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I know it’s a while before world cup rosters are finalized, but I do have a question that I have been chewin’ on for the past couple of weeks. What criteria do coaches use to fill that last spot on the roster?
The good thing about world cup rosters is that once a starting XI has been decided, the remaining 12 players are available for substitutions, not 7. If that is the case, then it would seem to me that a coach would want to have as many different types of players available to him based on how the game is played.
But that is not always the case. I have come up with some scenarios in which a player is chosen to fill out the roster. I am sure there are more.
The fawn - We get this one every so often. The young player who will probably never see the pitch, but is there for the experience. Ronaldo was 17 in 1994, and watched Brazil win the cup from the sideline. Theo Walcott made the England team in 2006, but nary a minute did he play. Of course there are...click here to read more...
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:
You know what's even more cool than winning a Super Bowl?
Levees.
Tell you what, instead of giving Haiti money, let's give them an NFL team. Since apparently that makes everything all better.
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Hey, speaking of sports being incredibly important. I see that the United States Soccer Federation, otherwise known as NORTH KOREA, "unanimously" re-elected Sunil Gulati to as Grand Poobah. How could this possibly have happened, after reading months and months of messages about how Gulati has a conflict of interest with Kraft Soccer, how he bungled horribly the Bob Bradley hiring, and how he stupidly failed to certify either USL-1 or the NASL? I haven't been this mad since someone told me sarcasm doesn't work on blog posts.
Unanimous, huh? Tell me something, how man of you voted? Who out here actually had a voice? Did you even know there was an election? Who...well, you know, I'm actually skirting on a valid point here, so maybe I should drop the snotsnark.
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 residents and/or cattle has a domestic professional league and could thus send a "Champion" thereof to serve as fodder for the Mexican sides, our neighbor to the North had, as has been noted in this space once or twice in the past, no national league.
And unlike in the case of most of the other countries who find themselves similarly leagueless - eg. Guyana, Montserrat and the Cayman Islands - Canada actually...click here to read more...
Femexfut made official what we all had known for months. Mexico’s alternate strip will be black. As a traditionalist, if the alternate was not going to be white, I would have preferred the claret (guinda) that Mexico used for years. The black looks nice, I guess. Who am I to judge, though? My favorite all-time strip was the Aztec Calendar infused shirt from 1998.
Chivas made it four in a row to start the Bicentenario tourney with a 2-0 win last night over a plucky Queretaro team that has been re-energized by Club America legend, Carlos Reynoso. After changing managers at an alarming rate (even for Mexican clubs, it was pretty excessive), Chivas seemed to have settled nicely with an inside man, Jose Luis Real, and are playing some of their best futbol in years. Chicharito Hernandez...click here to read more...
Remember when I ranted about a fake Fred joining DC United? Well, for several weeks now, the Galaxy have done them one better. Alex, Juninho and Leonardo are going to bring a little samba flavor to look, I'm sorry, can we or they seriously take a minute or two to come up with new names?
Okay, no one's going to think that the AC Milan coach is back in the United States to hunt down and finish off Tab Ramos. But there's also a Leonardo at NAC Breda, one at Shakhtar, one at AEK, and God knows how many more.
It's actually almost plausible that the Galaxy got the Juninho from Boro, or the one from Lyon, but this is another one.
I already had trouble keeping the Alexes straight. Hey, the Galaxy did have a partnership with Chelsea, it COULD have been one of the famous ones.
I don't care how cultural it is. I don't care who it's a tribute to. I don't care how few last names there are in Portuguese. The Screen Actors Guild makes people come up with unique names - that's why...click here to read more...
Dumpster diving in Google trying to corroborate my memories of the 1998 World Cup, I came across this post from this very site:
Quote:
In fact, I kinda have the suspicion that w/in 5 years time, "Amy Wynalda" will be cited as the most important factor in the US' failure that WC as opposed to the true problem: 3-6-1.
uclacarlos, visionary. Although he was a couple of years off - it only took a little over two years.
Mark Ziegler with a great article here. Makes up for saying a lockout by MLS owners was likely.
[quote]“Not playing the position (outside right defender) I wanted him to play, or (him) going out the night before the Belgium game was one thing,” Sampson said of two prior issues with Harkes. “I could have overcome that and I was prepared to find a way to work it out. After I was informed of...click here to read more...
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 was his team or, put another way, was getting a bit too big for his britches.
It now appears that if Harkes was having problems in his britches that Eric Wynalda's wife was the one responsible, according to comments Wynalda himself made on Fox Football Fone-in on Monday night.
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