am sure most people don't give a monkeys but for those that live out here or follow it - who are you supporting as the season starts
I have slowly become a Portland Timbers fan, they have just signed Frederic Piquionne (ex Pompey & West Ham) - think they will have a decent season. I shoudl be a vancouver supporter really as they are my closest team, but I like Portland - great city & a cool team.
Any other MLS hats in the ring?
Few ex-CAFC now over here - Hogan Ephraim at Toronto FC & the legendary Djimi Traore at Seattle Sounders!! Even Nigel Reo-Coker has just signed for Vancouver...
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Not a CAFC alum, but Earnshaw just signed with Toronto as well.
We're long time season ticket holders of DC United. Not really looking forward to the season other than the hope that many of the young players may have a chance to move on to greener pastures a la Andy Najar's transfer to Anderlecht.
I visit America often for work and the last time I was there they took me to the Gillette Stadium and I bought a New England Revolution shirt, so that's got to be my adopted team.
Biggest star in MLS after Henry has to be Landon Donovan.
Anyone know of anywhere you can watch MLS highlights in the UK? Want to try and follow it a bit more closely this time around.
Sky Sports understands that Darel Russell is to link up with MLS outfit Toronto FC after impressing during a trial spell.
The former Norwich and Stoke forward is available as a free agent after severing links with Portsmouth.
He parted company with the League One side in January, a day before his short-term contract at Fratton Park was due to expire.
The 32-year-old was offered an opportunity to catch the eye at Toronto, who are coached by former Norwich defender Jim Brennan.
Russell offered enough to suggest that he could make an impact in the MLS and is understood to have agreed a deal which will see him head to Canada for the 2013 campaign.
Plus i don't have any irish friends so im allowed to like Henry still. :-)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Cosmos_(2010)
My old boss is from Kansas and has now gone back there to live.
I hated him and know he supports them so they are my worst team in the MLS.
aol.sportingnews.com/soccer/story/2013-01-10/mls-schedule-rivalry-week-a-march-surprise
However, the MLS are very keen to have two sides in New York. What many seem to forget is that the New York Red Bulls are actually based in New Jersey....
Be great if they allowed promotion and relegation between MLS and NASL.....maybe that will happen in a few years time.
Anyway, being a resident of Rochester, NY, I'm quite fond of MLS. Root for the Red Bulls by default, although I have more of an interest in our local side, the Rochester Rhinos - still the only non-MLS team to win the US Open Cup since MLS began in 1996. Although interest is absolutely down from their late-90s high, where it seemed like they were close to joining MLS (there have been at least three documented periods where the team was all-but up, but couldn't come up with the expansion fee).
The reason why so many MLS clubs didn't use their old NASL logos/names was because the rights were expensive (at least that's why the Cosmos name wasn't used when the New York club launched in '96).
In any case, I don't believe you'll ever see pro/rel in America. MLS is still too new and investors really don't want to sink hundreds of millions of dollars into a product that too many would see here as second-rate. The best you might get is something akin to minor league baseball where players shuttle back and forth.
The quality of the league isn't such that I would make a point of watching a game on TV, but wouldn't turn up my nose at attending if the opportunity presented itself.
Agreed with Kidflash re unlikelihood of adoption of a promotion/relegation model. Tradition, and the franchise structure of North American sports dictates otherwise.