But at least we won’t have to reschedule any games because of the Queen.
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More info on Mid-season tournament announced:
How long until the two merge (it would help if the US annexed all of Mexico, but that’s a political issue), and there is a pro/rel (and no Liga MX “open and close” format, which is dumb, and stop the playoff shit)? That could be seven or eight levels, more if some rando person decides to create a soccer team from scratch, just because they can.
Two interesting ideas but will not comment on the annexation one.
How many good teams of MLS caliber are in Liga? Presumably a merger with the MLS would only involve 3 or 4 clubs similar to Canada having 3 clubs in the MLS? The other Mexican clubs would continue to play in Liga which would be similar to the Canadian Premier League?
The group stages of the tournament also will not feature draws. Both teams will earn a point for a match that is tied after 90 minutes, but a penalty shootout will decide a winner with the winning club earning an extra point in the group stage standings.
Should be doing old school MLS shootouts IMO
The MLS could try to poach the top teams of Liga MX. Due to The MLS’s socialist philosophy (among its owners only, and only for sports) of competitive parity, the Liga MX teams would have to give up a lot of their competitive advantages and acquiesce to drafts and salary caps and other bullshit that help owners get their ROI.
But, I think the imagined league would be a lot more interesting with pro/rel at all levels, AND with a restriction on owners not to move their teams as is the whim allowed by other American sports leagues.
American owners would never go for this. They’re too accustomed to making money for themselves and not running a team for the fans to enjoy.
If we look at 538’s Club Soccer Rankings (disclaimer: I don’t think this is all that credible, though, but it’s probably the one that tries the hardest), Liga MX has six teams above an SPI of 50. The MLS has two.
How about above 40? That puts half of The MLS in there with 16 out of 28. Liga MIX has 14, out of 18.
So, asking how many Liga MX teams The MLS would steal? That doesn’t compute.
Do note that The MLS achieves its parity goal by having the lowest Std Dev of any League in the Top 20. Salary caps and drafts and restrictions on whom from outside the country can play and for which team makes it all an artificial toss-up.
I guess this tournament will provide some evidence (more than the CONCACAF Champions League has) of which league is the better one, in terms of quality of play.
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MLS really needs to figure out a fall to spring soccer schedule instead of a spring to fall schedule. The league losses all momentum once football kicks off (and having playoff games go head to head against CFB and NFL games isn’t the best way to get eyeballs on their product).
Speaking of MLS and playoffs, this sounds terrible:
MLS’ current playoff format includes seven teams from each conference. All playoff matches are single-elimination, giving the league a total of 13 postseason matches, including MLS Cup.
That format will have to change in order to accommodate 30 postseason contests. According to the sources, one possible outcome would be a shift to a World Cup-style playoff tournament. The specifics of what that potential tournament would look like weren’t entirely known by the sources, but one hypothesized that a format could look something like this:
- The top eight teams from each conference would qualify for the postseason
- Those teams would be split into four groups of four teams each
- Groups would be segregated by conference; Western Conference teams would only be grouped with fellow Western Conference teams and Eastern Conference teams would only be grouped with fellow Eastern Conference teams
- As is the case in the World Cup, each team would play three group stage matches, one each against the other three teams in the group
- The top two teams from each group would advance to an eight-team, single-elimination knockout stage
- Like the group stage, the knockout stage would also be divided by conference
So, you’re suggesting they have no momentum at all, competing against fuh-baw and hockey and basketball?
And, OMG it will be soooo cold in Minnesota/Seattle/above the 40th Parallel!!
Better:
Cut to top 20 teams.
Lesser teams form a MLS II with top teams from the league under MLS.
Then, Pro/Rel for three teams.
Play each team twice, home and away. Best record wins the MLS Cup.
I know it’s a radical idea, nothing like it in the world.
They’d be the first MLS team since Chicago to win that.
Trouble in paradise, again.
USC is playing at 7:30PM, five hours after the MLS Cup is over, but parking usually available will not be available on that day. Tailgating shit and all. Not sure how that works: people probably have to reserve parking or something like that, but do they have to state they have this sporting event ticket or that sporting ticket, or, in the rare instance, both sporting tickets?
There is light rail that comes close enough, one end is in Santa Monica, the other is the 7th Street/Metro Center Station, which connects to two other rails, with Union Station a few stops away from a lot of options. Ride with the homeless!
There will be free parking and free shuttle from Dodger Stadium. No homeless on that one.
When I went to ATL @LAFC a few years back, we stayed in Santa Monica and took the train. Thought that worked great, would do again.
Not sure why I have to bump this thread all the time.
So, MLS Cup is over. Congrats LAFC.
Man, I would NOT want to go to that stadium only to have a flag waved in front of me the whole time. I guess it is to purposely prevent fans from watching the product??
It all seems so artificially inflated.
I watched an abbreviated version (2 hours total). One that deleted the red card PLUS Canadian Goalkeeper injury (@cooke alert!). Not sure if that is their first keeper or not. The trip to Bahrain this week (not an international break) had three keepers with one cap among them. Is Milan Borjan Keeper #1?
Borjan is Canada’s #1 keeper. He is one of several foreign-born players with dual citizenship who (thankfully) have opted to play for the Canadian team. Crepeau has been ok with Vancouver and LA but definitely a notch below Borjan in quality. Sad that he will miss the WC though.
Alphonso Davies suffered a hamstring injury on the weekend but Bayern thinks he should be fine to play in the WC.
Watch out, The MLS, there is another retirement league out there, trying to poach has-beens.
The MLS needs to hype the “you won’t be our multi-millionaire slave, and you can say whatever you want in America about your owner and coach” angle.
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MLS wannabe owner decides, “eh, I’ll take half of Bournemouth for a quarter of the cost.”
He probably also didn’t want to play in a shit stadium (arty-turf UNLV), build a fan base, then extort the city to build a stadium or else he’d move the franchise to San Diego. That’s a lot of work.
And, yes, he’s forgetting that running a team in England is a lot of work involving a lot of risk. Like relegation. Is relegation worth a couple hundred million dollars?
RIP Anton Walkes
Always had time for the fans when he was in ATL.
Gonna be a busy summer. This begins right after the Gold Cup ends.
The MLS is playing through the Gold Cup, though.
Does any MLS club have a significant disadvantage as a result?
We’d (i.e., you’d) have to check all the MLS teams with Central American and Carribean country players.