News: Friday, Sept. 10 , 2010

Next LAG vs NYRB match will be awesome.
It's becoming more like El Clasico of MLS

 

Sweet Creamery Butter! Lagerway gets extension at RSL, talks of the coming years

 

That's a little biased headline you cooked up there, isn't it?

 

Better? Now you have to click on it to see how he refers to/describes what he wants to accomplish in the coming years.

 

It's Been Life Unexpected For D.C. United
World Soccer Reader

 

I know it's just a TV show title themed article, but for at least some of us United fans this lifeless United was fully expected.

 

what exactly does that mean?

like in 94 when we set the record that still stands, with less games then the current cup, with basically 0 support on a national level?

 

So true. It isn't like the US has to build ANY infrastructure at all for this to be a success.

 

I have two thoughts, conflicting: Not sure what "international legacy" we can leave beyond hosting the tournament well, and, perhaps, winning it. And this business about a "national effort" sounds like foreigners finding something to make themselves feel superior to Americans - a common pastime worldwide.

On the other hand, we do have crumbling and outdated infrastructure. Are corporate sponsorships going to fix roads and bridges, pay for high speed rail, educate the workforce, etc.? the World Cup might, indeed, be an opportunity to "promote the general welfare," to coin a phrase from that communist document called the Constitution of the United States. This is not to promote one party or another's idea of how to accomplish such goals, just to say that it may be a point of national concern that we cannot be a destination for major events with crumbling roads, bridges, trains that top out at 40mph, overcrowded airports, a mid-twentieth century power grid, etc.

But I am sure we will have a bunch of spiffy taxpayer-funded stadiums to host games, albeit staffed by functional illiterates.

 

some of your points may be valid... but let me remind you that this year... the world cup was in S. Africa... not exactly the peak of infrastructure

 

Point taken. Though I don't think that was the focal point of South African pride - "Compared to France, Korea, Japan, and Germany, we suck in infrastructure! Sound the vuvuzelas!" I also don't think European tourists will use South Africa as their yardstick, and the countries we are alleged to be superior to will sure as hell not use South Africa as the yardstick. We are measured by our own "we're number one!" mentality.

However, upon further review, I do want to augment my above comments. The quotes about the USA needing and international legacy were from the chief of the FIFA inspection delegation. At the risk of reading like Bill Archer, who, like a stopped clock, is sometimes correct, it was just another unsubtle FIFA grab for a share of the loot. FIFA just has not been fully educated to graft, American style.

Don can fix this. He can direct the various "Presidents" and "Executive Vice Presidents" that are paid by his paymasters to attend themselves to the Chuck and Jack show. This does not negate what I have been saying - we are headed for "banana republic on steroids" status, and have great opportunity to embarass ourselves - but, it would give us an opportunity to do graft our way, with lots of corporate sponsorship, and the White House being mostly a cheerleader and conduit.