sorry but there is nothing on him playing in Mexico or in the A league, not officialy anyway, his bio reads: College: Turned professional after playing two years (1989-90) at Indiana University ... Professional: Played eight years professionally in Germany before returning to the U.S. and MLS after the 1998 World Cup ... before being allocated to the Dallas Burn in 1998, played for VFL Wolfsburg of the German Bundesliga...prior to joining Wolfsburg, played for FC Schalke 04, also in Germany...played two seasons at Indiana University before leaving for Germany at age 20 in 1991
Mike Sorber played for UNAM Pumas (MEX 1) from 7/94 to 3/96, After a stellar 1994 World Cup, Sorber played two seasons in Mexico with UNAM Pumas. Sorber was the first American to earn all-star status in Mexico's 1st Division. He played in 40 games over two years (14 in 94-95 and 26 in 95-96), and registered one goal and one assist. Marcelo Balboa played for Leon ( Prior to joining MLS) which he signed with in January, 1995, saving the team from relegation during the 1994-95 season, and leading Leon into the playoffs in 1996 ... Joined Colorado only three days before the home opener in spring of 1996 Tab Ramos played for Tigres (Prior to joining MLS), played for two years with Tigres ('95 -'96) in Mexican First Division. He won the Mexican Cup in 1996... Eric Wynalda is the only player to have played in MLS offseason for a mexican club after the end of the 1998 season. San Jose Clash (MLS) from 1/96 to 9/98, Leon (MEX 1) from 10/98 to 2/99, San Jose Clash (MLS) from 3/99 to 6/99,
you are right, for some reason i was thinking of Chad Deering In 1995, Kinnear signed a contract with Necaxa of the Mexican First Division. During that year, he helped the team win the league title and the cup title. At the conclusion of the Mexican league season, he signed with the APSL ’s Seattle Sounders, where he again was part of a championship winning team.
So the quotes from th commissioner of MLS mean nothing. I know the league hasn't made an official announcement, but the fact that people don't believe the league spokesman and league president astounds me. Wait, no it doesn't. We're talking about soccer fans here.
I ment to mention before it's entirely possiable MLS simply released this information and statement to the AP as a means of disseminating it in the press. That happens quite often. I expected to see an official announcement on their website, and was suprised when I didn't. But they could be trying to deal with rumors as some suggested or create a buzz.
Exactly. If they are planning to make an announcement, things have been in the works for weeks probably from a PR and marketing standpoint. So while a decision may already be made (i.e. agreement in principle), they're not going to scoop their own press conference at the Cup. But if AP calls and has gotten all the facts, it can be poor form to just out and out lie to them, especially if you want them to give you good coverage on the final story. So you straddle the fence, give them enough to confirm what they are hearing from Vergara's side, but leave enough details up in the air so that the 11/21-22-23 press conference/announcement still has meaning.
Articles in Union-Tribune I normally do not post in the MLS forums, but these two articles have been in the San Diego Union Tribune... Mexican soccer team Chivas wants to start MLS expansion franchise http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/soccer/20031027-1141-soc-mexico-mlsexpansion.html *** As easy as 1-2-3-4-5 - Putting an MLS team in San Diego will take work, by Mark Zeigler http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/uniontrib/wed/sports/news_mz1s29soccer.html
I'm don't normally post in the MLS forum but I couldn't pass up an opportunity to express feelings about Chivas USA. I just got done reading on article SkySports about how Chivas were setting up shop to recruite Hispanic-Americans for the new team and that Jorge Vergara plans to only have these players on his roster. I don't want to sound like a prude but isn't this some kind of discrimination? Want someone come in and say they can't do that?
There's been a lot of discussion of this in some other forums. My guess is that Vergara and his people are going to be very surprised when the lawsuits start flying.
I understand what Chivas USA are doing and I just think that there are too many legal issues there. I do however, feel they should respect the values and beliefs of Chivas Mexico but only have a majority of Hispanic-Americans on the roster. This way it keeps everyone happy.
I thought that too. But, I'm not sure, since it would be a minority group that is being exclusive. We have Black and Women colleges. Now, if it were an all German or all Dutch descent, yeah, there'd be Lawsuits.
Unfortunately because of the huges fires that wiped out many communities and towns, there probably won't be a soccer stadiun built in San Diego for a VERY long time. At the moment there are too many priorities to build a SSS here, especially if Veraga wants the city to pay for it. If by chance he wants to pay for it himself, then good luck buddy! The land here is WAY to expensive and all the land that is free is a fire hazard and probably couldn't be built. By the way, that was a great article by Mark Zeigler in the Union-Tribune.
monster, i think that i (an american soccer fan ) have a right to be just a tad bit skeptical considering all the heresay, lies, half-truths, rumors, and facts that i have heard come from mr. vergara and co. in the media during the last year. personally, i think that chivas will own an expansion team in the year 2005, and i beleive that the quotes are probably accurate. however, this "official" article cannot state an accurate price tag (12-15 million dollars???), 4 cities are mentioned as candidates (you'd think that they would have decided before the deal became official), and nowhere does the writer state his source for this "agreement in principal" announcement (which suspiciously is not mentioned by garber in any quotes). this just looks like a good cut and paste job. take bland quotes from garber, insert more vergara *#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#, and spice it all up with vague assumptions. bam! chivas soup. i'm not claiming that this is some giant conspiracy theory with hugo sanchez on the grassy knoll... i just think that its chivas posturing. simply, it's dirty, but smart, business intended to pressure mls and excite the potential fanbase. remember, the details of the deal have yet to be finalised and all of this media attention is likely helping vergara gain leverage in the negotiations in order pick and choose his city and price. we've heard everything from a $5-15 million price tag and potential cities from miam to ny to la. now, if mls were to make an announcement tomorrow...
You have no idea what you are talking about. New quotes from both sides. That's cut and paste? I'm embarassed to be a soccer fan sometimes. Really. People will probably still deny the realities when the announcement is made. Vergara's guys can say all the sh!t they want. They still have to play by someone else's rules. And those people say that Sisniega and company are full of it. Only time will tell who's right.
Baby steps, man! You can't just jump from hurling bread to flinging goat corpses. Let's go about this gradually. Start by throwing pitchforks at "El Diablo" next Saturday, disposable razors at Revs players, and if they're fortunate to get to MLS Cup, graduate to fish and fling them at Ruiz. Then you'll have the long-term strength to throwdead (or even live) goats at the American Chivas.
I've heard the story about the octupi, but this is the first I've heard about the U of M throwing gophers onto the ice. Hopefully, they're only stuffed animals and not real dead gophers.
That would be the UW folks throwing gophers. It is tough to throw dead badgers, though. Dem badgers are purty ornery.
FYI Didn't see it listed here, but just in case ya'll didn't know . . . a regular Bigsoccer poster (think his handle is "nermalthecat") works for ESPN in Bristol and mentioned on these boards that he moved this AP article onto the ESPN front page (on another thread I saw yesterday). So it wasn't like ESPN had a board meeting to discuss content on the website and made a calculated decision to put this up. Nermalthecat regularly (and pretty judiciously it seems) lobbies for significant US soccer stories to get significant exposure on the ESPN front page. I agree with Monster (a fairly rare thing in itself) that ya'll are being overcritical of the AP writer on this as well. What possible motive could he have for overhyping this story and jumping the gun? If anything, it would be an example of a pro-soccer bias in the sports media. The fact that he has fresh quotes from most of the interested parties shows his commitment to journalistic integrity. Perhaps he could be a tad more upfront about identifying sources, but he would probably get them in trouble with Garber if it was clear who they were. Garber may have even requested Vergera to be cagey with how many details he released. I don't know if you are aware, but it is typical for the media to break stories (correctly) earlier than the average sports league makes an official statement. The league has far more incentive to sit on an announcement until they deem it best to make it (such as at halftime during a nationally televised MLS Cup - a mere couple of weeks from now). But a reporter can easily winkle the facts out of the 50 - 100 league/team employees who would be in the know about this agreement long before the official press announcement. If this wasn't so, ESPN would never have a breaking story and would never offer anything that fans couldn't get at an offical league website.
http://skysports.planetfootball.com/article.asp?id=170167&cpid=218 Article specifically says "Americans with Hispanic backgrounds," in the 2nd paragraph. That would appear to be their legal loophole to avoid any lawsuits, since it would remain within the bylaws of MLS. Arguably, that might go against the spirit of said bylaws, but the league would most likely be powerless to restrict Chivas USA from doing anything of the sort. As far as discrimination claims go, both sides may say that there's nothing of the sort, as long as American players continue to be developed.
Since every team is "owned" by MLS, due to single entity philosophy, I wonder if it would even be discrimination if every single SD Chivas player was hispanic. Sure, the team would be discriminating, but there would be plenty of other oppertunities for other races under the same "employer". If every player was hispanic, it still is only a little over 8% of the total employees (players). IMHO, it would be a difficult court battle to win from a discrimination stand point.
Spotted at a KC/LA game last month: 9" dead koi in a noose, hanging in front of the players' tunnel. True story. All players on both sides seemed to get a kick out of it.
regarding my cut and paste comment, obviously the writer took new quotes, but garber's were essentially the same as his previous comments and included no details whatsoever about the deal (which i do not refute exists). the author focused on vergara and co., who we all agree have not been a reliable source of information, and filled up the space in between these quotes with the same rehashed speculation that we have seen in numerous articles for the past 3 months. the only new nugget of info was the possibility that vergara will build a sss if chivas is located in san diego... maybe, kinda, sorta. monster, i don't think that you and i disagree as much as you think we do. i believe that there is a deal in place and i think that chivas usa is coming... however, i don't beleive that the deal is finalised. i am only claiming that this article is just another unoriginal peice of rehashed crap that was only picked up by major media outlets because it was from the ap. it is not official. if it were, don't you think that it would include at least basic details such as the price and location of the team? read my last post beyond the words "cut and paste job." its not that crazy... really .