My schools Daily Newspaper's ideas to "fix" the MLS, read if you wannna laugh!

Man, what can you say?

 

I am so tempted to email this guy and tell him my "thoughts" on him. My goodness!

I will write, I think we all should....

 

That is a really funny article. Owen, Kahn and Ronaldo in MLS. And who exactly would care? Does he want NASL all over again? Soccer's already seen as enough of a foreigner's sport that we...I'm gonna stop there. I could just say too much about his article. I'd rather just laugh.

 

Hey, we all say things that we haven't thought out completely, or spout off on things that we don't understand enough to make such declarations on, but then few of us get our whims and theories printed for everyone to read and dissect.

I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that he is a recent convert, who has yet to realize the financial realities of MLS or the endless intricacies of television broadcast rights for Euro soccer leagues. He will eventually look back at what he has written and hope that noone read it.

Anyway, its a matter of perspective. To the average sports fan not yet sold on soccer, these may seem like good ideas.

Remember, any publicity is good publicity. (sort of)

 

I like his idea of NBC showing European soccer on the weekends.

Our kids shouldn't be watching those Saturday morning cartoons with all their comercial tie-ins. Have'em watch live soccer from Europe instead.

And on Sunday mornings instead of those dry political talk shows or dull church services we'd have Arsenal vs. Man U. Sounds good to me.

 

I'll lay 3:2 that he's a BigSoccer regular.

BTW, watanabe2k, where can one find a soccer game on TV in C-U? I'm married to an Illini, and find myself out your way just about every time something important happens (MLS Cup, Argentina game, etc). Is there a soccer bar around?

 

I like that quote about DMB and Donovan dominating the league. Hmmmm. Last time I checked guys like Ruiz and Twellman were dominating the league.

 

The guy seems a bit uninformed and perhaps idealistic. College sophmore. Hmm... makes sense to me.

I give the guy credit for thinking about soccer and for writing about soccer. Please don't shoot him down if you write him. Encourage him to be better and maybe we'll have a great soccer writer of the future.

Or maybe you'd rather have another soccer basher hired as your paper's next sportswriter?

 

i think that i could be possible that he smokes some weed in order to publish that kind of thing

 

The world's best footballers in MLS, Soccer Saturdays on NBC.

Well we can all dream can't we?

Feel sorry for the kid once he finds the harsh reality of soccer after he leaves college.

 

Scoring does not equal dominating.

This article definitely sounds "tongue-in-cheek." Like one of those 4-4-2 articles: If you were GM for so-and-so, all the guys who they interview start, "Well I would sell drugs and raise $50 mil. Then I would buy Owen, Figo, Kahn...."

 

umm


this article is from september 20th


i've been in contact with him before, he's a fan... he just wasn't completely on top of the game here



and check back in the old daily news threads, i got it in there (possibly a couple days late though)

 

he's not (unless that's changed since i last emailed with him, which was closer to when the story was written)


in c-u?

-there's some mexican restaurants you can see some south of the border soccer (J.G. would be the best to ask about those places)
-i tended to watch espn/fox sports chicago games at murphy's (local campus bar)... i'd take a bunch of friends there and take over a couple of boob tubes
-outside of that, know someone with fox sports world (engineering grad students are great for this)

some other ideas (if you are always there)... head out to huff hall, games every day on the two fields there (when it gets warmer)... play with people and find out who watches stuff regularly... get to know them...

there are some good games there... the club teams practice there a bit (they suck, but it's still fun)


-jim

 

Sounds like the Cosmos "Super Team" that was discussed before.
Apparently he's too young to know why the NASL folded.

 

I have wondered if MLS has approached NBC. When is the ABC/ESPN contract up? Anyone know what is going on with FSW and MLS, there were rumors of a game of the week on FSW, anything happen with that?

 

I don't want to see a switch to NBC because NBC will pull the plug after the first season if their high expectations arent met, which leaves MLS without a major network affiliate. MLS is doing the best that they can do now, and this kid has no idea whats good. He may be just an enraged fan who cant get Fox Sports World. Intresting how he notes that people wouldnt know two former MLS players, instead of players like O'Brein, Reyna, or Berhalter. As another person said, this article was written in Sept of 2002. Kid has alot to learn about American soccer. Bringing the "greats" into the league would kill American soccer as it would only hurt young americans chances of getting a shot. If the revs had Owen and Ronaldo as their forwards last year, we wouldn't have seen the emergence of Twellman. I can pretty much guarantee that with the best players playing in MLS that Beasley and Donovan wouldn't get a chance to show of their stuff.

 

ifc

i recognize a few of those names and faces (played IM's and pick ups with several of them)

a lot of great people





i'm still perplexed as to why this thread was created... *months* after the story was written and printed

 

Look at the paper

Geez - it's a freaking college paper. I think you're all better off giving him constructive criticism and praising his wanting to write about the sport.

Yes, the ideas are far fetched, over-optimistic and un-realistic. Also keep in mind that he was probably born around the time, or after, the NASL folded. He doesn't have the expereince.

Keep in mind that if he's actually into journalism, we NEED to keep him into it before we get another generation of dolts baseball is the end-all be-all.

 

One of the many ineffable mysteries of Bigsoccer.

 

I lived for ten years in Champaign-Urbana (sometimes referred to as Cham-bana, and less frequently as Ur-paign). Four of those years were spent at the U of I. I understand what the kid is going through. I think he'll be all right once he gets away from all those corn fields.

 

nah, there's tons of soccer there now... the intramural league has to be the largest in the country (for universities)... 100+ teams (full 11 on 11)

several club teams

if you play, you find others that love the game... a healthy mix are foreigners though, so if you haven't been exposed to the professional game before (as many of the americans haven't)... then that's what you pick up on

but it's starting to change, more people show up with u.s. club jerseys to play pick-up (literally 2 games going on all the time when's warm out... with plenty of hangons... and you have to play more than 11 a side to let people play)

and i always liked to use chambana

 

Further proof that college is completely useless.