All-Purpose, Never-Ending Soccer Thread

I like the red 1950 kit that they wore for one of their sendoff matches to WC 2006. I bought one of those. I also like the white one that they are wearing now.

I know that we have mentioned it before, but we need to have one color that we always wear with a second if we are playing a team that wears that color. Right now, they have worn red, white and two colors of blue in the past year. I think that red should be the color, with white as a backup.

 

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that bright blue, a color that is not even in our flag, is not the way to go.

 

Twellman's far more accomplished than Adu. He's a phenomenal goalscorer in MLS, whereas Adu remains a ball of untapped potential. But Jason Kreis and Ante Razov were also great MLS scorers, and that didn't translate into international success. So this summer is pretty vital for Taylor. Bradley should take him to Venezuela, throw him out there 2 or 3 times, and see what he can do against that competition, in that atmosphere. I'm not willing to write him off for the U.S., but he needs to start producing. As for the World Cup, the guy who "took his spot" (Ching) didn't play a single minute, so it's not as if Taylor would have been playing anyway.

 

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070619.wsptlalas19/GSStory/GlobeSports

Here are the highlights...

The Los Angeles Galaxy president, who scored when the United States beat England 2-0 in a friendly in 1993, told British newspapers that Major League Soccer is on a par with the Premier League.

"The fact that a segment of the world worships an inferior product in the Premiership is their business," Lalas said in an interview with The Guardian published Tuesday.

Who is this guy fucking kidding? Absolute bullshit and that's about the only comment I can make, apologies Headbutt.

 

Spup, there are a few things here...
1) Alexi Lalas talks a lot of shit. He is a bullshit artist. In fact, the guy sells bullshit for a living. He's nowhere near qualified for the job title he has, yet he retains employment. Also, the man has never met a microphone that he didn't instantly want to make love to for endless amounts of time.

2) The comment isn't complete bullshit. There is no doubt that Man U, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, and basically the top half of the EPL table would, on a fairly routine basis, thump every MLS team. However, the EPL, like the majority of European tables, are extremely top heavy.

Teams like Wigan, Fulham and West Ham aren't "vastly superior" to MLS. I would venture to guess that they would be about equal to slightly better. That is where the MLS would end up meeting the EPL. I will also state that it isn't all MLS teams, as some are definitely weaker than others.

The problem is that many people have a knee-jerk reaction (as you posted above) which states that if it is in England it must automatically be better. That isn't the automatic case. So, in that sense, Lalas has a point. That doesn't change the fact that the Rutgers product is a clown.

 

Sorry, Pastor, but I disagree. I think even the Fire would struggle to beat Crystal Palace or even some of the Football League teams.

 

I don't know how many MLS games you watch per year, but to argue that an MLS team would have trouble beating a mid-table second division English team (yes it is called the Championship League) is downright false. There are reasons why players like Dempsey can jump from MLS to the EPL and score possibly the biggest goal in a franchise's history.

 

I don't watch more than a handful of MLS games, but when you mention players such as Dempsey (or Howard, or DMB) you're pointing out the exception, rather than the rule. The MLS may have some talent on teams, but its team game sorely pales the English brand.

 

Right. You only watch, maybe, a handful of MLS games. I know of no other single person (other than an English ex-pat who never watched a single MLS game) argue that Crystal Palace would be better than any and all MLS squads. It is the Euro-snobbism of granting, without actual evidence, that MLS is inferior by default.

And, no, Dempsey, etc, is NOT the exception. Shalrie Joseph was bid for twice by Celtic (not in the EPL but vastly superior to any second division squad). The same goes for a Eddie Johnson and a handful of others. The league turned the bids down as to keep the talent and because the bids weren't high enough to lose the marketing potential.

 

Don't you think that if Euro clubs wanted these players enough, their bids would be higher?

You can try to demean me all you want (and like you have anyone else who dares to criticize MLS); it doesn't change the fact that there are maybe two to three MLS squads that could compete on a consistent basis with even the mediocre English squads.

 

No. Not really. When clubs are going into Austria and bidding a few hundred thousand for players, why would they come over here and bid triple that?

Actually, it isn't demeaning. It is that you, and your soon to be spouse, jumped into this thread with the same tired argument that has been dragged over and over and over again all over the US. And it is simply a fact that there are almost nobody in the US, or England for that matter, that could make a legitimate argument that all of MLS is of lower quality than Crystal Palace, of all places. (Simple note: I doubt that you have ever watch a single game that Crystal Palace has played. And, if you have, I would be really interested in learning how.)

It isn't criticism of MLS that has me somewhat tweaked (as the league has many serious problems that I and many others dislike) it is the flippant absurd comment about Crystal Palace. There have been numerous friendlies (most recently Galaxy's B-Team vs. Glasgow Rangers' A-Team resulting in a 1-0 win for the Bears) that spell this out.

 

It's called a satellite dish. I saw them several times when they were in the EPL. Sorry, they were just the first second-division team that popped into my head. Perhaps I should have said Sunderland.