#also I have found that ml fans of season 1 and 2 tend to be similar

[emsylcatac]

Sorry I'm uncultured and I found your post through tumblr's 'you liked simular posts' but who's gloob and what's plusplus??

Heya!

They are the TV networks that broadcast Miraculous in Brazil and Ukraine respectively!

For instance ML is broadcast by TF1 (kids program is TFou) in France, Disney Channel in the US, RTS (kids program is RTS kids) in Switzerland, Gloob in Brazil, Plusplus in Ukraine, etc.

We're talking a lot about Gloob and Plusplus because they tend to release episodes out of order - Plusplus is infamous for releasing the S3 finale before the episodes "Chat Blanc" and "Félix" were out worldwide, and they announced they'd release the S4 finale early last season while we were still missing a bunch of episodes - thankfully the episodes weren't ready and it didn't happen, but fans were angry when they announced they wouldn't respect the order.

Gloob is infamous for sharing too many spoilers and too revealing/spoilery trailers, and wanting to be the first TV channel to release ML episodes worldwide. So they'll do anything to be first, and if they aren't first, they'll do anything they can to ruin the experience for the fans, be it by sharing as many spoilers as they can, or releasing episodes widely out of order to make sure that the channels who respect the order won't release episodes before them.

The reason we're talking about them a lot lately is because this season the order is very important and there's been a consensus at the start that the channels would release the episodes in order. Gloob also said they'd respect that. The problem is that TFou, the French channel, released a few episodes first in a very short period of time (episode 4-5-6-7-8-9, while Gloob had released 1-2-3 first). TFou made the mistake of skipping episode 5 but it was released a week after - so it was annoying but not that big of a deal.

Gloob got angry that they weren't first to release all these episodes, so to ensure they'd be first next time, they've decided to break the consensus of respecting the order and released last week 2 episodes out of order: we had the first 9 episodes and they've decided to release episodes 12 and 18 on the same day, which breaks the order a lot. Tomorrow, they'll be releasing episode 16, continuing to ruin the experience for the fans (and for the Brazilian fans, because they haven't broadcast yet some earlier episodes). So people are rightfully angry with them hahaha

The reason we're talking about Plusplus is because some Gloob fans have accused the people who are pissed at gloob for releasing the episodes out of order of only being angry at Brazil. Which is obviously stupid and untrue as we're angry at the TV network, so we're reminding them that we were equally pissed off at Plusplus (so a Ukrainian TV network) when they released the finale early.

I hope that was a clear summary of who these TV networks are and the latest drama 😅

[an-ephemeral-blog]

What’s standing in the way of women’s soccer?

When chants of ‘equal pay!’ ring through soccer stadiums, men jump on Twitter to explain why, despite performing better internationally than the men’s team, women soccer players don’t deserve equal pay because they don’t earn as much revenue.

Over the past two months I’ve become a big NWSL fan.  It’s very different from being an MLB fan, my only previous experience of passionate sports fandom.  There are a lot of things I take for granted that a professional sports team has, which NWSL teams do not have.  These things absolutely affect revenue, either directly, or by lowering the quality of play or the experience of watching games.  Here’s a list.

1.  NWSL stadiums are less accessible than MLS and other stadiums.

My local team, the Washington Spirit, plays at the Maryland SoccerPlex.  To get to the Plex, if you don’t have a car, requires an hour-plus train ride to the end of the metro and then either a 25+ minute car ride or a 45+ bus ride.  I have multiple friends who’ve expressed interested in going to a game but balked when they found out how long it would take to get there.  Another friend had to cancel because she was working late and couldn’t finish by 5:30pm, which was the time she’d have to leave to make it to a 7:30pm game.

As a trial run, the Spirit are playing a game tomorrow at Audi Field, home field of the MLS team DC United.  Audi Field is about 30 minutes away from downtown and is easily accessible via Metro.  Correspondingly, the Spirit is on track to more than triple their season record at the Plex.  They may even sell out Audi Field.  Surely if they can sell out Audi Field, they deserve to play in it?

Which brings me to the next item on the list...

2.  NWSL stadiums are smaller than MLS stadiums.

The Spirit’s plex sells out at around 5,500 tickets.  For tomorrow’s Audi Field game, they’ve currently sold over 16,000 tickets.

Sky Blue’s regular park also holds about 5,000 fans.  When they played a game last weekend at Red Bull Arena, aka the stadium of their local MLS team, they nearly doubled attendance at 9,000+ tickets sold.

I don’t know the breakdown for every team in the league.  I do know that Orlando Pride, despite having access to a great stadium, tends to draw fewer fans do to their lower quality of play.  (They’re second to last in the league.)  On the other hand, the Portland Thorns already share a stadium with their MLS neighbor team, the Timbers, and also boast the biggest and loudest fanbase in the NWSL.  Portland recently set a league record with 25,000+ tickets sold to a game.

Items #1 and #2 combine to make clear that to grow as a league, NWSL teams need to play in larger stadiums that are easier to access.  (This doesn’t even take into account how stadium facilities might impact quality of play.  Some NWSL teams don’t even have showers in their locker rooms!)  Owners and league managers need to invest in securing these spaces for teams, even if they might not be profitable at first. The experience of Sky Blue and Spirit suggests that managers won’t have to wait to reap the benefits.  

3.  NWSL games are often scheduled simultaneously, decreasing viewership.

With only nine teams in the NWSL, there are four to six NWSL games each week.  Given this small number, you’d think they’d all be on at different times, right?

Nope.  Every week, there’s at least one pair of games scheduled against each other.  Often there’s two.  If you don’t have the ability to tape games, you’re forced to miss at least one game every week.  As I have taken to tweeting despairingly at the NWSL each time this happens: whyyyyyyyy.

Schedule creation is complicated, and there are more factors that go into it than I know of.  But one key element is when teams even have their field available.  Most teams don’t own their own fields, and have to work within a restricted subset of dates and times.  To the extent that this contributed to overlapping games, it’s yet another way that issues securing good stadiums get in the way of fans supporting their teams.

4.  NWSL teams have a lower quality of commentating.

Complaining about the announcers/commentators on NWSL matches is a sport of its own.  Announcers regularly mispronounce players’ names and sometimes misidentify them.  They repeat facts and stories, and use the same turns of phrase over and over until you can’t help but twitch every time you hear them say “she sprays the ball out wide” or “the ball found it’s way to...” The last Spirit game I attended, I sat in front of a woman who, after Elise Kellond-Knight left with a pulled hamstring, briefly explained to her friends why women were more likely than men to have hamstring injuries.  (It has something to do with women having more developed quad muscles, which puts the opposing muscles, the hamstrings, at greater risk.  This also leads to increased ACL injuries among women.)  This random stranger had more interesting commentary than any of the people I’d heard on TV. But why are these announcers so bad?  The answer’s easy: NWSL announcers are barely paid.  They make $300-$400 a game, with no travel or lodging expenses paid, which means unless you live in Fort Lauderdale where the announcing is recorded, you have to pay to announce.   I don’t know how much MLS announcers make, but I bet it’s better than that.

5.  NWSL teams have a lower quality of refereeing.

Oh boy.  Okay.  There have been some issues with NWSL refereeing lately.  As national team star Ali Krieger put it:

We’re putting a good product out on the field and every year we’re getting better and the referees seem like they are not.  So, I beg the NWSL — just the standard needs to be higher. It’s just unfortunate that you feel like the referee is ruining the game. They are taking the fun out of the game because they are not good enough.

How could we raise the standards of referees?  Well, they could stop treating the NWSL like a training ground for MLS:

There are five tiers in the U.S. Soccer refereeing program. The top-level, called “FIFA,” is the highest tier. These referees can officiate in FIFA-sanctioned matches. 

”The second tier is “P.R.O.” These referees can officiate MLS matches and are selected by the Professional Referee Organization.

The next tier down is called “National,” and these officials are certified by U.S. Soccer. These referees can officiate USL Championship and NWSL matches. And therein lies the problem.

The NWSL will never have officiating as good as the MLS as long as this remains US Soccer’s official policy.  It doesn’t get any clearer than that.

6.  NWSL games are not marketed as well as they could be.

I won’t pretend to understand marketing, but I know that it’s hard for people to go to games they don’t even know about: 

[Portland Thorns defender Meghan Klingenberg ] couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed when she saw Fox discuss the U.S. Men’s National Team’s run at the CONCACAF Gold Cup during halftime of the Women’s World Cup final Sunday, rather than preview the upcoming games in the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL).

“I love Fox. I think they did a great job. They gave the Women’s World Cup the attention that it deserves, but I wish we mentioned the NWSL more. [...] We need that to be put into the consciousness of the general public. We need ESPN to talk about the NWSL year-round. We need beat reporters in every single city that has an NWSL team. We need investment in advertising and marketing, in ground support, in make sure that people know that there’s a freaking team in their area.”  [source]

It seems that marketing is another area in which US Soccer is underinvesting in women:

[Soccer United Marketing, the commercial arm of Major League Soccer] handles deals for MLS and the U.S. Soccer Federation but not the NWSL, even though U.S. Soccer runs the NWSL. This fact has long been lamented by the women’s soccer community.

The NWSL marketing team needs the resources to at least let people know that their teams exist and their games are happening.  But beyond that... the NWSL is full of charismatic stars, both current and potential.  Let’s give them the spotlight.

7.  NWSL salaries are, for all but the biggest stars, below average income.

No one goes into women’s soccer for the money, even if a few of the game’s biggest stars have managed to get some lucrative sponsorships.  The league guarantees a minimum salary of $16,538, barely above the poverty line, and caps max salary at $46,200, a bit belong the mean American income.

Talented young women who are making decisions about where to go to college and what to do after college need to take this into account.  If they have dependents, family members with health issues, or significant debt, they simply may not be able to afford to play soccer professionally.  

This impacts the number of women available to play professionally as well as their ability to nurture their own talent by investing in themselves via special camps and training.  For every Megan Rapinoe or Alex Morgan or Crystal Dunn who has made it to the NWSL there’s someone equally talented who stopped playing in high school or college because law school or medical school or learning to code seemed like a more financially viable career path.  

In other words, for all the strides women’s soccer has made over the last twenty to thirty years, the NWSL still selecting from only a fraction of the potential talent pool.

*

I’ve been an NWSL fan for less than two months, so I’m surely missing other ways that women’s soccer has been under-invested in.  But the seven issues outlined above should be enough to convince you there’s a problem.  

Saying that people just don’t want to watch women’s soccer isn’t merely an oversimplification - it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.  The whole point of investment is you take a risk now to reap a payoff later.  The NWSL needs US Soccer and the wider sports community to invest in them, and given time, everyone will benefit.

You know what keeps ringing in my ears?  Research that shows that men are judged on their potential, while women are only judged on their performance.  The NWSL has the potential to be a thriving league with the revenues and fan enthusiasm of the MLS.  The question is whether women’s soccer will be given the support they need to deliver on that potential.

[eastbridge-sb]

MLS Asian Handicap Match Previews – 15th September Sunday

Montreal Impact v FC Cincinnati

The Impact got hammered 0-3 at home to DC United last time out and will be eager to rebound here. New manager Wilmer Cabrera has lost 2 out of 3 games since taking over at the helm. To some people it was a slight surprise that they decided to sack Frenchman Remi Garde because Montreal hadn’t exactly been in terrible form. A change of direction was what the club wanted though and at least under Cabrera the fans should be guaranteed excitement. He is an attack minded coach who likes to try and play nice football. Tactically, the Mexican boss is limited and often has no ‘Plan B’ if things start to go wrong. We are now getting to the stage of the season that if the Impact want to make the playoffs they are going to have to win some games again, starting here at home to Cincinnati. Le Stade Saputo is usually a stronghold for the Canadians but a 7-2-5 record here in 2019 is only average at best.

I won’t bang on about FC Cincinnati again as I do most weeks. But they got absolutely thumpred 1-5 at the weekend vs Toronto FC at home. The new MLS franchise have now lost 19 of their last 23 fixtures. They just look a complete mess at the moment and despite the Impact not being in the greatest of form, backing the hosts on a -1 Asian Handicap is surely a no brainer. Over 3 goals is also a natural sort of bet, as it is most weeks involving FCC. Montreal themselves have been heavily involved in a vast amount of high scoring matches this season too and it’s a surprise to see the goal line so low here. A lot of MLS matches are getting goal lines as a big as 3.5 and 3.25 regularly, with some even as high as 3.75. I am very happy to take up the generosity offered when you consider the porous nature of the Cincinnati defence. Maybe the visitors will score a goal but Montreal to win something like 3-1 or 4-1 is the sort of scoreline I’m expecting.

Asian Handicap Betting Recommendation: Montreal Impact -1.00 at 1.800

Asian Total Goals Betting Recommendation: Over 3.00 goals at 2.020

Portland Timbers v DC United

The Timbers played a huge number of away games in the first half of the season due to their own stadium getting renovated. The end result is that they now in the middle of a ridiculously long home run of fixtures. For the most part, Portland have been making hay in front of their own fans, winning 7 out of 12 games. A couple of recent defeats against Atlanta & Seattle put a slight damper on things. But consecutive victories facing RSL and SKC should have got them back on track. For the most part Portland are very hard to face in front of their own fans at Providence Park, where the atmosphere can be electric. With the likes of Diego Valeri and Brian Fernandez still in great form they will always carry a massive threat going forwards.

Travelling here this Sunday are a DC United side who have become very inconsistent recently. I was surprised to see them beat Montreal 3-0 away from home last week. United had been looking very ragged of late and it was worrying how porous their defence was starting to become. Perhaps the clean sheet will have given them some new found confidence but I suspect DCU will be tested severely by a very strong Portland attack in this game. Sometimes in away matches United tend to operate more negatively and try to soak up pressure. To some degree it has worked with DCU having the second best away record in the Eastern Conference. I tend to feel that they are quite a lucky team though and if other sides fully punished them, it could’ve been a different story.

These two teams only meet each other once a year and the last five H2Hs have resulted in home wins. I’m expecting the exact same again here and think Portland will be too strong. Backing them on a -1 Asian Handicap looks like the best bet to me, even if the Timbers have a habit of winning by exactly one goal recently. Should that scenario occur then it would result in a pushed refund which isn’t exactly the end of the earth anyway. If United revert back to their sloppy ways of August then this could end up in a very comfortable home win. Irrelevant of DCU, the Timbers can beat anyone at Providence Park so I back them with confidence.

Asian Handicap Betting Recommendation: Portland Timbers -1.00 at 1.970

Preview by: @meatmansoccer.

Access these prices from Steve Wyss’ selections for this weekend’s Eliteserien match through Skype Betting now.

The post MLS Asian Handicap Match Previews – 15th September Sunday appeared first on Eastbridge.

source https://eastbridge-sb.com/mls-asian-handicap-match-previews-150919/

[365footballorg-blog]

Boehm: Another long winter awaits Oscar Pareja and FC Dallas

November 1, 201812:44PM EDT

I’ll start with a confession: I like Oscar Pareja.

I’ve found FC Dallas’ head coach to be one of the most refreshing voices in MLS, one who’s made FCD into a truly pan-American organization, equally inspired by Latin American influences and the loamy clay of their home soil in North Texas. He’s led the way in building a complete club in Frisco, based on a thoughtfully-constructed, bottom-up philosophy of player development and roster building.

They call him “Papi” around Toyota Stadium for a reason. I feel confident that Wednesday’s disappointing 2-1 home loss to the Portland Timbers in the 2018 MLS Cup Playoffs Knockout Round won’t shake management’s faith in his approach, or his leadership. Perhaps the Imagine Dragons curse will be tabbed as the real culprit:

FC Dallas went 0-3 after letting Imagine Dragons play on the field before the Hall of Fame ceremony and had not lost three games in a row all season before the Imagine Dragons performance https://t.co/Yzz6NU0sKH

— Parrish in Relative Obscurity (@LoveIsTheTemple) November 1, 2018

But there is some soul-searching in store for Pareja and his colleagues on the prairies this winter.

Los Toros Tejanos seem to have a playoffs problem. They’ve qualified for the postseason in four of Pareja’s five seasons in charge, during which time they’ve also won a Supporters’ Shield-U.S. Open Cup double (2016), made an inspiring, but ultimately tragic run in the 2017 Concacaf Champions League and earned a place in the MLS regular-season elite, twice reaching 60 points and nearly doing so again this year.

Those are all good things. Their postseason record is less accomplished: FCD have won just one Knockout Round game (over Vancouver in 2014) and one two-legged series (over Seattle, via penalty-kick shootout, in 2015) in the playoffs, that fall crucible to determine who hoists MLS Cup.

Under Pareja, the closest they’ve come to the hoisting that league trophy is the 2015 Western Conference Championship, where they fell in agonizing circumstances – at home in the second leg – to the eventual champions … Portland, which lends a sad sort of circularity to Wednesday’s loss.

“It is frustrating to get to this point again, and at this stage not being able to advance,” Pareja said in Wednesday’s postgame press conference. “So to our fans and the people who have worked with this franchise and the people who have supported us and are expecting us to keep moving forward and reach that goal of being in MLS Cup and winning it, I want to tell them that I am terribly sorry for not being able to do that.”

Dallas’ playoff campaigns have been cut short by a range of factors: unfortunately-timed injuries to key players, in-form opponents, a few ultimately unsuccessful calls by Pareja.

Until this year their prospects of greatness often ebbed and flowed with the fitness of Mauro Diaz, the magical Argentinean playmaker who made FCD special when healthy and sharp, but was sidelined all too often, forcing drastic shifts in tactics and outlook in his absence. In the case of the 2016 postseason, which Dallas entered as the West’s top seed, Pareja fatefully chopped and changed both his team’s personnel and shape, a three-man back line proving disastrous in their semifinal series with eventual champs Seattle.

When Diaz was sold earlier this year, the hope was that Pareja’s side could become more adaptable and resilient. That was a more general objective as well: The club had gradually opened up the purse strings to augment their waves of Homegrown talent and under-the-radar Latin American imports with experienced signings like Reto Ziegler and Roland Lamah. Diversity and flexibility were seen as a means to navigate these win-or-else situations.

Yet in many ways they’re seemingly right back where they started. The goals dried up down the stretch, even as they tended to amass higher expected goals numbers than their adversaries. This time Pareja kept the faith with his first-choice XI. No matter. Pablo Aranguiz, Diaz’s hand-picked playmaking replacement, didn’t even make Wednesday’s 18-man gameday roster, and no one stepped up to take responsibility in time to save a season that once looked bound for the back end of the bracket.

Dallas have a chance to get a LOT better this offseason. Pareja has to dump a few of his favorites tho.https://t.co/bW5WlYnnH8

— Matthew Doyle (@MattDoyle76) November 1, 2018

“If you don’t put the ball in the back of the net, you don’t get points,” Pareja conceded. “If I say we play well, but we don’t score goals, I’m probably not being very objective.

“I thought we were not clean in both [penalty] areas,” he said. “It could be something psychological, it could be something else, it could be – it’s worth it to make a big analysis and we’ll do it, because this is very unexpected for me. We were fine, we had a very good season.”

Whether the Cup chase requires minor tweaks or something deeper, Pareja, club president Dan Hunt and VP of soccer operations Luiz Muzzi will have time to chew on those decisions as the playoffs roll on, once again, with FCD’s run at an early close.

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Boehm: Another long winter awaits Oscar Pareja and FC Dallas was originally published on 365 Football

[junker-town]

A beginner’s guide to MLS for 2017

Just now getting into Major League Soccer? We can help.

You can find the entire 2017 MLS season preview here!

What is MLS?

Well, you didn't call it “the MLS,” which is a good start. Major League Soccer is a 22-year-old professional soccer league featuring teams from the United States and Canada. Creating the league was a requirement for the U.S. hosting the 1994 World Cup and despite some bumps (two teams were contracted in 2001) the league will grow to 24 teams by 2020 and is already working on plans to grow to at least 28, has stadiums all over the country, and no longer has teams with names like “the Wiz” or “the Clash” (sadly). It does, however, have a “Real Salt Lake,” a “Sporting Kansas City,” and will have three “Uniteds” — none of which united anything, except the haters — so it's not perfect.

Are the players actually any good?

If you're used to watching the likes of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo play, MLS players will probably disappoint. But that's not really a very fair comparison. Although there are no world-class talents in the league, the level of play is actually fairly high, and it's only getting better. A few years ago a lack of quality was a major issue, but the league's come along in leaps and bounds recently, and boasts some very watchable matches as well as some household names.

Most of the United States national team is here now, several returning after successful stints in Europe. The likes of Giovanni dos Santos, Sebastian Giovinco, David Villa and Kaká are making themselves right at home, while aging English legends Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard found it much tougher than they had probably envisioned before both retired.

Who's the best team?

That's a great question. The field seems to be pretty wide open, as it perpetually is. The Seattle Sounders are the defending champions, although they were far from the best team last year. But they did manage to win the title without much contribution from Clint Dempsey, and he appears to be healthy again. Toronto FC might have the most talent, were a penalty shootout away from winning last year, and looked poised for another strong run.

The LA Galaxy have retooled around Mexican star dos Santos, adding Romain Alessandrini from Ligue 1 and the Portland Timbers added some impressive pieces, most notably Lanus’ Sebastian Blanco. And while it’s probably too early to call them a MLS Cup contender, even expansion side Atlanta United looks pretty stacked.

What's all this stuff I've heard about messing with offsides and not allowing draws?

We prefer to pretend that the 1990s never happened. Don't worry, MLS plays by normal FIFA rules now. However, the league is planning to become one of the first to roll out video replay — around midseason if FIFA gives the green light.

Why else should I pay attention?

Because it's fun, mostly. MLS fans have imported most of the best bits of worldwide soccer culture — the tifo (soccerese for “big awesome drawing”), the mass chanting, the flags — and managed to avoid things like stabbing each other in the legs for wearing the wrong colors.

Troy Wayrynen-USA TODAY Sports

There's also a sense of parity that just doesn't exist in most soccer leagues. Enough teams make it to the playoffs to keep things interesting, and even the worst teams one season can improve enough in one winter to be contenders in the next. Going into the league’s 22nd season, 11 different teams have won MLS Cup and just as many have won the Supporters’ Shield.

If you're into scarves, being an MLS fan will help add to your collection while keeping your neck toasty and warm. MLS is also great if you're into guys with chainsaws. Although that won't help keep you warm unless you're really into guys with chainsaws.

There's seriously a guy with a chainsaw?

Yes. Sadly, he does not feature on the field of play, though we’re sure the Timbers will continue to petition the league to make that happen.

Is it really a professional league if the stadium is quiet and empty?

No, it's not, but MLS doesn't have that problem. The league averages more than 21,000 fans per match, which is good for eighth best in the world. The league is also poised to break its own attendance record for a fourth straight year with two new teams coming in — one of whom has already sold 55,000 tickets to their opener — and yet another new stadium scheduled to open.

Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports

If you want atmosphere, check out Seattle, where 44,000 screaming and singing fans is the norm and an estimated crowd of 70,000 flooded downtown for their MLS Cup victory parade (above). Those crowds could be rivaled in Atlanta while their Pacific Northwest neighbors, Portland, match that passion. Heck, if you look almost anywhere in the league, you can find a few hundred lubricated fans banded together as a supporters' group screaming obscenities at the other team's best player.

And how does the multiple trophy thing work?

The league itself awards two major trophies at the end of each year. The first goes to the team that finishes the regular-season with the most points for which they receive the Supporters' Shield. Aside from a trophy — and some level of pride — that team also receives home-field advantage in the playoffs.

The MLS Cup is awarded to the team that wins the playoffs. They tweaked the format a little back in 2015, and now allow six teams from each conference (so 12 total). The top two clubs get byes to the conference semifinals; seeds Nos. 4 and 5 and seeds Nos. 3 and 6 have to face off for the right to get there. The winners from each conference meet in the MLS Cup; the winner is the league champion.

There are also three further major competitions in which an MLS team might be involved, the U.S. Open Cup, the Voyageurs Cup (aka the Canadian Championship) and the CONCACAF Champions League. The former is a knockout tournament open to every team in the United States Soccer Federation (think England's FA Cup), the Voyageurs Cup is the rough Canadian equivalent and the Champions League is a competition between the top sides in leagues around North America, Central America and the Caribbean. No MLS side has won it in its current format, but they're getting closer and (theoretically) will one day defeat their Mexican overlords.

Will there ever be promotion and relegation in MLS?

Look, a squirrel!

Sorry for asking. Where did the new teams come from, then?

Just like they do in the other big American sports leagues, they bought their way in. This year, MLS added Atlanta United and Minnesota United. Minnesota had actually been playing in the lower leagues, while Atlanta was created entirely from scratch. In 2018, Los Angeles FC is expected to join. Although David Beckham’s Miami team seems rather ill-fated, they will theoretically begin play in the near future of some alternative timeline. Additionally, a group of at least 12 other cities have already formally entered the process to get the league to 28 teams by 2024.

Do these new teams already have fans?

A lot even! In addition to selling 55,000 tickets to their home opener, Atlanta United has nearly 30,000 season-ticket holders. Minnesota United’s numbers aren’t quite as awe-inspiring, but they’ll have more than 30,000 fans at their home opener and will likely have nearly 12,000 season-ticket holders of their own.

Where are they playing?

Both will open in college football stadiums. While that may seem like a return to the bad old days of MLS, know that Atlanta will be moving into a state-of-the-art stadium designed for both soccer and American football at midseason, while Minnesota will have a soccer palace of their own in 2018.

Does anyone understand the roster rules? What is the “allocation order?”

OK, so the roster rules are a little bit involved. They're also a little bit ... fluid. The short version of this answer is that the structure of the league means the players are actually employed by MLS rather than their teams. The rules for bringing in overseas players are murky at best and made up on the spot at worst. The short version is “no,” there are not many people who have a truly thorough understanding of the roster rules. There is, at last, a limited form of free agency within the league, but that’s only served to add another layer of complication.

As for allocation order, it's probably best not to ask. That could be its own post by itself. Just let your favorite team’s GM sort it out.

What is a Designated Player?

Since the league is salary capped, it's difficult to bribe convince someone like David Beckham to work on his tan raise the league's profile by coming to Los Angeles. And so, when the LA Galaxy acquired David Beckham, a new rule was born: Teams can use a “Designated Player” spot, which counts for a fixed amount on the salary cap, then pay the DP whatever they want. Currently, teams are allowed up to three DPs. Every team has at least one of those players and at least half of them are using all three spots.

What's with all the weird team names?

When a new league tries to draw off about five different naming conventions at once, what tends to result is a big mess. There are clubs with traditional sounding English names (D.C. United), others that go in for something more European (Real Salt Lake), ones with standard US-franchise names (Chicago Fire), one that is simply named after its owner (New York Red Bulls) and a few more that are reborn NASL teams (like the Sounders). The latest trend is for teams to add “SC” to their names, so now we have Columbus Crew SC and Orlando City SC. That's “soccer club,” in case you were wondering.

The most reasonable explanation for this is that MLS is still relatively young and went through a significant portion of its history trying to figure out what it wants to be. The best way to handle the issue is to say your sillily-named team does it right and to then relentlessly mock everyone else's sillily-named team.

What about all these teams with '2' in their name?

That's another relatively new wrinkle to MLS. Starting in 2014, teams were allowed to launch stand-alone reserve teams that would play in the now second-division USL. LA Galaxy II were the only MLS-owned team in the league last year, but they'll be joined by eight other MLS-owned teams this year. Among them are the equally-cleverly-named Sounders 2, Timbers 2, Toronto FC II, Whitecaps 2 and Red Bulls II.

It's “football.” Stop calling it soccer.

How does it feel to hold the same opinion as Piers Morgan? Does it feel bad? You should feel bad.