MLS 2007 Season aka The Year Beckham came to town

The MLS still exists?

We used to have a team in Tampa but nobody cared :-(

Yeah, this is pretty much the best thing they could have done for the US. Hopefully it'll work ...

It will be big for the first year but the novelty will wear off. It's less for soccer and more to try and tap into the U.$. market.

Well, it'll get me to buy tickets to the FC Dallas games when I return home this Summer.

The Tampa Bay Rowdies.. The Tampa Bay Rowdies.. are a kick in the grass!

God, I loved the NASL. Of course, I was like 10 at the time...

Pity he didn't go to Dallas, now that would have been nice indeed!

This makes me happy, especially since i can't get the Fox Soccer Channel where I live, and I'm hoping that this will increase ESPN coverage of MLS.

I now have FSC and GOL TV (which can be a little strange when they have the spanish language shows dubbed into English - sort of like watching a badly dubbed movie). Still, plenty of football on the tube now. I was so happy last night I just kept flipping back and forth between the two.

As for Beckham, I can't say I am all that excited by him coming to play in the US. I think it would take a major tone shift in Americans' sports habits to get more people to watch and be interested in football/soccer.

Beckham's coming to the MLS will surely bring publicity to the league, but when you have idiot sports announcers and commentators making snide comments about the sport, what good will the added publicity really do?

I personally though will probably make a trip over to Houston to catch a game this summer; and, I will be a sucker and try to make it to a game he plays in.

Hmm, now I read on the BBC that Edgar Davids may be on his way to FC Dallas. Well, at least he'll need his sunglasses here!

I remember the Rowdies -- they used to advertise pretty heavily in Orlando. And it's a much better nickname than the Mutiny.

Mike & Mike in the morning proved my point to me this morning. They were in front of an audience and when they brought it up there were a lot of boos. And for the most part they dismissed it saying Beckham will simply be a popular person, but he will do nothing for soccer/football in America.

If I may quote Jim Rome: "The Los Angeles Sparks of the WNBA think that Major League Soccer is irrelevant."

That's because he won't. We had the entire world here for the "greatest sporting event in the world" and interest in the sport carried over for about two weeks after the last match.

And I don't know why you care, anyways. So soccer isn't popular amongst adults in the US...who gives a fuck?

And a few billion people on the planet find Jim Rome and most of what he talks about irrelevant.


And the reason I was commenting on it is if you read above, some think this will make soccer/football become important and watched in this country. I don't think it will. As I said above, it would take a huge fundamental shift in sports habits to change the American public's perception of the sport.

As for who gives a fuck, well I do. And so do a lot of US soccer fans. I would love for the sport to be more popular here. I just think without the 3 major pro sports going on strike at the same time, it will be a long while before US sports fans start caring about soccer.

If by a "long while", you mean "never", then I agree.

Why do you need the validation of other Americans? Truth be told, the more popular a sport becomes, the more it's going to sell itself out to become more appealing to the 'average fan', which is only going to piss off those of you who love the sport for what it is.

Frequenters of the college football thread will know what I'm getting at here.

It is not so much needing validation, it would just be nice to turn on sports radio in the morning and here some soccer/football talk alone with everything else. And personally, I could care less either way. I have two soccer channels to watch when I get home every night, so things are great for me now on the watching and hearing discussion about the sport front.

This is the best piece I have read on Beckham coming to MLS. Why is is Slate has such good soccer writing?

I suppose I'd try to make it up to Toronto to see him play. Think he might come earlier than August, now that Capello's benched him at Madrid?

If puttering along in its own little niche is the ultimate fate of the game here, even if the US men win a World Cup someday, then so be it. However, if they want to roll the dice, by all means go ahead. I figured the league was going to try something like this eventually.

Honestly, I think the game's going along fine here. There are soccer-specific stadiums built across the country, with more on the way. The league's losing less money than before, and with a company like AEG behind it, surviving. I'm sure there were those that doubted the league would last five years, let alone 12.

So why not roll the dice and bring Beckham in, especially if it creates a domino effect with Ronaldo, Davids and Claudio Reyna, too? What exactly do they have to lose? Granted, the expectations are going to be too high, and the backlash will presumably be swift from those not familiar with Beckham's playing style.

It's worth the chance, though, to try and push MLS into a larger share of the US market. Whatever losses AEG incurs will probably be offset by the single-entity financial setup anyway.

Better hurry. According to reports, the Toronto FC have already sold 10,000 (!) season tickets!

Not so surprising, actually. Given the city's multicultural makeup, I'd expect the games to do very well. And would probably be just as popular in Montreal, as well.

Well this looks like a step in the right direction for the MLS:

MLS and the Mexican Football Federation (FMF) today announced the formation of a new North American soccer championship series dubbed "SuperLiga" that will feature clubs from the top leagues of both nations.

The eight-team tournament, that MLS commissioner Don Garber said would attempt to replicate the European Champions league in scope, will kick off July 24th and end August 29th. Like the Champions League, Superliga will begin with a group stage and then progress to a knockout tournament to crown one champion, with the winners taking home $1million in prize money.

beckham is like how old?

Beckham is 31.

Nice long piece on the SuperLiga from Fox Soccer's Jamie Trecker.

SuperLiga has me more excited than anything else about this year's MLS season. In fact, I would rather make it to Houston and see one of these matches than see Beckham.

The SuperLiga is a great idea. Here's hoping either Fox or ESPN televise games.

Holy crap! How many MLS teams have 10k season ticketholders, anyway? LA, certainly. Maybe DC. Hmm... BMO Field seats 20,000, so I could presumably get seats. Maybe. We'll see when the schedule comes out, and when Beckham is coming over.

No, not surprising at all. The USL team in Toronto drew flies in comparision to what TFC's already done. The USL team in Montreal draws much better, they're routinely going back and forth with Rochester for the top spot on the attendance charts. Put an MLS team there and the crowds will come, especially if they can get a few top-drawer Canadian players as well.

Hell, while they're at it, why not put a team here in Rochester? There's a solid fanbase and a new stadium, and there's as much pro soccer history here as in any other city in the country. Like Seattle, though, there isn't an investor willing to fork over the cash to get into the league at this point. So we'll just have to settle for being the league bitch when it comes to relocation rumors (latest contestant: Salt Lake City and their troubles in getting a soccer stadium built).

(Apologies for the long-winded posts. American pro soccer is near and dear to my heart, and I don't see much talk about it other than lurking at the BigSoccer boards.)

Hey don't worry about long posts. There are so few of us here, it is always nice to have someone who can come in and talk about the American game.

I think after today's bitch slap though of my Saints by the Bears, I am going to have to switch my soccer allegiance from the Fire to the Dynamo (not really, but that's how I feel).

I am already trying to see if I can plan a trip to Houston for Superliga play as well as to see Beckham (two different games I hope).

I wonder if they are going to do a separate tv package for the Superliga matches. I know right now the package is spread out over ESPN, ABC, and Fox Soccer as well. But, I wonder if maybe ESPN or Fox will try and get the rights to Superliga just for one of them. Would be nice instead of having to hunt down games across three networks (well 2.5 since ABC and ESPN are the same now).

As I said before, the Superliga is the most exciting for me about the upcoming season. Plus the expansion of the league especially into Canada.

Ah, cool. Good to know. I know one buddy who pays attention to the game here outside of the World Cup, so it's nice to find a balance between the general indifference and the hardcore fandom of BigSoccer.

Understood about the Fire. I kinda, sorta follow the Red Bulls/Metros, but that's mainly because the USL is too small potatoes to get into the EA FIFA games. So I invariably end up playing as the Red Bulls, and lay waste to the rest of MLS and the world. Fun times.

As for Superliga TV coverage, I think you can discount ABC since they'll probably cover four games at the most: the opener, the All-Star Game, MLS Cup and depending on when Becks gets here, his debut. They did cover an extra playoff game last year, but that was because the All-Star Game had to get moved timewise to accommodate Chelsea, bumping it to ESPN.

I think FSC is your best bet since they cover so much more than just MLS and the Champions League, which seems to be what we as North American ESPN viewers get stuck with. The midweek schedule makes it tailor made for FSC coverage, too, considering ESPN's preference for baseball and the World Series of Poker reruns in the summer.

Here's hoping they get smart with the Superliga and try to make it the CONCACAF version of the Champions League. Sure, there are just three viable soccer-playing leagues in this part of the continent, but you can't get better until you play against top competition. It can only help in the long run.

Oh, and someone, I don't care which network, needs to do a weekly highlight show when the season starts. Bring back MLS Gamenight or MLS Wrap. Make it something along the lines of the EPL highlights that Fox Sports airs every week. Pretty please.

Fox Soccer Report covers a lot and now they have a call in show. But yeah, a daily wrap up show would be nice when the MLS season starts.

Saw today (and not sure how long this has been announced) the All Star game will be in Denver and the all stars will be playing Celtic.

Bump. A few things:

The schedule's out, and since it looks like Becks is going to stay in Madrid until his contract runs out in July, his first game will be probably be Friday, August 5th in Toronto.

Hm. I've already talked to a buddy who is definitely interested in going, but I can guarantee that tickets are probably going to be hard to get. If not that game, we might just go for a weekend game sometime as neither of us has spent any time in Toronto.

I just saw that FSC is going to do a 30-minute pre and postgame show on their league broadcasts. Sweet, too bad FSC's not on my satellite.

And to no one's surprise, Salt Lake City and RSL got their stadium deal done. Oh well, there's always those 'Wizards moving to Rochester?' rumors to keep us busy.

Anyone see the partnership between Arsenal and Colorado Rapids? Any thoughts on if this will help them or whatever?

Here's the story.

I was reading the Sports section this morning in the Times-Picayune and saw my high school was ranked 3rd in the nation. And all I could think is this is where the MLS should be recruiting from. They should be going down the high school soccer rankings and sending souts and coaches there to recruit. You know there are already some European clubs doing it, MLS should be actively doing it as well.

Maybe they do do it already, but I think there should be an overt presence out there hunting for the best our high schools have in soccer if the MLS ever wants to have some prominence on the world stage as a professional soccer league.

Sorry, ranting here.

Rant away, as I think the two of us are the only ones updating the thread at the moment.

Arsenal-Colorado: Sounds like a decent idea. Glad they kept the Rapids nickname. The words 'Colorado' and 'Arsenal' do not go together very well.

As for the MLS youth programs, the league's finally getting around to starting up something similar to the European setup. When you've got a 16-year old scoring goals for the Red Bulls, that can only be a good advertisement for the league...

We will bring the other's to our ways by sheer will.

Yeah, I just want to see a more overt recruitment. By the way, we also have a team down here in Lafayette I believe getting national votes. And a team about 2.5 hours away in Mississippi getting ranked. I think there needs to be some kind of border war like the football teams here do.

Looks like October will be the first chance for me to see Beckham, since I believe that is when the Galaxy play at Houston. Going to have to make it over there before that though to see a game or two (it is nice with Houston cause if it works out I can catch the Dynamo and the Astros on the same weekend).

Kind of cool in that it looks like the stadium at the park across from where we live is becoming the soccer stadium here. Our PDL team the New Orleans ShellShockers are going to play their season there. I see them practicing a lot on the weekends. Although, kind of depressing the stadium in City Park is still not up to snuff for soccer games.

Well women's professional soccer returns in 2008. Have to say I am excited about seeing my second favorite fetish (female soccer players) returning. I thought the WUSA was pretty good.

Anyone been watching the CONCACAF? MLS teams seem to be doing well int he tournament.

Poor Beckham hurs his knee. MLS should have paid his club to bench their 250 million dollar man. 4-6 weeks is what they are saying.

If Becks plays as well for LA as he has for Real the last month or so, then he will be really fun to watch. It sucks that he is injured because he was playing pretty well. He is the type of player that makes people around him better.

That said, the MLS should have let Joseph transfer to Celtic.

And Dempsey should have been transferred to Charlton, while you're at it.

But then again, I can understand MLS' Catch-22 situation there: do you take the money while the player's at their peak, or do you try to convince the guy to stay for far less money as he's one of the few marketable US-born players the league has?

Sometimes it works out (Dempsey) and sometimes it doesn't (Eddie Johnson, who stayed put and promptly went into the tank). It's something the league will have to deal with as long as it exists.

On Becks: Frankly, I am kind of surprised that MLS and Real didn't broker some kind of deal (I'm sure they tried) to get him over here earlier after Capello said he would never play for Real again. At least it's only a month-long injury...

More partnering, this time between MLS and Bundesliga:

MIAMI (TICKER) -- The MLS and the German Bundesliga announced a landmark partnership that will have the American soccer league share a number of aspects with one of the sport's top circuits, including player development.

The announcement was made Tuesday at the SPORTELAmerica Convention by MLS commissioner Don Garber and Bundesliga CEO Christian Seifert. Both sides say there is something to learn from the other.

"We have a tremendous amount we can learn from our colleagues at the Bundesliga," MLS deputy commissioner Ivan Gazidis said. "We're very excited about it."

Seifert said the MLS and its salary cap could serve as a tool for the Bundesliga, which has the increasing player costs being felt by most European leagues.

"We view this (as) a partnership," he said. "We want to support the growth of soccer in the United States on a long-term basis."

The leagues also will exchange ideas on stadium construction and collaborate on licensing, new media and officiating.

The partnership was the idea of German legend Franz Beckenbauer, who has close ties to the Austrian owners of the New York Red Bulls of MLS.

"We initiated discussions with Major League Soccer because of the impressive progress it has made since its inception in 1996," Seifert said.

Under the agreement, the leagues could organize preseason tournaments. There is no provision for player exchange between the countries.

"This relationship marks an important step forward for Major League Soccer," Garber said. "We are all aware that this age of globalization means new challenges for soccer, the most global sport."

The deal is the latest in a number of steps taken by MLS to expand their international horizons.

The Colorado Rapids have announced a partnership with British Premiership club Arsenal and are in England this week. The biggest impact will come this summer, when international soccer superstar David Beckham moves from Real Madrid to the Los Angeles Galaxy.

"One player will not change the world," Seifert said. "It's a step in the right direction. Beckham is not a guy at the end of his career. Most of all, he's a great soccer player. He will increase the value of the team."

I like seeing MLS with these European partners and I truly hope they are learning something and not just paying lip service to them. I don't even mind if we become some quasi-development league for the Bundesliga.

By the way, anyone wonder if the Beckham deal will come back to bite MLS in the ass the next time they go after some star high schooler or college player? Of course these star players should already be in some developmental program, but I don't see them getting their shit together that well anytime soon.

At this point, partnering up can't be a bad idea.

In a sense, the Beckham deal already has bit them in the ass, with the fact that most of the international players approached saw what Beckham got and wanted something on that level. (I read over on Ives Galarcep's blog that Zidane was approached by either New York or Chicago and wanted $15m per year. No thanks.)

So instead of having a few internationals of marketable note (read: semi-familiar names to non-soccer fans) that they can piggyback a campaign around, they've got one guy. Still, I can't imagine that Red Bull's going to let that DP slot they have go to 'waste' on a no-name...

Well another day, another partnership. Only this time it is between Liverpool and the Long Island Youth Soccer program. Interesting that.

Tonight you can check out the Houston Dynamo and DC United:

the semifinals of the CONCACAF Champions' Cup will kick things off at home tonight. Houston Dynamo, who hope to have Dwayne De Rosario available, start up this evening (6 p.m. ET, FSC) while D.C. United know they are in the crosshairs ahead of their match with CD (Chivas) Guadalajara (8 p.m. ET, FSC).

Wel dammit, the Revolution will be here playing Sunday night against Olimpia a team from Honduras. Of course this is the one weekend I am going out of town. Ugh, this sucks.

Our PDL team the New Orleans ShellShockers are hosting the match. The organization wants to create a training center here for professional teams. The analogy the coach gave is turning New Orleans into a Florida spring training type center for professional teams. I actually like this idea since I always wanted to win the Powerball and build a uber soccer training center (one of many daydreams; Yes, I know I am a dork).

Anyway, here is the complete story:

Shell Shockers Host International Soccer Stars - New England Revolution to play Honduras’s Olimpia in March
March 5, 2007

On Sunday, March 25th the New Orleans Shell Shockers will welcome international soccer superstars Olimpia to the Crescent City to compete in a match against Major League Soccer’s formidable New England Revolution.

The friendly will kick off at 5PM and will signal the beginning of the Miller International Soccer Series which draws quality soccer to the city every year. New Orleans Shell Shockers head coach Kenny Farrell said, "This is the second time we have hosted Olimpia. Olimpia’s presence signifies the potential of New Orleans to be an off-season training ground for international soccer clubs. I expect it to be a great game featuring top players."

The match will take place at Tad Gormley Stadium in City Park; giving local soccer fans a chance to witness top-notch soccer in a more intimate setting. Both teams have trophy cabinets crammed with titles and are more accustomed to playing in front of enormous crowds.

Olimpia hails from the town of Tegucigalpa, the Honduran sister-city to New Orleans, where their reputation is comparable to that of Real Madrid or Manchester United. The Lions boast more titles than any other team in the country, and have bragging rights for winning the CONACAF club championship twice.

US soccer fans will be able to catch a glance of some of their favorite players when the Revolution takes to the pitch on Sunday. The New England Revolution competed in the MLS Cup Final last year and their roster reads like a who’s who of US national team members.

Shockers President Michael Balluff said, "We're thankful to Olimpia for adjusting their schedule in order to play in New Orleans. It is their belief in the city of New Orleans as a future training ground for professional soccer that allows the Shell Shockers to bring top-level soccer to the region's Gulf Coast fans."

Coach Kenny Farrell believes that bringing international talent to the city surpasses entertainment value and hopes to solidify New Orleans as a city which could be a valuable host for pre-season training for some of the best teams in the United States and Latin America.

"This is the perfect match to showcase New Orleans as a gateway for off-season professional soccer training while entertaining the region's diverse base of soccer fans and families."

To purchase tickets or for additional information please call 504. 207.1905.

If you'd like additional information about this topic please contact Tey Stiteler at 814/279.1286 or e-mail Tey at tdstitel@loyno.edu.
Ticket Locations for the Olimpia v. New England Revolution Game

* Riverside Indoor Soccer
* Deporte Sevilla
* Sabor Latino
* Metro Soccer
* Soccer Station
* Club Soccer

Update on Sunday's game, the Revolution won 3-1. They would up with a crowd of almost 9,000.

Opening day today. First game is on ABC at 2:30 CST. There is a late night game on FSC at 9:30 CST I believe.

Another Mexican takes a job an American won't do
I guess the MLS is the old timers league. They need to get some young talent to come. That or have some of our star athletes impregnate those Brazillian models and wait 25 years for glory.

So, things seem to have gone quiet here. Anybody been watching the MLS season? Red Bulls looked pretty good for a while there till their defense sprung major leaks.

This guy Juan Pablo Angel has been on fire. Is it too obvious an explanation to say that it's probably because he's qualitatively miles beyond the defneders here, even though he sat the bench for Villa last season?

I have been watching. Enjoy the Thursday night game on ESPN, but FSC still has better coverage with their actual pregame show. My Fire are sucking ass this season, but at least Houston (the closest A/Premiere League team I have) is doing well.

Also, got into watching the Gold Cup matches.

Anybody see the new Adidas spots with Beckham vs Reggie Bush? Nice to see Beckham in a Saints jersey, just wish we had him here to whip our minor league team into shape (although if we beat Baton Rouge next match we take the Louisiana Cup).

Ad here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=wfpm7FrdQyI

For all my soccer postings, I haven't seen a single game on TV yet. (Damned two-job lifestyle.)

The Revs will be playing in Rochester on July 10 in the US Open Cup. Last year the two clubs played here in the same competition, and the Rhinos somehow lost after going up 2-0 in a shootout. (Goalie makes two phenomenal saves, and then the team hits two posts while New England doesn't miss again.) I would love to go, but lo and behold, I gotta work.