Some musings. So the NFL Washington Redskins finally got rid of their nickname not because it's the sensible thing to do but because now every fan has to buy new merchandise and advertisers finally became woke. With no name in place (it'll take time to get the right copyrights as every rich fan is probably buying all the potential nickname site domains), the team will proceed as "
Washington Football Team." Sound familiar? Charlotte? Austin? Orlando City? NYC? Los Angeles? Toronto? Welcome, NFL, to the world of boring soccer nicknames. Will there be chants of "Wash, Wash, Wash, F-T" in the stands (6 feet apart, of course)?
Up north, the CFL Edmonton Eskimos also
dropped their nickname they've had for more than 100 years and are now the Edmonton Football Team. Or
EE Football Team. Which since this is community owned (no corporate owner), does that second E stand for... Eskimo? So 2020 is the year of the rebranding. Washington's was a "retiring" of the name and Edmonton's was a "dropping" of the name. No word on the MLB's Cleveland Indians or Atlanta Braves yet.
Now to a great nickname but not necessarily when said out loud. Release the Kraken is cool, the logo (especially the Space Needle anchor) is cool, the font and color scheme is cool. The Kraken sounds great. "Seattle Kraken", not so much, too much
XFL 1 or
inaugural MLS. Maybe the Emerald City Kraken or even just Emerald Kraken rolls off the tongue better. It was noted that this is just the 4th NHL team nickname without the plural "s" (Colorado Avalanche, Minnesota Wild, Tampa Bay Lightning). MLS has had more than their fair share: Clash, Mutiny, Fire, Galaxy, Burn, Wiz, Fusion, Crew, Dynamo, Revolution, Union, maybe Republic, and not to mention three Uniteds.
MLS has changed the Knockout Bracket
once again (
previous change July 16). They switched the two bottom quadrants so 2A2C1D3B will now face 1C3A1F2E and 1A3C2B2F will now face 1B3D1E2D in the semifinals (or match #46 winner faces #48 instead of #46v#47 and #45v#47 instead of #45v#48). This is why it's just important to get your picked team into the Quarters or Semis and not necessarily which side of the bracket. You'll get 4 points per Quarterfinal team, 6 points per Semifinal team, 8 points per finalist, and 12 points for the winner.
Finally, this is like the World Cup! Despite winning the U.S. Open Cup and Campeones Cup, ATL head coach
Frank de Boer is out the door after 0 goals and 0 points in the tournament (mind you, they won their first 2 matches before the pandemic). So what about LA's Guillermo Barros Schelotto? Well, let's see if a healthy Jonathan Dos Santos and Chicharito was the difference or not. It's the last Get Out of Jail card.
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