Ahhh, Beau Dure. You know, I have always hoped that he was merely embarassing himself in his inane columns and in his inane contributions to these boards. That really doesn't bother me. But he's embarrassed his country's footballing fans. Now I'm mad.
Since I'm in the Metro's forum let my qualify a few things, post-facto, about my earlier post: I agree with Beau's frustration, but not statements about RVN not being able to score against MLS defenses and goalies..Puuhhlease And yes, Man U vs. Metro's would have sold out easily and probably sparked some dormant Metro's fans into coming to a few more games.
So you're mad that an American beat the Brits at their own game (sarcasm)? I suppose you'll be really pissed the next time the Americans beat them at that other national pastime of theirs.
Ouch. This one really hurts to read. Friedel, yes. Reyna..., well before he was injured, he was a key player on a relegation-bound team. O'Brien... hardly a star, but a solid contributor. Same with Earnie. The others... Ouch. There's that pain in my head again. Ruud Van Nistelroy is a star. Nicky Butt is not a star. Most of these guys are, on their best days, Butts at best.
I guess I gave you too much credit in my previous post. *HINT* The article was a JOKE! A bunch of us had a big laugh about it when it was originally published. Nothing to see here... Ladies and Gentlemen, the white zone is for the immediate loading and unloading of the sarcasm challenged only...
Allow me to cover some of the gaping holes in your argument. Mind you, I'm not arguing that any MLS team is as good as ManU, I'm just focusing on your argument, because you're breaking out this half-baked perspective as if it substantiates your view that MLS is subpar. I actually agree with you for the most part, but your argument overlooks some obvious factors and shortchanges the league and the situation with the Galaxy. #1 Galaxy are the second worst team in MLS currently, with a strong gap of points between them and the leaders. They are the lowest scoring team in MLS this season. They have yet to win an away game. If you take any botttom rung team from any league and use them as the standard for that league then the whole league takes a nosedive, regardless of country. #2 The Galaxy are a one man show up top. Ruiz is the only certifiable goal scorer on the team. While well known in MLS as a threat, probably completely unknown to foreign teams and unlikely to draw double and triple coverages. #3 Ruiz did not play in the Peace Cup. This lends itself to points 4 and 5. #4 The Galaxy hit the woodwork twice against Nacional. The score ended 0-0. #5 The Galaxy missed blatant sitters and 1 v. 1 opportunities against the 1860 keeper. The score ended 0-0 and definitely should have been a "W". #6 The Galaxy, undoubtedly the inferior team in this match, was down 2-1 at halftime to PSV. The next half saw the team sacrifice defense in an effort to get the equalizer and they paid for it. Must win games often see teams taking a beating in the final minutes of a second half. #7 PSV was the eventual tournament champion. The Galaxy had some company in the loss to PSV.
u think big euro teams only play other big euro teams??? go look some teams preseason schedules, they play some teams nobody has ever heard of. many champions league teams have played teams MUCH MUCH MUCH worse than ours. they blow them out most of the time and judging by how bad man u beat everybody else on this tour I dont think we'd stand a chance, but this whole argument that mls teams arent worthy of playing against man u is stupid.
Actually, if you win, it's called a fluke; if you lose, everyone goes on believing what they already believe: MLS is not good enough. We would gain no credence among the the MLSphobes. On the other hand, the press coverage would help the league's image with the average sports fan, and we can use all the good press we can get. Nor would fans of ManU turn away if they played Metro instead of Juve. Maybe the crowd hits 50-60k instead of a sellout, but that's still big news here.
As pointed out: Celtic loses 0-4, CA 1-3, Juve 1-4. I don't think Metro or Chicago or San Jose would do any worse -- and quite possibly they would make a better show of it. There was one sure way to fine out.
Actually, that's exactly what MLS planed to do this spring. Oakland's (?) opening regular season match was going to be played in Japan until it got cancelled by the Iraq war. No Japanese teams involved. Anyway, the criticism of Man Utd is bizarre. They've hardly avoided playing local opposition wherever they've gone on past pre-season tours. So, you need to look at the organizers of the tour and/or MLS themselves if you're looking for the answer.
In 2000, the Mets payed the opening day series against the Cubs at the Tokyo Dome. Neither team played the Tokyo Giants
The rumor that I've heard several times on World Soccer Weekly Radio show (same guys that do the Big Soccer Radio Weekend show) was that ManU was willing to play the Galaxy, but that MLS insisted it be held at the HDTC which only holds 27k-30k and ManU said forget it we don't play for that small of crowd . Anyway as has been already pointed out Elite sides do play lower level sides at times , in the English FA Cup minnows are some times matched against giants. Oh and I see : Real Madrid 4, China Dragon 0 that result just in.
If a team from MLS played any team except for that damn mexican team anywhere on the east coast i would have traveled to see it. I think i speak for a lot of US fans.
To be fair, Football365's Mediawatch earned at least a draw. And frankly, the English folks who got in touch with me after that column emerged were quite funny in their responses. The Americans, on the other hand ... well, you can probably guess.
Just to go off on a brief tangent here, but how do you think Kenny Arena would do against Van Nistelrooy?
Funny you should mention that. They used to do that on ESPN a few years back with the all the football teams who were playing each other that weekend. They had like Madden 99 or something and let the teams autoplay each other. I think at the end of the season the computer was about 30% accurate. So much for that.