Man, this league confuses the heck out of me sometimes.
- Scott
Moderator
Seattle spanked by San Jose 4-0
Man, this league confuses the heck out of me sometimes.
- Scott
“Heroism breaks its heart, and idealism its back, on the intransigence of the credulous and the mediocre, manipulated by the cynical and the corrupt.” ~Christopher Hitchens
Moderator
Nobody has anything to say about one of the biggest, and most unexpected results of the entire season? haha
- Scott
“Heroism breaks its heart, and idealism its back, on the intransigence of the credulous and the mediocre, manipulated by the cynical and the corrupt.” ~Christopher Hitchens
wow.... watched the highlights.
what in gods name was that?! absolutely wild game.
I watched this game live. I think the red card early really spooked Seattle. It makes me happy that TFC didn't fall apart like that when Barrett got the red last game.
This result puts a smile on my face. Suck it up, Seattle.
Moderator
From what I've been reading, Seattle looked like shit long before the red card came out. Not to mention that they completely fell to pieces afterward.Originally Posted by dupont
- Scott
“Heroism breaks its heart, and idealism its back, on the intransigence of the credulous and the mediocre, manipulated by the cynical and the corrupt.” ~Christopher Hitchens
i love the unpredictability of this league
“Years have gone by and I’ve finally learned to accept myself for who I am: a beggar for good football.
I go about the world, hand outstretched, and in the stadiums I plead: ‘A pretty move, for the love of God.’
And when good football happens, I give thanks for the miracle and I don’t give a damn which team or country performs it.”
-Eduardo Galeano
I hate it. There are no really good teams or bad teams in this league, all at varying levels of mediocrity. I hate parity in sports in general. It makes for zero drama.
geez - i think it makes for lot’s of drama - all the European leagues are pretty well known as to who the top 3-4 teams will be each and every year - the only drama is who will be relegated. i much prefer a salary cap that allows for all teams to be able to be 'in it' depending on the skill of the total organization from top to bottom.
North American sports leagues are about manufactured parity - not real parity. Parity basically keeps the league overall in good shape in the short run as the weakest teams are subsidised by the stronger teams. In essence, leagues especially like the NFL & NHL are welfare states, socialistic fiefdoms that reward failure and don't provide enough reward for success.
And MLS has the worst kind of parity. No consistency at all in the play. No real joy of winning and no real agony of defeat.
But the ratings show that strong teams, dynastic teams are what pulls people into the sport - Patriots going undefeated, Oilers 5 cups, Lakers vs Celtics...
Last edited by mr k; 08-03-2009 at 11:39 AM.
Seriously. I can't agree more.
The league needs a villain. It also needs a team that plays beautiful football. It has neither.
EXACTLY! The MLS standings really offer no indication of which team is really better than another. I don't even look at them anymore, because a month from now they could be completely different. Look at KC last year, shit for the whole season but still get into the playoffs. It's funny, because politically I have very socialist beliefs, but I hate this pussy sports socialism. What pride is there in knowing that you're better off finishing in last than missing the playoffs by one point? The parity in MLS and in the NHL is forced parity imposed from above because teams with no fans for some reason have to be given the same chance as teams like ours who fill their stadiums week in and week out. I fail to see the excitement in that. Football, in my opinion, should not be controlled by outside forces. It applies the other way, too; I don't think billionaires should be allowed to buy football clubs and turn them into their own personal plaything. Like a salary cap, that's unfair to the other teams in the league. Clubs should ONLY be allowed to spend what they earn in my opinion, but they also shouldn't get handouts from a league.
Last edited by I_AM_CANADIAN; 08-03-2009 at 11:48 AM.
Moderator
I've never understood this idea that "league enforced parity" is somehow worse than "let the richest owners win the vast majority of the time". It also allows teams to control costs, a nice feature that will come in handy 20 years from now, when most of the biggest football clubs in the world have finally collapsed in on themselves and enter administration because of their rapidly spiraling, over-leveraged debt.
Parity is what is keeping this league alive and growing in the long run, instead of burning out like a supernova, like the NASL did.
- Scott
“Heroism breaks its heart, and idealism its back, on the intransigence of the credulous and the mediocre, manipulated by the cynical and the corrupt.” ~Christopher Hitchens
Umm....the red card was bullshit and Seattle sucked.
But SJ seem to be playing better as of late so a win was probably in the cards.
was it in seattle?
no. it was in SJ
“Years have gone by and I’ve finally learned to accept myself for who I am: a beggar for good football.
I go about the world, hand outstretched, and in the stadiums I plead: ‘A pretty move, for the love of God.’
And when good football happens, I give thanks for the miracle and I don’t give a damn which team or country performs it.”
-Eduardo Galeano
No, it was in SJ. Seattle's OG in the 2nd minute seemed to really rattle them. Sigi Schmidt was PO'd after this one. Seattle should play much better next time out.
The Quakes played surprisingly well, with fairly crisp passing and they kept the ball on the ground, for the most part.
On the other hand, the Sounders played REALLY bad. Everybody looked asleep, and there was ZERO flair or creativity in the attack. Yes, the own goal and bogus red card were deflating, but the team should have been able to rise above that. They didn't, and played like a weak USL1 side.
Around 200 ECS made the trip down and could be heard singing pretty loudly over the telecast. The GM did have the class to come over to the supporters after the game and apologize.
Hopefully a wake up call, and that the friendly Wednesday against Barcelona perks the team up.
Moderator
Your GM apologized to you after a loss?
Has TFC ever done anything comparable? Anyone know?
- Scott
“Heroism breaks its heart, and idealism its back, on the intransigence of the credulous and the mediocre, manipulated by the cynical and the corrupt.” ~Christopher Hitchens
Thats mediocrity for you.
Moderator
What? A team having a poor game?
- Scott
“Heroism breaks its heart, and idealism its back, on the intransigence of the credulous and the mediocre, manipulated by the cynical and the corrupt.” ~Christopher Hitchens
Combine this with the own goal, Ljungberg out, 2 new signings from San Jose, and home field advantage I don't think this is all that unbelievable.
funny that in such a mediocre parity league there are clubs with 0 trophies and clubes with 12... what's the chance of that
there's no such thing as good/bad parity.. there's just parity... almost no other soccer leagues in the world have it, not the least having it "naturally". In other words, the Prem is not a "more competitive" league than MLS. It has a higher overall level of quality according to my definition of competitive league ("most teams have a chance of beating any other on any given day home or away") I would say MLS is much more competitive than the Prem. If you took the average salary budget in the Prem and gave every MLS that amount of money, we would have the highest quality + most competitive league in the whole world. You would jizz every single game at the competitiveness AND at the quality. MLS doesn't have that quality tho.
but I think the problem is most people who come to MLS from watching other leagues get nervous about parity. They don't really like competitiveness, because that's fucking nerve-wracking stuff. It's tense every game... it's frustrating. But that's what you get when teams are evenly matched throughout the league. It keeps you on your toes as a fan. I love it!
This result puts a smile on my face. Suck it up, Seattle.
+1 me too
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