Agreed! The irony is real with that team. Their head of scouting Sean Howe was with DCU for a period in some capacity a few years ago. I don't remember what. Add his name to the long list of former DCU players, coaches, and front office staff to have gone on to success elsewhere after leaving this trainwreck of an organization. Phlly vs Chicago was a treat to watch from a neutral perspective too. I forgot what feeling joy was this year. Sell the team Jason. Please.
Vancouver is really interesting. They started off the season as the best team in the league and it wasn't even close. As the season dragged on (they were in about 10 competitions this season) and especially after they lost the Concacaf final, they looked downright middling. Then they signed Müller and they started ticking off wins at a terrifying clip again. But they are absolutely not playing like the team that they were at the beginning of the season. They've become largely one-dimensional; the offensive strategy seems to be to pass the ball to Müller and watch what happens.
FTRB - but they fired their coach after being in the final last year but missing the playoofs for the first time in 15 years (now that is something akin to accountability). But in true DC fashion, they also let go their "head of sport" and elevating De Guzman (their version of Chad Ashton?). Could it be that their Chad figures out his agent should be the new coach? Armas is looking for a new job, too.
t kinda feels as if our season was pretty much over shortly just after it began and we have just been playing "un"-friendlies with minimal purpose for the 7.5 months.... oh wait, it's been groundhog day for 13 years. Tradition! But when Wazza got here to play it was like finally not stepping in the pothole full of water....
The Nashville/Miami match was quite entertaining. Good to see Joe Willis still plying his trade after so many years in the league. The play was entertaining on the "old time hockey" sort of way. Chapman clearly had swallowed his whistle and was letting everything go.
People always talk about fall-spring, but it's usually pointed out how dumb that would be here and that talk ends - I wasn't aware talk ever got to the schedule-makers or that they'd weirdly take it seriously. How the hell do you have a "single" table with "five divisions" seems to be conflicting things. Where'd that quote come from?
Eh, global warming pretty much washes this out in the next 5-10 years. In the meantime, everyone up north owns good jackets and hats. I’m still wrapping my brain around it but the article states that teams would play 10 games against their division rivals (home/away) and then play the entire rest of the league (24 teams) either home or away, alternating each year, to get to 34 games. The division winners would be guaranteed playoff spots and top seeds while the single table dictates the rest. I don’t completely hate it. I’d love if Seattle and Portland and/or Vancouver were paired up for a road trip, for starters. Overall it’s actually a much more balanced schedule than what the league has now. The Athletic
Yes, I have to say I don't hate it. The article in the Athletic taught me aspects of the current schedule that cause real financial problems when it comes to player transfers. For example, I've already seen the problem with selling a key player mid-season and sabotaging a team's chemistry. But I didn't understand the aspects of free transfers and peak value of players that MLS was dealing with.
From a transfer value perspective, it’s a no brainer. From a weather perspective, it’s largely a wash. Cold weather extremes in the north can be assuaged to some extent by road trips and indoor games (Vancouver). Having fewer games in the extreme summer heat (and the increasing amounts of subsequent thunderstorm related issues this time of year) is largely a good thing. I’d personally rather bundle up at a cold game than sweat through my shirt in DC humidity. Winter games in northern locales can also be shifted to the daytime. It doesn’t solve everything, but that broadens the window of games played throughout the day, which has business value. From a competitive standpoint, it’s a no brainer. Summer is when the big moves happen in MLS and it’s either teams losing star players or veterans coming into teams after a European campaign and not having much time to make an impact. Aligning the windows makes a ton of sense in this area. From a marketing perspective, getting the playoffs away from NFL/NCAA football and out of a FIFA international break is an absolute no brainer. MLS having their premier games in a window that goes up against NBA/NHL playoffs and being held in better weather is far more palatable than the current setup against football in November/December. My biggest concern is how the league handles the transition. If it were possible to do in conjunction with the World Cup next year that would dovetail nicely, but I think that ship has sailed.
Does it really make all that much of a difference who a league is configured when 60% of the teams make the playoffs? You'd no doubt have division winners who have won less than half their games, but MLS lets losing teams in the playoffs as things are now. That being said, how are you going to configure the divisions and the perfect balanced schedule when MLS expands to 32 teams, which probably is two or three years off in the future? It would make more sense to hold off on reconfiguring the league until MLS expands to 36 teams and then you could divide the league into two divisions, an upper division and a lower division. Wait! Wait! Did I just say Pro/Rel?
In the real world, this is by far the dumbest thing that MLS (a league renowned for doing dumb things) has ever done. It's going to absolutely eviscerate attendance in all but a handful of cities. Obviously Montreal and Chicago and Denver and Boston and Salt Lake and Minnesota but if you think someone from Dallas is going to stand in the 50• rain for two hours, then you don't know anybody from Dallas. For a league that defines itself largely by its fans, that's an immense problem. I mean, I'm just one person but I am pretty much done going to games in person once they make the switch and I hang around on an internet forum called BigSoccer. The transfer value perspective is the dumbest possible reasoning. Yes, the windows will align. Whoop dee damn doo. On the other hand, the standard of play is going to fall off a cliff since the ball is going to be a rock and the players are going to be skating around on snow and ice. This, for example, would be an early-season game: And if you think players are going to want to come and play in those conditions, or think that playing in those conditions will help their career, well, I don't know what to say. I'm old enough to remember Thierry Henry absolutely refusing to play in the snow. In October.
[QUOTE="Q*bert Jones III, post: 43327115, member: 55792".[/QUOTE] No idea which of the above analyses are "correct", but I do appreciate reading them!
If you stop playing in December and January, there’s not much difference than it is now. They start in Feb and go to the beginning of December. The bigger issue is the division idea and a single table.
I prefer watching a game in the cold rather than the heat (I'm sure I'm in the minority on this) but one of the many problems with this plan is that play would start up again in late July so teams would be still playing in the hottest part of the summer.
I was surprised to see July listed as well. Though, I’d imagine to balance the winter games that the Minnesotas and Torontos of the world will get an oversized amount of games to begin the season.
Paul Tenorio is reporting that MLS owners voted to flip the schedule today, and the new format begins in 2027. There will be a 14 game "sprint" season between February and May 2027 to make sure teams aren't idle while the calendar flips.
Slight tangent for the evening: In a matchup of DC United legends, Eric Davis and Jose Fajardo help propel Panama over Aaron Herrera and Guatemala in World Cup Qualifying tonight. Fantastic, dramatic game. Herrera was excellent as Guatemala came back from 0-2 down in the second half to tie, before conceding to Fajardo’s game winner minutes later. Guatemala miss out on the World Cup, Panama can do no worse than the intercontinental playoff and can qualify automatically with a better result than Suriname on the final Matchday.
Panama has an easier last match, too, as they host El Salvador while Suriname has to go to Guatemala.
Will Guatemala be interested in doing Panama any favors after just being eliminated by them and regional rivalries? I’m not saying they’ll throw the game, but if they rotate heavily and lack motivation, Panama’s hands might be tied.