ah, just ask him what club(s) and years and mention you've got a friend with some Rothmans Yearbooks and you'd like to look up his stats. You might find his glittering career amounts to a (failed) trial at Brentford when he was 15. I do like the idea the the English style developed due to playing in mud where passing was all but impossible. For decades virtually every kid who made the grade came from a background of playing on the streets, either on tarmac or cobbles. Not a huge amount of mud there. ....and anyone who thinks the climates of England and Norway are similar is rather mistaken. Over here, grown adults get giddy with excitement at seeing snowfall over an inch in depth.
So he has been watching MLS for so long and he has yet to learn that you do not call the league THE MLS? I find this intriguing.
no, we never see the sun because the country is constantly blanketed in the fog that so well known to people over there. The fact is though, like pretty much any other job, people are going to bulls*** to a degree about their previous experience. It just so happens that it's a bit easier to find somebody out when it's a sports career they are lying about. Even if they don't lie about what they've achieved, they might lie about the comparitive standard to make themselves sound better. Making four substitute appearences for Southend Reserves wouldn't make anyone here think they'd be an excellent coach, but if they can convince (blissfully) ignorant parents over there that such a career put them a whisker away from international fame, then they are more likely to get a coaching job.
Pretty close to true this time of year, no? I found a chart that says that London averages about 1 hour of sunshine per day in December. That ain't much.
The MLS is not that bad of a league. The league often looks that way, however, because no team has 11 players good enough to compete. On most teams, 8-10 players are very good, but every team seems to have one (or more) weak spots that can be easilt exposed. Also, the few really world class players in the league like Landon Donovan make the defending look awful. The MLS, and its teams, have not developed enough of an identity to have one destinct playing style. With salary caps and the league owning all of the players' contracts, no teams will be able to develop their own style of play any time soon, especially with the draft keeping all teams on basically level footing.
i knew 2 english coaches and another coach who went on to open up a soccer academy...and all those fucqers say the same thing, that they're amazed of the turnaround the sport made here in the states in the last decade... fucqer who found the academy said he remembers kids showing up in jean shorts and crappy shoes to try out...now it's beautiful, over-priced cleats and "professional-like attire" the coaches say kids are stronger, have that winning attitude that fergie said tim howard and other US kids had, and said MLS is a strong foundation for these guys...all said they could see US getting Cup before their homeland... (and coaches are season-tix holders for metros)
perhaps the reason most of the englishmen you talk to say they are pros because you're only talking to englishmen that are big soccer freaks. who are these guys? they are the refs or the coaches at your kids games, they are writers for newspapers, magazines, or websites that write about soccer and other sports. they are guys on here who have an intense passion for the game. (just for the record, i have never met an englishman that claims to have been a pro player)
We had a Euro company do some engineering at our plant recently, and a contingent of about 20 Italians and Englishmen spent some time over here. Only 2 of the English were even fans of soccer... one was a big Middlebrough man and the other played amateur for a college in Manchester in the 80's. He had some funny stories to tell about playing against Man U's youth or reserve sides (I forget which, now) and getting drubbed all the time. Only one of the Italians followed the game, although he was fanatical, to the point of tears when the Azurri lost in the Euro cup. I was sorely disappointed since I was hoping to talk shop. So I guess the ratio for me was about 1 in 20 say they played soccer.
MLS has and will continue to improve, and maybe one day it might be on the level of some of Europe's top leagues.
1. He was never a pro player, no matter how much he tries to tell you he was. That is how he got the coaching job, by lying through his teeth. Think about, how is anyone going to do a background check? 2. He's a Eurosnob. 3. Ask him who one the last time U.S. and England met in the World Cup.