All-Purpose, Never-Ending Soccer Thread

Thursday's a lot better night for TV watching than mid-afternoon Saturday.

Between that and the FSC deal, it's not a bad week for Don Garber and Team MLS.
http://msn.foxsports.com/other/story/5831840

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Good thing for FSC, too, since they dropped the Bundesliga and Ligue 1 (keeping in the grand tradition, having also lost the Serie A and Eredivisie since its inception).

 

Why can't ESPN just start broadcasting the EPL and La Liga games. I'd rather watch those games more then some minor league MLS games.

 

Because Fox Soccer Channel owns the rights.

 

That's not a good excuse.

 

That's like asking why FOX doesn't broadcast NBA games.

 

Duh, 'cause then there'd be no more Simpsons

 

Then pay the Europoseur Tax and spring for digital cable/DirecTV/Dish.

Yahweh forbid you actually support your local league or something.[/jesuchristoherewegoagain]

 

Chivas doubleheader:

Forgot what a nightmare the Coliseum is. There's a reason the NFL will no listen to proposals involving this place, barring an insane makeover. Took forever to get in, no media parking, some family tried to cut me off, almost hit me three times. The wife finally gave me the finger, but I refuse to let in anyone who is on the phone and thus trying to cut me off while driving with only one hand. Hope my car didn't get keyed . . . . . . . .

Anyway, great atmosphere once you get in the stadium. The first game was actuially pretty good. The second . . not so much. Nothing like a barca game where Ronaldinho doesn't start, Messi is not eligible to play. 60 bucks, people. Plus 25 for parking if you were lucky. $60 if you weren't.

 

Time for a helpful round of BabelTrooper.

They say: "This preseason tour will help expand our brand name."

They mean: "We're going to milk the natives for every cent we can while patting them on the head and saying how much we like it here."

 

Rangers played a very exciting game over the weekend. It was just insane how many times the Dundee defense deflected balls while standing on the goal line. Could they have finished, it may have been 5-1 at the half.

As to the MLS contract, fantastic. I thought this was a done deal already, but apparently it wasn't.

And no offense, but if someone is going to call the domestic league a "minor" league they really need to cut the snobbery. Seriously, what the fuck?

Watching Chelsea lose and then hearing the instant apologizing from European soccer-snobs is amazing. It reminds me of a conversation I had over the winter with someone here from England. The guy had never watched a single MLS match yet he felt the need to declare that the league was absolutely sub-standard to that of the EPL, even going so far as to say "third division."

I point out to him how the MLS All-Star team just beat Fullham, a mid-level EPL team. He comes back with, "Well, it was their off-season. They probably didn't bring their first team and it was against your supposed best players."

I point out again that the last place Crew defeated Fullham recently as well. Again, the guy goes on about the off-season and how the team hadn't come together yet.

I then state, "So what is your excuse for DC United, an MLS team, going over the England during the middle of the English season, which is the MLS off-season, and defeating Fullham in Fullham?" His answer, "Well I don't know who played and maybe it was a bunch of scrubs and...."

In other words, he ran out of excuses. If you can't support the local sides in order to promote the league, what is the point?

 

Great moment from Jaime Moreno when he accepted the trophy following the MLS all-star game and basically challenged the soccer fans of Chicago to support the Fire the way they turned out for that one.
Nothing wrong with following the EPL, Bundesliga or any other European league. But if you live here and like soccer enough to do that and are crapping on MLS, you're a tool. It's your league. Best way to make it better: keep watching and buying tickets.

 

We went over this 20 pages ago . . . and I still agree completely. Good to bring it up again every once in a while.

I would also add for those who cover MLS: cover it like a normal sport. It's odious to read story after story about how wonderful soccer is, in the middle of gamers and columns. Just cover it like anything, and it will find its place in the media.