Figured we needed an all encompassing media thread to catch all the random stories. I know we're the red headed step child of the league that doesn't get as much love as LA/NY/New England ( ) but I've seen that no one has even discussed this yet... http://www.fcdallas.com/news/2014/03/fc-dallas-schedules-july-friendly-aston-villa
So, on the radio today, Corby Davidson on The Ticket was burning part of a segment talking about going to the Seattle game. He took his family. his theme is that this was the first time he has taken his kids to a sporting event where they sat and watched the whole game (rather than running around). Said he/they enjoyed the game. Complimented the atmosphere. With the shortage of sports during this time in the season, and then early summer, it would seem reasonable for FCD to draw a share at times. (There are certainly any number of guys on the station who follow FCD.) Winning and attendance help with that. Signing Steven Gerrard would be a plus, too.
This is probably the most crowded time of year, sports wise. You have NHL and NBA starting playoffs, baseball season is in swing (hurrah for puns), the draft is coming up, golf is going...nascar if you call that a sport.
http://soccerly.com/article/roughnecks77/no-story-with-hondas-appearance-at-fc-dallas-facility Would you really just "drop by" to Frisco, TX with your agent for the f uck of it?
the guy with him has not been confirmed as his agent. Even Hunt admits he doesn't know that was an agent.
I'm going to overstate the case here, but here goes: Honda is basically the Dempsey of Japan, in play style. He'd be a really big addition.
So probably not his agent with him and he plays a position we have an abundance of, not to mention we have 3 DPs already. Probably nothing to see here but still very odd.
Were he to be interested, though, he tops all of our current DPs and all of our current creators except Diaz, and if we could dump one for him it would be a no-brainer.
remind me what thomas' initial injury was...was it same knee? did we screw up the diagnosis or take way to long to treat something? did we rush him back? at some point does fcd need to decide whether this is an injury bug or a sign of a pervasive fitness/training issue?
That was essentially what I thought, what could possibly make sense for him to be in Frisco? None of AC Milan preseason games are anywhere near here, Japan was eliminated a long time ago so he wouldn't be passing through from Brazil...I am not aware of any connections to the staff here or players. So while we say nothing to see here, it doesn't make any sense. And we could cut ties with Tex or Escobar I would think relatively easily to bring in Honda. Honda playing in Toyota Stadium, giggle.
Until further notice, I will still have that stuck in my head. There had to be a reason why he is here... Maybe he has a family member living here? Remember that Toyota's moving it's North American HQ to Plano soon.
Actually Honda's first pro team was Nagoya Grampus: formerly Toyota's company soccer team, still owned by Toyota, and which plays at.....Toyota Stadium. Just sayin'. If I were to guess, the "agent" was probably his older brother (a former player and Honda's personal manager/agent), and he was probably just passing through looking to get some work in during his vacation.
Considering that FCD could use any help it can get its hands on (even though recent form has been great), I wanted to take it seriously. Obviosuly there will be nothing out of it but it doesn't hurt to speculate. That's actually the fun part of BS.
I actually did a phone interview with a Japanese TV network on Saturday. They were intensely interested in the story/rumor and why Honda was here. They also insisted they'd heard he was considering playing in MLS. When asked if FCD had any interest in Honda, my response was "I don't think the Hunt family is willing to spend that level of money for a player". When they asked if that meant the Hunts could not afford it, I laughed. When they asked if they would spend the money to get him, I laughed again - but for different reasons. I don't think it translated well. I still wonder why he was here. As I told them, all we had to go on was whatever little FCD told us. Other than that something still doesn't make sense.
Well if he is, in fact, thinking about MLS; he must have some kind of family tie to the DFW area. Either that or he likes the heat/lost cost of living/high fashion/pretentious nature of Dallas in general?
Can you say which one? I'm living in Japan now, in case you didn't know (no reason you should), and I'd like to look for it somewhere, though it probably already aired. I only get over-the-air channels, but I do get a channel that talks soccer every evening for about half an hour. I follow the J-League and the Japanese National Team with above-casual interest, but I can't guess why Honda visited Frisco. I guess it's possible that he was in the States for unrelated reasons, and stopped by to take a look at the facilities on behalf of a less talented/older friend who might be considering a move to Dallas.
Apparently Honda visited the Cowboys' digs on Friday. No idea why he was in the Dallas area to begin with, but Honda takes his fitness training pretty seriously so he might have been curious about US pro sports facilities in general. In any case he's now with Milan in NYC. Having read tons of articles about the guy as well as a full-length biography, he seems like a pretty....brand-conscious guy with respect to his career, so MLS would be a real shocker at this point in time.
I think it was "NTV International" http://www.ntv.co.jp/english/ but I can't find the content on their site, and they never emailed me a link to however they used the interview. Maybe I was "catfished".