MLS Cup Playoffs 2018 - MLS Cup Final

It really is amazing how Atlanta embraces MLS so much and then we also have markets like Dallas, where a team might as well not exist.

Maybe MLS is better off folding teams like FC Dallas and give them an expansion team 3 years later.
 
It really is amazing how Atlanta embraces MLS so much and then we also have markets like Dallas, where a team might as well not exist.

Maybe MLS is better off folding teams like FC Dallas and give them an expansion team 3 years later.
According to that logic, we might as well also not exist in a few years once our attendance drops to sub-20.
 
Same. Yes, they've been doing well and have been excellent off the filed too, but for some reason something about them is so hateable. Toronto last year, Seattle the year before, yes were great, but they still had likeable qualities to their teams. This ATL team for some reason just feels really hard to even be happy for winning.

Also, Powell just missed the chance to bring Portland back to 1.
Almiron and Martinez are fantastic players. But holy hell are unlikeable. Especially Almiron. He goes down super easy and milks it EVERY. TIME. He infuriates me. Really ruins the great part of his game.
 
According to that logic, we might as well also not exist in a few years once our attendance drops to sub-20.

I think we finished at 23,211 this year (someone correct that if wrong). That's sales, so physical attendance might already be sub-20. Judging by how many relocation options I had, we lost a lot of season ticket holders. Doubtful that the team picked up 1/2 as many new STH as they did drops. We actually might be 'sales wise' at that 20k mark this season unless they sign a big name and create some interest.
 
Almiron and Martinez are fantastic players. But holy hell are unlikeable. Especially Almiron. He goes down super easy and milks it EVERY. TIME. He infuriates me. Really ruins the great part of his game.
Martinez is just as bad - he lunges into contact and then goes rolling. He, Almiron, and the rest of the team scream for fouls when they go down and plead/pray to the ref when they're involved in a bad take down. They got off the hook many times last night with questionable fouls that deserved cards. The amount they were protected compared to Valeri was nauseating - just wasn't even by any stretch. Would have liked to have seen Portland get the free kick right outside of the box when Valeri's feet were stepped on, but instead play went the other way ending in a free kick for Atlanta.... home cooking by the league.
 
Was amazing how Almiron got away with an overhead kick/shot in the box with a defender right next to him. Granted, the defender didn’t barrel through him like Martinez did to Villa, but he could have and probably should have.
 
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Martinez is just as bad - he lunges into contact and then goes rolling. He, Almiron, and the rest of the team scream for fouls when they go down and plead/pray to the ref when they're involved in a bad take down. They got off the hook many times last night with questionable fouls that deserved cards. The amount they were protected compared to Valeri was nauseating - just wasn't even by any stretch. Would have liked to have seen Portland get the free kick right outside of the box when Valeri's feet were stepped on, but instead play went the other way ending in a free kick for Atlanta.... home cooking by the league.

I’m going to smile when Almiron goes to Newcastle, flops like a fish rolling around and the ref and opposing players yell at him to get up.
 
I’m going to smile when Almiron goes to Newcastle, flops like a fish rolling around and the ref and opposing players yell at him to get up.
I’m gonna smile when he plays matches in 45deg rain and fullbacks crush him in the tackles. He was protected by Pro refs in MLS, but he’s a nobody when he gets to the EPL. And with no right foot, when he cuts across the box the defenses will push him high to be hit by the marauding DMid. Meet Kante and meet Matic and here’s Fernandinho.
 
Oh and don’t forget folks. NJRB just clinched CCL for 2019 thanks to ATL winning the cup.

MLS CCL 2019 participants:

ATL
NJRB
SKC
HOU

Next year we go back to normal qualifying.
After each team had played 6 games this year, NYCFC had a 73-59 lead on RBNY. 14 points clear. Then RBNY outdid NYCFC 62-40 over 28 games. They smoked us by 22 points over that period. Final 2-year tally 121-113.

Also, here are the point totals over the final 28 games of the 7 teams I tracked for CCL purposes:

RBNY - 62
ATL - 56
SEA - 55
POR - 49
DAL - 45
CREW - 41
NYCFC - 40

People still don't think we're irrelevant in a current discussion of the MLS elite? We played ourselves into irrelevancy. We weren't even as good as the Crew after April 11. NYC had the same points as Montreal over the final 28 games, and less than DC or Philly. If the season consisted of the final 28 games NYCFC finishes 7th in the East: out of the playoffs and behind Montreal on the first tiebreaker. Winning 5 of the first 6 salvaged 6.5 months of decidedly mediocre soccer.
 
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After each team had played 6 games this year, NYCFC had a 73-59 lead on RBNY. 14 points clear. Then RBNY outdid NYCFC 62-40 over 28 games. They smoked us by 22 points over that period. Final 2-year tally 121-113.

Also, here are the point totals over the final 28 games of the 7 teams I tracked for CCL purposes:

RBNY - 62
ATL - 56
SEA - 55
POR - 49
DAL - 45
CREW - 41
NYCFC - 40

People still don't think we're irrelevant in a current discussion of the MLS elite? We played ourselves into irrelevancy. We weren't even as good as the Crew after April 11. NYC had the same points as Montreal over the final 28 games, and less than DC or Philly. If the season consisted of the final 28 games NYCFC finishes 7th in the East. Out of the playoffs and behind Montreal on the first tiebreaker. Winning 5 of the first 6 salvaged 6.5 months of decidedly mediocre soccer.
The numbers tell a bleak tale, but I'm still discounting the significance of the 10 game streak of experimentation in my forecast. Or at least trying to, for the sake of my emotional well-being.
 
The numbers tell a bleak tale, but I'm still discounting the significance of the 10 game streak of experimentation in my forecast. Or at least trying to, for the sake of my emotional well-being.
Experimentation during a season is only valid if there’s a real probability of success and/or there’s nothing to lose, ie we’re gonna try something against this one opponent because we’ve not gotten it right in the past and continuing to play the same way is asking for a beatdown - that’s what Dome did against RB and it worked because RB wasn’t expecting it and it was just a small twist on the then current tactics. However, experimenting for 10 matches with no success is the same as driving a rudderless boat and expecting to work a slalom flawlessly - it’s wasteful and set up for failure, and at the end of the day didn’t advance the team or season at all.

Sorry, but the results of the experimenting carry the same weight as the “serious” matches and the cumulative results are somewhere between mediocre and downright trashy. The CCL lead we had should never have been blown, it was just about impossible to do, and yet it was done spectacularly with the finesse of a brain surgeon using a chainsaw.
 
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