General MLS Discussion

I've said before that MLS/PRO has it in for NYCFC, but the more it happens around the league the more I think it's just a dumpster fire referee pool that we have.

The reason we, and teams like Miami, feel it more is that when you don't score a lot of goals and don't win a lot of games, having a referee mistake take those away hurts a lot more than when you do score a lot and win a lot. If a refereeing error led to New England dropping points, they probably wouldn't mind much. But teams that are struggling for points already and are victims of bad officiating will feel much more hard done by these errors.
I don't know the numbers on NE, but if they had as many of these types of errors, with their 1-goal win thing that went on for a bit those changes could have made them drop easily 9-10 points. Imagine that. PRO just sucks.
 
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Neville was fined for being in violation of the league’s “public criticism” policy. lol.

shame the league can't take criticism. of course, according to the Don himself, the refs "aren't that bad". So, it's unlikely anything is going to change.
 
shame the league can't take criticism. of course, according to the Don himself, the refs "aren't that bad". So, it's unlikely anything is going to change.

Every US sports league has a rule that you get fined if you criticize the referees. Neville knew the rule and knew he'd be a little lighter in the pocket. It's the cost of doing business for a coach to go after the refs.
 
For what it's worth,

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2. The Hudson River Derby was less eventful than last time, though like last time it ended with the red side of the river being much, much happier than the blue side. Cristian Casseres Jr.’s third-minute goal was the only one in RBNY’s 1-0 win, a result that kept them in ninth place, three points ahead of the Crew.
But it also leveled them with now eighth-place NYCFC on 40 points, one behind CF Montréal. RBNY truly are rolling, having gone 5-0-2 over the past month as Gerhard Struber has learned to love his bench (he has subbed earlier and more often during this stretch than in the season’s first five months) as well as moving away from his preferred two-forward set-ups. On Sunday it was a 3-4-2-1, though it’s just as often been a 4-2-3-1 over the past month, and either way RBNY have been just as difficult to play against and seemingly less vulnerable in transition than they had been through the summer.
And so NYCFC generated next to nothing — six shots, with just two on target. They are struggling badly and I thought Taylor Twellman was right, on the ESPN broadcast, to call out Ronny Deila’s decision to go with five at the back in a 3-4-2-1 of his own for this game, instead of playing a more front-foot 4-2-3-1 that could actually get on the ball and control things through midfield while stretching RBNY's backline horizontally.
Deila did eventually shift to a 4-2-3-1 for the final stage of this game, but it didn’t do enough to seriously pressure the Red Bulls. NYCFC never truly got close to finding an equalizer and are in a serious tailspin: just 1-5-3 since the start of September and have been shut out in four straight. They are below the line for the first time since Week 2.
The only good news is that three of their final five are at home which, this time of year, means Yankee Stadium. They still control their own destiny.
So do the Red Bulls, of course — if they win out, they're in. But as good as this run has been, there's an element of fool's gold in it as RBNY have scored more than one goal in a game just one time since July. That's 14 games, damn near half a season's worth.

3 wins at home = 9 points = 49 points = historically, getting into 6th or 7th place (highest ever 7th place finishes have been, multiple times, 46 points.) If we can do that, we're in the playoffs, surely. (Though that does imply "in the playoffs, though not really with any chance past that")

I would like to see Heber start a game and get taken off at the half or something. And I still want to see that Heber-Taty combo. We had it in the game yesterday, and I thought it was very good, for the lack of chances we created. Give them more time together again and it'll lead to goals.
 
Orlando slipped up against NE. They're on 47 and we're on 44. Orlando plays columbus, nashville, and montreal. We are tied on number of games won, so if we win and they slip up, we'll be ahead of them on that tie breaker.

Obviously best case here is Orlando chokes vs columbus and montreal and tied with Nashville. I think it's almost impossible we finish above Nashville, and it's even more unlikely we can finish above BOTH orlando and nashville. So just gotta hope nashville either ties or beats orlando
 
It’s hilarious how NE basically punted the game against Orlando and still got a draw.

Without that draw NYCFC is 5 points back of fourth with 3 games to go (now 3 points back). The Revs might have just given NYCFC any small chance at fourth place.
 

And here the league is celebrating that a professional wrestler thinks this is comparable to WWE and no red card was given.

Interesting social media decision
I agree, it's odd, but let's remember the following.

1 - Pro wrestling is fake
2 - So, that move is stagecrafted to look dangerous and harmful and doesn't actually hurt anyone
3 - The ref said Melia was not given a red because the conduct wasn't violent enough
 
The record in MLS for most points in a season is 72 points. In a 34 game season, that's quite low. Winners are usually high 70's and higher. Is that a statement on MLS Parity through the years and only now teams are starting to break past that? Or is it a statement that the bottom of the east absolutely sucks this year and so NE gets a shit-ton of free points? Or is it that the top of the West sucks and thus they drop to terrible teams like Austin and Houston? Or is it neither and just overall Parity is decreasinig?

And I'd be curious to see if Parity decrease is a function of wage cap increase, since higher wage cap = bringing in better players
 
No NYCFC player in the top 25. I'd like to know best selling team jerseys (not broken out by individual player) since I don't buy with a player's name on the back anymore...
 
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No NYCFC player in the top 25. I'd like to know best selling team jerseys (not broken out by individual player) since I don't buy with a player's name on the back anymore...
Wait so you want to tell me that the teams that have a bigger fan support... sell more jerseys? *surprised pikachu face*
 
No NYCFC player in the top 25. I'd like to know best selling team jerseys (not broken out by individual player) since I don't buy with a player's name on the back anymore...
that Hendrix inspired Kit Seattle is cool IMO. Like that special Philly kit. ol' Alex Ring at 23!
I like our new home jersey but the giant collar is keeping me away.
 
No NYCFC player in the top 25. I'd like to know best selling team jerseys (not broken out by individual player) since I don't buy with a player's name on the back anymore...

Nice to see Ring on the list!
 
Imagine being so crap that you go up 2-0 against columbus, get a penalty to potentially take you 3-0 and you try to unsuccessfully panenka the keeper... then end up at 3-1 up, only to end the game at 3-6 with 5 unanswered. That's Cincinnati. Even had they scored the panenka, they'd still have lost by two goals.

On that note,
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We are now two games away from our best ever defensive performance. We would need to give up a ridiculous number of goals to NOT get our record. I wouldn't be surprised if we end the season with 35 or 36 against, which is excellent stuff.
 
Imagine being so crap that you go up 2-0 against columbus, get a penalty to potentially take you 3-0 and you try to unsuccessfully panenka the keeper... then end up at 3-1 up, only to end the game at 3-6 with 5 unanswered. That's Cincinnati. Even had they scored the panenka, they'd still have lost by two goals.

On that note,

We are now two games away from our best ever defensive performance. We would need to give up a ridiculous number of goals to NOT get our record. I wouldn't be surprised if we end the season with 35 or 36 against, which is excellent stuff.

Good stuff.

We are also only 3 off our best ever goal differential. We are +18 and were +21 in 2019.

We could easily end up at or above our goal differential from 2019 and also be 11 or more points below the 64 we got that year. Chunky goals.