MLS ESPN Thurs Night Soccer Running Thread

Yes, MLS sucks. When was the last time you watched a game? Apparently it wasn't recently.

In case you hadn't noticed, the level of the game has improved since the league was founded. There are entertaining games being played every week. Most of MLS is playing an up-tempo EPL style that is providing frequent goal-scoring chances at either end. The fact that MLS teams are attracting players from European leagues shows its a good league to play in, because the players, with the DP exceptions, sure aren't coming over here for the money.

If you're a fan of English or Scottish soccer, you should be watching MLS.

And Devil, you can have two minutes for diving for that generalization. As great as Sid the Kid and others are in the NHL, they flop and whine just as much as some soccer players.

 

I've seen games the last couple of years. Not particularly impressed. You can choose to be. But don't imply my opinion is uninformed.

 

Good take, clone. Rack 'em.

And that sound you hear is Boom screaming in joy because one of his threads went to a second page.

 

I, too, hate the offsides trap and love when teams are punished for it (so long as it's not the U.S. men).
However, I also hate when basketball defenders simply plant themselves in front of a guy who is making a move in an effort to draw charging calls. This is as pathetic as anything that goes on in soccer with diving, but we live with it.
I hate that a college football defender can negate a beautifully thrown long pass by tackling the intended receiver and only receive a 15-yard penalty.
I hate that in the NBA fastbreaks are routinely interrupted by grabbing fouls that carry almost no penalty.
There are bad rules in every sport.
Every last one.
The offside rule has its problems, but it also helps to create the art and beauty of the game. There is nothing prettier than a perfectly timed run onto a ball.

 

93d, what you describe occurs in every single sport. I do love all sports, but I'll just the NFL for an example here.

Kickers dive all the time to try and get a call. So do wide receivers. The difference is that they don't stay down too long because they are then forced out of the game for the next play. However, if it benefitted them, they would do it as much if not more.

I'm sure you hate all those wide receivers pretending to throw the yellow-flag everytime they are touched and then crying to the ref about pass interference.

It is just a different rule. Just like how in the NFL players can't move before the ball moves.

So what you are saying is that when a quarterback gets behind the line and does a hard count or makes some other gesture to draw the defense off-sides it is un-American. Do I have this right?

Much of this is perception. Maybe you aren't used to watching it. That is fine. But to classify something as un-American or to claim that it is the only sport that "dives" is hardly true. Just ask Shaq about Vlade Divac.


And while Dooley thinks MLS is beneath his time, it is his right. It is somewhat disheartening, because it is the same attitude that receives much derision as being a bandwagon jumper.

 

Seriously, people get derided for being a bandwagon jumper if they started watching MLS recently?

 

Hey, I hate the receivers screaming for the PI flag, and I hate guys flopping for charges. Have you noticed that the NBA, NCAA and NFL are all trying to enact rules to try and stem this flow?

Isn't diving a cardable offense? Doesn't it merit a yellow? The World Cup would have been great if Paraguay and some of the others were not allowed to spoil the play with cheating.

About bobbing up and down by a qb... it is a flag if the head moves too much. But to compare that with what goes on in soccer? You were reaching for something in football if that was all you could come up with.

 

A player from Middlesbrough was carded in yesterday's game v. Liverpool for flopping in the box.

 

No, not at all! I'm referring to Dooley's attitude of watching EPL but never bothering with MLS. It would be the equivalent of a guy born and raised in Kansas City only to buy the baseball hat and root for whatever team won the World Series.

Sure, it is fine and all to not root for the Royals. But if you are just hitching yourself onto watching "winners" than how would the Royals ever become just that? Now, imagine all of Kansas City saying "fuck that" to the Royals and only rooting for the Yankees, Red Sox or whatever team just won the World Series.

 

I was referencing that to defenders that go forward quickly enough to reduce the attack. I chose football as my comparison because football is very beloved. My point, though, is that teams in the NFL do try and draw other teams offside. Yet, for you, when it is done in soccer you classify it as un-American.

 

Funny, that happens in Tampa most of the time. You should see the attendence spikes at Tropicana field whenever the Yankees or Red Sox are in town.

 

Not an apt analogy. A more apt one would be "I like major league baseball, but I can't stand college baseball." Or "I like college basketball, but I can't stand the NBA."