2012 Major League Soccer Thread

[TenaciousAC]

Golazo de Marco Pappa

Now that's a way to start a game at home.

[TenaciousAC]

http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2012/06/27/fc-dallas-unveil-advocare-first-ever-jersey-sponsor



Welcome to the club, FC Dallas.

The Frisco, Texas-based side is the latest MLS team to introduce a sponsor to their jersey fronts with AdvoCare becoming the first corporate partner ever to grace the team's kits. The new kits will make their debut on July 28 when FC Dallas host the MLS Cup champion LA Galaxy.

AdvoCare, which also sponsors NASCAR and college football's Independence Bowl, will appear on all FC Dallas team gear, including on the academy and youth team levels.

At a Wednesday press conference to unveil the partnership, AdvoCare CEO Richard Wright revealed that the deal will run through the end of the 2015 season. AdvoCare was already a partner of FC Dallas for more than 10 years.

The health and wellness company based in Plano, Texas, offers nutrition, weight loss, energy and sports performance products. It counts NFL star quarterback Drew Brees as its national spokesman.

The deal caps a year-long search by FC Dallas for a jersey partner and leaves just three MLS clubs with jersey sponsor opportunities: Colorado Rapids, San Jose Earthquakes and Sporting Kansas City.

[TenaciousAC]

http://www.portlandtimbers.com/video/2012/07/02/2012-portland-seattle-tifo-behind-scenes

^^^^^^ Nice little video showing the Timbers Army constructing their Tifo before their recent Cascadia clash against Seattle. Final piece as you see below was 260ft x 65ft (about 80m by 20m). They said that over A THOUSAND MAN HOURS went into making it !!!!

Timbers TIFO Display 6/24/2012

Timbers Army Tifo vs Seattle Sounders From the SD

[dave_saves]

THAT

IS

FUCKING

AWESOME!!


Don't understand why they were chanting "you fucked up" tho.

[TenaciousAC]

^^^ It was the Seattle away end doing the "You Fucked Up" chant.


But yeh, it's boss beyond BOSS !!!!!

[TenaciousAC]

Not quite an MLS comeback, but going to the 2nd tier NASL first is a good start.

http://nycosmos.com/news/cosmos-join-nasl-press-roundup

[TenaciousAC]

Interesting article about MLS now reaching the potential it'd wanted, and starting to look ahead for the next 15 years.

http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2012/07/13/armchair-analyst-existential-questions-all-answered-now

Armchair Analyst: Existential questions answered by now

?There is no chance it will survive,? Nye Lavalle said to The Sporting News about MLS in 1994. ?Absolutely no chance whatsoever.?

Obviously, Lavalle ? a sports exec of some note in 1980s and ?90s ? was wrong. Just as obviously, there were some times throughout that first 15 years where he could have been something close to right.

MLS had existential concerns at the start; they?re well documented. Part of it was figuring out where the game was best played (thank you, Lamar Hunt); part was figuring out who the fans really were and how to reach them (heyo, Peter Wilt!); and part was simply drilling into the collective public consciousness that, ?Hey, Americans (and Canadians) are damn good at soccer, too!?

The last part has really been the hard part. We have watched soccer grow and die and grow and die and grow again. Pele came and went before ESPN ever flicked a switch. The 1984 Olympic soccer tournament set attendance records months before NASL folded. A decade later, the World Cup did it again before MLS was truly born.

Throughout it all, the notion of soccer being an American sport (apologies, Canada ? I?m being provincial for a moment) hadn?t really seeped through to more than just the fringe. Kids in Kearney or Oxnard may have grown up dreaming of being pro soccer players, but those communities were just islands in the stream.

MLS is no longer in an existential mode. And neither is the game as a whole ? the expansion plans of the NASL (they?ve targeted pretty much every decent-sized market from San Diego to Nassau County) speak to that.

Because it?s the Cosmos, Thursday?s NASL expansion announcement drew headlines. I say this in all sincerity and without an ounce of sarcasm: The Cosmos are good like that.

But it would have been a significant announcement regardless of the name of the team, or the location. Had it been Las Vegas, or Jacksonville, or Detroit, or ? please, someday soon ? St. Louis instead of New York, it would have been just as important, just as crucial to the expanding footprint of the domestic game.

?We welcome the Cosmos? entrance to the NASL,? MLS Commissioner Don Garber said in a statement. ?Having a vibrant second division is important to the overall growth and popularity of soccer in North America, and we are pleased to see the NASL add a new franchise.?

That right there is the long and short of it. A rising tide lifts all boats. A healthy first division begets a healthy second and third division, and vice versa.

They?ll also help with the most crucial task of the next 15 years, as important in its own way as soccer-specific stadiums were.

Namely: player identification and training.

There are simply too many markets, too many kids, too many stones in North America to kick over. Nineteen MLS teams can?t cover that. Expand that to 20, or even 24, and you still fall short.

Let?s say NYC2 ? whether it?s the Cosmos or not ? is MLS team No. 20. Let?s say the league doesn?t stop there, and adds Orlando, Miami, Atlanta and St. Louis as well. And all these teams build stadiums, and academies, and find great sponsors and do all the things we want to see from all our clubs.

Even in that scenario, more than 50 percent of populous (US and Canada) would be without a local MLS team. And not every kid is going to be lucky enough to have a family who drives him on a four-hour round-trip to practice thrice a week, a la Clint Dempsey, just so he can get the best training available.

This is where the NASL ? and USL Pro, the third tier of the game in the US and Canada ? come in. They may be years away from having MLS-style academies (just as MLS teams are years away from having Barcelona-style academies), but they?re on the path. They?re starting to do more than just survive in the markets MLS can?t reach, and eventually ? or perhaps already ? they?ll realize the best way to make those markets truly theirs is to teach the kids.

It goes back to the ?identification? premise I addressed in this column several weeks ago. It?s simply good business to have some sort of academy structure ? it makes fans feel like you?re part of the community in a way the typical NBA or NHL team simply isn?t.

More importantly, though, it means that the players you?re getting will be better trained, because they will have been trained by professionals. It means the thought of the local kid growing up to play professional soccer isn?t absurd, no matter where he?s from. It means every data point that fed Lavalle?s reasoning is now dead.

And it means that the next generation of Dempseys, or Donovans, or De Rosarios will have come from professional academies. That?s not meant as a knock on the amateur clubs out there ? many of them do a fine job of developing the talent they have.

The smart money, though, is on professional academies ? a network of them from coast to coast ? doing better. That?s the way it?s done all over the world; precedent, after all, is relevant.

And here?s the other part of the precedent: A number of these kids will someday turn into adults who are very good at soccer, and they will move from the third tier to the second tier to the first.

In the international soccer community, talent flows uphill. Then teams on the bottom reinvest to create more of that talent. Success perpetuates success.

You can do the math from there, and you should ? it?ll be the relevant storyline of the next 15 years.

[Brisbane fan in US]

I would rather not see New York Cosmos join MLS.  I never found the two teams for one city model very effective.  I would prefer MLS to expand somewhere in the Southeast like Orlando

[Finsta]

I find it amazing how well the MLS has improved and grown over the last 10-15 years.. They definitely have the right strategy and competent men at the helm!

[Benny]

FFA need to buy their model.

[TenaciousAC]

Results and crowds so far.....

Once again, most of the MLS teams will be playing international club friendlies, plus the 2012 World Football Challenge as well.

Here's the full fixture list

Wed May 23 : Portland Timbers vs Valencia Valencia 1-0 Att 19,564
May 31: Houston Dynamo vs Valencia Valencia 2-1 Att 22,039
July 18 : Seattle Sounders vs. Chelsea FC Chelsea 4-2 Att 53,309
July 18 : Philadelphia Union vs Aston Villa Aston Villa 1-0 Att 17,195
July 21 : Toronto FC vs. Liverpool FC  @ Rogers Centre (the old Skydome) 1-all draw Att 33,087
July 21 : Chicago Fire vs Aston Villa Aston Villa 1-0 Att 16,388
July 22 : Chelsea FC vs. Paris St. Germain @ Yankee Stadium 1-all draw Att 38,202
July 24 : Colorado Rapids vs Swansea City Colorado Rapids 2-1 Att 6,484
July 24 : Columbus Crew vs Stoke City Columbus Crew 2-1 Att
July 24 : Montreal Impact vs Olympique Lyonnais 1-all full time, Lyon on PKs 4-2 Att 19,225
July 24 : Sporting Kansas City vs Montpellier Montpellier 3-0 Att : 14,769
July 24 : Los Angeles Galaxy vs Tottenham Hotspur 1-all draw Att :
July 25 : MLS ALL Stars vs Chelsea @ PPL Park, Philadelphia MLS All-Stars 3-2 Att 19,236 (PPL Park ground record)
July 28 : Chelsea FC vs. AC Milan @ SunLife Stadium, Miami
July 28 : D.C. United vs. Juventus
July 28 : Olympique Lyonnais vs Montpelier "Champions Trophy" @ Red Bull Arena, New York
July 31 : New York Red Bulls vs Tottenham Hotspur
July 31 : San Jose Earthquakes vs Swansea City
Aug 1 : Sporting Kansas City vs Stoke City
Aug 2 : LA Galaxy vs. Real Madrid
Aug 5 : Real Madrid (SPA) vs. Juventus (ITA) @ Sam Boyd Stadium, Las Vegas

[TenaciousAC]

http://www.portlandtimbers.com/timbers-live

If you want to watch the Timbers- Aston Villa that's on right now. They're streaming it on YouTube

[TenaciousAC]

http://www.portlandtimbers.com/timbers-live

If you want to watch the Timbers- Aston Villa that's on right now. They're streaming it on YouTube

Do you have the Youtube channel link? I can't find it, otherwise, its just a webcast?

If you go to the link above, then click on the words in the title, it brings up the proper YouTube page (

Timbers vs. Aston Villa International Friendly 7:30

)
 and vision, stating "This video is unlisted. Only those with the link can see it."

EDIT : Since putting up that link, I can watch it via this post. Is it not working for other people ?

[fergiebrisvegas]

http://www.portlandtimbers.com/timbers-live

If you want to watch the Timbers- Aston Villa that's on right now. They're streaming it on YouTube

Do you have the Youtube channel link? I can't find it, otherwise, its just a webcast?

If you go to the link above, then click on the words in the title, it brings up the proper YouTube page (Timbers vs. Aston Villa International Friendly 7:30)
 and vision, stating "This video is unlisted. Only those with the link can see it."

EDIT : Since putting up that link, I can watch it via this post. Is it not working for other people ?

My bad, my stupid firefox (no script version) couldn't play it, so I switched over to IE and it works fine, thanks anyway.

[TenaciousAC]

MLS takes in the big picture

http://espn.go.com/sports/soccer/story/_/id/8194367/mls-hopes-build-national-profile-roger-bennett

This is not your older brother's MLS. As the buzz descends on Wednesday's All-Star Game against Chelsea, America's oft-maligned domestic soccer league has gamely garnered an average attendance of 18,732, witnessed the construction of 14 purpose-built stadia nationwide and become a fixture (albeit an erratic one) across multiple broadcast networks.

Despite this steady growth, the MLS' 17th season has been one of quiet though dramatic behind-the-scenes transformation. The league has emerged from six months spent painstakingly examining its marketing strategies. For the first time it has concluded that it must begin to define itself as a national brand across North America.

In the past, MLS has taken a backseat, consciously leaving its clubs to soak up the limelight, but the league has matured to such an extent that approach now leaves a vacuum. "We have enjoyed success on a local market level but have not achieved national market relevance at all," admitted Howard Handler, who as MLS' recently appointed chief marketing officer is now charged with working out how to encourage Vancouver fans to tune into a nationally televised game which does not feature their own team. "To do that, our league needs to step up and project a nationwide identity by taking control of our own message and articulating it in our own words," Handler explained. "The challenge now is to work out what we want to say."

Handler, 51, brings an eclectic professional background to the task, having worked at Madison Square Garden, EMI Music and in marketing and fan development at the NFL. The thickset former lacrosse player's soccer epiphany came ahead of a Seattle Sounders game. "It was pouring with rain, and marching through Pioneer Square to the stadium in that weather was mind-blowing," he revealed. "In working with the NFL, I thought I had encountered rabid fans at Green Bay or Chicago, but mingling with these [Seattle] fans I realized their support was an expression of their own identities -- a reflection of who they are and what it means to be 20- and 30-year-olds in Seattle."

This feeling was reinforced by Handler's initial interactions with MLS owners. Young investors such as Seattle's Adrian Hanauer or Portland's Merritt Paulson were a stark contrast to those he had encountered back in the NFL. "Sometimes, the executive suite of sports feels more 'big business' than an expression of authentic fan passion," he said. "The new breed in MLS are as much fans and missionaries for the growth of the sport in North America as they are owners."

As a marketing professional, Handler worked quickly to square the gut emotion of these experiences with research and data. In March, a study by Luker On Trends/ESPN revealed the startling statistic that "pro soccer" trailed only the NFL as the most popular sport for Americans aged 12-24. Handler followed up with the pollsters and was relieved to learn "if you pull out MLS alone, it still ranks No. 4, ahead of Major League Baseball and NCAA football/basketball."

Television viewing patterns were Handler's next object of study. He combed through the past three years of Nielsen ratings to challenge the common wisdom that a majority of American soccer fans are, in his words, "Euro snobs who look down their noses at U.S. soccer and MLS." His analysis uncovered an 80 percent overlap between avid Champions League viewers and those who watched MLS, and a 50 percent overlap with English Premier League aficionados.

The conclusion Handler drew was simple. "So much is written about the rise and relevance of global soccer in North America but a true supporters' movement has emerged here in the United States that has not been covered in the national media because our positioning has barely changed since kickoff in 1996 [when the league started]," he said. Frustrated by MLS' inability to make national headlines save a David Beckham tantrum, or an occasional 40-yard wonder goal that can squeeze into the highlight reel, Handler's strategic directive was blunt: "We have to take control of its own destiny and fill that vacuum. If we don't tell our own story nationally, no one else is going to," he said.

MLS has not typically invested in this kind of work, but Handler's insight came during a period of quiet confidence. "We have realized the league is at a new life stage," he said. "For the past few years, we have been focused on building stadia and expanding into new markets. Now we are ready to build our own profile."



MLS fans know how to poke fun at their local rivals. The next step is getting that passion to spill over on a national level.

In Handler's mind, MLS is at an inflection point where it has the potential to take off exponentially if it can conjure a way to make the patchwork of localized fan frenzy spill over and follow the game league-wide. "We have an impressive set of core believers which is growing every week, but we still lack numbers engaging with us on television and within the digital landscape," he explained. "If we can build out the ways fans can connect to the league, we can ensure a local conversation becomes a national one."

Like a hopeful angler casting extra lines into a river to catch more fish, the strategies Handler has incubated seek to compensate for the league's perceived lack of national respect by providing new access points to MLS' storylines. The head office has invested in ambitious new television productions, such as the YouTube partnership, KickTV, or NBC Sports Network's MLS 36, which introduces fans to the personalities of emerging stars such as Fredy Montero or Darlington Nagbe. "To encourage a Seattle fan to watch a game without the Sounders we have to provide more context," Handler said. "The more you feel, the more you care, the more you care, the more you want."

Driving national ratings for live-game broadcasts remains the league's top priority. "We have good partners nationally and locally but we simply have to grow the number of fans tuning in," Handler confessed. Scheduling is part of the challenge. "Right now our matches are all over the dial," he admitted. "Unlike the Premier League, where you roll right out of bed on a Saturday morning, we have not yet created a habitual time slot that spells MLS soccer." A secondary problem is that in contrast to personality-driven leagues like the NBA, the presence of MLS' emerging stars can be fleeting, as their success triggers a move to an elite European club.

The solution came to Handler while he was meeting with hard-core fans at D.C. United who had painstakingly crafted their own banners by hand. "I realized our best assets are our supporters' passion and creativity, and nothing spikes that like their team's rivalries," he said.

MLS is blessed with a number of potent rivalries from the Cascadia Cup and the California Clasico to Los Angeles-Vancouver and New York-D.C. The league forged a partnership with Sid Lee, a Montreal-based brand agency whose clients include adidas and Ajax, to create national mini-campaigns behind targeted big fixtures, backing them with the financing to convey the unique voice and sensibility of each game. "With the league office developing the content and working in a highly choreographed fashion with sponsors, clubs and network partners, we learned we can use physical postering, television ads and digital promos to take our viewership to a whole new level," he said.

Handler excitedly pulls down a bundle of posters from a shelf above his desk to talk me through Sid Lee's distinctive creative for the California Clasico, displaying crude, post-apocalyptic designs in which L.A. Galaxy fans goad their opponents, "We're not afraid of Aftershocks." Every ad in the series reflects the same voice, that of impassioned fans poking fun at their opponents. "We wanted to capture the humor, swagger and handmade value of fandom to get the chatter going," Handler enthusiastically explained.

The approach paid dividends the first time it was tested during June's Vancouver-Los Angeles clash. MLS delivered poster and television campaigns. The broadcaster dedicated pro-bono promotional spots, which the league supplemented by buying airtime on Comedy Central. MLS' combined efforts were rewarded when national viewership was up 37 percent in comparison to the previous year's broadcast.

Handler is realistic about the stiff competition MLS faces. "Our audience have limited time, finite finances, and we have to compete for their attention as elite soccer has become almost omnipresent in North America," but he draws strength from the fact that even games that appear to be competition, can work as allies. A Handler campaign deployed on ESPN2 during the Euro 2012 clash between Italy and England turned the subsequent Portland-Seattle match into the third-most viewed MLS regular-season game of all time with 888,000 people tuning in.

Can the strategy pay off? Daniel Durbin, director of the Annenberg Institute of Sports, Media and Society at USC, is doubtful. "You need persistent coverage in national media that reinforces that the message this is a league of some importance," he said. "MLS is a late bloomer because people's habits for sports on television were seeded generations ago, which is why NHL has not been able to stick. Even NASCAR can't pick up national viewership in the Northeast and the far West."

Durbin applauded the decision for MLS to brand a national identity, but predicted growth would be slow. "Rivalries may be the best available option for MLS to grow," he said. "But they need their star teams to be in major markets like the Lakers in Los Angeles, the Yankees in New York and the Patriots in New England. When your hottest team is in Portland, Oregon, it reinforces the perception you are a fringe sport that will do well to pull a slow build toward a 2.0 rating."

Handler however, remains undeterred. "We have been around long enough for our audience to know MLS exists," he said. "We simply have to give them more compelling reasons to care in order to change the amount they watch."

As I prepare to head out of Handler's office, I momentarily catch him off-guard by asking if he had ever thought about rebranding MLS' logo. The marketer paused for a beat before mumbling that "it has been discussed," before quickly recovering to declare with gusto, "I'm only an evangelist, man! I just tap into something people love and take it to more people."

As he shook my hand, he downplayed his work. "This isn't rebranding," he assured me. "It's just tweaking."

[Brisbane fan in US]

I have decided to to a round up of action this weekend in MLS

Houston beat Toronto 2-0 to increase there wining streak to 4 and move to second in the Eastern conference.
http://www.mlssoccer.com/matchcenter/2012-07-28-tor-v-hou/recap

Di Viao open his account as Montreal defeats New York 3-1
http://www.mlssoccer.com/matchcenter/2012-07-28-mtl-v-ny/recap

Weakened LA won 1-0 against FC Dallas
http://www.mlssoccer.com/matchcenter/2012-07-28-dal-v-la/recap

Jairo Arrieta scores a brace to help Columbus to a 2-1 victory over Kansas City

Alonso's volley leads Seattle past Colorado 1-0
http://www.mlssoccer.com/matchcenter/2012-07-28-col-v-sea/recap

Lenhart's late heroics grab a point for San Jose in a 1-1 draw with Chicago. 
http://www.mlssoccer.com/matchcenter/2012-07-28-sj-v-chi/recap

Slowly rising Chivas USA beats falling Portland 1-0
http://www.mlssoccer.com/matchcenter/2012-07-28-por-v-chv/recap

Late game antics captures a 2-1 for Philadelphia over New England (Unfairly if you ask me)
http://www.mlssoccer.com/matchcenter/2012-07-29-phi-v-ne/recap
 

[Brisbane fan in US]

For standing:
 http://www.mlssoccer.com/standings

[aussiemoviemaker]

Colorado have been having a really forgettable season.

[TenaciousAC]

I have decided to to a round up of action this weekend in MLS

Lenhart's late heroics grab a point for San Jose in a 1-1 draw with Chicago. 
http://www.mlssoccer.com/matchcenter/2012-07-28-sj-v-chi/recap

And a 98th minute equaliser to boot for the Earthquakes !!!

[asdf1248]

Going to the Earthquakes vs Swansea game tomorrow. Will be wearing my Roar jersey!!

3 more weeks left in San Jose, then it's back to uni and watching footy on TV...