2012 MLS Banter

Discussion in 'General Football & Other Sport' started by Fitz, Jan 3, 2012.

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  1. Timbers

    Timbers Apeman

    Hopefully we should take a step towards our first taste of silverware this season, winning the first leg of the Canadian championship this evening.

    I fancy us for play off in MLS the way things are going at the moment!
     
  2. Fitz

    Fitz Squad Player

    Sounds like Demerit is getting back in form again. Glad to see it!
     
  3. luke_golden

    luke_golden Space Cadet

    What's the deal with LA? Is it just the loss of Omar or is there more to it? How can a team go from winning the cup so convincingly to this, in a couple of months?
     
  4. Fitz

    Fitz Squad Player

    You're going to laugh and roll your eyes, but I blame Beckham. Or maybe AEG for bringing him. Shouldn't a team with Beckham and Donovan score like mad? They don't...they never have.

    This league's winners succeed with balanced strong teams, not with a couple expensive players crammed into a group of average guys. You can buy two or three really strong MLS guys each with the salary of Beckham and Keane and Donovan. Donovan has won the Cup a few times in those balanced teams, but spent half his career with Beckham and only won it once.

    Having Omar covered up a lot of opportunities other teams had to beat the Galaxy over the last few years. Beckham then had the chance to do his thing, to long ball up to some often mediocre attackers who did nothing with the ball, and the Galaxy end up with a lot more draws than Champions normally have and pulled off a lot of undominating 1-0 wins. Yes, all those points count, but what happens when you pull Omar out? The offense never gets a chance to set up shop and get to work scoring. They spend all their time putting out fires.

    The Galaxy have been unlucky in a few games, but the terrible defense is the blame. So yes, Omar, and Bruce for not adequately replacing him, but the Beckham effect for absorbing the salary needed to put the necessary depth on the bench to adequately maintain form in Omar's absence.

    As always, for me it comes down to the salary cap...
     
  5. sonofben

    sonofben Reservist

    Arn't you all like $ 800,000 over the cap. I think I read that some where.
     
  6. Fitz

    Fitz Squad Player

    Without considering Allocation money, that could easily be true. However, allocation money can be used to pay down elements of the salary structure. Everyone can do it, but no one exploits allocation better than the Galaxy, and in particular Brucey. Some teams operate like they don't know it exists at all.
     
  7. krisvad

    krisvad Forum Viking

    Please explain "allocation money".
     
  8. Fitz

    Fitz Squad Player

  9. krisvad

    krisvad Forum Viking

  10. sonofben

    sonofben Reservist

    Everything in MLS is very confusing from Allocation money to the weighted draft and the player allocation order.. it's better to not think about it
     
  11. Fitz

    Fitz Squad Player

    Exactly. Suffice it to say, the is money that allows teams to move the line where the salary cap ends, and everyone resents the Galaxy for doing it better than anyone else.
     
  12. El distraído

    El distraído Johnny Foreigner

    Do you think the MLS should be reformed, so that the league and finances are run like those in Europe? (with the financial fair play of course). It certainly seems very confusing.
     
  13. Timbers

    Timbers Apeman

    No in fact, European clubs should follow the American model to a certain degree of course. Instead of all the top youngsters being tied to the big Prem clubs, they could be attached to the FA and train (and learn a great deal more) at the new high tech centre in Burton and then distributed in a draft. We would have youngsters far more technically superior and not money orientated. We are moving towards a sort of wage cap anyway with the financial fair play as you said.
     
  14. Fitz

    Fitz Squad Player

    With the exception of not having promotion and relegation, I like how the league is structured. The salary cap is really only a problem because it is too low right now. The risk in raising it is that the league may bankrupt itself like the previous North American Soccer League did...that failure is strong in the minds of us 30-50 year old fans because we were deprived of football for a generation until MLS came back around with a plan to do it right.

    Promotion/relegation won't happen because no team owner would invest millions only to see the value of the team vanish after a bad season. Instead of promotion/relegation, US sports leagues do playoffs. Teams that fail to make playoffs are essentially relegated in American terms...they lose the right to play in the lucrative highly televised playoff games so lose revenue and get laughed at by other fans and all that.

    I really like the idea of relegation and promotion though.
     
  15. Fitz

    Fitz Squad Player

    And to cheeky's point of it being confusing, you're right. It is a very complex set of rules designed to keep the league adloat. MLS rules are almost a house of cards. It sticks together because the league and the teams really want to survive in a sports saturated society. Imagine having five well loved and supported leagues competing for mind share in England? Costs, especially for the minnows, would have to be carefully managed. MLS's long term survival looks good, better in fact than ever, but is still not guaranteed by any means. There are still a lot of soccer haters here who would love to see it fail just to say 'I told you so'.
     
  16. Fitz

    Fitz Squad Player

    I've almost never read an article focusing on the Goats that didn't make me sick to my stomach or fill with hate, except this one. Worth a read...

    -la-story-part-one-chivas-usa
     
  17. sonofben

    sonofben Reservist

    Now Chivas has Califf and Agudelo.. watch out Fitz
     
  18. Fitz

    Fitz Squad Player

    That's crazy...good set of pickups for those unlovable losers.
     
  19. Fitz

    Fitz Squad Player

    Califf had a good game...Agudelo started but didn't get much done.
    PK awarded to the Goats who sink it in two tries.

    Ended a lackluster 1-0 to Chivas, their first win against the Galaxy since the early Beckham years.

    Horrible. Losing to Chivas is how Galaxy teams get melted down and recast. This is going to either get busy and interesting or painfully same-ish.
     
  20. Fitz

    Fitz Squad Player

    THE BASICS:
    WHAT: G's (3-7-2) V. Guys In Orange (3-3-4)
    WHEN: SATURDAY, MAY 26 11:30AM PDT
    WHERE: BBVA Compass Stadium​
    [​IMG]

    They have...

    A shiny new stadium:
    [​IMG]
    and
    Brad "Ears" Davis:
    [​IMG]



    The G's have...

    David Beckham holding the leadership torch and "leading" the way:
    [​IMG]
    and
    A Head Coach who "knows what the problem is" but isn't talking..
    [​IMG]



    Some say it's time to:

    [​IMG]

    Bruce says he'll be back soon:
    [​IMG]




    Two things are certain...

    The team is on a downard trend....
    [​IMG]

    and

    [​IMG]
     
  21. luke_golden

    luke_golden Space Cadet

    Hahaha! Very nice! Didn't have a chance to watch the game this weekend because I was in New Orleans looking at boobies from my balcony and getting very very drunk. Glad to see we picked up the win after going down. Bad to worse for LA though! At least you've got your hockey!
     
  22. sonofben

    sonofben Reservist

    We lost to Toronto :dismay: Nowak out!
     
  23. Fitz

    Fitz Squad Player

    Wow... That is Galaxyesque. What a completely unenjoyable season for we Galaxy fans.
    I hope Donovan and Keane announce their departures to Europe as soon as possible so the Galaxy can get started rebuilding the team. I would add Beckham to the list but that would just be delusional.


    Thank Allah for hockey.
     
  24. Timbers

    Timbers Apeman

    Another draw for us, this time against the Timbers, a decent result that really, will always take a point away. We are a couple of games out of sequence now due to the crappy Canadian Championship. Sonofben, see all the great teams loose to Toronto!
     
  25. Fitz

    Fitz Squad Player

    Galaxy just lost to the Carolina Rail Hawks in US Open Cup play. Seriously.
     
  26. sonofben

    sonofben Reservist

    We all knew Bruce didn't care about the Cup, but you would think that maybe he would given a run at this one, to try and make the fans forget their poor league form.
     
  27. Fitz

    Fitz Squad Player

    Arena wanted to win just to avoid humilitation. He didn't play the starters, but he shouldn't have needed to. He still lost... He had a look on his face of total shame and disgust at the end. It just isn't going anybody's way in Galaxyville.

    The beauty of MLS is you can sleep on the first half of the season and just barely nick into playoffs and steal a cup. It has happened many times before...but still, this could not have been the plan.
     
  28. luke_golden

    luke_golden Space Cadet

    LOL!!!!! If it helps, we lost against San Antonio Scorpions. Actually have a pretty decent set-up in SA, played out there a few weeks ago and they have a really nice facility. Wouldn't surprise me to see them gracing MLS eventually.

    Valencia up next on Thursday in some charity match courtesy of BBVA.
     
  29. sonofben

    sonofben Reservist

    At Least I have the Open cup to take my mind off of how terrible we are in the league... Cup Glory!
     
  30. Fitz

    Fitz Squad Player

    This season sucks!
     
  31. sonofben

    sonofben Reservist

    Go to no short corners.com they have the entire 2002 USA Portugal game up on a link.. that always cheers me up
     
  32. Fitz

    Fitz Squad Player

    That is awesome! What a statement game. The only thing better was booting Mexico in the big show!

    Now for something much much less interesting:


    Tinker Bruce and The Omar Conundrum...

    [​IMG]

    That graphic is unreal. If you didn't read the article, red lines are where the goals this year have been scored from, yellow are where the assists came from. Usually Omar Gonzalez would be in the middle of all those red lines.
     
  33. Timbers

    Timbers Apeman

    Luke, your team took a hell of a beating! 3-1 'caps! Our play-off charge continues! We are only 6 points last seasons total I believe, which is pretty amazing
    [yt]_Eq8oR43XVM[/yt]
     
  34. Fitz

    Fitz Squad Player

    I was just about to come out and declare the Dynamo for the cup this year. They still look good, but falling to the Whitecaps is not great. On the other hand, Vancouver is really building a nice team and putting some good performances out there.
     
  35. sonofben

    sonofben Reservist

    Speaking of the White caps.... after watching Gooch play terribly.. i have heard some rumblings that Super Jay should be called back into the squad.
     
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