Comments

1
Spike, bunkerball is never pretty, but it is an effective way to protect a tie when a team goes to 10 players.

As for developing new players, you can always check out an S2 match, like the one I went to last night. 18 bucks for a seat, 6 dollar Big Al's at all four corners of Starfire, and all the young raw soccer talent you desire. Darwin Jones with a hat trick made the night, where we drubbed the Whitecaps2 and sent them back to Canada with their tails between their legs.
2
Fuck, hardly anyone ever apologizes to me. Wish I would have watched.
3
Having watched the last half, thanks for the apology.

Finally got my Alliance monk on Durotan to 93 since it got so boring
4
What @1 said ... I'll take 0-0 against FC Dallas on the road while playing our scrubs. That was Dallas' first non-win of the season, by the way.
5
"Is MLS properly developing young talent?" As Wisepunk mentioned, there is S2 now so it's starting to get a little better. Also, the Sounders did field Kovar and Rodan who are both young and homegrown. Though not directly the product of MLS, they have benefited from training with the team and having a local MLS team to aspire to.
6
Good writeup from Spike Friedman.

I still have a bitter taste in my mouth from there being three 0-0 contests in MLS not this past Saturday but the previous one. And yeah, I appreciate the possibility of a well-contested 0-0 draw with some great saves mixed in, but still...

This 0-0 game was its own particular brand of 0-0 game, what with Dallas bunkering down with 10 men and the Sounders being down their top playmakers. But still...

Part of the nature of the MLS regular season is that you know that your designated players and other top players are going to be away for stretches. So you know your reserves are going to get an opportunity to play. Depth gets rewarded. Now, as Spike so aptly says, the MLS pay scale doesn't lend itself to that, and it would be in the league's own interest to pay the players more. The collective bargaining agreement that was just signed raised the minimum pay from $36K to $60K. If I were the league, I wouldn't have stopped there; I would have said, "We'll take that $60K and raise it some more, not for your (the players') sake but for our (the league's) sake." You gotta spend money to make money.
7
We certainly develop talent, but that talent rarely hangs around long. Europe and elsewhere offer much better play and a whole lot more money for top talent than the US.

That is slowly changing, and you're seeing more midlevel talent stay in MLS where they can get more play time then they would competing in other leagues, but it'll be a while before you see the really good players spending their whole career in MLS.

@6 I'm not sure the league is making enough money to do that yet.
8
Not only was the score 0-0 but there were no last second heroics, no last shot to try to win the game.

Why? Because soccer, unlike every other timed contest, inexplicably counts up. A clock that is ticking up is completely worthless to the casual observer - who cares how much time has gone by, what matters is how much time is left. And the most exciting moments in any game often come down to that last second shot - will it go? The crowd watches with bated breath.

But not in soccer, oh no. To continue the trend of being an awful, boring sport soccer counts up. Not to any time in particular, just 'til the ref gets thirsty or something and decides enough's enough and calls the game.
9
@1 - went to the S2 match yesterday with a group from my son's youth team. What a great outing - saw some very promising talent in Darwin Jones, Damien Lowe, and several others, the fans were just as engaged as they are for the big team, and the kids got to meet the players up close afterward. My son's reaction on the way home (even accounting for his team losing earlier in the day): "That was my best day ever!!"
10
@8- This is a joke, right? Because if that's not a joke I'm so embarrassed for you.
11
I wish I could get an apology from the Stranger every time they write an article covering sports.
12
soccer is played the way this league is developing in the US, with persistence and patience, two character traits the U.S. is very unfamiliar with relative to most of the modern world. The clock counting down: basketball, football, hockey. No clock: baseball, tennis, golf, volleyball. A bit egocentric of #8. Apologies? For an entire league? Not warranted.
13
I wish I could get an apology from the Stranger every time I have to close that damned popup ad.
14
@10, Be nice to @8. Not everyone can do simple math.
15
@14, 12, 10

Thank you for reaffirming my belief that no one really likes soccer; they just claim to root for the 'local football club' because it makes them feel worldly and superior.

@12 What do non-timed sports have to do with a clock conversation? You did not refute the point, every other timed sport you mention counts down. The reason why should be self-evident. It's an easy fix to make the game a bit more exciting.

"two character traits the U.S. is very unfamiliar with relative to most of the modern world. " Gotcha.
16
It never ceases to amaze me how, like clockwork, someone troll comments on a thread about soccer on what a stupid and boring game it is. What is it about the game that threatens you so?
17
@ 6, my team has played nothing but nil-nil soccer since the season began. Seriously. And something like 13 winless games in a row going back to July of last year. (I'll take our scoreless ties over four goal shutouts, but we're not getting any offensive help til Kevin Doyle joins us this summer.)
18
Belated reply to Matt from Denver @17. I feel for you. There has to be a special misery to being a Colorado Rapids follower right now.

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