Major League Soccer

Good to see you lads have Major League Soccer forum on here. I spent time with the club before they were promoted and it's a class organization. Will do very well in the top league and already making their impact. Proper footballing side.

Seattle are really struggling to create clear chances without Martins and Dempsey in this game. They're 1-0 down with 35 mins to go.

MLS Week 16

Colorado 1-1 Dallas
Good, entertaining game with some good goals. First from Fabian Castillo, who had an excellent game, then from Dillon Serna to grab an equalizer for the hosts.

Seattle 0-2 San Jose
I can't remember who tweeted it, but someone said something along the lines of "What is it about Seattle that makes San Jose not play like San Jose?" And it's apt. San Jose was good; Seattle looked out of ideas without Dempsey and Martin up top. Sanna Nyassi's finish for the first goal was sweet.

Toronto 0-2 New York City
With NYCFC knocked out of the US Open Cup midweek by the Cosmos, this was always going to be a tricky one for Toronto. David Villa at the double. PLUS there are loads of fairly strong rumors that Pirlo is headed to NYC. That's not a bad weekend for NYCFC haha

New York Red Bulls 1-2 Vancouver
Very good road win for Vancouver -- but with a caveat. Wright-Phillips became the first player in MLS history to miss two penalties in the same match. Whitecaps keeper David Ousted became the third keeper in MLS history to save two in a match. RBNY has now lost four-straight.

Montreal 2-0 Orlando
You know, just when I was certain Montreal was a poor side, they go out and get a very solid 2-0 win over Orlando. They're a very streaky side. The East is so bad they might sneak a playoff spot after all.

Portland 2-0 Houston
Portland has been on fire the past month -- four-straight wins and they now sit third in the Western Conference. Go figure.

Los Angeles 5-1 Philadelphia
STOP! Hammer Time.

DC 2-1 New England
Charlie Davies gave the Revs the lead, but two second half goals from Chris Rolfe gave DC the win. It's been something of a renaissance for both Davies and Rolfe; good to see.

Salt Lake 1-1 Kansas City
Late stunner for RSL in the 93rd minute. A shot came off Kevin Ellis' foot and looped over Melia's hand to go down officially as a SKC own goal. Could prove to be a big win for RSL if they can build off this.

MLS Week 15 (there was a lot)

Philadelphia 1-0 Seattle
Seattle a bit depleted going into this one, but a pretty solid defensive effort from Philly. A much-needed win for the Union.

Orlando 2-0 Colorado
Cyle Larin (rookie of the year?) and Kaka got the goals 3 minutes apart, but Carlos Rivas had a great game. He needed that.

Columbus 2-1 New England
New England scored 40 seconds into the match, but Columbus came back thanks to two goals from Kei Kamara. That was Kamara's fourth brace of the season.

New York Red Bulls 1-0 Salt Lake
RBNY end their skid with a solid 1-0 win vs RSL.

Toronto 3-1 Montreal
All three of TFC's designated players found the back of the net. When Altidore, Bradley and Giovinco all score, I really can't see Toronto losing -- even if they needed to come back from a 0-1 deficit.

Chicago 0-1 DC
The Fire now have the worst record in MLS. Yay. Sweet strike by Conor Doyle to extend DC's lead atop the East, but the abject crap served up by the Fire on a weekly basis is frustrating.

LA 5-0 Portland
A 2-goal lead within 18 minutes. Woosh. Portland never stood a chance.

Dallas 2-0 Houston
A little Texas derby here. Despite Houston putting up a ton of shots in the first half, Dallas were superior and got the deserved win, which snaps a 5 match winless run too.

Toronto 0-0 DC
Meh, kind of a boring one. For DC, though, getting 4 points from 6 on the road is a very decent return in a league where travel is so difficult. That's why they're in first place in the East.

Philadelphia 2-2 Montreal
Crazy game. Insane weather (a recurring theme in MLS this year), a man sent off from each team, and four goals. Probably would have been a fun one to stand with the Sons of Ben for.

New England 1-2 Vancouver
Farrell was sent off on a ridiculously soft call by the ref  very early in the match, so that hampered anything the Revs were going to be doing. Good for Vancouver to take care of business, though.

Kansas 2-0 Colorado
Krisztian Nemeth again on the scoresheet. But you know what's crazy? He's got 7 goals this season -- on 7 shots.

Salt Lake 2-2 Columbus
Just gonna leave this here. Look where goalscorer Olmes Garcia starts off: http://matchcenter.mlssoccer.com/matchcenter/2015-06-27-real-salt-lake-vs-columbus-crew-sc/details/video/42527

San Jose 3-1 Los Angeles

But seriously, great win for San Jose, who played in front of 50k at Standford Stadium. Very good win, in fact.

New York City 1-3 New York Red Bulls
New York derby! City with the 1-0 lead, but whatever Jesse Marsch said/yelled at his team at halftime paid huge dividends. Really impressed with this Matt Miazga kid. Turning 20 in a few weeks, he looks like he's going to become a very good CB.

Portland 4-1 Seattle
Emphatic victory for the Timbers. Nagbe, Adi with 2 goals in 2 minutes, and Wallace. Portland with 3 in the second half. What's the best way to put a 5-0 loss behind? Beat the sh*t out of your biggest rival

Just curious, for the MLS lovers out there who watch LA Galaxy regularly, what type of football do they play and how will Gerrard fit into their system?

Just curious, for the MLS lovers out there who watch LA Galaxy regularly, what type of football do they play and how will Gerrard fit into their system?

LA play a 4-4-2 and like to use their width quite a bit. Gerrard's ability to play diagonals will be a huge asset, plus his general passing ability will be better than all of LA's other midfielders, so he's going to come into the side and make an immediate impact. They'll probably line up like this once everyone is healthy and Arena has a full squad at his disposal:

Penedo
Gargan    Gonzalez      Leonardo      Rogers
Gerrard     Juninho
Ishizaki                                      Villarreal
Zardes     Keane

I figure he'll be deployed like Beckham was in his last 2 years at LA: As a deep-lying playmaker who sprays the ball around. Juninho will do all of Gerrard's running and tackling, like he did for Beckham. Stevie to take all the set pieces.

LA play a 4-4-2 and like to use their width quite a bit. Gerrard's ability to play diagonals will be a huge asset, plus his general passing ability will be better than all of LA's other midfielders, so he's going to come into the side and make an immediate impact. They'll probably line up like this once everyone is healthy and Arena has a full squad at his disposal:

Penedo
Gargan    Gonzalez      Leonardo      Rogers
Gerrard     Juninho
Ishizaki                                      Villarreal
Zardes     Keane

I figure he'll be deployed like Beckham was in his last 2 years at LA: As a deep-lying playmaker who sprays the ball around. Juninho will do all of Gerrard's running and tackling, like he did for Beckham. Stevie to take all the set pieces.

Thank you for this!! Much appreciated and can't wait for Gerrard's debut!!!

It really will be refreshing to see what Gerrard can do next to proper dogged defensive midfielder (assuming Juninho is that type?), something that we have rarely looked into when he played in midfield.

Great picture of Adi celebrating his goals for Portland at the weekend.

Thank you for this!! Much appreciated and can't wait for Gerrard's debut!!!

It really will be refreshing to see what Gerrard can do next to proper dogged defensive midfielder (assuming Juninho is that type?), something that we have rarely looked into when he played in midfield.

Yeah, Juninho is that type of mid. MLS isn't as fast as the Prem, but it's a pretty physical league, so it should be interesting to see how Stevie will cope with that side of it. I think he's going to be a hit, personally.

Out of interest what English league level is the MLS equivalent to?

Out of interest what English league level is the MLS equivalent to?

I think it depends what teams you are talking about.

I'd say some of the better teams (Galaxy, Sounders) could play with the lower league EPL teams on a given day. But in general probably Championship level.

LA play a 4-4-2 and like to use their width quite a bit. Gerrard's ability to play diagonals will be a huge asset, plus his general passing ability will be better than all of LA's other midfielders, so he's going to come into the side and make an immediate impact. They'll probably line up like this once everyone is healthy and Arena has a full squad at his disposal:

Penedo
Gargan    Gonzalez      Leonardo      Rogers
Gerrard     Juninho
Ishizaki                                      Villarreal
Zardes     Keane

I figure he'll be deployed like Beckham was in his last 2 years at LA: As a deep-lying playmaker who sprays the ball around. Juninho will do all of Gerrard's running and tackling, like he did for Beckham. Stevie to take all the set pieces.

Zardes has stood out for me whenever I've seen LA play. Can't wait to see Stevie play for them.

MLS Week 16

Starting this week, 44 players are missing from their MLS sides due to the CONCACAF Gold Cup. That's pretty significant, so a number of results the coming weeks will be up for grabs.

Houston 1-1 Chicago
Not exactly a great match, but Mike Magee is finally healthy for Chicago. That's huge. If Magee can stay fit, the Fire should pick it up a bit.

Seattle 1-0 DC
West vs East heavyweight battle, which Seattle won with an 88th minute winner. DC played with 10 for about 60 minutes or so, unlucky to not grab a point given the circumstances.

Columbus 2-1 New York Red Bulls
Really good come-from-behind win for the Crew in this one. Kamara again on the scoresheet, as was Ethan Finlay, who's putting together a GREAT year: 5 goals and 10 assists and counting.

Montreal 1-2 New York City
Villa with a well-taken free kick late in the match to get all three points for NYCFC. Lampard just officially joined, so I'm looking forward to seeing how NYC will look once guys like Diskerud return from Gold Cup duty.

Dallas 3-0 New England
Mauro Diaz was at the center of everything, even some of NE's self-inflicted wounds. New England have now lost four-straight matches, which has seen them drop to fourth in the East.

Colorado 2-1 Vancouver
Way to go, Colorado! They break out of a 6-match winless streak thank to a Kevin Doyle (yes, Kevin Doyle) winner.

Salt Lake 1-1 Orlando
There was some debate as it happened over whether or not Kaka intended to stamp on a player (it was a red for me), but to me the real talking point is how RSL continues to drop points from winning positions. They've only won 5 matches from 19 this season.

Los Angeles 4-0 Toronto
Come for the Stevie G unveiling, stay for the Robbie Keane hat trick. En fuego. Both sides were missing big players to Gold Cup duty, but it didn't seem to bother LA too much.

Portland 1-0 San Jose
Meh. Well passed my old man bed time, so I watched this like a grouch Jack Jewsbury with a goal in the 90th.

https://twitter.com/juventusfc/status/618057300700495872

Pirlo!

Sort of biggish news concerning LA: Stefan Ishizaki is leaving the club to go back to Sweden. His wife is having twin sons in a few months and they want to be back in their native country. It's a bit of a big loss for them. Ishizaki while not spectacular was very reliable and consistent.

http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2015/07/05/why-swedish-midfielder-stefan-ishizaki-leaving-la-galaxy

https://twitter.com/juventusfc/status/618057300700495872

Pirlo!

Damn. Pirlo, Lampard and Villa. Worth putting some cash down for them to win the MLS?

Damn. Pirlo, Lampard and Villa. Worth putting some cash down for them to win the MLS?

And Mix Diskerud, but nah. The NYCFC backline is atrocious and the rest of the squad is a bit meh. Very similar situation to how Toronto can have these 3-4 top players but bomb every year.

Just seen that Giovani Dos Santos could be joining LA Galaxy...

GIOVANI CLOSE TO MLS SWITCH

Former Tottenham midfielder Giovani dos Santos has reached an agreement to join LA Galaxy, according to Fox Deportes.

The Mexico international, who is currently on the books at La Liga outfit Villarreal, would join his old Spurs team-mate Robbie Keane and former Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard in LA, where he will earn €3.4m (£2.44m) a year.

Source: Sky Sports

Just seen that Giovani Dos Santos could be joining LA Galaxy...

Yeah this has been a recurring rumor. MLS just released an add-on to the roster rules that was worked on during the CBA with the Players Union, basically giving each team $100,000 a season for 5 season that they can use to pay down salaries to be under the salary cap OR (and this is the big one) that they can use to convert a DP into a non-DP and then sign an additional DP. Basically, allowing teams to have 4 DPs instead of the usual 3.

In LA's case, that would mean their DPs are Keane, Gerrard and dos Santos (should the rumor be legit) after the convert Omar Gonzalez to non-DP status.

MLS Week 17

San Jose 0-2 Houston
Houston's first win away from home in two months. San Jose are so Jekyll and Hyde sometimes. They'll probably get a 3-0 win next match out

New York Red Bulls 4-1 New England
An explosion of goals from RBNY -- 3 in the first 15 minutes -- while New England's awful skid continues. 5 straight losses for the Revs.

Philadelphia 3-0 Portland
That's MLS for ya. Portland on a roll the past few weeks, then the Union go ahead and smash them -- albeit not until the 70th minute.

Orlando 0-2 Dallas
Inchy Heath said this was the worst match Orlando have played all season and it's hard to disagree with that. Mauro Diaz and Fabian Castillo were excellent for Dallas as they usually are.

Montreal 3-0 Columbus
See the Philly game. This one though featured a lovely long-range goal from Donadel that was bookmarked by a Dominic Oduro brace. Really great win for the Impact.

Chicago 1-0 Seattle
Suck it, Seattle! Jason Johnson's curling effort in the 93rd minute gave the Fire very much-needed 3 points. The Sounders, of course, were missing Dempsey, Martins, Pappa and Evans to Gold Cup duty, but their inability to get results in their absences at various points is concerning.

Colorado 3-1 Salt Lake
Back-to-back wins for the Rapids, while RSL is now winless in 4. All the goals in this one were scored late: RSL in the 79th, but then Colorado scored in the 81st, 91st and 98th minutes.

New York City 4-4 Toronto
Holy F**k, what a goal-fest. Villa scored twice and missed a penalty. Giovinco missed a penalty too. BUT, he scored a hat-trick in 9 minutes -- the first TFC's history -- and grabbed an assist. He gets paid a ridiculous amount, but he's worth every cent. Brilliant. He'd get my vote for MVP because he's carrying this team.

Also, the Philly fans had a nice go at Timber Joey

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EyUWH0LNrs

Giovanni Dos Santos just signed with LA. That's a massive signing. Pretty damn talented, good experience, 26 years old, and will help the league draw Mexican fans in LA -- a demographic they've struggled with in LA.

Other news, DC United and Real Salt Lake exchanged Luis Silva for Alvaro Saborio, a move that I think helps both teams. Silva and Plata had a good connection at Toronto, so they'll link up well at RSL, and Saborio gives DC some extra firepower up top.

Giovanni Dos Santos just signed with LA. That's a massive signing. Pretty damn talented, good experience, 26 years old, and will help the league draw Mexican fans in LA -- a demographic they've struggled with in LA.

Wow!!! I'm shocked that he's moved to MLS. Still a decent lower/mid table player and I thought he did a decent job when called upon for Villarreal.

I think him and Gerrard will be able to strike up a good understanding and I wouldn't bet against Giovani having the same impact as Giovinco!!

Wow!!! I'm shocked that he's moved to MLS. Still a decent lower/mid table player and I thought he did a decent job when called upon for Villarreal.

I think him and Gerrard will be able to strike up a good understanding and I wouldn't bet against Giovani having the same impact as Giovinco!!

Dos Santos and Keane up top with Zardes now pushed wide and Gerrard playing diagonals to all three of them. Big statement of intent from LA.