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American Soccer |OT2| Party Like It's 1999.

Icolin

Banned
That was a beautifully worked goal. Cool finish from Reyna too.

I still don't feel 100% comfortable though...San Jose's had a few decent chances.
 

Cystm

Member
I still feel pretty dead inside, but a Niko hatty to take a big lead in the golden boot is pretty rad.

Diego Valeri is a god. 1 goal and 2 assists tonight. 20 goals and 11 assists on the year, and is just the dopest human being off the pitch. So happy for that dude.

Fake edit: Oh, no. Birdbomb. That looked scarey af.
 
iZYsLpK.jpg


It's not like me to post this, but here is me and my brother holding the supporters shield. We were fucking thrilled obviously.
 

Judderman

drawer by drawer
Tim Weah is on a brace in the Nats U-17 game against Paraguay.

EDIT: 3-0

2nd EDIT: In the middle of updating this 4-0, Tim Weah secures his hat trick making it 5-0. Wow.
 

gutshot

Member
Baby Nats performance makes missing this WC sting a little less. Hopefully they bring in a coach that can integrate some of these guys into the senior squad by 2022. Time to get a youth movement going.
 

Dartastic

Member
I still feel pretty dead inside, but a Niko hatty to take a big lead in the golden boot is pretty rad.

Diego Valeri is a god. 1 goal and 2 assists tonight. 20 goals and 11 assists on the year, and is just the dopest human being off the pitch. So happy for that dude.

Fake edit: Oh, no. Birdbomb. That looked scarey af.
Diego Valeri is the league MVP this year, and frankly it'd be a travesty if he didn't win it. He's literally the second player ever to have a 20g 10a season, with the first being Giovinco in 2015. He's amazing.

Also, great win by the boys on my birthday. It was pretty good. If we can beat Vancouver next week we take home first in the West and the Cascadia Cup... let's get it boys!
 

Cystm

Member
iZYsLpK.jpg


It's not like me to post this, but here is me and my brother holding the supporters shield. We were fucking thrilled obviously.

It was painful watching Jozy and MB smiling ear to ear while lifting this. But, I am happy for you TFCGAF, as much as I can be. This photo is just beautiful.
 

B-Dubs

No Scrubs
Why in God's name does Doyle seem convinced that Tyler Adams is a right back? We only play him there because we literally have no other option with Colin gone and the formation that forces us to play. If we could play him in his natural position he'd be the best damn player we have, not that he isn't already approaching that.
 

ZZMitch

Member
Wow so, according to Grant Wahl, the Crew are set to move down to Austin TX if they can't get a downtown stadium worked out by 2019.
 
Fuck everything about this.

MLS needs to say a move isn’t happening. If Austin wants a team they can go through expansion just like everyone else.

We are not in a situation we’re well have to stop expanding any time soon due to the talent pool diluding too much like the NBA or MLB, etc. MLS can go all the way up to 40 teams or more if we want.

Teams should only be allowed to move if they fail. The crew are not failing. They are an original franchise and the first soccer specific stadium in the country

It’s outdated now. But this is pure bullshit.
 

B-Dubs

No Scrubs
It really sucks that Columbus is now getting sucked into the stadium extortion bullshit racket.

Oh, that's just a pretext for moving the team. Apparently it's already a done deal and all this was to trigger a clause to let the owner move the team.
 
Today has sucked, and that's the simple way of putting it. Come 2019, I will be teamless.

We've worried this has been the case all along in the back of our minds since the new ownership came on board, and now that nightmare has become reality. The whole thing feels like it was set up all the way back in 2013; MLS let them buy the club knowing they'd eventually move it, and they'd give us some other team in another city and tell us it's the same thing, you'll get used to it.

It won't be. I took my parents to their first game in Columbus this summer and they loved it. I've been a fan for 15 years, moving to Ohio from Detroit and not having a team because Detroit was a "bad market for soccer" and a bad market in general, they said. (At the time, they were right.) I adopted the Crew as my team because they were the only team nearby I could go watch play. I watched them struggle, then get good, then struggle again, then get good again, then have a shit season and then make this crazy run in 2017.

And now it's all going away. Forever.

FUCK.

I've been trying not to cry at work all morning about the news. It's another scoop of bad shit on the sundae that's been my 2017.

So away to Austin it is for the Crew, except they'll have a new identity and a new title sponsor (hello, Dell) and a shiny new stadium on land graciously provided by the Austin City Government somewhere in downtown. And before anyone says, "There's nowhere to build in downtown Austin," they will find a way. Even if it means leveling a neighborhood or park to do so. Money always wins out in the end. Just because the mayor says no now doesn't mean he won't say yes later after a few donations to his re-election campaign.

But this hurts regardless, and there are thousands of Crew supporters outside of Columbus, in far flung places like Zanesville or Athens or Lima or the various cities of northeastern Ohio, that are hurting just as much as those in the city today. This was, for the last 22 years, our MLS team. And again, for many of us, it's another L being taken here.

(Side note: I'm actually glad that I didn't get that job offer from Crew SC two years ago, or I'd be out of a job right now. Second time I've dodged a bullet on a possible move to Columbus for a job, as I would have been laid off in both cases. I think the universe is telling me it's time to leave Ohio.)

---

To the few Chicago Fire, FC Cincinnati and Austinites gloating about this being a happy day and laughing at our misery: Burn in hell. All of you.

To the majority of Chicago, Cincinnati and Austin fans that aren't: The empathy is appreciated. This hurts tremendously and only plays into the idea that "lol, Ohio State too stronk, we can't succeed here" (yet, they're moving to a city comparable to Columbus in just about every way except more Hispanic and with an even heavier tech lean). Cincinnati, enjoy seeing FC Cincy in MLS. Sorry we won't be able to make the Hell Is Real Derby a thing anymore. Even though you kicked our ass this year, it was a crazy time and I wish we had more time to build an actual in-state rivalry.

To any Columbus Blue Jackets fans who also enjoy MLS, and yes, they exist: Just prepare yourselves to lose the hockey team at this point. They're going to be in Quebec City in a few years, and Bettman is going to use this as justification for any move (see above for reasoning).

To San Antonio FC supporters: I know there were a lot of folks looking forward to SAFC joining the top flight one day, but it's safe to say that dream dies. Precourt is moving in and he's taking your market hostage. He owns you now, and hell, I bet he'll make Spurs Entertainment an offer they can't refuse to make SAFC their affiliate.

To the Pittsburgh Riverhounds: Thanks for being an affiliate for our club. I don't know where you guys go from here, but I'll be rooting for you to succeed.

To the other teams of MLS that aren't in New York or Los Angeles: This is a warning shot. Your clubs are not safe. Not now, not 5 years from now, not a decade from now. Everything is negotiable for the right price, and eventually big money will pose a threat to you losing your team, too.

Rapids fans, go hug your team tight before Stan Kroenke pulls the plug on them and moves them to Las Vegas. Real Salt Lake-GAF, go take in the games at Rio Tinto and hope the Miller family never sells, because they're the only thing keeping your club (and the Jazz) from being next. FC Dallas-GAF, I'm worried for y'all.

---

I don't know where things go from here. FC Cincinnati isn't going to fly in Columbus. The NASL/USL have been suggested as opportunities, but in a city burned once by a club, are we going to trust anyone again? Not to mention Dayton Dynamo is already lining itself up to be the Cincy affiliate club and that makes sense geographically.

A team in Detroit? It'll probably happen eventually but it's not my team. I'm a Wings fan, a Tigers fan, and a long suffering Lions fan, but this was my club. I don't think anything will replace it.

The same local businesses that are needed to survive in the league now a days, the ones who put in the sponsorship money our craven owner demands, have to be rethinking their choices now. Honda paid for three years at the start of this season to be the jersey sponsor; they're likely getting two, and one of those two is going to be in front of 2,000 people per home game now. Mapfre got a deal on stadium naming rights but they never revealed the terms, so either they knew it was coming due to the term of the contract (and it would have been for ... four years?) or they, too, got hoodwinked because that stadium comes down as soon as Crew SC packs its last boxes into the moving vans.

I've supported MLS for years. I've cheered through good times and bad. And now, I'm finished.
 
That's super shitty and real slimy of the owner. I'm not opposed to Austin being in the league, but I am opposed to it happening this way.

Just gross from top to bottom.
 
Fuck Garber. We need a new commissioner. He was useful in the days when we were on the verge of folding but he’s over his head now


Hilarious that there’s no pressure on the Revs to do anything yet we’re just going to allow an original franchise that already has a SSS to move to fucking Texas. A state with two teams already with underwhelming support. Yeah let’s rip out the Crew and add a third! (No offense FCD, Dynamo fans)
 

megachao24

Unconfirmed Member
Today has sucked, and that's the simple way of putting it. Come 2019, I will be teamless.

We've worried this has been the case all along in the back of our minds since the new ownership came on board, and now that nightmare has become reality. The whole thing feels like it was set up all the way back in 2013; MLS let them buy the club knowing they'd eventually move it, and they'd give us some other team in another city and tell us it's the same thing, you'll get used to it.

It won't be. I took my parents to their first game in Columbus this summer and they loved it. I've been a fan for 15 years, moving to Ohio from Detroit and not having a team because Detroit was a "bad market for soccer" and a bad market in general, they said. (At the time, they were right.) I adopted the Crew as my team because they were the only team nearby I could go watch play. I watched them struggle, then get good, then struggle again, then get good again, then have a shit season and then make this crazy run in 2017.

And now it's all going away. Forever.

FUCK.

I've been trying not to cry at work all morning about the news. It's another scoop of bad shit on the sundae that's been my 2017.

So away to Austin it is for the Crew, except they'll have a new identity and a new title sponsor (hello, Dell) and a shiny new stadium on land graciously provided by the Austin City Government somewhere in downtown. And before anyone says, "There's nowhere to build in downtown Austin," they will find a way. Even if it means leveling a neighborhood or park to do so. Money always wins out in the end. Just because the mayor says no now doesn't mean he won't say yes later after a few donations to his re-election campaign.

But this hurts regardless, and there are thousands of Crew supporters outside of Columbus, in far flung places like Zanesville or Athens or Lima or the various cities of northeastern Ohio, that are hurting just as much as those in the city today. This was, for the last 22 years, our MLS team. And again, for many of us, it's another L being taken here.

(Side note: I'm actually glad that I didn't get that job offer from Crew SC two years ago, or I'd be out of a job right now. Second time I've dodged a bullet on a possible move to Columbus for a job, as I would have been laid off in both cases. I think the universe is telling me it's time to leave Ohio.)

---

To the few Chicago Fire, FC Cincinnati and Austinites gloating about this being a happy day and laughing at our misery: Burn in hell. All of you.

To the majority of Chicago, Cincinnati and Austin fans that aren't: The empathy is appreciated. This hurts tremendously and only plays into the idea that "lol, Ohio State too stronk, we can't succeed here" (yet, they're moving to a city comparable to Columbus in just about every way except more Hispanic and with an even heavier tech lean). Cincinnati, enjoy seeing FC Cincy in MLS. Sorry we won't be able to make the Hell Is Real Derby a thing anymore. Even though you kicked our ass this year, it was a crazy time and I wish we had more time to build an actual in-state rivalry.

To any Columbus Blue Jackets fans who also enjoy MLS, and yes, they exist: Just prepare yourselves to lose the hockey team at this point. They're going to be in Quebec City in a few years, and Bettman is going to use this as justification for any move (see above for reasoning).

To San Antonio FC supporters: I know there were a lot of folks looking forward to SAFC joining the top flight one day, but it's safe to say that dream dies. Precourt is moving in and he's taking your market hostage. He owns you now, and hell, I bet he'll make Spurs Entertainment an offer they can't refuse to make SAFC their affiliate.

To the Pittsburgh Riverhounds: Thanks for being an affiliate for our club. I don't know where you guys go from here, but I'll be rooting for you to succeed.

To the other teams of MLS that aren't in New York or Los Angeles: This is a warning shot. Your clubs are not safe. Not now, not 5 years from now, not a decade from now. Everything is negotiable for the right price, and eventually big money will pose a threat to you losing your team, too.

Rapids fans, go hug your team tight before Stan Kroenke pulls the plug on them and moves them to Las Vegas. Real Salt Lake-GAF, go take in the games at Rio Tinto and hope the Miller family never sells, because they're the only thing keeping your club (and the Jazz) from being next. FC Dallas-GAF, I'm worried for y'all.

---

I don't know where things go from here. FC Cincinnati isn't going to fly in Columbus. The NASL/USL have been suggested as opportunities, but in a city burned once by a club, are we going to trust anyone again? Not to mention Dayton Dynamo is already lining itself up to be the Cincy affiliate club and that makes sense geographically.

A team in Detroit? It'll probably happen eventually but it's not my team. I'm a Wings fan, a Tigers fan, and a long suffering Lions fan, but this was my club. I don't think anything will replace it.

The same local businesses that are needed to survive in the league now a days, the ones who put in the sponsorship money our craven owner demands, have to be rethinking their choices now. Honda paid for three years at the start of this season to be the jersey sponsor; they're likely getting two, and one of those two is going to be in front of 2,000 people per home game now. Mapfre got a deal on stadium naming rights but they never revealed the terms, so either they knew it was coming due to the term of the contract (and it would have been for ... four years?) or they, too, got hoodwinked because that stadium comes down as soon as Crew SC packs its last boxes into the moving vans.

I've supported MLS for years. I've cheered through good times and bad. And now, I'm finished.

I rarely post here (since both SAFC and the discontinued Scorpions are/were mediocre teams) but as someone who lives in the SA-Austin corridor this was a tough read. I figured a MLS team was coming to the area at some point but this a terrible way to do so. As a San Antonian Precourt can fuck off for all I care.

For some interesting tidbits, the Spurs are in the midst selling off their WNBA team to a Vegas-based group, possibly to make room for a MLS team here in SA if it somehow happens.
 

B-Dubs

No Scrubs
Garber needs to go to the guys who were willing to buy the Crew and give them a cheap expansion team. It won't be the same Crew, nothing will make the hurt go away, but at least soccer won't leave Ohio.

Jesus Garber, there were people willing to buy the team to keep in in Cbus. Should have just given the asshat an expansion slot and forced him to sell.
 
I take back everything I ever said on the issue

Hope FIFA comes in and forces promotion and relegation on the league. Our structure is fucked. Too seductive to people who just want to come in and ride the cash flow without doing anything themselves.

Don’t really care how it destabilizes anymore. Maybe it’s necessary and we deserve it. Bring on the chaos.
 

B-Dubs

No Scrubs
I take back everything I ever said on the issue

Hope FIFA comes in and forces promotion and relegation on the league. Our structure is fucked. Too seductive to people who just want to come in and ride the cash flow without doing anything themselves.

Don’t really care how it destabilizes anymore. Maybe it’s necessary and we deserve it. Bring on the chaos.

Pro/rel ain't gonna do shit to stop this kind of thing and you know it.
 
What the fuck. Is this the first time an MLS team has used a move to get a new stadium?

I was hoping that shit would stay out of MLS.

Garber is from the cloth of the NFL.

That is what MLS is trying to emulate.

Not the Premier League.

Not the Bundesliga.

THE FUCKING NFL AND ITS MONOPOLY.

Hate to break it to you, ownership boys, BUT YOU DON'T HAVE A GLOBAL MONOPOLY ON THIS SPORT.
 
Awful. TFC fans and Crew fans have had their differences but I've always had a huge amount of respect for their fanbase and franchise. They are from a much tougher era of MLS. Moving their team is terrible
 
The danger is, too, that outside of maybe the Galaxy and I'd say NYCFC, no one else is safe from this. Because eventually, every team will find itself in a position where they have the oldest stadium or the smallest market or new ownership who doesn't have the same ties to the community as the old one. They'll demand a new stadium, or see some other city offering up a treasure for a team because that's the way franchising works. Limited slots generate constant interest from other places who don't have a team but want one.

Some day, what makes your team, your hometown safe from a cash grab will no longer be there. And it'll be Dallas, or Colorado, or RSL under new ownership, or NYRB when their namesake company tires of them, or DC United next time they can't get a sweet new stadium deal, or Chicago when they want new grounds closer to The Loop, or Montreal because some billionaire down south comes calling (again).

Some of those names mentioned may make you laugh. But no amount of tradition or history will save you from cold hard capitalism. Money always wins.

EDIT: As a side note, ownership wants a downtown stadium in Austin. There's not many places to build there. Unless the city is willing to give up its most treasured park...
 

B-Dubs

No Scrubs
RBNY should be ok. According to some of the chatter around the team, the academy is making buckets of money. Like hand over fist. Someone joked we're a team supporting an academy. Given the money they're making, I doubt Red Bull wants out.

NYCFC on the other hand has 0 plans for a stadium in the near future. I imagine the league will give them an ultimatum at some point. Yankee Stadium is fine if one of the two teams using it is crap, when both are good it becomes an embarrassment for the league. If they lose second place they'll have no where to play their first play off match.
 
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