Dilbert

5 hours ago, Digby said:

On this subject, I just turned on Chicago Fire vs Club America and they're playing at the old Bridgeview stadium. A throwback game! But -- considering Club America is one of the Liga MX teams that will sell tens of thousands of tickets at any stadium in the US -- it goes to show you the logistic difficulty of this tournament as it stands, though kind of a cruel irony for the Fire who can never catch a break. Is it Taylor Swift weekend at Soldier Field or what?

Apparently Sunday is the Chicago Bears Family Fest and first practice at the stadium. I believe SeatGeek is still their practice facility and is the home of their MLS Next Pro team. Charlotte meanwhile played their home game in Frisco, because Beyonce took over their stadium. Im surprised they didnt try to find another suitable venue in North Carolina or even South Carolina.

Apparently the USL pro/rel vote is now on hold

4 hours ago, MJWalker45 said:

It'll probably stay at Toyota Stadium since those are the seats sold for the game. 

Daddy Garber will find a way.

2 hours ago, kimball said:

 

At this point I kinda believe everything ...

In that case I hear a school on Mars is joining Conference USA

They recycling the Vermilion County Bobcats?

Am I the only one who doesnt really care about Messi in MLS? In his second match with Miami he was subbed out in the 75th minute, and thousands of fans began filing for the exits. They were just there to see Messi and as soon as he's off the pitch, it was like no one cared about the rest of the match. Honestly, its not a good look for Miami or MLS.

That Cincinnati game was wild. An own goal, and a goal off a set piece put KC up 2-0 in the first 12 minutes. Then Alan Pulido headbutts Yerson Mosquera for a straight red in the 30th, putting KC down a man. Cincinnati would get on the board just four minutes later with an own goal to make it 2-1 KC, but before they could kickoff again, the game hit a weather delay, only lasting 30 minutes. Restart, play 11 more minutes, then stop again for halftime. Brandon Vazquez would tie it up in the 56th minute, but a handball in the box by Alvas Powell would put KC at the spot for a penalty in the 69th minute. KC would convert to go back up 3-2. Just when you thought it was over, in the final seconds of the game (96th minute), Cincinnati would go to the spot for a penalty as KC actually committed two handballs in the box. Luciano Acosta would convert to tie it for Cincy and send the game to penalties. With this being a tournament game, Roman Celentano got some rest tonight, as backup keeper Alec Kann was in net for FCC. With FCC converting all four penalties, KC only made two, with one going over the crossbar, and Alec Kann making the winning save with his legs, to win it for FCC. Wild game. Officiating was poor. 5 yellows each side plus the straight red for KC, missed several hard fouls, yet called several fouls that were very soft.

Overall, Im not a fan of the Leagues Cup.  FCC needs to stay focused on the Open Cup and the supporters shield. We need to give our guys some rest, and get our injured healed during this tournament. FCC is already in a prime spot for a Champions Cup spot through other means (Supporters Shield, Conference Champion, Open Cup, MLS Cup). Outside of a cash prize and hardware, we really shouldnt put our focus on this tournament.

Whats going on in DC? Two DC United players have been suspended by the team on the same day their trainer was fired for displaying a racist hand gesture. Taxi Fountas was accused of using a racial slur towards Nigel Robertha in a match last season. Fountas played for Miami at the time. Now Fountas used the language again at Robertha in a recent training session. Roberta responded by physically assaulting him.

Meanwhile, their trainer Reade Whitney, was fired for displaying the OK symbol in a staff photo at an MLS All Star Game training session.

https://nypost.com/2023/07/22/d-c-united-suspends-two-players-over-alleged-racial-slur-altercation/

2 hours ago, GDAWG said:

Tim Capper of ArenaFan.com has said that he's going by with what the league has officially announced rather than what TMZ has announced.  He's saying that what was announced by TMZ will not necessarily be the cities that will kick off in 2024.  There may be some evidence to that as well, especially for California. 

This makes sense. It seemed kinda weird that the league would have teams in cities like Chicago, St Louis and Austin, while also having teams in Salem, Lake Charles, and Bakersfield

I thinking these cities revealed yesterday are merely where the AFL wants a team, rather than will be a team. Since the announcement arena officials in Salem, Lake Charles, and Cincinnati were unaware of the league coming to town.

Id wait to here what cities exactly from the AFL themselves.  Using TMZ as a source is about as reliable as using Wikipedia.

I know many of us were on Boiko watch in Chicago, but he apparently had an okay game. Instead the referee of the night was in Cincinnati and once again, Nashville was on the wrong side for the official. Ramy Touchan, had no control, missed several fouls both sides, called several soft fouls on both sides. He tried to get a fan kicked out because he didnt give the Nashville player the ball, after it went out of play and he instead threw it back on the field beside the player. Held up play to yell at the fan and Pat Noonan. (Rule says you have to return the ball to the field, doesnt say you have to hand it to the player). Then he yellow carded a Nashville player, completely forgetting it was his second yellow and had to run back over to show the red. Nashville then lost their composure and another player picked up a second red. Thats two straight games for Nashville to lose 2 men to red cards. Cincinnati won 3-1 but it was a  strange game. Week after week its one show after the other when it comes to PRO referees.

On 7/8/2023 at 11:51 PM, Dilbert said:

I said it before and Ill say it again. Ted Unkel is the Angel Hernandez of soccer.

I retract my statement. After seeing the mess of last weekends Columbus-NYCFC match, and last nights Nashville-Philadelphia match, Sergii Boiko is the new Ted Unkel. Dude has no control over any of his games. in his 11 games this year (2 USL) he has issued 67 yellows, 9 reds, has called 261 fouls and awarded 7 penalties.  1 yellow was on the coach for USL Birmingham, and two reds on the Columbus coaching staff. His last two games alone he has issued 17 yellows and 6 reds.

EDIT: Add another yellow. Not in the report, but Nashville coach Gary Smith said he also got a yellow for dropping the f-bomb.

Ive heard about a major shakeup in the indoor football landscape this offseason, including a possible merger of the IFL and CIF. With the NAL down to 5 teams and the AFL, Arena League (the one with the Ozark Lunkers and Waterloo Woo) and the AIF also restarting, next year could be very interesting.

Im interested in how this plays out. Especially with the USSF division standards. Some teams dont even meet the standards of moving up to DII, and dont even have their own venue to make renovations to meet those standards. Plus USL has for the last several years been trying to get teams out of baseball stadiums and into their own soccer specific venues, but it has been a very slow and tedious process, that as a result, Reno and Fresno dropped out of the USL Championship entirely (Fresno has since returned to USL1 at the 1,000 seat Fresno State Soccer Stadium, while picking up where Fresno FC left off in trying to build a new stadium). Efforts for new stadiums are underway for El Paso, Indy, Iowa, Memphis, Milwaukee, New Mexico, Oakland, Oklahoma City, Pawtucket, Sacramento, Fresno, Greenville, Lexington, Knoxville, Omaha, Santa Barbara, Spokane, and Brooklyn, as well as Northwest Arkansas announced today, but most of these projects has seen little movement, public funding support and other issues that are slowing down the efforts. Projects in Queens and Fort Worth have recently failed entirely and have been abandoned.

The fact that fans in St Louis had to watch Mustard vs Ketchup in the final Rams game in St Louis is an absolute crime

12 hours ago, Digby said:

 

One ref making a mistake is fine, two is not. What is the point of VAR otherwise? This certainly cost New England a point in the standings, plus it was a total banger of a goal from Andrew Farrell of all people, which makes it doubly tragic.

I firmly believe that VAR should make the final call, and not the on field official. Why would you make an incorrect call, be shown video evidence that your call was wrong, and still be like " Nah, I know the call is wrong, but Im gonna keep the original wrong call ruling, despite seeing video evidence I was wrong."

ECHL is coming to Lake Tahoe, courtesy of Tim Tebow. Tebow is also a minority partner for Jacksonville and Savannah in the ECHL. No identity yet. Common sense would be to have them affiliate with Vegas Golden Knights and Henderson Silver Knights and be branded as the Tahoe Bronze Knights

https://www.echl.com/en/news/2023/7/echl-approves-expansion-membership-for-lake-tahoe

1 hour ago, Sport said:

 

I'll say to you what I've been saying to fellow Reds fans - It's exciting (or frightening from your POV) to have our team back, but we all need to pump the brakes and chill TF out. They had a good two months, but they're not the next Astros just yet. Even the most annoyingly optimistic of the performative optimists in Reds Rebuild Twitter didn't think these guys would all outperform their expectations by 30%. I keep waiting for that crash. 

I mean we've now hit the All Star break, this is typically about the time a good  Reds team comes back to reality to crash and burn

im so conflicted. It was great to see Brandon Vazquez score for the US in front of fans at his MLS home. But with the US winning it means we will be without him and Matt Miazga for two more really important MLS matches.

I said it before and Ill say it again. Ted Unkel is the Angel Hernandez of soccer. Despite getting Unkel'd FC Cincinnati came back to draw Charlotte 2-2. Ian Murphy fresh off his one game suspension for two yellows, earning a red in DC, did the same thing tonight in Charlotte and will be gone for Wednesday at New Jersey. Meanwhile FCC is hurting without Vazquez and Miazga. Why MLS and Liga MX didnt schedule the Leagues Cup at the same time as the Gold Cup is beyond me. It sounds selfish but I need Canada to beat the US in Cincinnati on Sunday so we can get our boys back.

2 hours ago, Unocal said:

If the team with baseball's best record plays in front of next to nobody in a terrible stadium, does it make a sound?

If a perfect game is pitched in Oakland, does anybody see it?

FC Cincinnati fell just short of a record 12 wins at home to start the season tonight, coming back to draw with New England 2-2, in a hard fought game between the top two teams in MLS. FCC looked like the better team, but several missed opportunities and an own goal killed them tonight.

Happy Bobby Bonilla Day!

Makes sense. Its been awhile since it had been to Columbus. New stadium, plus the whole Save The Crew campaign. I heard Cincinnati also applied to host for 2024, but decided to bow out to focus on building their new district outside TQL Stadium instead.