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Philadelphia Union
The Union will open up the playoffs against the Red Bulls on Sunday, October 20th.
Auston Trusty will join teammates Mark McKenzie and Matt Freese at the US U-23 camp during the international break.
Wanna meet the team before the playoffs? RSVP for the playoff rally here.
Bethlehem Steel’s Chavany Willis will join Andre Blake and Jamaica over the break.
MLS
Brian Fernandez will be unavailable for the Portland Timbers. He entered the leagues Substance Abuse and Behavioral Health program.
Both the Union and Red Bulls face enormous disappointment with a loss next Sunday.
Another head coaching job has opened up. James O’Conner was relieved of his duties by Orlando.
Speaking of head coaches, Inter Miami is close to getting their man.
Think you can fill out the perfect MLS Playoff bracket?
Here’s this week’s episode of Instant Replay.
World
The USWNT equal pay lawsuit gets an update.
U.S. soccer runs deep in Auston Trusty’s family.
Let MIT show you why Barcelona was so good in 2009-2010.
A goalkeeper during the day, an inmate during the night. (That’s the most normal thing about this story.)
Is Mesut Ozil’s time at Arsenal coming to an end?
Philly Unity Cup
There’s still soccer at Talen this weekend! The United Sates takes on Liberia in the Championship match on Saturday at 6pm.
wait wait…. so what I’m coming to understand is –every playoff team actually gets a bye and the teams with the actual bye have an end of season break altogther long enough to recover from a surgery or run barefoot to the top of Great Britain or peddle a bicycle across the continental divide from mid town Manhattan or or or.
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what is this league doing… heres’ Decision Day Decision Day Decision Day let’s get super excited… aaaaannnnndddd now lets stop playing for two weeks to bed wet the momentum.
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It’s so stoopid.
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Well, the other option is playing through the international break, which would take NT players away from their teams during the playoffs. Remember, this new playoff format is designed to fit between the October and November international breaks (the previous format had the November break in the middle of the playoffs). As long as MLS is on the spring-fall schedule, these breaks are pretty difficult to avoid.
As much as I agree with The Elephant, I agree more with Eric. If they had played through the international break, people would’ve destroyed the league and rightfully so.
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What they need to do is limit the amount of teams in the playoffs, get rid of bye weeks, and go back to home and away legs. 14 teams is WAY too many in a league with 24 teams.
Remember, the league is a Ponzi scheme based on escalating entrance fees.
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They are already going to 28, and will probably go beyond that in expansion as long as there are billionaires willing to stump up the money.
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USLC is already at 36, with two more announced
for the next two years. They will lose one for 2020 so 2020 stands pat exchanging Nashville for San Diego.
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USL1 has 10 and just announced two more to join the already announced three for next season, making 15.
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2020. MLS = 26; USLC = 36; USL1 = 15.
Total fully professional teams in 2020 as far as is known publicly 10/9/19 = 77.
The league actually did a good job scheduling between the international breaks. And the 2 week break is actually good imo. Gives teams a chance to regroup before the tense playoffs. Gives stadiums a chance to sell more tickets. The Union (or other teams seeded #2-7) will have to win 3 games in 11 days to make it to MLS Cup. So I welcome the 2 week break. Plus we struggled a bit at the end so I think we’ll benefit at least for the Red Bull game…Also of note, all the playoff clubs seeded #2-4 that will host games on the 19th or 20th have strong fan bases which is good to see and I would hope all would have large attendances for their games.
Playing 3 games in 11 days and playing the semifinals on a Wednesday night is a poor scheduling decision by MLS.
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It’s the same issue as previous years: the playoffs are rushed to fit around the international windows. And it seems to undervalue the importance of the playoffs.
Remember, the TV networks govern the playoff schedule and want to avoid competition with their other sports contracts.
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two ways to increase profits — Econ 101 — improve the product or remove competition. (see John D. Rockefeller, Sr., et al.)
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The league cannot yet dictate to the networks.
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why are the Union playing a New York team on a Sunday afternoon if not to improve FS1’s chances at rating because of greater NY viewership?
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Why are Rutgers and Maryland in the Big Ten? To get big ten football access to those two markets, doormats though they are on the gridiron.
Given the international break, this seems reasonable.
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And I think the single-game elimination format is an improvement. It makes the regular season that much more valuable, as home field advantage is so huge in this league.
The real question is whether to shift the Schedule from Spring-Summer-Fall to Fall-Winter-Spring with time off at the height of winter. But making that work with a 32 team league will be crowded, unless the go August 1st to Memorial Day and drop things like the Gold Cup.
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either way, pretty soon they are going to have too expand roster size to accommodate all the extra games. That increases costs substantially and cuts profits.