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Seattle
Compared to the ethical ambiguity of the World Cup, soccer in Seattle has been a breath of fresh air. With low ticket prices, a welcoming environment, and benefits to the greater community, Seattle soccer might be something for FIFA to take a look at.
The Seattle Times has hired a new Seattle soccer writer: Matt Pentz from the Longview Daily News. Pentz has written generally about sports in the Longview area for a few years now.
Sunday's Household Ratings in Sea-Tac Market: #Mariners 5.3, #SoundersFC 3.7 BUT 25-54 yr olds (main demo): #SoundersFC 3.8, #Mariners 1.2
— Aaron Levine (@AaronQ13Fox) July 14, 2014
MLS
FC Dallas is on track for a record season in terms of attendance. Well a FC Dallas record, not a league record, but that's still pretty cool. In general, MLS teams are doing better in attendance in 2014 than in 2013, with Toronto FC showing the most marked improvement: 24.6 percent.
MLS W.O.R.K.S. is putting on a contest for a "Community MVP" to receive 10,000 in funding and a trip to the MLS All Star game in Portland. Each MLS team is represented by a Community MVP who has done some sort of good samaritaning, which you can read about in the link. You can also vote there, or on Twitter July 24th and 25th. I have no idea why anyone would want to go to Portland, but apparently these people do, so I suppose we should support them or whatever.
Ownership of multiple clubs may be the way of the future, as it allows for teams in emerging markets to take some support from their parent clubs, parent clubs to set up a wider scouting net, and everyone access to more developments in the soccer world. I certainly wouldn't have a problem with Joe Roth turning Real Madrid into the Madrid Sounders.
Thierry Henry had quite the game against Columbus over the weekend, earning one goal, three assists, and countless player of the week nominations.
Omar Gonzalez appeared on the Conan Show last night.
World
Liga MX has a lot of viewers in the US, which could possibly be taken advantage of if Liga MX teams were to play a single game in the US per season. The author suggesting this idea believes that MLS might not be the biggest fan of Liga MX teams horning in on their viewership.
After a 7-1 drubbing by Germany and a 3-0 defeat to the Netherlands, Brazil has parted ways with longtime head coach Luiz Scolari.
Perhaps Brazil's soccer future lies with its women, who are gaining more and more freedom to play.
With the 2014 World Cup over, Ryan Rosenblatt takes a look at why this was "the best World Cup ever."
Is this Germany team the best national team ever? Germany had the largest goal differential of any World Cup champion, as well as the highest Elo rating of any national team ever.
With the World Cup final again going into overtime, one might wonder if this trend is to continue. Probably not, says Fivethirtyeight.com, for the low scoring games have come down mostly to a higher than normal number of missed opportunities, not tactics.
Although Lionel Messi didn't win the World Cup with Argentina, he still won the tournament's Golden Ball.This "surprised" FIFA president Sepp Blatter.
Kevin McCauley argues that regardless of Messi's World Cup results, he is already on level terms with Pele and Maradona, gathering accolades that neither have come close to.