San Jose Mercury News: "Donovan nets hat trick" San Francisco Chronicle: "San Jose 4, Kansas City 1" Oakland Tribune: "Donovan's 3 goals give Quakes win"       GO EARTHQUAKES!!! -G
At least the Mercury News article was actually written by someone who knows a few terms in soccer. The other two articles don't even mention that this was the First Ever Hat-Trick for the San Jose EarthQuakes! Go Quakes!! (Now we just need to score a bunch of goals at home.
I guess it would be asking too much to say I hope this found its way to, at least, a CORNER of the front page of the Sports section??!!?? ...at least no worse than page two of the Sports??? I live in Marin, so I don't get the Merc but I hope this grabbed some attention. What more could you possibly want?? A dominating ROAD victory that resecured first place overall. A franchise first hat trick from the brightest star of American men's soccer AND it even merited inclusion on ESPN's SportsCenter Top Plays of the Day last night...and usually MLS is lucky to be included on the Bottom Line. For the love 'o' Mike, I hope *this* finally gets some respectful notice!
From the other side: http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/sports/soccer/mls/kansas_city_wizards/6822284.htm
Get used to it, kids...if MLS insists on going head to head in September and October with the baseball stretch drive and playoffs and college football and pro football and whatever else the media moguls can trump up then MLS news will be relegated to page 17. It's the way life is and MLS is foolish to fight it. I still say the league needs to bite the bullet and do what it takes to finish the season on the Labor Day weekend...but who asked me?
Hadn't thought of that. If you started the regular season say, the weekend after the Superbowl, you wouldn't be battling for stadium times, and you'd have a two month headstart on the season as it currently stands. You'd also get some cooler temperatures (but hopefully not tooo much snow) which would kind of lend a "Soccer Made in Germany" feel to things. It would be the only outdoor game going at the time wouldn't it? I wish they'd do it.
Hey...wait a minute...this season's already screwed up my vacation (playoffs are the weekends I was going to be out of town...unless our home playoff matches are shifted to Kona!) -- I don't want the other end of the schedule to screw up my annual March vacation, too. My view is to start in mid-to-late March (the later the better for me, Mr. Garber) and once we get into the summer months (when the momentum of the season is at its peak) bite the bullet with more midweek fixtures. I think there should be more Wednesday/Sunday home fixtures...or a California Derby Wednesday/Saturday (instead of a full week apart). We've lost attendance momentum with stretches like we had in August with no fixtures between 7/28 & 8/24, or June with nothing between 5/31 and 6/21, or like we see in September and October with fixtures beginning and end of the month only. I think each team needs to play at home with more regularity...and unfortunately, to fit it all into the schedule, I think a fair number of midweek fixtures is the way to do it. I have an opinion on the playoff format too, if anyone cares. [/rant]