Purpose? Is there an expressed purpose for this board? What sort of topics should be posted here that wouldn't go in MLS, USMNT, USWNT, A-League, Amateur Boards, etc? Not complaining, just curious. Thanks.
I'll try to pen a forum theme opus later tonight, when I'm not *cough* working, but it's more general than that. If you are talking about just the USA men (why bruce arena?) or just about MLS (Toronto in MLS?), a discussion would go in those boards. Other discussions, more general discussions about cross-league styles of play, etc would go here. Sort of like "The Beautiful Game" thread, only for the US. Sample topics: Champions World Tour: good for US soccer or not? Are Non-US international friendlies played in the states bad for US fans? (like Mexico- Yugoslavia a year ago) Does the Open Cup help amateur soccer if MLS teams always win? And threads like this. You can expect that a lot of threads will be moved here from other forums where they don't apply. It's sort of a catch all, and a place for topics that aren't just about MLS or the USMNT/USWNT. Also, it is a men's and women's board, so a good place for gender comparison threads (can the US men's team learn from women's success, stuff like that). Also, see Knave's threads about soccer history in the US. Things like that didn't really have a natural place before, but it's a good topic. Just remember that the same flame/troll rules of other threads apply here too. This is not the place to start the "Why all soccer players from place X suck" thread. I would expect much less of an issue with that than on club boards, but still know that it's a discussion forum, not a "poster X is an a-hole" forum.
This board was partly my idea so I'll be sure to take some responsibility for posting topics that make sense here to get things going. I've got several ideas - hence my suggestion a while back. But, yeah, it's The Beautiful Game board for the US. So history, general US soccer culture, cross-league discussions - anything that didn't fit into one of the specific US forums because it really was a general US soccer thread could go here. Many of these topics currently languish in the MLS General board even though they're really not just about MLS.
Knave, any reason why posts in this forum don't show up on the front page? SOCCER IN THE USA is a good idea, but it would probably get more traffic if people who don't have forum jump or who don't click on the forum. I mean, I can see why the NSR boards and the BSR (barely soccer related) stuff on the rivalry boards doesn't, but this one probably should.
I think this is basically this is the sewage of all US soccer discussions. Anything else that doesn't fit goes here.