North American Pro Soccer 2023

[McCall]

24 minutes ago, DG_ThenNowForever said:

The greatest soccer team of our times -- St Louis CITY FC -- is up 3-0 at 68' and seems to be poised to start the season 5-0-0.

 

Good heavens.

4-0

[DG_ThenNowForever]

2 minutes ago, McCall said:

4-0

 

Thanks for clarifying.

 

Even still, I'm rooting for then to keep it going.

[FiddySicks]

Seeing St. Louis enter the league and start so strong just depresses me  

 

Not because of them, really. I wish them all the best. It’s just the whole what could’ve been factor. 

[TrueYankee26]

1 hour ago, DG_ThenNowForever said:

The greatest soccer team of our times -- St Louis CITY FC -- is up 3-0 at 68' and seems to be poised to start the season 5-0-0.

 

Good heavens.

Final score 4-0. Only 1998 Chicago Fire won the cup as an expansion team in their first season. Maybe STLCSC could join them

[DG_ThenNowForever]

The funny thing about St Louis is that they aren't 5-0-0 with a negative goal differential or anything fluky like that. 

 

In addition to leading the league in goals scored, total points and wins, they also lead in goal differential.

 

Really curious to see how this plays out for them.

[Dilbert]

Im actually very scared of St Louis. FCC plays them in three weeks

[MJWalker45]

Columbus drops 6 on Atlanta, and we didn't even have our two best players. Both teams were shorthanded but I wasn't expecting anything like that.

[GDAWG]

 

[TrueYankee26]

2 hours ago, GDAWG said:

 

STLCSC and SD Wave: Juggernaut soccer teams located in cities where NFL is only a memory now, and with huge support.

 

You're next Oakland, California

[Dilbert]

40 minutes ago, TrueYankee26 said:

You're next Oakland, California

Not so fast.  Like the Athletics, Oaklands USL club has stadium issues. Last year the Roots postponed a game because their turf was unplayable.

 

 

So the Roots are basically renting from Laney College, but because of the track around the field, the Roots have their own turf that they lay over the Laney College turf and track. The Roots are looking at another site to build a new stadium of their own and have narrowed it down to a parking lot at the Coliseum and a former Naval base at Alameda Point. The new stadium however is not a permanent solution and is only a modular build until they can find a more permanent home.

[TrueYankee26]

11 minutes ago, Dilbert said:

Not so fast.  Like the Athletics, Oaklands USL club has stadium issues. Last year the Roots postponed a game because their turf was unplayable.

 

 

So the Roots are basically renting from Laney College, but because of the track around the field, the Roots have their own turf that they lay over the Laney College turf and track. The Roots are looking at another site to build a new stadium of their own and have narrowed it down to a parking lot at the Coliseum and a former Naval base at Alameda Point. The new stadium however is not a permanent solution and is only a modular build until they can find a more permanent home.

Sad to hear. A great sports city turned to a total wasteland with a couple of their teams moving across the bay and Vegas and the 1 team left whose painful search for a ballpark is well documented. Heartbreaking. May the A's and Roots struggles end.

[GDAWG]

3 hours ago, TrueYankee26 said:

STLCSC and SD Wave: Juggernaut soccer teams located in cities where NFL is only a memory now, and with huge support.

 

You're next Oakland, California

 

if anything it's proof that San Diego could support MLS if things go right with that.  

[McCall]

7 hours ago, GDAWG said:

 

if anything it's proof that San Diego could support MLS if things go right with that.  

I, personally, think San Diego will be the 30th. They already have a likely stadium at Snapdragon, so the infrastructure aspect is out of the way. Even if a Las Vegas team ended up playing at Allegiant, it doesn't appear to be as close to set as San Diego would be. And then Phoenix and Sacramento are even more questionable on how soon a stadium would be ready. This gives San Diego a decidable advantage, at least as far as first one to begin playing goes.

[Sport]

On 3/25/2023 at 11:01 PM, Dilbert said:

FC Cincinnati is now unbeaten on the road in 9 games, dating back to July of last season (not counting playoffs), Getting a win on the road in Nashville is huge. Nashville and their supporters were talking all week how Nashville and Cincinnati is a rivalry and talked a lot of smack. Cincinnati supporters talked but not as much and to the level Nashville took it. There is the saying "Talk s***, get hit". Nashville got hit.

 

Cincinnati now sits one point out of first in the Eastern Conference and is the lone remaining unbeaten in the East. We've come a long way from the first three seasons.

 

I had no animosity for Nashville before the game, but I kind of do now. Those Nashville fans seemed angry. Not sports angry, but like angry angry. Like when Acosta got bumped in the eye and the two dudes in the "Cincinnati Sucks" shirts were yelling at him from the corner - Middle fingers and grabbing their sacks and just really classy behavior. Relax. 

[Dilbert]

55 minutes ago, Sport said:

 

I had no animosity for Nashville before the game, but I kind of do now. Those Nashville fans seemed angry. Not sports angry, but like angry angry. Like when Acosta got bumped in the eye and the two dudes in the "Cincinnati Sucks" shirts were yelling at him from the corner - Middle fingers and grabbing their sacks and just really classy behavior. Relax. 

Because Nashville has been bouncing between the Eastern and Western Conference, they dont really have an MLS rival. Nashville fans have been trying hard for it to be Cincinnati because of our past together in the USL, but a lot of Cincy fans want no part in having Nashville as a rival.  Its why Nashville supporters as well as the team itself were talking alot last week, but Cincy supporters and the team were very quiet.

 

Many of the supporters of other teams are constantly like, "Yall got three wooden spoons" and bringing up how bad we were in the past as if we are still bad today. We are a completely different team now and they all seem to be stuck in the past rather than the present.

[MJWalker45]

3 minutes ago, Dilbert said:

Because Nashville has been bouncing between the Eastern and Western Conference, they dont really have an MLS rival. Nashville fans have been trying hard for it to be Cincinnati because of our past together in the USL, but a lot of Cincy fans want no part in having Nashville as a rival.  Its why Nashville supporters as well as the team itself were talking alot last week, but Cincy supporters and the team were very quiet.

 

Many of the supporters of other teams are constantly like, "Yall got three wooden spoons" and bringing up how bad we were in the past as if we are still bad today. We are a completely different team now and they all seem to be stuck in the past rather than the present.

Wouldn't St. Louis or Charlotte make more sense? FC Cincy's big rival is Columbus, why try to stick yourself in between that? I mean it's called Hell if Real!

2 hours ago, McCall said:

I, personally, think San Diego will be the 30th. They already have a likely stadium at Snapdragon, so the infrastructure aspect is out of the way. Even if a Las Vegas team ended up playing at Allegiant, it doesn't appear to be as close to set as San Diego would be. And then Phoenix and Sacramento are even more questionable on how soon a stadium would be ready. This gives San Diego a decidable advantage, at least as far as first one to begin playing goes.

The fact there's a stadium that can support a MLS team and a rabid fan base that is already on site due to SD Loyal is all they should need to close the deal. 

 

[gosioux76]

4 minutes ago, MJWalker45 said:

The fact there's a stadium that can support a MLS team and a rabid fan base that is already on site due to SD Loyal is all they should need to close the deal. 

 

 

But if you're a prospective MLS owner who will be asked to shell out $300+ million in expansion fees, do you really want to play in a stadium owned by a university? 

 

It's a nice venue, and certainly seems to meet the standards, but I'd have to presume that Snapdragon — if it's even made available to a MLS team — would only be a short-term option until a MLS-specific venue were proposed. I'm sure that will be part of the vetting process for whether the league awards SD a franchise. 

[MJWalker45]

11 minutes ago, gosioux76 said:

 

But if you're a prospective MLS owner who will be asked to shell out $300+ million in expansion fees, do you really want to play in a stadium owned by a university? 

 

It's a nice venue, and certainly seems to meet the standards, but I'd have to presume that Snapdragon — if it's even made available to a MLS team — would only be a short-term option until a MLS-specific venue were proposed. I'm sure that will be part of the vetting process for whether the league awards SD a franchise. 

I think the loss of revenue for not owning the stadium could be offset by not having to pay for upkeep, but if they  do need to build their own stadium this is a better option than what other teams have and are using now. 

[GriffinM6]

Nashville is kind of in a weird spot in terms of having a true rival. Atlanta is only 4 hours away, but we already have a rivalry with Orlando, and Charlotte seems to be the number two now. Cincy is 4 hours from Nash too, but they obviously have an Ohio rivalry with Columbus. As mentioned earlier, it also doesn't help that they have bounced back and forth between conferences. Maybe a bitter playoff loss against some Northeast team will help cement a rivalry, but who knows?

[gosioux76]

20 hours ago, DG_ThenNowForever said:

The funny thing about St Louis is that they aren't 5-0-0 with a negative goal differential or anything fluky like that. 

 

In addition to leading the league in goals scored, total points and wins, they also lead in goal differential.

 

Really curious to see how this plays out for them.

 

Living in St. Louis, it's been really fun to follow this team. Super exciting for the city.

 

But part of me worries a bit about what it might say about the league that a new team can come in with a European-seasoned sporting director who has apparently unlocked the formula for success in MLS. Just as it seemed as if the MLS as a whole was upping its game, St. Louis comes in and makes it look subpar again.

 

This is just me thinking out loud. I'm sure things will even out to some degree as the season goes on.