The top 10 league thing is interesting. I think current MLS stacks up well against the likes of Brasileirao in Brazil, Argentine Primera, Liga MX, Eredivisie, Ukrainian Premier League, Portugal etc...

Some of those leagues have a team or two at the top which are hard to catch up with prestige\talent\money wise like Ajax but if you are putting two leagues top to bottom MLS play wise and look at attendance and attention MLS does just fine in that mix.

At least one of the other national players hit the nail on the head today, paraphrasing here, but the one lady said the USNWT should have backed up all the pre-tournament talk on the pitch.

Very well said. Thang God the queen freak is gone...

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2023...3fb1526df9.jpg

Poetic Justice.....This is like watching the Yankees lose in the playoffs.....
Glorious....

Why, Why, a soccer post on a "TRUE FOOTBALL MESSAGE BOARD." Go to Europe if you wish to dribble on this sport. I understand most of the world luvs it, but it boring, boring, boring.

Stay mad about it.

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What? Nobody watching Spain v Netherlands????

I am.

That was a really good match.

Very nice winning goal. Spain definitely deserved that win. The Japan Sweden match should be a really good one tonight too, but I don’t think I’ll be able to stay awake for that one.

Agree, well fought match...

Sweden is looking good so far and earned the lead. If this result holds we’ll officially have a first time champion this year. There have definitely been some fun matches and the semifinals and finals could be some very good matchups. I’ll be hoping Australia can win one for the home fans, but that France matchup is going to be so tough tomorrow.

It is no Eighty Years War

Didn't see sweden pulling that off. They are sneaky good.

They did seem like the better team all the way through.

Felt bad for BeerStein (or whatever her name really is) who missed twice right before the winner.

Yeah. She had some tough misses. She missed a wide open cross for a goal too. She’s the type of player that can get forward into space, but lacks that finishing touch. That speed she has is something else, though. If she had a finishing touch she would probably be the best player in the world.

The end of Sweden\Spain has been bonkers.

Fun last 10 minutes in that one for sure! Spain definitely deserves to be in the final. They’ve looked very good all tournament.

Our Prime Minister has said he wants to give us a public holiday if the girls win it all.

And beating the poms on home soil tomorrow would be amazing LMAO

I had high hopes for the MLS v Liga MX Leagues Cup finally seeing a competition that was not as limited as CONCACAF is to see some of these teams match up and take it seriously. A lot of people were skeptical about it which I totally understand but this entire tournament has been extremely entertaining.

Messi coming in and doing his thing...I was hoping Philly would figure something out tonight but it was not meant to be. Currently watching Nashville and Monterrey in the other semi final. No idea how LAFC let them score 3 in the second half to come back but the Mexicans almost got shut out of the final 4.

Damn, that was the PKs you wanted to see out of the US. Really good match all around despite the score

Nashville did a really good job closing that game out late. Smart play against a good opponent. They beat one of MLS best teams Cincy and two Mexican giants Club American and Monterey on their way to the final.

Miami vs Nashville in the final.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F3n4eoTW...jpg&name=large

I have to agree, but Swedish wife is in a pissy mood today after the loss. She was sure her team was the cinderella team this year. I watched the first half live...Spain was just a tad sharper with the ball and seemed a step ahead of Sweden all half.

****.

Amazing goal from Kerr to equalise, but an unfortunate miss after. She'll be up thinking about that one. Defense less us down in the end though.

Amazing effort though to make the semis. Made us proud on home soil.

Yeah, was disappointing to see the home team go down just short of the final, but a great run. Thought maybe the big game curse of England soccer might carry over to the women, but they definitely aren’t as soft as the English men unfortunately. Should be a good final.

We won the women's Euros so I think the big game curse is over. Not sure they do the double but a helluva run. Definitely tougher than the mens team as you say.

Every team I wanted to do well in the Womens World Cup at each turn has crashed and burned. Damn.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Out of this WORLD. 💫<br><br>Take a bow, Leo Messi. <a href="https://t.co/qm90VJtVbc">pic.twitter.com/qm90VJtVbc</a></p>&mdash; Major League Soccer (@MLS) <a href="https://twitter.com/MLS/status/1693075081788871090?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 20, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Messi hasn’t disappointed any of his fans so far. Wasn’t about to start in the final. What a phenomenal signing for the league.

A lot of leagues kicked off today. Thought Spurs looked pretty good and so did Brentford in EPL play.

My guys Dortmund just barely squeaked past Koln on the first day of Bundesliga.

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League's Cup was an extremely fun tournament. I was a big fan of it once I understood all involved were taking it seriously but I had no idea how great that would be.

Messi will now be competing in CONCACAF Champions League.

What a time to be alive.

Incredible finish to the league cups final. The final minute of stoppage time had chances on both sides with the last touch being blocked by the post with an empty net. Then an amazing display of penalties leading to a keeper showdown to decide it. Very entertaining stuff.

Messi is the man. Incredible performance.

Cam on Engerland. Score some fackin goals!

It's never coming home

Hate to say it but yeah.

The games adapted too much from its original form to ever go back thankfully.

Not really sure what that means. Of course it has adapted, but some of the original formations were very attacking. If it's meant as a pop at a team that won the Euros and got to a WC final for their perceived poor style then you've just not been paying attention.

It was more just about the evolution of the game like I said. When the Brazilians added their flair to it and Happel and the Dutch began perfecting Totaalvoetbal in the 70’s football changed forever. Coincidentally it’s never “been home” since. The game requires too much athleticism now. As much as I’m sure big goofy Brits like Harry Maguire wish it was still 1950 it’s just not.

Definitely not a “pop” to the England women’s team. They’ve had a very good showing and are a very good squad. I was very happy to see the level of talent so widespread at this women’s World Cup. They made the right choice expanding to 32 teams. It was fun seeing some of the smaller teams have such great showings.

Fun day for Union Berlin! They looked really good today. Hope they can build off some of the magic from last season.

West Ham gave Chelsea a hard lesson of what that Dodger ownership group is going to give them today too. Maybe they can break up the whole team again and try throwing another billion dollar dart at the board again. ROFLLMAO

Overall a great day of soccer :)

it's just insanity to spend the money chelsea has and that's the team they have to show for it. look at what a team like brighton has done on a fraction of the budget.

Brazilians initial advancent was physical not flair focused. Again, not sure the athletic profile of the current England team is solely represented by Maguire, you could just as easily pick a Sterling or Sancho or Bellingham, Walker. Maguire is a carthorse and a throwback. He's also an anomaly.

Agreed re the WWC. Definitely good to expand, and good to have the Euro champs as one of the "big" teams that turned up.

Sports Reference unveils Immaculate Footy!

https://www.immaculatefooty.com

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">PULISIC ITALIAN BANGER ���������� WHAT A START TO HIS MILAN CAREER. Goal heard from Northern Italy to West London.<a href="https://t.co/94ZCuYvTPi">pic.twitter.com/94ZCuYvTPi</a></p>&mdash; Men in Blazers (@MenInBlazers) <a href="https://twitter.com/MenInBlazers/status/1693705432680829299?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 21, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Cleansing himself from the Chelsea stench right away. So happy they freed Pulisic from that nightmare. I think he’s in a really good position for his future now. It makes Serie A even more exciting to watch for Americans now too.

This probably really isn't a soccer story, but it caught my attention.

Pretty spendy if real.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Soccer star Alisha Lehmann: ‘Very well-known’ celebrity offered me $110K for one night together <a href="https://t.co/9cLzhLvpgf">https://t.co/9cLzhLvpgf</a> <a href="https://t.co/2ZtCDswkV8">pic.twitter.com/2ZtCDswkV8</a></p>&mdash; New York Post (@nypost) <a href="https://twitter.com/nypost/status/1712124922531606635?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 11, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

She's worth it physically. She's no Ana Maria Markovic, but she's not far off.

Good bump.

This is the only acceptable bump of this lame thread on an NFL Sunday.

U.S. MNT to play Uruguay in Kansas City, Missouri on July 1 in Copa América

MIAMI — Defending champion Argentina opens next year’s Copa América on June 20 in Atlanta against the winner of a Canada-Trinidad and Tobago playoff, and the U.S. starts vs. Bolivia three days later at Arlington, Texas.

Argentina also faces Chile at East Rutherford, New Jersey, on June 25 in a repeat of the 2016 final at MetLife Stadium and closes Group A four days later against Peru at Miami Gardens, Florida, also site of the final on July 14.

The 12th-ranked U.S. opens against the lowest-ranked South American nation in No. 85 Bolivia. then plays No. 41 Panama at Atlanta on June 27 and finishes Group C against 11th-ranked Uruguay at Kansas City, Missouri, on July 1, according to the draw Thursday night. Uruguay was the highest-ranked non-seeded team the U.S. could face in the first round.

“If there's not pressure, you don't get diamonds,” U.S. coach Gregg Berhalter said.

The top two teams in each group move on to the quarterfinals. If the U.S. advances, it would meet Brazil, Colombia, Paraguay, Costa Rica or Honduras. By winning its group, the U.S. might avoid a quarterfinal against the Brazilians.

“You know what's lurking around the corner in Group D, most likely, so you want to try to finish first,” Berhalter said. “Brazil is one of the favorites to win the tournament, so it's going to be a real challenge in that next round, so you'd like to play them in the semifinals.”

As for Argentina, Lionel Scaloni said he remained undecided on whether to continue as its coach.

“After all that we achieved, such a year we had, I believe is important to analyze what’s coming and then we’ll see what to do,” he said.

Brazil heads Group D of the 16-nation tournament and faces the Costa Rica-Honduras playoff winner at Inglewood, California, on June 24, Paraguay at Las Vegas four days later and Colombia at Santa Clara, California, on July 2.

Both playoff games will be on March 23.

Ecuador was in line to host the Copa América as part of the rotation by South American soccer’s governing body but declined. The event was moved to the U.S. and expanded to include six countries from North and Central America and the Caribbean.

Mexico is seeded in Group B and plays Jamaica at Houston on June 22, Venezuela at Inglewood four days later and Ecuador at Glendale, Arizona, on June 30.

Argentina and Uruguay have each won the tournament 15 times and Brazil has nine championships. Led by captain Lionel Messi, Argentina won the 2021 Copa América in Brazil for its first continental title since 1993, then last year captured its third World Cup and first since 1986.

Matches also will be played at Austin, Texas; Charlotte, North Carolina; Kansas City, Kansas; and Orlando, Florida.

Semifinals will be in New Jersey on July 9 and North Carolina the following day. Quarterfinals are at Houston on July 4, Arlington the next day and Glendale and Las Vegas on July 6.

The U.S. hosted the Copa América Centenario in 2016, when Chile beat Argentina on penalty kicks in the final following a 0-0 draw. The Americans defeated Ecuador 2-1 in a quarterfinal, then were eliminated with a 4-0 defeat to Argentina.

Seven of the Copa América stadiums are among the 11 U.S. sites to be used for the 2026 World Cup: Arlington; Atlanta; East Rutherford; Houston; Inglewood; Kansas City, Missouri; and Santa Clara.

The Copa América will use Puma balls following deals with Nike dating to 2004. A Capitán mascot also debuted at the draw.

https://www.kshb.com/sports/u-s-mnt-...n-copa-america

Cool! That might be fun to attend if I'm not OOtC diving..

Nobody watching the MLS Championship?

Great match. Deserving champions.

This Malte Amundsen pass was perfect.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">⚡️ TWO GOALS IN FOUR MINUTES. ⚡️ <br><br>Yaw Yeboah has <a href="https://twitter.com/ColumbusCrew?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ColumbusCrew</a> cruising in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MLSCup?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#MLSCup</a> pres. by Audi. <a href="https://t.co/wZkgzfHoXL">pic.twitter.com/wZkgzfHoXL</a></p>&mdash; Major League Soccer (@MLS) <a href="https://twitter.com/MLS/status/1733606889848483885?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 9, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Agreed. But the first goal…I hate the PK.

It is a clear PK for me but I hate it happened in the final. Don't like the sequence of events I get it.

The currents new stadium looks very cool with the skyline in the background

I wish they would have made it a little bigger but they did a good with it. Excited to see it in action. Hope they put a quality team out for the fans.

It's amazing how the soccer teams are able to pull off things like this while the baseball team sputters. I totally expect SKC to put an impressive stadium downtown in about a decade

I doubt it but would be very cool.

It is a little easier when you are a smaller and more nimble club or league but yea its been fun to watch the sports grow and how exciting it is. Then you look at the Royals and its like....**** this shit.

Meanwhile in theLiga MX Apertura final. LMAO

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">After getting a red card in the Liga MX final, Tigres goalkeeper Nahuel Guzman is currently hiding under a tarp near the field. TUDN cameras cut to him hiding and not leaving. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/LigaMXeng?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#LigaMXeng</a> <a href="https://t.co/23RBvogPoq">https://t.co/23RBvogPoq</a></p>&mdash; Cesar Hernandez (@cesarhfutbol) <a href="https://twitter.com/cesarhfutbol/status/1736599414167515525?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 18, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

From a tweet by Yahoo! Sports... and counting only nationally televised games. The Yahoo! tweet only counts the Big Four plus MLS. But we know that the XFL and USFL both averaged 600,000 viewers each. For comparison:

NFL: 9.2 million
NBA: 711,000
NHL: 398,000
MLB: 378,000
MLS: 113,000


Spring football is more popular than the MLS.

I like soccer (more than your avg American at least) and I'll barely watch MLS.

Maybe that league won't sputter and disband every few years but I won't hold my breath. There is a reason it is not considered when looking at numbers across the board.

SKC for example played just shy of 40 games across all competitions. The numbers have been just fine and are growing by every metric.

It is even growing in the metric of insecure constantly disappearing football league fans begging soccer fans for validation for some reason. LMAO

You have a perfectly fine domestic league right in front of you.

The world needs front runners as well though. It takes all kinds of fans to make a sport.

It’s definitely time to push Garber out. Such a critical time for the league. You have a small window with the biggest star in the game and you still put limits on the spending. Let the owners compete or get pushed out at this point. It’s a joke. Garber’s a joke. This sums up the current state of the league quite nicely.


<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Let’s summarize the state of the league after the news yesterday.. <br><br>I’ve been following MLS for about 15 years. For 90% of that time, I’ve been defensive of the methods that the league has employed because I understood their necessity.<br><br>Low salary caps, tight spending.. it all… <a href="https://t.co/zMp9pgA5kV">pic.twitter.com/zMp9pgA5kV</a></p>&mdash; MLS Buzz (@MLS_Buzz) <a href="https://twitter.com/MLS_Buzz/status/1735677172465983764?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 15, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

“Let’s summarize the state of the league after the news yesterday..

I’ve been following MLS for about 15 years. For 90% of that time, I’ve been defensive of the methods that the league has employed because I understood their necessity.

Low salary caps, tight spending.. it all made sense 10-15 years ago. Teams were on the verge of collapse still. Chivas USA wasnt that long ago.

But right now, here is where we stand..

• Soccer is popular. More people watch soccer (Liga MX & Premier League) than hockey. MLS is no longer existing in an America that hates soccer, quite the opposite.
• We have 30 very stable clubs. The expansion era is mostly behind us. “Growth” in that respect is nearing its limit.
• Most every club has their own stadium and training facilities. The biggest expenditures are behind the league.
• MLS has one of the richest collection of owners on the planet. Most every owner is worth billions
• MLS is partnered with the most innovative and powerful tech company in the history of planet earth
• The greatest player in the history of the sport chose to come play here and has brought more attention to the league than ever
• We are about to have 3 straight summers of massive international (club and country) soccer tournaments played in the USA

And yet, MLS refuses to allow clubs to increase spending in the slightest. We get Premier League season ticket prices while watching squads built on a League One budget. We will still be performing miracles if we can wil Champions Cup, despite having 10 teams in the tournament, but that’s okay because we’ll have another gimmick Leagues Cup tournament where we pull Mexican clubs out of their country for a month and treat Club America and Chivas like the Harlem Globetrotters.

The fact that MLS has refused to budge even in the slightest in a time as ripe as this is incredibly demoralizing. Maybe the changes in 2025 will be more in the direction of what we’re looking for, but honestly, what reason has the league given anyone to think that will happen?”

Premier League is amazing soccer.

The MLS is crap.

Fertilizing the ground is what mls has done. It's fertilized, and yet it doesn't allow the garden to grow for some reason. Read the above tweet by POR and you may understand why.

I don't watch it and I watch probably 4 to 5 soccer matches a week. I've been following Liverpool for about a decade and I watch them every time they play if I can.

So why is this?

It's true that MLS doesn't exist in a country that hates soccer any longer, the sport is popular and particularly so with younger people. The league is stable and isn't playing in borrowed stadiums anymore. So shouldn't it be growing by leaps and bounds?

I'm not trying to bash MLS when I say this, but I watch the Premier League every weekend and I pay extra for services to do so. I've been following it since 2008 or so. The reason I don't have any interest in MLS is because the level of play is so much lower.

Even people who follow MLS seem to realize it, during the WC you'd see US Soccer supporters bemoaning the fact that we had MLS players in the 11 because they don't belong on a stage like that.

What is their reasoning for not raising the cap or doing other things that could bring more talent into the league?

Why are salaries like the English 3rd tier in a country as large and wealthy as this if the fan interest is there?

There are a few reasons.

MLS missed out on the golden age of crazy TV contracts...their popularity blossomed in a sports media universe where ESPN is on its heels and everyone is trying to figure out how to make streaming work in the right way. They are not the NFL so they don't get to print their own money.

The ghosts of the Cosmos still walk the halls of MLS headquarters. They simply do not want some team to go buck wild be in MLS what the Dodgers are in MLB right now. Some super team that gets some sort of wild backing that hurts the overall competitiveness and therefore the overall growth of the league. MLS is like NFL where they are very "the sum of our parts" oriented when you think of how much focus is on the shield.

Wages have grown but again they don't want it to get out of control Teams that want to spend money get to spend money. There are 3 and about to be 4 designated player spots which allow you to spend as much money as you want on someone with their cap hit being limited. That has struck a balance that has for the most part been very successful to reward teams who want to spend money but as I said before not let one or two teams wildly outpace the rest of the league.

It is not true that they have not raised the cap it gets raised all the time in lines with the CBA they have with the players. Should it be more? Should it be done differently? Hey there are a lot of smart people that have different and good ideas of how things should be run. I think there needs to be a lot of focus on the back end of the roster so that MLS teams can have more depths to do better in North American tournaments. MLS stacks up really well with Liga MX top to bottom but at the very top Mexico still has an edge...even though it seems to decrease each year.

new kit leak. one of the better away kits in a while. argyle is my favorite design pattern for us.

https://i.ibb.co/dPQGqtc/kansas-city...away-kit-2.jpg

They put themselves on Apple TV and nowhere else. Just stupid…

For those of us who aren't soccer regulars...

Is "kit" synonymous with "jersey" or "uniform"???

yes

Both but most people use it just to describe the shirt. And a 'full kit wanker' is a grown man who dresses in the shirt, shorts, socks and footie boots. Also commonly referred to as a paedo.

https://www.whoateallthepies.tv/wp-c...12/08/fkw8.jpg

https://meninblazers.com/.image/t_sh...ls3o1_1280.jpg

I dig it minus the gay advertisements plastered all over it

Fitting that they're both dippers

Question about Apple TV. I haven't had an Apple phone for many years (except for a work phone), but I was able to log into the Apple TV "App" on my TV, does that mean I'd be able to watch these of is Apple going to make me buy Apple+ or subscribe to some Apple TV package?

I agree that it's stupid but sadly it seems like this a'la carte bullshit is the future. At this rate we're all going to have many many many "subscriptions" to watch the variety of things we like on TV.

Yea you don't have to have an apple device but just need to be able to see Apple TV...some games are free some of them are if you have MLS Season Pass.

The nice thing is for people with MLS season pass is its no blackouts no matter what time no matter where you are in the world and anyone who is a season ticket holder for an MLS team gets it for free.

I am just here for Octillo to come back around and make more excuses for his trash ass manager crush Klinnsman.

The first player to score at least three goals in three consecutive World Cups.

Oh boy you know a trash ass manager is a trash ass manager if you have to pull from his playing days.

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