Major League Soccer 2012

[Rageman]

upper left . . . New York v Montreal
bottom left . . . DC United v Dallas
upper right . . . Philadelphia v Vancouver
Laptop . . . 4 different Stuttgart matches

This pic was for my uncle and he's a Stuttgart supporter.

[caroline]

Can I be a cranky Philly fan now, or is it too early?

[Rageman]

NASL . . . 2nd Division . . . to stream all matches for free

http://www.ustream.tv/nasllive1 or http://nasl.com/index.php

I left some MLS all time lists, Goals and Matches Played, on the tail end of page one.

Can I be a cranky Philly fan now, or is it too early?

Philly is one of the few MLS squads that didn't improve during the off-season . . . in fact, they lost more talent than they gained . . . you have every right to be cranky.

[WOLF]

Woo-hoo! Impact win number one comes against none other than our natural rival, Toronto FC. It was a bit dicey there at the end, but the Impact now have a win and a draw at home. Only 23,000 at Olympic Stadium, but that gives a sense of the real audience for soccer here, and it's more than enough people to fill the soon the be completed, refurbished, soccer-specific Saputo Stadium.

I don't care what sport it is: Montreal beating Toronto always feels nice. How long have Toronto FC been in MLS? THEY look like an expansion squad.

[Rageman]

Wednesday April 4
Real Salt Lake 1-0 Montreal . . . 20,191 - Montreal actually outplayed RSL for most of the match.
Thursday
Dallas 1-0 New England . . . 11,043 - Dallas with a late goal to steal a win against a very improved NE squad
Saturday April 7
Montreal 2-1 Toronto . . . 23,120 - WOLF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Congrats, dude. Your boys played well.
Columbus 1-4 New York . . . 11,516 - Thierry Henry and Kenny Cooper are on fire. Columbus not so much.
Kansas City 1-0 Los Angeles . . . 20,323 - KC may be playing the best football ever seen in MLS
San Jose 3-1 Vancouver . . . 10,525 - San Jose could be the most improved from last season. Stopped Vancouver's record scoreless streak to start a season.
DC United 0-0 Seattle . . . 15,651 - Yawn. DC crowd(La Barra Brava)was great again as usual
Real Salt Lake 2-0 Colorado . . . 16,870 - RSL plays such an attractive style of football. The "Barcelona" of MLS. Kinda funny considering their namesake is Real Madrid.
Portland 1-2 Chivas USA . . . 20,438 - My beloved Timbers are seriously lacking in confidence and killer mentality. It's like everyone else is waiting for someone else to step up.

149,707 total
16,634 average

Saturday April 14
Philadelphia 1-0 Columbus . . . 18,526 - Strong candidate for most boring match of the season.
New England 1-2 DC United . . . 10,389 - Two clubs that will be under the radar but will be a tough match up for anybody.
New York 2-2 San Jose . . . 17,114 - Now this was an exciting back and forth 1st half and stalemate the 2nd
Seattle 1-0 Colorado . . . 38,360 - Outside of the ass whuppin' they took in NY(without their 2 star CMs), the Rapids have been a handful
Toronto 0-1 Chivas USA . . . 18,476 - Chivas USA would tie psychiatrists in knots. Winless with no goals at home . . . undefeated with only 1 goal surrendered on the road. Go figure.
Kansas City 1-0 Real Salt Lake . . . 19,422 - Sporting KC is playing amazing football Over 300 minutes without allowing a Shot On Goal before finally giving up a SOG in stoppage time against one of the leagues best teams. Has that ever happened with a team running out a 4-3-3?
Dallas 2-1 Montreal . . . 16,164 - WOLF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Are you OK, dude? Giving up a late winner is sooooooo Portland-esque.
Los Angeles 3-1 Portland . . . 22,143 - D'oh!!! 4 great goals in this match and a superb 5th by Kris Boyd that was wrongfully called back
Sunday
Chicago 1-1 Houston . . . 10,489 - Two weather delays finally killed off the rest of this one. Houston's first match in three weeks

171,083 total
19,009 average

By the week . . . average
18,174
23,713
20,396
18,489
16,634
19,009

By the week . . . total
145,393 - 8 matches
213,420 - 9 matches
183,565 - 9 matches
166,404 - 9 matches
149,707 - 9 matches
171,083 - 9 matches
----------
1,029,572 total
19,425 average

[WOLF]

Impact are looking better and better, 2-5-2 (using a more North American way of listing Wins, Losses, and Draws), and could easily have two more wins, or at least draws. It was unfortunate to have to open with such a heavy road schedule, but if they can continue to play as they have at home, and keep getting better on the road, they just may make things interesting.

Meanwhile, Toronto FC looks like the expansion team. LOL.

[Rageman]

Wednesday April 18
DC United 1-1 Montreal . . . 10,135 First road point for Montreal
Vancouver 1-3 Kansas City . . . 15,382 Kansas City rolls yet again.

Saturday April 21
Toronto 2-3 Chicago . . . 19,255 Battle of the two Germans. Friedrich bests Frings
Columbus 2-2 Houston . . . 10,479 Houston picking up a bunch of points on their long road trip to open the season. They are going to be a force late in the season with all of those home matches building up.
Colorado 1-2 Los Angeles . . . 19,152
Vancouver 1-0 Dallas . . . 18,027
Portland 1-0 Kansas City . . . 20,438
Chivas USA 0-1 Philadelphia . . . 14,127
San Jose 3-1 Real Salt Lake . . . 10,202

Sunday April 22
DC United 4-1 New York . . . 13,262

Wednesday
Dallas 1-1 Real Salt Lake . . . 10,069

Saturday April 28
Montreal 2-0 Portland . . . 19,223
New York 1-0 New England . . . 18,152
Philadeplphia 1-2 San Jose . . . 18,581
DC United 3-2 Houston . . . 13,975
Columbus 0-1 Vancouver . . . 11,978

Wednesday May 2
New England 2-1 Colorado . . . 6,149
Seattle 2-0 Los Angeles . . . 39,002
San Jose 5-3 DC United . . . 8,734

Sorry . . . not like anyone cares but I've been too busy to review the games the past few weeks . . . will add more when I have time.

And congrats Wolf . . . your boys took it to my Timbers. Solid match.

[WOLF]

Quite proud of my town's humble expansion team this evening. We may just be a respectable squad yet.

Still say it's a shame we gave away points in the early part of the season. We are progressing though.

Forza Impact!

[Rageman]

Yeah, first road points are big . . . your boys picked up a draw awhile back . . . first win on the road is huge and the fact that they did it against one of the best teams in the league means that there are almost no more mental barriers to overcome. They honestly believe they can beat anybody now so they're going to be very dangerous in a weak conference.

My beloved Timbers aren't getting much better. Another scoreless draw. This is three matches in a row where our offense failed to score. Sophomore slump appears to be hitting the squad big time.

[Kid-Wicked]

caps pulled off a win with seconds left in injury time. not a bad match.

[WOLF]

Over 40,000 tickets sold for the Impact game vs the LA Galaxy next weekend. Montreal loves an event, and I guess the Galaxy bringing Beckham and co. qualifies as that. They're doing a tie-in with the local school boards as well, so lots of kids will be in attendance on Saturday as well.

Good stuff. Hope the fans can be sent home happy.

[Rageman]

I wonder if they'll continue to use that arena for big-ish matches after they open their refurbished home? The tremendous attendance numbers in Olympic Stadium will make this year their biggest average until they add on to/remodel their old/new home again. Still curious as to who they'll sign when the summer window opens. Will they go for a big name player on his way down or a mid level designated player to improve their team? They'll need it as they're in the last playoff spot but Houston has only played 8 matches and they've been all been on the road. However . . .

. . . Exciting day in Houston on Wednesday as they open yet another new stadium in MLS


That leaves DC United, Seattle and New England Revolution as the only three teams without their own soccer stadium. Even though Seattle and NE owners own their football stadiums they currently play in, they're both NFL stadiums first and foremost. DC United is the last team without a stadium or a stadium plan in the works as San Jose will open their new arena next season. That's pretty mind blowing for me considering that 10 years ago there was only one team with a Soccer Specific Stadium(Columbus) and I didn't think this league would have lasted another two seasons.

[WOLF]

Still curious as to who they'll sign when the summer window opens. Will they go for a big name player on his way down or a mid level designated player to improve their team?

Rumor has it this is the guy. I don't know enough of Serie A soccer to comment on whether this is a good thing or not. The media here seems fairly excited about what he'll bring to the team. Plus there's a large Italian community here, who support the team, who will like the move.

From www.tsn.ca:

MONTREAL -- Bologna striker Marco Di Vaio is considering a move to Montreal that would make him the Impact's first designated player.

Di Vaio told a news conference in Italy that he would not return to his Italian Serie A club for 2013, and that Montreal's Major League Soccer expansion team was interesting.

Montreal's technical director Nick De Santis said there's an offer on the table for the 35-year-old player, who plans to visit the city with his family at the end of May.

"I know that there are other offers on the table for him to pursue his career," De Santis told a media conference call. "I just hope that the next step, coming to Montreal, shows him that we are a club that are very serious in moving ourselves along as a professional club in North American soccer."

Should Di Vaio sign with Montreal, he would not be eligible to play in MLS until July since the transfer window is currently closed.

The Montreal offer is for a year and half, plus two more at the club's option.

Di Vaio, who leads Bologna with 10 goals, would give Montreal a third Italian player after forward Bernardo Corradi and defender Matteo Ferrari.

Di Vaio and Ferrari played together at Parma in the early 2000s.

De Santis noted Di Vaio had basically scored a goal every two games in recent season "in one of the toughest leagues in the world to score in."

He also said the Italian had "the mentality of a warrior," noting he has stayed with Bologna in recent years to help them fight relegation.

"He's been their main catalyst scoring important goals, leading this team, a young team, and he's got all the details and personality to help our team move along as well."

De Santis expressed confidence that Montreal had a shot at Di Vaio.

"When a player is willing to come in and see the city and meet the club and discussions we've had, we feel pretty positive," he said. "You never know at the last minute, that's why I told you we've spoken to other players as well to keep in consideration but of course Marco is one of them that we have a high interest in."

[Rageman]

http://www.mlssoccer.com/extratime

Montreal head coach Jesse Marsch interview with Extratime Radio . . . starts about halfway through. Pretty good podcast that airs twice a week on Mondays and Thursdays.

[WOLF]

59,000 tickets sold for the Impact/Galaxy game tomorrow afternoon. The atosphere is going to be insane. Hopefully the Impact can stay unbeaten at home.

[Kid-Wicked]

I wonder if they'll continue to use that arena for big-ish matches after they open their refurbished home? The tremendous attendance numbers in Olympic Stadium will make this year their biggest average until they add on to/remodel their old/new home again. Still curious as to who they'll sign when the summer window opens. Will they go for a big name player on his way down or a mid level designated player to improve their team? They'll need it as they're in the last playoff spot but Houston has only played 8 matches and they've been all been on the road. However . . .

. . . Exciting day in Houston on Wednesday as they open yet another new stadium in MLS


That leaves DC United, Seattle and New England Revolution as the only three teams without their own soccer stadium. Even though Seattle and NE owners own their football stadiums they currently play in, they're both NFL stadiums first and foremost. DC United is the last team without a stadium or a stadium plan in the works as San Jose will open their new arena next season. That's pretty mind blowing for me considering that 10 years ago there was only one team with a Soccer Specific Stadium(Columbus) and I didn't think this league would have lasted another two seasons.

vancouver doesn't have a soccer stadium either. last i heard they gave up on trying to build one.