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MLS News
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Written by Administrator
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Monday, 09 March 2009 08:00 |
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The Recent Results: Kansas City, or “the Wiz” as I like to call them, threw away a good start last year to end up fourth in the East. Though they just barely made the playoffs, they were dominated by CMB in the first round. Their defense was awesome (fourth in the league), but their Achilles’ Heel, their crappy offense (12th), kept them from the Cup.
The Man in Charge: I like Curt Onalfo, I really do, but when he was brought in to take over the Wiz many people said he would give the team a more “attacking style”. Well, I do respect the fact he would rather go for the win than the tie, but sometimes a manager has to tone it down and play for points. Plus, as you can tell, they aren’t scoring a ton.
On the Offensive: If there is one player in MLS (other than possibly Becks) who has something to prove this year, it’s Claudio “The Louse” Lopez. He was a huge disappointment last year and KCW will need him to regain his old form to compete. If Jimmy Conrad ends up almost leading the team in goals again, heads will start rolling in Kansas City.
For the Defense: Speaking of Jimmy, isn’t he dreamy? Um, sorry about that. The KC defense is pretty nightmarish for opponents actually. In addition to JC, they have Harrington and Myers returning and the legendary Kevin Hartman still in goal. With help from strong defensive mids like Mr. Jewsbury, KC will again be tough to score on.
Movie They Resemble: This was a really hard one, but I ended up picking (obviously) The Wiz as the film KC most resembles. They aren’t the real deal (i.e. The Wizard of Oz) yet, but their Wizard (Peter Vermes) is trying to get them there.
Plus, they have an oft-injured Tin Man (Adam Cristman), an enigmatic Scarecrow (Herculez Gomez) and a not-so-cowardly Lion (Jimmy C). I hope they do well in 2009. Of course, to do so, they will have to “follow the yellow brick road”. Just go ahead and insert your favorite wiz/whiz joke here. Source: Click Here
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MLS News
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Written by Administrator
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Monday, 09 March 2009 05:35 |
Soccer sensation David Beckham said recently that he would be interested in owning his own major league soccer team in America, this after trying to opt out of his contract with the L.A. Galaxy and head back to Europe a few weeks ago.
"I have the right to own an MLS franchise, which I will action immediately after I have stopped playing football," said Beckham.
Hold your horses everyone. Becks loves American soccer after all! Either that, or this is a very badly disguised attempt to make it seem like he does.
So badly disguised, in fact, it made me laugh. I call this a public relations campaign to win back the hearts of MLS fans.
However, ood PR is invisible, and this is the direct opposite of good PR.
According to The Sun, "Angry Galaxy fans flooded message boards yesterday."
The paper quoted "fan spokesman" Mike Barloewen who said, "This 'deal' makes me sick. I don’t want to see David in our uniform ever again. This is just stupid."
Sorry Mike. That's just not going to happen.
"Angry Mike" is right though. This is just stupid. So stupid that I wonder if Becks is now doing his own PR (hard times and all). Maybe he was thinking, "Hmm, American fans hate me now…How can I get them to love me again?"
Scornful comments by the truckload, please!
Unless of course, you think Beckham is serious about his commitment to the development of soccer in the States and/or his commitment to converting Lakers cheerleaders in L.A. Galaxy cheerleaders.Source: Click Here
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MLS News
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Written by Administrator
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Sunday, 08 March 2009 13:31 |
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In the lyrical context of punk pop stars the Clash, “Should I stay or should I go” seems to be the ballad of David Beckham, who has made it clear that he wants to play for Italy’s AC Milan.
Beckham, 33, is on a two month loan from the Los Angeles Galaxy and is due back in California in time for the resumption of the Major League Soccer season on March 19. He has not committed himself to a return, saying that he will "enjoy it in Milan until then and see."
This whole "loaning" business is a bit mind boggling. You would never see the Lakers loan Kobe Bryant to Maccabi Tel Aviv for a couple of games.
AC Milan had made an earlier offer that the Galaxy turned down saying they would not have received the right compensation for their loss.
Of course Beckham does have a “burnout” clause in his contract that will allow him to leave after next year. Leaving the Galaxy with nothing to show for the massive number of benjamins they threw out.
Beckham's contract with Los Angeles Galaxy became effective in July 2007 and gave him the highest player salary in MLS history.
The Galaxy is paying Beckham $32.5 million over five years. The deal to bring him to America is thought to be the biggest in sporting history, with industry experts estimating the worth to the player in excess of $250 million.
Well, along with wife Victoria, no one can “spend it like Beckham."
When the Galaxy unveiled David Beckham, he presented himself as a modern day missionary, who would take soccer to the American masses. MLS banked on Beckham to bring them the fan base they had been missing, while he talked a grand game about being an ambassador, but never did any of the hard work of diplomacy.
It became evident early on that Beckham was uncomfortable in the spotlight of the American press, and lacked the personality and gregariousness needed to survive American pop culture.
Beckham should thank MLS for rehabilitating him into such a desirable quantity that a major world club power is willing to wrangle for him. Fans have short memories, but this is a man that was allegedly washed up when he came to America just two years ago.
Although Beckham may have given the MLS an international platform in places like England and Italy, American soccer fans are the ones that lose here.
Lets face it. The general public still does not care.
It turns out soccer is bigger than one man and it always has been, at least in the United States. Source: Click Here
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MLS News
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Written by Administrator
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Sunday, 08 March 2009 11:08 |
So the deal is done.
Beckham gets to stay in Milan for a while, Galaxy fans get a 10 percent discount on their tickets, and AC Milan is getting a trip to LA this summer.
It's perhaps a bit ironic to call Milan's July 19 appearance at the Home Depot Center "David Beckham's Homecoming", since normally "home" implies someplace you really want to be, but perhaps that's a bit churlish of me. It's not Los Angeles he dislikes, just their soccer team.
In any case, TIM LEIWEKE IS SAYING that the problem all along was getting Milan to understand that it wasn't Beckham Inc. calling all the shots here. Of course, it's also true that they were calling the shots in LA for a while (what else do you call it when a player's management team gets to name the head coach?), but those heady days are long gone.
Over the next few days there'll be a lot of talk about who won and who lost in all of this and you can make a good case for just about everyone involved in this overlong soap opera being both or neither or someplace in between.
It seems to me though that when the dust settles. it's Beckham who's the biggest loser here. He came to LA as a larger-than-life superstar athlete with a spotless reputation and the world at his feet.
Now, a mere two years later, he's been shown to be just another selfish professional athlete who bails on his word when things get a little tough.
We were told, and we wanted to believe, that Beckham was something different, something special. But if this whole sordid affair has shown us anything it's surely that his feet, however talented they may be, are made of clay. In the end, that's a stiff price to pay for a couple more months in Milan.
As for whether this hurts Major League Soccer, I'm reminded of an old Tin Pan Alley ditty that said "Got along without you before I met you, gonna get along without you now".
Anybody else recall the reported clause in Beckham's contract that supposedly gave him the right to buy an MLS team when he was done playing?
And that the city he supposedly wanted was Miami?
You think maybe that's not going to happen now? Just wondering.
A Seattle TV station is reporting that Seattle will host MLS Cup 2009. I'm certain it will be a smashing success, but personally I'd rather see the league keep the game in warmer climes: LA, Dallas, or Miami.
Whoops. Sorry. Scratch that last one.
Nobody comes out of the Miami debacle SMELLING LIKE A ROSE, but at the end of the day it seems that when you get past acknowledging the ITTET explanation and Barcelona's puzzling case of cold feet (considering the seemingly small risk to them). What it apparently came down to was that nobody involved had much faith in the Miami market.
The website they set up so that people could plunk down season ticket deposits as a demonstration of fan commitment and enthusiasm turned instead into an embarrassment when precious few fans ponied up.
Closer to our hearts here on BigSoccer, Don Garber mentions the paucity of "internet buzz" amongst prospective fans as further evidence that the support just wasn't there. Call it "internet forum based market research" and send them a bill.
I'm not in a position to judge whether any of that has merit. We have, of course, many examples of how a supposedly "soccer crazy" locale doesn't necessarily mean that the MLS turnstiles will spin like tops, but until you open the gates on Day One you really can't know for sure.
Seattle, for example, is selling tickets by the bushel up there, and good on them. But if they had done that 14 years ago when the league conducted their season ticket campaign as a way of determining who would get a team, they'd be well into their second decade in the league. Smallish, unfashionable Columbus sold 10,000, which is how they got in. Seattle wasn't heard from.
The question is: what if anything changed there—soccerwise—since 1996, when you didn't need an owner or a soccer stadium (well, OK, Seattle still doesn't have the latter), just some season ticket deposits?
And while it's true that support for USL1 teams isn't much of a predictor either, Miami FC's goal of selling 5,000 season tickets by this weekend to save the team has fallen a little short as well: 4,000 seats short.
So not only have they lost out on MLS, it's looking increasingly likely that they aren't going to have any professional soccer at all down there.
This of course again raises the question of the future of USL1 as, having lost Toronto and Seattle, and being poised to lose Vancouver and/or Portland, and with Miami looking like a very dead horse, and Atlanta in limbo (they've suspended operations and are supposedly taking a look "at the soccer landscape"), they're quickly running out of cities.
Now it's easy to understand why ITTET would be reluctant to plunk down $40 million to start an MLS team, but last I knew a USL1 franchise ran $500k (and that was a while ago; it's probably higher now). Would you be willing to send that check to Frank Marcos and try to get a USL1 team up and running right now? Would anyone?
I mean, forget logic and common sense; how are you going to break it to your wife who's been watching your portfolio shrink by the hour that you just dropped half a million on a soccer team in a failing league in a minor sport with a dismal track record?
Hope that couch is comfy.
Forget throwing money away propping up badly run banks and unprofitable auto makers; we may need to start a campaign to get Washington to bail out USL1. It's really tough to envision how they're going to make it without some kind of outside help.Source: Click Here
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MLS News
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Written by Administrator
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Sunday, 08 March 2009 08:00 |
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The Recent Results: HOU had a great 2008 only to be upended in the Western Conference playoffs by NYRB, a team from the East. Don’t get me started again on the wacky MLS playoff format.
They still won the West and finished third in goals and first in goals against, so they didn’t have a bad year, though they did finally fail to hoist the Cup.
The Man in Charge: Dominic Kinnear is one of the best coaches in the league and undoubtedly the most successful manager in recent history. He continues to get the most out of his team day in and day out despite losing key players every season.
This year he will have to get it done without Dwayne de Rosario, and I bet he will.
On the Offensive: The loss of their be-dreaded Canuck field general will be hard to cope with, but the Dynamo still have some pretty sharp tools on the offensive side of the ball. Brian Ching is probably one of the most underrated players in league history and Stuart Holden could become this season’s breakout star player in the midfield.
For the Defense: Houston has consistently been the best defensive team in the league and I see no reason why this year will be any different. It starts back at the net where Pat Onstad continues to be one of the most reliable keepers around.
With Robinson, Barrett, Boswell and Waibel all returning too, I think HOU has to be the best in the West.
Movie They Resemble: I am going to go with Apollo 13 here. Now, I am not selecting this film simply to make a joke where I say “Houston, we have a problem”, because I don’t think the Dynamo have any problems (except possibly depth), and I believe they are poised to be dominant in 2009 once again.
Rather, I have selected that film because it had a great cast of actors, but none of them were really the star. They all played off of one another perfectly though, and the end result was an award-winning film. I am betting HOU wins a few award this year, too.
Source: Click Here
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MLS News
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Written by Administrator
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Saturday, 07 March 2009 08:35 |
Late Friday afternoon, the Major League Soccer Players Union released the MLS 2009 SALARY INFORMATION LIST, a yearly ritual which is as eagerly anticipated by us fans as Superdraft day or Edson Buddle Hat Trick Day or any other annual event on the MLS calendar.
(Yes, I know that EBHTD came more than once last year, a circumstance which, if I'm not mistaken, is specifically mentioned in Revelations as a sign of the Apocalypse. And while David Beckham isn't normally listed as one of the Four Horsemen, there's a persistent rumor that Posh had a three-way with Famine and Pestilence a while back, which explains a lot I think. But I digress.)
Anyway, at the top of the pay scale is of course the aforementioned Mr. Spice, but at this point his pay packet is going to end up a bit light on the year and so it's impossible to take the given number—which was pretty close to fiction to begin with—anything like seriously, so we'll set that one aside.
So assuming that Goldenballs doesn't qualify, the top five paychecks in the league go to Blanco ($2.9 million), Angel ($1.79 million), Gimpy the Swede ($1.31 million), Donovan ($900k), and Barros-Schelotto ($775k).
One point that seems to need repeating every year: the "guaranteed salary" number is not the same as the "salary budget" (AKA "The Cap") amount. The "guaranteed salary" includes any signing bonus (but not performance bonuses) annualized over the life of the contract.
As a result, you can't come up with an exact salary cap amount for a team simply by adding up the listed base salaries.
(Which is how a team like Toronto seemingly has 20 guys making a quarter of a million dollars each; signing bonuses are usually paid out of allocation money, which Mo has accumulated in a huge underground swimming pool where, like Scrooge McDuck, he sneaks down and does a few laps every morning).
It's wonderful that the MLSPU—I've been told by smart people that, in fact, the players association doesn't technically qualify as a "union" but I don't understand the argument beyond the fact that it seems to be about certain legal standing which they don't have because of the rulings of the judge in the lawsuit over single entity.
But I'm way over my head here, so I'm not sure why I would want to mention it and draw a bunch of crap from labor law experts (I swear, you can bring up almost any topic from migratory Antarctic waterfowl to nanotechnology and there are 18 World Class Experts on BigSoccer poised to post four paragraphs on what a clueless dolt you are), except that I'm a glutton for punishment.
Where the hell was I; oh yes, the salary list—posts this list since it gives a lot of MLS fans and MLS haters alike the opportunity to chortle over the meagerness of the salaries compared to other sports.
(Congratulations to you for making it through that paragraph without a band of native guides and a month's provisions. I don't know how you do it sometimes.)
Since this list is always the grist for 10,000 posts a year, allow me to jump in ahead of the heaping piles of scorn and say: "It ain't that bad."
I mean, what the hell else is a guy like Frankie Hejduk going to do to make $175,000 a year? Last I heard, smoking dope and surfing all day wasn't terribly lucrative. Same with the rest of these guys.
Fact is, to me at least, most of these guys are making a reasonably decent living.
I have always found it odd that everyone moans and groans about how airheaded clowns like Manny Ramirez make truly ludicrous amounts of money for hitting a baseball or marginally retarded freaks like Stephan Marbury make $27 million a year for doing whatever it is he does.
Is there a barroom in America where right this very moment someone isn't calling professional athletes "pampered, overpaid prima donnas"?
So along comes MLS, where the players make a decent living—and many of them make a very decent living—and everyone complains that it's not enough. Of course there are inequities, particularly at the bottom of the scale, where a few solid contributors make $40k or something, but that tends to even out in the end.
Half the businesses in America have people making under $50k who do 80 percent of the work. Who's complaining about that?
Of course these salaries are pretty paltry when compared with top professional athletes in other sports, or with football players in Europe, but is that really the point?
(And of course, with the US Government now poised to swoop in and take pretty much everything you make over $250,000 a year on the theory that it's not fair that some people make so much money, maybe players will start begging teams NOT to give them raises. Strange times indeed.)
Bottom line, let's see a show of hands: how many of you would quit whatever it is you do for a living in return for a few years playing in MLS for 90 grand per?
Whether that represents a pay raise for you or a pay cut, who cares? You won't go hungry unless you're Chuck Blazer.
Anyone with their hand down is excused. Go register at "BigWeenie.com" or whatever and leave us alone.
An awful lot of the discussion seems to come down to embarrassment: fans of other American sports laugh at soccer because our guys aren't as obscenely overpaid as theirs are.
And that's really not much of an argument.Source: Click Here
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MLS News
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Written by Administrator
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Saturday, 07 March 2009 07:00 |
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The Recent Results
Dallas was an enigma last year. They finished fifth in the West and missed the playoffs, yet they scored the third most goals in the league and ended the season in seventh in goals against. Basically, when they won, they kicked ass, but when they lost, they got beat by a single goal. They will need more tenacity in 2009.
The Man in Charge
I have a bone to pick here, and it has nothing to do with Schellas Hyndman. Well it does, sort of. His bio on the FC Dallas site still has no information. It’s not his fault, I know, but the organization needs to get it’s crap together. Hyndman needs to get his squad’s crap together too so they can finally compete for a MLS Cup.
On the Offensive
Kenny Cooper is “the Man” for the Hoops and he will continue to be unless he is dealt away. If that happens, Hyndman’s job will go from hard to impossible and they should just leave his bio unfinished because he will be gone soon. Yes, they also have Cunningham, McCarty and Ricchetti, but I don’t think they will be enough.
For the Defense
Drew Moor is one guy I really like on this team, and he has some other able defenders to help him on the backline, including Wagner and Serioux. One player I have never really trusted though is goalie Dario Sala, and not just because he also studied law in Argentina for a little while. I just think he makes too many mental mistakes.
Movie They Resemble
This was a tough one, as I wanted to work their former nickname “The Burn” into it somehow, but eventually decided against it. So, I am going to say they are like Steel Magnolias.
They are an ensemble cast who are misplaced in the South and they never really gel together. Plus, in the end, everyone will end up either dead, miserable, or Olympia Dukakis.
I wish them the best in 2009, but I think FC Dallas will continue to wilt away.
<a href="http://www.socialmarker.com" mce_href="http://www.socialmarker.com" >Social Bookmarking</a>Source: Click Here
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MLS News
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Written by Administrator
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Friday, 06 March 2009 14:18 |
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Fans of a new soccer stadium are the squeaky wheel nowadays in Portland.
While soccer is a good and decent sport and I see no reason why Portland wouldn’t support an MLS team, there is no need for our city government to finance stadia. The loud support, while enthusiastic and often well meaning, is not wise support.
The stated cost for this “public-private partnership” is $85 million. Purportedly, this “investment” will lead to 600 construction and 300 permanent jobs while the cost and jobs will be split between two stadia (with most of those “permanent” employment opportunities, however, to include slinging roasted peanuts, cotton candy, rainbow slushies, etc.).
Consider cost overruns become 20 percent (a rather conservative estimate compared with the last shining example of “public-private partnering” called the OHSU Tram and its 370 percent cost overrun).
Take the 900 jobs in total: The average cost of getting the carpenter, iron worker, or peanut-slinger his job is well over $110,000. Three-hundred jobs supposedly remain permanent (although seasonal and low-wage) that amount to approximately $170,000 per hot dog vendor position created. I’m still unclear about how this is good for Portland.
If the oversight is to be captained by our righteous mayor—brilliant overseer of the Aerial Tram boondoggle—and he budgets similarly, the cost of creating a beer seller’s job at New Civic Stadium will encroach a half-million dollars! This is insanity and must stop right now.
Sure, the Paulsons say they will pay the money back, but why not go to a private lender if this really is such a good deal? It isn’t a good deal, and that’s the rub. No bank would finance it in its right mind, at least not so hastily. But for Hank, hastiness is a virtue.
While Merritt is his own man, we’ve seen his father—his money man—prefer to simply pass the buck on down the line. Such an approach is insidious and insulting.
Soccer should succeed in Portland even though specters of failed leagues with previous Timbers squads still haunt the Rose City. What, however, makes the MLS so different in the long run?
This fanciful league has a poor track record and a poor model for success. Portland wisely ditched the WNBA when it was discovered behind door No. 3 to be just a stinky goat.
Should the taxpayer end up shouldering the burden of the über-rich? No! It is neither wise or responsible. Neither is to trust the numbskulls in citywide office to pull their puppet strings in order to make these whimsical dreams reality.
My plea is “STOP!” Stop with nonsensical spending in a crushed economy. Stop with the über-rich bilking the average guy. Stop with ideas that soccer, MLS in particular, is an economy or town-saver.
These notions are foolish, multiplied by an unwise mayor and an incompetent Council. Please, for the sake of everyone who loves Portland...Just stop already! Source: Click Here
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MLS News
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Written by Administrator
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Friday, 06 March 2009 14:01 |
While English pretty boy David Beckham continues to toy with the emotions of each and every American soccer fan over his decision (indecision?) to return to Los Angeles this spring, his Galaxy teammate Landon Donovan will do the right thing and come back to MLS.
After spending a good chunk of the winter with Bayern Munich in Germany, Lando will return to the Galaxy next week after finishing up his loan deal.
While Beckham was kicking it around in Italy with AC Milan, Donovan played six games for Bayern Munich since joining the club in January.
Although he didn't have a stellar time there, Lando picked up some much needed experience that he can use at the Galaxy/USMNT this year.
"I am very excited to be returning home to my teammates and the LA Galaxy," said Lando.
"I would like to thank Bayern Munich for the opportunity to play with one of the premier clubs in Europe, as well as all their coaches and players for welcoming me into the club... I am fit, motivated and excited to be coming back as a better, more experienced player."
Beckham could learn a few things from the USMNT star when it comes to making a commitment. Lando knows the fans here love him and that playing in MLS boosts the American game.
On the other hand, Beckham, who touted himself as a "soccer missionary" much like Pele did with the New York Cosmos during the 1970's, has no love for the game in this country.
Lando made a patriotic choice to help MLS grow, while making sure he remains available to U.S. coach Bob Bradley.
For that, he's a great American.Source: Click Here
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MLS News
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Written by Administrator
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Friday, 06 March 2009 10:58 |
How much poutine do you think was thrown against walls last night by angry French-Canadians?
Thank you Santos Laguna! Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I cannot think of another underdog run that I've disliked more than Montreal's and Puerto Rico's and now, thank goodness, it's over.
Let's be clear USL-truthers, last night only proved that the USL's "best" can upchuck on the international stage just as well as any team in MLS.
So enough triumphalism, enough strutting around telling folks that "MLS needs us, more than we need them," and enough behaving seriously like this tournament was merely one small step towards conquering the World Club Championships and "bringing the title to where it's always belonged: Canada."
Oh, how we heard that now MLS will have no choice but to give Montreal a team, Ottawa a team, Medicine Hat a team, and on and on.
I'll say this though. Welcome to the club, Impact fans. Few MLS teams haven't experienced at least one of these heart-wrenching meltdowns in international play.
In terms of that, welcome to the table. Now just stop behaving like a combination of Little Lord Fauntleroy and Jean Gerard.
To be fair, I give Montreal (and PR) a lot of credit for their perfectly nice run to the quarterfinals. But that's all it is, a run. Well done, now scoot along.
I've had quite enough of Bill Gaudette, David Testo, Adam Braz, et al. After all, we're only a few weeks away from getting to watch the teams that those aforementioned guys weren't good enough to play for.
For now Montreal fans, try and wipe the tears out of your poutine, try not to focus on the fact that as spring begins in most of North America, you're stuck with sub-freezing temperatures for much of the next two weeks, and go back to your favorite activities like aggravating the rest of Canada, laughing at Youppi! and defending the indefensible Alex Kovalev.Source: Click Here
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