On we go with season 17 of Major League Soccer. If you didn't take a moment to apreciate Nye Lavalle Day a couple of weeks ago, please be sure to pop into that thread and spare a thought for him. We have USOC semifinals and an all-Canadian matchup to kick things off. We of course have a long-running USOC PBP thread up and running where most match commentary is appropriate, but mentions of the scores and occasional updates aren't out of place here either. All start times are EDT, and all games are brodcast on MLS Live and Direct Kick unless otherwise noted. Wednesday 11 July Vancouver at Toronto, 7:00 Saturday 14 July Montreal at Philadelphia, 7:00 Kansas City at Columbus, 7:30 Toronto at New England, 7:30 Vancouver at Chicago, 8:30 Dallas at Colorado, 9:00 Salt Lake at San Jose, 10:30 Los Angeles at Portland, 11:00, NBCSN Sunday 15 July Seattle at New York, 4:00, ESPN DC at Houston, 9:00, Galavision Chivas USA with the week off; Vancouver and Toronto play twice each, with the Whitecaps on the road both times. You could say Chivas actually plays given its USOC game, with Philly, Seattle, and KC playing twice for the same reason. As always, keep it friendly in the neutral PBP thread.
I wonder if MLS intentionally scheduled tonight's match so the Canadians would have something to be vested in. US hatin' Commie bastards, MLS, always catering to the Canucks.
Vancouver with a big loss of Chiumiento transferred to FC Zurich. Will be interesting to see how they respond tonight.
Eckersley is a poor right/Left back but he makes a dreadful centre back. I'm going to bail on this rubbish and watch some cup soccer as soon as it kicks off.
Vancouver looks disjointed without Chiumiento; his ex-teammates must be a bit surprised at his sudden departure. Robson has looked rusty since arriving and today is no different, and he also doesn't seem in sync with his teammates.
Game at least got interesting in the last 10 minutes with 2 1v1s for Johnson. Shame, if you're a Toronto fan, he couldn't finish either.
Did you see both Eckersley and Henry leave the line to go cover a player in the box and Mattocks slotted it right behind them. Ouch.
Definitely talking about the pass. Lovely chip. And yes, Robson looks more "in sync" the second half, doesn't he? Actually, the slot home from the tight angle wasn't too shabby, though probably not qualified as "beautiful".