2010 Major League Soccer thread [R]-90% Fitz and Ben

If you are reading this thread, you should watch this:

"So the Galaxy must have been pretty pissed, huh?"

God bless Letterman.

 

0:53
Galaxy 1-0 Union
De La Garza, not Buddle...

 

Buddle scores his 8th in the 27'.
2-0 to the G's.

 

Buddle scores his 9th...
G's 3-0 Union

Plus a red card to former Galaxy player Stef Miglioranzi.

 

Union grabs a sleepy short sided goal in the 85'.
3-1 to the G's.

 

Rumor has it Luke G. will be in attendance at the Houston Dynamo/FC Dallas match Wednesday, and the Dynamo are coming off a big 3-0 win against Chicago.

 

Rumours are correct. I am excited. I've never really paid much attention to MLS games when they have been on TV. I'm not going there to compare it with football here because the differences are clear, i'm going with an open mind and looking forward to finding out about the American soccer experience. The team doesn't seem to get any exposure here, but i like the way the fans are one orange mass.

 

It's going to be a long season....

 

from Nick Green's Blog.

MLS & Player Union ratify CBA

84% percent of players voted to approve the agreement, the MLS Players Union said Tuesday.
Owners ratified the deal within the past week, league spokesman Dan Courtemanche said.
The collective bargaining agreement was reached March 20.

Recapping the key provisions:

*All players 24 and over with 3 years of MLS service receive guaranteed
contracts.

Minimum Salary for Senior Players
2010 = $40,000
2011 = $42,000
2012 = $44,000
2013 = $46,500
2014 = $48,500

*Players whose contracts have expired can go into a re-entry draft.

Salarycap/Budget
2010 = $2.55 million
2011 = $2.68 million
2012 = $2.81 million
2013 = $2.95 million
2014 = $3.10 million

...and there you have it.

 

Colorado 0-1 Galaxy

Yesterday was the first time the Galaxy have ever won in the Mile High altitude of Denver Colorado.

Now off to Seattle for Saturday's away game.

If you are in LA, come by my house! We are having a viewing party and a BBQ.

 

Buddle again?

 

Some chap called Gordon. Dunno who he is or what he's done to Buddle.

 

Alan "Mr. Galaxy" Gordon






He's the butt of a lot of jokes...yet he's the longest serving current Galaxy player. He is also the player that scored on AC Milan that fateful day Beckham lost his marbles and decided to fight the Riot Squad.

[yt]zJ6s_irQKTU[/yt]

He was a legend for the Portland Timbers when he played for them just out of college, scored a ton of goals, then came to the Galaxy and began to look like a spoon in the knife drawer.

He's the perfect target so long as there is no one else around him and he can score with his head. The only time I remember him scoring with his feet was his goal against AC Milan.

 

Incidentally, Buddle was a terror all night scaring the bejeezis out of the Rapids defenders. He was very close to scoring 4 times, and just didn't get them to go. He could easily have had another brace last night.

The guy is just on fire.

 

Galaxy 4-0 Seattle
It was a complete destruction of the Sounders in their own ground, in front of a sold out crowd of 37,000.

 

What's made the difference this season Fitz? Seems you G is performing well above last season?

 

Krisvad, you are right...this Galaxy team is better than they were last year, even with their appearance in the MLS Cup Final.

I attribute the difference to:
1) One more year of Bruce Arena's plans and molding of the team falling into place
2) The Draft of Michael Stephens this year, 2009 rookie of the year Omar Gonzalez and his mate AJ Delagarza, and the 2008 rookie of the year Sean Franklin. See #1 above...
3) Acquiring the Brazilians form Sao Paulo, Juninho, Cazumba and Leonardo. Particulary Juninho who is giving the Galaxy midfield a bit of sophistication in the possession and passing, though all three have contributed and will be called upon to give depth to the team over the next few months, particularly during the World Cup.
4) Less divisive atmosphere in the locker room with Beckham gone. I really hope he never comes back.
5) The sheer luck of Edson Buddle's massive early season performance. It's been amazing and very helpful He's a constant threat to the other team and it makes it easier for others to go to work and tear defenses up.

Next week's home game against Toronto will be Donovan's last game with the Galaxy through the World Cup, so this team will be tried a tested. Arena seems to plan to use Clint Mathis in a playmaking role in Donovan's place alongside Juninho. If Buddle gets the callup to the World Cup camp, the G's will be scrambling even more to keep things going, and in the form he's in, it may be hard to keep him off the roster.

Should be an interesting summer for the Galaxy, but good thing for the G's that there is some breathing room in the table and a solid plan in place for playing personnel during the World Cup.

 

This is classic:
GoSounders.com: Season Ticket Holders to Get Money Back for LA Disaster

 

Well i got my first taste of MLS action last wednesday and it was quite an experience. The atmosphere was very strange, i think mainly just because it was so different to anything i have experienced here.

The evening started off meeting a few Dynamo fans in the parking lot for a couple of beers and the customary questioning about all things English. The atmosphere was relaxed it was clear that everybody was there to enjoy themselves.

Entered the stadium and was immediately handed a free programme and rather surprisingly - considering it was still about 80 degrees - a poncho. Thankfully there was no rain as all the stands were uncovered. Settled down in my seat and enjoyed the luxury of drinking a couple of beers as the action unfolded. I use the term action fairly loosely as the game itself was pretty poor. Not that many people around me seemed to notice as everybody seemed fairly deep in conversation with the people around them. Except the Mexicans behind each goal, who spent the entire 90 minutes bouncing up and down, with a band conducting the chanting. Being something of a local derby, the 100 or so Dallas fans who had traveled the 5 hours south also did their part to improve the atmosphere, although it was lacking in any of the intensity that would be found in a local derby here. The locals took a particular dislike to Fernando Torres lookalike Brek Shea, although i couldn't work out why. Maybe just because he was wearing a hairband. Dallas probably had the best player on the pitch in Dax McCarty, a combative midfielder who always looked to play a pass, along with a few well timed bursts into the box.

All in all, it would be impossible to try and compare the match day experience to how it is here, but i must admit, i had a lot more fun at a game than i have had here for a long time. I'll certainly be investing in a season ticket once my move there is complete. It was just a lot of fun, perhaps helped by the fact i had no real affiliation to either side, meaning i was able to just enjoy the game and everything that came with it.

 

.... especially the poncho?

 

Nice, Lukey. Yes, it is what it is, isn't it?

It's not a posturing/posing atmosphere at MLS games, as it is in a lot of other countries for football.

Dallas are quite poor, and the once proud Houston are a shadow of what they once were with Canadian Osama bin Laden lookalike Dwayne De Rosario featured in the midfield.

How was the ride out to the ground? I hear it's pretty far from civilization, but I've never been.

 

I've been wearing it ever since. Even on the plane.

 

I think you've hit the nail on the head Fitz. It is what it is. It's never going to be like European soccer, but that isn't such a bad thing in many cases. I enjoyed myself a lot and the fans who do go are passionate, even if they do show it in different ways to how we do it over here. The atmosphere was enjoyable, rather than intense, or just plain boring as you'll find at most Watford home games. Got to check out the cheer leaders at close quarters as well. Very impressive. (sorry afanof)

I wasn't impressed with either team to be honest. Neither of them looked up to much. As i mentioned before, only McCarty stood out as looking like a decent footballer. Dynamo were missing Ching though, which hit them hard when it came to creating things. The rest of the game was scrappy, with players often choosing the wrong pass, if they even tried to pass it in the first place. Then again, i know it's early in the season and i suppose with the play-offs, the start of the season isn't quite as vital as it is over here.

The ride out to the ground wasn't too bad. It's a journey i'll be doing a lot next year anyways as i'm hoping to attend the University of Houston myself. Everything seems out of the way in America, to an Englishman who is used to having everything centralised in one location. I wasn't driving either so i suppose that helped. My girl lives about 45 mins from downtown Houston anyways so i was expecting a journey. As for civilisation.......this is Texas, you dig?

 

Regarding the poncho, the thing about East Texas is if you don't like the weather, just wait a minute because it will change.

You never know when a downpour will arrive.

Not like LA, baby. 300+ days of sunshine a year!

 

Houston are getting destroyed by the champs RSL 3-0 inthe 60th minute. Dynamo are terrible...

 

Looks like Thierry Henry is headed for NYC to play for the Red Bulls after the World Cup.



We'll see if it helps he can give New York a hand or not...

 

I want Del Perio

 

Demo screen for Palm Pre's Real Soccer 2010:

 

Henry and Angel.. that should be fun to try and stop..

 

Throttle them in the midfield, starve them of the ball. Good midfield teams with strong defenses should do OK.

By the way, the G's AJ DeLaGarza handled Theirry Henry and Lionel Messi well last year when the Galaxy played them.

 

Galaxy have 26 points on 10 games after tonight's Buddle-less, Donovan-less 1-0 win over FC Dallas.

Dallas is not good.


2010 - Eastern Conference Table

RK....TEAM............P....GD......Pts
1.... Columbus.......7....7........17
2.... NY Red Bulls..9....-3.......15
3.... Toronto FC....8....-2........10
4.... Chicago........8....-1..........9
5.... Kansas City....7....0..........8
6.... New England...9....-4........8
7.... Phila. Union....7....-8........4
8.... DC United......8....-12.......3


2010 - Western Conference Table

RK....TEAM..............P....GD....Pts
1....Los Angeles......10....14....26
2....Real Salt Lake....8.....6.....13
3....San Jose............7.....4....13
4....Houston.............9....2....13
5....Colorado............8....2....13
6....Seattle..............9....-3....12
7....FC Dallas...........9....0.....11
8....Chivas USA........9....-2....10

MAN! Do I love to see Chivas at the bottom.

 

Sunday is another crappy friendly. In the last crappy friendly against Barcelona which 91,000 watched at the Rose Bowl, Alecko Eskandarian got a concussion which ended his career, and another player went out for a few weeks on injury.

This time it's against Boca Jrs. Riquleme is injured and won't be playing. The other big guns are absent for injury or World Cup duty.

No Donovan, no Buddle, Galaxy have a skeleton crew of non-injured players.

This has stink-fest written all over it.

I'm still going. What else is there to do on a Sunday afternoon?

 

D.C United my new second favorite team

 

It'll get better buddy...takes some time.

Hey, I am seriously planning to be out for the October Galaxy/Union game...

 

NYRB thumping Trezeguet and Del Piero's Juventus in New York 3-0, with all goals coming in the 2nd half in the run of play. Very nice looking goals really.