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while the fire dont have to deal with 9 missing, we are missing 3 BIG players this weekend...

blanco, Pappa and Segares are all on national duty....

of course the canadian team is going to feel it more as most of their nats who arent playing in europe are playing for TFC....

Its about time the league addressed this. as the league gets better talent this was going to become a bigger and bigger problem. it is frustrating when your team is trying to grab some points to qualify for the playoffs and they are without their big players.

This is almost laughable...how many times have there been World Cup qualifiers taking place in the past that have crossed paths with MLS matches? One would think back a few years ago someone would have suggested a contingency plan...especially when the league is always trying to expand and increase its popularity.

Dare I think that they will play thru the winter like the rest of the world? That would put them against college and pro football... not a good prospect. Hopefully not a MPL way of splitting the season in 2 halves... that would be highly annoying.

Agree with Zizou10. This is laughable. It took these fools long enough to think about a contingency plan.

Otergod: Only 2 of the 9 TFC starters that will miss the game are Canadian. But more to the point, the league bosses are idiots. The game is going to be a sham. How is it honoring TV commitments when one side is fielding a JV team? They won't be able to have any players on the bench for the game. It's a joke, and if Chivas doesn't win by at least three goals, it's because they took pity on Toronto.

This just exposes something we've known for a long time: the depth of the talent pool in the MLS is paper thin. Take the few stars away and you are looking at a league whose teams are stuffed with washed up plumbers and amateur wannabes!

titansftw- well color me ignorant :D been some time since ive checked out the TFC roster...

DCuiser- oddly enough the fire play faster more attractive football without blanco, however, their play is not consistant... they are hit or miss without Blanco..

we have thorington, Mapp, Pappa all fighting for the starting winger spots... not to mention a decent enough Banner to fill in if needed....

while segares will be missed, we have Robinson, Marmol, CJ, Woolard and Washington who are more then capable of filling in....

we wont be the same, but the fire can hold their own.... of course i agree that the depth in the league isnt great, but you have to make due with what you can grab

Hopefully this is the first step is aligining the MLS with the rest of the world (flip through GOLTV, FSC, and Setanta for the weekend and the only club games you'll find are MLS). The one table debate is heating up and after watching Charleston hang with DC for 60 minutes before DC controlled the last 30 proves to me that a relegation system with USL would do wonders (Imagine Beckham's team on the relegation bubble).

As for the season schedule, besides the NCAA and NFL football tv comp, I wouldn't want anyone to have to outdoors in Toronto, NY, or Chicago in January.

Even if we don't align with the rest of the world, this should not be hard to figure out.

Pawn - good call on bringing relegation into the mix in the MLS. It would be revolutionary in the US sports scene. We can dream one day the USL / MLS can work something out for that to happen.

The funny thing is Garber and the other high ups would probably just add a "new" franchise to the top division and give it to the Galaxy after being relegated.

There is no way they would play in the winter. Its not just college and pro football. Its also college and pro basketball and hockey. There are only so many sporting event that people are able and willing to attend/watch. Plus, I don't know what I would do if the only sport I was able to follow in the summer was baseball.

It's simple. It doesn't matter when the league plays its matches, they just need to take a day off during the international calendar. It's something that's long overdue. Not to mention, in 2010 during the World Cup, the league needs to sit back and take the month off just like the NHL and WNBA did for the Olympics. Those leagues aren't any worse for having the time off and the MLS won't either.

Simply put, if the MLS wants to continually put a quality product on the field, they need to respect FIFAs international calendar.

Relegation would be AWESOME. However, because we're prudish Americans, we would never understand it and the league would NEVER NEVER allow the franchises in LA, NY or Chicago play in the lower divisions (of which they have no control over anyway).

You can't play soccer outside in New England or Toronto or Chicago in January. MLS won't be changing to a European schedule, ever.

What they need to do (and I can't believe they didn't do this before) is schedule breaks in the schedule for Qualifiers or other big international tournies. There is no reason MLS teams should, as mentioned above, be forced to field JV teams. I'm sure the TV guys will understand.

Relegation is a pipe dream at this point. First, MLS needs to have a higher salary cap ($5-6 million at least) and expand the roster size so teams can play in all these competitions without running their first XI ragged by the end of June.

DCuiser- oddly enough the fire play faster more attractive football without blanco
Otergod | 09/05/08, 10:56 AM

True enough, but attractive football alone isn't enough if they can't finish. Blanco gives them that dimension. Also, the Fire are in a relatively good position with the players you've mentioned. Unfortunately, most MLS teams don't have that luxury.

DCruiser- i agree, blanco adds that dimension that the fire need, but we are lost without him (to some degree)...

as for the other point, you can blame that on poor management... they are looking for the quick fix, not the long haul..... i have faith in any of our back-up defenders.... even so with the rest of the back ups (bar Herron)

Relegation is a pipe dream at this point. First, MLS needs to have a higher salary cap ($5-6 million at least) and expand the roster size so teams can play in all these competitions without running their first XI ragged by the end of June.

naxself | 09/05/08, 11:56 AM

It isn't a pipe dream... it's simply something that will absolutely never happen in American sports ever. Taxpayers pay for stadiums, city, county, state budgets are built to accommodate the building of them. The hitch with it is that these stadiums make a draw of fans and bring the money BACK in taxes on ticket sales, food, merchandise sales... Let's face reality here, noone in America cares about semi-pro sports. The XFL failed miserably, the new USFL can't even get off the ground. Buffalo has a AAA baseball team that leads the International League in attendance..... and working across the street in a skyscraper, I can easily look down to see the whole stadium attendance...... of 10-20 people daily. Sure the Friday night games there almost sell out... but they wouldn't exist without a billionaire owner, a city that was promised an MLB team, and subsidies from their parent club, the Cleveland Indians.

The USL should be a farm system... and that's all it should ever be. As soon as there's relegation in the MLS, no teams get a stadium... no expansion teams are granted. Just imagine... Toronto FC comes in last year, automatically relegated. San Jose comes in this year, automatically relegated. Let's stop dreaming here and join reality people... the MLS at it's peak will be a league just like every other league in America, with 30-32 teams and 2 divisions -- very likely along the lines of baseball with not one but TWO major leagues comprising them... culminating in the "World" Series.

"the MLS at it's peak will be a league just like every other league in America, with 30-32 teams and 2 divisions -- "

BuffaloTF | 09/05/08, 02:12 PM

What part of that doesn't sound like the NASL??? Among the reasons the NASL ended was too many teams, rapid expansion, decrease in quality of players because too many teams.

Going the model of every other American league won't do anything to bring in casual fans. I think many US fans that don't have a USL nearby underestimate the quality of play AND the passion of the fans.