MLS thread?

I honestly feel a little guilty that we don't at least make an effort to keep an MLS thread going.

For whatever it's worth, the MLS All Star game is tonight as a group of MLS starts faces off with Bayern Munich in Portland. Great setting for this kind of thing, as Seattle and the rest of the Pacific Northwest support soccer like nobody's business. It's basically friendly rules, with 10 subs allowed to both sides, but with a shootout scheduled to happen with no extra time in case of a draw after 90 minutes. It's on the tube at 9:30 tonight. USMNT fans will see familiar faces as Clint Dempsey, Matt Besler, Deandre Yedlin, Mike Bradley, Graham Zusi, and Nick Rimando are all on the MLS team. Landon Donovan is there as well, along with Thierry Henry, Obefemi Martins, Bradley Wright-Phillips, Timmy Cahill, Mo Edu and other notables.

Bayern brought a big squad including the familiar faces from the German national team, new boy Robert Lewandovski and of course US starlet Julian Green (sure to get a least a quick runout).

Personally, I much prefer the old East vs West format for the MLS All Star games, as I really feel that playing these barnstorming European teams in their pre season is a waste of everybody's time. But hey. If you're going to waste a couple of hours, at least you get to see some really good players go hard with very little pressure. That usually leads to some attacking fireworks.

I live in the Boston area. I would most certainly go to games if they happened in the city. Unfortunately they are in foxboro which is an hour and a half out of the city in the patriots stadium which is way too big and far away from the field for the right atmosphere.

I grew up a fan of the original NASL New York Cosmos with Pele, Beckenbauer, Carlos Alberto, etc. (yes, I'm that old) I'm a MLS free agent now. The only MLS teams I've seen are the Galaxy and Chivas, in the US Open Cup against my hometown Carolina Railhawks from the NASL. For whatever reason, my daughter is a Portland Timbers fan, so maybe I'll adopt their hated rivals, the Seattle Sounders.

I'd much rather the East/West format too. Watching the first half, the MLS side looks like a typical All-Star outfit with little cohesion. In the meantime, Bayern are near the end of their tour and have been playing together for a while and it shows.

A couple of terrific goals by Bradley Wright Phillips and Landycakes give the All-Stars a 2-1 win. And in a classless move, Guardiola and his staff wouldn't shake hands with the MLS coaches and he tried to keep his players away from the All Stars.

andyt said:

A couple of terrific goals by Bradley Wright Phillips and Landycakes give the All-Stars a 2-1 win. And in a classless move, Guardiola and his staff wouldn't shake hands with the MLS coaches and he tried to keep his players away from the All Stars.

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Yeah ... I didn't get that move by Pep at all. Buddy, it's an exhibition game. He threw a lot of his firepower out there really late, but if it meant that much to you to win, maybe you should have thought about subbing in Robben, Goetze, Schweisteiger and Mueller before the last 10 minutes. Caleb Porter played it straight up like an exhibition ... subbing out basically his entire roster at the half. All in all, for a collection of guys who don't play together I thought the MLS guys did a really good job. The win surely makes them feel good, but they generated plenty throughout the game.

And for the record, I have pretty much settled on Seattle as my MLS team. And to my credit, I did so BEFORE they went out and got Dempsey last year. I dunno ... I don't like New York or LA teams as a rule and Seattle has always gotten a lot of play on their TV coverage and their fan support is epic. So that's who I found myself rooting for.

I did follow the Tampa Bay Mutiny when they were in the league, mostly because they had a local Raleigh/NC State kid playing. And when Atlanta joins the league in 2017 I'm enough of a Southerner that my allegiance will all but surely shift to them.

Pep wants a rematch next year. Alonso's challenge was crap but Johnson's was a 50/50 ball and he stepped on Schweinsteiger's foot. It happens.

Bottom line ... there was nothing in either of those plays that doesn't happen in pretty much every competitive game. And the LAST thing MLS needs is to play an exhibition game against one of the most talented clubs in the world playing with a chip on their shoulder.

Landon Donovan announced that he'll retire at the end of this season.

http://www.espnfc.us/#los-angeles/story/1976532/donovan-to-retire-at-the-end-of-the-season

andyt said:

Landon Donovan announced that he'll retire at the end of this season.

http://www.espnfc.us/#los-angeles/story/1976532/donovan-to-retire-at-the-end-of-the-season

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Hmmm. He's what, 32? Been a pro since he was 17, that I know. So he's been doing this a good long time at a pretty high level. While he had a bit of a career resurgence last season after spending all that time off, he's really not been that good this season for Galaxy. I think he's only scored four goals for them in all competitions and everything they do on offense now runs through Robbie Keane. He's left to play a sort of wild card attacker role and most of the time when I've seen them he just doesn't look like his heart is in it. He still gets up for big moments though, so casual followers can get a bit baffled by those comments.

I'd rather see players go ahead and retire while they still have some legs than to slip their way down through the ranks. There's some dignity to going out while you still have a little game.

I think it's clear he lost his love and drive for the sport a few years ago. He still obviously has the talent to keep playing at a high level, albeit probably not for 90 minutes every game, but I think he's just kind of burnt out.

VinatieriDefinesClutch said:

I think it's clear he lost his love and drive for the sport a few years ago. He still obviously has the talent to keep playing at a high level, albeit probably not for 90 minutes every game, but I think he's just kind of burnt out.

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Yeah ... Roger Bennett had a really good long form interview with Landon last summer at the Gold Cup and he really did seem torn about continuing his career even at that point. And that was when he was still fresh from his sabbatical. I've never really liked the guy all that much personally, but I appreciate all he's done for soccer in LA and for his country. He was a big game player and never scared of carrying the burden of being the focus of other teams' marking. Guys like him and Clint Dempsey don't grow on trees and sometimes it's hard to step back and gain some perspective on their impact.

Donovan will retire as probably the best and most important offensive player in USMNT history. Not even close to shabby.

My daughter is pretty upset with all the reports that he has the most caps and that he's the leading scorer in US National Team history. He leads in both those categories among men, as the US Soccer website correctly points out. His 57 goals put him behind 7 women, his 58 assists put him behind 4 and his 156 caps put him 17th all time, nearly 200 behind Kristine Lilly.

Just correcting the record. :wink

andyt said:

My daughter is pretty upset with all the reports that he has the most caps and that he's the leading scorer in US National Team history. He leads in both those categories among men, as the US Soccer website correctly points out. His 57 goals put him behind 7 women, his 58 assists put him behind 4 and his 156 caps put him 17th all time, nearly 200 behind Kristine Lilly.

Just correcting the record. :wink

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She's entirely correct, although most sports writers and reporting agencies tend to view the mens and womens games as two different sports.

Not saying they're right in doing so, and it sure would be nice if they'd put up the womens number as a reference if nothing else.

jeffbear said:

She's entirely correct, although most sports writers and reporting agencies tend to view the mens and womens games as two different sports.

Not saying they're right in doing so, and it sure would be nice if they'd put up the womens number as a reference if nothing else.

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She also hates Donovan. So he'll get no credit from her.

I've watched more MLS games this year than the last five years, combined. Generally the Galaxy (the first hometown team), though I have watched some other matches, too. Those Northwest crowds sure know how to fire up a football fanatic

Galaxy seems to have got its stuff together once they moved Robbie Rogers to left back. Took care of a problem area for the team, and he's a confident, menacing player going forward. Meantime, young striker Gyasi Zardes looks more and more like a young man who will contend for a spot on the national team sooner rather than later.

Post All Star update on the standings in MLS, as they are moving into the playoff stretch. Most teams have 12 or so games left to play.

East PTS GP
1 Sporting KC 39 23
2 D.C. United 37 22
3 Toronto FC 32 21
4 NY Red Bulls 28 23
5 Philadelphia Union 27 23
6 Columbus Crew 27 23
7 New England Revolution 26 22
8 Chicago Fire 25 22
9 Houston Dynamo 22 22
10 Montreal Impact 14 22

West
# Club PTS GP
1 Seattle Sounders 41 21
2 Real Salt Lake 39 23
3 FC Dallas 36 23
4 LA Galaxy 34 20
5 Vancouver Whitecaps 32 22
6 Colorado Rapids 30 23
7 Portland Timbers 30 23
8 SJ Earthquakes 24 20
9 Chivas USA 23 22

Top 5 from each Conference get in the playoffs. So there's a real dogfight in the East with 5 teams within a 3 point cluster and three teams in a similar grouping in the West. Seattle, Real Salt Lake and Sporting KC have all lived at or near the top all season and look like the favorites, although MLS playoffs always seem to produce at least one shock finalist.

Since I don't follow it too much, what happened to Houston? They had a few deep runs IIRC.

HNIM said:

Since I don't follow it too much, what happened to Houston? They had a few deep runs IIRC.

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Lately their playoff runs have come in the Cinderella fashion. They haven't really been a force in the regular season in awhile. Another old line power in DC United was absolute garbage for 3/4 years before rebounding with a nice season thus far.

Galaxy had been playing so well since the ManU fiasco, then they lay an absolute egg vs. the Crew. Was busy over the week-end, so only saw portions of the second half of that match, but man were they poor. Zardes' goal delighted me and gave me a brief moment of hope but it was not to be.