Remember when the Stoichkov incident happened? It was quite bizzare back then in the preseason. It seemed at the time that there were more Fire Fans defending Stoichkov than DC United fans. Remember now, Stoichkov plays for DC. Fast forward to this past weekend. Dema gets abused at various points by Ronnie O'Brien. Dema decides to make sure this stops by breaking Ronnie's leg. Again, there is various posts of outrage around the BS boards mostly from Burn fans and some from impartial observers. Yet, once again you see fire fans defending Dema's actions as much as DC fans. Dema plays for DC. So what's the deal here. Once you endear yourselves to the hearts of Chicago thugs fans they love you forever? I would distance myself from the players as soon as they put on the DC kit, but thats just me. Fire - Past, Present, and Future Always Thugs.
yeah, there's something with fire fans. if one of their players changes teams, they'll frame his picture, and cheer for him every time he plays against their team. as for crew fans, we'll boo the sh!t out of a former player. (andy williams, paul caliguri...). Even if they did help us win a championship. Doesn't matter who it is.. If they played for Columbus, and now they're the opposition, they'll get no love from me.
I think the word you were looking for is "endear". Anyway, the general reaction of Fire fans to both incidents was mildly against both players. It only seemed favorable next to the wailing and nashing of teeth of those screaming for the players' heads on a pike. What strikes me about both incidents is that Bob Bradley pretty much had both players under control (yes, even Dema) whereas Hudson seems to have lost that control very quickly with the result of two broken legs very soon after the winter break. I think MLS lost a golden opportunity to really send a message to all players when they gave Hristo a tap on the wrists. If the axe falls on Dema's head, it will be because of his reputation among the fans (and the fact that he's not a marketable former WC Golden Boot) rather than the incident itself (as bad as it was) and the hacks who overpopulate the rosters of MLS teams will somewhat justifiably treat the decision with cynicism. Other BigSoccer posters in various threads have also correctly noted that MLS only acts after a controversial injury despite that fact that a lot of hideous actions that the league's crappy refs don't even call could just as easily result in a broken leg. It's only sheer dumb luck that has kept the likes of Franchino, Duhaney, etc. from having a few snapped tibulae on their resumes. Of course, if the league really wanted to crack down on the hacking, their disciplinary committee would have to review the game tapes of each MLS game every week and then overturn the decisions of their stupid refs and add cards and suspensions after the fact. Considering how awful this would make the league's refs look, it's no wonder they won't dare take a closer look at all the hacking going on.
Lubos Kubik, Manny Lagos and Richie Kotschau just called. They said you're high and asked you to lay off the crack pipe.
You do got a point about Bradley compared to Hudson.Hudson had a similar gig in Miami with some less than skilled veterans dishing out punishment from time to time. Nothing new there. As far as the diciplinary commitee I see no reason why they can't review every game and overturn some rulings. It happens in other sports if I am not mistaked. And the most games MLS has per weekend is 5, it wouldn't be that much hard work.
Re: Re: Just Curious... Given the subject matter endure seems to be a perfectly reasonable word choice.
It's the fact that the committee would have to make at least a dozen changes per game tape that means we'll never see it. After the second week of any intensive review process, the league would be forced to admit that their refs are generally crap and they don't want to admit it.
Since its generally well accepted that the refs are crap, what can the league do about it? Should they import some real refs? Start a ref academy to train them better? What? I don't really see any solutions to this problem being presented by anybody, just the bitchfest. I bitch about it too, but I would like some suggestions from the guys on these boards that ref.
Regardless how poor the refs are, the league could send a message to these thugs and suspended them for more than a game or two. How about fining them a couple of weeks wages as well.