Major League Soccer on GTPlanet

  • Thread starter JohnBM01
  • 42 comments
  • 4,206 views
JohnBM01

JohnBM01

20 years!
Premium
26,259
United States
Houston, Texas, USA
JMarine25
There is no MLS thread on GTPlanet... until now. Whether you like this style of football or not, it's America's premier soccer series. With 14 teams (and with expansion teams in Seattle and Philadelphia), the MLS is continually trying to expand. Those two teams are called the Seattle Sounders FC and the Philadelphia Independence FC. I heard there COULD be two more expansion teams by 2012 (maybe St. Louis and perhaps Montreal).

The MLS playoffs start off soon. The usual suspects will probably be my Houston Dyanmo and the New England Revolution as far as teams to watch. My favorite three-headed monster for the Dynamo are Brian Ching, Dwayne De Rosario, and Stuart Holden. While the MLS isn't as popular as (the other kind of football), at least this is a series where you can enjoy the beautiful game... American style.

For fans and followers of Major League Soccer, I've created this thread for you all. I may chime a few times on some matches from the playoffs as well as any random chatter on the MLS. You're a fan of the MLS? I made this thread for you. We can get started with the MLS playoffs for this year.
 
I've tried to watch MLS football but I just can't get into it. I don't know what it is about it but it's not exciting like European football or International football like the World Cup. Maybe it's because we aren't a football nation.
 
I think with MLS at least from what I hear of it, it's growing in popularity but it's growing slowly. If you go back far enough there were virtually no stars in MLS, now you have a few albeit start nearing the ends of thier playing careers. The level the teams in the competition are playing will reflect the popularity of the league, as/if it's popularity continues to grow then the level should grow with it as more money becomes involved and bigger names become attracted to the league preferably before thier 30's.

Out of curiosity, is there just one division in MLS or do you have a tiered league system with teams getting promoted to and from the MLS?
 
We have an Eastern and Western conference. When you asked about a tiered system, only series that comes to mind for me is the J-League in Japan. The J-League has J1 and J2. If you do great in J2, you can get promoted to J1 and compete with the better teams. Do poorly in J1, you get demoted to J2.

The MLS may have to bank on teams in football stadiums to get more teams to play. I actually watch a few MLS matches besides my Houston Dynamo. All I really know is that Houston and New England are the teams to watch.
 
In England we have a pretty big league nad non-league setup, it's a bit like this

Premier League - The top league
Championship - 2nd tier
Division 1 -3rd
Division 2 - 4th
Conference - 5th
Conference North / Conference south - 6th tiers

Below the conference you have a large array of local leagues and tornaments. The conference and Conference north and south divisions are non-league, the top teams in the conference get promoted into the league and the bottom teams in the league get relegated from it. The promotion and relegation applies to every step of the tier I listed.
 
Premier League - The richest
Championship - The closest
Division 1 -The best
Division 2 - The worst
Conference - The hopeful
Conference North / Conference south -The Part-timers

Breakdown


Premier League - 3 go down

Championship - 3 go up - 2 automatic and 1 is decided from 4 teams in the play offs. 3 Go down.

Division 1 -3 go up - 2 Automatic and 1 via Play off's, like above from 4 teams. 4 go down.

Division 2 - 4 go up - 3 Automatic and 1 via play play off. 2 go down.

Conference - 2 go up. 1 Automatic and 1 Via play off. 2 go down.

Conference North / Conference south - 1 winner from each league.

In total, including these leagues above, there are 24 tiers of leagues. But it isn't a simple 24 leagues as after tier 5 (Conference) each level has multiple leagues. There are over 140 leagues, containing over 480 divisions.
 
Last edited:
MLS teams even play in international competition. Like my Dynamo had been in some CONCACAF play as well as some matches against Latin American clubs. That's an interesting thing about football (I'm using football and soccer interchangably). You play against competition in your club as well as against other clubs. We have our own championship to worry about, but us MLS types do take on international clubs. This even includes the MLS All-Star Game against non-MLS team, West Ham United. What would have been worse is if we played against someone like AC Milan or Real Madrid or somebody.





The match for tomorrow night involves the Chicago Fire at the New England Revolution as playoff action is here. Three teams will collide on November 1st. Here are the Saturday matches:

* Houston Dynamo at New York Red Bulls
* Chivas USA at Real Salt Lake
* Columbus Crew at Kansas City Wizards

My Dynamo were going to be known as the Houston 1836. I liked this name or FC Houston better than the Dynamo at first. The prevention of "Houston 1836" was caused mostly in part to my hometown's diverse Latin population (mostly from Mexico). I don't really like the orange and white colors, though orange is a bit indigenous to Texas.

Good luck to all teams.
 
JohnBM01
What would have been worse is if we played against someone like AC Milan or Real Madrid or somebody.
Click to expand...
Somebody good like Manchester United ;).

Sorry, had to get that in.

In England I follow Manchester United (if you couldn't guess), we play in the Premier League, then we have the League cup where every team in the LEague (Premier, Championship, Div 1 and Div 2) all compete in knockout stages. Then we have the FA cup which is similar then for the top 4 teams in the Premier League we have the Champions League which is an internation competition with theoretically the best teams in Europe though there is often a gulf in class in the earlier group stages.
 
Only_in_f1
Championship - The closest

Championship - 3 go up - 2 automatic and 1 is decided from 4 teams in the play offs. 3 Go down.
Click to expand...

Little-known fact - the Championship play-off final, despite not being between the top two teams and decided in the second tier of English football, is the single richest game in world sport.
 
I think the New England Revolution could win 2-1 over the Chicage Fire in tonight's MLS playoff match. I believe we have an aggregate scoring system. Like last year or so, my Dynamo lost one game, but came back in the second game to win that playoff match.

I'd like to see Houston beat New York, Chivas USA to down Real Salt Lake, and the Columbus Crew to take down the Kansas City Wizards.
 
The Chicago Fire and New England Revolution finished in a scoreless draw. There are still three matches for Saturday including my Dynamo.
 
All of this data from Yahoo! Sports...

Only thing I can report is that a goal in the 90th minute by Yura Movsisyan was all that was needed to vault Real Salt Lake ahead to the next round. Chivas USA is the first casualty. Both Columbus/Kansas City and Houston/New York finished at 1-1 draws. Houston had a late goal that led them to a tie over the Red Bulls.

Slated for this Thursday at 8:30 PM EST on ESPN2 (and ESPN2HD), the New England Revolution will battle the Chicago Fire to see who moves ahead in the Eastern Conference leg of the MLS playoffs. Both teams went into a scoreless tie. New England is the team to beat in the Eastern Conference as they've made the MLS finals the past few years. So a win by Chicago could leave the East wide open.
 
My Dynamo will NOT continue their campaign for three straight MLS titles as they lost 3-0 to the New York Red Bulls. The Dynamo are still a solid team as they'll just try her again next season.
 
The round for Thursday involves Chicago and Columbus. Fire and Crew. The New England Revolution are now the real favorites to win the MLS Cup unless they got ousted themselves.
 
JohnBM01
We have an Eastern and Western conference. When you asked about a tiered system, only series that comes to mind for me is the J-League in Japan. The J-League has J1 and J2. If you do great in J2, you can get promoted to J1 and compete with the better teams. Do poorly in J1, you get demoted to J2.

The MLS may have to bank on teams in football stadiums to get more teams to play. I actually watch a few MLS matches besides my Houston Dynamo. All I really know is that Houston and New England are the teams to watch.
Click to expand...

Actually, we have the MLS, then US League 1 and League 2. They're all run by different bodies, though, and there is no relegation/promotion system. There's a USL-1 team here in Miami.
 
And your MLS champs are...

...the Columbus Crew!

So while the Ohio State Buckeyes won't win the Big Ten football crown, Columbus still has a team to celebrate a title with. I wanted the Crew to win after they blew out my Dynamo 3-0 in the first round, second game.

So the team to beat next season is Columbus. Say your prayers, Crew... because the orange and white Dynamo attack will come for you! Them and New York Red Bulls...
 
Our lineup is going to be different as we traded the dynamic Dwayne DeRosario to Toronto FC for some other player. All I know is that we still have Brian Ching and Stuart Holden (at least I believe). Sure hope the Dynamo can remain solid on offense and defense next season as well as in international matches.
 
Well, the new season's underway. My Dynamo are winless with a 0-1-1 record. My boys in orange and white recently lost to the NEW San Jose Earthquakes 3-2. The Dynamo were somewhat a dynasty until they lost 3-0 in the first round of last year's MLS playoffs.

Come on, Houston Dynamo! Long season ahead, but let's kick plenty butt this season! By the way... the newcomers, the Seattle Sounders, are 2-0 right now. They won 2-0 against the New York Red Bulls and won 3-0 against Real Salt Lake. This Saturday is their first away game as they'll play at FC Toronto.
 
I'm currently watching a rematch- New York Red Bulls at Houston Dynamo. I'm sure the boys in orange and white want to pay back the Red Bulls... a thousand times over!
 
So I went to my first MLS game last night, San Jose Earthquakes vs. LA Galaxy which was held at Oakland Coliseum in order to give the 'Quakes a little more stadium capacity for the "local" (read 400 miles) derby game!

Having been spoiled by the English Premier League all of my life, and having spent a lot of time watching my hometown team in the depths of the effective English 5th Division (which sadly they've just been relegated from :() I'd have to liken the MLS standard to the latter rather than the former, and I can see why Beckham has struggled to make an impact here. Surrounded by 10 sub-par teammates 1 player cannot make a difference. Darren Huckerby plays for the 'Quakes and while he doesn't have the profile of Beckham, he's also struggling to make the impact that everyone seems to expect that sort of signing to make. The league has a long way to go, but it wasn't bad entertainment at all. The atmosphere lacks the intensity of an English match but there were fair sized groups of Galaxy & 'Quakes supporters behind either goal who made a good amount of noise, chanting, drumming and plenty of flag & banner waving.
Funniest was a big banner that the 'Quakes fans unfurled saying:
"Even Beckham Doesn't Like You!" :lol:

Kind of ironic too that the 'Quakes fans booed Landon Donovan each time he took a corner in front of them, but then hung over the wall at the end of the game trying to get a handshake or a signature from him! :boggled: (I'm aware of his former allegiance to the former San Jose, now Houston team, this is a whole other area of reasons why it's difficult for this league to operate in the same moveable "Franchise" way that other US sports do, which makes forming a devoted local fanbase difficult.)

Game finished 1 - 1 which was a more-or-less fair result given the catalogue of defensive errors by both teams towards the end.

Most spectacular (and unexpected) by far was a 20 minute fireworks spectacular after the game. I dread to think what they'd've let off if the 'Quakes had actually won. We could've witnessed the beginning of WWIII! :lol: I sent a BlackBerry message to my colleague who lives in downtown Oakland while the fireworks were going off, and he was able to clearly see and hear them from about 7 miles away!!! :eek:

The experience isn't enough to encourage me to make the effort to make the 70 mile roundtrip to watch them regularly in their usual home in San Jose, but I think we'll make the effort to go and see them play the Galaxy again on June 20th when they'll be back at the Coliseum again. 👍
 
Watching a game live in the stadium is always good, ofcourse the atmosphere changes depending on the size of the crowd and the level of football being played but it's usually good either way. I go to watch Manchester United at Old Trafford and having 70,000+ people all roaring can be very impressive, but sometimes I go and watch Stockport County, a lower division team who are fairly local, not as close to me as United are. I don't really support them but their tickets are cheap and although the crowd is usually around 10 times smaller there's still a great atmosphere. It's a different kind of atmosphere but it's a good one all the same. Ofcourse the quality of football is nothing near Premier league standard, but that rarely matters when you're there and you get into the game.
 
I've yet to be at a TFC game, and that is almost inexcusable, since I'm still harboring some sort of mindless delusion of one day playing goalkeeper for them.
 
Hyst
I've yet to be at a TFC game, and that is almost inexcusable, since I'm still harboring some sort of mindless delusion of one day playing goalkeeper for them.
Click to expand...

I've heard a lot of great things about the Toronto FC crowds and atmosphere at their stadium, it's supposed to be the best in the league. (Seattle's notwithstanding, but that's due to their "newness" at the moment.)
I'm a regular listener to the World Soccer Daily show (Ch 125 on Sirius or free downloadable podcast on iTunes) and they're showing much better support for MLS this year and have regular features and interviews with MLS coaches and players.
Sadly Toronto is the only club that won't give "radio" interviews though so the hosts are a little anti-Toronto due to that!
 
Smallhorses
I've heard a lot of great things about the Toronto FC crowds and atmosphere at their stadium, it's supposed to be the best in the league. (Seattle's notwithstanding, but that's due to their "newness" at the moment.)
I'm a regular listener to the World Soccer Daily show (Ch 125 on Sirius or free downloadable podcast on iTunes) and they're showing much better support for MLS this year and have regular features and interviews with MLS coaches and players.
Sadly Toronto is the only club that won't give "radio" interviews though so the hosts are a little anti-Toronto due to that!
Click to expand...

There does seem to be a bit of an anti-Toronto thing everywhere except Toronto. I work for Hardcore Sports Radio, (Sirius 98), based in Toronto and one of their shows tries to get as much TFC content on as it can. From what I've heard from co-workers the atmosphere is incredible. Toronto is at Dallas tonight, in less than two hours so I'll be watching that.
 
That may explain a little. Perhaps Toronto FC are legally bound to HSC and cannot do a lot about getting an interview on WSD despite their numerous requests to do so.

I only listen to the podcasts nowadays, the free 1 year of Sirius that came with my company car ran out in November and I can't justify paying for the subscription just for 1 program on 1 channel especially seeing as I can listen to it free after the fact. Sure it won't be "live" and I'll never get to phone-in to win the contests, but I can live with that.

Is the Toronto game on TV? FSC or ESPN?
I'm making a concious effort to get more involved in MLS this year, I saw the first game Seattle vs. New York while I was in the gym one night and it's piqued my interest.
What happened to the Philadelphia team, weren't they supposed to enter this year too?
 
Philadelphia will join the league next season. The team name has already been decided, and should be announced within the week. It is one of the following -

'AC Philadelphia'
'SC Philadelphia'
'Philadelphia Union'
'Philadelphia City'.

Nothing spectacular, of those four 'Union' sounds the best. The 'Portland Timbers' and Vancouver Whitecaps are going to be joining the league in 2011, both transferring from other soccer leagues.
 
You should've been around for the Miami Fusion. When I went to a game, everyone in the stands wore Carlos Valderrama wigs.
 
I know Barcelona were trying to get involved with forming another Miami team, but they're baulking at the $40million asking price for the franchise fee! :scared:
That's before you've invested in a squad of players, a manager, a ground for them to play in (rented or built) and what can only be described as a crippling transportation budget to fly the squad around to the other venues for the season. Not to mention all the behind the scenes administration that goes on, so I cant say I blame them.
It's understandable though that the guy / guys making that initial investment feel justified in relocating a team to suit their need to recoup some of that investment even if it does desert a fanbase in it's initial location.
Apparently there's also a conflict due to the fact that Nike make Barcelona's kit and the entire MLS must have Adidas kits. :rolleyes:
 
I hear that this year's MLS All-Star Game will be held in Salt Lake City, UT, USA. The MLS All-Stars will take on Everton FC. The MLS All-Star Game will be on July 29th.



Here are the standings thus far:

MLS EAST TOP 3:
* D.C. United: 18 games played; 6-3-9, 27 pts.
* Columbus Crew: 18 games played; 6-3-9, 27 pts.
* Toronto F.C.: 18 games played; 7-6-5, 26 pts.
...
* LAST: New York Red Bulls: 20 games played; 2-14-4, 10 pts.


MLS WEST TOP 3:
* Houston Dynamo: 18 games played; 9-4-5, 32 pts.
* Seattle Sounders: 17 games played; 7-3-7, 28 pts.
* Chivas USA: 16 games played; 8-5-3, 27 pts.
...
* LAST: San Jose Quakes: 16 games played; 3-9-4, 13 pts.



So the Red Bulls have the worst winning percentage while my Dynamo have the best record. You know, I'm very impressed with the Seattle Sounders. They're really coming on strong.
 

Latest Posts

Back