Beat me in St Louis - MLS 2023

[jefe]

Las Vegas Lights and Memphis Area Code have decided to create the King's Cup, between themselves. First version ended 2-2, with a 4 hour rain delay and two of the most opposite goals by Vegas that could ever be conceived. The Forward Madison-Greenville triumph highlights are worth a view as well.

LAG waived Chase Gaspar, and Houston claimed him.

Julie Ertz signed with Angel City.

The SPorKs have 2 goals and 2 red cards so far this season.

[HeavyDracula]

Las Vegas Lights and Memphis Area Code have decided to create the King's Cup, between themselves. First version ended 2-2, with a 4 hour rain delay and two of the most opposite goals by Vegas that could ever be conceived. The Forward Madison-Greenville triumph highlights are worth a view as well.

I watched the highlights and Oren got a red with no mention of what it was for. I read the match report in the Forward Madison site and there was no mention of what it was for. The only tweet about it just said he was sent off. So I FFWd through the entire game to discover it was for a push in a stramash. I HAD TO KNOW. I think there’s something wrong with me.

[HeavyDracula]

MLS:

It was a weekend of derbies in the West and something of an upset as Portland beat Seattle 4-1 after being a goal down. In El Trafico, LA Galaxy almost managed to keep their unbeaten record in derby games at the Home Depot but couldn't quite complete the fight back from 3-1 down to lose 3-2, meaning LAFC remain the only unbeaten side. St Louis recovered from two straight defeats to wallop Cincinnatti 5-1 and sit proudly atop the Western Conference after round 8. In the East, New England drew 1-1 in Columbus despite picking up a red card and are now joint top with Cincinnati. Atlanta are third after losing a lead in injury time to draw 2-2 at Toronto. Hapless Minnesota lost 2-1 at home to Orlando.

USL Championship:

Sacramento are in impressive form in the West, defeating Colorado Springs 4-0 in a top of the table clash to secure pole position after round 6. In a repeat of last year's championship game, Louisville got revenge over San Antonio, and San Diego drew 1-1 on the baseball field in New Mexico. Memphis and Las Vegas played out a fun 2-2 draw for the Elvis Cup or something, and the big winners in the East were Loudoun United (3-0 over Birmingham), Hartford (2-1 at Oakland), and Charleston, who won 2-1 in Tulsa to top the Eastern Conference and remain unbeaten.

USL League One:

The Forward Madison win over Greenville was the pick of the weekend's five games, although Lexington's home opening win against reigning champs Tormenta was impressive. Charlotte Independence - who play Omaha in one of two Wednesday games this week - are top, although everyone has played a different amount of games.

MLS Next Pro:

After five games, Austin II top the table, although Colorado 2 are unbeaten in second. Does anyone care? Well, given I chose Austin as my team this year and the firsts are awful, I'll take what I can get.

NISA:

Chattanooga thwacked Albion San Diego 5-0 away in one of just three games at the weekend. Michigan Stars beat Gold Star 2-1 in the battle of the Third Division Detroit Teams With Star In Their Name.

[jefe]

Gold Cup groups and schedule are out. US group is Jamaica, qualifier TBD, and Nicaragua, in Chicago, St. Louis, and Charlotte. Canada plays Guatemala on Canada Day....in Houston. Final in Inglewood.

Galaxy and Red Bulls are in a race to see whose supporters hate their own team more.

[Incandenza]

Things are very toxic with the Galaxy and fans right now. It didn't help that the advertising for El Trafico from the club emphasized unity and how real fans stick with the club. If you're going to be pissing on fans like that, it isn't a good idea to be absolute shit.

[jefe]

The Miami derby in the USOC is going to be televised OTA on channel 33 down there.

Oakland Roots are officially trying to lease a chunk of the Coliseum parking lot to put in a stadium.

New Mexico's young attacking mid did his ACL in training, done for the year.

KC Current fired their coach 5 hours before gametime in Houston last week with the now customary ominous statement, and Amy Rodriguez will be the Utah Royals HC next season.

[HeavyDracula]

In middweek action, Montreal beat Vaughn Azzuri (from one of the regional leagues below the Canadian Premier League) 2-0 in the Canadian Championship - see the separate thread for more details on that competition - and there were 2 games in USL League One, with a win for Greenville over Central Valley on a horrible gridiron pitch, and a scoreless draw between Charlotte and Omaha.

This week's MLS action sees LAFC travel to Nashville in the tie of the round, and others matches catching the eye include New York City versus Dallas, St Louis at Colorado, and Seattle versus Minnesota. This week's free games on Apple TV are NYCFC vs Dallas, New England vs Kansas City (both 0.30am), Colorado vs St Louis, Salt Lake City vs San Jose (both 2.30am), and Seattle vs Minnesota (3.30am). Sunday's game is Chicago at Atlanta and it's free on Apple TV at 9.30pm.

In the USL Championship, Charleston host Louisville in a clash of 1st vs 2nd in the Eastern Conference (0.30am kickoff), while the big 3 in the West are all at home and should be untroubled. As well as Saturday's 8 games, there are 3 matches on Sunday - Loudoun vs Oakland and Miami vs Las Vegas kick off at 9pm, with San Diego vs Tampa at midnight. All the games are free on YouTube.

USL League One has just 4 games this weekend, with Knoxville welcoming Tormenta, and North Carolina versus Chattanooga, tonight. Tomorrow sees Charlotte host Central Valley in a game that screams goals. That's a 7pm kick-off and all games are on YouTube.

In the third-tier NISA there are 3 games, with Maryland hosting Club de Lyon, Chattanooga versus Flower City, and Albion San Diego making the relatively short journey to LA Force.

[HeavyDracula]

MLS, week 9

I decided to pick a team to foloow this season and plumped for Austin, mostly on the strength of Sebastian Druissi. Well, they're now shit and he's anonymous, and they lost 2-0 at LA Galaxy on Saturday. In other results, New England beat 10-man Kansas City 2-1 to stay joint top in the East on 20 points, alongside a Cincinnati side that defeated Portland 2-1. Atlanta kept up their good start to the season in 3rd with a 2-1 over Chicago yesterday. Philadelphia finally look to be finding some form, beating Toronto 4-2, while there were surprise wins for DC United (away at Orlando) and Montreal, who beat Red Bulls 2-0 despite having a man sent off. Seattle joined St Louis at the top of the Western Conference with a 1-0 win over Minnesota. St Louis drew 1-1 at Colorado, the same score 3rd place LAFC managed at Nashville, for whom Hani Mukhtar scored a well-worked goal.

USL Championship, week 7

My pick for game of the week, despite being a no-brainer, resulted in a 0-0 draw as Charleston retained their unbeaten record against Louisville, despite having a man sent off. They still top the Eastern Conference but Birmingham moved up to joint 2nd with Louisville after winning 2-1 away at Orange County. In goals goals goals news, Miami hit 4 at home to Las Vegas yesterday in front of practically nobody at FIU Stadium, and Frank Yallop's Monterey Bay won 3-2 in Indianapolis. Sacramento maintain their winning run on top of the Western Conference, seeing off Detroit 1-0, and are being chased by San Diego (1-0 winners over Tampa yesterday) and Colorado Springs, who beat New Mexico 2-1. Reigning champions San Antonio have fallen to 4th in the West after another draw, this time 1-1 at home to 10-man Phoenix.

USL League One, week 5

Down in the third tier, Tormenta finally hit form to win 2-0 at Knoxville, but trail both Charlotte (1-0 winners against Central Valley) and North Carolina, who beat Chattanooga Red Wolves 3-0.

NISA, week 3

In the other third tier competition - look, I just can't get excited about a reserve league, okay? - Maryland Bobcats and Chattanooga FC both kept up their unbeaten records, with Maryland squashing Club de Lyon 5-1 to make it 3 out of 3.

[HeavyDracula]

Anyone got CUP FEVER?!?

It's the third round of the US Open Cup tonight and tomorrow, with (some of) the big boys of MLS entering the competition. These ties will put twenty-four teams through to join the eight top-seeded MLS sides (Austin, Dallas, LAFC, LA Galaxy, New York City, Orlando, Philadelphia, and Red Bulls), and there are at least six non-MLS sides guaranteed to get through, thanks to those games not featuring a top flight team.

Lowest ranked teams still in the draw are Chicago House AC (of the fifth tier Midwest Premier League) and NPSL side Tulsa Athletic. Tulsa travel to the worst side in MLS this season, Kansas City, and will be hopeful of a shock, but House have a big derby at Chicago Fire and it'll take a miracle for Night Train and his boys to get through. The best chance of an upset probably comes in California as Frank Yallop's Monterey Bay take on the club he won the title with - San Jose - although last year's finalists Louisville will be UP FOR THE CUP at Cincinnati. It'll be interesting to keep an eye on the three remaing third-tier NISA sides as they play USL opposition as a way to gauge the relative qualities of those competitions.

In other cup news, Wednesday also see Philadelphia play LAFC in the first leg of the CONCACAF Champions League semi-final, with an all-Mexican affair in the other semi.

[ursus arctos]

https://twitter.com/usopencup/status/1651033791870164993?s=61&t=xvOireV8JOIS_CpbTtDBow

[ursus arctos]

One for SB

https://twitter.com/usopencup/status/1651045245306503170?s=61&t=xvOireV8JOIS_CpbTtDBow]

[ursus arctos]

Heavy Dracula with the spot on prediction as Monterey Bay dump San Jose Earthquakes out of the Cup with a 1-0 win

The Quakes were the only MLS side to lose last night.

[jefe]

Make sure to find the Memphis extra time goal that knocked out Atlanta.

NISA Chattanooga's keeper saved a PK in the shootout, got told he moved too soon, then saved the retake. Didn't help, Birmingham went through 4-3 in the shootout.

Play like crap, Yamil Asad penalty, play like crap, save Richmond penalty, play like crap, advance 1-0.

Tulsa Athletic get the $25K bonus for farthest advanced amateur team. There was a really good article in the Tulsa paper about their (then upcoming) USOC game-they run on a budget of about $100k ish for the season.

The AFA are going to build a training facility for the Argentine national team in Miami and eventually start chasing dual nationals.

The Brenner transfer is finally done for Cincy.

[HeavyDracula]

US Open Cup, third round

Farewell Tulsa Athletic and Chicago House, fourth and fith tier representatives bowing out in the third round of the cup. Both were well-beaten but not thrashed and should be proud of their efforts getting this far. All of the third tier sides went out, too, although NISA's Chattanooga FC were unlucky to lose on penalties at USL Championship Birmingham, USL-1 Richmond were only narrowly beaten at DC United, and Charleston needed extra time to see off USL-1's Charlotte Independence. In terms of goals, the game of the round came in Tukwila, WA, as Seattle needed a penalty in injury time of extra time to finally shake off San Diego 5-4. There were two upsets as USL Championship sides beat MLS teams to advance, with Frank Yallop welcoming San Jose to Monterey Bay and sending them away with a 1-0 loss. The other shock came in Atlanta as Memphis 901 went behind after just three minutes but equalised in the sixth minute of time added on to take the match to extra time. They scored first and managed to hold on to go through to the fourth round for the first time in their history.

The draw for the fourth round has been made and it was somewhat regionalised, although some local rivals were put in different groups. 901's reward for beating Atlanta is an away tie at Birmingham, meaning at least one USL-C team will make it through to the fifth round. Monterey Bay host LAFC, and New Mexico will be reasonably confident of an upset in Austin. Holders Orlando go to Charlotte. All games played on May 8th, 9th and 10th.

CONCACAF Champions League, semi-finals

Philadelphia took 86 minutes to score past LAFC at Subaru Park but LAFC hit back in added time to level the tie. The second leg is on Wednesday.

Weekend Preview

MLS: The big game in the Eastern Conference is first versus second as New England host Concinatti on Saturday night. It's only on MLS Season Pass, though. Other standout games on Saturday are Nashville versus Atlanta (free on Apple TV at the very reasonable time of 6.30pm BST), St Louis at home to Portland (also free, at 1.30am), and Seattle's visit to Salt Lake City. The other free games are Columbus vs Inter Miami, DC United vs Charlotte (both 0.30am), and the Sunday clash between Minnesota and Dallas (a 2am start). The schedule is a game short to avoid Philadelphia and LAFC playing between their Champions League matches.

USL Championship: This week's top clash is unbeaten Charleston at home to Colorado Springs on Saturday, first in the East against third in the West. That kicks off at 0.30am and is free - as are all these games - on YouTube. The only other games of interest see Sacramento travel to Tulsa, and San Diego host El Paso, although there's an old time wrestling territory derby as Memphis host Louisville.

USL League One: Forward Madison versus Charlotte Independence is the pick of the week, an 11pm kick-off on Saturday. Everything else is much of a muchness, although Richmond will be keen to put down a marker at Tormenta.

NISA: Just three games in the other third tier league, with Chattanooga FC's visit to Michigan Stars the pick of the round. NISA are pretty good at putting up full games soon after they finish but are days late with any kind of highlights.

[jefe]

Steve Birnbaum extends for 2 more years in DC.

RSL was trading Justin Miram to Charlotte for Andre Shinyashiki, but it mutated into Meram for garberbucks instead.

The forthcoming Canadian women's league has its 3rd team: AFC Toronto City.

The extremely rich person behind the Right to Dream academies is also the main money guy for a San Diego expansion team.

[Hot Pepsi]

I read somewhere... ESPN perhaps ... that San Diego has surged ahead of Vegas in the race to be the next expansion site.

Because San Diego could put a team - temporarily or permanently, perhaps - in the SDSU stadium that replaced Qualcomm/Joe Robby stadium. Vegas is going to have to build a brand new one, probably under a dome.

Or it could play at the Raiders stadium, perhaps, but that would largely defeat the purpose of expanding to Vegas. It's a pretty marginal market to begin with, so playing in an indoor football stadium would make it more marginal. Yes, that's what they do in Atlanta, but Atlanta is a much more desirable market.


Also, the US has hired Matt Crocker as its new technical director. It seems to me like a great hire. Have we discussed that anywhere?

[HeavyDracula]

I read somewhere... ESPN perhaps ... that San Diego has surged ahead of Vegas in the race to be the next expansion site.

San Diego have something that Las Vegas doesn't and that's Landon Donovan. There's also just the Padres in town, as opposed to Las Vegas's Raiders, Athletics, Golden Knights, and WNBA Aces.

This weekend's round-up...

MLS, week 10
The clash between the top two in the East resulted in a 1-1 draw but there were plenty of chances for both sides to grab a win. The draw makes Atlanta's loss at Nashville in the early kick-off doubly painful as they failed to gain any ground on the top two. In fact, both conferences saw something of a squeeze in mid-table this week as favoured teams came unstuck against those just below them. In the West, St Louis lost at home to a game Portland side, allowing Seattle to take the top spot on their own with a 0-0 draw at ten-man Salt Lake City. LAFC, who didn't play because of the Champions' League, are the real winners, with two games in hand and first place well within reach. In other results, Inter Miami took some pressure off Phil Neville with a 2-1 win in Columbus, Austin at least managed a draw at home to San Jose, and the basement battle between Kansas City and Montreal went the way of the Canadiens.

USL Championship, week 8
Colorado Springs put down a huge marker by upsetting previously unbeaten Charleston 2-1 in South Carolina, moving up to second in the West as everybody around them either drew or lost. US Open Cup giant-killers Memphis and Monterey Bay both drew (1-1 with Lousville, and 0-0 against Rio Grande Valley, respectively), and El Paso were again in good form on the road, dispatching San Diego 2-1 at Torero Stadium. Sunday's game was a cracker as Birmingham came from behind to beat Hartford 3-2 and go top of the Eastern Conference. Sacramento still top the West, despite a 1-1 draw at Tulsa.

USL League One, week 7
A full slate of games in the third-tier League One saw North Carolina join Charlotte Independence at the top of the table with a win in Greenville, and Richmond and Omaha are both sitting pretty in fourth and fifth after the Kickers won away at Tormenta, and Omaha played their first game at baseball stadium Werner Park, marking the occasion with a win over Northern Colorado. In Sunday's game, Knoxville grabbed a 1-0 in Fresno as Central Valley were reduced to ten men for something I've been unable to work out, even after watching the incident a few times. Oh, the joys of the third division!

NISA, week 5
Chattanooga failed to win for the first time this season, drawing 0-0 at Michigan Stars. They're still unbeaten, as are second place Maryland (two wins from two games), who didn't play this week. Club de Lyon also drew 0-0 with LA Force, but Gold Star had a happy trip to Savannah, blasting five without reply.

[ursus arctos]

HP, Joe Robbie was Miami

San Diego was Jack Murphy

[Hot Pepsi]

HP, Joe Robbie was Miami

San Diego was Jack Murphy

Oh, that's right!

[jefe]

Chihuahua Savage beat us for the indoor championship, after we had to play the entire semis and final away because we couldn't get access to our home arena. Guadalajara and Vegas join for next year; Florida Tropics have to find a new home after the arena in Lakeland raised the rent.

San Diego Wave's 15 year old finally got to play, and looked pretty good.

So far this coming summer, Wrexham are playing the weird 7v7 summer tourney, Manchester United, and now LA Galaxy....II.

DCU bought Erik Hurtado, last seen in MLS in Vancouver and Columbus refusing to get vaccinated, off San Antonio for like $10K.

Orange County FC fired their coach.

Dueling bicycle kicks Saturday: Benteke for DC; someone much less famous for Union Omaha. And Portland Thorns keeper, up for a corner at 90+7, backheeled the tying goal.

JJ and Kealia Watt are buying into Burnley.

[jefe]

Geoff Cameron and Brek Shea are retiring, and starting a business together.

Jean Mota did his LCL, and Miami are very quickly running short on midfielders.

The Koke that was an absolute waste of money for Houston several seasons ago was jailed for running a cocaine ring in Spain this week.

[HeavyDracula]

In midweek action in the USL Championship, The Miami FC (to give them their ridiculous full name) upset Birmingham Legion 3-1 but Birmingham stay top in the East. In League One, Greenville caused a huge shock by dominating the Independence in Charlotte, beating them 3-1 and moving into third. Knoxville and Madison (who have a player named BARTMAN) drew 0-0. Oh, and LAFC beat ten-man Philadelphia 3-0 to move into the CONCACAF Champions' League final, where they'll play Leon of Mexico.

Weekend Preview

A full slate of games in MLS but strangely only two games offered up for free on Apple TV instead of the usual four. Next week has none listed so far so we'll see what's up with that as we go on. In terms of big games, a recent upturn in form means DC United's visit to Cincinnati has an added sheen to it, and there's also some interesting ties featuring some unusual names as Toronto host New England, LAFC visit San Jose, and St Louis make their first trip to Dallas. The free games are Charlotte versus New York City (0.30am) and Sunday's massacre-in-waiting as Kansas City vsisit Seattle. That's a 9.30 kick-off.

The USL Championship has four games tonight, with El Paso travelling to Colorado Springs for what looks to be the most interesting match of the round. El Paso are awful at home but great on the road, and Colorado Springs are on good form, so it'll be interesting to see what gives - iyt's a 2.00am kick-off. Eastern leaders Birmingham host Oakland tomorrow (0.30am) but Western leaders Sacramento are not in action this weekend, giving Colorado Springs a chance to go top. Charleston, who were unbeaten until last week's loss to the Switchbacks, travel to Las Vegas.

All this weekend's games in USL League One are played tonight, with Richmond at home to Omaha probably the pick of the bunch. Tormenta travel to Chattanooga, and Central Valley host North Carolina in the other games. All the USL games - Championship and League One - are live on YouTube.

Just two games in other third-tier league NISA, with Chattanooga playing Savannah, and Gold Star of Detroit making the trip to Albion San Diego.

The US Open Cup resumes on Tuesday.

[jefe]

Gerhard Struber fired in New Jerzey, Ezra Hendrickson fired in Chicago.

Quakes are signing a few homegrowns, including Cade Cowell's younger brother.

Emanuel Reynoso is finally back in Minnesota.

[HeavyDracula]

WEEKEND ROUND-UP

MLS, week 11
Kansas City upset the apple cart in Seattle on Sunday, winning 2-1 against the injury-hit table-toppers with a result that - given moves elsewhere - probably saved Peter Vermes job for now. Seattle haven't looked the same side since Heber came back from injury, which has to be a concern. San Jose had a notable win, 2-1 at home over LAFC, to move them into fourth in the table alongside their opponents. Seattle remain top, despite the loss, because St Louis's game at Dallas was weathered-off. The game of the week in the West was undoubtedly at Vancouver, where a 3-2 victory over Minnesota had a bit of everything.

In the East, New England and Cincinnati both kept up their good starts to the season, with the Revs winning 2-0 away at Toronto and Cincy despatching a much-improved DC, who had chances of their own to score goals but lost 2-1. Atlanta lost 2-1 at ten-man Inter Miami to lose ground but stay third, joined by a Nashville side for whom Hani Mukhtar scored a hattrick in their 3-0 over Chicago, costing Ezra Henrickson his job. Red Bulls lost 1-0 at home to Philadelphia, while their local rivals New York City also came unstuck, losing 3-2 in Charlotte.

USL Championship, week 9
Charleston took advantage of a Friday night visit to Las Vegas to move top of the table in the East with a 1-0 victory, with Birmingham robbed of a chance to leapfrog them on Saturday by some terrible refereeing that saw a dodgy penalty and red card issued in the first half, while another rightly given in the second was scored on a rebound by an encroaching player, eventually going down 4-1 at home to Oakland. Loudoun also had officiate woes, having a goal not given despite clearly crossing the line and a stonewall penalty turned away, losing 2-1 at home to Indianapolis. Despite not playing, Sacramento stay top in the West after Colorado Springs came unstuck - as predicted - at home to El Paso. The Texans won 3-2 and look so good on the road this year. San Diego moved into second with a 2-1 win at Orange County, despite having a man sent off, and San Antonio took advantage of Las Vegas playing 2 games in 36 hours, winning 2-0 in Sin City on Sunday.

USL League One, week 7
Just 3 games this week, all on Friday night, and North Carolina extended their lead over non-playing Charlotte Independence with a 2-0 win over Central Valley in Fresno. South Georgia Tormenta moved into second with a 2-0 win over Chattanooga Red Wolves.

NISA, week 6
Just two games in the other third-tier league, with leaders Chattanooga held 1-1 at home by Savannah, and Albion San Diego seeing off Gold Star from Detroit 1-0. Maryland remain second, despite only having played 2 games, having won both.


US OPEN CUP PREVIEW

The stateside version of the FA Cup returns tonight (and tomorrow) with 16 third round fixtures. There are no third-tier sides left in the competition but 8 second division sides remain, with at least one guaranteed to make it through to the fourth round as Birmingham host Memphis. Managerless Chicago welcome St Louis, four days before hosting them in the league, while similarly rudderless Red Bulls are at home to DC United. In terms of possible upsets, Monterey Bay will fancy their chances against an LAFC side playing on 3 fronts, last year's finalists Sacramento welcome Colorado, and Charleston will fancy their chances in Miami.

The 3 MLS sides in Canada also play this week in their FA Cup, the Canadian Championship, which JVL will no doubt cover on his thread.

[jefe]

I am beyond angry at sending a C team to New Jersey to play a more or less managerless, reeling RBNY.

NWSL commish stated today they plan to add 2 more teams in 2026.