The MLS/USL/NWSL Thread

[9 to 5]

2 hours ago, Lineker said:

 

Best news.

[fourstarfizzle]

Inter Miami could sign God to their team and they'd still be mostly mediocre.

[Roster Depth Sicko No. 2]

Amazing signing for an amazing club.

[Hobo]

But can he do it on a rainy night in Minnesota?

[Meacon Keaton]

Union looked like ripe ass right up until two minutes before halftime. Evened it up on a penalty, came out after the break like a house on fire to take a 2-1 lead, and we're granted another penalty. Went from "Christ, we can't keep possession or keep up with Columbus' pace" to being up 3-1 in the 73rd minute. Just had to work off that rust. 😎

edit: 4-1  Go back to Ohio, ya nerds

[LittleDaniel]

Ayyyyy Minnesota can actually score without Reynoso!

[fourstarfizzle]

Atlanta left is late but got the win. Impressive 67,000 in attendance too, glad they're still hitting big numbers.

[GoGo Yubari]

OL Reign won tonight too! 

(it was a pre-season friendly)

[Szumi]

This is a pretty good example of why I love the pure chaos of MLS 

Plus St. Louis City in its first match goes on the road to Austin, one of the best teams last season, and comes back from 1-2 down to win 3-2 late on. Thiago Almada also had two golazos in that Atlanta comeback. Just straight chaos.

 

[fourstarfizzle]

10 hours ago, Szumi - A Polack said:

This is a pretty good example of why I love the pure chaos of MLS 

Plus St. Louis City in its first match goes on the road to Austin, one of the best teams last season, and comes back from 1-2 down to win 3-2 late on. Thiago Almada also had two golazos in that Atlanta comeback. Just straight chaos.

 

The best part of the two Atlanta goals is it's all down to the Quakes, who in the 2nd half decided they were all made of glass and went down every 20 seconds to try and kill the momentum, so built up a huge injury time clock.

[GoGo Yubari]

Sounders won 4-0 

Also in "MLS is back" news can we talk about how absurd the playoff format is this year?

[fourstarfizzle]

It's a joke, 62% of teams can now qualify, and they have to play Best-of-3 games in Round 1? It's just desperate.

[gunnar hendershow]

I assume it's to avoid pesky first round upsets that knock out the best teams, but aggregate tends to accomplish they just as effectively with one less game.

Overall it makes the regular season largely meaningless if 18 teams are in some form of postseason play.

[Szumi]

7 hours ago, GoGo Yubari said:

Sounders won 4-0 

Also in "MLS is back" news can we talk about how absurd the playoff format is this year?

Everything about it is stupid. Last year was PERFECT for me. 

It's the one terrible part of this new Apple deal. This is all because of Apple wanting more playoff games (and owners wanting a home playoff game each). Single elimination has clearly been best, but it doesn't give you enough matches like they want.

Best of 3 is stupid because you can get blown out one match, but win your two matches on penalty kicks and advance. It's so stupid! If you want more matches, just do a home & home advance on aggregate like Champions League. Do that for the Conference QF, SF, and even Conference Finals if you really want.

But best of 3 and then single elimination is so, so stupid.

3 minutes ago, damhausen said:

I assume it's to avoid pesky first round upsets that knock out the best teams, but aggregate tends to accomplish they just as effectively with one less game.

Overall it makes the regular season largely meaningless if 18 teams are in some form of postseason play.

That's the irritating thing though! Regular season STILL matters if you're a top club. Union got absolutely robbed by VAR twice last season (to the point MLS had to admit the error after both matches); they would've had the Shield last season. I mean, they would've if MLS did it by GD instead of Wins too, but I digress. If Union had home field for MLS Cup last year, we would have won MLS Cup, no doubt about it. 

It still matters to get top spot, but yes, it's way too many teams in the Playoffs.

[Meacon Keaton]

Every American sporting league is killing my interests in regular season games/matches with their post-season changes. They're making the regular season of every sport obsolete. It's all becoming that joke in BASEketball.

[GoGo Yubari]

4 hours ago, damhausen said:

I assume it's to avoid pesky first round upsets that knock out the best teams, but aggregate tends to accomplish they just as effectively with one less game.

IIRC the idea is to go straight to PKs if the match ends in a draw so I don't think this idea even does that. It's just "let's get more games in there for Apple," I think.

[gunnar hendershow]

1 hour ago, Meacon Keaton said:

Every American sporting league is killing my interests in regular season games/matches with their post-season changes. They're making the regular season of every sport obsolete. It's all becoming that joke in BASEketball.

And they'll all start to wonder why players just sit out meaningless regular season games.

[OctoberRaven]

wrong thread

[GoGo Yubari]

How have Austin managed to commit two of the most brutal own goals I've seen in a while in just over two weeks?

[GoGo Yubari]

what a night for CCL