North American Pro Soccer 2023

[MJWalker45]

23 hours ago, tBBP said:

Just stopping by to reiterate just how dumb/derivative the name "Inter Miami" is...

 

...That's all. 

 

21 hours ago, Dilbert said:

I agree, however, its not a City, United, FC Miami, Miami FC. Seeing as how it is different from the rest of the league, Ill allow it.

Just like most every other team that has International/City/United or Town in their names. I'm sure someone would have complained if they were AC Miami too. It's been five years, it's not changing now unless someone else buys the team and I don't see that happening for a while.  

17 hours ago, DG_ThenNowForever said:

https://www.fotmob.com/embed/news/01h2bne9xr0c/luis-suarez-set-to-join-lionel-messi-inter-miami

 

Luis Suarez coming to Inter Miami too? Wow.

 

I guess they were just waiting out Higuain.

Is Bielsa signed yet too? 

 

23 hours ago, WestCoastBias said:

This is huge. Messi will be the best player to ever play in MLS. He's not even a year removed from winning the World Cup. Pretty crazy he's going to the worst team in MLS lol.

 

They better start playing games at Hard Rock instead of that temporary bleacher stadium.

They'll probably only play friendlies there against big name international club sides, but I don't see them playing MLS games there unless the other side has someone of equal stature on the other side. And the only likely player that would match that while Messi is still playing there is Ronaldo or Neymar. 

19 hours ago, tBBP said:

And side note, but check it: anyone else notice the two Florida teams, if/when they play each other, will be pink vs purple? That's just hilarious to me on several different levels...

MLS will make them play in monochrome, black vs white. 

 

[4_tattoos]

9 minutes ago, MJWalker45 said:

And the only likely player that would match that while Messi is still playing there is Ronaldo or Neymar. 

Mbappe?

[MJWalker45]

2 minutes ago, 4_tattoos said:

Mbappe?

He's 24. I don't think he'd be playing in MLS for at least 10 years. Messi will be gone by then. 

[GDAWG]

54 minutes ago, MJWalker45 said:

He's 24. I don't think he'd be playing in MLS for at least 10 years. Messi will be gone by then. 

 

Messi will be an owner of MLS by then as it's been reported that "future ownership stake" ala David Beckham was one of the things that got him to accept.  

 

For Neymar to come to the MLS, one of the LA teams, one of the New York teams, Inter Miami and maybe Chicago are going to have to offer him a similar deal to Messi.  I think that Neymar though has one more major contract left before he even considers MLS.  

 

I don't know about their English language skils (although I have seen IG posts from Messi in English) but stars of the magnitude of Messi and Neymar would have to know the language eventually.  An unknown defender from Columbia playing for FC Dallas can get away with not speaking any English but not Neymar or Messi.  Beckham of course is English.  Thierry Henry spent years in the EPL before he went to the MLS.  Zlatan spoke English quite well.  Mbappe speaks pretty good English.  Ronaldo speaks English from his years in the EPL.  

[MJWalker45]

39 minutes ago, GDAWG said:

 

Messi will be an owner of MLS by then as it's been reported that "future ownership stake" ala David Beckham was one of the things that got him to accept.  

 

For Neymar to come to the MLS, one of the LA teams, one of the New York teams, Inter Miami and maybe Chicago are going to have to offer him a similar deal to Messi.  I think that Neymar though has one more major contract left before he even considers MLS.  

 

I don't know about their English language skils (although I have seen IG posts from Messi in English) but stars of the magnitude of Messi and Neymar would have to know the language eventually.  An unknown defender from Columbia playing for FC Dallas can get away with not speaking any English but not Neymar or Messi.  Beckham of course is English.  Thierry Henry spent years in the EPL before he went to the MLS.  Zlatan spoke English quite well.  Mbappe speaks pretty good English.  Ronaldo speaks English from his years in the EPL.  

They can both speak English, Messi chooses to only speak Spanish. They also don't have to speak English. We don't require it of baseball players, why require it of soccer players?

[GDAWG]

 

[Dilbert]

[DG_ThenNowForever]

I hope one result of all this is Josef Martinez lands in Seattle.

[SCMODS]

I'm looking forward to the day when MLS gets too oversized and some of the clubs leave and form a  rival league. 

[GDAWG]

On 6/9/2023 at 5:44 PM, SCMODS said:

I'm looking forward to the day when MLS gets too oversized and some of the clubs leave and form a  rival league. 

 

There are USL fans who want USL Championship to be that rival league, which probably won't happen unless the USL Championship sells the soul to Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund.  

[Digby]

On 2023-06-11 at 12:02 PM, GDAWG said:

 

There are USL fans who want USL Championship to be that rival league, which probably won't happen unless the USL Championship sells the soul to Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund.  

 

The USL women's league has intentions of being on par with NWSL, which might be interesting to watch but seems like enough of a pipe dream. Getting Saudi money is kind of interesting in an evil way but I think MLS already has too many big markets on lock for that to appeal. They've got better located (but underfunded) teams in Miami, the Bay Area and now San Diego, hypothetically maybe they could add Boston to that mix but that still doesn't really build a real competitor league.

[Digby]

On 2023-06-08 at 4:27 PM, MJWalker45 said:

Just like most every other team that has International/City/United or Town in their names. I'm sure someone would have complained if they were AC Miami too. It's been five years, it's not changing now unless someone else buys the team and I don't see that happening for a while.  

 

Is Bielsa signed yet too?

 

Whatever happened with the trademark case that Inter (as in Milan) had brought up? A forced-by-law name change would be hilarious but feels too high-stakes to happen.

 

I simply cannot see Bielsa in MLS, he doesn't seem like the right guy to navigate the MLS byzantine bureaucracy. Would be fun if he did, though.

[GDAWG]

4 hours ago, Digby said:

 

The USL women's league has intentions of being on par with NWSL, which might be interesting to watch but seems like enough of a pipe dream. Getting Saudi money is kind of interesting in an evil way but I think MLS already has too many big markets on lock for that to appeal. They've got better located (but underfunded) teams in Miami, the Bay Area and now San Diego, hypothetically maybe they could add Boston to that mix but that still doesn't really build a real competitor league.

 

The USL is probably going to try to convince Racing Louisville to join them rather than be "at the dinner table" with Portland, Houston and Orlando, all owned by MLS teams.  

[MJWalker45]

Alessia Russo is rumored to possibly be coming over to the NWSL, possibly with Washington Spirit. Arsenal are still the favorites though. 

[GDAWG]

 

[MJWalker45]

On 6/18/2023 at 11:11 PM, GDAWG said:

 

So will he be taking on the Lampard or Pirlo role? 

[Dilbert]

FC Cincinnati with their 10th home win to start the season. A 3-0 victory over Toronto in which they were without 6 of their starters (injury or international duty), saw 3 MLS debuts with Bret Halsey (an FCC2 player signed specifically for this game to help cover the absences), Gerardo Valenzuela, and Stiven Jimenez (a 15 year old, who last weekend on the teams bye secured his learners permit). Meanwhile, Nashville falls at Montreal tonight so FCC gains back the three points Nashville picked up over their win last weekend. Also in attendance tonight were 11 Cincinnati Reds players, fresh off this afternoons 11th straight win. What a time for sports in Cincy.

[Sykotyk]

21 hours ago, Dilbert said:

FC Cincinnati with their 10th home win to start the season. A 3-0 victory over Toronto in which they were without 6 of their starters (injury or international duty), saw 3 MLS debuts with Bret Halsey (an FCC2 player signed specifically for this game to help cover the absences), Gerardo Valenzuela, and Stiven Jimenez (a 15 year old, who last weekend on the teams bye secured his learners permit). Meanwhile, Nashville falls at Montreal tonight so FCC gains back the three points Nashville picked up over their win last weekend. Also in attendance tonight were 11 Cincinnati Reds players, fresh off this afternoons 11th straight win. What a time for sports in Cincy.

Three games delayed due to weather and one postponed entirely.

 

Two shocks of the night were Chicago winning at Portland, and RSL won surprisingly easily at STL.  LAG had a shot at a win, but blew it late. Austin winning big was a surprise. 3-0 and it never felt like it was even that close. LAFC with the first minute goal that held up to win 1-0 over Seattle. Though they had a handball called back for a second goal late.

 

Cincinnati has clearly established themselves as the king of the mountain. Only a matter if they slip up later in the season, or a fluke playoff loss. But if they give up the Supporters Shield that would be a shock. The West playoffs are wide open.

[Dilbert]

The incredible thing about Cincinnati is 10 of their 13 wins are by 1 goal, 6 of them 1-0. 10 wins of the 13 wins were also won at home. (3-1-4 on the road).  The only time they looked bad was at St Louis, and that was without a couple starters and a long rain delay.

[GDAWG]