Major League Soccer

[NZ PVFC]

Did anyone else see the game yesterday between Orlando City and New York City?

 

First game for Orlando City and they manage to get 65,000 people into the stadium!

 

Also noticed that Adrian Heath is the current manager of the club with their main player being Kaka

[eh up nah]

First thoughts are it's a total joke. Something about a league full of franchises really grates with me.

 

But it's totally different attitudes over there.

 

If 65,000 turn up there must be demand for it. Be interesting to see if it keeps up.

[Shropshire_Valiant]

I see they have Donovan Ricketts in goal too! Good job we're not playing them we never managed to beat him!:D

[Tone]

MLS football is making great strides. Seattle have been drawing huge crowds on a regular basis. The standard is not up to that in Europe, and it's very different to League 1, but despite opposition from the special interests of NFL, NBA, etc football is catching the attention of people across the country. I am not too much of a fan personally (FC Dallas home strip is red and white, after all) but I can see the progress, even in the 12 years I've been here. But give me a Valiant World commentary of a Vale match any day.

[Houston Valiant]

Houston Dynamo, with Owen Coyle in charge, kicked off last Sat. against Columbus Crew and won 1-0. I didn't go , but from what I hear , it was a dull

game with little or no chances to score. 23,000 full house on a Saturday night. The Dynamo is a great club for communication with the fans, and they offer all kinds of ticket reductions and family "packs" . It's a nice stadium , nestled between the high-rises downtown, with great views from all seats.

The standard is not great though, and at times L2 at best without the passion. MLS is growing here , and the likes of Seattle Sounders have regular home crowds of 53,000 , who really make themselves heard. Not the same as England though, and it never will be imo. It just doesn't have the same passion and feel. By the way, there was a rock band in Houston about 9 years ago called Port Vale. I think they broke up .

[cheshirevaliant]

By the way, there was a rock band in Houston about 9 years ago called Port Vale. I think they broke up .

 

Were you involved with them, Sean? :D

[sandbach_valiant]

I've got a soft spot for the MLS and I'm glad its developing so well.

 

I read a report recently saying that Football is the biggest sport in terms of participation for young people in the US at the minute, so could potentially be a very strong league and national side soon enough. Interestingly, the other major sports are apparently beginning to decline too, but not too sure on that point.

 

I've managed to see DC United and the Vancouver Whitecaps (when they were in the NASL) before and really enjoyed both games, but I think the standard, stadiums and attendances will all have improved a lot by now.

 

One thing I've noticed before is that teams tend be much better going forward than they are defensively, which makes things quite interesting.

 

But anyway, watch this ludicrous goal;

 

[Houston Valiant]

Were you involved with them, Sean? :D

 

I was the reason they broke up CV . :) No, they were a heavy metal band.

[NZ PVFC]

Its the same here in New Zealand

 

Although NZ have the All Blacks there are more locally played football leagues than rugby. Wellington Phoenix play in the Australian A League with crowds of approx 8,000. The standard is about that of lower Championship/higher league 1 but to many of the supporters its the only professional football and quite often it getting out to the game and enjoying the experience with the family. The younger children that play football now have local players they can idolise instead of those they can not really get to see.

[Paul6754]

I can only comment on The New England Revolution who play in the NE Patriots stadium (cap ca 85k) and usually attract gates of ca 10-20k hence despite a section of the fans singing and chanting there's very little atmosphere. Also the games are played on a plastic pitch which makes the soccer on show ugly. Much debate has been ongoing viz a purpose built stadium but nothing has happend yet.

 

Soccer in the USA is booming at all age levels from 5-18 yrs, college soccer is popular but there are no/few structured leagues between college and the MLS hence at age 22 most players drift away from the game or just play "pick up games".

 

In the town I live, more kids try out for soccer in High School than for American Football but soccer will never surpass any of the major American sports in terms of popularity at the pro level..

[Tone]

By the way, there was a rock band in Houston about 9 years ago called Port Vale. I think they broke up .

 

Somewhere, amongst all my cr*p, I have a vinyl single by the band Port Vale. I bought it on Ebay about 10 years ago. Because I could. :)

[Yukon]

I can only comment on The New England Revolution who play in the NE Patriots stadium (cap ca 85k) and usually attract gates of ca 10-20k hence despite a section of the fans singing and chanting there's very little atmosphere. Also the games are played on a plastic pitch which makes the soccer on show ugly. Much debate has been ongoing viz a purpose built stadium but nothing has happend yet.

 

Soccer in the USA is booming at all age levels from 5-18 yrs, college soccer is popular but there are no/few structured leagues between college and the MLS hence at age 22 most players drift away from the game or just play "pick up games".

 

In the town I live, more kids try out for soccer in High School than for American Football but soccer will never surpass any of the major American sports in terms of popularity at the pro level..

 

OT- Go Pats!

[robf]

By the way, there was a rock band in Houston about 9 years ago called Port Vale. I think they broke up .

 

I did an interview with them some years back. I'll have to see if I can dig it out as I don't think the feature is currently live on the site.

 

EDIT: It is here on a very old template with lots of broken links

 

http://www.onevalefan.co.uk/news/show_news.php?subaction=showfull&id=1066996421&archive=1076084683&template=headlines

[carl]

Some of the MLS can be real quality in an attacking sense. What a shame the same cant be said for some of the defensive standards within the MLS. As a recent poster has said, the MLS is a bit of a joke really

[Tone]

I did an interview with them some years back. I'll have to see if I can dig it out as I don't think the feature is currently live on the site.

 

EDIT: It is here on a very old template with lots of broken links

 

http://www.onevalefan.co.uk/news/show_news.php?subaction=showfull&id=1066996421&archive=1076084683&template=headlines

 

 

Here's a bad clip from YouTube.