Blog Entries

Ok, so I'm not exactly holding my breath about Landon Donovan and rumors of a possible loan move to Club America.

For an individual like Landon, who can be quite moody when he wants to be, I have my doubts. The Landon portrayed in the Beckham Experiment, the guy that felt "disrespected" by a early substitution in the second half of a Champions League match and never looked back, I'm not so sure. Then again, that same guy did a whole lot of growing up this past year, with the Confederations Cup run the crowning achievement of his transformation to a mentally tougher individual,...

And so it begins...

http://www.reuters.com/article/sport...dChannel=11617

There's a lot of mess to wade through during this off-season. The league is (as it almost always is), at another crossroads.

On one hand, expansion is bringing in gobs of cash; on the other hand some of the older franchises are struggling at the gate. On one hand Don Garber is bragging to Europe how healthy his league is fiscally; on the other hand he's telling the players to accept a marginal cost of living increase to the cap...

Since 2004, the FA and Premier League have introduced a ‘Fit and Proper Persons Test’, which anyone owning over 30% of any football club under the FA’s jurisdiction has to undertake. This is intended to ensure that any businessperson taking over, or heavily investing in a club has the correct credentials to do so.

The original test’s rules are:

A person shall be disqualified from acting as a director and no club shall be permitted to have any person acting as a director of that club if:
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Games to watch at the weekend

Aston Villa v Tottenham Hotspur

This week's "Battle for Fourth Place!" Despite four second half goals shared by Liverpool and Manchester City, last week's BFFP lacked conviction. Spurs are riding high in the saddle after Jemaine Defoe's 5 goals left Wigan struggling to get out of the gate at Whiteheart Lane and Villa are "fresh" off another disappointing showing, having won just one in the last five. I'm predicting the we'll be talking about two different teams in next week's BFFP following this sintillating nil- nil fails to separate these...

I'll admit that I don't have a clue who Bob Foose is other than the Executive Director of the Major League Soccer Players "Union".

Probably a lawyer, but we shouldn't stereotype: they're not ALL blood-sucking, bottom-feeding boils on the ass of humanity. Or so I'm told.

I'm guessing mid-40's, wife and kids. Maybe a dog too. Springer spaniel or possibly a setter of some kind. Low handicap on the golf course, likes sailing and cigars. (I'm projecting now).

We do know that he was around for the last CBA negotiations in 2004, so the players obviously like him,...

Another home loss for Rangers leads to yet another dismal failure for Scottish clubs in Europe. But is it a poor standard of players in Scotland or some deeper reason?

Let's take the cry that went up earlier, "it's not even the end of August and already most clubs have crashed out of Europe". Too true. Motherwell, Falkirk, Hearts and Aberdeen all went tumbling out of the Europa Cup before even the league had started (or certainly, in the very early days).

Really,...

Let's say the odds on the three possible outcomes of a game are X/1, Y/1, and Z/1, where the most likely outcome according to the people making the odds is whichever variable is lowest. It would be simple if the probabilities were simply 1/X, 1/Y, and 1/Z, but that is not the case because the odds are designed so that people betting will have a net loss of money and the sum of 1/X, 1/Y, and 1/Z will not equal 1. The sum of the probabilities of all possible outcomes must be 1. To make the sum equal 1, my formulas for the probabilities of the three outcomes are:

(1/X)/(1/X + 1/Y...

One of the issues Garb addressed at the Supporter's Summit was the desire to grow the supporter's culture in MLS, with the goal of increasing the size of supporter's groups 10% to 20% a year.

So how does the league help facilitate such growth? With a few exceptions, supporter's groups are organic by nature, consisting of individuals who aren't exactly anti-establishment but definitely not pro-status quo either. They live to push the boundaries, drink tasty beverages, light flares, drop f-bombs and have a good time in general, all of which contradicts the corporate vibe of the average...

Looks like the weirdest season ever is seguewaying* quite nicely into the weirdest offseason ever. I'm a bit behind on the Preki disaster in embryo form, but I will be awaiting the inevitable crash on my little tippy-toes.

That place being Toronto, of course, and the August was back in 2007. Which means that either Preki is blowing smoke up TFC's...

I haven't posted in a while and thought I would do so today to discuss those things that I am thankful for in US Soccer. Some of these are quite serious. Some of these . . . well, no so much.

Which are which you say? Well, that my friends is up for you to decide.

1. Michael Bradley : Without him, what would everyone on BigSoccer do for a living? He is the lightning rod that holds this place together. You either hate him and cry "nepotism!" from the treetops, or you point and laugh at those who do. Do a little research and you'll figure out which...