The MLS Playoffs

[Fitzy]

The season is over and it is now time for the good stuff to start! Anyone watching?

[Slogger]

Unless ATH touches on it then, No

[Green Demon]

I didnt catch the whole game last night since I went out but I am actually looking forward to these playoffs. I dont have any real favorite team right now but I guess the team I like the most is New York because I like the Altidore & Angel duo up top. I only wish that they would brodcast more of the games.

[HailtotheYo]

I'm watching, but it blows that Houston and Dallas have to be paired in the first round .... fecking bullshite

[Mr. X]

"All UK football (or soccer) chat goes in here, by popular demand."

[HailtotheYo]

Wow, what a GREAT final. This was awesome. There was a damn good sized crowd at RFK and the match was fun as all hell to watch.

D-Ro played a hell of a game, Houston was spot on in their marking and defensive positioning, and Onstad was unbelievable at the end of the match. This final definately helped the state of soccer in the US and also showed that A- People are out there that give a shit, and B- there is good soccer being played here.

Go HOUSTON ! Another win for Texas !

[JuanJoseNYC]

Notice how there were only 4 cats talking about the MLS playoffs which says something about the popularity of the world's greatest game along these shores. If anyone had ACTUALLY AND REALLY cared about the MLS, don't you think we would have had moe than 7 posts along this thread??

[HailtotheYo]

4 people posting in one thread on one of countless numbers of message boards on the net versus ....

39,859 that were on hand for the final

30,972 that were on hand for the conference final in Houston

30,088 that were on hand for the second leg of Dallas/Houston

not to mention that the LOW att for any of the playoff games was over 10,000.

Yeah, I'm going to go with the attendance figures over one thread on one of countless boards on the net.

That, and we have FAR more people from 'across the pond' or other parts of the world where they get their own soccer.

[Guest Better]

You are right all the Playoffs are off now. But we can still play the games but on our PSP and PC. W can make any two Teams to compete against one another.

[Mr. X]

Notice how there were only 4 cats talking about the MLS playoffs which says something about the popularity of the world's greatest game along these shores. If anyone had ACTUALLY AND REALLY cared about the MLS, don't you think we would have had moe than 7 posts along this thread??

A big problem is that matches are available to everyone. ESPN gets a few and then you have Fox Soccer Channel, which for Dish Network means having a rather expensive package. And, MLS can be pretty awful compared to Premier League matches, granted football isn't nearly as established in America. However, I think guys like Cuauhtemoc Blanco are bringing in some nice highlight packages and fresh foreign players (along with American players) could help the sport grow. It's just going to take a ton of time and will honestly never be at MLB, NBA, or NFL levels of success.

[gunnar hendershow]

Notice how there were only 4 cats talking about the MLS playoffs which says something about the popularity of the world's greatest game along these shores. If anyone had ACTUALLY AND REALLY cared about the MLS, don't you think we would have had moe than 7 posts along this thread??

A big problem is that matches are available to everyone. ESPN gets a few and then you have Fox Soccer Channel, which for Dish Network means having a rather expensive package. And, MLS can be pretty awful compared to Premier League matches, granted football isn't nearly as established in America. However, I think guys like Cuauhtemoc Blanco are bringing in some nice highlight packages and fresh foreign players (along with American players) could help the sport grow. It's just going to take a ton of time and will honestly never be at MLB, NBA, or NFL levels of success.

It will take time, but the league has enough invested in it where I think it will have to be a success. But the major problem the MLS has, and as you hinted at, is that it doesn't have the elite players. The international stars are all elsewhere. If we had a league on a level with the Premiership I can guarantee you casual fans would tune in much more frequently. For me, I'll watch the MLS when it's on since there's nowhere near enough televised matches over here, but given a choice between watching MLS and more or less any other league that gets shown here (We get a lot of the South American and Mexican matches on the Spanish-speaking networks) I would choose the latter.

[Mr. X]

Maybe MLS should figure out some incentives for young international studs to play in the league to up the quality of play. I've seen some fun MLS games and think the quality has improved recently, but signing Beckham is still up in the air and I'd much rather see a young player who has years left who could literally light a spark in the game.

[buck...]

they need to do alway with the cap, does any other leauge have one?

[HailtotheYo]

That's the catch 22 that they're in though. The league has been successful from a business standpoint because of the cap and league control. The fanbase has slowly (but surely) come on board. The league still needs a cap though to keep itself from getting bigger than itself.

The first big time venture into soccer for the United States (the NASL) fell victim to signing 'name' players and overexpanding itself (among other things). The MLS has done it right by limiting foreign players (despite any name value) and promoted North American/United States players. This has drawn the fans into the league on a more permanent basis. The MLS has done an amazing job. Don't fix what ain't broke.

Eventually the model they have for the league will need to be tweaked, but not now.

[Hellfire]

I think the only thing that the MLS needs to do now is advertise more. They need people to actually see that it's exciting and such, nearly everyone plays soccer as a kid, most people still enjoy it, but don't pay any attention to it anymore. Get people to care about their hometown teams, and the main players.