MLS Week 2 - 2019

[LionNYC]

MARCH 5 - TUESDAY
New Jersey Red Bulls vs. Santos Laguna Leg 1, 8 PM (Concacaf Champions League - YahooSports.com, Univision Deportes)
Houston Dynamo vs. Tigres UANL Leg 1, 10 PM (Concacaf Champions League - YahooSports.com, Univision Deportes)

MARCH 6 - WEDNESDAY
Independiente La Chorrera vs. Sporting Kansas City Leg 1, 8 PM (Concacaf Champions League - YahooSports.com, Univision Deportes)
Monterrey vs. Atlanta United FC Leg 1, 10 PM (Concacaf Champions League - YahooSports.com, Univision Deportes)

MARCH 9 - SATURDAY
Chicago Fire vs. Orlando City SC 1 PM
New England Revolution vs. Columbus Crew SC 2 PM
FC Dallas vs. LA Galaxy 3:30 PM (Univision, Twitter)
Houston Dynamo vs. Montreal Impact 5 PM
Real Salt Lake vs. Vancouver Whitecaps FC 6 PM
San Jose Earthquakes vs. Minnesota United FC 8 PM
Seattle Sounders FC vs. Colorado Rapids 10 PM

MARCH 10 - SUNDAY
New York City FC vs. D.C. United 3 PM
Sporting Kansas City vs. Philadelphia Union 3 PM
Atlanta United FC vs. FC Cincinnati 5 PM (ESPN)
Los Angeles Football Club vs. Portland Timbers 7:30 PM (FS1)

 

[Shawn Ryu]

Yeesh, ATL/CIN about to become very ugly for CIN.

 

[LionNYC]

Yeesh, ATL/CIN about to become very ugly for CIN.

1-1 FT

 

[mgarbowski]

1-1 FT

Very poor result for Atlanta at home.

 

[QuigrNYCFC]

Josef Martinez looks like such a head case. If they’re going to have a poor season, he’s going to completely unravel. He’s got locker room poison written all over him.

 

[NYCFC_Dan]

Based on the rest of the East it’s not a bad start for us.

 

[mgarbowski]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1104921462207590400

 

[Ulrich]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1104921462207590400

Considering the current tenure, seems like something NYCFC should have said to fans.

 

[ferrarinycfc]

The rest of mls should be thankful that Atlanta hired De Boer.

He was useless at Inter and did stuff all at Crystal Palace.

 

[Keith Putnam]

He was useless at Inter and did stuff all at Crystal Palace.

There is the small matter of Ajax...

 

[Shawn Ryu]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1104921462207590400

Probably right but you still don;t say it IMO

 

[ferrarinycfc]

There is the small matter of Ajax...

Yeah and as soon as he went to a higher level he was found out straight away.

 

[Keith Putnam]

Yeah and as soon as he went to a higher level he was found out straight away.

Okay, but do you feel MLS is a higher level than the Eredivisie? Serious question.

 

[dummyrun]

Okay, but do you feel MLS is a higher level than the Eredivisie? Serious question.

(If yes, please indicate which MLS team(s) would outplay Real Madrid in a two-legged Champions League tie.)

 

[Keith Putnam]

(If yes, please indicate which MLS team(s) would outplay Real Madrid in a two-legged Champions League tie.)

To be fair, today's Ajax is probably better than de Boer's Ajax teams.

 

[mgarbowski]

Worldwide 538 Rankings for MLS and Eredivisie

Usual disclaimers apply. 538 is an imperfect ranking, etc., etc. I still think the following conclusions are fair.

The best 4 teams in Eredivisie are much better than anything in MLS. The best 4 teams in Eredivisie also exceed the quality of the rest of their league by more than any set of teams in MLS exceeds the rest of MLS. The second best 4 in Eredivisie is still quality, but with a steep path down, and after that there is a huge drop while MLS has a much flatter curve down, such that mid-table MLS teams are ranked higher than their Eredivisie counterparts at every spot starting at 9, and the 23rd highest ranked MLS team is higher than the worst team in an 18 team Eredivisie.

It's not shown here but the 8 point SPI gap between Ajax and PSV at #2 in Eredivisie is roughly 4 times as large as the SPI gap between any 2 teams in MLS, which arguably means that coaching Ajax within its league comes with a greater talent advantage than any coaching job in MLS (which I concede doesn't account for pressure, personalities, egos, etc), and beating Real Madrid is still a major coup. Also the specific rankings today don't tell us much about when de Boer was there.

ETA I think this is consistent with many people's eye-test judgment that MLS can't compete with the top European teams, but, especially outside a small handful of leagues, we compare favorably mid-table to bottom.

 

[Gotham Gator]

The above post being the perfect segway to this by one of the highest profile Atlanta United fans on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1104890101354713088

 

[Fantazma]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1104921462207590400

he's breaking kayfabe

EDIT: I still think he will figure it out that he doenst have the players for his 3 at the back formation and will fix this. is brek shea really starting XI quality for Atlanta? like really?

 

[NYCFC_Dan]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1105090999930490884

Posting this here too

 

[Sabo]

The Whitecaps are a bit of train wreck right now with about 9 new starters, but their new signing In-Beom is a real baller. Most impressive new MLS signing I have seen so far.