well, it wasnt a chant. it was out and out yelling at him. The yelling wasnt really necessary since it we were so close you could hear the cleats ripping the grass when they ran by us sitting a few (6?) feet from the field. I was impressed at how brutal it could be because there was no anonymity at these things - not like yelling from the stands in the regular games. Staff would show their appreciation by giving us a thumbs up from time to time...
It's finally over. Big win for Miami. I thought Vancouver was slightly better but Miami did well to capitalize on any defensive errors. Vancouver lost all momentum after their first substitutions. Game was very chippy. It says a lot about Messi that he chooses to surround himself with players that spend 90 minutes alternating between rolling on the ground and screaming at the ref.
This is true to a degree. But having the GOAT and getting players like Allende on loan for decent cap hits because they want to play with GOAT provides even more advantages. Also for every Miami, there’s also an Atlanta.
Probably not as low as they were before Müller showed up. But they were a better team before he showed up too.
Best teams in MLS spend quite a bit. Vancouver had some good signings and spent some. And they spent wisely. Cap needs to be raised and there needs to be a minimum for spending to make sure bums like Levien can’t coast.
So Miami is signing St. Clair as GK. MLS has become the WWE. Clearly no rules apply to Messi League Soccer. Are all those guys playing for meal money and laundry allowances? Just utter fecking bull shit.
You're right, we have Farr and Joon, once again DCU has the chance to be a league leader -- in goals allowed. The real point is that if you believe that what Miami is doing is both cap compliant and completely above board you probably also believe Trump when he says he's lowered drug prices 600%.
I agree with this 125% because I once got paid to take some drugs offered by the government. Perhaps that explains why I keep renewing my season tickets....
just received from Garber y sus Banditos: Every MLS Match. One Apple TV Subscription. We hope you enjoyed the Audi 2025 MLS Cup Playoffs and the incredible finish to another unforgettable season (or forgettable for DCU fans). Starting in 2026, all Major League Soccer broadcasts and exclusive programming will be part of an Apple TV subscription* — at no additional cost. The standalone MLS Season Pass service will no longer be offered as a separate subscription. Apple TV subscribers will have access to every MLS match starting next season, as well as hundreds of exclusive Apple Original shows and movies, weekly MLB™ games with Friday Night Baseball, and all Formula 1® races starting in 2026 (US viewers only). We look forward to bringing you every moment of MLS action when the 2026 season kicks off in February. Learn More
You get all of Apple TV free now with your season tickets, too, not just season pass. But yeah, moving MLS games out behind a second paywall is kind of old news.
I have been saying this since this the moment I found out Apple and Adidas were part of the negoiation to bring him to the league. It remains absurd that league sponsors are contributing to acquiring and compensating a player for a single team in the league. There's no Beckham/DP rule coming out of this either. All that is missing to make MLS full on WWF is Caleb Porter running off the sideline with a folding chair to stop the striker on the break.
On the one hand, removing the paywall is objectively good. On the other, if more people see how soulcrushingly vapid the coverage is, it might do more harm than good.
League and club sponsors paying for players to supplement MLS/club compensation has been part and parcel of the league since 1996 - it is nothing new. It is done all over the world. Even long before him, but think Freddy Adu and Sierra Mist, for one. In addition, teams and sponsors would give family members "jobs" as part of the player package.
Pre and post David Beckham, MLS was a very different landscape and paying someone's uncle is a far cry from millions of dollars (tens of millions?), even adjusted for inflation. The closest thing I could find to a league sponsor funding league teams is a revenue sharing scheme in the Erdeivese where the teams who aren't playing in europe get an equal share of 85% of the funds from the leagues primary sponsor with the remaining 15% split among the 2nd division teams in the Netherlands. The Apple funding of Messi's transfer is in a totally different realm and Apple isn't going to be giving anyone else revenue sharing any time soon.
You are not mentioning the single largest "payment" Messi gets - an equity stake in Inter-Messi which will be valued in the hundreds of millions when exercised. Arguably Mr Posh Spice got similarly paid with his $25m option for an expansion team; that team is now valued at ~$1,200m. Agreed, Messi's situation is unusual and there are precious few (Ronaldo, Kylian?) players right now that could demand anything even halfway close to his deal. But it is not absurd and it is not at all unusual for team and league sponsors to make third-party-contracts to bring a player to a team. The fact remains that MLS teams and the league itself (and clubs/leagues all over the world) have long negotiated third-party contracts that never appear on the club's books but should be considered part the player's compensation because the player never would have signed without it. It is no different than boosters paying college students or their family members. Those teams would never have signed those players BUT for the off-the-books, third-party contracts. The scale is vastly greater, but a spade is still a spade. In Freddy Adu's 2003 case - his salary was $500k, but the league facilitated a Nike contract of at least $1m and Pepsi (as well as other companies) have yet to confess how much they were paying him and his family members - but it was easily in the same neighborhood (remember Pepsi was league-wide sponsor back then). It does suck that our current ownership sucks and are pikers compared to the group KP managed back then that could make the Freddy deal happen. Fans of lots of other teams have the same gripe. But thats not unfair, it's just the roll of the dice.