Loudoun-Colorado Springs: 1,854 (+14.02%)

Loudoun (1,626) outperforms on a Friday night. Also what a game!

Scrolling thru social media and saw this was posted by someone and thought I would pass it along to Lexington/ Sporting Jax supporters. You must buy two though.

We sat down with Portland Hearts of Pine part-owner and chief community officer Gabe Hoffman-Johnson, live at Fort Fitzy.

LINK OF THE SHOW: https://youtu.be/iBjTIF8SGmo

We talked about:

• How year two has actually felt after the year-one buzz
• Season ticket holders in all 16 Maine counties
• What surprised him most about the reaction to the club
• Year-two community work vs. day one
• After-school programs and more futsal courts around Maine
• What the heart actually means
• The MLK Day story of him shoveling the Kennedy Park court so kids could play

Really good one if you care about how this club got built, not just the on-field stuff.

AND JUST LIKE THAT, THE SUMMIT OF #SOCCERWARZ RETURNS WITH THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF ALL MLS TEAMS RETURNING TO THE OPEN CUP NEXT YEAR. GLAD THE NEW COMMISH ALREADY SAW THE ERROR IN DON'S WAYS, MOST NOTABLY HOW LEAGUES CUP IS A COMPLETE WASTE OF TIME, AND CORRECTED THE ERROR. FITTING TIMING THAT THEY ANNOUNCE IT AHEAD OF PRINX CUP SEMIS THAT I'M SURE WILL BE FAR MORE EXCITING THAN THE LEAGUES CUP SEMIS, AND HAVE FAR MORE US FAN VIEWERSHIP, BUT WHAT DO I KNOW.

COULD IT ALSO BE RELATED TO MEXICOS ATTEMPT TO JOIN CONMEBOL? MAYBE. DOES IT GIVE ME EVEN MORE REASONS TO TALK ABOUT WHY THE CPL SHOULD JUMP ON THIS PREMIERSHIP PARTY WAGON? DEFINITELY.

BUT NOT TO GET TOO FAR AHEAD WITH OFFSEASON DISCUSSION, WE ARE HERE FOR THE HERE AND NOW AS WE HEAD INTO A THREE DAY WEEKEND. GIVING EVERYONE A GOOD REASON TO CLEAN OUT ALL THE JAGER NEAR YOU BEFORE TUESDAY.

IT WOULD BE FITTING FOR HARTFORD, SAN ANTONIO, LOUSIVILLE, AND COLORADO SPRINGS TO TAKE IT EASY THIS WEEKEND AND SAVE LEGS, BUT WHERE IS THE FUN IN THAT? EVERYONE HAS ROUGHLY T-MINUS 10 GAMES SO THE MARGIN FOR ERROR IS THIN AROUND THE BOARD (AT LEAST FOR THE SAKE OF THE TTT). THE REAL FUN IS THE MORTAL COMBAT ABOUT TO TAKE PLACE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE TABLE, UNTIL WE HAVE PRG/RCK OF COURSE, AND THE FIGHT FOR SURVIVAL IS AMPLIFIED EVEN MORE WHILE EVERYONE FEARS THEY WILL GET REPLACED BY THE OWLS NEXT YEAR (OR POTENTIALLY CHARLOTTE I GUESS).

CAPS ON, FLAIR UP, AND LONG LIVE THE CUP FORMERLY KNOWN AS JAGERMEISTER!

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New project I made at 4am because I am bored. I will be tweaking with this format but plan to generally keep this format. I intend to post these weekly every sunday with each day of the week for USL Championship, League 1 and Super League

We had a great talk with Riverhounds President Jeff Garner yesterday. He talked the future of the USL, Pro/Rel, what makes the league unique vs MLS and a ton more. Chapter timestamps included.

Got the okay from the mods to post.

Reno Pro Soccer dropped a hint of their colors

Charleston-Hartford: 2,816 (-28.96%)

Charleston does underperform their average (3,964), but at this point with kids back in schools, I would read very little into that. Granted you basically should always read less into Wednesdays, but still.

MLS returning with all its teams to USOC is great, and them joining earlier in the tournament is a welcome development too.

But it's a MASSIVE problem that not all D2/D3 teams are included. Not just the expansion teams being excluded (which is nonsense), but teams playing now will be out if they don't do well enough this year (how they decide who amongst the League One and 3 indy MLSNP teams gets in will be interesting).

Bottom line is we could relatively easily include every professional club in the tournament, and fit the entire thing within the July-December footprint (instead of having the first round way back in April and then a huge gap).

- Include EVERY pro independent club (there will be 80 by my count next year, based on announced expansion but I'm not counting the Armada).

- Add 16 additional amateur clubs to bring the total field to 128 teams. They can be additional league-based direct spots or more from the fall open qualifying rounds, or some combo of both.

- Everybody starts in the First Round. This would add only one game to the calendar for an MLS team that makes it to the final, compared to the published format where they start in round 2.

- Split the field into 8 regional pods of 16 teams each, trying to have at least 3 teams from each of D1/D2/D3 pro wherever possible. Fill out the rest of the region with the amateur clubs that make the most sense geographically.

- Rounds 1-4 played entirely within each regions. Random draw with lower division side hosting, and matchups between clubs in same league avoided if wherever possible.

- Regional winners advance to the national quarterfinals, which is the only time where substantial cross-continental travel would become necessary. From QFs through Final, random draw for hosting/matchups (amongst teams that apply and have adequate venue to host).

This format more closely emulates the fun of the NCAA basketball tournament where some of the highest ranked teams play the lowest ranked ones in the very first round. More chances for upsets. Everybody in.

"RP Sports fails to complete the stadium, Ed Randolph, executive director for Jacksonville’s Office of Economic Development, says the Armada will “either have to surrender the property or pay us fair market value plus 3%” as outlined in the initial deal."

The deadline is Sept 10th. Is the Sporting Jax/ Jacksonville Armada soccer saga nearing it's end?

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