Major League Soccer (MLS) Thread

Scuba Steve wrote:#bloodybigdeal

Brilliant. The MLS tifos that I've seen were fantastic. I remember two: one with Yoda and the other with Conan the Barbarian.

Free_Mustache_Rides wrote:Hey, Steve your the resident American Soccer guru around here so I'm wondering if you could answer this question that came to mind the other day:

Which American soccer player has had the most successful career playing for a major European club? By major I'm talking about the Man Utd, Bayern, Milan and Barca's of European soccer.

I only know about guys like Onyewu, Donovan, and el Pato but those guys only had short stints I think.

Unless I'm forgetting someone, its probably Reyna. ~2 years with Rangers.. major club... but trash. 

Lol

Bocanegra, surely?  Friedel as well.

Take a bow Meghan Klingenberg.

Free_Mustache_Rides wrote:Hey, Steve your the resident American Soccer guru around here so I'm wondering if you could answer this question that came to mind the other day:

Which American soccer player has had the most successful career playing for a major European club? By major I'm talking about the Man Utd, Bayern, Milan and Barca's of European soccer.

I only know about guys like Onyewu, Donovan, and el Pato but those guys only had short stints I think.

Slim pickings for top clubs. Jonathan Spector played like a cup game or two at Manchester United. Frank Simek played a cup game (I think) for Arsenal. Howard had three seasons at Manchester United, but he was only the starter his first season there. Beasley balled out at PSV for a bit, played in a Champions League semifinal. Played at Manchester City for a season on loan too. Friedel was at Liverpool and Galatasaray but didn't really play. Keller played at Tottenham, but that wouldn't really qualify as top teams either.

Michael at Roma might be the best we've had in a bit, but again, he left because of playing time.

Rei Andros wrote:

Scuba Steve wrote:#bloodybigdeal

Brilliant. The MLS tifos that I've seen were fantastic. I remember two: one with Yoda and the other with Conan the Barbarian.

There really are some good ones. A couple of years ago Chicago did a Mario and Luigi one, it was pretty legit. I liked this one from earlier this year. But also, this should be a tumblr.

dena wrote:

Free_Mustache_Rides wrote:Hey, Steve your the resident American Soccer guru around here so I'm wondering if you could answer this question that came to mind the other day:

Which American soccer player has had the most successful career playing for a major European club? By major I'm talking about the Man Utd, Bayern, Milan and Barca's of European soccer.

I only know about guys like Onyewu, Donovan, and el Pato but those guys only had short stints I think.

Unless I'm forgetting someone, its probably Reyna. ~2 years with Rangers.. major club... but trash. 

It could have been you Dena.

Glen Miller wrote:Bocanegra, surely?  Friedel as well.

Dempsey played in a European Cup final. But yeah, Fulham ain't what Che was looking for unfortunately.

They did this because they were playing Seattle, who was sponsored by Xbox 360, and this was their second season in the league. So the play there (you can see the sign at the top) is Old School, even though Chicago wasn't one of the original teams in the league. 

Glen Miller wrote:Bocanegra, surely?  Friedel as well.

If we're talking top 20-25 clubs in the world by popularity I can only think of Reyna, players like Dempsey and Cherundolo have had better European careers than he did to me though..

How could I forget Beastly at PSV! That was during the Salcido years too.

By the way was it ever made public how much Whitecaps got for Camilo? Because of whatever it was it was probably not enough. Dude absolutely wrecked first place Club America today. Scored a brace, the winning goal and an assist.

Only thing I found during a quick search was "multi-million dollars". I thought remembering it was just a mil, but apparently it was more than that. Heard he's been decent down there, although at one point during the summer, he was apparently on his way back to Vancouver.

Who qualified for the playoffs last night by beating Colorado to knock Portland out. Playoffs in the West are all set, Dallas vs. Vancouver for the play-in, winner to face Seattle, and then LA and RSL in the other semifinal. East to be settled today.

And shame that there won't be a proper send off for Chivas today. The fans deserve much more than that, but at least that at a minimum.

BWP scored twice to tie the record of 27 goals. But couldn't get that third to set the record. Forever tied with Lassiter and Wondolowski.

Truly legendary company.

Chivas officially disbanded. Sporting and Dynamo head to Western Conference to make two ten team conferences, with Orlando City and NYCFC joining the East. Atlanta and new LA2 will join in 2017.

Only in the very top leagues can you disband a club.

Which top league has disbanded a club?

JK on 10 man shortlist for FIFA Coach of the Year. What a farce.

Zakuani had to retire

Los Angeles Football Club is the name of the new franchise. Press conference is about to kick off, apparently they have 300 owners. Okay, more like 22. But that's enough for a full 11v11. Maybe they will really get a stadium done in time for 2017 with that kind of pull.

I feel like a fundamental part of football is missing from the MLS, but I can't put my finger on it

Whats the MLS?

Quick turnaround on the tifo. Props to RBNJ. And good thing BWP got in a couple of more goals this season, because lawd knows he can't score against DC.

He broke the record?

No he tied it, then scored twice in the playoffs, which don't count towards his tally. Confusing a bit because the final game of the season was against Sporting (in which he scored two), and then the next game in the playoffs was against Sporting, in which he scored two. The playoff was an one off game, but because they played both in KC then NJ, it looked like two legged playoff.

Lassiter also did it in fewer games, I believe. I know the season was shorter in 1996, but I gotta look up actual games played for each BWP, Wondo, and Lassiter.


1996 was 32 games, compared to 34 right now.

Lassiter was 27 goals in 30 games (30 starts) 2580 minutes, 96 minutes/goal, 4 assists
Wondo was 27 goals in 32 games (31 starts) 2813 minutes, 104 minutes/goal, 7 assists
BWP was 27 goals in 32 games (29 starts) 2573 minutes, 95 minutes/goal, 2 assists 

So BWP had the best minutes/goal ration, but just beat out ole Roy. But with 7 assists, Wondolowski had his hand in more goals than either Lassiter or BWP.

Depending on the proportion of penalties each of them scored, BWP's acheivement could shine less.

Good call. He had a fair amount this year. Like five or six. But I don't think I'll be able to find the number of penalties that Lassiter had.

New England rolled Columbus 4-2 in Columbus in the first game today. Brilliant goals from Davies, Tierney, and Nguyen. Basically all wrapped up going into next week's second leg.

I've been seeing a lot about Nyugen recently. Do you think he's going to get a callup?

Oh he better. I mean, it helps that he is playing with Jermaine Jones, but he would play with him with the national team too. He had 18 goals this season, and that was the most ever in MLS by a true midfielder. And he was doing damage all reason along too.

Nice little bit of skill from Luis Gil yesterday.