Scott Adamson, Author at Adamsonmedia.com

Toronto alone at the top of MLS

By Scott Adamson
Adamsonmedia.com

Toronto FC capped off the greatest season in Major League Soccer history on Saturday with a 2-0 victory over Seattle Sounders FC in the MLS Cup.

The clash – a rematch of last year’s final won by the Sounders – served as the 2017 curtain call for North American professional club soccer.

Toronto (20-5-9) controlled the match from start to finish, dominating possession and keeping Seattle back peddling from wire-to-wire before 30,584 fans at BMO Field in Toronto.

Goalkeeper Stefan Frei was the only reason 2016’s champions stayed close as he made save after save before Most Valuable Player Jozy Altidore split a pair of defenders and punched in the game-winner in the 67^th minute. Victor Vazquez closed the door in stoppage time with a rebound goal that made it 2-0, delivering Toronto the first treble in 22 seasons of MLS soccer.

Aside from claiming the Supporters’ Shield while racking up the most regular season points (69) an MLS team has ever recorded, Greg Vanney’s squad also won the Canadian Championship.

Alexander Bono got the clean sheet for the victors, making two saves. Toronto outshot Seattle, 22-7, and had 11 corner kicks to just three for the visitors.

Frei did all he could for the Sounders (14-9-11), making nine stops.

Toronto’s goals were the only ones scored against Seattle during the 2017 postseason.

STATE OF THE LEAGUE

The 2017 MLS Cup proved to be a fine season finale for the circuit that began play in 1996.

After suffering from severe growing pains (it lost an estimated $350 million over its first eight seasons and also underwent contraction) the top tier of soccer in the United States and Canada has since demonstrated stability and sustained growth. In addition, its commitment to soccer-specific stadiums across the league suggests a league that will be part of American sport’s long game.

Currently with 23 franchises and targeting 28 teams in the coming years, MLS might still not be mentioned alongside the NFL, Major League baseball, NBA and NHL, but it has unquestionably carved out a sizable niche.

ATTENDANCE

The 2017 regular season saw a league average of 22,112 fans per game (up nearly 2 percent from 2016), and expansion club Atlanta United FC was far and away the most successful at the box office with an incredible 71,874 fans-per-game average.

Seattle drew 44,370 per match while DC United saw 41,418 supporters show up for their home contests.

EXPANSION

Next Thursday the MLS board of governors will discuss expansion, and the cities under consideration are Cincinnati, Detroit, Nashville and Sacramento.

Those four were culled from 12 cities that submitted bids back in January and two will be selected to begin play in 2020 – probably.

Los Angeles FC will start next season and a Miami entry associated with David Beckham was expected to be the 24th active MLS franchise.

However, nothing has yet been finalized with Beckham’s ownership group, meaning one of the two expansion hopefuls could “cut in line.”

ALLOCATION MONEY

The board on Friday approved an increase in Targeted Allocation Money (TAM) available to each club.

While each team will receive an allotment of $1.2 million each year through 2019, they may also spend an additional $2.8 million (on a discretionary basis) in 2018 and 2019.

The TAM initiative began in 2015 with the idea of giving franchises “increased resources to add, or retain, players that will make an immediate impact on the field.”

The TAM is geared toward roster spots beyond the three Designated Players on each team. According to MLS Communications, The Designated Player Rule “allows clubs to acquire up to three players whose total compensation and acquisition costs exceed the maximum budget charge, with the club bearing financial responsibility for the amount of compensation above each player’s budget charge.”

How smart are dogs and cats? I’ve done my own research

Science, the practice that has helped the smarter ones among us accept that the earth is round and a tomato is a fruit, is at it again.

**Brain Farce is an alleged humor column written by Scott Adamson. It comes out basically whenever he feels like writing it. Follow him on Twitter @adamsonsl**

This time, scientists are studying the age-old question of which species is smarter – cats or dogs.

And according to researchers at Vanderbilt University, dogs win.

You see, the number of neurons in the brain is associated with higher intelligence, and apparently pooches have far more than pusses.

“I believe the absolute number of neurons an animal has, especially in the cerebral cortex, determines the richness of their internal mental state and their ability to predict what is about to happen in their environment based on past experience,” neuroscientist Suzana Herculano-Houzel told ScienceAlert magazine.

While we once thought cats had the clear edge here, this study showed that dogs have 530 million cortical neurons to 250 million for cats. And I’m not about to argue with anyone wearing a lab coat.

In the interest of full disclosure, I have never given this much thought because, frankly, I never cared.
I spent many years of my life as a “dog person” and mainly dealt with cats on a supervised visitation basis only. However, cats have been a major part of my world the past 10 years, so now I’m also a “cat person.”

In fact, while the cast of characters has changed much over the years due to various Rainbow Bridge crossings (and don’t ask me to read the Rainbow Bridge poem because I’ll just start to cry, dammit), my wife and I are currently parents to one dog and two shelter cats.

The dog is Charlie, a 9-year old Shetland sheepdog; the ginger cat is Thor: God of Thunder, age 3; and our gray and white long-haired tabby is Bane: Breaker of the Bat. He’s just 6 months old.

Cats and dogs cannot talk, obviously, so I couldn’t ask them a series of questions to determine their intelligence. So I had to sit them at a table with pen and paper and get them to write down what was important to them.

Here are the results:

CHARLIE

Food in morning good.

Food in afternoon good.

Food at night good.

Olive that fall on floor good.

Dessert in sandy box for cats good.

Treats is good.

Butt of Baby Cat good.

Belly rub that makes leg move fast is good.

Man and Wo-Man that kisses top of head good.

THOR

Let’s see … where do I begin?

I sleep approximately 20 hours a day, utilizing various locales throughout the facility provided by Wo-Man and Man.

I do enjoy a good book, and am currently reading a biography of Nikola Tesla, best known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current electricity supply system. A truly interesting Man who I understand possessed a magnificent singing voice.

The sustenance is adequate as a cylinder situated on a high, flat surface is most often filled with crunchable food stuffs. On occasion a softer, more flavorful meal is provided, but I’ve yet to determine what actions on my part initiate this activity.

Dog is harmless and mildly amusing, while Baby Cat is a weird little bastard.

BANE

Oh, you think darkness is your ally. But you merely adopted the dark; I was born in it, molded by it. I didn’t see the light until I was already a man, by then it was nothing to me but blinding. The shadows betray you, because they belong to me. I will show you where I have made my home while preparing to bring justice. Then I will break you.

Ah. I’m just funnin’ with you. That’s from The Dark Knight Rises, which is a DVD Man plays a lot so I’ve had a chance to memorize a bunch of lines. I’ll sit on his lap while he watches, and occasionally he’ll give me skitches on the chin and kisses on the head.

Life is pretty chill here … plenty of eats.

Dog and I get along well. We play a lot and he licks my ears and butt. Not sure how I feel about the latter yet.

I love messing with Older Cat. He used to beat me up when I was little, but a couple of weeks ago I went Medieval on his ass and he’s a little scared of me now.

Wo-Man is cool. She combs me a lot and, like Man, kisses me on the head.

That sums it up. If you have any more questions shoot me a text and I’ll get back with you.

After reading these responses one would be inclined to believe that perhaps the research is wrong – cats do seem to be smarter than dogs.

As far as I’m concerned, though, all the science isn’t in yet.

After all, Charlie won a combined $367 from Thor and Bane playing poker last Friday.

Bill Clark the only logical choice for coach of the year

It doesn’t happen often, but occasionally bias and logic line up perfectly.

**Out of Left Field is written by Scott Adamson. It appears weekly and sometimes more frequently if he gets up in the middle of the night and can’t go back to sleep. Follow him on Twitter @adamsonsl**

So on Tuesday when I received my Football Writers Association of America ballot for the 2017 Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award, I voted for UAB’s Bill Clark.

And it was an easy decision.

Yes, I’m a UAB grad.

Yes, every Saturday during this college football season the only game I had a rooting interest in was the one involving the Blazers.

Yes, a big green flag with a dragon on it waves in front of my house throughout the scholastic year – a sign of my support for my alma mater in all sports.

Go ahead and accuse me of being a UAB fan because I am one.

But here’s the thing … voting for Clark shows no bias at all. In fact, it’s the logical choice.

I don’t know if he’ll win the FWAA honor, but he should – and he’s going to get a lot of votes from a lot of people who never gave UAB football a passing thought before it became impossible to ignore.

This is a team that heads to the Bahamas Bowl with an 8-4 record, despite not playing for two full seasons. That’s almost unbelievable.

Why?

Well, when school president Ray Watts coldly and cruelly shut the program down after a 6-6 campaign in 2014 (Clark’s first year at the helm), UAB football was quickly gutted.

Many of the players who helped the Blazers recover from the nightmarish regimes of Neil Callaway and Garrick McGee scattered to other schools (you’re welcome, South Alabama), and there was certainly no reason for Clark to hang around.

He could’ve cut and run after the ax fell and been an immediate success almost anywhere else, probably as a highly paid Power 5 assistant. Who knows, he might have even landed at a place with a trustworthy president and a board of trustees that wanted to help instead of hurt.

But a lot of hell-raising, cash-raising fans and big money Birmingham business leaders helped prompt Clark – a man of faith – to take a leap of faith and stay.

And when, against all odds, Blazer football was reinstated, Clark was ready to get to work.

And soon he was standing in front of a handful of holdovers and hopefuls, young men who were already special because they committed to being part of something special.

But let’s be realistic. Taking two years off in the Football Bowl Subdivision is not a recipe for success. Just ask SMU how long it takes to recover from the death penalty.

So 2017 was much more than a rebuilding project, it was a hard reboot. And talking as a fan, if UAB had finished 1-11 or 2-10, I wouldn’t have been at all discouraged.

I said the before the season started I’d be thrilled with a 4-8 record because that was the worksheet that seemed most realistic.

Clark thought otherwise.

He knew otherwise.

He convinced the kids that they were far better than even their biggest supporters believed, and before long they were proving everybody wrong.

These guys had absolutely no business whatsoever registering eight victories, yet they did. And while they didn’t win a division title or play for any kind of championship, no team in the country rose from nothing to something like the Blazers did.

And no coach in the country did a better job than Clark.

Sure, there are plenty of solid coach of the year nominees.

Lane Kiffin showed he was more than just an epic Tweeter when he turned a 3-9 Florida Atlantic team into the 10-3 Conference USA champions.

Army’s Jeff Monken has led the Black Knights to eight wins heading into this weekend’s showdown with Navy.

Scott Frost – right before he was named the new head coach at Nebraska – guided Central Florida to a 12-0 mark and will coach the Knights against Auburn in the Peach Bowl. A win there and UCF will finish as the only team in the FBS with a perfect record.

Lincoln Riley has Oklahoma in the College Football Playoff in his first season; Kirby Smart has Georgia in the CFP in his second; Fresno State’s Jeff Tedford transformed his Bulldogs from a toothless team to one with both bark and bite; and reigning national championship boss Dabo Swinney continues to build a dynasty at Clemson.

All of these coaches have done remarkable jobs.

Only one, however, brought a program back to life.

So if you want to accuse me of voting for Clark as my choice for coach of the year because I’m biased, I’ll offer no defense.

But if you don’t think he’s the logical choice, maybe you’re dealing with some biases of your own.