www.bugmenot.com for login password http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/sports/10176732.htm The Great Divide http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/soccer/stories/111404dnspomls.a44bc.html MLS making headways but craves next level In fact, if the league has a nemesis as its ninth season closes, Garber says it is time and what he calls "cultural resistance." The average attendance of 15,559, for instance, has increased 4 percent from last year. Yet that represents a modest pace of ascent that sometimes frustrates hard-core fans that wish to see the league climb faster. Hence the battle against time. The skirmishes in "cultural resistance" are slightly more complicated. "To get to next level, the first thing we need to do is break through to more of those soccer-interested people who are engaged in the game in this country ... and convince them the MLS team in their town is worthy of their support," Garber said. Too many potential customers enjoy soccer but stay immersed in their own soccer universe. Be it a fondness for the English Premier League, the Mexican league or their own local youth setup, they dismiss or minimize MLS. "That process is long and hard and slow," Garber said, "but we get a little further along every year." Garber, how about showing the author of the Kansas City article the DC-NE game last week?
Excellent articles. The cultural divide is enormous, and can only be changed---if the culture does. This sort of change takes place over generations, not weeks or months or even years. Soccer remains a devout passion for millions of US residents who never attend MLS matches.
I only read the first article and despite being well written, I think it is way off the mark in terms of describing the game as lacking aggression, no one-on one battles and the journey (passing) being more important that the destination (winning?). This is BS and sounds like a very shallow understanding of the game. To suggest a nations GDP vs. the US enters into a fans thinking is pure american arrogance on the part of the writer, and if mentioned in jest, is just plain stupid. USA vs Jamaica = Michigan vs. NYPS #109? Just stupid.
Huh? Haven't watched much of Rugby Union, have you? Forget about matching, let me know if American Football can match the physical aggression of this team sport. Not that this aggression part makes it a better sport for me. http://www.planet-rugby.com/Fun_Downloads/Fun_Features/story_39202.shtml OK, don't mean to threadjack, but: The Kansas City Star article also shows up in the daily news thread, and I already posted my response blasting it there.
I think he was using the GDP quotient as an example of why we should kick those people's asses. I mean if anybody has seen Team America, you can understand what he is talking about. America....Fu[k Yea! That type of mentality is commonplace all over america, and the fact that we might lose to Honduras or god forbid Mexico in a soccer match is anathema to most blue-blooded americans, so it must be a stupid sport.
I've been saying on the Rapids board for awhile now that the team needs to market towards the adult rec league players. There are so many leagues around Denver where adults play soccer weekly, all year round. These people obviously enjoy soccer. The Rapids and MLS need to learn how to capture this market. I'm sick of all the little kid marketing. This is a professional sports league, not baby sitting time.
He also implied that Celtic and Rangers play in Ireland so i'd take his knowledge of the sport with a grain of salt.
No, he didn't imply that. As much as I hated his article, to be fair, he said the following (which in fact is true). When Celtic and Rangers play each other, things stand still in Ireland. Yet another advantage of practicing for the reading comprehension tests for GMAT.
You studying for your GMAT has absolutely nothing to do with this, but good luck anyway. The truth about this sentence is that its subjective. Only the author knows what he truly meant. So I was wrong in a sense - I have no idea why he said Ireland and not Glasgow or Scotland or even Northern Ireland. Maybe he doesn't know, maybe he does, but I have to at least question why he didn't even mention Scotland. I wouldn't have put it the way the author did.
I think one of the problems with attendance is getting fans back to see teams with poor coaching. Colorado with Hankinson and Columbus with Andrulis make knowledgeable fans wince whether they win or lose. The Revs and Burn aren't always fun to watch either. The Wizards aren't offensive minded but at least are well organized. That's half the league right there. Here in Columbus, we've pretty much abandoned hope of having soccer folks in charge of the team. We have an owner who didn't make it to any of our home matches this season, a team president who lives more than a thousand miles away, an interim GM who isn't a "soccer guy" and defers to the coach, and a coach who isn't very competent.
I've complimented someone on their Celtic jersey and they said, "Yeah they're a good Irish soccer team", I nearly punched him in the face right where he stood. I don't think the author is unaware where Rangers and Celtic are from though.
OK, I'm speculating here. I think the author knows about the fact that these 2 teams cause polarisation of greater magnitude in Ireland than in Scotland itself. The polarisation is intense in the city of Glasgow, but not all of Scotland. Since Glasgow is merely a city, the impression on the reader is not as strong as the nations of Eire / Northern Ireland combined together. Or it's possible that the author doesn't know what the hell he's talking about and pulled Ireland out of his arse (much like the rest of his article). Anyway, I think this threadjack has gone as much as it needs to. (Now that I look at the title of the thread, talking about Celtic/Rangers rivalry isn't so far removed from the title, I suppose.)
let us know how your scores turn out for the gmat. i have the newspaper right in front of me and it says: now, that's the paragraph. the first sentence talks about clubs and THEIR countries. meaning, the clubs that are to be listed are possessive to the country listed. in this instance, ireland is mentioned in conjunction with celtic and rangers. reading comprehension tells me to assume that the author is indicating that celtic and rangers play in ireland. now, he may know better and didn't write exactly what he meant, but that is no excuse. this article is intended to inform the curious and not-so-informed soccer readers. in my opinion, it is a poorly written article and it has the feel of someone getting information from eavesdropping on someone else's conversation.
Obviously, I didn't cut and paste from the article when I wrote that statement in blue. Rather, I wrote my recollection of what it said about this topic. I had cringed a bit when I first read the Ireland/Celtic/Rangers association. But I somehow conviced myself that he's not implying them to be playing in Ireland. Since I happen to be a bit more informed about this derby, that's what I seriously took from the statement "In Ireland, when Celtic and Rangers square off, it's Catholic vs. Protestant". Maybe it's time to hit the GMAT preparation books, maybe not. Again, completely agree that the article is very poorly written. Only that moron knows what he meant when he wrote that sentence.
These articles are more than excellent they are exceptional, especially the first one I lived in Italy for 20 years and the city state factor is definitely a makor part in the difference of how soccer is viewed in american and in europe good job