And Portland beat AIK to finish their preseason. I wonder were MLS is as far as quality, best in the western hemisphere? I don't know enough about South American soccer to call that. Don't most of their best homegrown players play in Europe?
I think our biggest competition in the Western Hemisphere, quality-wise, is Mexico and Brazil. Hell, I'd probably throw in a couple of Argentinian teams as well. Brazil manages to hold on to some of their better players (Neymar), but yeah most good players go to Europe (like MEX's Chicharito). You guys open your season tonight against Philly. Feeling confident? I'm just excited it will be on ESPN2
It's hard not to be, great off-season for the Timbers. They looked good in the preseason too (undeafeted, 11-3 on goals). I'm trying to temper it though, they are a bit dinged up and not at full fitness with some key players. 2 and a 1/2 hours to first kick. I think the TA is singing the anthem again. I like that tradition for the first home game. I’m biased, but I’d say Jeld Wen has the best atmosphere for TV, loud full stadium.
Well that was fun. One game in it seems that Jim Morrison was right, at least with regards to MLS. The west is indeed the best.
and Cascadia is going to dominate the league this year. Congrats on the win. It was pretty convincing (at least the second half). Boyd didn't seem to have a single touch in the first half, and then he comes out of nowhere to score the winning goal in the second. Typical Boyd! So I'm guessing you weren't at the match? Or were you?
Tonight the Sounders play Santos for some Champions League action. Second leg of the quarters. 8 p.m. EST on Fox Soccer. Be there!
Well, unless the sounders wind up sucking this season, last night answered this with a resounding (ha, Pun!) No.
Ouch is right. Worst loss in franchise history, and in the biggest game of franchise history. You can't draw it up much worse than last night. If that wasn't bad enough, our new star forward Eddie Johnson was injured too. It's just not our time. At least LA lost. I can't stand the Galaxy.
At Manc City getting humped by Sporting What a night to put £20 @ 10/1 for both teams to go out Well my m8 has and he will be buying hte beers thsi weekend , i was betting on Cheltenham all day less said about that the better
Here is Boyds debut goal for the timbers: [video=youtube;oiiGHuxiy5c]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiiGHuxiy5c[/video] And here is a pretty good article about how Spencer is going use him. http://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/sport/4184342/Box-office.html
What are the chances eh? Oh well, you have to beat the best to win the tourney anyway, but I would've preferred Porto or Marseilles that's for sure. The only reason is we are decimated by injuries, and we play like 2 games a week for the next 4 weeks. Hopefully Aquilani comes back, should play Juve this week. Boateng needs to come back. Nest injured (what's new). Abate injured - this is big. Abate is playing at very high level now and attacks the wing with pace. Becoming a favorite of mine. Cassano of course is out. There are more as well. I am not afraid of Barca, we managed well against them, but we need to be healthy man. Only way we can beat them.
Yeah let's hope we can have our players back, despite injuries we're still in the fight in three tournaments. I like Abate too but El Shaarawy starts to be one of my favorite young players, IIRC Van Bommel is suspended so probably Ambrosini starts, I'm not confident in our midfield which I believe is our main weakness. To me it's all about midfield. Barcelona have little hope to win La Liga (Unless Madrid choke big time) and their fans seem pretty confident they're going to be in the CL final against Madrid, nothing would make me happier than knock them out. We'll see.
Blackburn back-to-back Wins and Clean Sheets.......who are these guys??? Rovers now 6 clear of relegation!!!
Hey texasPHINSfan, Check this video out: [video=youtube;Kr7Ade8k5Jw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kr7Ade8k5Jw&feature=player_embedded[/video] The Timbers had this on their face book page. There is a reason that the Timbers vs Sounders, and to a lesser extent Whitecaps, were instantaneously the best rivalries in MLS.
I present to you Real Madrid Island http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/socce...1-billion-resort-island-united-170935374.html
Good find! I love the old footage. I heard a classic name in there too - Jimmy Gabriel. A Sounders player in the 70's, he still does radio and broadcast for the Sounders. Up Cascadia! Tonight we play Houston. It's on national TV on the NBC Sports network, so I urge all to watch. Two of the better teams of the MLS get to square off, should be a real battle. PS, I have Baptiste on my MLS fantasy team, two tacos.
Did anyone watch the US-U23's last night against El Salvador? Heartbreaking loss. Completely gut-wrenching. Worst US loss of the last ten years at least IMO, if not longer. Out of the Olympics now
I thought Milan's defense did a great job. Of course they made it harder for themselves by not scoring...
We had our chances. The second half was a much different story. The first half Barca was pouncing just outside our 18 yrd box consistently. Second half we countered very well, and held Barca mostly non-threatening possession, if there is such a thing with Barca. 0-0 at home is a good result. We can take Barca...
Anyone watching this atrocity in Barca? Two BS penalties given to Barca in one half. Yeah, f you! Milan scored legit...and I hope they score another to kick Barca into next year's competition. F'n BS!
What a disgrace the Milan Barca game was. The ref should be imprisoned, and Barca should be ashamed of themselves for flopping and crying all game. This notion that only the Italians dive is bs, and Spanish punks clearly demonstrate that tournament after tournament. Milan wasn't given a fair chance to win imo. Whatever....I'm just bitter if you don't agree with me, call me a homer.
You're not a homer, I think Milan was robbed there. I think Barca is afforded too much leeway with the calling of fouls. Some of those were ticky-tacky. Given both legs of that series, I think Milan deserved to go through. Hopefully someone can topple Barca. It's boring now, them winning so much. (I'm an underdog kinda guy)
Barca criticized the Milan pitch, with good reason, it isn't the greatest. San Siro plays upwards to 3 games a week at the stadium and it is hard to keep the pitch in pristine condition. They even paint the pitch to make it look green on occasion. Milan has requested to put a synthetic on top of true pitch, and it has worked very well on other Italian pitches. HOWEVER, Barcelona waters their pitch before every game to make the field faster and slicker to give them an advantage with their playing style. The image below takes it to a whole different level.
A penalty shot on a corner kick, before the ball was kicked........with no warning.........and it was Sergio Busquests (the most notorious diver in the world of soccer)...........and Puyol did his best impression of Mike Pouncey with that open field block on Nesta Now I've seen it all Say whatever you will. Barca controlled the tie. Barca were the more attacking/better looking side. It doesn't matter. Milan weren't given a fair shake and that's all there is to it. It just pisses me off because Barca's amazing. We all get it. They're the best team maybe ever. So why do they need this help? Why are the referee's interfering with these big matches? 2009 Barca Chelsea - 4 PKs not given to Chelsea 2010 Barca Inter - Ref tries GIVING Barca the tie by wrongfully sending Thiago Motta off after 20 minutes. This time around, Barca couldn't take advantage, however. 2011 Barca Arsenal - RVP sent off for kicking the ball after the play. ARE YOU ****ING KIDDING ME?!!! 2011 Barca Madrid - Pepe sent off for not even touching Dani Alves. 2012 Barca Milan - see above. They probably would've come away winning yesterday without that nonsense call. They probably would've beaten Arsenal last year had RVP not been sent off. They probably would've beaten Madrid had Pepe not been sent off. But the point is, these refs are helping the rich get richer. And it just isn't fair. Getting drawn against Barca means your playing maybe the best 11 of all time + the referee. It's bull****
The bold part says it all. That penalty was given after Milan tied the game as well that if the game ended in a 1-1 draw Milan goes through on the aggregate. How convenient. I hope Chelsea wins it all now. If not, Real, anyone but Barca. Milan was still cheated though - ridiculous. And when you say the rich get richer, that is literally as well with the TV contract money that Milan could've been awarded from the Semis and Finals as that is substantial too. If I'm not mistaken Milan lost out on $8M Euros for not getting to the Semis.
Damn you Real Madrid! Can't afford to be dropping points with Barca on your tail. Happy that Man City lost though. It's so easy to hate that team.