So the new Major League Soccer season is about to kick off. Starts on March 3rd. Anyone else here follow soccer in the US? I was a season ticket holder for Chicago Fire, but didn't renew since I am rarely in the US anymore. It's been a fairly good/fun/exciting couple of years with recent expansions in Minnesota and Atlanta last year and a second LA team this year. Nashville and Miami in the next couple years with another to be announced. (Narrowed down to Detroit, Sacramento, or Cincinnati)
I know where I live (charlotte NC) is an expansion candidate and MLS does want a team here but I thinks in the 10 year plan... at least for the USL team we have. But then some asshole (the CEO of charlotte motor speedway, racing) all of a sudden wants to buy an MLS expansion team. He has never been to a soccer game of any level. And he wants tax money to fund like 50% of the stadium. Yeah that ain't happening. The tax payers here are tired of paying for sports stadiums (carolina Panthers NFL stadium, the AAA baseball team here, the arena that keeps changing names that the NBA team plays in. Only 12 years old and that arena is on It's third name.
Yeah I think Charlotte is good a candidate for the next round of expansion in a couple years if they can narrow it down to one team trying for the spot and to get a soccer specific stadium deal and solid ownership group on board. Minnesota had a similar problem with 2 groups trying to get the spot but in the end they sort of came together. Charlotte fills a nice gap in the southeast and will counter the other teams being added to the west coast. Phoenix and Vegas are possible expansion locations in the future, especially with the Raiders moving there soon, and a hockey team just starting there this year. I think its ownership issues that are delaying the announcement of the next expansion team. It should be Sacramento but they keep adding and subtracting from their owners.
What happened to nashville? I think nashville was a contender and had set aside something around $300 million for the stadium and surrounding area. I mean they were willing to build not just a stadium but make the area around it more attractive to draw people to come to games. I think a team in Raleigh, NC also wanted to try for MLS but I just can't see a MLS team working there. Wouldn't draw fans from virginia most would probably be DC united fans. There is no MLS team even close to charlotte. The closest would be the new team in Atlanta. But they have held Gold Cup games in the panthers stadium (and friendlies between european teams) which all have sold out and actually put people in the seats. Better then the panthers can say. I kinda follow MLS but not really a fan of any one team. Kinda related. I see new stuff about Qatar might get stripped of the 2022 world cup. But I can't tell if it just rumors or more "the world cup shouldn't be there" wishful thinking. I haven't seen anything official. The only difference this time was a specific reason given (the humanitarian issues mostly workers dying and such). One "news" group said england would probably host it then but a german group said the U.S. was also a contender for hosting it then. But really outside England or the U.S. who could host a world cupt on fairly short notice?
Nashville was awarded a team and they should start playing in 2020 or so. The city approved building a stadium at the fairgrounds and set aside some money for it, but some people were against it and trying to sue the city to stop it. Several teams are looking at building a new stadium in a better location or rebuilding so they can also develop the surrounding areas to add better academies, hotels, and shopping centers to make the most out of the land. SKC just finished building up the surrounding area and opened the US National training center/Academy. Meanwhile, NYCFC is still playing in Yankee Stadium and "actively" looking for a place to build in one of the 5 boroughs. I haven't heard about anything new with Qatar and the world cup, other than more slaves, I mean migrant workers, were dying while building the stadiums that will never be used again after its over. Oh and I really like the part where they realized that Qatar is hot in the summer and they can't play then, so they moved it to winter, in the middle of everyone's leagues. So some countries were still considering boycotting it since there was so much corruption that came to light with the bidding and awarding process for the last and next few cups, and the leagues don't want to take a break that would mess up the rest of their season. They also don't want to give up their best players for a month and lose out on all that advertising and TV money. The other finalists to host it were Australia and US, so if Qatar does lose it, they would probably give it to us. However, the only countries to submit a bid for the 2026 world cup have been Morocco and a joint bid between US, Canada, and Mexico. So I don't think they want the US to host it 2 times in a row. The reason for the joint bid is because FIFA is expanding the number of teams that qualify and it makes it difficult for any nations outside of the more developed countries to host. So we are showing some good will towards our neighbors and trying to share the wealth, and set an example; even though we could host every major sporting event in the world at the same time and not need to build anything.
I used to go to some Earthquake games when I lived there, don't really actively follow though. Live soccer games are really fun though.
A worker fell 130 feet to his death working on a Qatar stadium. From what I have seen it sounds like rumors about FIT A stripping them of the world but FIFA might be considering it. Of course if they do they wouldn't announce it till after the 201i world cup. It probably would be England hosting 2022 especially if a joint USA/Mexico/Canada would be the main contender for 2026. I think there have been a bunch of joint bids recently.
MLSsoccer.com came out with their initial power rankings. Some interesting positions on here but no real shockers. https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2018/02/27/mls-power-rankings-2018-preseason
I'm seeing stuff about the North American bid for 2026 being in jeapordy because some FAs are still mad about all the corruption found among FIFA and regional groups (like the south American football group. Conmabol I think). Also because Trump is president and angering people (and wondering if the US will be safe for foreigners to travel to). No matter what he wouldn't be president in 2026 so that shouldn't be a factor at all. Not trying to make this political. The only other country that has a proposal for 2026 is morocco. I think the split right now is North American bid has Europe, Oceania and some of Asia. Morocco has Africa, south America and most of asia. But can they build the infrastructure to support 48 teams? Because Russia will probably be terrible infrastructure wise. Qatar will be terrible all around. If they hold Qatar in December I wouldn't be surprised if europe just does not show up. Wouldn't effect MLS much though. I think they are in playoffs by that point.
So the opening weekend of the season is half over and already a couple of unexpected results. Columbus beat Toronto 2-0 and Houston beat Atlanta 4-0. LAFC have their first match ever later tonight against Seattle, which should be pretty good.
So LA Galaxy are up to their old ways. They officially announced the signing of Zlatan Ibrahimovic. If you don't know who that is, while Messi and Ronaldo have been taking the headlines, Zlatan has been quietly conquering all of Europe. He is the Swedish all time leading goal scorer and has almost every major trophy in Europe. He is a bit old now, 36, and just coming off ACL surgery but he seems to be as good as he always was. It could be interesting though. A few older high profile players have jumped across the pond and been really good (David Villa, Kaka), others came over looking for a retirement payday and couldn't handle the constant travel or physicality or speed of the league (Lampard, Gerard, Pirlo).
So the big news from this weekends matches is Zlatan made his debut for LA Galaxy and completely turned the game around. He scored 2 goals in the 20 something minutes that he was on the pitch, including what will probably be goal of the year. Here are the highlights: https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2018...-angeles-football-club-3-2018-mls-match-recap
So another couple weeks down and no real shocking results but it looks like Cincinnati will be the next expansion team. They just got approval for a stadium and have the city on board, which was about the only thing holding them back, other than MLS not wanting to add more teams so close together. So the next expansions will be Nashville in 2019, Miami in 2020 and one of Cincinnati/Detroit/Sacramento mixed in there someplace, or possibly not until 2021, which will bring the league up to 26 teams. With 3 more teams coming into the league in the East, and the possibility of even more, they will have to look at re-balancing the divisions, possibly moving Chicago to the west, which I don't like. Another option is adding a 3rd division, the Midwest, which is unlikely but would ultimately be for the best. Eventually they could add a 4th division and make it Eastern, Southern, Midwest, and Western conferences. Future expansion locations that could be in the running for the unofficial last 2 spots could be Charlotte, Raleigh, Charleston SC, New Orleans, Tampa Bay, Las Vegas, Phoenix, OKC, San Antonio, Austin, and Cincinnati/Detroit/Sacramento, whichever 2 don't get in this time. There are probably others that I don't know about but several of these put in bids for this round of expansion but didn't make the cut for one reason or another. Phoenix is partly owned by Didier Drogba so they have a pretty good shot, would not want to play in that summer heat though. Las Vegas has a good chance too once the Raiders move there. Austin may be taken by Columbus, if they move there. I am sure more locations will get chances later down the road. Eventually MLS will expand more and get to 30 teams, or more, but probably not until after the 2026 World Cup or later.
Charleston is nice but not sure if they could support an MLS team. The Battery (USL) does do pretty well though. But they city is 5 hours from Atlanta and 2.5 from charlotte (yep the closest beach to charlotte is in another state.) Wouldn't be a bad choice. Though with all the tourists who go there and a naval training school in the area it might work.
So, its been a few weeks and just got some major transfer news. Wayne Rooney has officially transferred from Everton to DC United and will make his debut at the opening of the new stadium on July 14. Looks like Dallas is transferring Mauro Diaz to a club in Dubai. And Atlanta picked up a young D-Mid from Argentina. Also the World Cup playoffs / round of 16 is almost set. Just waiting to see where England and Belgium place, both are already guaranteed to advance. The group winner will face Japan and the 2nd place team will face Colombia.
I'm going england/Japan belgium/Columbia. Also I want Argentina to lose when they play France. Partly I want england in the first spot because I want the final to be england and Denmark. I went team Denmark when Germany lost.
I am always pro underdog, so I was hoping Iceland or Peru would make it through. Since neither of them did, I am now rooting for Denmark and Switzerland.
I want Denmark to win the whole thing. But Switzerland would be nice to. Mostly just someone who hasn't won it before. But not russia. Not that I think they could beat Spain but there have been a lot of surprises.
