MLS Beginning New Season With New Names

[Eat a bullet]

There's a funky new look to the Major League Soccer standings this year, at least to the sport's uninitiated. FC Dallas? Chivas USA? Real Salt Lake? What's that all about? Is there a Fake Salt Lake somewhere?

But, to soccer fans, it's a warm familiar look — another sign the adolescent league has stopped trying to Americanize the beautiful game and is more determined than ever to march in step with the rest of the world as it begins its 10th season Saturday.Link (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=687&ncid=1356&e=4&u=/ap/20050329/ap_on_sp_so_ne/soc_mls_preview)

Hmm... Do any of you actually follow MLS?

[usa320]

sorry, i hate baseball, they are all on drugs...

[Eat a bullet]

sorry, i hate baseball, they are all on drugs...
This ain't about baseball... rofl

[Virus]

Yah i was like....wtf baseball? No i didnt even know we had MLS :D

[Khabbi]

its called FootBall :bash:

[<Gypsum Fantastic>]

:cantbeli:

Why do they bother... :roll:

[Eat a bullet]

its called FootBall :bash:
Yeah, soccer short for association football :P. I'll call it futbol just for you, mmkay? :petting:

Seriously, I'm just trying to see if anyone here even pays attention to it.

[WolverineBlue]

I pay attention to it. DC United is fun to watch. They play Chivas USA on Saturday on national TV.

By the way, the US national team plays Guatemala tonight at 8pm EST -- should be entertaining.

[Eat a bullet]

I'll watch the game on saturday, but I dont have cable so I can't see the US game tonight. :(

[ronin2172]

I follow it from time to time.

I am happy they are getting rid of the corny team names (burn.... :cantbeli: )..although Real Salt Lake is a step back (and a bit presumptuous).

The LA expansion team's affiliation with Chivas of Mexico is a good sign and i hope more teams do the same. The best thing happening is they are finally moving to soccer specific stadia, by the end of the decade most if not all the teams will have left the mammoth and non profitible 70,000 seat stadiums they now occupy 25,000 - 30,000 seat venues which will be more intimate, thereby leading to a better atmosphere.

There is still a long way to go. Especially with the level of talent or lack thereof.

I would like to see individual teams make deals with teams in Europe. The major european clubs have so many players in their reserve and youth teams that they will never field all of them. I would like to see Real Madrid for example send 2 - 3 of their youth or reserve players per season to play in MLS say with the Metrostars.

These guys will get better competetion than playing reserve matches with their parent clubs, and if they play well there is the potential for their parent club to either promote them or cash in and transfer them for a profit (with the MLS teams having first crack if they so choose).

The players themselves will have an opportunity to shine, there is no real clash in scheduling as the MLS season is mainly played during the off season for the European clubs, so the players still have a chance to play in La Liga or the Premiership or Serie A. Besides playing in the USA would be a nice experience. LA in the summer can be quite pleasant as opposed to Liverpool in the winter.

The MLS teams would benefit from a steady stream of talent that can help raise the level of competetion with potentially good young talent as opposed to getting old stars past their prime (Lothar Mattaeus, Mo Jonston, Hiristo Stoichkov, Valderamma) or journeymen who never made an impact in Europe or anywhere. The icing on the cake for the MLS clubs are that these guys are already on the books for their parent clubs so other than providing room and board they can come for quite cheap.

It would be a win/win situation for all involved.

[Eat a bullet]

Thanks for posting, guys woot

[scm77]

I prefer womens soccer. ;)