Home - Toronto 03/13
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It'll be interesting to see Vieira's second lineup, because it will show us how willing he is to play to his opponent. I imagine his knowledge of other teams in the league is on the weak side yet, which would tilt the scales towards an extremely consistent lineup, but if there's any player he knows he should prepare for, it's Giovinco.
I'll guess that we see a similar 4-3-3. Hopefully Iraola or Mena is back, so Hernandez can be pulled.
I also agree with the NYCFC 3 - Toronto 2 prediction. It'll take 3 goals to get points out of this game.
Based on the training video they posted a short while ago, it looked like Mena was pretty fully engaged, though who knows how close he is to playing 90. Didn't see Iraola, though I was watching on a small screen so I may have missed him.
Fri, Mar 18
More sun than clouds. Cool.
Can you keep us updated with the weather for the 13th? OMG just checked and it looks like 50% rain, well I am relying on you to be a luckier weatherman .
Wrong.... The City of Manchester Stadium (you may now know it as the Etihad has a max. capacity of just over 55,000 (For Football) then you deduct segregation needed for away end....
The record attendance match (which I attended) was 54,693.
This stadium is the third largest in the Premier League.
I agree however with your comment - Build it and they will come.
The stadium was around 41,000 when first built for the Commonwealth Games in 2002 (from memory)
And the more expansion work has been introduced the more people have come, this has also been with the rise in success on/off the pitch.
But please don't fall into the bottomless pit of judging your club/leagues success on attendance figures.
Judge it on the quality on the pitch.
In one of the posts in this thread it highlights the Dutch (Eredivisie) league as being at the bottom for attendance.... Yet if you ever go and watch even amateur level Dutch clubs (nevermind the Pro leagues) you'll come to the conclusion that their level of football on the pitch is matching The MLS.
Most clubs in the Eredivisie would spank MLS teams.
Same with the neighbouring country Belgium.
It's superb to see attendance figures going strong for The MLS. This I am happy.
However I look outside my window here in Manchester and see Amateur Footy Teams playing on the fields and see them performing better than some of the literally comedic football being played in MLS (at times)
Coaching is key. This will come in time.
Same way with how Basketball/Hockey and so on are awful here in comparison with NBA/NHL stateside.
You really don't want to go there, and by there I mean the near-trolling nature of claiming amateur Dutch and pub-league Manchester teams playing better than comedic MLS teams. Because if we're being serious, Manchester City has had perhaps two dramatically good w/ a couple of bridesmaids seasons recently and that was only because of a massive influx of spending, and before that they were a laughing stock in the premier league.
I'm not going to turn this in to a pissing match, but take heed when coming over to this forum that you're respectful of our game, our team, and our league.
Yeah sorry, wasn't basing that off any personal knowledge, just a quick google check:
Not saying anything about the quality of the club itself, but the quality of the fans. We have a part to play here regarding a league that is 21 years old and still growing. The more we attend / support the more we help the league grow. Also just makes the experience better. I'd much rather go to an away game at Seattle or Orlando than Philly or Chicago. Compare us and our first year attendance with RB who have been around the full 21 years - their goalkeeper was straight up calling out the fans in a town hall because they have so many empty seats every game.
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Cmon on man, dutch amateur matching MLS? You'd be hard pressed to say that about Eredivisie at this point. MLS is a very good league. I was just making a comment how most of the teams I watched, and I watched ALL of the games, in week 1 played some really good soccer. You can see the evolution on the pitch even dating back 3 years ago. MUCH improved and it will continue to grow. I still can't understand the inferiority complex by some MLS fans.
Sorry I assumed you were an MLS fan but I see you are new to this forum and from England. But still perception is reality in most case, and when people think of MLS they automatically think the MLS of 10 years ago. That's simply not the case. MLS in 2016 is a very good league, with solid play on the pitch and growing.
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By the way you are comparing hockey (NHL) & basketball (NBA) to the global soccer landscape and MLS. Completely different. The talent pool for the NHL and the NBA is very limited. You will never have any other leagues comparing with them in terms of quality. MLS and Soccer is different. I don't care to go into great detail how this is so, I am sure you can figure it out, but that is not the correct comparison.
I agree. I dont understand everyone choking on Toronto's you know what. Redbulls should have won that game by more then 1 goal. They were the much better team and once Toronto got that PK call, you can tell Redbulls were defeated mentally. Thats one thing about this group of redbulls and throughout their history, once things start to go downhill for them, they are very weak mentally and they give in.
Not to get too far off track here, but I just wanted to follow up on my post above. Everyone knows MLS has some crazy roster restrictions and salary caps. I think everyone here also knows why that is. As painful as it is for us to be so limited in spending (other than the 3 DP slots), there is a purpose behind it. We are trying to foster the growth of American players in our home league. Yes, the best will end up overseas and that's great, but for us to have a national team that's competitive and has any shot on the world stage, we need to get as many US players into our MLS squads as possible. It's a handicap to our league that we take in exchange for growing our World Cup potential, and I'm fine with that. I just hope the rest of the world understands that they are comparing us to their leagues that usually have much less stringent "handicaps." I believe the PL has a home grown player rule, but I also believe you don't have to be English to qualify as home grown.
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I went back to watch the condensed game and agree. That game reminded me of one of their playoff matches against Columbus, I think the one at home. They kept attacking and getting nothing for it. After a while you could sense it just wasn't going to happen for them, maybe because hey sensed the same thing and it showed.
We need a Jozy's hamstring chant. We can even add a self-deprecating Lampard verse.
Exactly right. They were unfortunate to beat Columbus. I still think they are much better then Columbus with a better GK and better backline. The only players that would have a spot on the redbulls either as a starter or bench from Columbus is Kamara, Higuan, Finlay (bench) and Afful. Top to bottom the redbulls are better however that is why you play the games. The redbulls have talent but they are weak mentally.
Ktd, the folks that bitch about MLS roster rules, and mechanisms really don't understand where the league started, in the type of sports landscape the league started in and is currently operating in, the mistakes the NASL made, and the amount of investments, still to this day that will continue for years to come, that needed to take place and is currently taking place.
As I said before, folks that don't understand this are either new to MLS or really can't see more then 3 feet in front of them. These folks reply with "YEA", instead of "YES". "YEA" will get you minimum wage at McDonald's, "YES" will get you much further.
To get back on topic. The next three games are at home and to really set up us we need to get points all three. I honestly can't see why we can't win all three games and take 9 points. I would be happy with 6 points, bare minimum 5.
Next four are at home: TOR, ORL, NER, CHI. With the understanding that winning 5 in a row is exceedingly hard (counting the one we've got), we really need to do well to build a cushion for the remainder of the season. I know teams get better and worse, but none of these teams finished above 5th place last year, and 3 of our first 5 are against non-playoff teams.
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