—by Garrett Dittfurth

Every once in a while I find myself shaking my head at the league. This is one of those times. Here's a screen cap of MLSSoccer.com.

That may seem pretty innocent to you. Upon further inspection it doesn't get so innocent. First of all that's a picture of neither LA's or Vancouver's supporters groups. That's a picture of the Timbers Army in Salt Lake City last year. Second of all, and more specifically, that's a picture of the Timbers Army lighting flares in Salt Lake City.

If the league is going to insist on bans for people who light flares, smoke, and is so inept they can't get a universal flag/tifo policy in place that works league wide the least they could do would be to talk to the marketing department and tell them not to use pictures of supporters doing things that will get them banned by the league. It's a gigantic double standard that for some reason the suits at the league just don't understand. On one hand the marketing folks think it looks awesome and really shows how edgy the league is. On the other hand they've hired outside consultants from all over the world to tell them how to discipline supporters groups for lighting flares/smoke and actively discourage it.

So I can't wait for the homepage of MLSSoccer to be updated for Houston's second round match against KC. Here's the picture MLS marketing/design folks. Just grab it from a screen cap of this video. It seems to fit the bill for something that you guys would use in a promo video.