I'm happy for Salt Lake fans and all, but let's face it, Columbus losing is going to have some horrifying consequences.

(1) Some may suggest that Frankie Hejduk should not be on the World Cup roster next year. What, just because, contrary to what I predicted, he played perhaps the single biggest role in the Crew losing? Talk about fickle! What about...I only wanted Hejduk on the US roster for emergency purposes anyway, on the theory that if we need a third or fourth line defender, we're better off with an experienced psycho than a nervous understudy. That's not going to be a popular position now.

(2) The refs are going to come in for a pasting thanks to the Williams handball non-call, but...what would you expect? If an American defender in the Azteca had been whistled in a similar situation, we'd scream the sky down. No Crew player was challenging him, for one thing. It was like not touching the bases on a routine double play. Refs won't even want to make a call like during...click here to read more...

35 Comments

Rare is the sight in Mexican futbol of a stadium packed to capacity. It happens in some places with regualrity: the two Monterrey stadia, Santos, and San Luis Potosí seems to have sell outs every game. The big teams, on the other hand, only seem to pack the place when it's either a rivalry game or a late rounder in the liguilla.

That was the case last night in CU. Pumas, who are not having a good season at all, went to a uniform that conjured up memories of teams with Boras, Cobras, Cabinhos, and extra large mexi-fros. The stadium was full. Flasgs were waving. The Goya chants were thunderous.

Pumas have looked nothing like the team that won the previous season, and their stadium was getting more and more cavernous as a result. This year, the college football team was drawing better crowds at the Olímpico(they...click here to read more...

8 Comments

ESPN is running a college soccer feature this morning.

But before the nice folks in the various BigSoccer forums concerned with such topics get too terribly excited about NCAA womens' soccer finally getting the serious recognition it so richly deserves, they might want to take a look at the segment:


The player in question is one ELIZABETH LAMBERT who is apparently on a one-woman crusade to prove that thuggery is not an entirely male province.

I'm thinking there's a better than even chance that New Mexicos' AD is going to spend a little time on the phone with the NCAA today.

Just a guess.


ADDENDUM: I'm not avoiding a summary of the playoff game last night. MLS hasn't posted the clips yet....click here to read more...

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I, too, am removing my name from consideration for DC United's head coaching position.

Bill has his own take on the nominees. That reminds me, I need to fill out my MLS awards ballot.

Oops.

Well, the good news is, you won't be able to blame me for any of this year's winners.

The only thing I wanna add to Bill's post is that, yeah, Omar Gonzalez laid a big donkey egg on Sunday, but without a ridiculously manful performance week in and week out, the Galaxy probably miss the playoffs, and certainly don't finish first. There might be tougher positions to put a rookie in, let alone starting every damn game, but central defender is right up there. So what if the Galaxy have been doing it three years in a row? How well has it been working out for them? And so what if Omar had Berhalter to guide him? Berhalter is probably teaching him a lot, but it's not...click here to read more...

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Normally, we try not to give rank stupidity a link, for obvious reasons.

In this case though, if I did not, people would claim I was making it up.

So here you go:

MY LINK OF THE YEAR.

I am forever indebted to BS loyalist "evangel" for passing along this article which, I admit, I read several times because I couldn't believe that it was not a parody.


Of course, there's also the realm of self parody, like when a certain blogger whom Aaron had SOME THINGS TO SAY ABOUT the other day breathlessly passes along the shocking, almost inconceivable news that in the ongoing kerfuffle between USL1/NuRock and the TOA "THE TOA HAS APPROACHED AN ATTORNEY" who "could be handling" one thing or another....click here to read more...

18 Comments

Working on the MLS Anti-Awards for 2009. Last chance for suggestions, but I'll give you a hint - couple of local Southern California players figure big.

But speaking of worst, I wanted to point out that the Daily Telegraph is an idiot.

The topic is worst sports uniforms. Coincidentally, one of my favorite sites, UniWatchBlog, is running a contest for worst American sports uniform of all time. So, yeah, there's your chance to vote for the Colorado Caribou. A 1996 MLS kit is nominated, too, but it's one that, to my recollection, was no worse than the fourth or fifth worst uniform of that season, let alone of all time.

However, the Telegraph is saying all time, everywhere. They're leaning heavy on soccer, too. Sure, they pick some real disasters.

But there's no excuse for leaving off []...click here to read more...

35 Comments

With only 3 weeks left in the Mexican Apertura regular season, we can be certain of one thing: we still have no idea who is going to make the liguilla. Some call it parity, others call it mediocrity. I call it chaos.

Only one team is assured of a post season birth: Toluca. Mexican futbol’s cooky, crazy group system, though, offers no guarantees to the other teams that are in the top 8 slots of the table. That is because 5 of those slots are occupied by teams from Group 2. In Mexico, only the top 2 in a group are guaranteed a birth in the playoff, along with the 2 best 3rd place teams (out of 3 groups of 6). So that means that if the season ended today, the 9th place and 11th place teams would make the playoffs, but the 7th and 8th place teams would not.

Thus the danger of breaking the league down into groups. I have no issue with having groups, but it has to mean more than just having groups. For Instance, what if group games were worth 4 points for a win? What would...click here to read more...

10 Comments

Over the next few days bloggers far and near are going to be offering up their opinions on the MLS Year End Awards nominations.

The main reason for this isn't that they honestly care that much. Almost no one really does.

But for a blogger - and I know whereof I speak - this provides one of the "automatic topics", like the traditional six part "Preseason Preview" or more recent "Playoff Preview", whose main value is to relieve the author of the nerve wracking chore of coming up with something to write about.


(And only guys which bloggers in Canada would call "pedants" like Andy Mead have the stones to critique the HoF Veterans ballot, since it requires that you actually know something: "Linda Hamilton? Wasn't she Sarah Connor?)


I myself don't do any of those, mostly because, well,...click here to read more...

11 Comments

National Soccer Hall of Fame Press Release:

ONEONTA, NY (November 2, 2009) – Two FIFA Women’s World Cup champions, two men from the 1990 FIFA World Cup squad, five North American Soccer League alumni, and a 7-time winner of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup in the 1920s and 1930s are featured on the Election 2010 Veteran Player Ballot the National Soccer Hall of Fame and Museum announced today. The eleven finalists are:

Desmond Armstrong – 81 caps with the U.S. National Team, including the 1990 FIFA World Cup

George Best – A Northern Ireland international, who played for the San Jose Earthquakes, Los Angeles Galaxy, and Ft. Lauderdale Strikers of the North American Soccer League (NASL)

Teofilo ‘Nene’ Cubillas – A Peruvian international, who played 5 years for the Ft. Lauderdale Strikers in the NASL

Linda Hamilton – 71 caps for the U.S. National Team, World Champion in 1991

Lori Henry – 39 caps for the U.S. National Team, including the team’s...click here to read more...

30 Comments

Well, I'm at home for reasons that would bore the hell out of you, might as well fake liveblog it.

Preceding program - Who Killed the USFL? Fascinating. Probably not what an MLS fan wants to see.

Wow, a sellout! I mean, David Beckham. Not attendance. I talk a lot about how illegitimate Chivas USA is, how bad they are for MLS, how bad they are for soccer, and what a great day it will be when they finally dry up and blow away...but, y'know, one way to get "recognition" is to be the team that inflicted a career-ending injury on David Beckham.

Yes, I know. What an awful thing to say, wishing harm on someone. Screw that. He can spend more time with his kids, England can move past him, the Galaxy can move past him, MLS can move past him.

I'm sure "Beckham Experiment" was a wonderful book and all, but before it was released, Landon Donovan turned the world on its ear in the Confederations Cup. So, maybe the book made him a better player, but on the other hand, chronology....click here to read more...

28 Comments

Well wasn't that ugly?

For those of you who TIVO'd the Real Salt Lake vs. Columbus Crew last night, a warning:

STOP! For the love of God, don't try and watch this match. Don't even risk trying to erase it. I recommend that you yank the box out of the wall, go out back and burn it.

After Seattle and Houston showed everyone how exciting and memorable a 0-0 soccer game can be last Thursday, the Crew and the Royals offered a demonstration of how depressingly awful one can be.

(Yes, Real scored two minutes from time. The goal at the end didn't improve the previous 88 minutes. It's the principle. Or something. Work with me here.)

Anyway, here is the match, in it's entirety:

...click here to read more...

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I've got this weird mental block - I always have to remind myself whether it's CHRISTIE Rampone, or CHRISTINE Rampone. (It's Christie.)

Embarrassing, right? I wonder how people like, say, FIFA deal with it. Turns out they have a very simple way of making sure they don't make that mistake.



But you can't really argue with who they did pick...um, except for Cristiane, who, in the unlikely event she won, would probably be the first Player of the Year in any sport who was released on a free transfer that season.

And...click here to read more...

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So OK, let's get this one out of the way up front:



Does Onstad throw his shoulder at Montero? Obviously yes.

Does Montero drop to the ground like he just took a .50 cal round to the head? Obviously yes.

Does Onstand then do the "I'm checking to see if my face is bleeding" act like he's Chuck Wepner or something? Sure looks like it.

Does any of this mean Onstad is a rat and Montero is a weasel? No, not really.

This concludes another edition of: "Oh Quit Bitching, it's a Soccer Game, Not a Quilting Bee."


As for this unfortunate situation:

...click here to read more...

48 Comments

First of all, wow, what a peach of a game in Seattle tonight. The classic exciting 0-0 game. No, it wasn't a work of art, and yes, Houston fouled up and down the field. I fully expect Sounders fans to turn Rave Green into Rage Green, and I don't blame them one bit. Still, it was pretty exciting.

Fine, the LA-Chivas USA matchup. You've probably figured this out, but there's no way in God's green hell I can be objective about this match. I'm the only soccer fan in Los Angeles that just DOESN'T WANT TO DEAL with it.

Basically, there's no way I can handle it if we* lose. The upside of winning is relief - thank God the Enemy doesn't have that to hang over our heads until the end of time.** The downside...well, it's too horrible to contemplate. And I managed to deal with losing to the Quakes in 2001 and Iran in 1998. I hate this series so much, and we're days away from kickoff. It's almost enough to get me to care about the Phillies or something.

For the civilized world,...click here to read more...

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Salt Lake v. Chivas USA
Salt Lake OWES the Eastern Conference. And oh by the way, they've been playing better than anyone actually in the Eastern Conference. They didn't back in to the playoffs either, like last year's Western Conference champs. This isn't out of the realm of possibility.

It would also be a middle finger held high to Kevin Payne, who put Salt Lake along with Colorado and New England on his personal list of dog show understudies. (One assumes - well, I assume - that the Galaxy was left off that list to avoid embarrassing former employee Bruce Arena and current brother Tom.) There are worse people than Kevin Payne to be issuing jeremiads against anti-futbol, but not in a year where wewintrophies.com redirects to the Preparation H site. (BREAKING NEWS EDIT! The Don just docked The Kevin five large for those cracks, as being "detrimental to the public image of the league.")

The perfect opponent...click here to read more...

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If you've been closely following the convoluted game of chicken currently being played by the new owners of USL and the renegade group of USL1 owners who call themselves the TOA (Ticked-off Owners Association), congratulations. You're certifiable.

For the rest of us, the threats, counter threats, rumors and gross exaggerations leaking (intentionally or not) over the transom from the (most likely cheap) rented hotel meeting rooms where everyone is going to huff and puff at each other is all we need to know for certain that sooner or later one side or the other will cave in, but until the first ball is kicked in anger in the 2010 USL season almost nothing can be said to be permanent.

So getting all worked up about each arcane twist and turn in the long sad saga is, basically, a waste of time.


Still, it has to be said that Alec Papadakis, the public voice of NuRock, the Bedrockian-monickered owners of USL1 (seriously, were they going for the whole Wilma and Betty, Mr. Slate...click here to read more...

24 Comments

After the first games of the Confederations Cup in South Africa last summer, Sepp Blatter was reported to be hopping mad about the constant, pulsating drone of the now-familiar vuvuzela, that "traditional African instrument" (a historical tribal tradition which seems to date back to the very dawn of 2001).


A day or two later, however, perhaps realizing that some fights really aren't worth the trouble, he had decided that the large, obnoxious plastic horns were a "joyous celebration" of African culture and that we all needed to respect and relish local footballing traditions.

Several teams objected to the noise, and TV broadcasters were concerned about how to make their announcers heard over the drone, but Blatter would brook no dissent.


Well, we're now about to find out just how deeply held Blatter's feelings really are in regard to the glories of local cultural traditions.

A gentleman named Zolani...click here to read more...

41 Comments

World Series? Hey, you pre-empt "Glee," you're dead to me.

AND NOW...THE MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER 2009 REGULAR SEASON - A COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW

Well, that happened.

THIS HAS BEEN THE COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW OF THE 2009 MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER REGULAR SEASON

AND NOW, THE COMPREHENSIVE 2009 MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER PLAYOFFS PREVIEW

Dunno.

THIS HAS BEEN THE COMPREHENSIVE okay, okay, I'll make a guess.

Bill - who, as it happens, is not Fake Sigi...at least, I think he's not Fake Sigi...anyway, Bill forwarded me something my close, personal friend Luis Bueno wrote about depressing the playoffs are going to suck this year. Here's what he thought the "rightful" playoffs should have been:

Why would Chicago be at home to Seattle in a single table? That's not the question. The question is, why do you want playoff matches that suck?

Expensive playoff matches that suck. ...click here to read more...

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Has there ever been a final weekend of league games in the history of the universe where every single match actually meant something?

I bet Don Garber lit himself a big old Red Auerbach style victory cigar last night. All the other commissioners over at the Commissioner's Club are getting set to throw him a roast. Mrs. Garber is giving him come hither looks even as we speak.

Major League Baseball ought to hang it's head in shame. The NBA ought to go out back and blow it's brains out in despair. The NHL? Well, nobody cares until March anyway.

Somehow, lowly MLS (or, as a certain Canadian blogger would have it "that frightened little league" whose fans are all "pedants") has managed, in all their ignorance and folly, to do something that no professional league has ever even dared dream of: make all the games relevant.


And no, I don't mean just an opportunity to wonder what in the world died on Kei Kamara's head:





[B]Before...click here to read more...

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Hi - I'm sure we're all settling in to see who the last playoff team is, so I just wanted to give some food for thought.

Under the current playoff format, fifth place teams are unbeaten in the first round. This is the third year out of three that a fifth place team will be in the playoffs.

Sixth place teams have no record in the playoffs yet.

Historically, first place teams have been safe bets, but since 2004 at least one division winner has crashed out in the first round.

So, the smartest thing Chivas USA has done all season was gag this afternoon against Houston, and the smartest thing the Crew could do tonight is to beat New England (in order to avoid the invincible fifth place team, and get the untested sixth place team).

(Well, also because right now Real Salt Lake is a better team than Colorado, but I prefer to traffic in voodoo magic when predicting playoffs. Like your system works any better.)

We can talk awards later, but, if Shalrie Joseph is just astounding...click here to read more...

9 Comments