Yep, I am. I love my country to the fullest but I try to be realistic and stick with the truth even if I have to sound aggressive towards somethings I don't agree with in our culture or whatever.
Oh really?!?! Did Steven say he was wrong when he called MLS "utter crap"? I also recall him saying that he refused to follow the league until they went to a single table and instituted promotion/relegation. Isn't it funny how quickly he changed his tune when he found out Beckham was coming to town? Isn't it funny how his interest in the league has waned with Becks lack of appearances? Pre-Becks, Steven would hide his ignorance of MLS owners, managers and players by dismissing the caller with a "the league is crap" type of response. Now his views of MLS simply illustrate his ignorance of anything that happens outside of LA.
If you're committed to sticking with the truth, then why don't you admit your ignorance of the origins of the word "soccer"? If you're committed to being realistic, then why don't you admit that calling the sport "soccer" is not among the dumbest things in the history of this country? For future reference, if you insist on being "aggressive" with what you disagree with, it might help if lift a finger to do a little research on the subject matter and avoid hyperbole. Need a few more words to look up? How about "xenophobia" and "anglophile"? BTW, thank you for providing us with a snapshot of WSD's fan base.
The reason they should discuss MLS as well as all the other big leagues, is because it's an American show. If, for example, someone out there offered me a dream job to go live in England or Australia (might make more sense) and to do a radio show on baseball as a baseball expert, I sure as hell wouldn't be disrespectful enough to outlaw discussion of people attempting to grow the game there. Personally I'd be fascinated by it, but even if I wasn't I'd treat my host country's interest in the sport with the respect it deserves. I damn well would cover the Claxton Shield in Australia, and if they got their league up and running again would cover that too. I'd run Aussie-centric coverage of the World Baseball Classic when it was played. (By the way if any Australian baseball people would like to offer me this job, PM me. Australia strikes me as a nice place to live for a while). Why be a jerk about this kind of stuff? Attendance shows there are at least some people in the country who do care about the league, why shut them out?
That's undoubtedly correct. I mean a very simple rule with probability is the larger the sample, the more accurate the derived percentages. The problem is that there's more to consider than a simple determination of "who's the best?" It is a spectator sport after all, and if alternative structures provide better long term fan support, than they certainly should be considered. I think the best long term policy is one where a balance is struck. I do think too many teams make the MLS playoffs and that even 8 out of 20 might be too many. But there's a lot to be said about the additional amount of randomness a playoff structure brings to determining the league champion and so dimissing them out of hand is probably unwise. I also think saying an American league couldn't survive without playoffs is also an overreach. Baseball really didn't have playoffs until 1969 and until 1995 only 4 out of 26/28 teams made them. An American league could easily survive without playoffs as long as there were mechanisms in place to keep things interesting for non-champions. That's really all playoffs are (a mechanism for keeping interest after a regular season champion is determined). But they are only one of several possible ways to do it.
euro leagues dont even rate thier Champions league like the NFL rates the superbowl as they de facto championship game, thats what all those teams should be aiming for over there but thier system doesnt really let it be done that way cause they have no competitve link between leaguegames(regularseason) and the championship for europe(champs league) ...here int the US we have the MLS cup that solves all those questions, you see the regular season is just a first phase, then the playoffs after elimination of a good amount from the regular season, then you have your elite out of that Playoff and then your final two for MLS cup.... works fine here, ofcourse a in house dual league promotion relegation to intertwine inwith the mls season and playoff structure will make a already bland uefa leagues look like calculus gone useless. ........Champions league doesnt have the true champions from thier format and the league champions dont really compete in champions league over there if they had a true Champion competition with the actual league winners from the regualr season and cup winner ins a big tourney that will be better, better sense i say. champions league is or just as bad in organizing than the BCS lolol
Sometimes Steven makes it really hard to be a fan of the show. His insistence that the MLS regular season means nothing is absurd. When it comes to MLS the show really offers no rational analysis. They're clearly out of their depth when discussing it and sound like guys who have done nothing but read the headlines. They bitch about playing in football stadiums with gridiron lines but never take a minute to discuss how many SSSes are opening up, what the future for that particular team is, etc. And they constantly say how MLS teams could not possibly compete in the EPL. Ummm, with the insane disparity in resources available to each team (Salary paid to players), i would certainly hope RSL couldn't compete with Man U over the course of a 38 game season. How does constantly stating that the MLS is a 3rd rate league help grow the sport in the country or add anything to the national dialogue about "the beautiful game?" And overall the anti-playoff tirade is just silly. It's not as if other leagues don't use playoffs (Mexico, for one), it's also not as if the regular season MLS champion (supporter's shield) doesn't receive the exact same technical status as the MLS Cup champion. They both qualify for precisely the same competitions. If you simply adjust your thinking on the MLS playoffs, you see that we can have our cake and eat it too. The regular season matters because there is only 1 supporters shield champion and it qualifies you for numerous competitions at this point. The playoffs matter for the same reason, plus they add the drama of that any knockout tournament naturally does. If the regular season champ got 0 recognition and was passed over for international competition there might be a point to be made about the MLS playoffs... but that isn't the case so it's really just silly to keep debating it. I love the show but sometimes they can get it so very, very wrong. This is one of those times.
Steven goes over the top a lot. That's what he does. And he does it when discussing England as well as the U.S. Well, that's partially a response to people like Alexi Lalas who say some really dumb stuff. It depends, how do you define "third rate" or "second rate" or "first rate". If first rate is England, Spain, and Italy, and second rate is Germany, France, Netherlands, and Portugal, then third rate isn't that bad. Steven doesn't praise the Mexican playoff system ever, so he's consistent there. This is an old debate, but I could care less about the SS. I mean, 2nd in the Premier League qualifies you for the exact same competitions as 1st does (and 3rd and 4th do as well), so is 4th no better than 1st? Of course not. In no American sport does anyone care who wins the regular season. MLS could be the first to change that, but they can't have that and have playoffs. Even if you care about the SS, then 2nd and 8th aren't much different. And that's a problem. Yeah, they do that.