NoShortCorners ranks the top 5 MLS Spines

http://www.noshortcorners.com/2012/0...ls-spines.html

5: Portland Timbers (Perkins, Brunner, Mosquera, Jewsbury, Nagbe, Boyd)
4: FC Dallas (Hartman, John, Ihemelu, Hernandez, Ferreira, Perez)
3: DC United (Hamid, McDonald, Dudar, Kitchen, Boskovic, De Rosario, Salihi)
2: Real Salt Lake (Rimando, Olave, Borchers, Morales, Beckerman, Espindola)
1: LA Galaxy (Saunders, DeLaGarza, Leonardo, Beckham, Juninho, Keane)

quick question, do they block out games if its on local TV? I remember some bs like that in the past. Is it every game except the nationally televised ones, regardless of market?

In general, yes.

I have heard that some markets do not black out the home team, but most do. In addition, all nationally broadcast games are blacked out on Matchday Live as well. I understand that Root Sports covers Portland and Seattle, so Portland games may be blacked out in Seattle. You'll have to sift Big Soccer threads if you want anything more specific, I don't think asking support will work.

whats the deal with your home market - does it go by the billing address on your credit card or the IP address when you login to the account?

IP address.

In 09 it was $15, '10 it was $30, '11 it was $45, and now it's $60. I wish my wages went up that fast

I also wish that MLS hadn't sold off the international rights as it screws over anyone outside of North America that wants to be able to use the service. Lame.

When I root I root for the timbers. Preeeeeeeseason time.

Meh, pretty nice finish from romero of chivas, 1-0 to the goats. Our first round pick not having a good game so far.

Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz for the new signing. Cowalaka or whatever

So if I'm going to buy a few tickets for the Timbers/Sounders game in Portland in June where are the best places (view, value, atmosphere) to sit in the stadium?

http://www.stubhub.com/portland-timb...-2012-4015471/

Go for right behind FA so 205-209, 207 and 208 are the best.

Sideline would have the best view, but go for the atmosphere. It will be epic.

Sitting in the timbers army section even for a lowly game against Toronto last year was one of my favorite live sporting event experiences.

A few things of note:

Vancouver has addressed some of their glut of attackers by releasing Lee Nguyen after just 3 months of MLS off-season training. He'll be available in the Waiver Draft at 3pm today

http://www.soccerbyives.net/soccer_b...ut-nguyen.html


Junior Flores (15 year old breakout star of the U-17 Nike Tournament) turned down 3 offers from MLS and has signed with an as-of-yet unknown overseas team.

"Seven European clubs were expected to be in attendance to watch Flores compete with the U-17 team in the Aegean Cup Jan. 14-23 in Turkey, among them FC Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund."

http://www2.insidenova.com/sports/20...r--ar-1730811/


Best news of the year (decade?) US Soccer, Canadian Soccer Association, and MLS are actually going to start training and developing referees.

http://www.insidemnsoccer.com/2012/0...anization-pro/

...As a result of winning the lottery for Nguyen's services, the Whitecaps are prohibited from taking part in any other player lotteries for the rest of the season. The lottery system, which has been used to allocate players such as Luis Gil and David Bingham in recent years, is typically reserved for late-addition Generation adidas signings or SuperDraft-eligible players who did not sign with the league prior to the draft.

The Whitecaps were not over the 30-man roster limit heading into Thursday, nor would he have occupied an international roster slot, making the move a curious one, considering that Nguyen was thought to add a useful attacking dynamic to the Whitecaps midfield...

lol?

RANGZ!!!

Vancouver Whitecaps beat TFC 1-0 to win the Walt Disney tournament thing. looked like Vancouver used a lot of their first team players, whereas TFC's team seemed comprised of guys with numbers in the 30-50 range that i've never heard of. so i guess they're planning for their CCL tie with LA instead of this thing. not a terribly convincing performance considering that then (i only caught the last bit tbh), but even still they had a few chances that i saw and TFC had none. apparently Vancouver didn't concede a goal in the tourney, which is nice.