North American soccerball and the MLS Season starts Saturday

[johnhammond]

Just purchased my ticket for the Sounders V Timbers game a week Saturday. I was clucking for a football fix and a derby of sorts with a crowd of 40,000+ should satisfy the craving. Looking forward to having a beer in my seat as well.

Nice! Whereabouts are you sitting (I'm behind the south goal). Beer in seats is luxury, unless it rains like last week...

 

[Jim Van Winkle]

Nice! Whereabouts are you sitting (I'm behind the south goal). Beer in seats is luxury, unless it rains like last week...

Am sitting in the North West corner. Didn't really have much choice as only about 10 tickets were left on sale. So for future reference which stand has the best atmosphere in terms of singing?

 

[johnhammond]

Am sitting in the North West corner. Didn't really have much choice as only about 10 tickets were left on sale. So for future reference which stand has the best atmosphere in terms of singing?

The songs all start from the south stand as that's the general admission area with all the supporters clubs, although the whole crowd gets going for some of the songs. You'll be closer to the Timbers fans so I'm sure they'll add to the atmosphere around there.

 

[Puppet Master]

I LOVE the Portland Timbers fans

 

[The Grockle]

Really want to get more into MLS and US football in general. In true armchair fan fashion I’m looking for a team to latch onto using criteria such as, shirt colour and name, I’m feeling New York Cosmos, Ottawa Fury or Vancouver whitecaps.

I have a few questions that are really bugging me though and I’m struggling to find out online,

Firstly, can a team from the NASL get promoted to the MLS or do they simply apply for the franchise?

What is the scale of the league system, is it a pyramid set up like ours for instance could a small team climb the leagues over time?

Finally what cups are there, I seem to remember their being an open cup of some sort where any team can win it similar to the Fa cup is this still the case if so is it popular and are there many giant killings?

Thanks.

 

[Simster]

Just purchased my ticket for the Sounders V Timbers game a week Saturday. I was clucking for a football fix and a derby of sorts with a crowd of 40,000+ should satisfy the craving. Looking forward to having a beer in my seat as well.

Why they don't open up the whole of Century Link for Portland, I never understand. They'd get 60,000 for that one, especially with 5,000 Portlanders travelling up.

 

[willyfantastic]

Really want to get more into MLS and US football in general. In true armchair fan fashion I’m looking for a team to latch onto using criteria such as, shirt colour and name, I’m feeling New York Cosmos, Ottawa Fury or Vancouver whitecaps.

I have a few questions that are really bugging me though and I’m struggling to find out online,

Firstly, can a team from the NASL get promoted to the MLS or do they simply apply for the franchise?

What is the scale of the league system, is it a pyramid set up like ours for instance could a small team climb the leagues over time?

Finally what cups are there, I seem to remember their being an open cup of some sort where any team can win it similar to the Fa cup is this still the case if so is it popular and are there many giant killings?

Thanks.

Teams can't get promoted into the MLS, as MLS teams are Franchises. They also use a playoff structure to decide overall winner rather than just the league

Lot of Brighton fans on here seem to be Seattle fans due to the Peter Ward link, plus they have the most UK-style/hardcore fans so they would be your best bet - although their kit is rather marmite as its BRIGHT neon green

 

[Hotchilidog]

Teams can't get promoted into the MLS, as MLS teams are Franchises. They also use a playoff structure to decide overall winner rather than just the league

Lot of Brighton fans on here seem to be Seattle fans due to the Peter Ward link, plus they have the most UK-style/hardcore fans so they would be your best bet - although their kit is rather marmite as its BRIGHT neon green

Seattle! Pah! Go Timbers!

 

[Lyndhurst 14]

Really want to get more into MLS and US football in general. In true armchair fan fashion I’m looking for a team to latch onto using criteria such as, shirt colour and name, I’m feeling New York Cosmos, Ottawa Fury or Vancouver whitecaps.

New York Cosmos are still very much a “work in progress”. The earliest they will join the MLS franchise is 2013 as they have only just identified a site for their stadium. If you still want a NYC team to follow I’d recommend my adopted team the Red Bulls.

 

[Jesus Gul]

Gonna be in San Fran next month and will catch a Giants baseball game...but could also take a short hop to see San Jose Earthquakes v Vancouver...but it's a Sat night - downtown SF will be calling

 

[The Grockle]

Teams can't get promoted into the MLS, as MLS teams are Franchises. They also use a playoff structure to decide overall winner rather than just the league

Lot of Brighton fans on here seem to be Seattle fans due to the Peter Ward link, plus they have the most UK-style/hardcore fans so they would be your best bet - although their kit is rather marmite as its BRIGHT neon green

I suspected that might be the case, shame but I guess it’s just the way it works with most sports in the US.

I’m going to keep my options open, might opt for a Vancouver club as my Dad lived there during the war and it’s the place I’m most likely to visit, New York aside.

Thanks for the info.

 

[The Grockle]

New York Cosmos are still very much a “work in progress”. The earliest they will join the MLS franchise is 2013 as they have only just identified a site for their stadium. If you still want a NYC team to follow I’d recommend my adopted team the Red Bulls.

Many thanks, New york is obviously a huge city but could it easily accommodate two MLS franchises?

 

[willyfantastic]

I suspected that might be the case, shame but I guess it’s just the way it works with most sports in the US.

I’m going to keep my options open, might opt for a Vancouver club as my Dad lived there during the war and it’s the place I’m most likely to visit, New York aside.

Thanks for the info.

All of the northwestern teams have great support (including Vancouver & Portland) to be fair, not just Seattle

 

[y2dave]

Why they don't open up the whole of Century Link for Portland, I never understand. They'd get 60,000 for that one, especially with 5,000 Portlanders travelling up.

I went to this fixture last season and they had the entire stadium pretty much full. The atmosphere and effort from both sets of supporters was impressive but very manufactured (words to chants on big screens, special guest team announcer etc..) Overall I was very impressed, lovely stadium with great views of the city, decent standard of play and great drinking venues all around.

 

[The Grockle]

All of the northwestern teams have great support (including Vancouver & Portland) to be fair, not just Seattle

Good stuff thanks. I notice that the 2012 average attendance was over 18,000 in the MLS which is pretty impressive, i'm sure it'll keep growing too.

 

[Lyndhurst 14]

Many thanks, New york is obviously a huge city but could it easily accommodate two MLS franchises?

It could easily support 2 clubs. The Red Bulls actually play in New Jersey (like the Giants and the Jets) so although they get a lot of fans from NYC they also have a big fan base in Newark, Jersey City etc. The Cosmos stadium will be in Queens – there are already a lot of Latinos living there who are fanatical about their soccer and they will also get fans from the south in Brooklyn. It’s encouraging how New Yorkers have taken to soccer and the Cosmos will keep that going as they are a famous brand.

 

[Man of Harveys]

Last week I heared a bit of inside goss on the, erm, relaxed approach to management of former New England Revolution manager and grumpy Proclaimers-lookalike Steve Nicol.

Apparently he could barely be bothered to stick around for about an hour of training a day and generally massively took the piss, earning a very decent wedge while doing so. And, who'da thunk it, New England have been crap recently. Thankfully he's now gone.

We've all heard of players getting a decent payday easing up in the States at the end of a career but managers...another example of the now-fading approach of US football being far too deferential to anyone in the game with an accent from the old country, rather than going with the growing number of US natives who get it.

Anyway, nothing plastic going on here, I'm 100% sticking with my local team: the rapidly-improving New England Revs it is.

 

[johnhammond]

Why they don't open up the whole of Century Link for Portland, I never understand. They'd get 60,000 for that one, especially with 5,000 Portlanders travelling up.

The Sounders management never want empty seats to be seen on tv, and there are weird rules about away fans in the NW (they sell the same number (1000? - something do do with the smallest stadium) to each club, regardless of what the percentage of the stadium that is). So Seattle would take more away but can't. So although Portland want more, because they don't give Seattle more, they don't get more.

Anyway, slightly more optimistic after the 0-1, 3-1 comback in the champions league tonight...
Full highlights: CCL Highlights: vs Tigres - YouTube
Or, Djimi Traore - foot like a traction engine! Highlight: Traore screamer - YouTube

 

[Lyndhurst 14]

Anyway, nothing plastic going on here, I'm 100% sticking with my local team: the rapidly-improving New England Revs it is.

And in a totally unrelated incident………………….There was a follow up to this story on CNN last night.

New England Revolution player leaves to become priest

 

[Jim Van Winkle]

[MENTION=10923]johnhammond[/MENTION]

Did you meet Tony Meola at the weekend? When I spoke with him he said he just met with an Albion fan who was at his debut against Wolves. Was that you?

Thanks for the advice on where to sit. Was impressed with the Sounders going forward. The defending was a pretty woeful standard from both teams. But never the less was an interesting football experience.