It may lack the glitz of the New York derby or the grudge match in the Pacific north-west but the Texas clubs are producing fine play on the fieldThe rivalry between the Houston Dynamo and FC Dallas lacks the pageantry of, say, the Sounders-Timbers feud up in the Pacific north-west. Though an official attendance of 22,115 showed up for Friday night’s showdown at BBVA Compass Stadium – Houston’s first announced sellout since July 2015 – the atmosphere was still somewhat short of raucous, and a sprinkling of bright-orange empty seats stood out from the crowd.Houston-Dallas lacks the big city sparkle of the New York City FC-Red Bulls games, and the historical weight of matches pitting Toronto against Montreal. What the...
The World Cup winner reached 50 goals for NYC FC on Saturday, and he appears dedicated to lifting up both the league and his team-matesPlayer quotes within club-sanctioned press releases are notoriously bland. That is especially true when it is a Major League Soccer club rolling out a decorated European veteran.When New York City FC announced their first-ever signing in 2014, the summer before its inaugural season, David Villa hit on all the familiar clichés. Related: A decade on, did David Beckham's move to MLS make a difference? Continue reading...
Football thrives on friction between clubs but is it inauthentic to create one? In a young league such as MLS the results can be interesting to say the leastThis week the LA Galaxy reignited their two rivalries, one on the pitch, and one off it. On the pitch, the Galaxy beat the San Jose Earthquakes 4-2 in the 75th edition of the Cali Clásico. It was the third straight win for a suddenly streaking Galaxy, and they are now undefeated in five and back in the playoff positions. The Galaxy now look poised to make their typical summer surge, and the outlook is starting to feel sunny again in Southern California. Off the pitch, however, things are a little more...
Could homegrown imports like Minnesota United’s Christian Ramirez help MLS get over its reluctance to mine talent from the NASL and USL?Every season, Major League Soccer has a crop of breakout players who are new to the league – this year we have Atlanta’s Josef Martínez (the Venezuelan who scored five goals in his first three matches – after netting just seven in three years with Turin). The best of these players often come from Europe or South America and immediately become key starters.This year, there have been more examples of domestic players moving from the US lower divisions and succeeding in MLS than any year in recent memory. New York Red Bulls center back Aaron Long made his MLS...
The Western Conference has won eight of the last 10 MLS Cups. But much of that has been to do with the power of the now declining LA GalaxyHaving just completed a 4-1 evisceration of the Seattle Sounders, the Chicago Fire – yes, that Chicago Fire – luxuriated in a little historical revisionism. Bastian Schweinsteiger’s midweek grousing about technical levels in MLS was recast as a suggestion that “forced [the Fire] to work on details.” This work, he claimed, had shown up in the match. Dax McCarty’s preseason criticism of a “culture of losing” had been a diagnosis that the incoming midfielder had promptly addressed. Wins exist to be over-interpreted. In any league — especially one that fetishizes parity like...