MLS

Rest in peace Carolina RailHawks. Rest in peace NASL (yet again). At a press conference on Tuesday, December 6th, RailHawks owner Steve Malik announced his vision for the club that has been building for nearly a year. 

The Carolina RailHawks have been a staple in the North Carolina region for the past decade — they’ve provided the closest thing to top level soccer in the area along with a unique brand. The Raleigh-Durham region is a hotbed for youth development and collegiate soccer, continuously feeding the RailHawks roster and academies. 

NYCFC striker David Villa is the 2016 MLS MVP. The Spanish striker scored 23 goals and contributed four assists to his club's most successful season (out of two seasons) to date.

Interestingly, the four leading MVP vote-getters play in the Eastern Conference, and three in New York: Villa (NYCFC), Bradley Wright-Phillips (New York Red Bulls), Sacha Kljestan (Red Bulls) and Sebastian Giovinco (Toronto FC).

It’s official: MLS will have a first-time Cup champion on Saturday. The MLS Cup winner will be either the Seattle Sounders or Toronto FC, both teams making their MLS Cup debuts. The two sides will meet in the 21st MLS Cup on December 10, 2016.

Both clubs boast massive fan support that has, to varying degrees, suffered since arriving in MLS. After two straight years of huge player investment and stadium upgrades, Toronto enter as the favorites at home and under the majority of the pressure. 

Before we get to the game, can we just talk about the atmosphere in Toronto last night? That was one of the best atmospheres for a sporting event I have ever seen. It was raining, but also smoky because Toronto fans kept setting off flares in the stands. 

Honestly, we didn't know Canadians could get that rowdy. Good for them.

The atmosphere was good and the match, if anything, was even better. This was not a well-played soccer game. It was, however, a good soccer game, in terms of total chaos and excitement. Here's what happened:

FREE AGENT BABY.

These are maybe not the words you should be tweeting if you have just helped your new franchise to a very successful season and have therefore amassed a bit of good will from the fanbase. That is exactly what Jermaine Jones did following Colorado's 1-0 loss against Seattle Sunday, likely his last game with the Rapids.

You should never look to sports franchises for guidance following a tragedy. These are organizations that can't even defend a corner kick properly, how can they possibly manage reacting thoughtfully and compassionately to a horrible situation?

Sometimes, though, those reactions happen to be exactly what everyone needs. Credit where credit is due: Orlando City SC have responded to the terrifying events of the Pulse nightclub shooting with class and empathy. Here's the latest gesture:

Everyone knows about Michael Jordan's flu game, but did you know Jordan Morris had one too, like, a few hours ago?

It's true. Morris, battling the flu, scored the only goal in Seattle's 1-0 victory over the Colorado Rapids Sunday in Colorado.

Two things stood out during the MLS Western Conference final first-leg in between the Rapids and the Sounders in Seattle. First, the lines on the field were markedly straight and where they were supposed to be in relation to the other lines on the field. Said lines did not need to be redrawn or painted over in a manner that would cause the game to be delayed. The lines marking the 18-yard box were particularly well-measured.

The Montreal Impact changed from their normal home venue, the Saputo Stadium, to the Olympic Stadium for their 2016 MLS Cup Eastern Conference Final, and it looked like a stroke of genius. Instead of playing in front of 20,801 supporters, the Impact raised the attendance for Tuesday night’s first-leg match to over 61,000.

Unfortunately, the Olympic Stadium’s grounds crew wasn’t on the same page. 

Zlatan Ibrahimovic frequently plays at being a conquerer, emperor and god while discussing his career. He’s discussed how his favorite movie is Gladiator, because he feels that, like Maximus Decimus Meridius, he will have his vengeance, in this life or the next.

“That’s how I felt, or wanted to feel,” said Ibrahimovic in his book, I Am Zlatan. “I wanted to stand up to the whole world and show everybody who’d doubted me who I really was, and I couldn’t imagine anyone who’d be able to stop me.”