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MLS is Elite Superthread

TheShane
about 10 years

What is MLS? MLS is short for Major League Soccer. MLS is an American/Canadian soccer (or football for the europeans) league formed in 1996 which currently hosts 19 teams.

http://www.mlssoccer.com/ - The website itself is nicely run and also covers the USMNT.

Current teams include:

West:

FC Dallas (W1) - 57

  • LA Galaxy (W2) - 51

  • Vancouver Whitecaps (W3) - 50

  • Portland Timbers (W4) - 50

  • Seattle Sounders (W5) - 48

  • Sporting Kansas City (W6) - 48

  • San Jose Earthquakes (W7) - 47

  • Houston Dynamo (W8) - 42

  • Real Salt Lake (W9) - 41

  • Colorado Rapids (W10) - 37

East:

New York Red Bulls (E1) - 57

  • D.C United (E2) - 51

  • Columbus Crew (E3) - 50

  • Toronto FC (E4) - 49

  • Montreal Impact (E5) - 48

  • New England Revolution (E6) - 47

  • Orlando City SC (E7) - 44

  • New York City FC (E8) - 37

  • Philadelphia Union (E9) - 34

  • Chicago Fire (E10) - 30

Note: Large text means the team is competing for a spot at the supporters shield which is most points in the regular season. Normal bold means clinched playoff spot. Italicized means they are still competing for a playoff spot and have not cliched it yet.

What's happening this season:

  • Chivas USA to be removed - New LAFC team announced for 2017

  • Orlando City SC + NYCFC to join eastern conference / SKC + Dynamo to western

  • MLS logo officially remodeled

Why MLS?

You should follow MLS for many reasons:

1) You can follow many USMNT stars such as Clint Dempsey, Micheal Bradley, and Jozy Altidore

2) MLS is one of the fastest growing soccer leagues in the world right now. While it may not have the quality of EPL or La Liga, the league is growing better every year.

3) Cheap: If you happen to live in the USA or even Canada, there is likely a team close to you. I used to live very close to Portland, so the Portland Timbers were the team I followed. The tickets were cheap and the atmosphere was amazing when I went there as shown here.

TheShane
almost 10 years

Radamanthos says


jackattack123 says

Chivas is ded


The chivas franchise is having their worst year probably with the Mexican branch, the so called "giant" team in danger of losing the category and the USA branch disappearing.


Chivas USA branch deserved to fold since they had an issue of racism last season. CUSA was branded as a team for hispanics to support. Trouble is, no one cared about the team and their attendance was always bad. Combine that with an awful owner and a bad team, CUSA deserved to fail.

Vergara (Chivas owner) mistreated the USA branch and was terrible with the Guadalajara team.
TheShane
almost 10 years

LIoyd says

ok the real problem with MLS is that it is not the highest level of the sport.

Mexican League is fun for me.
(just because its the one people really care about around here)



MLS might not be the best league in its sport, but it's a fun sport which is easy to understand with exciting supporters culture.

The sad thing about liga MX is that in the CCL, they don't demolish every team all the time. Liga MX was founded in 1943. You have to understand that MLS was founded in 1996 - 1996!

MLS is only 18 years old compared to other leagues which most were formed in the early 1900's.

There has been very big events for MLS, such as Beckham to Galaxy. When Galaxy came to MLS, the league grew a lot bigger and the popularity grew. Beckham joined in 2007. Look at the league since then. There's so many new expansion teams since then! San Joe (which returned from being transferred to Houston), Seattle, Philly, Vancouver, Portland, and Montreal.

Look at next season, the league is getting a second NY team and a team in Orlando. A thing that MLS does good is having teams in cities which don't have many major leagues to fight against. In my home city of Portland, the Trail Blazers are the only competition. This combined with a good stadium location in the heart of Portland make the team sell out every single game with history dating back to the 70's.

It's not a matter of looking at the state of the league now, it's about looking at what it will be. With what I see, I legitimately think that MLS can be the 4th biggest sport in America, but it will just take many years before that will happen.
Radamanthos
almost 10 years

jackattack123 says

Chivas is ded


The chivas franchise is having their worst year probably with the Mexican branch, the so called "giant" team in danger of losing the category and the USA branch disappearing.
jack
almost 10 years
Chivas is ded
Radamanthos
almost 10 years

LIoyd says

you are either a Chivas fan or a Club America fan. haha


Dude gross, both of those can suck a [REDACTED]
LIoyd
almost 10 years
ya jack same here

I dont follow it all like I used to but I used to be big fan of Tim Howard so I would get up early and watch Everton. Now I use that time to sleep..

and I get the local thing cause among the people that really acknowledge Soccer in Texas (use your imagination)

you are either a Chivas fan or a Club America fan. haha
jack
almost 10 years

LIoyd says

ok the real problem with MLS is that it is not the highest level of the sport.

Some of the other major sports league have fan bases outside of the United States only.

So you have to take into consideration that Soccer's popularity
is going to draw lots of people in America to the European leagues.


good point, but like op said a few american national team players have started returning to mls which i think helps its marketability. Plus for me it was way easier to get invested in a local team like the Revolution then support one of the teams in say the EPL, despite the talent gap
LIoyd
almost 10 years
ok the real problem with MLS is that it is not the highest level of the sport.

Some of the other major sports league have fan bases outside of the United States only.

So you have to take into consideration that Soccer's popularity
is going to draw lots of people in America to the European leagues.

Nothing against MLS itself but NHL, NBA, NFL, and MLB have no competition within their sports.

Mexican League is fun for me.
(just because its the one people really care about around here)

Fun Fact: I once played on a soccer team where the players just about only spoke Spanish.
jack
almost 10 years
MLS has grown in popularity immensely in the last 5 years alone, the western expansion teams like Seattle/Portland/Vancouver are still pretty young and have rabid fan bases. I think its less of the MLS passing in popularity over another sport and more of it being accepted as the 5th major sport in America.
TheShane
almost 10 years
I never said immediately, I am talking possibly years from now. It will take a long time, but I think it has potential to overthrow those as more popular sports.

Like I said, it will take time. Soccer is way more easy to pick up and play compared to hockey and I think that baseball will lose popularity with younger people because it's rather slow a lot of the times.
deletedalmost 10 years

TheShane says

Not so sure about that, MLS has the potential to overthrow the NHL and possibly the MLB in the future because it's an easy sport to pickup. Tons of people in America play soccer as a child but then grow to forget about the sport altogether. .


i don't see MLS becoming more popular than the NHL and definitely not more popular than MLB


but i hope jack's team wins yay
TheShane
almost 10 years
From yesterday: Seattle beats LA 2-1, but LA wins 2-2 aggregate by the away goal rule.


LA is to host NE on December 7th. on ESPN for the MLS cup!
TheShane
almost 10 years

Calloway says

its futbal not socer


Being ignorant doesn't make you cool


NothinButTime1 says

The only wrong with MLS is that other sports such as NFL, MLB, NBA, and NHL will always be more popular. I love soccer but i feel like its very sad to see majority of the Americans only caring about games being played on Sunday afternoons( AKA football). In addition most of all the soccer stars play in Europe and its kinda hard to follow on TV.


Not so sure about that, MLS has the potential to overthrow the NHL and possibly the MLB in the future because it's an easy sport to pickup. Tons of people in America play soccer as a child but then grow to forget about the sport altogether.

I don't understand why it's hard to watch on TV, you find a local team and then support them. I'd rather support a local team any day of the week rather than support Man. City. The quality of play isn't superb, but it improves every season.

Growth isn't an overnight thing, it will take years before it grows more popular in the U.S.
Calloway
almost 10 years
its futbal not socer
NothinButTime1
almost 10 years
The only wrong with MLS is that other sports such as NFL, MLB, NBA, and NHL will always be more popular. I love soccer but i feel like its very sad to see majority of the Americans only caring about games being played on Sunday afternoons( AKA football). In addition most of all the soccer stars play in Europe and its kinda hard to follow on TV.
jack
almost 10 years
REVS
TheShane
almost 10 years
NE ties NY with a 4-3 aggregate making NE the eastern champions! Seattle vs LA to be decided tomorrow on ESPN
TheShane
about 10 years
SEMIFINALS LEG 1 COMPLETE:

New England gets a huge away win against New York

LA gets a win at home against Seattle, but will it be enough?

NY 1 - NE 2

LA 1 - SEA 0
TheShane
about 10 years
Seattle officially beat Dallas getting a 0-0 draw, but winning the away goal rule with a 1-1 draw at Dallas.
jack
about 10 years

TheShane says

New England are in the semi finals and they need Lee on their team if they want to win.


yeah he's really the spark plug for this team he needs to play both games against new york if they want to advance
deletedabout 10 years
Plenty of other players in the middle of their club seasons are playing during the upcoming international break, friendly or otherwise, and they usually do just fine (unless they're Daniel Sturridge).
jack
about 10 years
He hasn't gotten a cap since '07 I would be more than ok if he played against colombia this friday. I mean is Jermaine Jones gonna play both caps? They're both in similar situations except Nguyen is up for the first time in years i'd actually be disappointed if he didn't play at least one of the two friendlies
TheShane
about 10 years
Getting to the finals in club > friendlies for country

In most cases, country over club is the best option. However, New England are in the semi finals and they need Lee on their team if they want to win.
deletedabout 10 years
I don't see any reason why he shouldn't embrace the opportunity and get a cap or two. Country before club etc.
jack
about 10 years

ScubaSteve says

Lee Nguyen is cool. I'm glad he got a call-up for the national team.


same, well-deserved for him. Curious if he'll actually end up playing, its plausible he could play at least one of the games and still play in the conference finals