2011 MLS Season Thread

[GoGo Yubari]

Yeah, Eastern Conference is a giant clusterfuck whereas the West is pretty much locked down. LA clinched Supporters Shield last night, Seattle is a point away from clinching second with a home game vs. San Jose a week from now, and it'd take RSL's imploding worse than Dallas has for them to not place third (frankly, I'd sooner play Dallas; we seem to have figured out how to beat them, though to be fair they did lack George John in their last two games (bar 30 minutes in the USOC).

I'd assume Philly's good to make postseason with the Sounders win, though.

[HailtotheYo]

We seriously need to get rid of Pat Noonan at bare minimum, Jaqua too if we can get two superior striker options in the offseason.

Jaqua serves the Cup/CCL purpose for you, but Noonan is a waste period. If you can nab a quality striker (or if O'Brian White fully comes back) Jaqua will fill the holes and do the "spot" time.

[GoGo Yubari]

I'd be happier to keep Jaqua if he didn't cost so much. He's not useless as a backup option because he does score in non-MLS competition and has gotten some assists, but he's not worth 140K.

[HailtotheYo]

Reports are for 60k plus Saturday for Kellers last regular season home match .... Cannot wait to see the tifo for this

[GoGo Yubari]

It's up to 62K. I'm one of them. Should be an absolutely amazing night, win or lose. Mauro Rosales is going to be on the bench for this one too if we need him, so it might even be my first time actually getting to watch him play live! I keep going to games where he's unable to play.

[HailtotheYo]

It's up to 62K. I'm one of them. Should be an absolutely amazing night, win or lose. Mauro Rosales is going to be on the bench for this one too if we need him, so it might even be my first time actually getting to watch him play live! I keep going to games where he's unable to play.

Clearly there's a pattern, and clearly you're selfishly putting your want to see him ahead of the club's need to have him on the field

Huge game kicking off tonight in Portland vs Houston. Huge for the playoff picture.

[HailtotheYo]

GoGo ... report !

LOL DCU ... you play until the ref blows the final whistle jackasses. DeRo's 90th minute PK looked fantastic, but uh ... not when there's 5 mins of stoppage and Chicago puts one in at the 93rd and 95th ... :lmao:

Awesome game for the Sounders ... they do it again with 2 in the last 10 minutes to take it on Keller's night. Great stuff.

[GoGo Yubari]

Wow, Toronto FC just thrashed FC Dallas 3-0 to qualify for the knockout stages of the CCL. Did not see that coming.

[HailtotheYo]

Yeah, about that .... not happy at freaking all.

Also, I really wish the Sounders would have given a shit last night (I understand why they didn't though), so Monterray would have had the bigger task moving forward.

[GoGo Yubari]

I don't think it was not giving a shit so much as needing to manage the lineup effectively, but I agree. Personally I would have sooner had Keller in for Meredith; I'm guessing they didn't want him playing three games in one week so they're saving him (and his streak) for Chivas, but still. And Meredith wasn't bad for his first game, especially against a top level opponent, but this and the Sounders game vs. Monterrey really shows the difference between him and Terry Boss. A lot of the other choices were necessary evils in order to make sure none of our best players will be forced to miss the first game of the knockout stage, though. David Estrada impressed me last night, at the very least.

[HailtotheYo]

Yeah, he and Ochoa looked pretty darn good. When Ochoa gets to full fitness I think you might've found the answer up front (with a returning, healthy O'White). With Montero sitting behind them and Morales and Zakuani on the flanks next year ?

Erm yeah .... bingo.

[GoGo Yubari]

Well, I don't think the formation is going to be reshuffled so much as it just means that if we can keep all three of Ochoa, Fucito, and OBW (I think only one out of the three will be protected, tops. Probably Ochoa, as much as I love Fucito) healthy and with the team we'll have an honest-to-god quality rotation of forwards next year with Levesque as an acceptable backup. A midfield of Rosales, Zakuani, Friberg and Alonso would be very possibly the best in MLS, too.

I'm assuming Montero coming back is a given unless Ajax really is interested in him and willing to offer a substantial amount of money.

[GoGo Yubari]

That was fucking embarrassing. The single worst game we've played all year at the worst possible time.

[HailtotheYo]

Holy shit, what the hell happened ... haven't even been able to catch highlights yet.

Crap field at RBA and shit turnout as well. Even for the playoffs against the freaking Galaxy they can't get people in the stadium. Snow be damned. Ditto Colorado. What the hell defending champs ?

Houston/Philly was great though.

[Lineker]

I really want Beckham to win the MLS before he presumably leaves.

[GoGo Yubari]

Holy shit, what the hell happened ... haven't even been able to catch highlights yet.

Everyone but Keller fucking sucked. Alonso played his worst game ever and was insanely lucky to not get a red card. Montero couldn't do anything because the midfield gave him fuck-all to work with, too.

Crap field at RBA and shit turnout as well. Even for the playoffs against the freaking Galaxy they can't get people in the stadium.

Weren't there mass power outages? Can't really blame NYRB for that.

[Meacon Keaton]

The environment for the Philly/Houston game was great. It's a shame nobody outside of the stadium gives a crap. :/

The way we've been scoring (lack thereof), I can't imagine us advancing after going down 2-1 at home.

[HailtotheYo]

Weren't there mass power outages? Can't really blame NYRB for that.

Meh, honestly wasn't thinking about that when I posted .... but holy hell the two big dredge ruts across the pitch were retarded. I mean, Colorado got a dumping from the snow and there wasn't anything wrong with the pitch. No excuse there.

At least the 2nd leg should be fun with Seattle just going balls out. Too bad their atmosphere is going to be gone from the playoffs this early.

Semi-final match ups look to be really good though. LA/RSL is as good of a pairing as there gets in the league, and Houston has been as consistently good as anyone the last few years with SKC providing the "new shiny shit" to show off in the next round.

[HailtotheYo]

Seattle pushed it but could only get 2 ... plenty of chances though. Lost a little respect for Espindola after that match. Freaking bitch.

SKC dominated the 2nd leg just like the first. No repeat champions for the league this year. Glad that the new stadium will get more airtime.

[HailtotheYo]

Houston through and they'll face SKC in the Eastern Finals.

NY/LA kicking off right now (the Henry jersey is on and ready to rock the come back )