Quakes expect Twin Bill to Draw well - San Jose Mercury News Grimandi wants to Keep the Money and Run - Denver Post Goalie's Injury puts Pressure on Burn - Dallas Morning News Burn battles Galaxy to 1-1 Draw - Colony Courier Leader Red stops Moore on Return Route - Boston Globe Rapids seek to Share Burdern - Denver Rocky Mountain News Rapids Player to Leave - L.A. Times OSU Fire latest Tragedy to Impact Crew Rookie - Columbus Dispatch Zambrano leaves Metros to Find Head Coaching Job - Newark Star-Ledger Marine Spirit - San Diego Union-Tribune Building Blocks - North Jersey Herald News
username: bigsoccer@bigsoccer.com password: bigsoccer That's got to be a default on a lot of these sites, I'm reckoning. Great variety of content in the Mercury-News roundup today, incidentally. Great crowd beckoning at Spartan on the weekend, and it looks like the league wants to get Mulrooney's signature on paper before the battle for the player becomes a huge tug-of-war towards the end of the season. As per the crowd at Spartan, I know this sounds eternally optimistic, but I'll do Johnny Moore one better and predict a 20,000 crowd. With both the Bay Area soccer teams playing there on the same ticket, and with the late surge in the Quakes' attendance at the end of last season being what it was, maybe a few extra thousand fans might not be out of the realm of possibilities.
From the Denver Post article: According to Grimandi's agent, Patrick McCabe, Grimandi does not want to reimburse MLS. "I think he's hoping to wait this out and get someone to basically say, 'You can go,"' McCabe said. "MLS has basically bent over backwards for this guy, and this is not being (conducted) in a professional manner by Gilles." That this is the least supportive agent I've heard of. Sounds as if Mr. McCabe is getting pretty sick of Grimandi's antics.
McCabe should know a lot about professionalism, having also brought MLS players such as Diego Serna, William Sunsing, Daniel Amokachi, and Mamadou Diallo.
from Dallas Morning News, goalie's injury... link. Brad Friedel, still having a spectacular season at England's Blackburn, goes on the road to face famed Manchester United on Saturday. Blackburn hasn't won at Old Trafford since 1962 but did beat Manchester United at home for the first time in eight years back in December. ... At England's Preston North End, a first-division team, U.S. midfielder Eddie Lewi has quietly put together a good season, scoring five goals in 33 starts. ... Gregg Berhalter (Energie Cottbus) and Steve Cherundolo (Hannover 96) continue to start in defense for their German Bundesliga teams. Tony Sanneh (FC Nurnberg) will miss the rest of the German season because of a recurring back ailment (next us game is may 8th in houston, 8 PM ET telemundo, 10 PM ET espn2 delay) Valderrama retires, not really big news there. Women's WC draw postponed, IMO, they may have to postpone or re-locate the WWC if this SARS stuff doesn't get stopped.
Note to Dan Counce, run away from any player represented by McCabe. (Amokachi and Grimandi, in two successive years? The guy is just bad news...)
I don't remember him saying anything bad about thosae players. That makes me think he's especially ticked off at Grimandi.
"Look, he wants to be the head coach of a professional team, and we needed to focus our energy on the academy and youth system," Sakiewicz said. "Octavio needed to focus his energies on finding another (coaching) job." Dang - that's pretty harsh... Topper
Okay, France was against our war with Iraq. Do we need to belittle every footballer from that nation for the rest of 2003? I don't see Henry, or Zidane, or Viera or list goes on for a long time OR Arsene Wenger failing to live up to obligation. What Grimandi is doing is pure shite, but let us not attack an entire nation for having differing views. Oh yeah, sounds like a great crowd in S.J. Glad to hear it.