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shushu
Joined: 26 Feb 2019
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18 Mar 2019 05:12 |
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Toronto FC has solved its designated player problem. The team has sent midfielder Matias Laba to the Vancouver Whitecaps in exchange for future considerations. With the offseason acquisitions of Gilberto, Jermain Defoe and Michael Bradley, TFC had four designated players on its books, one more than the the three allowed by Major League Soccer rules. Because of this, TFC had been looking to offload the 22-year-old Argentine midfielder. Laba, signed from Argentinos Juniors of the Argentine Primera Division last summer, started all 16 games in which he appeared and scored once. He is expected to step into a defensive midfield role in a 4-3-2-1 formation under new coach Carl Robinson, a former TFC midfielder himself. “Matias is a promising young talent and we are excited to have him join our club,” said Whitecaps head coach Carl Robinson. “He is a hard, aggressive player who brings a lot of energy to the pitch and although he is only 22, he is a natural leader on the field.” Karl Malone Jersey . Trailing 2-1 from the first leg, Fiorentina levelled on aggregate in the 14th minute when Joaquin Sanchez Rodriguez headed back a long ball from David Pizarro and Pasqual smashed home an angled volley. Cheap NBA Jerseys . CHAUNCEY BILLUPS (Pistons): Yes they got Josh Smith and Brandon Jennings in the off-season and Andre Drummond is a beast (teams are kicking themselves for passing on him - he rebounds and block shots every game - thats two more discernable and significant skills than most guys in his draft class), but dont for a second discount the impact of having a savvy veteran like Billups on your team. http://www.cheapjazzjerseys.com/?tag=cheap-john-stockton-jersey .Y. - Islanders forward Anders Lee has been fined $2,286 by the NHL for elbowing St. Jonas Jerebko Jersey . - The New York Rangers have momentum, a unified locker room and Henrik Lundqvist. Cheap Utah Jazz Jerseys . PETERSBURG, Fla.Major League Soccer is approaching the business end of the schedule. It is now into its eighth full month of regular-season play and the teams are entering the final laps to see who will be in a playoff spot when the checkered flag comes down on Oct. 26. It has been another thoroughly entertaining season but the league is far from perfect. With just over two weeks left here are the three things I would change if I became MLS commissioner for a day. -- 1. SCHEDULE CHANGES FOR FINAL DAY OF SEASON Toronto FC end their season in New England on a Saturday night while Columbus finish their campaign the next day. The two are currently locked in a fascinating race for a wild-card spot but on that weekend the Crew will know exactly what they need heading into their match, which might be simply a draw, something they wouldna€?t necessarily know if they were unaware of the Toronto FC result. Similarly, Vancouver and Portland are currently going head-to-head in a race for the fifth spot in the Western Conference. On the final day of the season Portland kick off at 8:30pm et/5:30pm pt, while the Whitecaps start their game at 10pm et/7pm pt when the Timbers will have around 15 minutes left in their game. Neither of these scenarios is fair. The World Cup found out the hard way with a€?the disgrace of Gijona€? between Austria and West Germany in 1982 and every major European league now plays all of their games at the same time for a reason. MLS needs to act on this immediately because right now they are opening themselves up to a situation that could see two teams playing each other while knowing exactly what they need to do based solely on the start time of their games. CHANGES TO BE MADE: I understand there are stadium conflicts, television deals and many other factors that go into organizing kick off times. However, none of them are a good enough reason as to why the league should not start every match on the final day of the season at the same time. If they ever had a Gijon moment, it would be more than just a disgrace considering the world is showing them just how it should be done. POTENTIAL ISSUE: What if it is not logistically possible to play in those stadiums on the final day of the last weekend? SOLUTION: Ideally, you play them all on a Saturday away from the NFL and find a time that works for all time zones. It should be done. Not only would this bring more attention to dramatic playoff races but it is also the only fair thing to do for the teams and their players. For that reason alone the league needs to find the time and date that works. If finding ten available stadiums on a Saturday in October proves to be more of a challenge than it sounds then find a different time. 8pm et/5pm pt on a Friday? Even Sunday? It doesna€?t matter. It has to happen. -- 2. IMPROVE THE WAY GAMES LOOK ON TV I have really enjoyed commentating on some great games in MLS this season for TSN and a lot of people behind the scenes work very hard to put together an excellent product that thousands of people enjoy watching every weekend. However, it can get better. CHANGES TO BE MADE: MLS wants to become one of the worlda€?s leading leagues by 2022 and one of the ways they can do that is by pushing the boundaries with technology. Never have more eyeballs been placed on this sport and if you show the world a different lens to view it through then people will react. I would have them place more cameras in the stadiums including a high tactics view above each goal that people can watch solely with their MLS Live accounts. More importantly, I would work out an agreement with the Professional Referee Organization (PRO) to have the referees wear portable GoPro Cameras on top of their heads, with an open line being sent to the home and away brooadcast trucks.dddddddddddd POTENTIAL ISSUE: What about some difficult scenes and conversations going out live that shouldna€?t be shown? SOLUTION: Due to the abuse referees receive from players the agreement would have to stipulate that it could not be shown live during a stoppage of play but some of the replay images you would see would be fascinating. It is already working in other sports, including rugby league in England where the referee moves around the field just as much as they do in soccer. Thankfully, in that sport they dona€?t let their players berate the officials with a tirade of abuse but perhaps this camera could help solve that as well. Possibly. For now, though, for the day I am in charge, I would do whatever it takes to have referees wear them for every game going forward. -- 3. PLAYOFF SEEDING CHANGES FOR 2015 Next season New York City FC and Orlando City will be joining the Eastern Conference. The expected two year hiatus, and rebranding, of Chivas USA leaves 12 teams in the East and eight in the West. It is expected that Sporting KC and Houston Dynamo will join the West next season, turning the already superior conference into an absolute powerhouse. Remember the NFCa€?s dominance over the AFC in the NFL during the late 80s and 90s? Well, this could be the same. Forcing teams in the West to play more games against each other is one thing (clearly some kind of balanced schedule needs also to be resolved in years to come with expansion) but should one of those teams really miss out on the playoffs if they were still able to get more points than a fifth placed Eastern Conference side that played weaker teams more often? Absolutely not. CHANGES TO BE MADE: There is no need for a revolutionary new playoff format that will be difficult to understand for fans. MLS should again reward the top three teams in each conference with a playoff spot but the next four a€?wild carda€? spots should simply go to the teams with the next four best point totals, regardless of what conference they are in. This, much like Major League Baseball, would turn everyonea€?s attention to the wild card standings and the top four in this would be ranked in that manner and still play in the one game playoff matches (1 vs 4, 2 vs 3) that currently exist. POTENTIAL ISSUE: How does MLS avoid the nonsense, similarly to what took place in 2010, where teams can win a playoff game and then get moved into a different conference, which they could subsequently become champions of, having played the entire regular season in the opposite one? SOLUTION: Conferences by region are a nice idea for regular season but are meaningless in playoff format. They have no history and having teams swap back and forth between them further strengthens the argument at just how irrelevant they are. Why should a league be restricted from common sense based on geography? Take the top six teams and rank them in order of points. The two wild card winners then take spots seven and eight and then you have two knockout rounds for the quarters and semis before the final based around a 1 vs 8 format. This also eliminates the problem that the NFL had when, so often, their best two teams were in the same conference and were unable to meet in the final. This solution also means a team can finish seventh in the West and get in, which they should if they were able to get more points than the team who finished fourth in the East, for example. -- Now if we can just get the regular season wrapped up before the international break in October and the MLS Cup awarded before the international break in November we wouldna€?t have to see players leave their clubs at crucial moments of the season. Somehow I think that may take me more than one day to change. ' ' '
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