Well I work for Volkswagen, actually just had to go back to work starting Monday, So I guess I'm obligated to pick Wolfsburg 
COVID-19 - Leagues Suspended
- Thread starter FootyLovin
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I'm hoping that Werder Bremen can avoid relegation. Want to see Josh Sargent still in Bundesliga.
Oh, they will dw. Always do, always will. The strangest thing is their squad is easily a top 10 bundesliga squad... yet they squandered it this year.
They're also one of two teams (Werder & Paderborn) that have yet to restart training. Going to be tough for them to be as fit as some of the other teams that are already on their second or third week of training. I would normally agree that Werder will pull through, and I hope they do as well. However, something about this year's team is just terrible though.
I can't figure it out. Is it their coach? He was great last year... I just want pizarro to score that one goal to put him at like 22 years in a row or whatever...
However, on the other end it would be hilarious if Hamburg promote and Bremen relegate and they switch positions instead of having their derby lol
Paderborn just hasn’t been the same since they sent Khiry back to KC.
“at one point teams would return to home markets for matches.”
I’ll give you all one guess where any “home” NYCFC games will be played...
Maybe the games are played in home markets, but it’s really tough to understand how they’d be played with fans, and without them, I’m not really sure how the home market move benefits the league. Seems like the travel involved, while not being quarantined to a hotel/campus in a single city, would add a lot more probability of exposure to outside vectors for the players.
Let's say they do come back and start playing... can we really crown a champion this year without a HUGE asterisk? I say do a world cup like tournament in one location and name it a different thing. basically kiss regular MLS season goodbye and make this the Covid Championship where teams can still play and compete, we as fans, can watch on TV, and there is a tournament championship.. just not an MLS cup.
Couple of other things on this proposal:
1. Orlando in July/August? Guess they found the absolute worst place weather-wise to have the games. Imagine them playing 3 games a week in that swamp ass heat. Ridiculous.
2. Some of the reactions on that proposal were hilarious: “for the first time a club in Orlando will know what it’s like to make the playoffs”; “no fans? It’s Orlando, no difference anyway”
1. Orlando in July/August? Guess they found the absolute worst place weather-wise to have the games. Imagine them playing 3 games a week in that swamp ass heat. Ridiculous.
2. Some of the reactions on that proposal were hilarious: “for the first time a club in Orlando will know what it’s like to make the playoffs”; “no fans? It’s Orlando, no difference anyway”
I like a tournament WC or CL style, initially with groups, moving to a knock out stage. And keep everyone in the same place - there is no point taking health risks, and with the possibility of live fans unlikely in most/all regions, there is no upside to moving people around. I think that would be fun and interesting.
IFAB institutes temporary amendment to allow five substitutes per game | MLSSoccer.com
IFAB institutes temporary amendment to allow five subs per game
www.mlssoccer.com
IFAB institutes temporary amendment to allow five substitutes per game | MLSSoccer.com
IFAB institutes temporary amendment to allow five subs per game
Another "temporary" implement that should be considered permanently.
To digress, one of the biggest wake up calls has been the court system! Why can't judges and attorneys always attend court virtually? We could end the backlog of cases, attorneys can serve multiple clients in multiple forums in the same day and not have to charge them for travel. I know it's weird to have a big TV screen propped up in a courtroom, but I don't see why we ever have to return the the old antiquated ways ever again.
From 1942-45 major league baseball was populated almost entirely by people too young, too old, or physically ineligible for military service. More than 500 MLB players served in WW2, at a time when major league baseball had only 400 player slots at any given time. So not only did the numeric equivalent of every MLB player serve, eventually 100 of the next set of replacement players also left to go to war. But the Cardinals (2x), Yankees and Tigers all won World Series, and there's no asterix.
In 1987 the NFL had a 4-week player strike, and played 3 of the impacted weeks with non-union replacement players. The Washington Redskins went 3-0 with the replacements, which provided the margin of difference not just to win their division but home field advantage in the playoffs, which they used to win the NFC and eventually the Super Bowl. The Redskins also won in 1982, another strike year when the season was only 9 games long. Those years represent 2 of the Redskins' 3 Super Bowl wins, and they all count. Tell someone "the Redskins have won 3 Super Bowls" and they are more likely to ding for you using their name than saying they won 3 Super Bowls.
That doesn't prove it's the right way to go. But it clearly works. So to answer your question of whether they can crown a champion without an asterisk, the answer is yes.
Personally, I'd rather win MLS Cup in an oddball truncated year than some 1-time PPE Cup. Also, if they call it something else, fate will guarantee that either NYCFC or the Red Bulls win, maintaining the status quo that both teams can have all sorts of meaningless success but never win MLS Cup or USOC, giving the rest of MLS plus the rival's fans just one more thing to make fun of.
I do agree they should abandon the concept of season/playoffs and go straight to some sort of World Cup style tournament with groups and then extended knockout. Groups should be drawn at random rather than split among geographic lines to add variety.
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You'd be astonished at the taxpayer costs to constantly transport people from corrections facilities to courts. Freeing up that budget space, or even just some of it, would allow prisons so much more opportunity to improve safety of offenders and staff and improve programs aimed at reducing recidivism.
I spent 90 minutes attending a call-in court hearing in a bankruptcy court in Charlotte, NC yesterday, while wearing my PJs. About 30 minutes of the call involved a discussion of the logistics of conducting an upcoming Skype/Zoom bankruptcy plan confirmation hearing, which is expected to be pretty much everything a full trial involves (but no jury). We're going to do it.
even if we don’t completely abandon the old ways, this new way should be an option. And you should be allowed to jump the docket a bit if you choose it, since saves so much time and money.
Don't think I'd support a permanent move to five subs, for anything other than health/injury reasons. Would give an even bigger advantage to wealthy clubs with more squad depth. But if these temporary changes help the sport get something close to a decent concussion protocol, then that would be amazing.
If they can play a 26-game season or something, only missing a few games but still getting a mostly full season, I see no reason why we wouldn't be able to have a real season. No asterisk is needed. Teams have won shortened seasons before in other American sports leagues, and no one puts an asterisk on those championships. I don't see why this would be any different.
For example, in 1981 there was an MLB strike, the Dodgers don't have an asterisk. In NHL, they only played 48 games in 2012-13, they still crowned a champion and there's no asterisk there. If we play at least 66% of the season (22 games), I see nothing wrong with it. Even a 18 or 20-game season would still feel complete to me.
