Steven Gerrard - into the world of management

And now onto the semi final ...

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How disappointing!

A 2-1 defeat in the semi finals brings an end to the dream of winning the cup for the second time.

We just didn't get going and found ourselves 2-0 down with little over 20 minutes to go.

Zardes then gave us a little hope by pulling one back with 10 minutes to go but we just couldn't find an equaliser.

All our hopes on the league and play offs now then!​
 
After that disappointment we had to pick ourselves up against a good New York side.

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A desmond (2-2). Not a bad result but probably a game in which we should have won.

We started well and went on to take an impressive 2-0 lead thanks to goals from Luke Moore and Robbie Keane.

Then somehow we let New York back in the side. They pulled one back with 20 minutes to go before levelling in injury time to ensure the points were shared.​
 
We then went back to Champions League to play the second group game ...

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Another very easy win in this easy group.

Left wing back, Paito got us off to a great start by scoring on the 17th minute before Zardes doubled the lead. Luke Moore then grabbed the third minutes before Zardes completed his brace.

Tornados then got one back but a comeback was never on the cards.

Luke Moore grabbed his second of the game to make it 5-1 just before the hour mark. And thats how the scored stayed.​

After the two wins we've had, our group table looked like this ...

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With 2 wins from 2 games and 10 goals scored, our group couldn't look much better.



​
 
The final game of the month saw us come up against Portland. This gave us an opportunity to get revenge on the Cup Semi Final defeat a few weeks ago.

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Sweet revenge!

It's just such a shame that we couldn't do this a few weeks back in the Cup Semi Final.

A great start which put us 3-0 up within half an hour. Goals from Luke Moore and a brace from Zardes ensured the win was wrapped up in that first half an hour.

Portland got one back after 50 minutes but never really threatened to get back into the game.​


This then brought an end to the month, so the latest tables look like this ...

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We finish the month only 4 points clear of Fc Dallas although we do have 2 games in hand.

There's only 7 games remaining for us meaning another 10 points is needed to guarantee the league title.​

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Fc Dallas are again our main challengers in the Supporters Shield. Philadelphia are also up there, being 8 points behind and a game in hand.​
 
So the countdown begins, 7 games to go ...

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Thats one down.

It wasn't our best performance, especially at the back but a win nonetheless.

A goal within the first minutes from Jose Villareal certainly helped before Houston levelled 5 minutes later.

Zardes then continued his good form by scoring the second before Luke Moore increased the lead to 3-1.

The best news from the game (other than the points) was the fact that Goalkeeper, Penedo was able to go straight back into the side after his injury.

Houston then got one back late on but we managed to hold out for a very important win.​
 
Next up was a tough game against Toronto who were towards the top of the Eastern Conference.

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Another good win without playing brilliantly.

A brace from Zardes ensured us of all 3 points. Toronto got one back in-between but I think we just edged it and deserved the win.​
 
Before the next game (which see's us take on second placed Fc Dallas) we received some injury news.

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The biggest loss was to midfield player, Brad Evans who has been ruled out for 9 months. This is such a shame that the lad will miss the play offs and a lot of next season as well.​

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Paito was also ruled out, although nothing like evans's injury. Paito is ruled out for 2 weeks with a damaged elbow and will miss the next couple of games.


Just before we take on Fc Dallas then, the top 2 looked like this ...​

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7 points clear with 4 games remaining then. A win here would all but ensure the league title comes with us.

Also, as this was a later kick off, the challenging pack played just before us.

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A couple of the teams challenging for the play off spots slipped up here which meant we were guaranteed a spot in the play offs to win the MLS Cup.

This is still a big game against Dallas though as we could mathematically win the Weastern Conference and Supporters Shield with a win.

 
PaperClipFMer said:
Haha, its ridiculous mate! Yeah either win the league or US cup to qualify I think, the Mexican sides seem to win it every year though.
To be honest I didn't really bother with the draft as there wasn't anyone great available. I cherry picked players from other sides instead. It's amazing who you can get by trading them your pick in the draft!
Click to expand...

5 MLS teams qualify – one Canadian (their own knockout cup), 4 US (MLS Cup, Supporter’s Shield, US Open Cup, Conf Champ that isn’t Supp Shield). Any Canadian team or duplicated team’s spot goes to next spot on Conf table. Then a Mexican team whose budget dwarfs ours kills us in the finals. It’s sort of like being a Liverpool fan. However, the gap is shrinking.
Also, in real life, the draft is becoming less and less important, as your academy players can be signed without going through the draft process. LA has probably the best Academy, and has produced recently some really good talent (Zardes, Jose Villarreal, and Bradley Jameson IV).

However, the traditional route here in the US has been to go to university and play on a scholarship, and when these players graduate/and or declare for the draft, that is how they are selected. AJ DeLaGarza (who is probably the best loved player in LA) and Gonzalez were both drafted the same year out of University of Maryland. This year, Magnanto (who goes by Nacho) was a steal for LA in the draft.

Roster rules are bizarre, but there for a reason. Soccer leagues in the US had a history of failing, so they were really careful when the MLS was established. The rules are basically meant that a) noone goes broke and b) noone dominates. Bruce Arena's basically genius level at manipulating the system, so b) hasn't gone the way people would expect lately. As time goes on, some of the more esoteric rules are going away. My guess is that it will look more familiar within the next decade.

Oh, and the chance you could pick up Evans and Hedges in real life are about zero. Seattle would never negotiate with LA for him (or anyone for that matter), and Hedges is considered a top defender in MLS (probably a US defender in near future).

Great story!

For your enjoyment, highlights from an Open Cup game this week in which Seattle finished with 7 men:


[video]https://youtu.be/L2h_vPQ-bdM[/video]
 
Last edited:
mkb152 said:
5 MLS teams qualify – one Canadian (their own knockout cup), 4 US (MLS Cup, Supporter’s Shield, US Open Cup, Conf Champ that isn’t Supp Shield). Any Canadian team or duplicated team’s spot goes to next spot on Conf table. Then a Mexican team whose budget dwarfs ours kills us in the finals. It’s sort of like being a Liverpool fan. However, the gap is shrinking.
Also, in real life, the draft is becoming less and less important, as your academy players can be signed without going through the draft process. LA has probably the best Academy, and has produced recently some really good talent (Zardes, Jose Villarreal, and Bradley Jameson IV).

However, the traditional route here in the US has been to go to university and play on a scholarship, and when these players graduate/and or declare for the draft, that is how they are selected. AJ DeLaGarza (who is probably the best loved player in LA) and Gonzalez were both drafted the same year out of University of Maryland. This year, Magnanto (who goes by Nacho) was a steal for LA in the draft.

Roster rules are bizarre, but there for a reason. Soccer leagues in the US had a history of failing, so they were really careful when the MLS was established. The rules are basically meant that a) noone goes broke and b) noone dominates. Bruce Arena's basically genius level at manipulating the system, so b) hasn't gone the way people would expect lately. As time goes on, some of the more esoteric rules are going away. My guess is that it will look more familiar within the next decade.

Oh, and the chance you could pick up Evans and Hedges in real life are about zero. Seattle would never negotiate with LA for him (or anyone for that matter), and Hedges is considered a top defender in MLS (probably a US defender in near future).

Great story!

For your enjoyment, highlights from an Open Cup game this week in which Seattle finished with 7 men:


[video]https://youtu.be/L2h_vPQ-bdM[/video]
Click to expand...

Wow! Why didn't I come to you before writing this story! Would have made life much easier lol.

Yeah I noticed the Mexican sides dominated in that tournament. I didn't know Mexican sides had great finances though, I was surprised that Gonzalez has gone to play there on this story.

Galaxy did well to pick Gonzalez and DeLaGarza in the same off season.

Hedges is quality here too, I didn't know what an unrealistic signing he was though. I was surprised who I could sign for very little money to be honest, maybe a bug?

That game looked ridiculous, looked good entertainment though. No wonder Seattle had to change kits at half time, they both looked exactly the same haha!

Thanks for your input though mate.
 
Onto the top of the table clash against Fc Dallas ...

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A great win which should see us claim the league title !

In truth the game was pretty tight, but our quality up-front really showed and won us the game.

Robbie Keane got us off to a great start by putting us 1-0 up after half an hour. His strike partner, Luke Moore then grabbed the second just before the hour mark.

Our win was then given some further gloss thanks to an own goal scored in injury time.​

After this game, the league table looked like this.

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This now ensures we will finish top of the Eastern Conference after being 10 points clear of Dallas with only 3 games to go.​

The Supports Shield looked pretty similar ...

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New England were our nearest challengers here but again we are pretty much guaranteed to finish top here as well. 9 points clear with 3 games to go with a goal difference of 12 better.​
 
After claiming the Western Conference title, we now faced Seattle knowing that 1 point will be enough for also claim the Supporters Shield title.

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We again struggled to put out our strongest side here with Penedo, Juninho, Omar Gonzalez, DeLaGarza, Zardes, Osorio all on international duty with Keller and Evans still injured.

This certainly didn't help as we stumbled to a 2-1 defeat against a good Seattle side.

Obafemi Martins opened the scoring after just 6 minutes before midway through the second half Alan Gordon grabbed the equaliser.

Gordon then went on to hit the post twice in an attempt to claim the winner. After failing to find the second goal we then allowed Seattle in on goal again with Aaron Kovar finding the back of the net.

New England also win in this game week meaning we still need that solitary point to guarantee the league title.​
 
We got the opportunity to claim this point in the very next game, a home game against Philadelphia.

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Well it wasn't a good performance but we managed to get the point we needed.

I'm really pleased to get the point here as I didn't want it to go to the last game of the season as the pressure would have really been on then.

That means we become 2015 Supporters Shield champions as well as Western Conference champions.​

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4 points clear now with just one game to go.​
 
The final game of the season saw us take on Sporting Kansas City at home.

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With nothing to play for it allowed us to rest, Keane, Moore, Zardes and Gonzalez for the play off games coming up.

Jack McBean (in the squad to replace the rested Robbie Keane) put his name in my mind for the play offs with a brilliant brace just before the hour mark.​

This brings a close the league campaign and saw the league tables finish like this.

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We ended up finishing 8 points clear of Fc Dallas in the Western Conference, really the title here was wrapped up a number of weeks ago.​

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We also wrap up the domestic double by winning the Supporters Shield as well. Here we finished 7 points clear of New England winning our first title here since 2011.​

The Wild Card game this year saw 4th place Houston take on 5th place San Jose. The winner of this game plays us in the two legged play off semi final game.

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Houston came from a goal down to beat San Jose 2-1 with a late winner.​
 
Right, onto the play off semi final first leg then. I fancy our chances here although they did beat us at the StubHub stadium earlier this season.


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A 2-2 draw isn't actually a bad result here.

A crazy end to the game which saw us both score in injury time.

We got off to a good start by taking the lead after 12 minutes before Gonzalez scored an own goal to make it 1-1 just after half time.

Houston then took the lead in injury time, in truth my heart dropped when i saw that go in. But Luke Moore saved the day by equalising almost immediately.​

Onto the second leg at home next.
 
Finished reading this, keep it up :D
The MLS rules are mostly one gigantic mess that I can barely begin to comprehend and yet with enough persistence my Chicago Fire game has been very successful (won everything on the first year). Portland was easily my toughest opponent, followed strangely enough by the lower league San Antonio Scorpions.
 
I get the impression that the Supporter's Shield is a bit like the President's trophy in the NHL, where the team with the most regular season points claims it. But the real prize is winning the playoffs for the Stanley Cup, and there is never much fuss made of the President's Trophy - it's even considered a failure if a team wins that but not the Cup. People don't tend to remember or care too much who wins that, only the Cup. Do you think that's similar in the MLS, or does the Supporter's Shield seem like the main prize?
 
PatrickLFC said:
I get the impression that the Supporter's Shield is a bit like the President's trophy in the NHL, where the team with the most regular season points claims it. But the real prize is winning the playoffs for the Stanley Cup, and there is never much fuss made of the President's Trophy - it's even considered a failure if a team wins that but not the Cup. People don't tend to remember or care too much who wins that, only the Cup. Do you think that's similar in the MLS, or does the Supporter's Shield seem like the main prize?
Click to expand...


MLS Cup is the main prize.

Supporter's shield has some issues; mainly the schedules are not balanced. But it is a major trophy and probably considered a bigger deal than the Open Cup. But the American tradition in sports is based around playoffs, so the MLS Cup is considered the championship.
 
mkb152 said:
MLS Cup is the main prize.

Supporter's shield has some issues; mainly the schedules are not balanced. But it is a major trophy and probably considered a bigger deal than the Open Cup. But the American tradition in sports is based around playoffs, so the MLS Cup is considered the championship.
Click to expand...

Yeah that's what I figured, bigger than the minor cups but it's really a minor premiership, and the playoffs for the MLS Cup is the major prize. Good luck with them by the way! :D
 
DreamTempest said:
Finished reading this, keep it up :D
The MLS rules are mostly one gigantic mess that I can barely begin to comprehend and yet with enough persistence my Chicago Fire game has been very successful (won everything on the first year). Portland was easily my toughest opponent, followed strangely enough by the lower league San Antonio Scorpions.
Click to expand...

Thanks mate :)
Good for you mate, i can't begin to comprehend the rules either haha. Chicago won the Western Conference but lost out in the Play off final in the first season here so congrats on winning everything.

Portland were a bit of a bogey side for me to to be honest.
 
PatrickLFC said:
I get the impression that the Supporter's Shield is a bit like the President's trophy in the NHL, where the team with the most regular season points claims it. But the real prize is winning the playoffs for the Stanley Cup, and there is never much fuss made of the President's Trophy - it's even considered a failure if a team wins that but not the Cup. People don't tend to remember or care too much who wins that, only the Cup. Do you think that's similar in the MLS, or does the Supporter's Shield seem like the main prize?
Click to expand...

'mkb152' beat to it by answering this but answered it better than i could anyway haha. MLS is definitely the big one but still pleased to win the Supporters Shield as in my mind it means your the best team in the country throughout the whole season.
 
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