All-Purpose, Never-Ending Soccer Thread

Not meaning to take away from the fun... I'm guessing that they are referring to a post-practice shower at Parkhead.

 

Shower when you get back to Italy, you Nancy-boys!

 

Spoiler alert:

Man United scores three goals in the first five minutes against Reading in their FA Cup replay.

 

Hamm, Foudy elected to Hall of Fame.

http://www.ussoccer.com/articles/viewArticle.jsp_281740.html

My question is: who are the four people who left her off their ballot?

Also: from the Washington Post:

A former American University soccer player whose leg was broken during a scrimmage against D.C. United in 2003 is suing the team, its former investors, MLS and Hristo Stoitchkov, the Bulgarian superstar whose tackle caused the injury.
Freddy Llerena, of Germantown , is seeking $5 million in compensatory damages from all parties and $5 million in punitive damages from Stoitchkov. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington last year, is in the pre-trial process.
Llerena alleges that Stoitchkov's tackle, which left him with a compound fracture of his right leg and other injuries, was the result of negligence and reckless misconduct.
The lawsuit claims that Llerena, a freshman at the time who returned to play for AU before leaving the team his senior year, suffered physical and psychological injuries, including a leg disability; incurred considerable medical expenses; and has been unable to play at his "pre-accident level."

So basically, this dude wants to bankrupt DC United.

 

I actually saw the AU taped footage of the scrimmage in question. I can't recall exactly, but Stoichkov either got burned by the kid or got stripped, didn't like it, and, in typical fiery eastern European tradition, made sure it wouldn't happen again.

There's no way of knowing if the kid was ever good enough to potentially play professionally or not - obviously it wouldn't happen post-injury. In the typical "I think I'm better than I actually am" mentality so often found in younger players, he apparently thinks so, and thinks United owes him some cash...

Stoichkov owes the kid at least his medical bills... United, no more than $100k. Kid's in college at American? Get a job. A broken leg won't keep you from that.

 

Four chauvinist pigs who still don't believe the '99 Women's World Cup existed.

No other explanation. Foudy should have gotten more votes, too. But I'm sure the excuse is she didn't have Hamm's name recognition.

 

Maybe they knew she was in and wanted to put their votes elsewhere (you only get so many). Or maybe they're that special breed of HOF voter that believes nobody should be a unanimous selection.

Pretty silly either way.

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Stoichkov -- fuck him. I hope he gets taken to the cleaners. They'll settle out of court and kid will get his medical bills covered.

 

Okay, so I finally had an opportunity last night to watch the US v. Mexico game from several weeks back.

While the score was a positive, I didn't think the US looked all that good. Albright can't cover international talent. Convey seemed off. Rolfe was just awful. Johnson came on for only a few minutes and didn't show too much. Rico Clark, a player I like a lot, just didn't make many strong passes.

I would say that Conrad, Donovan, Howard and, to a degree, Dempsey and Bornstein played well. Outside of that, eh.

 

On the lawsuit, I assume that AU would have paid for his medical bills -- he was hurt during a school activity. If not, someone's insurance -- AU, DCU or MLS probably picked it up.

I have no idea what happened to the kid, but if he was on the team for the next two years, it's seems hard for him to prove that he suffered a serious permanent leg injury.

 

Looking good for the American World Cup bid for 2018.

Blatter says 2018 bid would go to North America:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/soccer/02/28/bc.eu.spt.soc.blatter.wcup.ap/index.html

If the world is still around then, it should be fun. I probably have to get on the waiting list for tickets now, huh?

Just thinking off the top of my head, I know there's a concern with playing games in the brutal heat of the US summer, but I imagine those retractable roof stadiums now available would be attractive, along with new stadium in Seattle.

Of course, there's also hopes that we might pip South Africa in 2010 or Brazil in 2014 if they don't get their act together.

 

I think FIFA has said it's not fond of having two countries share a World Cup, but I wonder if you might get more traction for a bid if you made it a US-Canada or a US-Mexico or a US-Canada-Mexico bid. One of the biggest problems with a US bid is the large geographic area, but adding Mexico and/or Canada wouldn't really add that much to it. It would open problems with where the big games are hosted, but we're Team America! We get what we want!

 

When it comes to N. America, the only way the USA shares it would be if it was given to Mexico or Canada and they didn't have enough facilities and decided to use several USA stadiums that were close to their respective border. Other than that, there isn't a chance.

Why would the US bother with that? Crossing the Mexican border is hell enough. Imagine people going from a game in Arizona down to one in Mexico?! Yikes! The same would be for a game in Foxborough or East Rutherford and a game the next day in Toronto.

FIFA hasn't forgotten the profits. They know that we can handle it. I think FIFA wants to do it as soon as possible but they also want to seem fair to the smaller countries.