MLS/Liga MX Season Thread Now Featuring Inter Messi
Your Defending Champs:
Canada - MONTRÉAL
MLS Cup - Seattle
US Open Cup - Atlanta
Liga MX - Los Rayados de Monterrey
CONCACAF Champions League - Los Rayados de Monterrey
2020 MLS Cup Odds:
CONCACAF Champions League Bracket:
Biggest Departues:
Nacho Piatti from Impact to San Lorenzo
ZLATAN from LA Galaxy to AC Milan
Wayne Rooney from DC to Derby County
Brian Fernández from Portland to jail (I think)
Nico Gaitán from Chicago to Ligue 1 side Lille
NEW Players (w/summaries just for 72o):
Chicharito to LA Galaxy (age: 31) - needs no introduction. All time leader for El Tri (México) w/51 goals. Broke in w/Man Utd, notching 3 straight 10+ goal seasons, more recently bagged 16 goals in 55 matches for Westham, and comes to LAG from Sevilla.
Claudio Pizarro to Inter Miami (age: 25) - another fairly important piece for El Tri where he has 23 caps. Comes from los Rayados where he's already won a few titles in only a couple seasons. Although probably not a top 3 player for Monterrey, they'll be glad to part with him for the 20 million price tag Inter Miami agreed to pay. When he's on he's very good, but he's also very inconsistent. Should dominate in MLS though imo.
Jürgen Locadia to Cincinnati (age: 26) - IMO, the most interesting signing. Notable in that he's the only player in the top 8 most valuable MLS players who doesn't play in LA or ATL. I'm still not sure how Cincy pulled this off. Big time goalscorer w/45 in 127 matches for PSV Eindhoven. He's be a golden boot frontrunner if he played for a better team.
Mauricio Pereyra to Orlando (age: 29) - Uruguayan attacking mid comes from Russian side Krasnodar w/23 goals in 154 appearances. Caps w/Uruguay's U20s but never made an appearance for the nat'l team.
Alan Pulido to Sporting KC (age: 28) - The Mexican isn't really in the nat'l team picture anymore, but is coming off a great season for Mexican giants Chivas where he finished as joint golden boot winner.
Robert Beric to Chicago (age: 28) - 25 caps with Slovenia and comes from Ligue 1 side Sainte-Étienne w/a pretty solid goal scoring record, 26 goals in 81 matches over 5 seasons.
Lucas Zelarayán to Columbus Crew (age: 27) - The Argentine attacking midfielder has been a key player for Liga MX's best side in recent years, Tigres, with 113 appearances and 21 goals over 5 seasons.
Edison Flores to DC United (age: 25) - Yet another player from Liga MX. The Peruvian winger has been a stalwart for their national team with 13 goals in 47 appearances and was a regular for Morelia over the past 2 seasons.
Felipe Mora to Portland (age: 26) - Wildly inconsistent, but can bang in goals when he's on. Comes from Liga MX's Pumas.
Lucas Cavallini to Puebla (age: 27) - Has been great for Canada w/11 goals in only 17 apps. Another player from Liga MX (Puebla) w/ a very respectable 29 goals in 75 matches for a Liga MX bottom feeder side that doesn't score often.
Luis Binks to MONTRÉAL (age: 19) - Comes from Tottenham's academy thanks to Thierry Henry's connections. Supposedly Tottenham's 2nd best young CB.
Intra-league Moves:
DARWIN from Minnesota to Houston
Walker Zimmerman from LAFC to Nashville
Wil Trapp from Columbus to Inter Miami
Katai from Chicago to LAG
Nagbe from ATL to Columbus
Gressel from ATL to DCU
Romell Quioto from Houston to IMFC
yikes that's a rough one fossil 😮 when it rains it pours I guess.
The Leagues Cup is still actually going on and the final is later today: LAFC at Columbus. Also there is the meaningless 3rd place game Crapids at Philly.
apparently a nashville player called an ATX player a **** during the game and the nashville team tweeted out a whole statement saying they're aware of the INCIDENT and are working with MLS to LAUNCH AN INVESTIGATION.
let that sink in.
it's an INCIDENT worthy of INVESTIGATION.
and if the player who got called a Cee U Next Thursday (just in case it censors ****) was the one who went and cried about it then all he did was prove the allegation true.
what an absolute ****.
lolololol, so sad how soft everyone is now
that was one of the ugliest most embarrassing halves I've ever seen LAFC play good lord they look like they've never played before.
crew just absolutely own them.
yeah they have no answer for the columbus press
injuries + intl duty = whitecaps starting the worst lineup since ... i don't even know when
16 Berhalter S.
6 Blackmon T.
12 Halbouni B.
28 Johnson L.
19 Kreilach D.
2 Laborda M.
13 Priso-Mbongue R.
7 Raposo R.
8 Schopf A.
1 Takaoka Y. (G)
4 Veselinovic R.
will be something of a miracle if they win this one
I have a bet on FC Dallas +240 so I hope u r right 😀
feels like MLS has been in some influx of "international breaks" for months now. LOL this league.
man that was quite a display MLS put on today def a smart decision to have teams play during intl break.
good lord those were some ugly ugly games.
26' Messi L. (Suarez L.) [INT]
30' Messi L. (Alba J.) [INT]
90+8' Suarez L. (Messi L.) [INT]
messi confirmed big time back
inter miami has done a pretty good job of winning no matter who has been starting this season.
USMNT should have tried to hire this other Argentinian Martino...
man wtf happened to RSL?
I know they got rid of gomez and savarino but even still they are just beyond words bad all of a sudden.
also is it just recency bias or are LAG just consistently not good in the 1h and elite in the 2h?
Non-Pen G+A per 90:
1. Messi 1.83
2. Suarez 1.32
3. Martinez 1.28
4. Acosta 1.04
This Martinez fella for NYCFC must be having quite a season to be in the same stratosphere as the 2 GOATs.
interesting. soon-to-be 26 year old costa rican winger. played in costa rica for several years before moving to lower league belgium. nycfc plucked him out of the 2nd division after a solid 15 scorepoints in 2000 minutes season, and he has 14 in 1000 this year. kind of want to say it's a fish on a heater situation based on his history, and the fact that he has 0 goals in 13 for costa rica, but there's something there with this guy. obviously, if he's outperforming everyone but messi and suarez.
interesting. soon-to-be 26 year old costa rican winger. played in costa rica for several years before moving to lower league belgium. nycfc plucked him out of the 2nd division after a solid 15 scorepoints in 2000 minutes season, and he has 14 in 1000 this year. kind of want to say it's a fish on a heater situation based on his history, and the fact that he has 0 goals in 13 for costa rica, but there's something there with this guy. obviously, if he's outperforming everyone but messi and suarez.
i wouldn't read too much into it
there's a massive amount of scoring variance in soccer in addition to limited samples and vastly different player usages and coaching philosophies
ie he could simply be playing in a system that funnels him the ball and anyone in that spot would be scoring
furthermore, costa rica infamously plays an extremely defensive version of soccer where they basically park the bus and hope to score on the counter or bank the point in a tie or try to win in pennos in an elimination game
regarding the variance - 3 of his goals happened in a 10 minute span where he came on as a substitute late in a game they were already winning and thus the opposition was going full on attack to which he didn't have too many defenders to content with when he got the ball in a forward position
it seems he's being used exclusively as a striker with nyfc whereas other teams other used him as a winger, costa rica has been utilizing him as the central striker but he's part of a group of 3 up front so the touches in the box are distributed more to others
nyfc does a 4-2-3-1 which funnels him the ball up front whereas costa rica does a 3-4-3
but he seems pretty good, he's scored well over his entire career and at 25 is just entering his prime, given he was sold for 400k and then nyfc got him as a free transfer this year it does seem like a good bit of scouting on their behalf
whitecaps playing lag ..... til the galaxy signed marco reus
actually, he's like 5 years older than i thought he was, so this makes sense
also lafc apparently signed the also very old olivier giroud, wild stuff
retirement league confirmed big time back
2' Langoni L. [NER]
34' Borrero D. (Yusuf A.) [NER]
revs with a 2-0 lead on messi fc!
Spoiler
40' Suarez L. (Martinez D. + Taylor R.) [INT]
43' Suarez L. (Bright Y.) [INT]
58' Cremaschi B. (Alba J. + Messi L.) [INT]
78' Messi L. (Suarez L.) [INT]
81' Messi L. (Alba J.) [INT]
89' Messi L. (Suarez L. + Campana L.) [INT]
oh, right
lol at the lag game.
I can only imagine the day when mankind invents the technology to accurately keep track of time and not just let games go for as long as the ref feels like it.
This was the last weekend of the season apparently...these things get forgotten with weeks of international breaks...
also wow at unleashing Messi late to run up the score vs......New England Revolution? 
Umm, ok, I guess he needed this practice for the lol MLS playoffs?
90+11 is tite tite tite
i guess we goin to lolcanada for the lolwildcatr round. makes sense
oct 22: atlanta fc head to montreal to visit their old pal josef martinez. i was gonna say glgl playing in montreal outdoors in late october, but i just checked and the forecast is 25 celsius and sunny. thank o'brandon
oct 23: cascadia derby with the timbers coming up the i5 to hand vancouver whitecaps their latest indignity, probably. wouldn't even be their 1st home playoff loss to portland lol
winners play miami and lafc, respectively
others matchups:
columbus v nyrb
cincinnatti v nyfc
orlando v charlotte
seattle v houston
salt lake v minnesota lakers
lag v colorado
ny vs ohio in the east, and til it's a 7-hour drive from charlotte to orlando? potrland/vancouver is actually the closest matchup this round. wild
and what is this best-of-3 bullshit? idk, but i guess it means more games, and playoffs is as good as mls gets, so bring it on i guess
Round One will comprise a best-of-three format with higher seeds playing against lower seeds. The round does not have the aggregate score kept, and tied matches proceed directly to a penalty shoot-out to determine the winner. The remaining three rounds — the Conference Semifinals, Conference Final, and MLS Cup — will be single-elimination matches played with extra time and a penalty shoot-out if still tied.
Montreal goes 5-1-1 in their last 7 so salvage a playoff spot, and they're playing without a single DP. They have 1 DP in Wanyama, but he's so bad now that he doesn't even play. I guess Saputo got his wish of backing into the playoffs without spending anything. Doesn't matter anyway as they're playing the Sacrifical Lamb Cup for the right to get fed to Inter Messi.
R1 best-of-3 sounds horrible. At most, you should do a 2 match tie, but 3 in soccer is overkill. Makes zero sense not to do multi-match rounds in the Conf SF and Conf F if the Conf QF is multi-match. Either all should be single-elim or all should be 2 match ties.
oops, the timbers/whitecaps game is in portland. that's much worse. wiki had it the other way around last night. bastards
yeah making the playoffs while getting ~nothing from dps actually is kind of impressive, but hopefully they spend a little next year. and hopefully wanyama's contract is finally over lol
1st half:
29' Lennon B. (Amador P.) [ATL]
44' Gregersen S. (Miranchuk Al.) [ATL]
welp
good thing they didn't put this one on tsn i guess...
do the fightin impact have one big comeback in them?? probably not :(
63' Martinez J. [CFM]
it's happening??
edit:
89' Martinez J. (Penalty) [CFM]
sources confirn
Damn, all that for nothing.
speaking of pointlessly doing things ..... WHITECAPS. 1-0
ryan gauld, who else? worth every penny
