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MLS 2011

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Posted

Ridiculous. Was it Moffatt, who he tapped on the head? because it just looked like they were having a bit of banter. Poor reffing there!

Yes, yes and yes.

I think the linesman made the call and instructed the referee to show Henry red based on what he "saw."

  • 3 weeks later...
Posted

Managed to see some of the Portland v seattle match. WOW. That game must have to rival some of the biggest derbies around now.

Nice tifo again.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

Seattle got thrashed royally by Manchester United, and Real Madrid haven't let their pants down in their friendlies against MLS opposition yet, either.

And the Red Bulls franchise is continuing their slump - 4-1 loss to Colorado.giggle.gif

Posted

Red Bulls have won, IIRC, 2 of their last 16 matches.

Clearly a team that is taking its foot off the gas in order to save it for the playoffs. I can't say I really like this attitude.

On the 12th, NYRB went to Chicago for the U.S. Open Cup quarterfinals... well, they kind of went there. Ballouchy started, but the head coaching staff didn't even make the trip, the rest squad consisted pretty much of reserves, and the team brought only subs for the bench. They lost, predictably, 4-0. And to rest for what? A 4-1 loss at Colorado?

As part of a protest against the club's decision to wipe their asses with the Open Cup, the South Ward kept quiet for the first half of tonight's 2-2 draw with Dallas.

I know the team has been hit hard by absences related to the Gold Cup (missed 5 starters for a month) and injuries, and IIRC their best starting XI is better than any other team's starting XI... but I'm not convinced that their brass and coaching staff is making all of the right calls. Oh, and recently, they traded Dwayne DeRosario to D.C. United for Dax McCarty, presumably to free up salary cap space, and then made another trade with the Scum, shipping Austin da Luz (2010 1st round draft pick) in exchange for an international player spot for six months. This was all done so the Red Bulls could sign Frank Rost.

Now, granted, Rost is an excellent goalkeeper. But if there's one thing that's not in short supply over here, it's goalkeepers. I'm shocked that NYRB hasn't been able to find a decent American keeper for cheap. While Rost is certainly an upgrade over Bouna Coundoul and Greg Sutton, I think they gave up way too much to get him--DeRo and da Luz are certainly more valuable than Dax McCarty and 6 months worth of an international player (jeez, at least get a draft pick thrown in there as well).

The team is finally starting to get healthy and Henry looks really good (Agudelo is coming on, too), so thank Jah MLS uses playoffs to determine its champion. But anything less than a 2011 MLS Cup win will be considered a failure for this team, even more so considering the bewildering moves they've made recently.

Posted

It's time NY gets a proper football club - can't wait for the Cosmos to bloom again.

There should be a football club in NYC proper, yes--but to believe that anything in MLS would actually be a "proper" football club would be pretending. Every team in the league is a franchise, simply put. MLS (perhaps the U.S. as a whole) is a different beast.

Yes, some of the things Red Bull have done are silly (I forgot to mention that, while the team can't be bothered to try to win a Cup with 97 years of history--a Cup won by teams from the NY Metro area more than any other place in the country--they can go to London to play friendlies next weekend in the middle of the season). Yes, the whole Red Bull concept itself reeks of blatant corporatism and I can certainly tell that doesn't float your boat. Whose does it, anyway? But everyone has a price, and Dietrich Mateschitz has paid ours. At this particular moment, the fans aren't sending Herr Mateschitz and the front office love letters (see my previous post) but we cannot deny that this ownership group has already done so much more for the franchise than our previous two sets of inmates running the asylum.

I followed the MetroStars for years, spending way too much time and money on doing so, and I simply cannot compare how much better off the team is now than they were back then. After some growing pains (and some intentional rebuilding) since the ownership change in 2006, the Red Bulls have one of the most talented lineups MLS has ever seen following significant investment in the playing squad. Juan Pablo Angel while he was still good enough to score better than one goal every two games? Thierry ****ing Henry? A revitalized youth academy? I remember when we were supposed to be excited that a 39-year-old Lothar Matthäus was joining the team but he went out to the beaches of Saint-Tropez when he should have been rehabilitating his back injury.

Seriously, how could we expect our team's ownership (AEG) to be committed to winning when (at the time Red Bull was in negotiations to purchase the MetroStars), they had also owned four other franchises in the league (and, as of 2004, they had owned 6 of the 10 MLS franchises. Six.)?

Most MetroStars teams sucked, but now, as long as Red Bull owns the team, they should be an MLS Cup contender year after year. And the stadium experience? Wow. I can't even begin to describe how shitty the experience was going to watch games at Giants Stadium because I'd type for a few hours non-stop (not that I wouldn't, anyway...).

And the shit we dealt with waiting for the stadium in Harrison, NJ to be built... wow. Delays, broken promises and lies, and by the time New Jersey approved construction to begin, the new park was planned to have a giant stage behind one of the goals. Not even seats--a stage (that was AEG's MO for a while, use its MLS franchises to get stadiums built so that they could host concerts). Red Bull ripped up those awful blueprints and turned the stadium into a small yet state-of-the-art facility that's infinitely more fan-friendly and supporters-group friendly than both Giants Stadium was and what Red Bull Arena was going to be previous to the ownership change.

It is a shame that I don't go to games nearly as often now as I did during the MetroStars era. I was a little turned off by the Red Bull idea at first (maybe I still am), and by Red Bull's first few years in charge, I had become fed up with travelling to Giants Stadium. The new stadium is so much better--plus, it's just a short walk away from the Portuguese and Brazilian bars on Newark's Market St with their excellent match day prices (this IMO is a big boost to the match day experience). But it's still, what, 40 miles or so away from home--that's not exactly a hop, skip and a jump away in New York terms. Thankfully, Red Bull have negotiated a much better local TV deal with MSG Network than MetroStars ever had, broadcasting every non-nationally-televised game with pre- and post-game shows, so I can still be a disloyal bastard armchair fan. ;)

We're Leicester City fans and we're going through something similar with that club. The club's name hasn't changed, but there is no doubting King Power's intentions--perhaps its primary intention in this case--of using football to promote its brand. The Raksriaksorns have been more accessible than RBNY's owners and they are willing to lose money in the short term but I know Red Bull did not expect immediate returns on its investment in MLS (regardless of whether they expected immediate returns on the playing field).

But back to Metro/RBNY: if this comes at the price of our "history," identity, and dignity, so be it. Our team name was MetroStars and we've won zero trophies of any worth. It should run deeper than that. But, well, fine. Go ahead and have that, Red Bull.

(Besides, I can still call them "Metro" if I want.)

---

As for the Cosmos, I still don't know what to believe. MLS should be played within the five boroughs: positive. Everything they seem to do seems to be a publicity stunt: negative. They've got an insane front office staff already, that's for sure: positive. They're building their franchise in reverse order without any assurances their opaque plan will succeed: negative (unless one believes they're just building the ark before the flood, as they do have an U-23 team). And the ephemeral Cosmos, to which they either aspire to emulate or exploit (both to only some degree), had both positive and negative effects on professional soccer in the U.S.

Every other professional team I support outside of MLS--the four blue-blooded New York teams and Leicester City--all have several generations worth of history and are deeply rooted in their communities' (in some cases, much larger than that) sporting consciousnesses. While it seems like forever ago that MLS began play, relatively speaking, it's still quite new. And the recent changes to the league make it a newer concept still. There is no equivocation whatsoever when it comes to my sporting loyalties anywhere else, but if the Cosmos are established, my MLS loyalties become murky. There shouldn't be a doubt that my loyalties lie with New York City over New Jersey (clearly the case in the NHL and the NBA, and with life in general). However, the Red Bulls are the franchise I've followed from the beginning. Switching loyalties is silly but I might just have to wait to see where I'm living and how I feel about attending games frequently when/if a second NY metro area team joins MLS.

---

P.S.: I'm going to edit my post and paste something unrelated to the above:

Managed to see some of the Portland v seattle match. WOW. That game must have to rival some of the biggest derbies around now.

I don't know how large your scope is when you say "around," but this derby has instantly become the best rivalry in the U.S. In fact, there really isn't anything like it across the board in all sports. It's not the biggest sporting rivalry in this country but it might be the most unique (in a positive sense).

  • 1 month later...
Posted

Well got my info through for the business trip back to the good 'ol USA.

Unfortunately I won't be able to see Portland. Boooooooooo

Planning to see the derby game though FC Dallas v Houston and hopefully Kansas City v Columbus on the following wednesday.

Not looking forward to the trip but at least I can see a couple of games, definately the highlight.

Posted

Went to see Red Bulls vs Chicage Fire in August when I was in NY. Atmosphere was suprisingly good but Football was as bad as the atmosphere was good. 2-2 draw and Henry scored a fabulous goal but apart from that there wasn't really anything to report about.

  • 1 month later...
Posted

We're into the MLS Cup quarterfinals now...

Seattle has their work cut out for them, as they're coming home on Wednesday in a 3-0 hole to RSL.

Playoff tripleheader today, all 1st legs:

3:00 Eastern (19:00 GMT): NY Red Bulls vs. LA Galaxy (also on ESPN UK)

-I'll be there; gonna head down early. It's going to be cold and windy--it's the day after a historic October snowstorm, and it won't get higher than 46F/8C. I'm pretty sure a few LA players (esp. Donovan and Beckham) are playing with nagging injuries, so this won't help. I think RBNY has a good chance to get something out of this first leg. It should be an awesome atmosphere.

Houston vs Philly 5:00

-purpleronnie, are you going to the 2nd leg on Thursday?

Colorado vs Kansas City 7:30, that's if anybody could give a **** about that one.

Posted

We're into the MLS Cup quarterfinals now...

Seattle has their work cut out for them, as they're coming home on Wednesday in a 3-0 hole to RSL.

Playoff tripleheader today, all 1st legs:

3:00 Eastern (19:00 GMT): NY Red Bulls vs. LA Galaxy (also on ESPN UK)

-I'll be there; gonna head down early. It's going to be cold and windy--it's the day after a historic October snowstorm, and it won't get higher than 46F/8C. I'm pretty sure a few LA players (esp. Donovan and Beckham) are playing with nagging injuries, so this won't help. I think RBNY has a good chance to get something out of this first leg. It should be an awesome atmosphere.

Houston vs Philly 5:00

-purpleronnie, are you going to the 2nd leg on Thursday?

Colorado vs Kansas City 7:30, that's if anybody could give a **** about that one.

Hey Jordan, I don't actually live in houston anymore, I did go over a while back and watched a couple of games. I've been following Houstons progress from across the Atlantic. Have to say I wish I could go to see Houston in the playoffs. Everytime I lived in Houston I had to move back to England just before the playoffs started, and houston won it a couple of times.

I'll try and catch when I can, the MLS has been great this year, really enjoyed it, LA are the team to beat but like you said they might not all be fully fit.

Good luck to you, unless you play houston that is.

Posted

NYRB 0 - 1 LA Galaxy. Nice fight at the end between the majority of players :rolleyes:

Houston v Philly on now

Didn't get to see all the NYRB V LAG game, who got the goal?

Posted

Result from earlier

Real Salt Lake 3 - 0 Seattle

Great Result for RSL (sorry Jordan)

Union 1 - 2 Dynamo. Carr with the goal

Posted

Of all the teams that we played in the last part of the season Houston looked most likely to advance in the play-offs..they put on a dominating performance in Portland..Dynamo are my darkhorse pick to win the cup after beating Philly on the road. NYRB's should be better in the second leg in L.A. now that Marquez is out..what a waste of money. Shittle loses 3 nil in Utah..made my day!

Posted

Moffat was shit for Columbus & shit for Portland..as soon as he moved to Houston he suddenly looks like he knows how to play the game. Maybe it helps to be surrounded by better players? He scored two 30yd screamers..one against us that could of been the goal of the year!

Posted

YEEEESSSSSSSS!

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Now that Shittle's out I can sit back & enjoy the rest of the play-offs. The semi's could go either way but should be L.A. & K.C.

SKC are tough at home & picked up 4pts in the 2 regular season games against Dynamo..still if there's an upset it will come here.

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