Major League Soccer in Seattle starting in 2009 |
Loading ...Since hearing the news a week ago, I’ve been rolling over the abbreviation in my mind: MLS. The official Major League Soccer website is located at mlsnet.com.
Like a lot of kids I played soccer as a kid. Wasn’t particularly good at it and remember getting kicked a lot in the shins. Yes, I had shin protectors but they always seemed to slide down. And oranges. Ate a lot of oranges during the middle of the matches. They weren’t soccer games, they were matches. I remember our team name had something to do with dragons. Dragonflys?
Leave it to my wife to find the photo above from 1977. Yowsa, has it been that long? 30 years since I played for the Terminix International Dragons! Looks like we had Wolfman Jack as the coach. I don’t remember anybody else on the team. Wouldn’t it be something if by posting this picture somebody comes forward that used to play on this team? In that vein, I’ll say one more time for Google’s posterity: Soccer 1977 Terminix International Dragons.
Moving on.
Naming the MLS team in Seattle
The MLS team in Seattle doesn’t have a name yet, will be playing in the same stadium as the Seahawks (QWEST Field) and the season of 30 games runs about the same time as baseball season: April - October. Kind of a bummer that it runs concurrent and seems strange that it takes six months to play 30 games.
In other countries they call soccer football, so maybe the games are presented weekly like football only at the wrong time of year. From the standing shown there seems like a frequent number of ties. In sports, ties are lame. Don’t they have overtime?
As you can probably tell, between now and 2009 I need to get better educated on the world of Major League Soccer. You can help me on that journey in the comments or by trackback in from your blog. If you are from the Seattle area, are you looking forward to MLS in 2009? Here we’re about to lose the Sonics, and we’re going to replace them with MLS? I don’t know.
Seems more interesting to watch live than golf or bowling, but I think the Sonics might be more entertaining. Think I’d take hockey over MLS based on what I know at this point. Not bashing the sport, have to learn more.
Ranking live sports
The following are the order of games I enjoy watching in person.
1. NFL.
2. MLB.
3. NBA.
4. Other
What are your rankings like?
Any readers who are huge soccer fans? I asked my friends on Twitter if they had any soccer quotes and darkmoon responded with an enthusiastic (or was it sarcastic?) “GOALLLLL!!!” C’mon, no love for soccer?
How about casual soccer fans? Ever seen a MLS game live in your area? The tie thing aside which I don’t care for already, I’m somewhat interested in experiencing a soccer game live. Maybe I’ve been missing a really fun sport.
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You *HAVE* been missing an exciting sport. I go to Mexico and the middle east alternating years for the day job (which is about to change… reason for the cryptic post yesterday at g-WH!Z). Futbol is the most popular sport there is.
We had a decent team here in Tulsa once upon a time (early 80’s). It was terrific! Couple of championships on our league and T-Town had some serious stuff going on soccer-wise. ‘Course, the craze died down and the team blew away. Happens in relatively small cities. Wouldn’t happen that way in Seattle.
Congrats on the team!
As for a quote… “Shake it off!” My coach always, always said that ofter a collision. I was goalie and was really physical about it. Serious as hell for an overly competitive pre-teen. Shake it off.
Comment by Gerald Buckley — November 17, 2007 @ 7:30 pm PST
Gerald, but what’s up with all those ties? Who wants to go see an event that ends in a tie? I know ties are possible in the NFL, but it’s a lot more rare.
Comment by TDavid — November 18, 2007 @ 11:52 am PST
Here’s a great soccer quote, and often yelled coaching directive: “GET STUCK IN!”
Soccer is not for everyone, but for those of us who play/coach/follow soccer get very passionate. I was like you and had a 20 some year hiatus between playing it and following it closely again. Like many people, the 1994 World Cup was instrumental in recapturing my interest. I am now a passionate defender of the world’s game, more so because in the US, it gets more “haters; than any other sport, especially amongst journalists. (Don’t want to watch, fine, but why the bashing?)
So give it a fair chance. Again.
As for ties - learn to love them, or at least tolerate them, because they are here to stay. All of the previous attempts to end things with shootouts or whatnot were just a travesty. Besides, in bracketed tournaments, they play until they get a winner, sometimes resorting to PK’s (unfortunately in my opinion - just let them play until everyone drops from exhaustion, I say).
As per 6 months for 30 games - realize that it takes A LOT more energy to play soccer than baseball. I love baseball, and MLB is the only of the big three pro sports I can stand to watch anymore. But be honest - every MLB player spends half the game sitting on the bench, resting after the all that time spent standing around in the field. Not too grueling.
So 1-2 soccer league games per week is standard. Also, most teams are simultaneously involved in several completions, so they can end up playing 40+ games over that time frame. LA Galaxy must be over 50 games this season.
My view on the other sports: The NFL has really turned into the modern day gladiators - more spectacle than sport. NBA and the Sonics? - yawn. (So long greedy bastards.) NCAA hoops is the far superior to watch , especially live. March Madness is the only thing that rivals the World Cup in my book (and we get it very year!). The NHL - Ugh. Again the college version is much better to watch.
My list
1) Soccer (pro or college or whatever)
2) College basketball
3) MLB
100) everything else
Sorry long post - I got carried away. See?!
TGos
Seattle
ps
My favorite Emerald City Supporters (Sounders fans) cheer: “Two R’s, four E’s, one F’in ‘REFEREE’”
Comment by TGos — November 29, 2007 @ 12:27 pm PST
Thanks for the detailed reply, TGos, and no need to reply. I haven’t given up on soccer, I’ll give it a chance when it gets here. I just don’t understand the draw to “ties” — I don’t want to pay to see a stalemate.
Comment by TDavid — November 29, 2007 @ 12:46 pm PST
Great to hear that MLS is enlarging.
It’s obvious that this league is still very far away from the audience of the NFL, NBA and NHL.
From what I see Becks arrival in the States also did not help to much.
But for me as a soccer addict I am also following the MLS although I am from Europe.
Thanks for the article mate.
Comment by FootballBlog — January 10, 2008 @ 2:06 am PST