http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4Rao_OtKLQ Please take few seconds to rate the clip and save to Favorites (for 48 hours at least). Even if millions of YouTubers don't watch the video, constant presence of MLS contents on the top charts, IMO, can help create a perception that soccer is becoming very popular in this country.
gotta give the dude credit though, for his consistency....Last year, he took the Galaxy to 9th place over all.... this year, about the same.... provided RSL lose today.... since they are already better than KC (by 1 point) and NY in the overall standings, as the Gals have more wins (that'd be the "supposed" tiebreaker to decide which team did "better", no?) Here is to you man.....
I'm not sure why everyone hates him. I am new to MLS this year, so maybe someone can explain it to me. Seems to me he's the best player in the league.
Not everyone hates him. Those that do are angry that (1) he doesn't want to play in europe and (2) he had a bad World Cup. I'd say he is the best player in the league - when he wants to be. He's pretty inconsistent, which is frustrating. BKut even on a bad day, he's better than most. And here on BigSoccer, you're in the "cool crowd" if you hate on LD. I march to a different drummer. I think he's a great player who represents American soccer very well.
It has to do, partly, with the fact that he is the "poster child" of American soccer...thanks to MLS and USSF marketing. We don't want an inconsistent, soft spoken, wimpy player to be the face of US soccer. We need a Rooney so that we can eliminate the American (in general) stereotype that soccer is soft. Next, he choked at WC2006. Finally, he's a quiter. He gave up at the Bundisleagau (sp) and took the easy route of coming back to MLS. The face of soccer should be one who perseveres (sp) and wants to improve to the next level by going all out in Europe (Dempsey).
Let me translate for you lawrence: They basicall don't want some closet homo representing the league. The fact that he left Germany for Los Angeles for his girlfriend (now fiance) matters little in a world without facts. People will invent some reason to halfway justify this (soft, afraid, you name it) because apparently they want ALL of the good players to leave MLS. Forget what the players actually want, ship 'em all out like technology jobs! Considering the guy can take the poop that is the LA Galaxy and make them nearly a playoff contender is quite amazing. Donovan also somehow gets blamed for them losing eleventy billion games while he's at the World Cup. Somehow he also gets blamed for how bad the team did even though there were about 21 other people not named Clint Dempsey that hardly played lights out.
i would like to have a player of rooney's talents, but i don't think i would want the whole package. and to be honest, wouldn't it be easier to have your "poster child" of american soccer actually playing in America? How many average Joe's are going to know anything about Hamburg, Bayer Leverkusen, Tottenham or PSV compared to the recognition of LA, Houston, NY or DC? I don't think the average person is going to pay that much attention to what an american is doing abroad, even if he is the greatest player in the world. However a great american player, playing in america, will get more press and more publicity. To me it just seems like common sense i guess. can someone just let me know what players we have playing abroad that have more talent then LD? Just curious.
I am one of those that don't hate him. I am, however, upset he didn't give his best efforts in the world cup at a time when we're trying to earn not only the Eurosnobs' but the average Americans' respect. Some of us are doing all we can to help MLS and soccer grow in this country and this guy could've gotten so much of it done with just 270 minutes of work but let us down.
Since I started the Landon "hating" I have to respond to this. I like Donovan. I was joking with my post. Hence the smiley face. Donovan is a man and a man can do whatever he wants with his life. If he wants to play in MLS that is perfectly fine. It irritates me that he thinks he can reach his potential playing in MLS, because he's flat out wrong, and that his potential will be lost for my Nats that I support dearly. But that's all it is, an irritation. I don't hate him, I don't bad mouth him and I defend him to people who do make assinine comments about him. But, he does tend to come up big when it matters least and come up lame when it matters most with the exception of a few MLS playoff games.
Oh, I wasn't meaning you or anyone in this thread, really - I could tell yours was a joke - I was responding to the guy that said something about all the hate. But I do think it became quite fashionable here to "hate" on LD. Just a general statement.