2012 MLS Thread

[shermanator]

Originally Posted by Jimmy Stang

I'd love to, but a mid-week jaunt to Edmonton isn't in the cards for me unfortunately. If you'll excuse my ignorance, where will the match be played in Edmonton and what is the capacity? I'm not too familiar with their club, facilities, etc.

The ACC is played at Commonwealth. I'm not sure how the atmosphere will be with 8000 people in a 60000 seat stadium, but we'll see.

Regular season games are played at Clarke Field right next door. Currently the stands seat 1200 but they're bringing in 3000 extra seats in the next few weeks (would've been installed were it not for bad weather)

[seattleflamer]

Originally Posted by Montana Moe

I like Fucito, always have. I was surprised that Seattle left him unprotected.

Levesque wouldn't have gone over so well.

Fucito is tenacious and never gives up on a play. He is sometimes so frustrating to watch, though, with his lack of finish considering the quality of chances.

I hope he does well there....except against the Sounders of course.

[Montana Moe]

Originally Posted by seattleflamer

Fucito is tenacious and never gives up on a play. He is sometimes so frustrating to watch, though, with his lack of finish considering the quality of chances...

Sounds like my main man from Arsenal, Gervinho.

[VANFLAMESFAN]

What a finish at BC Place today. Hassli is selfish in 90+2, and shot when he should have passed on what could have been a game winning goal in a 1-1. Hassli gets another chance in 90+4 and puts it off the post and in. Whitecaps win 2-1 over top team in the West.

5-2-2 to start the season. Great stuff. TFC is 0-8-0 for worst start in MLS history, AWESOME STUFF!!

[Mightyfire89]

Good grief, is TFC even going to get a point one of these days? Nevermind a win, I'll settle for a bloody draw.

Yeesh.

[Montana Moe]

Timbers with a scoreless draw against Columbus today. It was actually a good result after the disaster that was Montreal away last weekend.

On a positive note, I won a jersey of my choice from MLS tonight. Who knew Kenny Cooper was the answer to any question?

[seattleflamer]

Sounders have won 4 in a row including 9 points in 7 days. Johnson and Montero coming into form. MVP has to be Rosales and ability to control the pace of the game.

Excited to see Sounders at Whitecaps in a couple of weeks. Should be a great match.

[mac_82]

Toronto FC is just mind bottling this year. They had a good run the last half of last season with the injection of new players (Frings, Koevermans). In March they beat the LA Galaxy in the Champions league. They even played not badly against Montreal in the first game of the Canadian Championship. But for what ever reason, they just can't get it together in the MLS.

Here is an interesting read from a TFC supporter who wrote this article for Sportsnet.

Too many Canadians on Toronto FC?
http://www.sportsnet.ca/fanfuel/2012...ls_soccer_csa/

The problem with Toronto FC may be that they have too many Canadians on it. For a guy who has stood and chanted for our country against the likes of Ecuador and St. Kitts, this reeks of blasphemy, but it may be one of the main reasons behind our pathetic record since 2007.

The Montreal Impact are doing the bare minimum to help the CSA as they employ just three Canadians on their roster. Of those three, only Patrice Bernier has played, logging 315 minutes of action in Montreal's 810 minutes played thus far this season. The third Canadian roster spot is taken with backup keeper Greg Sutton.



Vancouver Whitecaps FC only employs four Canadians. In their most recent game, a 1-0 victory against the Columbus Crew, not one of those Canadians made it off the bench. Alain Rochat has logged 237 minutes of a total of 720 minutes thus far this season, making him the only Canadian to see action.



Toronto FC currently have nine Canadians on their active roster. And unlike their fellow Canadian teams they tend to use them. In their seventh loss of the season delivered this week, four of those Canadians were in the starting 11.

Further, these Canadian roster players on Toronto become highly untradeable assets. Recall that the MLS Roster rules allow US born players to be counted as Domestic but the return favour is not granted. A Canadian-born player does not count as a US Domestic player. That means that for a Canadian to be traded to the US, a precious "International Roster Spot" would need to be used in order to fit them within the team.

[seattleflamer]

^^^

TFC has been very unlucky with those injuries but the bottom line is that defence is porous and now they are mentally fragile as a group.

Also that 5 man back line just reeked of desperation on Saturday.

[shermanator]

San Jose striker Chris Wondolowski has 11 goals in 10 games so far this year. He's on pace to break the single season goals mark of 27. Interestingly enough, he has outscored the following TEAMS this season:

Chicago (9), New England (8), Houston (7), Philadelphia (5), Toronto (6), Vancouver (9), Dallas (10), Chivas USA (5), Portland (9)

The guy just seems to find the right areas...

[mac_82]

10 man TFC is looking like a completely different team, up 2-0 at the half over Montreal.

[mac_82]

TFC through to the Canadian Championship finals with a 2-0 win.

Now I'm almost pulling for an Edmonton win, just so I can go see TFC play in Edmonton

[seattleflamer]

^^^Caps will win. They look very good this year.

[seattleflamer]

Sounders 2 nil over Dallas. Montero looking very good and Sounders rolling along. Too bad no one went to the game in Dallas...sheesh.

[Jimmy Stang]

Some interesting calls in the CCL matches tonight. I watched the TFC red card replay a few times, and I'm still not sure about that one. Then Edmonton has a goal called back as offside, but it clearly wasn't. And then they somehow manage to slide studs up into the Vancouver keeper and escape with only a yellow.

I'm not sure if Edmonton will be able to get the two goals they need to stay alive, however, but they're giving it a go anyway.

[Montana Moe]

Montero is getting hot, for sure. The Sounders defense is really the story right now.

As for the crowds, I don't think they should play mid-week games until school is out. New York and Chicago were the same way tonight. Chicago announced 13,000+, but I'd be surprised if there were 7k there.

[Top Shelf]

I'm in Vancouver for work this week, and a guy I work with brought me to the Vancouver/Edmonton game tonight. He is also part of this group called the Southsiders, so we went along with them and did all the chanting and singing and stuff. It was great fun.

Are there any plans for Calgary to get a soccer team?

[Ozy_Flame]

^^^ The Southsiders is the official Whitecaps "army" so to speak. They usually have a section reserved for them in the stands, and are your typical hardcore fan group that brings the signs, horns, drums, etc.

Would be great to sit with them during a Whitecaps game. You're lucky!

[shermanator]

Supporters groups are a blast to watch a game with.

[shermanator]

Houston's new stadium debuts today. It's a beauty...