[Football] For those who are interested MLS 2021 season kicks off this weekend. Guardian Article

[Lyndhurst 14]

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/apr/16/mls-2021-predictions-lafcs-first-title-and-the-return-of-josef-martinez

I see NYCFC have finally realised after umpteen seasons that you can't play football in a baseball stadium and will be playing at Redbull Arena this year. There was a certain novelty to watching football being played in a baseball stadium but it soon wore off

 

[StonehamPark]

Allez Montreal

 

[Raphael Meade]

Excited for live football! We have LAFC tickets to fill the Brighton hole while out here - they can have 4,000 fans out of 22,000 and have allocated via season ticket seniority so we got lucky and will be in attendance tomorrow v Austin FC (their first ever MLS game, Matthew McConaughey owned)

 

[albionalex]

Expectations for Toronto FC were pretty low but they just had a fantastic result in the Concacaf Champions League, beating the Mexican champions León over two legs.

Unfortunately, based on the covid situation here, I doubt we will have any matches actually played in Toronto this year.

 

[Lyndhurst 14]

Excited for live football! We have LAFC tickets to fill the Brighton hole while out here - they can have 4,000 fans out of 22,000 and have allocated via season ticket seniority so we got lucky and will be in attendance tomorrow v Austin FC (their first ever MLS game, Matthew McConaughey owned)

How much did LA Galaxy get affected when LAFC arrived. Did they lose a lot of fans or is LA big enough for 2 teams like New York

 

[Raphael Meade]

Off to a good start - Open Cup looks to be canceled for the year (basically the US FA Cup) - was already being played with just MLS teams + a few, but being scrubbed now

 

[Raphael Meade]

How much did LA Galaxy get affected when LAFC arrived. Did they lose a lot of fans or is LA big enough for 2 teams like New York

Hugely I think. I tried to watch Galaxy a couple of times but found it akin to all the kids at school supporting Man Utd in the 90s haha, just couldn't do it.

LAFC is SUCH a well run club, a lot of similarities to the Albion + play in an incredibly nice brand new stadium near downtown LA (Galaxy play about 2 hours away in traffic on a college campus down near Long Beach). LAFC immediately sold out of season tickets etc and sell out every game while galaxy struggle a bit more. LAFC very much seen as an 'LA' team.

LAFC stadium has also taken a lot of the big concerts (think summer jingle balls etc) that Galaxy stadium would get, so imagine its screwed them in more ways than one.

I will say the derby games so far have been the closest to an actual derby we are used to - incredible atmosphere and plenty of people getting beers thrown at them and stewards breaking up scraps in the stands etc. Was remarkably close to being at Selhurst for a game lol

 

[Lyndhurst 14]

Hugely I think. I tried to watch Galaxy a couple of times but found it akin to all the kids at school supporting Man Utd in the 90s haha, just couldn't do it.

Hear what you say same reason I couldn't bring myself to support NYCFC - they were co-owned by the Yankees (Boo!) and Man City (Boo!)

 

[Raphael Meade]

Hear what you say same reason I couldn't bring myself to support NYCFC - they were co-owned by the Yankees (Boo!) and Man City (Boo!)

Ha yeah that's a tough one. I much prefer to stick with Will Ferrell as the face of the ownership group doing comedy skits every time the camera finds him and his family

 

[AZ Gull]

Excited for live football! We have LAFC tickets to fill the Brighton hole while out here - they can have 4,000 fans out of 22,000 and have allocated via season ticket seniority so we got lucky and will be in attendance tomorrow v Austin FC (their first ever MLS game, Matthew McConaughey owned)

Watched much of the game today. Not quite sure how LAFC managed to "mistakenly" sub Vela after 22 minutes! They did enough for the win but I thought Austin showed up well.

Locadia on the bench for FC Cincy this evening.

 

[Raphael Meade]

Watched much of the game today. Not quite sure how LAFC managed to "mistakenly" sub Vela after 22 minutes! They did enough for the win but I thought Austin showed up well.

Locadia on the bench for FC Cincy this evening.

Yeah that was pretty wild. He did look kinda hobbled so not too mad that we avoided him being injured at the start of the season. Second string front line did a decent enough job. So great to be back in a stadium and not a bad atmosphere for 4k in that size ground.

Austin looked very tidy for their first game agreed, really chased down well and seemed everywhere.

 

[Lyndhurst 14]

One of the things about MLS that niggles me is the wide variety of KO times. Next 3 Red Bulls games are 5 30pm 1pm 7 30pm. I know since Brighton got promoted to the Premier League we are more at the mercy of the TV companies but the lower leagues still have more or less regular times.