Photo Credit: Earl Gardner
Yesterday was the perfect date. Bonus points if you can name this reference.
April 25 is the best date because it’s not too hot, not too cold. All you need is a light jacket!#DOOP | #April25 pic.twitter.com/kaMzrXrxEq
— Philadelphia Union (@PhilaUnion) April 25, 2019
Union
The Union play the Vancouver Whitecaps tomorrow in Vancouver, kickoff is at 5pm.
Even with Andre Blake injured, Matt Freese wants to earn his first start this weekend.
Watch Jamiro Monteiro as the No. 10 last week in this play breakdown.
Steel
The Steel have a break this weekend, not playing until next Friday, May 3rd against Loudoun FC.
How could he not win? Great goal to take a great result! Sergio Santos is our @BSteelFC Goal of the Month winner for April!#WeAreSteel | #SteelSquad pic.twitter.com/CCvg1d9xvJ
— Bethlehem Steel FC (@BSteelFC) April 25, 2019
MLS
Don’t even try to make sense of the eastern conference.
There were five matches on Wednesday night, here’s what happened.
Last year’s Golden Boot winner, Josef Martinez is in a drought, scoring only two goals in six games.
US
The USMNT will host Jamaica for a 2019 Concacaf Gold Cup match in Washington DC on June 5th.
Last year, Kyle Martino ran for president of US Soccer in an effort to try to figure out why youth sports participation is declining. He didn’t win, but he discovered that America has turned soccer into a rich kids’ game.
World
Ten things to look out for in the Premier League this weekend.
If I could rant a bit regarding: the “Don’t try to make sense out of the East” article….
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One of the things that bugs the hell out of me about MLS is the schedule. How can you say anything at all about standings when teams have played anywhere from six to nine games? You already have made weekly competition… let’s say less than urgent by giving out playoff berths to half the teams in the league and then you go and make table watching, a fun pastime for any sports fan, an exercise in futility. The standings are literally meaningless. I’m not sure what or how they run fantasy leagues, but I don’t do fantasy leagues, so I’ll leave that to someone else.
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I really hope when this league hits 30 teams that they split the league in two and just play 28 games, home and home against all conference opponents. And then go into the cup tournament, which will likely mean another 4 – 5 games, which makes for a pretty decent season. The imbalance in the schedule is really ridiculous. I’m sure I’m not the only person who feels this way. It’s really nuts.
Just keep an eye on the “PPG” stat, it’s the only one that matters anyway. Even if all teams played the same amount of games, it’s a good a gauge to determine how well a team is doing and it provides a clear and measurable standard. Since 2012- and except for 2016 – playoff teams had at least 1.4 PPG, usually 1.44. The Union’s current total of 1.63 could get them as high as 2nd or as low as 4th based on previous year’s results.
You also have to watch for quirks in scheduling as far as home games and away games played. Considering the huge home field advantage in MLS, playing 7 of your first 10 games at home has a way of inflating your PPG vs actual success rate.
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See Orlando City last year. Started strong but fell apart, except they really didn’t start that strong since their schedule was front loaded with home games.
A. As Steve notes, table-watching can still be plenty absorbing if you look at points-per-game, which, as far as I’m concerned, is the only stat that really matters.
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B. There are problems with splitting the league in two. One is that there would be no way to gauge the quality of one against the other until the cup tournament. Another is that half the fans would never get a chance to see half of the big-money superstars live. Folks in the “Western League” would NEVER get to see Wayne Rooney (unless he happened to be in town for a playoff game and they could manage to get tix), and folks in the “Eastern League” would never get to see Zlatan. That might matter for marketing purposes.
I think you don’t get a very good gauge of league strength now. There’s no balance. Particularly with home and away games being pretty random. It’s not terribly tidy or well organized. Cutting the league in two would also cut down o n travel times.
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I do get the issue with not being able to see teams from the other conference. But unless they change things the table won’t mean much, even when all teams have played an equal number of matches.
Miss Congeniality, thank you very much.
While there is occasionally a Rooney, Beckham etc. that can put some fans in your seats when he comes to town, I’m not sure that’s a strong enough factor to not consider separating the two conferences. I found baseball much more interesting when the NL and AL were truly separate. There was a real rivalry between the leagues that just doesn’t exist today
Separating the conferences would save on travel and add some luster and intrigue to the All Star Game (East vs West), the Open Cup and the MLS end of season tournament. It would also add some interest to pre season and intra league friendlies.
At the very least it should be considered.
PLEASE get Stella Artois as kit sponsor. Seriously this team absolutely has to get rid of BIMBO.
Thank you.
UnionGoal