The boys on ESPN FC went off on Drogba on Sunday and rightfully so. How can the Impact (and the league for that matter) condone his behavior? 1. Trains in the middle east and not with him team at the start of preseason. 2. Refuses to play on turf. I wonder what his Impact teammates think of his behavior. MLS has to stop giving preferential treatment to its stars.
To be fair about Drogba's most recent move, his knees were reportedly swelling badly when he trained on turf, so this was about medical necessity. But he certainly could and should have trained with the club for the entire time they were in Florida and training on natural grass. He could have just stayed in Florida the week they went back to scrimmage their USL team, and it would have accommodated his knee issue just as well as training in Qatar.
Solution to problem is to not use turf in MLS stadia. The top leagues in the world all use grass and if you can grow grass in Newcastle in the dead of winter, you can grow grass in MLS stadia.
Agreed. You can't expect him to be training in Montreal on turf right now. No point of him playing one game on turf and missing the next month. That doesn't make any sense to me. He needs to stay off turf to have any chance of making it through the season. But some parts of this entire scenario could have been handled better.
*sigh* Here we go again. 1. There are teams in top leagues who use turf. Specifically there have been teams in Serie A and Ligue 1 with turf fields. 2. Newcastle doesn't have American football teams playing on their fields. Every team in MLS with a full-time turf field shares with an American (Canadian) football team. But other than that, great comparison.
Actually, last season we were really disappointed when Montreal came to play the Quakes, and Drogba was a no-show. We were really looking forward to seeing him play in person. The same kind of attraction as for Beckham.
Also, several MLS cities typically have colder weather at the beginning of the season than the vast majority of European clubs during their seasons. Europe has the Gulf Stream keeping it much warmer than similar latitudes in North America. Also, England is an exception in playing through the coldest part of winter; all other leagues outside the Mediterranean basin take winter breaks. Russia, the only European country that is consistently colder than the northern US, normally doesn't resume after winter break until April; the only reason the Russian league has resumed playing this month is that Russia qualified for Euro 2016.
Did you know that Newcastle has an entirely different climate than 75% of the United States of America
The Impact do not share their stadium with a CFL team. Also Stade Saputo -where the Impact play- has natural grass. So Drogba is really just being a prima donna for colder weather than he likes, in a city he doesn't want to play for.
Here are some pictures of Drogba training with Montreal when the team was in Florida during preseason. So we have established that cold weather and artificial turf are Drogba's kryptonite, not Montreal players. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...egend-closes-door-return-Stamford-Bridge.html
I'm sorry, your original statement is correct. Sorry, I'm just sensitive about the CFL. BMO field is natural grass for the soccer sized portion, yet the Argos will play there this season. Your statement is still correct, I'm sorry.
I'll be interested to see how the grass holds up. Though IIRC the CFL doesn't have as many games as the NFL which will help.
Argos get 10 home games a season + potential for playoffs. BMO field will host the Grey Cup this year as well, so a minimum of 11 this year. I recall speculation of some sort of turf overlay being purchased in the future. This speculation was based on the possibility of NHL outdoor games taking place at BMO and such an overlay would be necessary. There is one NHL outdoor game coming to BMO next year so far... We'll see I guess. Enough CFL talk, back to Drogba bashing please!
Who cares, the guy's having fun. At the Kings/Cavs game with Peja! 707784100510236672 is not a valid tweet id
Until April, the Impact train (every day) and play (twice) indoors at Olympic Stadium. I'll let you guess what surface that is.
There was one team in Serie A with turf, for one season, and the media and players and fans all complained about it. Serie A has also said it would think long and hard before allowing it again. As for Ligue 1, I know two teams at one time had turf and players complained about it. Not sure I would say Ligue 1 is one of the top leagues though other than PSG and maybe Monaco. Turf is extremely frowned upon in Europe and it seems even a fair share of MLS players complain about it in the press including some of your season MVP's.
Joey really should get a cover for the stadium to start growth earlier then eh? RE: Stade Olympique Playing games on turf I get -only because there's no apparent alternative- but team training really? Send Drogba to the dome with the lynx and let the rest of the team steam up in the tropics... What else is the Stade for again? I hate penguins...