Fans
Aimer le soccer ne se limite pas à aller au stade une fois toutes les deux semaines et à suivre passivement les nouvelles de son équipe préférée. La Major League Soccer est particulièrement active, ou plutôt interactive avec les supporters. Alors voilà quelques manières simples d’en être, vous aussi, des acteurs :
- Donnez votre opinion au bas des différents textes postés sur MLSsoccer.com
- Votez régulièrement, notamment pour le but de la semaine et l’arrêt de la semaine
- Suivez la MLS sur les réseaux sociaux - listés ici, sans oublier de Suivre @CoupFrancMLS
- Jouez à MLS Fantasy Soccer Manager
- Participez aux concours organisés par la MLS
- Écoutez Extra Time Radio (en anglais) ou Tiro Libre (en espagnol) et envoyez vos questions
De quoi vous occuper entre deux rencontres, n’est-ce pas ? Et même au match, soyez actifs. Comme le disent les UM02, supporters de Montréal, l’ambiance est faite par tous les supporters présents au stade. Et ce qui vaut à Montréal vaut évidemment partout ailleurs. On en a d'ailleurs eu un magnifique exemple à Portland ce lundi.
Are you a fan of Major League Soccer? Do you have two X chromosomes? If you answered yes to both of those questions -- or you're just curious -- head over to the new Women United Football Club website, which has been getting some buzz on Twitter today after launching and appears to be a legitimately awesome gathering place for MLS fans of the fairer sex.
I would attempt to put the concept into words but surely the site's founders can do a better job, so I'll leave that to them:
"In America and abroad, MLS has scores of female soccer fans, but there is little in the way of communities or reporting to serve them. We're changing that in 2012. This is a place where women of all ages who are MLS fans can meet, mingle and blog about their thoughts. Join us as we get to experience the thrills and spills of pro soccer in a whole new way!"
Love the concept. Love the design of the website. Love that some of the founders hail from Kansas City (Midwest represent!).
And even though myself and all the rest of the XY chromosomers out there aren't the target audience, I'm glad female MLS fans have a sweet place to come together online. It's the least they deserve.
Site is up and emails out! Register, join your favorite team's group, pick an avatar, and join in the...
— Women United FC (@wunitedfc) March 9, 2012
Frankie Hejduk is a legend in Columbus. His eight years playing for the Crew, including captaining them to the 2008 MLS Cup title, made him a fan favorite. (Drinking beers in the parking lot with the diehard supporters when he was suspended for a game didn't hurt his Q rating at Crew Stadium either.)
Now, after he finished his career with the LA Galaxy last year, it looks like the Crew might abide the dude again.
“There’s some Crew players that just resonate,” Crew President and GM Mark McCullers told The Columbus Dispatch recently. “Brian McBride still resonates. Frankie resonates and that certainly has value for us. I would love to have Frankie in the organization."
We're telling the Major League Soccer story with Facebook's new profile.
Facebook has grown over the years to capture the growth of the League and engage with our fans in a timely, authentic, media-rich way. Now, with Facebook Timeline, we now have a home for all the great MLS stories we’ve shared with our fans over the years. We’ve also posted many of our most memorable videos, photos, updates, awards and events since our founding in 1995.
Along with the history section on MLSsoccer.com, this is where we’re telling the story of MLS, from beginning, to middle, to now.
A confession: I'm not a fantasy freak.
I don't spend days analyzing the various formations and figuring out the optimum financially efficient roster. I don't partake in a great deal of trash talk with the other people in my league.
About the only thing I obsess about is which music idol I should name my club after.
But despite all of that, I play. I play against my colleagues and friends. I tend to lose, but I appreciate the competition and the comradery.
This year's new salary-cap game, MLS Fantasy Soccer: Manager, is not easy. But it is a very good approximation of what it's like to be a real MLS manager.
The salary cap ($100 million) is tight, and building a well-balanced squad, with a mix of high-scoring stars and cost-efficient role players, can be a struggle. At times, I cursed the person who set the prices.
The upshot is that as I set my roster, I started making some intriguing decisions on where I was willing to sacrifice quality for quantity. If I went for a cheap 4th defender so I could add a more expensive striker, what happens if there's an injury on the backline? If I ditched the big-money third striker, does that let me have a better attacking midfielder?
Ultimately, you've got to decide. Just like a real MLS manager does. And then you play.
So without further ado, here's the roster of my beloved Otis Redding United. I promise you, we will not try any tenderness in the 2nd Annual ExtraTime Radio Experts League.
Being a referee is not just a thankless job; sometimes it can be downright dangerous. One AR found out the hard way when he became collateral damage on this rough tackle.
It was a festive morning in The City Beautiful as Commissioner Don Garber made a whistle stop in downtown Orlando today. To say the city, Orlando City Soccer Club and its supporters rolled out the red carpet for the commish is an understatement. There were digital billboards like the one pictured above. A banner hung out front of city hall, not far from the statue commemorating the city's 1994 World Cup matches. And then there was the reception the OCSC's supporters gave Garber when he walked into the room.
In a word, it was "raucous".
Though the city's place at the MLS table isn't a forgone conclusion, the sense of excitement in the room for what may lay ahead was palpable, not only from the fans but from OCSC owner Phil Rawlins.
"It was extraordinary to see all the fans out here in the middle of the workday at midweek, a tremendous display of passion. Very heart-warming."
As for next steps, Rawlins plans on staying the current course.
"We're going to keep on doing what we've already done and build on a successful 2011, both on and off the field. Hopefully, as Don said earlier, it's not a matter of "if" but "when."
This may be the worst tifo ever --if you can even call it that-- but it's SEO gold: people LOVE to look at kittens.
For a long time, the San Jose Earthquakes were the only MLS club going with a name that dated back to the original NASL. They weren't the first to fully embrace their NASL heritage though (hat tip to the Sounders for inventing that).
But the club is making up for lost time with this year's season-ticket packages, which featuring several nods back to the disco-era Quakes of the past. Among the connections they're making to the earliest incarnation of the Earthquakes are:
- Throwback NASL jerseys to season ticket holders who paid in full by the final home game of 2011
- "EST. 1974" has been added below the collar on the back of the 2012 jersey
- Ticket books include photos, like the one above, from different generations of soccer in San Jose
This is in addition to last year's dedication of the George Best Gate at Buck Shaw Stadium, which will have a monitor playing a loop of Best scoring "The Greatest Goal Ever" for 2012.
It's all good stuff but I'm partial to the old school photos on the tickets. Is there anything more retro-cool than having George Best and Johnny Moore in your hands on game day?
Before you settle in to watch tonight's LIVE, streaming pre-season games from Arizona, head over to TheCrew.com for a LIVE stream of the “State of the League” conversation from 6:00-8:00 PM with MLS Commissioner Don Garber alongside Columbus Crew Owner Clark Hunt and Crew President & GM Mark McCullers.
Have a question the commissioner? Ask him via Twitter using the hashtag #Crew96. Make sure to follow the Columbus Crew on Twitter for further updates.
Watch the "State of the League" here.