How can a bunch of 2nd Division teams have rivalries? There is no promotion to our beloved MLS. (Which to those of us that know football, refer to *** Major League S**t.)

We in Columbus hope that someday promotion and relagation would be possible, it would have been nice to lose NY and NE years ago.

I'd love to debate you, however I have no idea what the point is that you were making. Sober up and try again.

Yes, we can have rivalries and now that includes you, so piss off Crewboy.

What do you call a Crew fan? Crewslut. (credit to Frank Zappa)

Thats nice, but I wasnt trying to piss you off. Its just that there doesnt seem to be a whole lot to play for in the A-League. (I dont know, we hear NOTHING about it here.) I know that when Open Cup games come here, we are lucky if something like 5,000 people show up. And thats if its an MLS team. A-Leauge and lower draws maybe 2,000. A regular season game draws about 15-20,000.

Also, we enter International tournaments, like the Giants Cup. (Where Saprissa of Costa Rica made short work of us, but at least its something to play for.)

As for promtion and relagation, I think that is great. But, most of your stadiums arent that feasible. I mean, how could you get money out of a 5,000 seat stadium. But it would be nice.

I was only checking because RastaMan plays for your team. (You know him as Mac Cozier) Too bad really, last I hear he was laying in Argentina. Something must have gone horribly wrong.

Do us a favor though, next time you guys are partying after a game...buy him a shot of Goldschlager from the Original Wrecking Crew.

By the way, we travelled a lot in those days....went to Boston, D.C., New York, Tampa, Chicago.....do you guys do anything like that?

As far as your rivalry goes, get real....we will NEVER play. But even if we did, and you beat us 20 times in a row....you'd still be stuck in the lower divisions....and we will STILL be hosting the MLS Cup and College Cup this year.

You may not have been trying but your comments have a tone to them like you're looking down your MLS nose at us & trying to pick a fight:







As far as "playing for something", just to educate you, we do have a league championship and as you mentioned, the US Open Cup. And I won't lose any sleep not being able to play in the world class Giants Cup.

As far as Cozier, I don't think you've kept up with him much. He never played in Argentina, he played in Chile for one year for Club Deportiva Antofagasta (Chilean Division II) in 1998. And nothing horrible happened, although, I guess coming back to the states to play in the A-league might qualify in your book. He made 1st team All A-League in 1999 with Jacksonville and has been with the Battery ever since.

And finally, as far as your initial post about rivalries, you seem to indicate that rivalries depend on promotion. I disagree. U-10 rec teams have rivalries. Rivalries depend on passionate feelings about an opponent and MLS hasn't cornered the market on that.

[ 07-15-2001: Message edited by: JBG - Bribe Taker ]

I always get a laugh out of the fact that MLS fans feel superior to anyone.

The fact that in US open cup games against A-League teams MLS teams draw so little spectators is proof that these soccer "fans" are only fans of the MLS brand name. They aren't real fans of soccer at all.

One rivalry that could become very strong is Charlotte and Charleston. The season stands at 2-2 and I got the impression that this bothers alot of Charleston fans.

crewligan's posts are nothing but solid evidence that MLS fans feel insecure about the supposed superiority of MLS to the A-League.

I personally find MLS very boring. Give me A-League any day. At least in the A-League you can be sure of having at least a few local players on each team.

The Richmond Kickers were developing some great rivalries with Pittsburgh and Hershey until they reconfigured the conferences this year. It is kind of too bad, because those were games that fans could actually drive to within a reasonable amount of time. The new make-up of teams at least for the Kickers allows the development of some rivalries (i.e., Charleston and Charlotte), though I doubt there will ever be much of a rivalry between the Kickers and say, Indiana! If Nashville relocates to the Virginia Beach area, then that again could become a big in-state rivalry. Just my two cents worth... :rolleyes:

Don't forget that unlike MLS, the A-League does not feel the need to move players aound to teams it wants to see win.

Remember aslo, that for years, the A-League was top league in the US

As for rivalries, I'd like to submit the Southern Derby as exibit A

For exibit B, I present the Portland-Seattle-Vancouver triad in the northwest. Last I looked, they didn't like losing PRE-SEASON matches to each other.

[ 07-15-2001: Message edited by: chn71 ]

...or from teams it doesn't want to see win anymore.

Touché !!

I'd just like to make this point. Since there is not relegation/promotion system in place, and the USL is a completly different entity from the MLS, then one can draw only one conclusion, which is there is no premiership, 2nd division thing going on between MLS and A-leagu. The A-league is tops in the USL and the MLS is tops in, well....the MLS. The simple fact that the burn got beaten, and handily, by a PDL team shows that MLS superiority DOES NOT exist. Also, the lack of MLS teams/fans supporting the U.S. Open Cup shows their true fright that they may get beaten by a team they consider "minor league". If they don't support it then when they get beaten they can blow it off as something that doesn't matter. Well here's the gods honest truth there MLS fans, the USOC is the only true test of who the best football team in the country is. If your team got beaten and elminated by an A-League team, well then, they must not be the best. The A-league teams are not Underdogs, bad, lacking in skill, or any other downcast statement you'd like to associate with them. They simply don't have the sheer magnatude of money and advertising that the MLS teams have. Face it, the biggest difference between us and you is it would take 15000 of your fans to equal the love, passion, and knowledge of and for football to equal 3000 of ours. Next time your at an MLS match, look around and notice how many of those 15000 people there are children there with parents who couldn't give a damn. My 2 cents.

[ 07-16-2001: Message edited by: Cheaton ]

Right on Cheaton!

How can bribe taker talk in this disscussion? Or any Charleston fan? Last time i saw Charleston play a home match i saw 3500 fans, 0 noise, no songs, no drums, no banners, no flags, No nothing! Just peoples faces.

Rhino fans travel... to all US home matches, most of us are in the yank army. We travel to Pittsburgh, Toronto and were gonna travel to Hershey but they folded. We will travel to Indiana and Cincy this season as well as to any MLS city if we play them in US Open Cup.

Pitbull, you obviously have no wife and no kids. Because if you did, you'd have no money to do all that traveling.

No i dont. I'm a senior in high school. But i'm not the only one going on these trips. Other students travel as well as older supporters who have to save money for their homes and such.

We just love our club. What can i say?

Afraid to come to Minnesota?

Atlanta vs Charleston will be one hell of a rivalry this year, even more than usual. With a half dozen or so VERY competent ex-Battery guys on the Ape roster, the Apes way ahead in points, those matches will be some of the best in all the A League this year.

Minnesota hosts the final with Rhinos in it, we'll be there. We wont make the July 29th trip though. We plan to go to Cincy/Indy and Toronto in August and also to a playoff game if its close by.

There's always next year.

Charleston/Atlanta rivery? Maybe becasue the teams are so good. 5 Atlanta teens would outsing 4000 charleston fans.

And Crewligan thought there were no rivalries...Look at pitbull's shots at Cha'ston.
There's rivalries galore:

regional- Southern Derby, the Northwest trio, Richmond/Hampton Roads (rivals in everything) Toronto/Rochester

competitive- Richmond/Charleston, Minnesota/Rochester, last year's western division.

Is any MLS team's arch-rivals the Crew? I think the Crew's rivalries are their own meaning they don't work both ways.
"We hate XXXX" but XXXX coudn't care less about Columbus. (e.g they seem to have some hang-up with New England, but I don't think NE even gives a damn about them. It's just Columbus.)

At one point, DC United and the Crew had a good rivalry going. Then MLS moved Columbus to another division. But, this year, they are both in the same division so, perhaps, the rivalry will be renewed.

My .02, Dallas and Chicago have the Infereno Cup and now there is the DC/NY-NJ Atlantic cup. I'm sorry if the names are wrong, but I really don't follow MLS.

What are these fan cup compitions based on? The Grandaddy of them all - THE SOUTHERN DERBY BABY!

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Krammerhead:
[QB]I always get a laugh out of the fact that MLS fans feel superior to anyone.

Not all of us. I've been a DC United fan since the first season, but I'm now going out and seeing my local Indiana Blast, and enjoying them thoroughly also.

Yes....now they can go home.....on the bus....
Hey would you like some pizza?
It looks just like a telefunken u-47

This whole MLS fans calling the A-League the "Second Division" or the "Minor League" drives me up the wall. They are two seperate entities, the exist in parallel. The Minor league in the USL is D-3. The MLS has no Minor league. They proclaimed themselves the major leage in their inception, they were not appointed as such by any major governing body. Therefor they are only Major League Soccer by name, not by right. The A-League is NOT the minor league, it is the Premiership of the USL. The only reason the MLS manages to have better skilled teams is they have more money to work with. IMO the whole MLS league structure is a joke, I mean come on, the two teams in the final last year were both owned by the same organization. There is what? 10 teams in it this year? thats about as sad as the SPL. I know this is an age old argument but hey, i'm never one for not opening my mouth and spewing forth a plethera of BS on some topic. Anyway, I give the MLS about 4 years before it crumbles to the ground. It was doomed from it's inception. I hope you MLS fans are prepared to start supporting your local A-League team, in the near future it will be the ONLY Major League Soccer in this country. For now it shares that status, Yes the A-League IS Major League Soccer, smaller teams, smaller budgets, smaller stadiums, but it's been around forever and will continue long after the "MLS" is defunct. The simple fact is that all of the major world leagues are built from long standing football clubs who decided to get together and form an organization or league, not an organization or league that gets together and starts a bunch of clubs. THe idea of this itself goes against the foundations of football structure around the world. It won't work, it doesn't work, it cannot succeed. Baseball, Pointyball, basketball, hockey, in this country all started the way the world football organizations started. You ask me the MLS will dribble to the 6 yard box only to be dispossesed by some 6'3" veteran defender with USL on the back of his shirt who will cooly clear the ball into touch just before the final whistle.

A few more

Toronto - Montreal

Montreal and Rochester... well before Montreal folded for one year. These two teams hated each other at one point.

This might be too old to still catch crewlligan on these forums, but me, my wife, and two sons are A league fanatics. MLS is not real football, it's corporate America at it's worst. The real rivalries are here, and that's because the rivalries have had time to develop.
Nice league!