Let me start by saying that I am honestly NOT trolling here. While I am not a fan of your team, I have been a fan of what your team has done from the beginning. From the ownership, to the way they involved supporters, to the downtown location of the stadium, to the incredible ticket sales, to the choice of a head coach and on, and on, and on. But this is nuts. http://www.mlssoccer.com/att-goal-week-vote-now I know most teams go to these polls and mindlessly vote for their own, and frankly, I never pay much attention to things like GoTW for that reason. I'm not even sure this one is that big of a deal. Hell, I'm pretty sure that Fire fans got some GoTWs for Blanco and others when they were not deserved. But a dispassionate look at the candidates and Riley's goal is probably 4th or 5th best of the lot. A rebound, a bad clearance, a deflection, a nice little touch into space and a good strike BUT it has nothing on several of the goals, including the one that was scored AGAINST Seattle. Now, like I said, I normally don't care, but Brian McBride had something of a Ted Williams moment by scoring in his final game. Not just scoring, but an incredibly intelligent and courageous goal that drew the defender and keeper with him while knowing he was going to get whacked and then playing a nice backheel to the far post. And look where he starts the run. He thought that through as Freddie was gaining the end line. Is it the best? I don't know. It's a damn good goal from a historic figure in American soccer. I voted for it. Had it been a garbage goal, I would not have voted purely on sentimental grounds, but it is deserving as well. So, feel free to tell me to ******** off, but I would implore you to go back and vote again for which ever you think is the best goal. I realize McBride might not care at all, but then again, maybe he would think it was kind of cool to go out with a goal and GoTW to boot.
All you've accomplished with this post is motivating more of us to go vote for Riley's goal. Like I just did. The point of GoTW is fan participation. It's not a serious award. That's why they have fans vote on it. Seattle has the most fans and the club always promotes when a Sounders player is up for GoTW. So there you go. If you want another player to win, go rally that team's supporters. You're just pissing into the wind here.
I don't remember ever voting for goal of the week as I, frankly, don't see what the big deal is who wins it.
Oh please. GotW/SotW has never been about who has the best goal/save. It's about who has the most fans, or lately, who has the best bots. If MLS was really interested in determining which was the best goal/save, then they wouldn't make it an internet poll using Polldaddy.com, they'd just have their "experts" vote on it and announce who had the best goal/save.
Fans are going to be fans. They are going to be hyper-partisan and then crow about it. When challenged on their bias, they will just crow even more loudly and raise their flag higher. Being a fan isn't a logical, temperate act - it is an emotional, psychotic one. I get tired of the psychosis too, but it is part of the allure for many fans. They pay money to see the games, they are entitled to become as deeply emotional about it as they choose. And really the GOTW isn't worth a hill of beans. I never vote for them, they bore me. I see the highlights several times during the week anyway and this is the kind of cheap "interactive" entertainment web sites spin out constantly to make us feel "connected" to the game. The best way to feel "connected" to the game is to take a ball out to the field and attempt to launch a solid corner kick. It's harder than you think. There's a lot of ways to be a fan though - and mindlessly raising the flag of your team, over all other causes or reason, is certainly a great deal of fun. In life you know we're all asked to be pretty responsible, mature, reasonable and logical. It's nice to let all that fly out the window and turn into a raging, fanatical supporter, with adrenalyn flowing, blood rushing and screaming at the top of your lungs. It can be therapeutic. So let the fans have their fun. The Sounders has a tradition of this anyway, the name vote was completely ginned up and spammed out with partisan support. So the tradition of spamming votes to support the cause of the supporters goes back to the inception of the MLS franchise.
Because the few of us here on BS are the ones driving the voting . Seriously take it to the soundersfc message board itself that has far more users than those of us here. But as I said last week popularity contests suck like that. McBride's goal was a beauty though.
Eh, it's a waste of time for any of us to vote honestly. There are bots set up by a couple of people that do all the voting. I don't think those users are on this board though. I think it's lame they are doing that, but whatever, it's a lame award anyway. Hopefully next year the MLS changes the format and makes it an announced award rather than a fan-vote. I understand your concern but there's really nothing any of us can do about it.
Sorry, I'm not familiar with other message boards, but considering the reaction to a simple request on here, I'll pass. It was just a thought and really not that important. Brian will live. They do, and I thought I made clear that I normally couldn't give a rat's ass. Just thought it would be a nice gesture for one of the greatest American player's ever. When Kasey Keller finally drags his sorry bones off the field, I'll be sure to vote for Sean Johnson scooping up a slow roller as save of the week. Yep. That's good enough, so like I said, carry on. Good luck in the playoffs.
I have not voted in one of these things in months... I can tell you what happens though. Whenever Sounders get a GOTW nominee, SoundersFC throws a link to it up on facebook. And the Sounders FC facebook following absolutely dwarfs every other team-- the closest is maybe 70,000 fewer fans. There is nothing stopping that train. Lol, I became disenfranchised last year when Alonso's goal against DC (in the 3-3 draw) was not even nominated for GOTW, when honestly it was probably a top 3 GOTY. That pissed me off. So... we're even I guess.
Yeah, there is no reason worrying about the sun rising. I used to be annoyed about it, but now I just ignore it. That was a great moment, a fitting finish to a great career. Maybe instead of GotW they should let us vote every five years on whether or not to fire the guy who decides who wins GotW.
I'd just like to add my own two cents (troll currency, of course) after seeing the same thing on the MLSsoccer's Goal of the Week page.. I came to the Sounders section to see if I was the only one. As a neutral observer, I am also asking - really? The last goal of McBride's career, an incredible back-heel goal at that, and it's being blown out of the water in voting by a Seattle goal? Not throwing insults, but I would hope the people spamming the Seattle goal would show a little class and give McBride the nod.
Unfortunately when you point stuff like that out to the people running the bots their response is that it is all the more important that they do what they do as it points out the obvious flaws in the system such that MLS will be forced to address it. You can't argue with disconnected logic like that... well you can but it just becomes a circular chase as they justify their actions with yet more disconnected logic. Many of us gave up trying months ago.
MEH. If it was a real award, I would vote for McBride hands down. But it's not. It's just a fan vote. Nothing more. The player gets NOTHING from it except a few bucks from AT&T, but nothing from the league. No award, no plaque, no official recognition of any sort. It's just something the MLS website does to a) get a few bucks from AT&T through sponsorship, and b) help drive hits to the site. So with that in mind, I only vote when a Sounder is there and only for that Sounder, and only because it helps one of our boys get some well earned cash in their pockets. It's a fake award and I treat it as such.
Hey look, another thread where people are surprised that the voting process for goal of the week is not legitimate.
That's not trolling at all, you are just talking to the wrong people. You have to understand that Seattle has a tiny, tiny presence on BigSoccer specifically because there are so many other forums to talk about Sounders online. Sounders FC forums, Seattle Times blog posts, ECS forums, a dozen different blogs, and each Facebook update gets 30-300 responses... Sounders fans only end up on BigSoccer as a reprieve from.... that. If you want to make your case, go hit up those sites. but trust me on this-- If you actually want to engage that argument, it is a long way back from the Bronx to Coney Island. Simple truth: Most Sounders fans do not give a **** about Brian McBride's last goal. Do not care about the history of MLS, do not care who Phil Ancschutz or Bob Kraft are... Don't care why KC's pitch is tiny, Dallas's attendance sucks, Houston's fall gridiron lines, DC in RFK. Do not care who won the 2006 Open Cup, MLS Cup, or Supporters Shield. " F*** everybody but the Sounders"... It is a rabid mentality here. It's not about class, and it's not bots, lol. When they do a wide-angle crowd shot for the LA playoff game-- THAT's who voted for Riley. Simple truth. Personally, I remember going out to watch him play as a kid.. He was a living legend in St Louis when the National team was still kind of a joke.
Thanks for the support, but I've already let it go. I guess I'm naive in thinking that no one would waste their time botting something as trivial as goal of the week but apparently, there are a couple of Seattle people who do so its really not worth the trouble. It was a nice thought but in the grand scheme, its not worth spending any more time on than our initial posts. Most on here were cool about it but there is no support for the idea and I'm certainly not moving on to other Sounder sites to suggest this.
Hey no worries, this is just the second straight week this topic came up. Although the previous week it was a disgruntled Crew fan with Hesmers goal. Unfortunately there are a lot of homers for every team, that cannot see beyond the color of the jersey to vote with their heads and not their heart. And frankly that is okay to be that way, I typically do not vote in these things because I know they are just popularity contests. And when I do it is usually because the goal was just to good to not vote for. Only once so far have I voted a Sounders goal the GoTW, Montero's rocket in New England last year, 40 yards on a 30 degree angle dipped at the last second simply stunning. As for the other board, the sounders get way more traffic on the message board hosted on the team site. A lot of us here on BS were here before the Sounders joined MLS, several joined around the time the team was announced, and several are ECS members who typically live on the ECS board but make their way over here from time to time. My point was that the Sounders fans that are active on this board have little chance of influencing the vote compared to the people on the team site. Wasn't trying to be an ass about it or anything sorry if it came across that way.
Okay, one last post. Just to be clear, I wasn't asking anyone to give a shit about other MLS teams or history. My initial request was related to McBride's service to the US National team. Do sounders fans give a shit about the diving header against Portugal or the opening goal when we thumped the Mexicans? Do they care about the metal plates in his face from getting whacked playing for his country? Not trying to start a club v. country discussion at all. Just explaining why I thought it might be a nice gesture to actually vote one week on quality instead of the color of the shirt. But apparently, I'd have to find the specific bots and my guess is that if they honestly waste time doing THAT, they wouldn't be too concerned about what McBride meant to the national team either.
I actually voted for McBride on the poll. Even if every Sounders fan in this sub-forum voted, it wouldn't make a little tiny bit of difference though. I agree with your overall point, I definitely respect McBride, too bad he couldn't have won the award.