Birch/Trecker/Darche Bag, whatever, people like you are the reason people are turned off by soccer in this country. Soccer traditions aren't built overnight and the MLS less then ten years old is an ever improving first division. I went to the vaunted Champions League match between Bocas Junior and Celtic in Cleveland. The attendance was terrible (14,000 I think), and made the Crew games at the horseshoe look packed. You take the hype factor out of ManU and that's probably what the Champions World Tour would have been. I thought soccer was up there with curling, slam ball, and the Iditarod untill becoming a Columbus Crew fan. I've enjoyed every Crew game I've been to far more than a vaunted match between two of best clubs in the world. As someone who never played the game and never gave it any credit, I can tell you that much of the hype about Champions World was like getting your one time chance to see the Yankees/Lakers of Europe. There's more hype and wonder than the darche gives credit for pulling people to pack those games. Despite his numerous of complaints about MLS, as the league grows along with soccer we can put our own America touch on the game and be a quality "football" nation. It doesn't have to be a straight euro rip-off, not everything Europe does is better, ie French cars and the Yugo. Does anyone in Europe complain that their basketball leagues don't have the passion of the US game or complain that there teams are feeders to the NBA and that they need to be more like the NBA?
I read the article last week. It didn't make me hate Trekker but I wasn't especially impressed by the piece. There was a fair bit of sucking up to British prejudices. I mean, is it really necessary to write "soccer" rather than soccer? Why is it that British papers never put soccer between " " when writing about the sport in Australia or NZ or Canada or Ireland, all of whom use that appellation? More to the point, why did Trekker feel the need to do so? Part of what I mean by him pandering. There was one part that I did object to. He mocked American reporters when he wrote, "The locals have little understanding that [New Jersey-bred keeper Tim] Howard isn't battling for the starting job." Yet only a day after Trekker's column appeared, Alex Ferguson told the Associated Press "We're taking that lad [Howard] back from the States knowing he'll compete for the No. 1 jersey." This certainly reflect poorly on his pretense to be America's "foremost" soccer journalist. Maybe the rubes he poked fun at were on to something.
Ahhh, to be in college again. To be able to look down in arrogance upon the world from the lofty intellectual post that is Montclair State and say "You. You are beneath me."
Ah, Jaime lad... I stopped reading anything written by Junior Trecker two years ago... I haven't missed out on a great deal of insight and as a bonus it's done wonders for my digestive system.
Let us revisit what "the United States' foremost soccer writer" said while mocking local reporters. Andy