evaluated as season progresses.— Lester Grötsch🇩🇪🇪🇺🇨🇭🇨🇷 (@LesterDeportes) August 8, 2020
https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2020/07/27/mls-st-louis-shares-fan-suggestions-new-name-brand-reveal Louventus needs to happen
Stupid team to invest in. I was part of Swansea’s supporter’s trust a few years back because I liked the positive soccer and felt like it would be cool to be part of publicly owning a soccer team. After how Bradley got treated — run out of there more like it —I quit. The fans got very angry about American owners and a coach. I am not Mr. wrap yourself in the flag but also not keen to be involved in stuff where people reflexively hate Americans, either. Bradley’s an excellent coach. They then decayed into just another English team in terms of style. It says something they had just a few more years and needed yet more capital. We’ll see if he gets treated any better than the last cash infusion. I will ask if he has spare cash why is it going into Swans and not Houston. Underlines our owners have some spare cash and simply have directed it elsewhere.
Let’s not hagiography Ashe. In the title years he was Davis’ backup when Davis used to be only fit to play 60’. Barrett played LB. Barrett came apart, we needed a LB with pace to cover the slow Davis, he got the job. He wasn’t very good and we always wanted an upgrade, and eventually Beaz was the choice. Beaz then was a serious choice but too late in his career. But when Beaz did get forward he could do precisely what Ashe couldn’t, either cross or shoot with some accuracy. His wheels were gone and so he barely got forward and wasn’t impeccable on defense. But he was an upgrade from Ashe. There is a certain amount of wish fulfillment and “pick players from winning teams” in his run in 2013. In 2012 we lost in the final to LAG. Coming off that he got called into USMNT camp but was hurt and didn’t play. Based on that he was a late add to the all star team. He then makes the Gold Cup team but doesn’t play. But it should tell you something that he disappeared from each of these teams. No senior caps, no more all stars. To me there are some of these log rolling exercises where momentum gets going in part because each decision maker is looiking to the next guy, thinking if he plays for x he must be ok, but in truth they all end up underwhelmed. Year and a half after all star he is traded from here. Ashe was not on U20 — a telling omission, because that is the last team with close to full age group participation — and was brought in to trial with U23 for a tournament where we lost every game. He was not used for qualifying before that and then did not making the Olympic team that same summer. Even then, the reality is U23 is a backwater because we graduate out the good players after U20 — Pulisic and McKennie types — and have release issues on European first team players. Which is then why even a MLS backup can get considered for the U23 team. Which is then why we struggle to qualify. Which is then why I don’t freak out about the Olympics. I get more concerned with how the U20s compete because that is more of a first choice unit.
Beasley is the underwhelming best case scenario of a Machado/Senderos/delaGarza approach to the back line we got into for a while. Sign a NT but an old one. The theory is 80%Beaz is better than other options. The failures of the others are the downside — they may never be worth anything, or they may last a season while breaking. His is an underwhelming upside. That you may get intermittent mixing of quality in with decay and injury. One such player is an interesting potential cherry on top of an otherwise well composed team. Like Schelotto on the Crew. You already have 10 and he’s the 11th. I think it’s a dumb way to staff a team up that needs several holes filled because at that age the likelihood of decline and injury is high and the more players of that type the closer those odds become to Senderos certainties. I enjoyed watching him but to be blunt signing players like him when trying to rebuild from no playoffs is part of the reason we’ve only been back once. And I want playoffs more than I have a nostalgia fetish for watching former great players. So I want more Elis and Quioto young and on the make and less Beasley trading on their name types.