2012 MLS General Discussion

There is an extensive thread on MLS offseason activity but the new season starts this weekend so time to open up this thread for discussion on the 2012 MLS season.

Grant Wahl's Preseason Predictions

And Wahl's colleague Steve Davis gives a more complete breakdown of each club in his previews of the

Eastern Conference and Western Conference.

From the DuNord blog, this weekend's schedule, game times and any TV coverage info:

Matches & Scores:
-Sat Mar 10
Colorado Rapids v Columbus Crew - 5pm CT
Venue: Dick's Sporting Good Park
Vancouver Whitecaps FC v Montreal Impact - 5pm CT on TSN
Venue: BC Place
DC United v Sporting Kansas City - 6:30pm CT
Venue: RFK Stadium
San Jose Earthquakes v New England Revolution - 9:30pm CT
Venue: Buck Shaw Stadium
LA Galaxy v Real Salt Lake - 9:30pm CT
Venue: Home Depot Center
-Sun Mar 11
FC Dallas v New York Red Bulls - 2pm CT on NBC Sports Network
Venue: Pizza Hut Park
CD Chivas USA v Houston Dynamo - 6pm CT on Galavision
Venue: The Home Depot Center
-Mon Mar 12
Portland Timbers v Philadelphia Union - 8:30pm CT on ESPN2
Venue: JELD-WEN Field

Los Angeles plays Real Salt Lake, 2 of the 3 clubs almost everybody are predicting will be the league's best and no national TV? I know Salt Lake is not a big TV market but that is a mistake IMO. Would have liked to have seen that game even if LA rests a player or two for the CONCACAF game next week.

Agreed, though MLS' TV subscription package, Direct Kick, should/will be available as a free preview this weekend on Your Local Cable System. (And hey, between the imbalanced schedule and the play-offs, they should still meet, what, 4-5 more times! )

Another thing I'm looking forward to in 2012 is having Galavision and Fox Soccer (for CCL games) in sparkling HD. Between that and the NBC deal, it almost gives me a warm, fuzzy thought about Comcast.

Some tidbits from MLS' opening night:

-Montreal lost their league debut 2-0 at vancouver. Sebastien LeToux with an early goal for the Whitecaps as they went on to the victory;

-Oscar Pareja gets a win on his coaching debut as Colorado defeats Columbus also by a 2-0 score;

-Graham Zusi does it again, a corner from him is knocked in by CJ Sapong in injury time as Sporting Kansas City wins 1-0 at DC United;

-Real Salt Lake went 1-0 behind at Los Angeles with a 71st m. Edson Buddle goal but a Sean Franklin own goal almost immediately thereafter gave RSL a boost and Javier Morales and Fabian Espindola got further goals as Real Salt Lake won 3-1 at Los Angeles, exposing LA's unsettled defense;

-Chris Wondolowski (who else?) scored for San Jose as they defeated New England 1-0.

I saw the last half of this game and I agree, Los Angeles' defense does look shaky, the back four look error prone and the goalie Saunders does not project an air of confidence. Compare that with the other end and Salt Lake's Nick Rimando looks very composed.

And no surprises as Dallas defeats New York 2-1 on Sunday while Andre Hainault scores an injury time winner as Houston wins at Chivas USA 1-0.

Unless help arrives soon for Montreal, it could be a long first half of the season for L'Impact.

For those of us who can not follow all the MLS games, Kyle McCarthy does a weekend roundup with some talking points from Week 1 of MLS

Portland-Philadelphia play tonight to close the weekend calendar.

Like autogol, McCarthy foresees tough times ahead for Montreal. Curiously both Toronto and Seattle had the weekend off before their return leg games in the CONCACAF Cup, Los Angeles, not only did not have the weekend off but had to play one of their toughest opponents. Surprisingly Bruce Arena did not rest any of his usual starters except for Juninho. So the Galaxy received a double whammy of not only losing to RSL but the possible extra wear on most of their typical starters ahead of Wednesday's game with Toronto.

I have to get to a game in Portland. What a great atmosphere.

I think we all need to get to Portland and Seattle to see a game. It really is wonderful to see such an atmosphere at a US soccer league game. I am one of those who lived through the death of the old NASL in whose aftermath it seemed like the sport would never take off in this country. How times have changed!

One of the most striking things to me about the Timbers support is that it was nothing like this the first time around in the NASL. North Americans' familiarity with "football culture" is light years ahead of what it was back then, but while Vancouver was always known for having the most "English" feel in the league, Portland wasn't particularly famous for its support.

That's changed massively in MLS.

It sure has ursus but what makes Portland's fan support so extraordinary is the huge amount of fans they seem to have singing, waving flags, etc. I do not think any MLS club, even Seattle or Toronto has as many fans doing that as Portland.

I am, however, looking forward to see what kind of support Montreal gets. Apparently last weekend's Vancouver-Montreal match received good TV ratings in Canada where the fans are really getting into the league. If MLS is thinking about expansion, maybe it should consider additional Canadian cities?

The TV ratings were incredible. Our system is different from the U.S. one and it's new enough that I don't necessarily have a good gauge on what it good vs. great, but this has to be considered great by any measure: 2.5 million people watched some of the Montreal-Vancouver game. That's over two channels (English and French), but in a country of 35M, that's impressive.

I don't have terribly high hopes for Montreal's supporters. The hardcores will be excellent. They've been the best hardcore USL group up here IMO, but I don't know if it will take off the way it has in Toronto. Montreal crowds have often been a dedicated small group and then near sellouts of youth soccer teams and the family crowd - often at discounted prices. It has kept the stadium full for more than a decade, but it's not going to rival Seattle, Portland or Toronto. I'm hoping Montreal has a good bump this year and are on par with Vancouver as far as supporter culture, but it's a tough market for anything but hockey. Luckily the Habs are awful this year, so that should help the Impact.

I don't think Montreal is going to be a disaster on the pitch. If they get Rivas back (still no word on how long he'll be out) and get Valentin back in the defence, that sorts the back line out. I like Wahl as a defensive minded left back to cover for the offensive-minded Gardner. But surely Shavar Thomas (or the released Bobby Burling who is limited, but great in the air and could pair with Ferrari) is a better partner in the middle until Rivas is back.

And Jeb Brovsky must be the nicest, hardest working, best teammate ever because he gets all of these opportunities and I see so little talent there. He's a midfielder who isn't talented enough to be a midfielder and then he looks a little lost out of position at RB and he still has no real attacking instincts when he does get forward. I can't believe he started....

I had heard that Felipe and Bernier were playing well together, but I didn't think they were good enough on the day against Vancouver. Still you sort the back out (which is easy once Rivas gets healthy and Valentin is back from US duty) and they still had two chances cleared off the line. I thought they created a little more than I expected.

Vancouver looked solid. YP Lee continues his excellent pre-season form and looks every bit the player he was. Bonjour played well and if DeMerit can stay healthy (big if) they look like they can hold up. I wasn't sure about Khoffie and Davidson, but they weren't bad. I'm looking forward to a better test, but they were effective in breaking up chances.

with the front four and two great outside backs, Vancouver has a nice team. I'm still worried about the middle, but it's been better than expected. They can't afford any key injuries, but it seems like a decent step forward under Rennie.

cheers,
hobbes

Like Yogi, I'm a product of the old NASL, actually its predecessor the NPSL. That's when I got turned on to soccer.

Back then, however, there was really no atmosphere at games. Even the great Cosmos crowds were all about the event, the place to be seen. No one had an idea what good soccer was. I was attracted by the sport itself -- the freedom of the game, the importance of players' decision making (not necessarily the coaches') and the international aspect.

I always dreamed of the day when Americans really embraced the sport. We're finally starting to see that, at least in pockets and I'd include KC on that list.

I think we're on the verge of finally creating that critical mass of fans who really "get" the sport. The kids that got introduced to soccer in the '70's and '80's understand the sport; they've probably coached their kids. Many of their children are now 20-somethings (or approaching that age) and have been raised with the game, maybe traveled overseas. They understand the passion and the beauty of the game. They are the fans that are really driving the supporters' groups in MLS. Add in the Hispanic fans and the still vibrant youth market, and you're on the verge of that critical mass.

The key now is to improve the lagging franchises (or move them) and translate the in-stadium passion into television viewers.

This is what I have noticed too and there is this greater acceptance of soccer in the US and Canada. And one thing MLS has which no other sport in the US and Canada, except possibly university sports, has is the type of atmosphere you see at Seattle, Portland, Toronto, etc. That atmosphere attracts fans, particularly the twenty somethings which shelsoccer spoke who grew up with an existing MLS. The league had its growing pains and sadly Miami and Tampa disappeared (Miami seemed to me to be getting a group of fans who created a real South American club atmosphere before their club was closed down) but the league has turned things around and created an excellent atmosphere at most stadiums.

One question, which MLS franchises shel do you consider as lagging?

Now how does the league improve TV ratings?