MLS Kickoff

[andeez nutz]

To be honest- it was the first ever MLS game I watched, but I'm supporting my Philly Union.

I'm going to go the home opener, pretty excited about that.. they have there own stadium being built but it is not finishied yet.
so they are playing where the Philadelphia Eagles play there first two games.

the game last night was ok.
the MLS is so different than what i'm used to watching in Europe.

but our team is the youngest in the league.
the two goals conceded were not bad to give up.

had a few chances at goal.

a few stupid fouls that resulted in early yellows and one sending off did us in.

Alright mate - just realised I never got back to you (Re: the postponed LC-semi derby). I was only in the States until Jan 8, so by the time the match was played I was in Spain. Next time I'm over I'm definitely gonna check out that Fado downtown for City so I'll PM you whenever that is. If I could get over this summer, I'd go and watch the Union but I probably won't be over until the winter.

I'll be following the Union as best I can from over here though. Just watched a youtube clip of highlights from last night - shite 'keeping for both goals but I suppose the defence were flat-footed too. I suppose 2-0's not a complete disaster for a first competitive game. How did Freddie Ljungberg play for Seattle? Is he still as half-arsed as he was during his brief stint at West Ham?

Ljungberg is clearly the best player for Seattle... he missed a few chances he would have been a few years ago. But he is getting older and it looks like he cares a lot less.

about you coming to America- yea mate, hit me up whenever.

[andeez nutz]

The MLS play is horrible but if your going to support one team.....

DON'T SUPPORT SEATTLE!!! They have the worst fans, no knowledge of the game, bunch
of snotty coffee-drinking IT geeks. Still trying to admit to themselves that they are in
every way superior to Portland Timber fans.

Even tried to nick our title, "Soccer City, USA."

But hate, Seattle, to Portland they are a bunch of fair weather douchebags.
I hate them more than I hate U***d, which is saying something.....

And I hear their players eat babies, too!!!

P.S. Sorry for the word SOCCER.

Soccer is a term the English created, and the Aussies have misappropriated. We're just along for the ride as Ugly Americans when it comes to the word. Ask John68. He knows we aren't to blame.

MLS as a professional league gets better every year to some extent, and a few clubs are worth watching sometimes, but as a rule of thumb as a football fan i don't get a throbbing hardon to watch any random match in say the Finnish League or the Belgian or Japanese Leagues and won't over MLS either (just as a comparison to uhm "foreign leagues"), which is absolutely not true of La Liga, Serie A, the Prem and the Coca Cola Leagues. i think the comparison to League 1/ Lower Championship is about accurate. Some fans do get it tho, and there are a few nice football-only stadiums which are in play.

What i have been excited about this season tho is the amount of coverage and buildup to the season which MLS is getting on ESPN and Fox Soccer here in the States...in general, the more exposure football gets, the better.

i watch about 1 MLS match every month, and i am rarely excited by the match i see, tho there are moments when i say to myself "this doesn't totally suck..." usually followed by 10 minutes of sloppy, excruciating longball displays which bring me back down to earth. There are some teams which are attempting to play football tho, no doubt about that.

Interestingly, the best American players obv don't play in MLS, so...in that regard the league will always be hard to watch as an American. Forever. That's probably no different than say the Swedish or FInnish or Belgian Leagues i'm sure.

cheers

I feel exactly the same, and not only because I spend a fair amount of time in the States. I think a lot of English/British people are keen to ridicule Americans vis-a-vis football because it worries us that the pre-eminence of European football might be challenged if it really takes off over there (not to mention a cheapening of the game through a commercialisation of the game as a spectacle).

I see it a different way. I imagine that in ten years or so football/soccer will have overtaken ice hockey, but will never be considered a "national" sport such as basketball and - especially - american football and baseball. I also think that if the States ever got another World Cup the new stadia coupled with a new enthusiasm for and curiosity about the game would make for a mega tournament.

The way to go for the MLS, which I think they've realised, is to nurture the best talent from Central and South America - much like the top clubs in the Premier League do with young kids from Europe. This will raise the bar and make it somewhere that the best young American kids aspire to have a career rather than seeing the MLS as a shop window for a possible European move.

if the US managed to get Thierry Henry, Drogba, Messi, Tronaldo, etc to open up futsal clinics in the inner city and/or rural southwest/southcentral US you could get young black and latino kids interested in this game at a young age which would change the gameboard here in the States.

cheers

Exactly. It has been proved over and over again that sport is most successful when it is working and lower classes embracing the game.

if only Lebron James got into football instead of basketball..

[pears12]

I watched the first half of the Seattle vs Philly game, wasn't the worst standard of football I have ever seen but Philly was up against it when Stahl got sent off for a silly 2nd yellow card..

[gillie]

The nfl team i am a fan of are the Bears been following them donkeys years so i think i will pick the Fire as my mls team how are they doin btw.

[andeez nutz]

The nfl team i am a fan of are the Bears been following them donkeys years so i think i will pick the Fire as my mls team how are they doin btw.

no idea about seasons past.. but they have not played yet this season.

[ryanmjo]

The nfl team i am a fan of are the Bears been following them donkeys years so i think i will pick the Fire as my mls team how are they doin btw.

They've been average the past couple of seasons. Former Fulham player Brian McBride is one of their signature players.

[Alioune DVToure]

The nfl team i am a fan of are the Bears been following them donkeys years so i think i will pick the Fire as my mls team how are they doin btw.

They've been average the past couple of seasons. Former Fulham player Brian McBride is one of their signature players.

Brian McBride must be pushing 40 now but he was quality during his time in England. I suppose he was never that reliant on pace anyway. Juan Pablo Ángel is in the MLS too playing for NY. He absolutely bangs them in.