major-league-soccer Page 4 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Gregg Berhalter and USMNT are good enough
In the end, Gregg Berhalter did everything we asked, what most USMNT fans asked. He didn’t treat the trip to the Azteca as something to just get through. It wasn’t just a lottery spin. It wasn’t about keeping the powder dry for Sunday. Berhalter looked at the Mexico squad, looked at his, and thought...
I want my win in the Azteca, Gregg Berhalter
Right off the bat, I know all the logic the US might keep something in reserve tonight at the Azteca vs. Mexico. The USMNT has not been able to thread the three-matches-in-seven days windows all that well. The Panama game is the real crunch one of the three this time, as a win there basically guaran...
Gregg Berhalter drops the ball on USMNT roster
Expected, disappointing. Two words that best describe my reaction to seeing the United States Men’s National Team’s roster for the final trio of octagonal World Cup Qualifying matches, beginning next week. Outside of the core, can’t-miss players and super-subs, which any soccer fan with a brain coul...
Oh, damn, MLS started this weekend
Part of it was due to still being on vacation, and the other part was my general obliviousness. But I only realized at the last minute that MLS started its season this weekend, about 12 minutes after the last one ended with NYCFC’s manager in his undies in the rain in Portland, thanks to having to w...
OK, maybe it’s time to have a talk about Gregg Berhalter
The natural inclination is to arm the nukes to drop on USMNT manager Gregg Berhalter after his comments that the U.S. “dominated” Canada, despite losing 2-0 and managing just three shots on target. The initial reaction is that he’s completely deluded, doesn’t know what he’s watching, and all while h...
The fight for the USMNT’s #9 spot moves to the European theater
As it’s always been (and sometimes it feels always will be) that the one big hole on the US Men’s international team is the one up top, a central striker. You never want to be in a place where you’re wondering if there’s any way to make Jozy Altidore 10 years younger. It’s Jozy Altidore, after all. ...
Soccer, much like football, didn’t come home either
I wanted to resist the urge to give into the Timbers Army’s desire to claim Portland as “Soccer City USA.” It’s quite a label to bestow on yourself, and having grown up in direct opposition to Detroit’s “Hockeytown” self-flagellation, my alarms don’t need much prodding to go off. ...
Major League Soccer has a better ‘Rooney Rule’ than the NFL
Eighteen years ago, the most prejudiced sports league in American professional sports (Major League Baseball is a close second) created their version of “affirmative action” when they came up with the Rooney Rule — named after the legendary Steelers owner Dan Rooney — in hopes of helping diverse can...
The Philadelphia Union got screwed, but there was probably little MLS could do
We don’t think any of the current seasons taking place now as “COVID seasons” like we did of the previous ones played in empty stadiums/arenas or in weird, neutral venues altogether. But it still very much is, which the Philadelphia Union learned the all-too hard way yesterday....
Maybe it’s Mexico that needs to look in the mirror
The big story out of the US’s demolition (at least in the 2nd half) of Mexico was the US stuffing Memo Ochoa’s words back from whence they came. Ochoa had claimed before the match that Mexico “was the mirror that the US wants to see themselves,” which led to Pulisic writing “Man In The Mirror” on hi...
Let’s fix the MLS Playoffs, shall we?
I know, I know. There’s nothing MLS fans hate more than someone who doesn’t watch as regularly as they do telling them what’s wrong with their league. Even with my expanded efforts to watch, understand, and develop an attachment to our domestic league, I’m still a long way off from being a tried and...
A wild end to the MLS regular season
MLS had its “Decision Day” yesterday, the last day of the regular season when all of its playoff spots get shaken out. The permutation for the top, middle, and bottom of the playoff picture were David Lynch-level convoluted, so sometimes it’s best to express the happenings in one highlight:...
SEE IT: The most MLS moment ever
As I’ve repeatedly stated, this was the season I really tried to follow MLS closely. It’s been mostly hit, some miss, but it’s hard to not see the charm. It is perhaps the last bastion of the true No. 10, where the space in midfield allows them to work their magic and drive teams to success. It’s wh...
The New England Revs are going to set the league points record, and they’re not going to play any defense to do it
While MLS still has its fair share of issues, the one thing you have to give it credit for is that during the regular season, the league rewards teams that just say, “Fuck it, it’s free cake.” They don’t generally live on in history, because wonky defensive teams get found out by the extremely callo...
New Liga MX-MLS Cup is way cool, and might set up more cool stuff (I said ‘might’… this <i>is</i> MLS after all)
If I were the cynical sort (perish the thought!), I might suggest that MLS realizes its main stream of income, expansion, might be drying up in the coming years. That’s if you go by the “MLS is a Ponzi scheme” theory, which one has to admit has some legs. Charlotte and St. Louis join the league in t...
Sporting Kansas City and the Rapids were unclear on the concept last night
As I’ve said in the past, I’m still something of an MLS novice. This is the first season I’ve truly tried to work against my “europhile” ways and really get in up to the elbow in America’s domestic league....
Study shows NCAA has been holding back women’s sports
We need to think about the lies we’ve been told about women’s sports. That no one wants to watch us play. That the markets don’t support our success. That we should be grateful that they let us in the gym....
I probably owe Gregg Berhalter an apology
You’ll have to excuse me, as I’m writing this Mourning After while giggling incessantly. The U.S. Men’s National C team, B- at best, beat a close-to-full-strength Mexico squad in the Gold Cup Final, 1-0. It was a tournament that manager Gregg Berhalter was using as a laboratory to find out who could...
Gabriel Heinze is just as big of a penis as you remember
The lesson for MLS coaches the past couple of weeks is that trying to show your authority by freezing out a star player only ends with your head in the guillotine’s receptacle. Gabriel Heinze was the latest to learn that yesterday....
Christian Pulisic just made American men’s soccer history — in Europe’s Champions League final
American men’s soccer remains, even with all the growth of Major League Soccer and the rise in popularity of the sport, very much a sleeping giant on the world stage....