2011 MLS Season Thread

[HailtotheYo]

board farted, double post.

and uh, Meac:

I personally like the dark blue SKC kit ... the RB dark is fucking class also.

[HailtotheYo]

yeah and while Seattle has those silver bra straps, Colorado has a thong apparently:

[gunnar hendershow]

That's just to keep the golden horseshoe firmly in place.

[Guest Mr. Potato Head]

Those Volkswagen and X-Box logos look photoshopped.

[Guest Mr. Potato Head]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/bruce-dowbiggin/tsn-lands-mls-broadcast-rights/article1891351/?cmpid=rss1

In other news, Canadian national broadcast rights for MLS are reportedly set to jump from a CBC/Rogers Sportsnet partnership to TSN.

The package would give TSN a "game of the week" featuring either Toronto or Vancouver, as well as the entire postseason.

Separate deals for regional coverage of Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal are yet to be announced, but supposedly TSN's on the inside track for those too.

Most importantly, this could mean the return of Vic Rauter to a soccer play-by-play booth near you

TSN's really beefing up their soccer coverage, they've had Noel Butler start writing columns for their website and just landed broadcast rights for EURO 2012 and 2016.

[HailtotheYo]

Isn't TSN pretty much ESPN in Canada ? I mean they have SportsCentre and all right ? I know the CFL games I get from "TSN" look EXACTLY like ESPN football productions.

If so, this may or may not be good news for the league's domestic rights. If ESPN gets them, they'll pay more than what the league is getting but I doubt it will be worth the treatment the network will give them.

I'd really like the NBC/Comcast merger to hurry up and flesh out enough to see if VS is a viable option.

Blah, stupid money and stuff.

[Guest Mr. Potato Head]

Isn't TSN pretty much ESPN in Canada ? I mean they have SportsCentre and all right ? I know the CFL games I get from "TSN" look EXACTLY like ESPN football productions.

If so, this may or may not be good news for the league's domestic rights. If ESPN gets them, they'll pay more than what the league is getting but I doubt it will be worth the treatment the network will give them.

I'd really like the NBC/Comcast merger to hurry up and flesh out enough to see if VS is a viable option.

Blah, stupid money and stuff.

ESPN owns something like 10% of TSN. There's absolutely no connection between rights deals in the two countries though, Rogers Sportsnet had Sunday Night Baseball (taking the ESPN feed) for most of the 2000s, for example.

[HailtotheYo]

Final render for Houston's stadium, which has its groundbreaking in the very near future:

The Anelka rumors have popped back up but this time there are two key differences. Fernando Torres in at Chelsea, and RBNY have a 3rd DP slot open now.

Caleb Folan possibly moving over.

Chicago Fire sign Uruguyan forward Gaston Puerari.

Also, an interesting tidbit about the NY Cosmos saga. Right now they're an "Umbro Team" ... and that doesn't fly with the MLS being and Adidas league.

[HailtotheYo]

Hans Backe, HC of NYRB:

“I'm not sure I care about the MLS Cup, (but) we need to be No. 1 after 34 games; then you’ve proved you’re the best team in the U.S. Then of course you can see with a Cup what you can do. But that, for me, is more like a mini-tournament for five games. Being No. 1 after 34, that's the target for me and the team.’’

[HailtotheYo]

Eric Hassli (FC Zurich) is Vancouver's first DP. Good 'technical' kind of striker and is a true striker (which the team didn't have yet) and if he can stave off the little injury bug he should be a pretty good player in the league. He has a good scoring record for Zurich and has played at the Ligue 1 level as well.

Honestly he's the type of guy I'd like to see the league sign on a 2/1 kind of mark in terms of "DP quality" guys. He may or may not put up huge numbers but he appears to be one of those guys that will help the team tremendously in other ways (like mentoring the 6'4 Salgado).

[Lineker]

When does the season actually start?

[Guest mr. potato head]

Not sure about the first game in the whole league but March 19 is Toronto/Vancouver in the first game both both those teams.

[GoGo Yubari]

Sounders vs. Galaxy is on the 15th, I think that's the season opener.

[HailtotheYo]

Indeed, First Kick is the 15th with LA/SEA and then the weekend of the 19th/20th is the full slate of games.

In huge news (relative of course) U20 Colombian starlet Fabian Castillo has signed with FC Dallas. Oscar Pareja is doing a fantastic job with them and getting into South America and getting these guys (Ferreira/Chavez and others). These are the types that usually get snatched by Euro or big Argentine/Brazilian clubs. This is pretty big news in the bigger picture.

Kerrea Gilbert deal is looking to be dead now (boooo) citing "Too many personal issues" according to the spokesperson for the Timbers FO.

Andrew Ornoch on trial with Toronto.

[Meacon Keaton]

That sucks for Portland. Their defense is going to be the drizzles.

[HailtotheYo]

BigAppleSoccer is reporting that Teemu Tainio has signed with 'daaaa Bulls

[Guest mr. potato head]

Alas, TSN's MLS broadcast team will be Jason De Vos (good) and somebody named Luke Wileman. James Cybulski and Noel Butler in the studio.

But there are a handful of double-headers, so maybe we'll get a little bit of Vic Rauter here and there.

[HailtotheYo]

FSC has pulled Dellacarma AND Allen Hopkins from ESPN ... Dellacarma for the Friday games and Hopkins for the Saturday games apparently. That's pretty significant actually.

[GoGo Yubari]

So anxious about tomorrow's game with LA. If we can beat them we can beat anyone. Unfortunately, we never beat them (beating their second-stringers in the US Open Cup last year doesn't count).

[Meacon Keaton]

Yeah, I'm not expecting us to do much this year. But hell, with ten teams making the playoffs, we have a damn good shot of sneaking in. And once the playoffs start, all bets are off. I'm more excited about soccer season starting than baseball.