If Billy had his way, NASL would have become first tier again, collapsed the US soccer pyramid and destroyed professional soccer in the US for another twenty years.

How is he unlikely? He scored twice in the tournament before this in like 4 games, that’s a pretty good clip for a striker. His MLS form hasn’t been great lately sure, but he’s also been battling an ankle injury that he appears to have recovered from in the lead-up to the Gold Cup (probably due to additional rest).

I never had a problem personally, but I’m also a pretty big guy and in China I towered over most of the population so maybe people didn’t want to mess with me too much. I also didn’t ask questions and generally kept my head down around authorities. That said, I didn’t enjoy my time in China at all and would never want…

Opara is often injured and Zusi is...not good at right back. I suppose I should clarify that they have some holes in the near future/on back ups.

Only for “designated players” aka stars who make over $600K per year. But you’re right in that it’s not a hard cap, more of a soft cap, a yamulke if you like.

It’s not paranoia when two of your colleagues have been robbed at knife point around your hotel and the local cops beat another co-worker senseless because they asked a couple of questions about police activities (we’re pretty sure they were shaking down local shop owners). Oh, and don’t get caught without your…

This deal actually makes a lot of sense (if you ignore the different types of allocation cash), bottom line the allocation money lets Kansas City go over the salary cap. Sporting KC has a lot of holes in its roster, particularly at defense; the various types of allocation cash allows them to(theoretically) spend a…

At one point they were also in New NASL too, actually a founding member; can’t fault people for missing the minor details on obscure club info.

they’re doomed to dance around the void solo.

Eat Arby’s.

So like seriously though, fuck China, or at least their cities (never got out into the countryside). Their cities are smog-choked hellholes in which you constantly feel like you need a shower but the moment you step out of the shower you feel like you need another one cause you’re icky all over again. Plus you’re…

You can always sue, the question is whether he can win. Obviously, the crux of the case would revolve around two things: 1. Did he lose his job due to the “arrest”? and 2. Did the cops fuck up? Obviously both are true in a real life sense, but proving it in a court of law might be trickier.

That’s more a problem with the overall game though. Nubia was known as “The Land of the Bow”, it’d be pretty messed up if they didn’t get a cool archer unit from a historical perspective.

I can get that, but at the same time the Cosmos various temper tantrums over the years that have hurt the development of players and the advancement of soccer in this country give me little sympathy for their plight. You didn’t want the deal? That’s fine, just don’t be a whiny jerkwad about it afterwards.

If you’ve got some facts to counter with, by all means. Otherwise you’re just insisting on something because you want it. When you look at ratings, it’s pretty rare that a relegation battle gets great ratings, you know what does? Man United vs Man City, Liverpool vs Arsenal, big money clubs with big money players…

It’s not. It’s one of those ideas that “Europe does it” so we should do it too, even though we have neither the financial stability nor the rich club history to support it. I’d actually say that the MLS model is better for development of young players, when it’s pretty obvious a team’s season is done, they often trot…

Ah, a Rapids fan? You have my sympathy.

Thing is, the Cosmos had a chance to join MLS. The ownership group didn’t want to play ball with MLS’s rules, particularly giving up their ownership of the name “NY Cosmos” and basically told MLS to fuck off. MLS offered an olive branch to NASL years later and it seemed like the two leagues would form a partnership,…

Most of the USL and NASL teams are no where near ready to make the jump to MLS. They’d need brand new (or remodeled and greatly expanded) stadiums, lots of help with marketing and monetary matters and a bunch of other assistance, plus a lot of cash. As for the idea that pro/rel brings extra interest to a league, well…

Except, you know, Dallas is one of the best teams in the league and has been for years and the Rapids ended their season last year 2nd behind them. If we assume you relegated the bottom of the west and the bottom of the east last year, you’d have Chicago and Houston, two big markets gone. Oddly enough, both Chicago…