North American Pro Soccer 2022

[Dilbert]

The Union was a must win for Cincinnati if they wanted to remain in the playoff race. Philly has looked amazing all year but the FC Cincy match was something else. Cincinnati had full control and Philadelphia looked lost. Vazquez and Brenner have been running the show and Barreal looks like a new man since Acosta was suspended. Atlanta is up next followed by two big ones against Red Bull and Crew. We need points in all three.

[DEAD!]

16 hours ago, WJMorris3 said:

Most years, you can be a good team, play like crap, and still beat FC Cincinnati.

 

Not this year.

 

We played like crap and FC Cincinnati beat us 3-1.

 

Pat Noonan is doing a very good job with them.

What position do you play?

[Sykotyk]

4 hours ago, DEAD! said:

What position do you play?

Can we stop with this gatekeeping sports fandom. If your money time and energy goes to supporting the team then you're part of it. They don't play without revenue. 

[DEAD!]

27 minutes ago, Sykotyk said:

Can we stop with this gatekeeping sports fandom. If your money time and energy goes to supporting the team then you're part of it. They don't play without revenue. 

Nah. You are part of the experience  but you are not part of the team.

You're not training. You're not coaching. You're not scouting. You're not even the receptionist. 

[Dilbert]

MLS Next Pro is adding seven clubs next season Atlanta United 2, LA Galaxy II, and New York Red Bulls II are expected to move over from USL Championship. Austin FC, Charlotte FC, and LAFC are also expected to field teams with names and locations TBA. Nashville SC will field a team in Huntsville. DC and Montreal will be the only MLS clubs not fielding an MLS Next Pro team next year.

 

One twist in all this was DC Uniteds II team Loudoun United was expected to go to MLS Next Pro from USL Championship along with Atlanta, LA, and New York. However it appears that as part of the contract for building Segra Field in Loudoun was that it hosts a Division II team, and not a division III team which MLS Next Pro is. DC may stay in Loudoun for another season but Id expect Loudoun to become independent later. DC supposedly is looking at Baltimore to eventually place its D3 reserve team. Baltimore has been looked at for a while by USL.

 

Las Vegas in the USL might be in trouble. They have an affiliation with LAFC and with LAFC joining MLS Next Pro next season, Las Vegas is on their own. Supposedly, having LAFC coming in and running most of the things for Vegas is the only reason they came back this season. Las Vegas is in the running for an MLS club.

[BrySmalls]

Loudoun United has a nice stadium. It’s too bad it is located on the outskirts of Leesburg, making it a pain in the ass to travel to for a match. I believe the average attendance for this season is somewhere north of 1,000 per match out of  5,000 seats in the stadium.

Also, it doesn't help that the on-field product has been terrible since its inception. Honestly, it’s best that Loudoun United either becomes an independent club, rebrands, or folds rather than stay with DCU for another year.

[Dilbert]

Loudoun has been one of the few "two" teams that actually draw fans. If they pull something similar to what Seattle did (rebrand from Seattle Sounders 2 to Tacoma Defiance) in having their own identity, I think they might be able to draw more and survive. Tacoma brought was one of the two teams that managed to bring in fans and have their own identity (at least until covid hit and the move to MLS Next Pro. As far as I know MLS Next Pro doesnt report attendance so Im not sure how they are doing now)

[BrySmalls]

18 hours ago, Dilbert said:

Loudoun has been one of the few "two" teams that actually draw fans. If they pull something similar to what Seattle did (rebrand from Seattle Sounders 2 to Tacoma Defiance) in having their own identity, I think they might be able to draw more and survive. Tacoma brought was one of the two teams that managed to bring in fans and have their own identity (at least until covid hit and the move to MLS Next Pro. As far as I know MLS Next Pro doesnt report attendance so Im not sure how they are doing now)

 

Here are the 2022 attendance figures (through August 1). Loudoun United drew a 2,076 crowd against LA Galaxy II  in Week 22 to bump up total attendance to 18,384 for the season. They are currently ranked 23rd out of 27 clubs in attendance.

Maybe this is a turning point or aberration in their season, but the club struggles to draw fans.

[Dilbert]

Compared to all the other "two" clubs Loudoun is drawing very well. Compared to the rest of the league yes they are not drawing well. If DC dumps them and Loudoun gets an independent club with their own identity then maybe they might draw more

[Digby]

 

Nightmare fuel.

[Dilbert]

The 20,000th regular season MLS goal was scored tonight in Cincinnati and its controversial. Andrew Gutman scores for Atlanta but many FCC fans believe he is just a hare offside.

 

 

[DG_ThenNowForever]

Sounders have lost 7 out of 10 and are looking like they'll miss the playoffs for the first time in franchise history.

 

After winning the CCL, they kind of went in free-fall, with injuries to the team's DPs and no roster moves this summer.

 

I told myself that the CCL win was enough and it doesn't matter how they finish the season; now I'm just forcing myself to accept that's true.

[MJWalker45]

55 minutes ago, DG_ThenNowForever said:

Sounders have lost 7 out of 10 and are looking like they'll miss the playoffs for the first time in franchise history.

 

After winning the CCL, they kind of went in free-fall, with injuries to the team's DPs and no roster moves this summer.

 

I told myself that the CCL win was enough and it doesn't matter how they finish the season; now I'm just forcing myself to accept that's true.

So the curse of the Champions League final continues? 

 

Colorado Rapids had players diving and angling for calls so much that their own commentating team called them out about it. They even called out the ref for not giving a second yellow to Rubio for a really bad foul on 70 minutes and sending him off.  Columbus should have won the game but still sitting in 5th place is the better than dropping to 8th. 

 

[harney]

On 8/15/2022 at 12:12 PM, DG_ThenNowForever said:

Sounders have lost 7 out of 10 and are looking like they'll miss the playoffs for the first time in franchise history.

 

After winning the CCL, they kind of went in free-fall, with injuries to the team's DPs and no roster moves this summer.

 

I told myself that the CCL win was enough and it doesn't matter how they finish the season; now I'm just forcing myself to accept that's true.

 

Never realized the Sounders had never missed the playoffs. That's pretty impressive to have 25+ years of sustained success. And I'm pretty sure the CCL win counts as success too.

[GDAWG]

 

NWSL attendance as of this past Monday

[GDAWG]

[Dilbert]

The past three seasons for FC Cincinnati fans have complained about not winning, bad coaching and GM and finding new ways to lose to wind of with the wooden spoon. This season fans are complaining about inept officiating and a useless VAR. FCC has given up more penalties this season than any other team and many of them were iffy or called after VAR review.  There have been several iffy VARs going against FCC but when its the other way around nothing is called.. Its a joke week after week. Fans are starting to think that PRO is fixing the games against FCC. Tonight VAR took a suspeciously long look at Matt Miazgas goal, when it was clearly a good goal. Not even close to being offside. Later VAR intervened and determined there was a foul in the box for a penalty. It was a soft foul if that. But it seems everything this season when it comes to officiating is going against FC Cincinnati but never the other way around.

[Rockstar Matt]

Gotta say, it’s absolutely incredible to see a team managed by a former MLS manager (and career player), along with 3 MLS products playing key roles, win convincingly over Chelsea today. 
 

Imagine saying that 10 years ago. 

[Sport]

On 8/21/2022 at 1:11 AM, Dilbert said:

The past three seasons for FC Cincinnati fans have complained about not winning, bad coaching and GM and finding new ways to lose to wind of with the wooden spoon. This season fans are complaining about inept officiating and a useless VAR. FCC has given up more penalties this season than any other team and many of them were iffy or called after VAR review.  There have been several iffy VARs going against FCC but when its the other way around nothing is called.. Its a joke week after week. Fans are starting to think that PRO is fixing the games against FCC. Tonight VAR took a suspeciously long look at Matt Miazgas goal, when it was clearly a good goal. Not even close to being offside. Later VAR intervened and determined there was a foul in the box for a penalty. It was a soft foul if that. But it seems everything this season when it comes to officiating is going against FC Cincinnati but never the other way around.

 

It is getting suspicious. Feels like they're always on the wrong side and there's no consistency game to game. They didn't even look at the goal Atlanta scored last week when it was close enough to warrant a review. Soccer refs feel like the most overtly vindictive in of all sports, almost like an open secret that they'll twist the calls to a preferred side so I wonder if Noonan calling that one guy unprofessional against NYCFC* has all the refs out to get them. 

 

*It was more than warranted. 

[DG_ThenNowForever]

Seattle's been getting boned on touchy calls like this all season:

 

 

No way should that have been called a handball.  You're asking for players to be judge on slow-mo when they actually in real-time. Terrible call that took a win away from Seattle.