Bill Archer Blog

Not to rain on anyones' MLS Preseason Parade, but unless I've been too buried in hate-drenched, spittle-flecked anger from north of the Ice Curtain to have heard the news, MLS is still operating sans a labor agreement.

(Of course it does appear that said curtain has moved several hundred miles south this week and now runs through Albemarle County North Carolina)

In any case, herewith - and I apologize for repeating a gimmick - my contribution to jump starting a sense of urgency:



Over the three month span between Real Salt Lakes' delightfully...

As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words:


A couple of years ago, when the disgusting greedbags who run CONCACAF decided there was money to be made in the creation of a CONCACAF Champions League, modeled after similar competitions around the world (but, of course, most notably in Europe), they found there was one slight problem:

Despite the fact that almost every flea-bitten third world sinkhole of a country with more than a couple dozen...

UPDATE: SOME DETAILS FROM THE DAILY RECORD

According to a report just now moving on ESPN Sportscenter, USMNT and Rangers winger DaMarcus Beasley has posted on his Twitter account that:

"Someone blew up my car"

Glasgow, Scotland police will say only that the incident is "A willful fire raising" and that an investigation is ongoing.

Beasley has been the target of frequent racist taunts since arriving in Europe in 2004

The nominations for Strangest Soccer Story of the Year 2010 may not be closed quite yet but we've got one today that's going to be tough to beat.


One of the most commented-on stories in US Soccer history, after possibly Belo Horizonte and The Shot Heard Round the World has been Steve Sampson sending John Harkes home from France '98 after ceremoniously naming him "Captain for Life".

At the time it was said that, to make a long story short, Harkes was acting like it...

In the absence of photos of MLS players huddled around 55 gallon fire drums in front of Rio Tinto and RFK this morning, American soccer fans are forced to look for actual soccer news for our Monday morning amusement.

(Although one positive to the former scenario might be that a few stray sparks, possibly from burning the extensive porn collection they found in Josh Wicks' locker, might waft stadium-ward and burn the old barn to the ground, but then I've never liked Baltimore that much.)

High on a lot of people's lists today is the clip of Freddy-Adu-to-Eddie-Johnson:...

They're not going to get it done by the 1st, but THEY'RE GOING TO KEEP TALKING

"While we still have areas of disagreement, the talks have been constructive and both parties believe it makes sense to continue to work hard to reach agreement," said MLS Commissioner Don Garber. "This extension provides both MLS and the players the opportunity to continue our discussions while clubs are in training camps preparing for the 2010 MLS season."


"Both the Players Union and MLS have concluded that a new agreement will not be reached by February 1, but we have agreed to...

The fact that there's almost literally no news at all from the MLS/MLSPU CBA talks, made the report from yesterday that the sides met...

EIGHT HOURS ON TUESDAY!!!! AND THEY"LL BE MEETING AGAIN WEDNESDAY!!!!! SERIOUSLY!!!!!

...seem like actual news instead of a, "well duh, did you think they took the family to Disney this week?" moment.

However, PAT ONSTAD made some comments yesterday that may actually shed a little light on how things are going:

"Both sides have conceded certain things that are important to each party and now we only have two...

And a nice one it is.

They like him. He likes them.

On several occasions over the past few months I've commented that there was simply no reason to pay all that much attention to the MLS CBA negotiations until we got much closer to the midnight, January 31 expiration date.

Now that the due date is less than a week away, it's incumbent upon me to stop being a killjoy and join in the hysteria. I'm nothing if not a slave to my readers.




So consider this the kickoff event of the long-awaited BigSoccer-MLS Work Stoppage Week Parade and Jamboree:

You'll want to check in with the BigSoccer shop...

For quite some time now, soccer fans all across the fruited plain have questioned whether Bob Bradley has any idea what he's doing.

There's been a long-held suspicion by those of a more cynical bent (certainly not to include anyone in these parts, no sir) that his "March to the World Cup" campaign was nothing much more than an example of The Peter Principle on steroids as Bradley, a well-meaning but hopelessly over matched boob, selected his lineups based on nothing quite so much as a firm grasp of the obvious.

It's not like he's coaching, say, Argentina or Italy where...