5/10/05: More Chips

[jmeissen0]

Branch has roots in Soccer - Boston Globe (http://www.boston.com/sports/soccer/articles/2005/05/10/branch_has_roots_in_soccer)

Outdoor Soccer shows some Interest in Delevski - KC Star (http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/sports/11605590.htm)

St. Louis is in the Mix for MLS Expansion - KC Star (http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/sports/11606277.htm)

Peace and Harmony in DC? Depends on how Grass is Cut - Chicago Daily Herald (http://www.dailyherald.com/sports/sportsstory.asp?id=46968) (i hate this man)

Revisiting Wilt-Guppy move for the last Time - Chicago Daily Herald (http://www.dailyherald.com/sports/sportsstory.asp?id=46935) (thank you for being an idiot McPickle)

MLS needs to taken an Official Stance - LA Times (http://www.latimes.com/sports/soccer/la-sp-soccercol10may10,1,7383971.story?coll=la-headlines-sports-soccer) (fairly decent, I got some problems with it, but the idea should be discussed)

Beckham coming to NJ after all - Newark Star-Ledger (http://www.nj.com/sports/ledger/index.ssf?/base/sports-0/1115703955301440.xml) (did you hear that, cause i don't care)

Mayoral Contenders explain Soccer Goals - San Antonio Express News (http://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/editorials/stories/MYSA051005.06B.soccer.25ab25672.html)

MLS makes Pitch at Grass Roots Level - Houston Chronicle (http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/soc/3174569)

Rhinos now asking State for $15 Million - Rochestor Democrat & Chronicle (http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050510/NEWS01/505100332/1002/NEWS)

Bavarians set to Kick things off - Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel (http://www.jsonline.com/sports/socc/may05/324792.asp)

Youth Team is Shattered - Carson Daily Breeze (http://www.dailybreeze.com/sports/articles/1562452.html)

Key RSL Players should be back soon - Salt Lake Tribune (http://www.sltrib.com/realsaltlake/ci_2724439)

[aleaguer]

ESPN hates robot-dog soccer (http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/news/local/11603746.htm).


MLS needs to taken an Official Stance - LA Times (http://www.latimes.com/sports/soccer/la-sp-soccercol10may10,1,7383971.story?coll=la-headlines-sports-soccer&ctrack=1&cset=true) (fairly decent, I got some problems with it, but the idea should be discussed)

From that....

"Forget, for the moment, that they are the only MLS team never to have reached a championship game in either MLS or the U.S. Open Cup."

I guess Grahame has forgotten the 2003 Open Cup final.

From the Rochester thing:

"Unless the additional aid is secured, the stadium would have few of the amenities once planned. It's being built with 12,500 permanent seats and without luxury boxes, a permanent press box and locker rooms or a video replay system for the scoreboard."

Nice. Yeah, you'll be in MLS soon.

[Knave]

Youth Team is Shattered - Carson Daily Breeze (http://www.dailybreeze.com/sports/articles/1562452.html)
Boy, reading that article really pissed me off.

[jri]

Boy, reading that article really pissed me off.

Yeah, but the team tried to make it up to them. The coach shoulda met them halfway.

At this point, the team should just fulfill their original offer, sans ticket sales. If they reject that, move on.

Sometimes companies make mistakes, but as long as they make good...its cool..

[Revs007]

Boy, reading that article really pissed me off.

I'm upset at the stubborness of the coaches. Get over it mistakes happen.

[Etienne_72772]

Regarding the Graham Jones hand-ball article--the handball is inconsistently applied, which is a problem. But the real problem is the "intent" component of the infraction. In reality, how often is a handball EVER intentional? The ball moves so fast most of the time, that 99 times out of 100, a player has no option to have the ball bounce off the arm or hand. If intent really was at the heart of the issue, then there would rarely, if ever, be handballs called.

FIFA should remove "intent" from the rule, and make it purely based on what happens on the play. If the ball hits an opponents hand or arm, and because of that, the opponent gets some kind of advantage, it should be called as a handball. Its simple, and would be very effective. And it would most likely favor offense.

[capitalist]

Beckham coming to NJ after all - Newark Star-Ledger (http://www.nj.com/sports/ledger/index.ssf?/base/sports-0/1115703955301440.xml) (did you hear that, cause i don't care)


Giants Stadium sellout for yet another soccer game (& Metro doubleheader). Cool.

[cdin]

Revisiting Wilt-Guppy move for the last Time - Chicago Daily Herald (http://www.dailyherald.com/sports/sportsstory.asp?id=46935) (thank you for being an idiot McPickle)

If I'm reading this correctly, Garber is saying that even though Wilt was successful, he wasn't successful enough and the Fire needs to have a higher attendance. Correct me if I'm wrong, but hasn't the Fire had one of the better attendance records given the fact that they changed stadiums twice? If so, some of the other Presidents/GMs in MLS should probably be a little worried.

[PALE568]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/10/sports/soccer/10soccer.html

Here's Jack Bell's Soccer Report in the Times.

[Justin O]

FIFA should remove "intent" from the rule, and make it purely based on what happens on the play. If the ball hits an opponents hand or arm, and because of that, the opponent gets some kind of advantage, it should be called as a handball. Its simple, and would be very effective. And it would most likely favor offense.

I agree. And certainly, it should be explicitly stated that if a person has their arms out in a defensive position (ie USA - Germany 2002) and the ball hits their arm, even if it comes from close range and, say, the player has his eyes closed the whole time, then that clearly has to be a hand-ball. In most cases I think that is called, but in such cases any ref could just say, his eyes were closed therefore it wasn't intentional, and not make the call.

[cdin]

Regarding the Graham Jones hand-ball article--the handball is inconsistently applied, which is a problem. But the real problem is the "intent" component of the infraction. In reality, how often is a handball EVER intentional? The ball moves so fast most of the time, that 99 times out of 100, a player has no option to have the ball bounce off the arm or hand. If intent really was at the heart of the issue, then there would rarely, if ever, be handballs called.

FIFA should remove "intent" from the rule, and make it purely based on what happens on the play. If the ball hits an opponents hand or arm, and because of that, the opponent gets some kind of advantage, it should be called as a handball. Its simple, and would be very effective. And it would most likely favor offense.

You would be surprised at how many handballs are intentional, especially at the higher levels of the game.

I have been a ref for several years and in my opinion the call in the Chivas/Real game could have gone either way. Generally if the hand is in an unnatural position (i.e. above the head, away from the body), a foul will be called. Players need to know where their hands should be. A handball will really be called if your hand is down at your side. Rojas' hand was at his shoulder, but he was running and the replay didn't show any movement towards the ball. However the referee doesn't have the benefit of instant replay to make the decision. The call was unlucky but fair.

Now lets look at your suggested rule change. Going by advantage instead of intent the same call would have been made. Chivas put in a dangerous cross and it was block by a hand thus giving Real an advantage. Also, using your new rule, an attacker doesn't have get the ball in the net, he just has to hit the defender's hand. Since the defender's hand prevented the ball from going towards goal the defending team gained an advantage. The defender could also get sent of for denying an obvious goal scoring opportunity by handling the ball.

Ultimately your new rule would upset even more people. Intent many not be perfect, but is the best we have.

[drew_VT_6]

Branch has roots in Soccer - Boston Globe (http://www.boston.com/sports/soccer/articles/2005/05/10/branch_has_roots_in_soccer)

MLS needs to take advantage of more of these celeb fans of the game. I mean lets get a picture of Shaq checking out a DC United game and with his buddy Freddy Adu. Let's get some pictures of Steve Nash and Dirk Nowitzki at a Dallas game. Give me a video of Kobe Bryant juggling the ball or Nomar and Mia at a Fire game. Maybe it would mean inviting these people to attend games, but do something to let the "clones" know it's cool to love and watch MLS games.

[drew_VT_6]

From the Rochester thing:
"Unless the additional aid is secured, the stadium would have few of the amenities once planned. It's being built with 12,500 permanent seats and without luxury boxes, a permanent press box and locker rooms or a video replay system for the scoreboard."

Nice. Yeah, you'll be in MLS soon.

You got suckered into buying this reporters huge slant against the Rhinos and PTP.

The stadium has been planned to be built in Phases all along. Phase I would not have luxury boxes (and the accompanying permanent press box) and the lockerrooms would be in the same building as the team offices outside of the stadium but no further than 100ft from the stadium. Phase I would essentially be a top notch A-League stadium. Phase II would add more permanent seating and Phase III would add the luxury boxes between the lower and upper levels and at the same time a new pressbox would be built to fit next to the luxury boxes. Because much of the original funding plan was yanked out from under the Rhinos feet by county legislatures they went with a tiered plan in order to complete the project. IF the team gets all of the $15million it asks for, it will be able to complete all 3 phases now instead of over the next two years.

This article was very enjoyable for me to read because all of the people this reporter has generally gone to, to find certain discent no longer have any problems with the funding and in fact support the Rhinos.

Getting this $15million though, is kind of like throwing the dog a bone while you enjoy a fancy stake dinner. You see NYC and the Jets are going after $300million from the state for "Olympic Stadium" on the Westside of Manhattan. I think the politicos will have to find some funds to scatter across upstate now to keep us quiet. This is one way...and I'm not to proud to admit I won't mind knawing on this bone.

[aleaguer]

Sorry - without a permanent pressbox, you're basically building a treefort with a big back yard.

[BillQ]

If I'm reading this correctly, Garber is saying that even though Wilt was successful, he wasn't successful enough and the Fire needs to have a higher attendance. Correct me if I'm wrong, but hasn't the Fire had one of the better attendance records given the fact that they changed stadiums twice? If so, some of the other Presidents/GMs in MLS should probably be a little worried.

I think it may be a sign where no matter how successful you are on the field, you will get sacked if the financials aren't good enought. I wonder how that applies to Guppy?

BTW, Kent McDill is the Douchebag of Chicago soccer journalism.

[Stogey23]

FIFA should remove "intent" from the rule, and make it purely based on what happens on the play. If the ball hits an opponents hand or arm, and because of that, the opponent gets some kind of advantage, it should be called as a handball. Its simple, and would be very effective. And it would most likely favor offense.
I posted a thread about this in the Ref forum some time ago. I argued with a fellow teammate about the handball rule and said that "intent" was to be judged. He said the FIFA rule says NOTHING about intent, and I think the ref forum confirmed he is correct.

Let me dig.

[Stogey23]

EDIT: Ok, I was wrong. The post I made was regarding whether advantage should be considered. My bad!

http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=141467

[nyrmetros]

[/url]
[url="http://www.latimes.com/sports/soccer/la-sp-soccercol10may10,1,7383971.story?coll=la-headlines-sports-soccer"]MLS needs to taken an Official Stance - LA Times (http://www.boston.com/sports/soccer/articles/2005/05/10/branch_has_roots_in_soccer) (fairly decent, I got some problems with it, but the idea should be discussed)


"The MetroStars are an embarrassment. Forget, for the moment, that they are the only MLS team never to have reached a championship game in either MLS or the U.S. Open Cup."


2003 US Open Cup at Giants Stadium? Yea, we were there... well some of us were...

But yea, the point is well taken....

[BillQ]

"The MetroStars are an embarrassment. Forget, for the moment, that they are the only MLS team never to have reached a championship game in either MLS or the U.S. Open Cup."


2003 US Open Cup at Giants Stadium? Yea, we were there... well some of us were...

But yea, the point is well taken....

There were more people in Ginger's Ale House in Chicago watching the Open Cup final than there were at Giant's Stadium, even when we were overwhelmingly outnumbered by the sheep, erm, Cubs fans watching Game Seven of the NLCS the same night.

[scaryice]

I guess Grahame has forgotten the 2003 Open Cup final.

Not only that, but the Metros are actually averaging 10,793, not 8,400 or whatever he said.