http://www.philly.com/philly/sports...R_S_THE_NATIONAL_SPORT_____JUST_NOT_HERE.html He's left so many twisted facts it seems like soccer is a trailer park and his wikipedia based typing is a tornado.
Re: Douchebag of the Day (7.29) Andrew Koob of Philly.com I'm assuming that third comment was yours. Well said. I love how he completely omitted the Seattle Sounders from his mls attendance stats. Another ignorant, agenda-driven column.
Re: Douchebag of the Day (7.29) Andrew Koob of Philly.com The last one was mine (bryan76). Someone else landed some body blows before me.
Re: Douchebag of the Day (7.29) Andrew Koob of Philly.com Im assuming your the last comment on that site...Well done
Re: Douchebag of the Day (7.29) Andrew Koob of Philly.com Yeah I was reading them backwards first. Edited accordingly.
Re: Douchebag of the Day (7.29) Andrew Koob of Philly.com If I could rep you, I would... It's funny how the more and more obvious it becomes that soccer is popular in this country (hard to argue against the huge attendance numbers for WFC, MLS, Gold Cup, and MLS friendlies over the past couple weeks), the more people like Koob are scrambling to try to disqualify everything that is happening. Anyone who actually asks the question seriously "is soccer here to stay?" is either very inattentive or just hoping that it goes away because its new and, thus, bad and scary. I really can't wait for next season to give just a big "I told you so" to everyone who has been knocking this team and stadium project from the beginning as a waste of time and money. We should invite guys like Koob into our section next year just to see them squirm when they see first hand how passionate fans are about soccer in this country and in this city. Who knows, maybe someone like him will see the light and join the ranks of Smallwood and others who actually treat the game fairly
Re: Douchebag of the Day (7.29) Andrew Koob of Philly.com I'm still having trouble figuring this one out. There is no way the author, (or authour,) doesn't know how many half truths and misinformation he is writing. Unless we all want to assume that his editior asked him to write a piece about a subject he has no clue about, and he figured that if he doesn't know anything, no one else would either. I'm also still trying to figure out why the hatred is so sharp. Yes, I know some are offended simply by the name of Football. More are upset that is not from America, or that it is the most popular sport almost everywhere else in the world. Still others can't grasp the concept of the clock moving forewards, or the idea of "time added on." Is any of that any reason to stand on the rooftops and shout soccer's demise at the top of one's lungs? Soccer will never be as popular in the USA as MLB or the NFL. However, praying, pleading, and begging will not make the sport simply go away. Those who hate the sport were much happer in the late 80's, when there was no D-1 soccer league, and the USMNT was less relavent than the Rubix Cube world championship. If you have actually watched a soccer match in full, and decided that it isn't your bag, I respect that. However, if you haven't, and choose to preach damnation for those fans who can't wait for their next USMNT match, or buy tickets to MLS, you really ought to be ashamed of yourself. I thought we stopped this uninformed nonsense years ago.
Re: Douchebag of the Day (7.29) Andrew Koob of Philly.com Wow, that is a frustrating artilce. Come on man, at least mention that the US BEAT Spain to get to Brazil, but that was conveniently left out.
Re: Douchebag of the Day (7.29) Andrew Koob of Philly.com The only other thing I can figure is that it is a dumb high school kid earning some extra credit.
Re: Douchebag of the Day (7.29) Andrew Koob of Philly.com Hey, how can you argue with this? Julie Foudy, a member of the 1995 and 1999 U.S. Women's World Cup champion roster and founder of the Julie Foudy Sports Leadership Academy, agrees with Bertucci. "I do think it is a challenge," said Foudy.
Re: Douchebag of the Day (7.29) Andrew Koob of Philly.com Feel free to make your way over here for more MLS coverage fun at Philly.com this fine Wednesday.
Re: Douchebag of the Day (7.29) Andrew Koob of Philly.com Someone posted about this in the "wip" thread. The one paragraph by Ford was pretty much correct.
Re: Douchebag of the Day (7.29) Andrew Koob of Philly.com Funny. I tried to comment, using my last post as the comment. However, they chose not to publish my comment. Funny.
Re: Douchebag of the Day (7.29) Andrew Koob of Philly.com did he just compare the linc to old trafford? and the us c team to man u?
Re: Douchebag of the Day (7.29) Andrew Koob of Philly.com It is funny how they mention hockey and basketball as successful when they have the same attendance numbers. Hockey has never recovered from the strike and the ticket prices don't help. It will soon be (in attendance) 1. Football 2. Baseball 3. Soccer 4. Basketball. We won't count hockey as it will soon move completely to Canada When Detroit can't sell out the Stanley Cup home games, you know the sport is doomed...
Re: Douchebag of the Day (7.29) Andrew Koob of Philly.com Hockey does well with attendance, but has serious problems on tv. With the nba it's the exact opposite.
Re: Douchebag of the Day (7.29) Andrew Koob of Philly.com I know you guys don't like to hear it, but there are some valid points made, especially in the second article. My non-soccer friends, of whom I have more than I have soccer friends, never know what I'm talking about when I'm talking about a game. They don't know the team names, they don't care about Becks and Donovan and I guarantee they have no idea there's an all-star game going on. Even some of my soccer friends tell me they don't follow the MLS. They'll watch European soccer, but the MLS "doesn't have enough talent" to interest them. I'm not saying it's right, I'm not saying I like it, I'm saying it's a reality that we have to see and try to counter. I'm doing as much as I can but encouraging the European watchers to support their home country, and by publicly cheering for teams. I sucked as many people as I could into my fantasy soccer league by signing up for fantasy leagues for other sports that I could care less about (I'm currently in #2 for our NASCAR league and I know absolutely nothing about it). Ok, I forgot what my point was. Hopefully I made it somewhere in all that crap I typed.
Re: Douchebag of the Day (7.29) Andrew Koob of Philly.com The second article has a few valid points. This one doesn't. This is crap and should be called such. It panders to the Lowest Common Denominator.
Re: Douchebag of the Day (7.29) Andrew Koob of Philly.com I'm not saying it's valid. He can't even get facts straight (won only one game. Ha. ). But the underlying theme, that soccer is not a hugely popular sport here (yet) is valid. I'm just saying we need to do our parts. I'm guessing you probably have done more than your part, having started the SoB's and all...
Re: Douchebag of the Day (7.29) Andrew Koob of Philly.com Guy is clearly a misinformed moron or yet another American soccer hating sports writer. After the numbers at the games this summer, in particular the world football challenge games (was at Chelsea v AC Milan, what a ********ing blast!) no one can tell me soccer isn't a popular sport in this country.
Re: Douchebag of the Day (7.29) Andrew Koob of Philly.com Even some of my soccer friends tell me they don't follow the MLS. They'll watch European soccer, but the MLS "doesn't have enough talent" to interest them. Look my niece's team's talent is nothing to compared Man U, the USMNT or any MLS squad but when I watch her team play myself, my brother, my sister in law and every parent, teammate and classmate in the stands are enthralled by almost every play that happens on the field during those games. The caliber of play is not important if you have a vested interest in a team on the pitch. And when we have a team that represents us and does well, you will see that a lot of people who weren't interested in soccer, become fans.
Re: Douchebag of the Day (7.29) Andrew Koob of Philly.com Holy nail on the head, Batman! Unless you are a MLS fan already, there is unfortunately little to grab on to. You aren't gonna see stuff in the papers or on SportsCenter. You don't see any MLS gear in any media. I've never seen a LA Galaxy kit in any music videos. Soccer is about passion, pure and simple. Since MLS promotion hasn't truly worked on a national level, shouldn't there be better coordination between news outlets on a local level, similar to what Fox tried in the 90s with Fox Sports Net?
Re: Douchebag of the Day (7.29) Andrew Koob of Philly.com do u think they should do product placement? who would u have wearing a Philly Union shirt on TV? Hasselhoff? It's a slight catch22 because the MLS has had to follow a certain business plan to sustain itself and that involves only giving cities franchises if they are big enough and can prove that there is enough of a potential fanbase who would be open to a team to sustain a club financially. That means that large parts of the country are going to feel unrepresented and they may not want to support another city if they are accustomed to supporting their local baseball, basketball and football team. So how do we create clubs that have an authentic sort of identity that represents something more than just the area they come from? Like Celtic are supported by people of Irish descent all round the world (even if they can't even beat the 4th best team in russia) and Barcelona are supported by people who believe in clubs which promote youth systems and good attractive soccer/passing. What I'm getting at is that I think the Union has that potential to be supported throughout a wider area but the LA Galaxy's attempt to do that has basically failed because they cut corners and tried to buy fans with a big flashy signings and its blown up in their face and made MLS look worse on the whole - the focus this season should have been on how good Seattle and their fans are, but the headlines are all stolen by a stuck up englishman arguing with drunk fans (who were just repeating the same thing that most of us shout at David Beckam when we see him).