North American soccerball and the MLS Season starts Saturday

[brakespear]

Well I'm a Philadelphia Union plastic fan and have been for at least twenty seconds (and I didn't just choose them because I like the cheese, honest )

 

[deletebeepbeepbeep]

Good choice. Proper supporters at Toronto.

I am a NYRB plastic fan but only because I met some of their supporters group in a bar. Toronto ought to be a more natural fit for me as I used to live there myself. Both teams are shit in any case. Toronto haven't even made the play offs in their 5 years of existence, which is some feat when you consider the play-offs include half the league.

Eugugugugugu, now I want to be a Toronto fan, this plastic fan business is difficult.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

...so I've put together everything you need to know.




2. New York Red Bulls

Home to the best stadium in the league and some of the most recognisable players, but strangely misfired last season, only just stumbling into the post season playoffs.
The Red Bulls are one of the sexiest teams on paper—Thierry Henry, Juan Agudelo and Rafa Marquez are some of the biggest names in the league—but that certainly didn’t translate into on-field success in 2011: New York narrowly qualified for the playoffs before bowing out in the quarterfinals. The Red Bulls should get plenty of goals from Henry, Agudelo, the scrappy Luke Rodgers and veteran Kenny Cooper. Despite 24-year-old defender Tim Ream moving to the English Premier League in January, it would be hard for New York to underachieve as badly as it did last year. Quite simply, they should contend for the conference title.
.

Having just confirmed with my special database (wiki) that this is the ACTUAL Luke Rodgers, of Shrewsbury Town 'fame', I'm going to nail my colours to the NY mast. Go Red Bulls. Whoop, whoop.

 

[GYM]

 

[GYM]

Also can't get my head round the cost of "jerseys" $120 for A Seattle Sounders shirt. that £76!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! $50 for Shorts! Whats wrong with that??

 

[Simster]

geek springs to mind

You have a mind?

 

[Vatican Citys No.2 Keeper]

Personally I can't wait until the start of the 2013 season when the Galacticos of American Soccer return!!

As the owner of a 1976 Pele Jersey (which they released in the re-launch last year) and Cosmos T-shirt, I'm a proper Cosmos plastic. Though this season I'll root for the Vancouver Whitecaps, as my dad brought me back a t-shirt from there when he went to a game a few years before they got their franchise!!

 

[Pretty pink fairy]

You have a mind?

yeah, a mind set

 

[turienzo's lovechild]

Having just confirmed with my special database (wiki) that this is the ACTUAL Luke Rodgers, of Shrewsbury Town 'fame', I'm going to nail my colours to the NY mast. Go Red Bulls. Whoop, whoop.

he's a bit of a cult hero over there....had a decent season last year..........one of the greatest things about the league is the mix of players you get in teams.....did luke rodgers EVER imagine he'd one day play up front with thierry henry? did chris birchall ever realistically imagine lining up alongside david beckham?

great stuff

oh- and rodgers is having some visa issues apparently so is currently unavailable

 

[turienzo's lovechild]

Personally I can't wait until the start of the 2013 season when the Galacticos of American Soccer return!!

!

i wouldn't put money on that

 

[Simster]

i wouldn't put money on that

Although it seems the league is putting effort into getting a stadium in place rather than leaving it to prospective new franchises to do so. I still reckon NY2 will happen before they go anywhere else like Detroit, St Louis, or Orlando...

 

[hans kraay fan club]

he's a bit of a cult hero over there....had a decent season last year..........one of the greatest things about the league is the mix of players you get in teams.....did luke rodgers EVER imagine he'd one day play up front with thierry henry? did chris birchall ever realistically imagine lining up alongside david beckham?

great stuff

oh- and rodgers is having some visa issues apparently so is currently unavailable

Boooooooooooooooooooooooooo

 

[Lyndhurst 14]

Just renewed my Red Bulls season ticket – works out at $25 a game in a fantastic stadium.

MLS has really come on in the last few years - a lot of that has been driven by the TV networks taking it more seriously and the large number of South Americans living in the States who want to watch soccer.

Luke Rodgers is living the dream – he also managed to piss off that wanker Landon Donovan of LA Galaxy which makes him OK in my books.

It’s worth a trip if the Red Bulls are playing when you are in NYC – only half an hour train ride to the Stadium.

It’s never going to compare with watching footie in England but it’s the next best thing and at least this guy’s been proved wrong

 

[turienzo's lovechild]

Although it seems the league is putting effort into getting a stadium in place rather than leaving it to prospective new franchises to do so. I still reckon NY2 will happen before they go anywhere else like Detroit, St Louis, or Orlando...

i think NY is most likely for sure....definitely not nailed on though

however apart from the stadium they seem to basically have everything else in place (including an existing youth system) which is something the other possible franchises don't have

personally i'd like detroit....the experimentation of having two teams in LA hasn't worked that well in my view.....where would the fans for the cosmos come from? are there enough potential soccer fans in NY to support two clubs?

 

[Simster]

It’s never going to compare with watching footie in England

You say that, but up in the PNW it's a major sport. Portland, Seattle and Vancouver fans are already whinging that the away support allocation is far too small. Seattle and Vancouver in particular could cope with away support of 5,000 if they reconfigured their stadiums for one-off local games, and that sort of demand is what is being talked about by some people up there.

 

[Simster]

i think NY is most likely for sure....definitely not nailed on though

however apart from the stadium they seem to basically have everything else in place (including an existing youth system) which is something the other possible franchises don't have

personally i'd like detroit....the experimentation of having two teams in LA hasn't worked that well in my view.....where would the fans for the cosmos come from? are there enough potential soccer fans in NY to support two clubs?

That's because Chivas are a car crash of a franchise and show utter ignorance of the fan base. CD Guadalara are the 2nd biggest club in Mexico and they own "Chivas USA" (awful name). Some idiot somewhere thought that would be the best way of getting Hispanics involved. That's the equivalent of Man Utd buying a club in Ireland, calling themselves Red Devils FC and expecting all English ex-pats in Ireland to support them. Had they put a club in another part of LA, branded it Mexican without nailing themselves to any particular parent club, they'd have had more luck.

NY2 would be a massive success. Too many people in the tri state area fail to warm to the Red Bulls because they are in New Jersey and have a losing reputation. Put a club in Queens or the Bronx (or any of the NY boroughs) in amongst people who like the game and the crowds will flock there. And Red Bulls fans would hate them for it, creating an instant rivalry right out of the box. Which in turn would have local networks interested, slap bang on the doorstep of the media capital of the continent.

 

[Vankleek Hill Seagull]

I watched Toronto this week take on the LA Galaxy in a CONCACAF quarter final and they weren't too bad (2-2 final score) considering LA Galaxy had Beckham, Roy Keane and Landon Donovan playing for them.

I think TFC have a fairly decent chance of the play-offs this season. I have a season ticket for the first time so it will interesting to see what happens especially with Frings, Koevermans and that well known ex-Burnley defender Richard Eckersley. The squad have some useful additions coming through from the TFC Academy and the local derby with Montreal will certainly spice things up a bit.

 

[willyfantastic]

will probably become a plastic montreal fan as i visited recently and really like the place, and my mate went to uni there.

big fan of oregon though so will look out for portland results too

 

[Lyndhurst 14]

i think NY is most likely for sure....definitely not nailed on though

however apart from the stadium they seem to basically have everything else in place (including an existing youth system) which is something the other possible franchises don't have

personally i'd like detroit....the experimentation of having two teams in LA hasn't worked that well in my view.....where would the fans for the cosmos come from? are there enough potential soccer fans in NY to support two clubs?

The resurrection of the Cosmos has been on the cards for a while now with Pele on board and Cantona was appointed as coach, but realistically it would be a struggle. Red Bulls have now built up a loyal fan base and managed to find a location for their stadium in Harrison New Jersey which has excellent transport links and, as it is within a redevelopment zone, they got a lot of tax sweeteners from the local authorities which made the stadium affordable. Cosmos have supposedly ear-marked potential sites in Queens and Brooklyn and are in discussions with Mayor Bloomberg.

It would be great to see the Cosmos playing in NYC again but it will take a massive financial investment as well as being a huge risk and I cannot see it happening anytime in the future.

 

[gullshark]

Family live in BC so it's the Whitecaps for me.