Hope this was just a reporter's error... "It wasn't so much that I felt I was better than ***THE*** MLS - I just wanted a change and wanted to try and play in Europe. "Some of the older guys in the US team told me that players don't usually stay in the same place their whole career and said that seeing as my contract with ***THE*** MLS was up..."
This is REALLY nitpicky. Even some Americans insist it should really be "THE" MLS. Most people just say "MLS," but let's just be happy the guys isn't quoting him as saying "MSL."
it's purely from not thinking about it. Pretty much without exception any league in any sport which is known by its initials gets "the" stuck in front of it. Even if he thought it odd, he might have just let is pass anyway. If people are being pedantic then surely FIFA should have a "the" in front of it, as in "the Federation of International Football Associations", but nobody minds that it doesn't. Now, people who say Trivial Pursuits, they really annoy me.
Very true. Count your blessings, I guess. Anyway, it's grammatically incorrect... spell out the acronym, I always tell the Eurosnobs and Euro-poseurs over here, and see if it makes sense. But I did notice another omission of note in the article... WHAT DO YOU THINK WILL BE THE MAJOR DIFFERENCES PLAYING IN THE PREMIERSHIP? "The speed of play will be the main difference. But the good thing about playing at international level is that those games can be quite frantic too so that'll help me out. You guys are a bit more direct here - that's a major difference, and from watching on TV back home it just seems that the pace is much greater throughout the whole game. Sky Sports has an affiliate in the US called Fox Sports so we get to see a lot of their coverage of the Premiership so I've seen a few Fulham games this season." There's a "Fox Sports" here in Australia-- as in Fox Sports 1 & 2, which I can't wait to get after our big move -- but I think the Fulham site's editors left out the "World" in Fox Sports World. Big important omission there...
At the end of the article, Bocanegra said "centre back". Man. He's already got freidelitis. No self-respecting 'merican would ever say "centre back". It's "center back".
I would. But then again, I've been on Australian shores for a couple of years now. I do think they were taking their own editorial licence with it-- with Bocanegra, ahem, being in the centre of Fulham's defence and all.
Perhaps he did say center back. However, this was written for an English team's Website, and they changed it to their version of the spelling.
Taking a longer view, major league soccer (lower case) or professional soccer might include both first and second devision: THE MLS and the A-League. So the MLS, in caps, would be the Major League Soccer we know and love.
The next thing you know you guys will want to analyse the rumour that Boca was seen at his favourite glamour hot-spot in the theatre district and you'll insist that he needs to realise that he must not socialise on the night before a big game. But in his own defence, I'm sure he'll claim that he was only showing his true colours and trying to be more like Robbie Fowler
I see nothing wrong with that. Very much spot-on. Yet for his debut match, Bocanegra's playing at left back in Fulham's defence.