Major League Soccer season begins

[g]

today/tonight

Toronto FC 0 - 2 Columbus Crew FT
Chicago Fire v Real Salt Lake
Houston Dynamo v New England Revolution (two best teams in MLS)
D.C. United v Kansas City Wizards
David Beckham's Los Angeles Galaxy v Colorado 'Arsenal in disguise' Rapids

tommorrow

Chivas USA sponsored by Giuseppe Franco v FC Dallas

New franchised team San Jose plays sometime later, and next season Hahahamanns own Seattle FC or whatever will be there. Shortly after Convey's Philly should have a MLS side. MLS is pretty dull but it's cheap to watch.

[papereyes]

today/tonight

Toronto FC 0 - 2 Columbus Crew FT
Chicago Fire v Real Salt Lake
Houston Dynamo v New England Revolution (two best teams in MLS)
D.C. United v Kansas City Wizards
David Beckham's Los Angeles Galaxy v Colorado 'Arsenal in disguise' Rapids

tommorrow

Chivas USA v FC Dallas

New franchised team San Jose plays sometime later, and next season Hahahamanns own Seattle FC or whatever will be there. Shortly after Convey's Philly should have a MLS side. MLS is pretty dull but it's cheap to watch.

Newly franchised? Didn't they win it a few seasons back?

I watched abit of Colombian football a few days ago. Now there's a league. Defending - sub par. Attacking - headless chicken impressions. Temperament - dodgy.

[g]

They might of, but now they have a team and coach and are back playing MLS. They folded and went to Houston and then instead of returning back to San Jose they built two teams, and San Jose had to assemble a new squad. No idea about the workings probably RoyalChicago knows more about it.

[papereyes]

They might of, but now they have a team and coach and are back playing MLS. They folded and went to Houston and then instead of returning back to San Jose built two teams. No idea about the workings probably RoyalChicago knows more about it.

That's just silly.

[g]

that is what makes the MLS enjoyable, building a soccer specific stadium, football club, and assemble a squad with coaches and manager, before a ball is even kicked.

[crossie]

Woohoo, i'm gonna actually follow it this season. I'm a Real Salt Lake fan. Drew 1-1 v. Chicago Fire.

[Rich@Eaststand]

This might be a dodd but our very own Shaka Hislop is writing a weekly blog for the Guardian covering the MLS.

First one is here.

[g]

nice rich

David Beckham's LA Galaxy look horrid. They have 0 chances of winning the league. 3 mediocre players (Landon, Xavier and Becks) and the rest look like school boys. They decided to travel the world as their preseason and it hurt them. They look exhausted. Houston looked pretty tired aswell and they had a long preseason which they lost frequently.

Short prediction/summary:
Eastern conference:
Chicago Fire - look decent
Kansas City Wizards - a surprise win, could be surprise package this year
Toronto FC - best fans in MLS, worst midfield, 0 chance of winning league
Columbus Crew - average
DC United - average
New England Revolution - strongest team IMO
New York Redbulls - aging squad, but Jozy and Angel very accomplished strikers, playoffs

Western conference:
Club deportivo chivas USA - should improve on last year
Colorado Rapids - great win over LA but usually a poor team? possible surprise
FC Dallas - lots of injuries and suspensions, will struggle, average
Houston Dynamo - back to back league winners, looked incapable of winning, might lose it this year
LA Galaxy - 3 man team, LOL
Real Salt Lake - average
San Jose - new team, horrible season, thin squad, 0 chance of winning league

With Philly and Seattle getting franchises, possible places for Convey and Hahners to end up? Wouldn't be surprised. Talks of Thierry Henry going to the new Seattle franchise.

I tip the NE Revs to win the league.

[papereyes]

Toronto have Danny 'I could play for Italy' Dichio playing for them.

NE Revs have that Twellman, who is meant to be pretty decent up front.

The strikers tend not to be too bad. Its the defence they need to work on.

[soggy biscuit]

LA Galaxy start the season off with a 2-0 win, Beckham & Donovan with the goals.

Here is Davey Boys goal
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yFiDFoEdCw

Additional - Here is Beckhams performance on an American TV programme earlier this week

http://www.redlasso.com/ClipPlayer.aspx?id=974213a3-b1b5-448c-966e-fa7b4a330061

http://www.redlasso.com/ClipPlayer.aspx?id=fe680eaa-1b87-439e-adb9-5f3423d696a0

[crossie]

Where's this thread gone? Anyway...Beckham scored two long-range goals to equalise for LA Galaxy against Real Salt Lake. Galaxy are now 2nd in the Western Standings. It's a shame he can't do that for England.

Other recent results are:

(3rd May) Kansas City 1-2 Columbus
(3rd May) Chicago 3-0 New England
(3rd May) Chivas 0-0 Houston
(3rd May) Dallas 0-0 San Jose
(1st May) New York 1-1 Toronto

FC Dallas are current leaders of the Western Standings, Columbus Crew are leading the Eastern standings.

[RoyalChicagoFC]

Well, I guess I pretty much gotta get in on this one...

Right, the Fire are looking just terrific and won the Thursday nite game on national cable TV, 2-0 away to DC. They'd beaten New England 3-0 away last weekend (and this after beating them 4-0 at home in the season's home opener) and are good value for their 5W-1L-1D start (and LOL @ MLS continuing to render it W-L-D NHL-stylee). Their lone loss suffered to this point was 1-0 at home to Kansas City on a goal conceded during the first 5 minutes.

So for the second straight season, the Fire are off to the best start in franchise [sic] history. 'Course, as soon as they started hyping it in radio ads for ticket sales last year, the side went into a horrific slide --but of course they kept on playing the ads for the next six weeks anyway ("The Fire are off to their best start in franchise history --come on out and see 'em!"). They ended up making the playoffs by beating Becks & Co at home on the last day (when in truth a draw would've done).

Anyway, here are brief highlights from the recent DC game; comedy defending on the first goal (don't blink), and some individual brilliance on the second --MLS in a nut's hell, in other words. It was like that in last weekend's game at New England, with their the first goal the result of some fine buildup play and a very nice piece of skill from Nate Jaqua on the finish, and the next two a pair of comedy numbers. What the f'ck, right --we'll take it.

Struggling defending champions Houston Dynamo come to town next week. I expect the locals'll get clocked and go into a tailspin that lasts until the final six weeks of the season, during which they'll work the miracle that gets 'em into the playoffs --where they'll overachieve until going out in depressing fashion.

More here:
MLS home page @ MLSnet.com
MLSnet.com video portal
MLS Y'allTube video channel

[PlasticRoyale]

I'm going to support a team for the season based on who's got the best kit

[RoyalChicagoFC]

I think the one El Lay introduced with the arrival of Dave last year is actually pretty cool, in particular the dark shirts. You see 'em absolutely everywhere these days, and their ground-sharing cLOLassico rivals Chivas USA (oh gawd ) have a pretty spiffy kit, too, that's of course modeled after their sibling club down in Guadalajara (and hands down the best club crest in the league).

DC United (jeeeezuss ) just added Volkswagen as their shirt sponsor --shirt sponsorship is a recent addition to MLS-- and they at least looked pretty badass as the Fire were creaming them t'other nite.

The Fire's old away kit --white shorts, white tops with a red band across the chest and CHICAGO written across it in white letters-- was sharp-lookin' in a quirky sort of way. A few years ago, somebody got me one of their home shirts (red the dominant theme, with a white band across and FIRE written on it), and I never wear the thing. They've added Best Buy as their shirt sponsor for this season, and the resultant kit --the home reds especially-- looks absolute dump and urgently requires a re-think.

FC Dallas' is okay with the red/white hooped motif, and New York's with the enormous Red Bull logo isn't half bad (but they've got to get the shorts sorted). Part of what I find that makes the league so hard to watch is the generally crummy caliber of the kit styles --New England Revs, Kansas City and even DC before the addition of the VW label on the shirts are just hard to look at for 90 minutes in those awful bland strips that are a decade out of style and never looked any damn good in the first place (much like the NFL in that regard). Even Columbus, in that distinctive canary yellow number of theirs, somehow manage to make it look obnoxious.

[g]

FC Dallas' away kit this year is blue and white hoops.
I quite like it.


I managed to go to a few games.. They had a community night a few weeks ago where alot of people who worked for the city got to go for free. It was on ESPN around the world (North and South America). It was suppose to be the one game a year where the stadium is actually full capacity and they use the shots to advertised... however they planned it during a minor league baseball game occuring 5 minutes away and the crowd was pathetic.

When I heard Reading join up with an American team I thought it would be great. Crystal Palace have their own team they built here, Chelsea does too. Arsenal have a deal with Colorado Rapids. I think there might be a few others. I think all of the big four have an amatuer of their own. Chelsea really gets involved in America when it comes to talent. When I found out we didn't even create a team, instead joined with one, and the bay city rollers of that. I was laughing my arse off. Really shows what potentional Reading have.

Btw the streamer thing is soooooooooooooooo gay.

[RoyalChicagoFC]

Saw that new Dallas shirt on the highlights loop last weekend g --very sharp, and much nicer than the red, mm hmm. I neglected to note that Colorado's is a nice hue, much like that "redcurrant" thing Arsenal had going on during the final Highbury season (and not coincidentally so, although that swirly sky-blue piping is unnecessary).

RSL have a funky thing going on with their kit, sort of a nod to that of the Spanish national team (but they gotta get out of that awful college gridiron stadium with the fake pitch and into their new home muy pronto --aside from the fact that the game never was meant to be played on the stuff, it's really hard to look at on TV).

Well shit anyway, all this good work by the Fire going for naught as the Eastern Conference sides continue their early-season dominance over their Western counterparts (table below), with New York winning away to Los Angeles and Columbus beating expansion San Jose on the road on Saturday nite.

Struggling DC kept the motif going as they played away to Chivas in the weekly Sunday afternoon game that goes out nationwide over one of the Spanish-language networks, winning easily 2-1 and conceding only late.

Among the myriad absurdities of the league --of U.S. sport in general, really-- is the two-conference system that forces a fan of a particular outfit to cheer for sides in the other conference to beat one's intraconference foes in head-to-head matchups, thus increasing one's own chances of doing better in a weak conference without the absolute necessity of posting an excellent record. With a league now 14 teams strong and two more on the way, could we shift to a single-table format and an identical list of opponents leaguewide already, please?

More absurdity: a pair of Continental friendlies coming up, and then qualifying for South Africa right after. The league rolls on nevertheless as guys in the national team setup take to the air, so teams like L.A. and New England in particular are going to be running with short squads in a few weeks' time. By then, high summer will have set in, and of course there's nothing more fun than chasing a ball around for 90 minutes in ungodly heat and humidity. Anyway, look at the disparity between the conferences:

Current table (W-D-L)
EAST
Columbus.......6-0-1 (18 pt/+5)
Chicago.........5-1-1 (16 pt/+10)
New England...4-1-3 (13 pt/-1)
New York.......3-2-1 (11 pt/+3)
Toronto........3-1-2 (10 pt/-1)
Kansas City....3-1-3 (10 pt/-1)
DC..............2-0-5 (6 pt/-5)

WEST
Colorado...... 3-0-4 (9 pt/+2)
Dallas..........2-3-2 (9 pt/+2)
Los Angeles...2-2-3 (8 pt/-1)
Salt Lake......2-2-3 (8 pt/-1)
Houston.......1-4-2 (7 pt/-3)
Chivas.........1-2-4 (5 pt/-5)
San Jose.......1-1-4 (4 pt/-4)

Week's matchups (times Eastern U.S.; home sides listed first)
THU 15th Colorado v. Salt Lake (live on ESPN2 9:30 PM)
SAT 17th Toronto v. Columbus (4:00 PM); New York v. Kansas City (7:30 PM); New England v. San Jose (7:30 PM); Chicago v. Houston (8:30 PM); Chivas v. DC (live on FSC 10:30 PM)
SUN 18th Dallas v. Los Angeles (live on local affiliates of TeleFutura Spanish-language network 3:00 PM)

[crossie]

RSL have a funky thing going on with their kit, sort of a nod to that of the Spanish national team (but they gotta get out of that awful college gridiron stadium with the fake pitch and into their new home muy pronto --aside from the fact that the game never was meant to be played on the stuff, it's really hard to look at on TV).

'greed, the players must have a hard time knowing which lines are which. And i quite like their home shirt, along with the Galaxy's.

[RoyalChicagoFC]

Yup, plus there are extraneous markings --gigantic blood-red script logos of the University of Utah-- all over the place, such as the middle of the pitch and splashed across both 18-yard boxes. To the TV viewer, it looks like a Rorschach test for acidheads that somebody cobbled together in the immediate aftermath of a mass shooting, and it can't look much better to the poor schmucks who have to play on it.

Another LOL @ MLS/ESPN: they used to do the national cable game of the week on ESPN2 on Saturdays but switched it to Thursday evenings last season. Thing is, the long-established time slot for CSI --still the most popular show in the country-- is the hour beginning at 9:00 PM Eastern on Thursdays. Genius.

So at least with tonite's game being played in the Mountain time zone and a late-ish kickoff at the Dick, I'll only have to miss about the first 25 minutes. Idiots. Just buy Setanta and FSC out of their contracts with the Premier League, and start showing us proper football on Saturday and Sunday mornings between August and May f'r cryssake.

[RoyalChicagoFC]

With one point in the table separating the two sides going in, Colorado maintained utter dominance over their junior Rocky Mountain derby rivaLOLs Real Salt Lake by posting a 2-0 win in the Thursday nite game televised nationally over ESPN2.

Pretty boring stuff it was until late on when the hosts bagged two, which was just as well given that I was engrossed in the season finale of CSI for the first 30 minutes of the match (and word to our overseas CSI geeks: do keep eyes peeled for that ep when it screens over across --massive shocker!). Colorado now sit alone atop the Western Conference on 12 points from their 8 matches played.

On Saturday afternoon, the high-flying Columbus Crew were held to a goalless draw away to Toronto FC. Later, hosts New York Red Bulls and the Kansas City Wizards played to a 1-all draw in another all-Eastern Conference tilt, with New York drawing level on 81' after being reduced to ten men four minutes earlier.

As predicted in these very pages, the Chicago Fire returned home from a smashingly successful road trip and succumbed 1-2 to the insufferably cocky and dirty Houston Dynamo in a match played under a soaking rain and presided over by a thoroughly incompetent Canadian referee sent down as part of some sort of bi-national exchange program (and with his deputy the fourth official being a woman, who would have spelled him in the event that he had suffered an injury; I don't have an issue with that per se --but, in all frankness, this woman looked as though she hasn't missed a between-meal snack or taken a brisk walk for any purpose, save perhaps for that of fetching a Whopper with onion rings and a strawberry milkshake, over the entire course of her adult life).

The Fire were in full command over the first 15 minutes but dithered too much in possession whenever scoring chances arose and failed to make their early dominance pay (sound familiar?). Houston --who notched their second win of the season (second in a row, in fact) and now sit just four points off of the Western Conference lead-- opened the scoring against the run of play with a rain- and deflection-aided shot from outside the area.

They were offside when they scored their winner on 82' from a freekick of the kind that the referee repeatedly awarded to the away side all nite while letting them get away with felony battery at the other end. He really ought to've been deported and given a swift kick in the ass on his way back across after that performance, the myopic little Canuck cazzunter.

New England Revolution emerged the only victorious Eastern Conference side this weekend as they thumped visiting expansioneers San Jose Earthquakes 2-0 at Gillette Stadium on Saturday.

DC United looked set to continue the maddening early-season pattern of Eastern Conference dominance over Western opposition when they scored first away to Chivas in Saturday nite's FSC game, but the hosts bagged three over the final 17 minutes to win --Chivas' first ever of the come from behind variety in what is their fourth season of existence.

On Sunday, FC Dallas hosted the Los Angeles Galaxy and found themselves four goals in arrears on 40' after a furious quarter-hour blitz from the visitors. Sir Dave had a quiet day until very late on in the proceedings --I had to look hard to see if even he was out there in the first quarter of an hour-- as most of L.A.'s attacks began with balls played long out of the back and up the left into space, whence Landon Donovan ran utterly wild against a hapless Dallas back line.

With fifteen minutes' normal time remaining, Dallas' Canadian defender Adrian Serioux (ex-Millwall) came flying viciously into Beckham in possession by the near touchline and immediately got a well deserved sending off for his troubles. Becks gave him a good shove, and other Dallas players and touchline staff gave Dave a mouthful, which he returned in kind; his own teammates had to escort him away and calm him down, and he picked up a booking in the bargain. Five minutes before the end, Beckham fired in a terrific cross that Edson Buddle headed into goal to complete his third league hat trick and a 5-1 thrashing of the hosts. Check out the highlights if you can find 'em.

Coming up soon will be three USMNT friendlies --England at Wemberz on Saturday the 31st, Spain in Madrid on 4th June and then Argentina back here at Giants Stadium on 8th June, and then two legs of do-or-die CONCACAF pre-qualifying for South Africa against Barbados on the 15th (home) and 22nd (and don't laugh --Grenada really put our boys thru their paces last time, at least in the away leg). As to who goes and who sticks around to play in the league, who the hell knows. This week's slate of games gets going on Wednesday, with Toronto v. DC (and those two playing again at DC on Saturday).

Current table (W-D-L)
EAST
Columbus.......6-1-1 (19 pt/+5)
Chicago.........5-1-2 (16 pt/+9)
New England...5-1-3 (16 pt/+1)
New York.......3-3-1 (12 pt/+3)
Kansas City....3-2-3 (11 pt/-1)
Toronto........3-2-2 (11 pt/-1)
DC..............2-0-6 (6 pt/-7)

WEST
Colorado...... 4-0-4 (12 pt/+4)
Los Angeles...3-2-3 (11 pt/+3)
Houston.......2-4-2 (10 pt/-2)
Dallas..........2-3-3 (9 pt/-2)
Chivas.........2-2-4 (8 pt/-3)
Salt Lake......2-2-4 (8 pt/-3)
San Jose.......1-1-5 (4 pt/-6)

Week's matchups (times Eastern U.S.; home sides listed first)
WED 21st Toronto v. DC (7:30 PM)
THU 22nd San Jose v. Houston (live on ESPN2 10:30 PM)
SAT 24th Columbus v. New England (live on FSC 7:30 PM); DC v. Toronto (7:30 PM); Dallas v. Salt Lake (8:30 PM); Colorado v. Chivas (9:30 PM); Los Angeles v. Kansas City (10:30 PM)
SUN 25th New York v. Chicago (live on local affiliates of TeleFutura Spanish-language network 3:00 PM)

[RoyalChicagoFC]

They might of, but now they have a team and coach and are back playing MLS. They folded and went to Houston and then instead of returning back to San Jose built two teams. No idea about the workings probably RoyalChicago knows more about it.

That's just silly.

I keep using the adjective absurd and variants thereof --and I ain't the only one. Read on:

It was the eighth game of the season, but Thursday's showdown with the Houston Dynamo felt like the true rebirth of the San Jose Earthquakes.

The Quakes beat the team they replaced, a 2-1 victory over the defending Major League Soccer champions that was their first at home and their most complete game of the season.

"I felt like we looked like we belonged out there," Coach Frank Yallop said.

It was a sentimental and gratifying night for the 10,046 fans at Buck Shaw Stadium who cheered every announced starter for both teams save for three --the three Dynamo starters who never played in San Jose.

"It was not only a win, but a win against the old Earthquakes," said forward Kei Kamara, who scored in the 67th minute, settling a header from Ned Grabavoy before spinning and tucking the ball into the Houston net.

The ties between the teams were unavoidable. Was the pregame display of championship banners one-upmanship? Or an exclamation point on the oddity of the meeting? Whatever the motive, when the 2001 and 2003 championship banners were carried onto the field as the teams walked out, they were exhibited to the team that won them: the Dynamo.

Since it was packed up, shipped out and renamed, the Dynamo has added two more titles, proving itself to be the best team in the league. But Houston has a post-championship hangover this season --perhaps brought on by continued league ridiculousness-- and came to Buck Shaw needing a win.

So did the new Quakes, who outplayed Houston through the first 80 minutes Thursday. Their second goal came when Ivan Guerrero buried the deflection of a Ryan Johnson shot. The Quakes then held off a determined Houston surge in the waning minutes to win.

The connection between the teams isn't just personal. There's an eternal bond in the deep absurdity of the way Major League Soccer operates.

Consider the preposterous chain of events:

• A championship team plays in a college stadium deemed inadequate. The public doesn't want to finance a stadium. The owners, Anschutz Entertainment Group, threaten and bully. The commissioner does nothing.

• The team is ripped from San Jose and moved to Houston. Many employees are laid off; the rest are uprooted.

• Five months later, a new owner is found for a San Jose expansion team, Lew Wolff, who was never contacted in the earlier "intense" search for local ownership.

• The relocated team wins championships while playing in a college stadium deemed inadequate. The people of Houston make it clear they will not finance a new stadium.

• Last month, MLS Commissioner Don Garber sends a letter to Houston owners saying a new stadium must be built. Garber, in all his infinite wisdom, warns --we're not kidding-- that the Dynamo might have to be moved. Houston's mayor characterizes it as a threat.

• The best part? Garber cites the expansion San Jose team as an example of how well things are going elsewhere in MLS.

MLS: Theater of the absurd.

Back in Houston, the team has entered a flirtation with Texas Southern University that would result in a shared-use stadium --not part of Garber's world vision-- but those talks have stalled. It's reminiscent of the on-again, off-again talks with San Jose State. Apparently, AEG's ineptness (unlike the championship banners) stays with the franchise, no matter where it goes.

Here in the South Bay, the Quakes are playing, again, in a small college stadium. Granted, it's a temporary arrangement, but Buck Shaw will be the team's home for at least three seasons. It is a pleasant, intimate setting that feels more like a high school venue than a professional sports site. It doesn't capture the raucous claustrophobia of Spartan Stadium.

Tuesday, the San Jose City Council voted unanimously to approve a $132 million development deal, selling a Coleman Avenue site to Wolff and his partners --a step toward a new stadium. But there is still plenty of work required before a soccer stadium is a reality: Wolff's 78-acre site in Edenvale must be rezoned for housing. Wolff's plan is that the housing development will pay for the stadium. An Environmental Impact Report is in the works and the debate is just getting started. Some critics think rezoning, in this economic climate, is a bad idea.

"It's a good first step," Keith Wolff said of Tuesday's news. Lew Wolff's son is president of Wolff's development company and is working on the stadium issue. "But these transactions take time."

With such a crazy past, who knows what the Quakes' future will bring? But Thursday night, they were officially reborn.