MLS

[BillClinton]

Yeah it's a pod, free download through iTunes.

 

I really like Men in Blazers on Grantland, been listening to them for a couple years. I find you either love 'em or hate 'em though.

 

Cool I'll check them out. I normally just listen to the football ramble but they don't have anything new during the summer. It would be nice to hear some US related discussion too.

[timeEd32]

I generally like Men in Blazers, but their schtick gets old at times.

 

Nothing beats the Ramble.

[WarrenBartonCentrePartin]

lolwut.

 

[Deuce]

Real recognize real, marra.

[Deuce]

Fascinating insight into how MLS operates, and just how different the league is from the PL:

 

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/soccer/news/20130805/clint-dempsey-seattle-sounders-mls/

 

Los Angeles and Toronto were also interested in ponying up for Dempsey, multiple sources said, but Toronto (which is working on its own Designated Player deals) accepted that it was better for the league if Dempsey were playing in a U.S. city. Moreover, Los Angeles is expected to announce soon that it has filled its maximum three DP slots with the extension of Omar González's contract.

 

"I think it was important that [Dempsey] ended up ... how do I say this politely? ... not in Los Angeles," said Roth. "Because from a perception standpoint it would make MLS look essentially like a one-team league when it came to important international players. The Red Bulls are probably in there as well. But if not us, who? We double the attendance of everybody else [in MLS]. We're in the top 25 in the world in attendance. I had promised the team if there was an available star player we would get him, and I thought he was a perfect match for Seattle."

[timeEd32]

The MLS transfer system needs fixing. The fact that the league can convince one of its teams that a player belongs elsewhere is ridiculous.

[Kaizero]

Not really, otherwise you'd actually just have LA and NY nick all the good players and it'd be a two team league for real.

[Village Idiot]

The salary and DP caps are there for that though. No need to fudge transfer policy.

 

The single entity stuff is a bit maddening, even though I understand it was needed to procure the league's stability.

[Miercoles]

Not really, otherwise you'd actually just have LA and NY nick all the good players and it'd be a two team league for real.

 

Just like Europe!

[SEMTEX]

http://www.phillysoccerpage.net/2013/08/06/mls-2-0-takes-a-big-step-toward-3-0/

 

I like this article. Mainly about MLS rather than t'Union

 

Major League Soccer changed last week in a big way.

 

Three major developments in just a few days represent the next major step in the progression of the league from 1996 novelty to 2020 major sports entity. Everyone is talking about them, but there are some key points still hovering beneath the surface.

 

MLS finally opens the floodgates for U.S. internationals

 

If teams want to sign a U.S. national team player and are willing to pay a high enough salary, they can now skip the allocation order.

 

Yes, for a first-year salary of $368,751 — or just $200,001 for a player under age 23 — you too can acquire a USMNT player without having to deal with that pesky allocation process.*

 

Don’t want to pay that much every year? That’s OK! Just front-load the contract with a designated player-level salary that first year, and then have the salary taper off to a more affordable level as the contract progresses. (Example: $370,000 for year 1, $270,000 for year 2, etc.)

 

Until Clint Dempsey’s signing, it was never clear that teams could avoid the allocation process for returning USMNT players by offering a DP-level contract. MLS cited the precedent of Claudio Reyna, the only American player to previously join the league as a designated player. (Freddy Adu joined Philadelphia through the allocation process and was not a DP upon signing, and Landon Donovan predated the DP rule.) But Reyna looked like a one-off case of a player with a pregnant wife wanting to return to his hometown, much like Jeff Parke did prior to this season when the Union acquired him from Seattle at a cut-rate price. Then again, Reyna’s one-off case also looked like a make-it-up-as-you-go rule, and in MLS, that’s another term for “precedent,” much like the DP rule was when David Beckham signed.

 

If any team should feel wronged, it is the Portland Timbers. Not only did they have the first spot in the allocation order this time around, but they lost the earlier chance to sign Mix Diskerud before this season in part because Diskerud did not feel comfortable with league rules.

 

Portland had to quietly trade to acquire Diskerud’s rights within MLS. Was he worth the $200,000 salary for a young DP? Definitely.

 

So why did Portland have to trade for his rights to begin with?

 

Did they know the Reyna precedent existed? Probably not. Nobody else knew. It’s certainly not in the published league roster rules. Probably because the league office had to figure out a precedent to justify Dempsey going to Seattle outside the allocation process, and Reyna was it.

 

Then again, the allocation process for returning USMNT players should be eliminated anyway. Top American players should be allowed to play where they want upon joining MLS. It makes them more likely to come home.

 

Thanks to the Reyna-Dempsey precedent, it should now be open season in MLS on U.S. national team players.

 

If Tim Howard wants to return stateside and play close to his hometown of North Brunswick, N.J., Philadelphia or the Red Bulls should feel comfortable knowing they can drop the cash to get him without having to bother with the allocation order.

 

Oguchi Onyewu? Maybe he is no longer DP level, but he could be for at least his first season for D.C. United, who possess one of the league’s worst back lines and would love to have the hometown guy. Cut the base salary and build in some performance and playing time incentives for his subsequent seasons, and you have the perfect acquisition.

 

Or if you really want to get excited, how about Terrence Boyd? A healthy Josh Gatt? Joe Corona? Diskerud?

 

Now, any team willing to drop the cash could theoretically get these young guys ready to make the leap. Not that they would necessarily sign. But each of these players would be worth the young DP price tag of $200,000 for their short-term impact and long-term value.

 

Unfortunately, this wouldn’t apply to Herculez Gomez, who would be a dream signing for Houston, Chivas USA, and most teams in the league. Too bad. That might have brought him home, and he has made clear he wants to come back to MLS for the right price if only Kansas City would surrender his rights.

 

Bottom line: The market for U.S. national team players has just drastically changed — provided this Reyna-Dempsey precedent truly is a fairly applied precedent.

 

Team values are increasing

 

The Columbus Crew just sold for $68 million. Yes, one of the league’s economically weakest clubs, with its bare bones stadium, weak brand name, and small market, fetched $68 million.

 

To put that sale in perspective, Sporting Kansas City sold for about $20 million in 2006, and the Chicago Fire sold for somewhere above $35 million in 2007. (The rights to New York City FC went for $100 million, and stadium construction costs will probably increase the new owners’ investment.) This clearly bodes well for the league.

 

What will Houston fetch when AEG finally sells it? Possibly $100 million, with its superior stadium, larger (and more Latino) market, and better team. What would Seattle be worth if sold today? How about the Los Angeles Galaxy?

 

MLS clubs are not yet on par with the other four major sports in terms of actual team worth. Every NFL, MLB and NBA team is worth more than $200 million. In the NHL, 19 of 30 clubs are worth more than $200 million.The lesser number of games in MLS likely has something to do with them still lagging behind the NBA and NHL, in which clubs play twice the home games that MLS teams do and therefore have increased ticket revenue.

 

Unlike those leagues, however, there is far bigger growth potential compared to where the league is now, as Anthony Precourt cited when he explained his purchase of Columbus. The league’s television exposure is growing slowly but surely thanks to NBC’s fantastic coverage, and the network’s new contract with the English Premier League could keep that ball rolling.

 

There is a market demand for good American soccer. If certain MLS ownership groups aren’t capable or willing to spend money to make money, then someone out there can eventually buy the team and do it instead. Yes, we’re looking at you, Philadelphia Union.

 

The next wave of MLS clubs

 

MLS Commissioner Don Garber announced Wednesday that the league will expand to 24 teams by 2020. That’s great news. Critics may question going over the 20-team limit that is standard in other nations’ soccer leagues, but this isn’t Europe or South America. It’s the United States (and Canada), and the geography, population and wealth are such that 24 — but no higher — is a good target number.*

 

If you’re going to peg that announcement to a 2020 deadline, you better already have at least two or three new cities in the bag.

 

Here are the favorites:

 

Orlando looks like a sure thing.

David Beckham is getting a club somewhere, probably Miami (though he ought to consider San Diego too, even with nearby Tijuana’s success).

San Antonio should be right there with them. It is now the nation’s seventh largest city, half its population is Latino, it has just one major league sports club (the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs), and the second tier San Antonio Scorpions have been very successful and already have a stadium designed to expand to 18,000.

St. Louis, Atlanta, the Twin Cities, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Detroit, Charlotte, Ottawa, Sacramento, and Raleigh/Durham should fight it out for the last spot. Each has drawbacks. St. Louis has yet to find an impressive enough ownership group. Atlanta doesn’t adequately support most of its other professional teams, much like Miami. Sacramento is too close to San Jose. The summer heat in Las Vegas and Phoenix is brutal, and the gambling ties should disqualify Vegas. Raleigh/Durham seems like a dark horse to like, with a good local soccer scene and only a hockey team with which to compete.*

A 24-team league works out perfectly for a 34-game schedule. Split the league into two 12-team conferences. Each team plays twice against teams within their conference and once against teams in the other conference.

 

Alternately, you could go with three divisions, in which each team plays their division rivals twice and all other teams once. That makes a 30-game schedule. But with MLS clubs relying so much on ticket revenue, they are unlikely to give up two home games per year. Finally, a four-division breakdown is also possible, but it doesn’t work out as neatly with scheduling and could be little more than a game of semantics if those four divisions are within two conferences.

 

Now, about the Union’s latest signing …

 

The Union’s recent acquisition of Gilberto Souza has been viewed by many Union observers as decidedly underwhelming. It should be.

 

The team and league have billed him as having “most recently played for Clube Atlético Sorocaba in the Campeonato Paulista São Paolo’s highest division of professional soccer.”

 

São Paolo is a state (and city). This is not the national second or third division. Rather, it is basically like playing in the hypothetical Pennsylvania state tournament if it included Philadelphia Union, the Harrisburg City Islanders, the Pittsburgh Riverhounds, Reading United, Lehigh Valley United Sonic, and whoever else could play their way in. (That’s right, Casa Soccer League players, you too could play against the Union.)

 

Sure, these tournaments are a bigger deal in Brazil, but they’re still not close to the top level. They typically run from January through April, while the national league runs from May through January, which means you can get guys out of contract from a second division club (like Souza) to play for a lesser team. In the state tourneys, you can have a team like Santos (Neymar’s former team) playing an unknown club like Atlético Sorocaba.

 

In the end, whether Souza can play will be determined on an MLS field, not based on what his last club was. After all, Felipe was playing in Switzerland’s second division before showing he was a very good midfielder upon joining Montreal. Souza previously played for Atlético Mineiro, which just won the Copa Libertadores, and America Mineiro, who former Union midfielder Fred once played for (and who are, by the way, my favorite club outside the United States, even though they have been weak for decades).

 

But when you talk about signing a box-to-box midfielder instead of bringing back your popular, capable former captain to add depth at a position for which you have no true depth, then yeah, a guy from Brazil’s backwater likely making the league minimum salary is just a tad bit underwhelming. In fact, I bet some Union fans would find it flat out insulting.

 

Souza better bring some game.

[LucaAltieri]

As good as MLS is getting in some areas, I still feel like I could be a squad player and do a job for most teams in the league.

 

I haven't kicked a ball in anger for years.

[SEMTEX]

You'd probably be taking a pay cut if you chose to do that though.

[Deuce]

Clint Dempsey's shocking move to MLS and the Seattle Sounders is about many things: the league's growing willingness to pay transfer fees of significance, the rising relevance of MLS in a shifting soccer universe, Seattle's intention to not only talk like a big club and draw like a big club, but to act like a big club. And it's also about Dempsey, his career, his motivations, his goals, maybe his family; all with a World Cup looming in less than a year. The number of moving parts in this surprising tale of American-star-comes-home is staggering.

 

It's also about us. We're losing our trailblazer, the first man to truly succeed in the world's game on the world's biggest stage. When Dempsey first went to England, he was just another American player trying to make his bones on a higher level. Over time, and through all that he accomplished, he became something much more -- the singular representation of our collective will to prove to the world that we deserve respect.

 

"Us" and "we" being American soccer fans, both the MLS-inclined and the MLS-deriding. It's easy to overstate the negative response to Dempsey's decision -- that he'll stop being a great player because of MLS, that he's a hypocrite for "giving up" on his Champions League dream, that America's best players should always stay in Europe as long as possible -- because the haters are typically the loudest and the internet chorus can hardly be said to be representative of the entire American soccer community, but there's an obvious upset seeping through the fan base. That probably says more about us than it does him. Whatever his reasons, it's ridiculous to suggest that he'll markedly regress as a player at age 30 because he left a part-time playing gig for a guaranteed starting spot.

 

So many attempts to couch disgust for Dempsey's decision within nominal concerns over his form come World Cup time.

 

So many exclamations of horror that a key USMNT figure would voluntarily pass on extending a career in Europe, where everything soccer is better.

 

So many distressed moans and categorical rebukes, thick with the stink of a raging inferiority complex.

 

Damn him, for upending our worldview. Dempsey was the warrior, the ultra-determined id of American soccer who would never give up on climbing as high as he could up the European soccer ladder. He was the "yang" to Landon Donovan's "yin", a player who possessed all the ambition the LA Galaxy star failed to gin up after crashing out of Germany.

 

For so many, it was easier to stomach's Donovan's decision to remain "comfortable" in MLS with Dempsey slaying dragons in the land of St. George. At least someone was getting it done where the soccer was high-level and the pressure more intense. When Dempsey passed Donovan as the best American player in most conventional thought (though they've both since been passed by Michael Bradley), it came down to his success in a league of a higher standard. It was always difficult to judge just how good Donovan was because of the MLS factor; Dempsey presented no such problem. The Premier League was big, rich, and ultra-competitive. If Dempsey was scoring goals there... well, forget Donovan. Deuce was the man.

 

And now... what? Back in MLS after seven years with -- conservative guess -- two or three more seasons at peak form left in that wiry Texan frame? Is it about the money? Does it make Dempsey something less of the inveterate scrapper we believed him to be? Can you be the man if you trade the world's biggest pond for a much smaller one, even if the fishing's better?

 

Dempsey played the role of American soccer trailblazer so well. No matter what you might think about Texas, the state where everything is bigger has a penchant for producing inversely charismatic figures. Dempsey's crackling intensity and Ali-esque attitude not only served him well on the field and in the annual exercise of re-proving his ability in England, but fed American soccer's need for a hero who didn't shirk from any challenge. Dempsey's soccer career is the career we all wanted to have -- if only we had the talent -- full of amazing moments (that chip against Juve...) and framed by an air of defiance. In England, Dempsey was a rebel. Not in the cliche Dennis Rodman/Mario Balotelli/Zlatan Ibrahimovic way that so many ill-behaving professional athletes are, but in a subtler, more subversive, and more gratifying way that shoved American soccer's rising prominence in the face of those who doubted Yanks could play, each and every time Clint (to paraphrase Bruce Arena's eloquent description of Dempsey's game) "tried s***."

 

Dempsey's penchant for scoring big goals against top EPL clubs, like against Man United last January, made him a favorite on both sides of the pond.

Dempsey didn't slink away. He even went further and pulled a power play on Fulham, pushing for a move to a bigger club and a chance at the Champions League. If he didn't shatter a glass ceiling, he certainly gave it a forceful whack. He then put in the work at Spurs, and while it wasn’t the season or the Champions League soccer he had hoped for, no one could say he failed.

 

The healthy, well-adjusted way to look at Clint Dempsey's move back to MLS to join the Seattle Sounders for a massive contract and the opportunity to play in front of 40,000 soccer-mad fans is as a coup for Seattle, MLS, and American soccer. It's a move -- nay, an event -- that could herald a new era in Major League Soccer's maturation. Knee-jerk assumptions that this is Dempsey "giving up" on challenging himself don't really belong in the discussion. That the Sounders are even in a place to not only pay Dempsey a competitive salary but to purchase him from Spurs for a reported $9 million transfer fee is a breathtaking sign of the league's growth. Let's be honest with ourselves: such a thing was inconceivable as recently as twelve months ago. Heck, such a thing was inconceivable until it actually happened. There's a good chance some of us are still in dumbfounded denial.

 

For Dempsey, the move might partly be about wanting to get in on what MLS has become while he's still good enough to be a marquee star and earn a hefty contract. It will be interesting when he speaks in-depth about the move -- not that it will mollify the people who believe he's throwing his career away by going to (gasp) MLS -- and hear his reasons for passing on a chance to extend his English career. But how could Dempsey not feel the pull of MLS when it is so radically different than the last time he suited up for a league game in the United States? European aspirations or not, every player who grows up here possesses the same hopeful mote in their soul -- the one that dreams of the day soccer is truly big in America -- that we all carefully nurture. No one is immune to it. Not even Dempsey.

 

It's possible American soccer fans are simply not ready to allow themselves to be happy. The most common reason for disparaging Dempsey's move is the aforementioned belief that he'll regress as a player. Such a thing could have a serious impact on American World Cup fortunes considering Dempsey's key role in the team, hence the outsized angst. The move certainly goes against Jurgen Klinsmann's directive for his players to keep challenging themselves, and the USMNT head coach is already on record minimizing Dempsey's accomplishments in England.

 

But there are plenty of examples of players who have thrived in MLS, despite the deficit in quality to the English Premier League and other European competitions. At age 30, it's unlikely Dempsey has much room for "development" left in his game anyway, and any regression will be more down to a decline in physical abilities than the drop in competitive level.

 

We're far enough along this meandering American soccer story for there to be reasonable doubt on that point. Our problem as fans is that the cloak of inferiority is so difficult to shed. Our preconceptions hold firm, refusing to evolve with the times. Perhaps some of the long-term value of Dempsey's move will be a shakeup of our outdated mindset. Perhaps he is deserving of some trust.

 

As long as we continue to project our wider hopes and dreams on our best players, the Clint Dempseys of the world will continue to be castigated for making understandable, and defensible, choices about their careers. At some point, our attitudes have to change for the betterment of MLS, American soccer, and our own psychological health. Soccer self-immolation writ large is not a good look. Whatever's lost by not having Dempsey and his unapologetic swagger in England is more than made up for by the symbolic nature of his move and the amazing possibilities it augurs.

 

What we must tell ourselves, because it's as true a thing any, is simple:

 

Clint Dempsey isn't giving up, he's taking part.

 

http://espnfc.com/blog/_/name/soccerusa/id/3088?cc=5901

[Kanji]

Posted this in the US thread, meant to be here:

 

Praying this momentum continues....

 

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/os-venues-tourist-tax-stadium-20130808,0,7623039.story

 

Central Florida's two top mayors have agreed to a deal that could put a new $85 million stadium downtown and bring a Major League Soccer franchise to Orlando.

 

A $94.5 million package also includes spending tourist taxes to complete the $503 million performing-arts center, as well as increased funding for renovation of the Florida Citrus Bowl. And it pumps millions more into marketing for the tourism industry.

 

Mayor Teresa Jacobs outlined a framework for the complex pact in a letter to county commissioners Thursday. Jacobs and Mayor Buddy Dyer will announce the agreement today after tourism leaders review it.

 

"We're supportive of this approach," said Dyer's spokeswoman Heather Fagan. "We think this is a win-win-win for all the partners involved."

 

City and county staff still will have to work out details of the plan during the next several weeks, Jacobs' memo says, before it's brought to both sets of commissioners for review, public hearings and final votes.

 

Photos: Orlando power brokers

 

Until now, winning Jacobs' support was crucial because all the projects rely heavily on funding from the county's lucrative tourist tax. Under the deal, however, the city would likely issue bonds, putting at least some of the borrowing risk on Orlando taxpayers.

 

Dyer has coveted the chance to land an MLS team and had already started buying millions of dollars' worth of land for it downtown.

 

The deal includes a crucial $20 million pledge for the stadium that's contingent on Orlando landing an expansion team. Officials with Orlando City Soccer, a minor-league team, have said a new stadium is essential to bringing MLS to Central Florida.

 

Jacobs' "framework" also includes:

 

•An additional $25 million, spread across five years, to boost tourism marketing. The county already budgeted $36 million next fiscal year to Visit Orlando, which promotes local tourism.

 

•A $25 million payout to get the stalled second phase of the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts completed. Jacobs had pledged this earlier this year, and if boosters meet certain fundraising thresholds, it should allow them to complete the complex by 2018.

 

•The Citrus Bowl is already slated for $191 million in renovations. But it would get an additional $12 million, which boosters say enhances its chances of landing more premier sports events.

 

•An additional $10 million in convention-center improvements — on top of $187 million in upgrades planned during the next five years that the county had already approved.

 

•A separate $2.5 million would be earmarked for sports-marketing efforts to attract major events. That effort would be handled by the Central Florida Sports Commission through Visit Orlando.

 

Of the various proposals, the only organized opposition has emerged around the soccer-stadium plan.

 

Orlando City Soccer President Phil Rawlins has said the stadium and a pro franchise would bring increased economic benefits, notably through attracting visitors to events such an MLS All-Star game or other matches involving internationally recognized teams.

 

Televised games would increase Orlando's global brand and help attract the burgeoning Brazilian visitor market to the city, said Rawlins, who could not be reached for comment Thursday night.

 

The team owners say they would pay what is now estimated to be a $70 million franchise fee and put $30 million toward the stadium. The rest of the $85 million would come from a mix of city and county funds, though the city's financing options are still being worked out.

 

Critics have openly worried about that lack of detail. They have argued the team should play in a renovated Citrus Bowl or be required to put in more of its own money on any new venue.

 

Doug Head, president of the bipartisan watchdog group CountyWatch, said its members are skeptical that stadiums ever deliver on their economic promises. Some activists worry that the stadium would displace residents of the downtown neighborhood of Parramore.

 

Tea-party and Democratic activists have teamed to oppose the soccer stadium as Citizens Against Corporate Welfare.

 

But Head and others say there's a growing sense that what public thinks doesn't really matter.

 

"A lot people have gotten the feeling that the elected officials are in the pocket of the individuals who are behind this," Head said before Jacobs' memo was released. "The public just gives up because they are going to do what they are going to do. Resistance is futile."

[SEMTEX]

dire article

[SEMTEX]

the deuce one. not sure I can read the Kanji one if it's going to be as shit as the prior one.

[cubaricho]

Posted this in the US thread, meant to be here:

 

Praying this momentum continues....

 

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/os-venues-tourist-tax-stadium-20130808,0,7623039.story

 

But Head and others say there's a growing sense that what public thinks doesn't really matter.

 

[Mike]

I had to read that several times to see it correctly.

[cubaricho]

Went to an Orlando City match last night.  So much more entertaining than watching the shit Newcastle put out on the pitch last season.  It was refreshing to watch a team play with one-touch passing and movement.  10,697 in the crowd last night too which was awesome to see - a regular-season record for Orlando City.

[Deuce]

Here's a terrible article by a guy who normally does good work for MLS. Basically boils down to, "There's no quantitative measure for 'best league in the world' and then he spews a bunch of feel-good tripe about American soccer.

 

Don't believe the hype.

 

With the start of the English Premier League season this weekend the hyperbole will be on overdrive about how the EPL is the "best league in the world."

 

Well, there's nothing further from the truth.

 

In fact, there is no such thing as the "best league in the world." Although MLS has also publicly claimed it's striving to be "one of the best leagues in the world," the concept that there is any real world ranking of domestic leagues — scientific or subjective — is completely fictitious.

 

Richest league in the world? You can measure that. Highest-scoring league in the world? Easy to figure out. Most popular league in the world? There's probably a gauge for that, too. Most competitive league in the world? MLS has a claim on that one.

 

But "best league in the world?" It doesn't exist.

 

Here's why: If you've been bitten by the soccer bug by now and you thoroughly love the sport, you have probably picked a club team by now — because fans follow clubs and not leagues — and that's where it really all begins and ends: with the team of your heart, whichever league or country that team is located.

 

But while our club team and its matches serve as the regular main course to satiate our football appetite from week to week, we invariably find ourselves consuming servings  and snacks of plenty of other soccer that fill the gaps depending on the day: whatever's on when you're lounging around the house on the weekend, whatever's on at the bar, whatever's on TV when you kick back on the recliner at night or whatever games are being talked about on your Twitter timeline.

 

Over the course of a year, all that amounts to an overdose of highlights, more than a handful of your national team's matches, the odd Copa Libertadores and UEFA Champions League match, a world soccer derby here and there — I try to never miss a Roma vs. Lazio — and a game every month or two featuring your favorite national export. If you're American, that's probably Jozy Altidore these days. If you're Colombian, you're looking up Monaco matches.

 

And that's just TV. Because the average fan will also likely attend anywhere between five to 10 live matches in your city or a short drive outside your hometown: in the USA that means MLS, international friendlies, and national team matches including El Tri.

 

Soccer is like food in that way. We have the staples we keep going back to, but every now and then we'll taste some Italian, Greek, Thai and Indian cuisine. Sometimes cooked at home, other times going out to restaurants, the stadiums of food.

 

You don't hear anyone talking about the best food in the world, do you? And there is no best league in the world. It's our club (staple food) and a smoragasbord of other soccer (the variety).

 

So for the MLS supporters who are left scratching their heads this weekend and wondering how to reconcile their fandom with the EPL machine that's about to rev into high gear: Tune it all out and don't let the marketing and over-the-top commentary brainwash you. The EPL can be your post-meal yogurt hangout.

 

No need to feel any inferiority complex at claims that the EPL is the best soccer product ever made. Instead, count yourself among the lucky to have found the soccer love of your life. Your club. There are plenty of lost souls out there who float from team to team, league to league, channel to channel, hoping to find love, but never wind up committing to a single badge.

 

They've missed out.

 

Because true soccer passion is not based on brands, marketing, TV contracts or how deep an owner's pockets are. It's not based on the name of a league or a country. It's based on your heart and the jersey colors that drape it.

 

Go ahead, tell me that's not true.

 

http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2013/08/16/smorgasborg-dont-believe-epl-hype-there-no-such-thing-best-league-world

[StrandedX02]

If you're American, that's probably Jozy Altidore these days.

 

[Deuce]

Fredy Montero with a hat-trick for Sporting Lisbon today. Didn't know he was still on loan from Sounders, thought he had made a full transfer.

[Deuce]

Seattle v. Portland tonight, 10pm EST. 60K+ in attendance, should be an awesome match.

[BillClinton]

Seattle v. Portland tonight, 10pm EST. 60K+ in attendance, should be an awesome match.

 

Dempsey's first game in Seattle right?

[ponsaelius]

is dat a derby