So, nothing happened, I take it. Finding no news about an additional suspension.
Chicago hires Berhalter as both HC and football director. MLS teams have not been in the practice of hiring one guy to do both jobs for many years. The only guy with that arrangement now in the league is Vermes, and that’s basically a throwback to a prior era when he was first hired by KC.
I think it’s generally too much to ask of an individual to do both jobs at a high level. I feel the same way about that arrangement in the NFL, where a few have tried and failed.
Not about Berhalter but in the ESPN article about it:
The Fire, who have a bye week, will play their final match of the MLS regular season against Nashville at Soldier Field on Oct. 19.
Uh, the whole MLS Soccer has a “bye week.” It is called an “International Break.”
Not sure who is carertaker of the wiki site for The MLS Soccer, but:
Looking at the attendance charts, top ten attended matches of the season:
- Inter Miami on the road have six of the top ten attendances for the season.
- Atlanta FC was one of those, and they have two others.
- Charlotte played NYCFC for #6 on the list.
- LAG vs LAFC was #2 at The Rose Bowl 7/4/24 on the list.
However, the by-team attendance figures show Sporting KC with the highest attendance of the year, consistent with the top game, but the #2 high single-match attendance team is ATL, with the third highest attendance match of the season.
So, why is the El Trafico de Los Pasadena excluded from LAG’s attendance?
Oh, because it is not their usual home site? If that is the case, then why is Sporting KC’s top attended match shown as the one played at Arrowhead?
Is it considered a “neutral site match”? Meaning, the revenues are split between the teams? Trying to find some verification for this.
An even simpler explanation: for whatever reason, the by team stats were last updated 5/15/24 before El Trafico took place.
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Ah. That is why the teams only have 8 or so home games?
No one cares enough to update the wiki page of The MLS Soccer. Sad.
OK, The Cup stage of the season is upon us, now that the regular season is over.
Surprised to see LAFC over the LAG, seeing as they were behind recently. They win the Western Shield, maybe. Is that a thing?
Inter Miami breaks regular season record for points. Yay, them, buying a championship, er shield, and beating lesser teams with their retirees, I guess.
Meanwhile the most popular team in the league, by far, in terms of attendance tickets sold, Atlanta United, need to win one on the road in order to get at least one more home match.
(The Wiki is still not updated.)
So, let’s settle in and watch the worst playoff teams battle it out. Western Conference has a Cascade Clash (?)
Then, we will take 20 days to determine the winners of Round One. Then International Break. Then back to the Conference Semi-Finals, which are, thankfully, only one match each.
Then Conference Finals, only one match each.
Then, and only then, The MLS Cup, played in, TBD, on date TBD. Time TBD.
Can’t wait!
I think the Whitecaps tanked at the end of the season so as to get one more home match against Portland.
So, this is apparently a thing:
And people have angry opinions about their team “owning” it. As if their whole belief system is being questioned.
EDIT:
Apparently this is a long tradition of a thing. Sometimes an actual long spoon!
I like that the supporters council created a physical trophy
So it looks like Miami are headed to the Club World Cup.
FIFA are really pushing the boundaries of fairness here (Miami are definitely not a world class team, but FIFA wants to market the US and Messi a lot more)
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Fairness has never been an important principle for FIFA, or MLS for that matter
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It looks like ATL might just pull this off. I may get the pleasure of Messi playing here when it matters.
Of course I had that here in Copa America, but I wasn’t rooting against him then.
Guzan has surprisingly been pretty good this season after an ugly season last year, but that was a howler.
Maybe not lol.
Will ATL open up the upper deck vs MIA, or keep it in the typical soccer configuration of 42k seats?
My vote is strongly towards keeping the upper deck closed. That’s home field advantage. If they open the upper deck, they will get droves of MIA and Messi fans. Of course that will happen, because $. I might consider seĺling my seats. They are pretty good, and under usual circumstances you have opportunities to interact with home and road players. Messi rules are different, and many folks don’t realize that.
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Friday’s Atlanta United playoff match at Miami will be streamed for free by Apple TV.
Nice!
You mean for basic AppleTV subscribers, or for everyone everywhere?
“We’re offering Friday’s match to fans worldwide on MLS Season Pass at no cost to celebrate an amazing season and Messi making his first-ever appearance in the MLS Cup Playoffs,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Services.
MLS is considering moving the calendar closer to Europe:
There are lots of good things that would happen with this, but I can’t see outdoor soccer being attractive in Dec and February in several markets (CHI, MIN, TOR, NE, MTL, SLC, DEN). Several others wouldn’t be great then either.
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