The Soccer Thread (IV)

I've always said that if I somehow end up covering the game in England, I don't want anything above League One. Much better to be at a place where the club and its players consider themselves part of, not the reason for, the community.

Maybe that's all pie in the sky or indicating a lack of ambition on my part. I have nothing but respect for the Kevin McCarras and David Conns of the world who put up with this circus on a daily basis.

 

They have to pre-approve a special section? That's nuts.

And I agree on covering League One. It's the same reason my ambition was to cover a middle-of-the-road D-I school, or a AAA baseball team.

 

Perhaps Desk or GB can correct me if I'm wrong here, but arren't the players in the Premier League generally unavailable after games anyway? Isn't that why I always see interviews with the managers?

Chelsea-Inter Milan is at the Rose Bowl next week and Barcelona-Galaxy is later this month. I'm going to have to ask around and see what kind of access is given there. I remember when Real Madrid was here a few years ago, they were isolated and treated like fucking royalty.

 

Some MLS news here…
It seems that RBNY has made a few signings just in time to not salvage their season. I would say that the signing of a left winger, a defender and, potentially, a striker would do wonders. However, Osorio really is just flipping the roster over for the fourth time since he has taken over the team.

Wonderful.

I’m so glad I have the Beckham game to look forward to on Thursday. The chance to boo him is kind of nice. Outside of that, eh.

 

Anybody here have Telemundo Dos? Apparently that's the only way you'll see the qualifier in Mexico City.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/soccerinsider/2009/07/telemundos_for_usa-mexico.html

 

I've dealt with Fulham and Chelsea on pre-season summer tours. Access was great both times. No complaints here.

The Telemundo thing pisses me right the hell off. I live in an area without access to Spanish over the air television stations, let alone a secondary tier station. In fact large swaths of the country will be unable to pick up this game in any form, even if they have cable.

I know how we like to point to internal domestic entities as being at war with soccer in this country, but there's also external threats. This is one of them.

 

DirecTV offers both channels on its Spanish-language package.

 

Generally, yes. The only real time players will give an pre- or post-game interview is on TV, there's no such thing as an open locker room as is standard here. As far as I know, the only time the print press can get a player is when they're up on the dais at a CL or EPL presser.

 

@GrantWahl is crushing Beckham in today's press conference.

 

Damn. What a killing.

 

Details?

 

http://twitter.com/Grantwahl