Alabama Soccer Thread

Homewood High School wins the Montgomery Invitational for both boys and girls. Read about it in the Montgomery Advertiser.

Congrats to coach pvan4.

 

Wow, they usually spank Montevallo.

 

Re: Rapids in town

Hopefully the weather's better in B'ham than in Orlando right now. It's been raining for two days straight here.

 

I just sent the following letter to the editor of the Birmingham News:

Solomon Crenshaw's article about the Colorado Rapids vs. Chicago Fire soccer game insinuates that members of the United States National Team aren't professionals. Every player on the men's national team is a professional. They play in various pro leagues in many countries around the world: USA, England, Germany, The Netherlands, Norway, etc.

As a matter of fact, some players on the Rapids and Fire are currently on the US National Team (Pablo Mastroeni for example.) Long gone are the days when the US National Team was filled with collegiate, amateur atheletes. These men finished in the top 8 of the last World Cup, the world's largest single sport event. There's no way collegiate atheletes could achieve that. This team isn't the Olympic team, which is comprised of amateurs and professionals under 23 years of age.

It's high time these professional atheletes that represent our country in the world's most popular sport are recognized for the sporting contributions. This is not a team of million dollar babies. While some of them are indeed quite wealthy, many of them earn salaries no larger than that of your neighbors. This is a sport where most play for the love of the game. There are no drug cases, pending rape trials, or spouse abusers amongst these men. They all have clean records, something hardly any professional team can boast. If people want their children to be able to look up to a group of atheletes, I can't think of a better bunch. This is particularly pertinent given that the US team is coming to Birmingham March 30th in a game that helps determine if they make the World Cup in 2006.



I sent it in reference to this article:

http://www.al.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news/1110622625107950.xml?birminghamnews?nmet

and particularly this part:

Dozens of youth soccer players from the Hoover Soccer Club gathered at a field Tuesday night to seek autographs.

This time, though, the targets weren't the U.S. national team men or women who have played in Birmingham on occasion in recent years.

The featured players were professionals - members of Major League Soccer's Colorado Rapids, who will play a preseason game at 7:30 tonight against an MLS rival, the Chicago Fire, at Hoover High School.

 

So, who won the Fire v. Rapids game?

 

Somebody that lives in Birmingham try to find me one of these:



It's the city flag of Birmingham. Who knew? Not me.