MLS Week 21 - 2018

[Midas Mulligan]

You always rooted for the yanks and giants your whole life?

Pretty much. The Yanks were my AL team. Giants were my NL.

Football Giants were my team because I hated the Saints, Cowboys and Falcons. But I did also like the Browns because I randomly loved Bernie Kosar.

FYI: more Ole Miss Rebels on the Giants than any other team. The original Marlboro man, Chunkin’ Charlie Connerly, was a great Rebel and a great Giant.

There’s long been a weird Mississippi-NYC tie in both sports and arts. Pick up “North Toward Home” by Willie Morris sometime. Brilliant book by one of the greatest (the greatest of the late) 20th century writers.

 

[mgarbowski]

BWP with two incidents neither which went uncalled

Odd construction which I think means the opposite of what you intend.

 

[Seth]

Would you stick with NYCFC if you moved

Yes, 100%.

I could see picking up a secondary team though if I moved somewhere that had one and I went to games occasionally. Or I could see changing teams if my team moved perhaps, hypothetically.

And yes, having the forum makes a huge difference. It's like having a community, or maybe just a bunch of friends. I'm way more involved with the team because of the forum than I am with the Jets, say, where I'm just a casual fan Grew up watching Namath and Seaver as a kid, so Mets and Jets.

 

[canchon]

What I don’t get about Martinez is how a guy that has never scored more than eight goals in a season (look up his stats, really) is now hitting for basically a goal a game in MLS over 2 seasons - which is basically the best strike rate anywhere I think - outside of maybe Ronaldo/Messi in La Liga. What has changed for him to seriously become that lethal? Yes, can say MLS is a step down from Torino but how can a guy step up that much from even his lower level club stats?

(And yes, he’s a thug too - remember PV commenting on how he was “street smart” - ie cheating bastard).

 

[Ulrich]

What I don’t get about Martinez is how a guy that has never scored more than eight goals in a season (look up his stats, really) is now hitting for basically a goal a game in MLS over 2 seasons - which is basically the best strike rate anywhere I think - outside of maybe Ronaldo/Messi in La Liga. What has changed for him to seriously become that lethal? Yes, can say MLS is a step down from Torino but how can a guy step up that much from even his lower level club stats?

(And yes, he’s a thug too - remember PV commenting on how he was “street smart” - ie cheating bastard).

He’s benefitted from 5 PKs and a ridiculous style of play centered on the speed of synthetic turf. Watching ATL today was interesting because their transition is so lightning fast. Against us they went with a straight 1v1 track meet spraying balls to open space with Martinez sprinting to try and get out ahead. Today they’d fire the ball up to him and 2-3 other players would mad-sprint vertically past him and overload the defense forcing them into a chaotic situation regarding responsibility - he either dishes off ala rugby line of lateral passes or he’s left in single coverage that he can beat with his first step. Neither method works on a regular grass field where the ball moves slower and feet are heavier.

That, and the Italian refs would’ve slammed a red in his face last week.

 

[LionNYC]

He’s benefitted from 5 PKs and a ridiculous style of play centered on the speed of synthetic turf. Watching ATL today was interesting because their transition is so lightning fast. Against us they went with a straight 1v1 track meet spraying balls to open space with Martinez sprinting to try and get out ahead. Today they’d fire the ball up to him and 2-3 other players would mad-sprint vertically past him and overload the defense forcing them into a chaotic situation regarding responsibility - he either dishes off ala rugby line of lateral passes or he’s left in single coverage that he can beat with his first step. Neither method works on a regular grass field where the ball moves slower and feet are heavier.

That, and the Italian refs would’ve slammed a red in his face last week.

And calling off his first goal today because he fouled the goalkeeper.

 

[LionNYC]

This probably seems stupid, but has
#NYCFC ever done one thing that seemed even half as organic as this?

https://twitter.com/x/status/1020787361326731264

And this isn’t an LFC v. City thing. I’m just familiar with LFC and realize they don’t have the same issues as CFG. But why and how and how do we fix this at NYCFC?

Because unless I’m just imagining things,
it definitely feels different with Bob (ht mgarbowski )

Well those fans were certainly invited to that training, it's not just an open training. And it's likely after training was concluded that the Liverpool players were going to do it.

I think there's anywhere from 3-4 "open" training a year for NYCFC. Meaning you're invited if you have premium seats, use Cityzens points, or win a contest.

 

[Shwafta]

idk what's larger, MLS's hard-on for Martinez, or Ray Hudson's for Messi.

 

[Shawn Ryu]

Martinez is a treat to watch though. You have to admit.

 

[Midas Mulligan]

Well those fans were certainly invited to that training, it's not just an open training. And it's likely after training was concluded that the Liverpool players were going to do it.

I think there's anywhere from 3-4 "open" training a year for NYCFC. Meaning you're invited if you have premium seats, use Cityzens points, or win a contest.

That’s part of my point and the point about Bob.

Whatever. I deleted it because I don’t want to talk about it anymore. It’s all too depressing.

 

[Christopher Jee]

Yes, 100%.

I could see picking up a secondary team though if I moved somewhere that had one and I went to games occasionally. Or I could see changing teams if my team moved perhaps, hypothetically.

And yes, having the forum makes a huge difference. It's like having a community, or maybe just a bunch of friends. I'm way more involved with the team because of the forum than I am with the Jets, say, where I'm just a casual fan Grew up watching Namath and Seaver as a kid, so Mets and Jets.

Lol, for me, there are times that NYCFC feels like a factor against moving away. It's not just a matter of time, but the people I've met through the club and the people I know better than I would have without such a strong shared point of reference. I spent 4 years in Seattle without developing any feelings for the Sounders, and went to a few Red Bulls matches too. For some reason, NYCFC has managed to represent what I love about the city, while sharing some of its annoying, antiseptic traits.

But yeah, if I moved away from NYC, NYCFC would stick with me and I would probably pick up whichever local team most fit my values.

 

[mgarbowski]

That’s part of my point and the point about Bob.

Whatever. I deleted it because I don’t want to talk about it anymore. It’s all too depressing.

I saw the original last night deferred responding to morning. Since you want to drop it I will, mostly, but I have to ask who is Bob? Didn't understand that last night or now in light of day.

 

[FredMertz]

Oh my god these english language announcers on Univision are so bad.

.

I have the spanish comprehension of a 6-year old so I don't know for myself, but I sure hope the Spanish language announcer shtick comes off better in Spanish than it does in English. Unlistenable in English to my ears.

It's like combining the worst of John Sterling and Chris Berman's forced BS into one announcer -- an both of those guys are barely tolerable alone.

 

[FredMertz]

Random question as my wife and I sit here and discuss potentially moving to another city:

Would you stick with NYCFC if you moved to a city with a competently or better run MLS club?

I’d like to think I wouldn’t , but I’m pretty sure I would. And that’s sad and says all you need to say about CFG Bob, because they’ve had my money from the moment they would take it.

Our club needs to do better. It’s sad. I’m sad I would bail so quickly. But it’s truly because I have no tie to the club.

The biggest argument in my own head for not changing clubs (hypothetically) is pretty much this forum. And it’s far from club sanctioned.

It's a different world than it was when we were kids (or even 10-15 years ago).

When I was a kid (80s -- my profile age is -10 from my real age as I have a standard fake Internet birthday for privacy reasons) I used to collect newspapers from US cities! Seriously -- I would buy one whenever I traveled and would sometimes write a sincere letter to the editors of papers in places I didn't think I'd ever visit like Seattle or Des Moines. They would always send a copy, bu the way.

I also spent a summer writing to minor league baseball teams asking for any swag they could send me like pocket schedules or last year's yearbook.

Back then when the country (and world) were much larger, if you moved you had no choice but to adopt a new team. Even a move from Boston to NY seemed like a world away.

Now with instant access to every newspaper in the world and out-of-market sports league packages, you almost have the same access anywhere you go. My co-workers in London still don't understand how I have better TV access to the Premier League than they do.

The point is -- I think this discussion may be a sign of our ages (at least some of us). I asked my son this question and he literally didn't understand why we would even think about rooting for a different team just because we moved.

And thanks everyone, despite my 100% denials my son now thinks we're moving.

 

[Midas Mulligan]

I saw the original last night deferred responding to morning. Since you want to drop it I will, mostly, but I have to ask who is Bob? Didn't understand that last night or now in light of day.

The body snatcher thing you pointed out, how the club can seemingly do and say all the right things, but it just comes off “a bit off” always.

 

[mgarbowski]

It's a different world than it was when we were kids (or even 10-15 years ago).

When I was a kid (80s -- my profile age is -10 from my real age as I have a standard fake Internet birthday for privacy reasons) I used to collect newspapers from US cities! Seriously -- I would buy one whenever I traveled and would sometimes write a sincere letter to the editors of papers in places I didn't think I'd ever visit like Seattle or Des Moines. They would always send a copy, bu the way.

I also spent a summer writing to minor league baseball teams asking for any swag they could send me like pocket schedules or last year's yearbook.

Back then when the country (and world) were much larger, if you moved you had no choice but to adopt a new team. Even a move from Boston to NY seemed like a world away.

Now with instant access to every newspaper in the world and out-of-market sports league packages, you almost have the same access anywhere you go. My co-workers in London still don't understand how I have better TV access to the Premier League than they do.

The point is -- I think this discussion may be a sign of our ages (at least some of us). I asked my son this question and he literally didn't understand why we would even think about rooting for a different team just because we moved.

And thanks everyone, despite my 100% denials my son now thinks we're moving.

Fair point but you're mixing in a factor more or less unrelated to Midas's question. They're intertwined but different. You're right that moving to a new city no longer presents insurmountable difficulties in keeping up with an old team, but Midas is questioning how much he would want to stay interested in NYCFC. They both affect the same decision, but they are independent -- neither directly nor inversely related. I'd suggest there is a third factor, which is the culture of the new city -- both the specific team supporters' culture and general level of social pressure and cohesion to adopt the local team(s). This factor is especially weak in NYC, both because part of the culture is to let everyone in and not force adaptation, but also because team loyalties are divided so neither Mets nor Yankees, Giants or Jets, etc, can create enough pressure to make people feel they need to adopt either. In other cities, even some moderately large ones, those factors are considerably stronger. I'm not suggesting people can't withstand them, but sometimes you decide to go along to get along.

 

[mgarbowski]

The body snatcher thing you pointed out, how the club can seemingly do and say all the right things, but it just comes off “a bit off” always.

Maybe I'm just being dense but I'm still not sure who Bob is in that context.

 

[Shwafta]

Martinez is a treat to watch though. You have to admit.

actually, no... most of the time I just find him frustrating. He gets mad at everyone, has an attitude like I've never seen before... and a lot of goals have originated from fouls. Not my type of player, personally.

 

[Midas Mulligan]

Maybe I'm just being dense but I'm still not sure who Bob is in that context.

It was the name you used in your hypothetical. So I stuck with it.

 

[EganSoccerWords]

Barco has not been what they hoped to date. I wonder if he’s hurt, though, since he’s not even in the 18.
DC does look better than I expected.

Looks like Barco was suspended for violating team rules. Wonder if it has to do with him being upset at not being allowed to join the Argentina U20s in Europe.