With the new Major League Soccer program getting started in the United
States, I've been looking all over newspapers for information about it.
However, I have come up empty handed.  I have a few questions about it,
and I thought that maybe somebody in this confrence could help!  :)
*       When will the season begin, and how many games will be played?
*       Which teams will Tab Ramos, Alexi Lalas, and other World Cup '94
                stars be playing on?  Have rosters been announced yet?
I'd really appreciate any help you could give me!  Thanks!!  :)

26 responses total.

I haven't heard much about this. They are *trying* to set up a major league,
but I hadn't heard anything definite in the way of success. Do you really
think they will be playing league soccer this year?

I really haven't heard anythin at all about this beyond planning.
I'm curious too, especially if I may have missed something here.

I know that they have announced the team names and locations, but that's all
I've really heard.  LIke, for instance, I know that my hometown, Columbus,
Ohio, has a team named the "Crew" (certainly not the name I would have
chosen, but who asked me...).  I'm sure that they've even held try-outs, at 
least preliminary.

But that's all I know!!!  :(

I've found out more (thanks, fitz!):  There are a few home-pages which
you can visit to get more information:
http://www.metrostars.com
fan site: http://www.inch.com/~huss/empire/

There's lots of information there, especially about World Cup '94 players
who have listed to teams.  Check it out!

I don't know about Tab Ramos, but I do know that alexi Lalas is going to play
for the New England revolution.

I hope we get some TV coverage. It could be a lot more interesting than
baseball this summer. I'm staying focused on Ice Hockey until the Wings win
the Stanley Cup, but once they do (June) it'll be tim e to look for some
soccer.

I'm sure there is a TV contract.  Now, was it ESPN, TNT, ESPN2, FOX, 
SportsChannel, Nashville Network, DirectTV,...? (A&E, Home Shopping, 
History, ...???)

Hmm. I haven't noticed anything yet. I'll wait until hockey season is over
to really look, though.

I know one of the games was on MSG (in NY), so it may be only regional, 
for now.  I'm sure there is also a national, probably cable, outlet.  I 
haven't seen a listing yet and can't remember.

  I think soccer has a long way to go as a widely followed sport.  An 
illustrative point:  Think of all the sports on the radio, including minor 
hockey, pro & college everything, high school bball and football (big in 
many areas), etc, in addition to local and national broadcasts of so 
called major sports.  I think this assumes a high degree of familiarity 
and interest in all these sports, even if the radio casts aren't 
tremendous ratings winners in all cases.  I can't remember every hearing 
a soccer game on radio.  The pro teams probably will have outlets, but I 
still have a hard time seeing CBS radio doing a Game of the Week or 
Monday Night Soccer broadcast.   

You're probably right about all that, but I do enjoy watching it when I have
the time. It is hard to find and I never seem to manage.

I still haven't seen any games listed on t.v.  I don't know what the 
season's duration is, but I expect some games will be on sooner or later.

There are various games being broadcasted this season on ESPN, espn2,
Univision, and playoff games on ABC.  If you would like for me to mail
you a list of times and dates of these games, I'd be glad to :)  Just mail
me, letting me know, and I'll get it to you ASAP :)

I'll probably start watching as soon as the hockey season is over and I have
nothing left to watch but *baseball* . I don't think much of baseball, and
would much rather watch soccer. The Olympics is coming and bringing more
soccer, too.

This item ain't necessarily the general purpose soccer item, but what the hey:
I happened to catch on PASS the last ~20 minues of the something? Cup 
championship match between Manchester United and Liverpool.  It was a nil-nil
draw in the making, with extra time looming, when in the ~86th minute a
Frenchy playing for Man United scored on a rebound off a corner kick to win
it.  This was a bit of a big deal in that Man United won both the league
standings *and* the playoffs (a "double"), which doens't apparently happen
that often.  (Just ask the Red Wings! :-(

(This seems to be the appropriate item..) Just like to state that the
Crew lost another game yesterday in a shoot out.(There's a real shocker) 
Lost to the Revolution (Go New England!) 2-1 Final score. Pretty good
game too.

p

Hmm...  Wendy, I would have responded to this 6 months ago if I would have
seen it, but oh well ;)  So the soccer season is long over.  Oh well :)
I've been offered a job with the Columbus  Crew.  Pretty darn cool,
huh?  It's not much of a thing, but it'll be cool if I have paycheck
stubs from a major league soccer franchise :))
er, :)

wow, three and a half years go by and no one's said a word in here... guess
we can chalk that one up to the pitiful performance of the MLS... is anyone
alive out there???

Notice how they had to name DC United after Man[chester] United...

well, the first WC I remember was Mexico 1986, so I've been following soccer
for quite a while... and to tell you the truth, MLS gets no respect from me
whatsoever (well, maybe a little respect to the Columbus Crew for building
their own stadium).  But because the first league I ever followed was the
Mexican League, and after that the English and Italian Leagues (Premiership
and Serie A, respectively), I feel that MLS is just another joke of a league
(reminds me too much of the WLAF in the 80s).  One thing that MLS has going
for them is bringing in Garber as commissioner.  I've read some of his quotes
from soccer mailing lists and so far things are looking good for MLS (famous
last words).  I think I'll simply stick to the Mexican League on Univision
and the Premiership by going to Conor O'Neil's every Saturday morning starting
tomorrow...

by the way, kevin... just read y#13, and the match you saw mas the 1996 FA
Cup Final... a tad different from the Stanley Cup in the NHL.  If you want,
I'd be glad to explain how the English professional leagues are setup (or any
other competition for that matter...

> I'd be glad to explain how the English professional leagues are setup
> (or any other competition for that matter)

Sure, go for it!

Well, in England, there is the domestic league, then there are two cup
competitions and then the European competitions.  The English Premiership has
20 teams and is the most important professional league in England.  The
European Champions League is the highest European club competition and
3rd-placed Chelsea qualified for the third qualifying round.  2nd-placed
Arsenal and Premiership champion/European Champions League winner Manchester
United qualified for the group stage.  4th-placed Leeds United and League Cup
winner Tottenham Hotspur qualified for the UEFA Cup.  For more information
on the European club competitions, check out
http://www.risc.uni-linz.ac.at/non-official/rsssf/ec/ec199900.html

Below the Premiership there are three professional leagues with 24 teams named
First Division, Second Division and Third Division.  At the end of the season,
the bottom three clubs of the Premiership are sent to the First Division,
while the 1st and 2nd-placed teams in the First Division are sent up to the
Premiership.  The 3rd through 6th-placed teams playoff in a home-and-away
series for the final promotion spot.  The bottom three clubs in the First
Division are sent down to the Second Division, and the same "promotion setup"
is used as in the First Division (top 2 gain automatic berth, 4-team playoff
of 3rd to 6th place).  The bottom four clubs in the Second Division are sent
down to the Third Division.  The top three in the Third Division receive
automatic promotion, and there is a playoff between 4th through 7th place for
the final promotion spot.  Lastly, the bottom club of the Third Division is
ent down to the semi-professional Conference, but only if the Conference
Champion is approved by the Football League (things taken into consideration
for promotion into the Third Division is the condition of the ground [stadium]
as far as capacity and whether the grounds are all-seater, I can go into why
this is a requirement in England in a later post, since this one is already
fairly large).

At the start of the post, I said there were two cup competitions, but in
actuality there are three.  The FA Cup is open to all clubs registered with
the Football Association (the governing body of soccer in England).  Automatic
byes are given to Premiership teams as well as First Division teams.  The
League Cup is only for the 92 professional clubs in England (Premiership down
to the Third Division).  Byes are given to Premiership teams.  The last
competition which professional English teams play in is the Shield, which is
limited to the 48 teams in the Second and Third Divisions.  There, that covers
the competition setup, and I'll leave it up to you whether you want me to
elaborate on any particular part of English soccer.

Lotza leagues and rules for entries into cup competitions, I see.  Yeah, I
know several Nottingham Forest supporters in England that were severely
"bummed out" about the Forest being relegated due to their poor showing last
season.  This season they have started out well in the lower division, but
isn't that just a case of a "bigger fish in a smaller pond"?  ;-)

It definitely looks that way, even though they haven't acquired any new
talent, Forest are one of the favorites to win promotion back to the
Premiership... but they've started off the season with mediochrity (is that
a word???)... lost to ipswich town away, beat grimsby town at home and tied
west bromwich albion away.  they're in 9th place, but every other team save
west brom have a game in hand on them... still, it's early in the season, and
they should be able to stay in contention until late in the season.

12 days later and Forest are down to 16th place... maybe they're not as big
as you thought, eh Kevin? ;-)

Hmmm, I seem to be getting different reports as to the Forest' record 
from you and from my Brit connection.  I'll have to go a web surfin' 
for independent verification.  And if I find out he's been lying, or 
just deluded, I'll have a word with him!  :-)  BTW, what are some URLs 
for checking out English football league standings?

www.soccernet.com might not be considered the best, but it is reliable enough
to provide standings, match reports as well as news for the English and
Scottish leagues (not to mention the European club competitions and the Euro
2000 qualifiers).  then there is the official sites of the Premiership and
Football Leagues... www.fa-premier.com for the FA Carling Premiership and
www.football.nationwide.co.uk for the Nationwide Football Leagues, which goes
from the First Division down to the Conference.

Well, 9th-place Nottingham Forest hosts 18th-place Wolverhampton this Sunday,
but Forest have played 7 matches with 9 points while Wolverhampton have played
5 matches with 5 points.  At the same time, the three other clubs that have
9 points and are a couple of places away in the standings from Forest have
at least a game in hand (Charlton with 3 games, Stockport with 2 games,
Portsmouth with 1 game).  Still, Forest has only played 1/6th of their matches
and still has a good chance of winning promotion.  Surprisingly, Crystal
Palace is currently in last place in the First Division.  The last three clubs
to win promotion into the Third Division from the semi-professional
Conference (Macclesfield Town, Halifax Town and Cheltenham Town) are all
currently running mid-table in the Third Division and haven't lost hope of
contending for a promotion spot to the Second Division.

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