cubaricho

What are the chances of this happening tomorrow?

Don't have to work during this so I get to see this in real-time. No waiting until 5pm to have to see it.

Zakuani is on trial at Everton anyway.

Yeah I guess that's the term I was really looking for, someone to boss the midfield. They really just need someone who will put their foot on the ball and let others join in rather than just forcing it out wide to the striker who has pulled out who then crosses it into an empty box. Bradley is interesting because he recently had a falling out with his manager over playing time and also is going to enter the last year of his contract. He would do really well in the MLS again I think.

I would love that. Someone also mentioned Richardo Clark as he's at the end of his contract and good friends with our manager. Either or would suit me just fine. I feel like if you can get a midfield of proper ball players then you can boss the MLS. There's so much forcing and sloppiness that if you have real quality where it counts you'll do really well.

Here's the breakdown: portland 1. dax mccarty - traded with allocation cash to dcu for d/m rodney wallace, 4th round pick 2. eric brunner 3. adam moffat 4. anthony wallace - traded to colorado for allocation cash 5. david horst 6. robbie findley - out of contract 7. peter lowry 8. jonathan bornstein - signed to tigres 9. jordan graye 10. arturo alvarez - traded to rsl for 2nd round pick vancouver 1. sanna nyassi - traded to colorado for allocation cash 2. atiba harris 3. nathan sturgis 4. shea salinas 5. alan gordon - traded to chivas usa for allocation cash and an international roster spot 6. o'brian white - traded to seattle for allocation cash 7. alejandro moreno - traded to chivas usa for allocation cash and an international roster spot 8. joe cannon 9. jonathan leathers 10. john thorrington

hah, not all, but I see your point! Like I said a few posts above, a lot of it was all strategy. Get (unprotected) players you know you can trade for (protected) players you actually want. Word around the Timbers camp is that we let McCarty go because we've "found the perfect person in Europe" to fill the position Dax would've played. There are a few cards yet to be played from what I can tell.

Yeah, he's definitely the best player available in this draft. My only reservation is that he's apparently a shit-stirrer and has fallen out with a few people over the last few years.

Dax goes first.

2012 is Montreal and then I think 2013 will be the Cosmos but they said after that they would hold off for a while.

A lot of the players left unprotected obviously aren't the best players around but they will definitely make good squad players towards the later rounds. The first three rounds or so will probably be starters or at least on the cusp.

And for anyone who wants a simple run down of the rules involved with an expansion draft in MLS: Every team has to prepare a list of "protected" players, I think it's something like 10-15 players and the lists don't have to include youth team players. Then the two expansion teams (Portland and Vancouver) take turns choosing unprotected players from clubs. Every time a player gets chosen from a certain club that club are allowed to protect one more player and can have no more than two players total taken from their squad. There's lots of strategy between not only the clubs choosing but also the clubs getting chosen from with this which adds an interesting dynamic.

The manager/head coach of Portland wants to have a young, hungry team according to the interviews I've seen with him. A lot of MLS is built around "old pros" to help try and nurture younger kids but I think Spencer doesn't really believe in a lot of that and really just wants a team with a lot to prove (obviously with skill to back it up) because he sees that as the "heart beat of the city" of Portland. It's a really young, hip city and wants his team to reflect that in the style they play with on the pitch. Portland gets the first pick today and it's pretty obvious that Dax McCarthy (young and hungry) will go first even though the only reason he was left unprotected was because he had fallen out with the FC Dallas manager.

The expansion draft starts in about 30 minutes on mlssoccer.com. Portland and Vancouver get their pick of a list of unprotected players around the league. From what I can gather though it's not a guarantee the players that get chosen will actually have to sign (it's really just agreeing personal terms). Looks like an Orlando native will probably be chosen first.

He's comparing the PL and La Liga and uses Blackburn and Stoke as perfect examples of our football. The guy's a fucking retard. That's very much not what he said. He said: He was using them as examples of anti-football, not as examples of the Prem as a whole.

My initial thought when it happened was that he wasn't doing it in any sort of violent manner. Admittedly though I had been drinking. The commentator wouldn't shut up about it though.

Jesus what a miss.

Pace, pace, and more pace. Not really sure there's much else there that will shine through at a Prem level though.

No where near the class of Viduka tbh.

I also really like the idea of a balanced schedule, even if 10 teams make the playoffs, it will at least be a truer representation of the league.

Hah yeah. I always expect a ball to go flying in there and knock your beers off the table.

The only moment of any real class was the goal. A lot of really stupid mistakes and trying to force it.

Someone in the Rapids supporters group has a Newcastle kit on.

MLS Final tonight. Kick-off in about a half hour (8:30 EST 9:00 EST).

Don't know who else watched the match here in the States but who were the commentators? They were the two worst commentators I've heard in a long time. Pretty much clueless.