And all the world is football-shaped…

Just once could US Soccer/Nike come up with an interesting shirt?  Seriously, this is pretty dull.

WooHoo!!! The long anticipated CONCACAF Champions League has finally been announced.

I won’t bore  you with the details cuz it’s blogged and published everywhere else.

Honestly, I’m not sure if I’m excited or not about this. Yeah, it’s another opportunity for MLS Clubs to show how competitive they are. Yes, another. Is the SuperLiga still part of the mix? Houston and NE still have the Champions Cup (the old version to play this Spring as well. Another question, which two MLS Clubs get the other two spots? It should be Chivas and DC….but will LA somehow slid into the mix? Will Toronto get a back door in every year?

Why am I so negative? Which Mexican Clubs participate? Will the best two still go to the Copa Libratadoras? Or will this be a second (third?) International Competition for them.

I do like the idea of dumping the rest of the competitions and making this the premier competition for our region, but until my questions are answered, it won’t be. We keep hearing comments about fixture congestion yet we continue to see more matches…though I will say that at least this isn’t some “made to make money” meaningless friendly against some big Euro Club.
Also, what about TV coverage? Will we even get to see the games? I’m thinking this is yet another idea from the CONCACAF Brain-trust which hasn’t been completely thought through.

My son and I are both under the weather so we stayed home today to hopefully kick whatever it is which caught us.  For some reason, my DVR grabbed the SuperduperDraft last week….so, as there wasn’t much else on, I watched it…or at least tried to.  Now, maybe it was the cold meds I’m on but they really seemed to pack about 3 hours worth of interviews into an hour.  Then again, perhaps it was the fact that they really don’t have much information on the players being drafted.  Whatever the reason, it was difficult to follow because they jumped around so much.

Then again, perhaps I shouldn’t be trying to do things after taking cold meds.

As for the picks themselves, who knows?  I sure don’t.  A few of the kids will pan out…some won’t.  It’s really a shot in the dark.

A talented kid decides to turns down a chance at an MLS contract cuz he’s more likely to make money in the banking industry.  Now, I can understand the whole bit about not everyone can make it.  However, this kid, by every indication, had a better chance than most.  If MLS really is serious about attracting and developing the best talent in this country, they need to make sure they don’t lost them.  OK, there will always be players who decide to give Europe a go…heck, there have been a few who decide the money is better with a USL club…but to give up on the sport all together?  Well, I hope someone sees the problem here.

Maybe it is just a game, but there are some who are making a lot of money individually off the sport.  In case you haven’t been paying attention, Jack Warner (FIFA VP and CONCACAF Chief) is a crook.    There’s plenty of evidence to at least instill some doubt about his actions.

However, he’s been sheltered for a long time.  His buddy, Sepp Blatter, has managed to make the bad stuff go away.   There have been few to try and stand up to him…until now.

Why is it that the little guy is calling him out?  None of the big guns (US, Mexico et al) seem to care.  In some ways, that worries me.  Are they in on the corruption?  I hope not.  How much are we, the fans, getting screwed by dishonest administration? Will/Can anyone step in and clean up this corruption?   I love to watch soccer, but I hate to think its funding people like Warner.

For those of you who hate the MLS Playoff format, this is for you.  I’m bumping around looking at stuff last night and came across something on the end of the A-League season.  I guess four teams were level on points going into the final day of the season.  That’s always entertaining.  What caught my attention was the way they do their playoffs.

So, four teams (out of 8 total) make the playoffs.  That’s half the teams in the league (a much higher percentage than MLS currently) so; the first round is 1 v 4, and 2 v 3.  No problem right.  Then, the winner of each playoff goes thought to play each other.  Still nothing strange right.  However, the losers then face each other as well.  The winner of the series between the two first round losers (are you following?) then play the loser of the series between the two winners.  So, we are down to three teams.  The team who was won both their series so far goes through to the final while the two others, who have each won a series and lost a series by this point; face each other to see who is the other finalist.

Didja catch all that?  Do you still think the MLS playoffs a bad idea?

In all, a better game than I expected.  Usually these January games are pretty dull.  Thought the US looked pretty solid even though much of the squad was kids.  Guzan, Davis and Clark, I thought, got themselves in a position where Bradley needs to take a longer look at them for the upcoming games.  During the match, I was thinking of all the players in Europe now who weren’t available…there’s quite a few.  We basically have two full squads at this point.  It was good to see Landon get the record.  Now we don’t have to listen to more discussion about it, he doesn’t have to answer questions about it and he can just get on with the job.  Was it me or was the video production of the match poor.  Camera angles were changed at strange times and replays…well, if you watched it you know the save I’m thinking about.

In other news, what’s the deal with Eric Wynalda?  Did he get fired?  Were his comments the problem?  Hopefully, FSC will pick him up so we can her more of his takes.  I love it when he stirs the pot even if I don’t agree.

Well, it seems a few things have happened in the last few days. Guess I should catch up a bit.

The big news, for LA fans, is that Fish will be returning. LA fans are split by this move. They either love or hate it. I’m in the camp that believes no one is going to want to face the three-headed monster of Becks, Donovan and Fish. Of course, that assumes they aren’t injured and Fish doesn’t keep tripping over the lines marking the penalty area. My biggest beef is that with so much cap space being filled by just a few players, what’s left for the rest of the squad?

Chicago now has a shirt sponsor. To be honest, I’m surprised Best Buy didn’t insist their yellow tag logo be put on the shirt.

The MLS SuperduperDraft is tomorrow. I have a tough time getting interested. I don’t follow college ball at all. No one really knows that much about the players except from the combines. MLS teams really don’t scout players outside of their local area. If quality player in a non-MLS area is a stud, who would know? Baseball has scouts combing every tiny High School for talent. MLS doesn’t even come close. To prove my point, of the players in MLS who were drafted out of college in the last few years, ok, I don’t have the numbers but it seems to me that they are just as likely to come from the later rounds as they do from the early rounds. Someone put the numbers together and prove me wrong. Until a quality scouting system is put in place, I’ll worry about those guys when they come in off the bench for their MLS debut.

Speaking of the draft, Nick Garcia is worth a #1 pick. I’m still trying to figure out what that tells us.

We are starting to see more Americans heading to Europe….even England. Fulham (Eddie Johnson) may soon have five (yes, 5) American’s on their squad. As always, keepers are popular—Matt Pickens on trial at that scummy team in Green And Yellow.

One thing I’ve been thinking about lately is management giving teams time to jell. I said it a bunch last season when LA made a million moves to try and get the right combination. One area which seems to be overlooked in this area is coaches (managers). What’s bringing this up is the recent changes in Newcastle…but the same could be said about New York. The guy in charge needs time to get things right and if you keep changing things all the time, there’s never any time for the team to come together. Of course, this doesn’t explain what’s going on in Colorado, but there are always exceptions to rules.

Ok, enough for now. If I keep rambling and don’t post this, it’ll never happen. I’ll post again when I have the chance.

I’ve kept my mouth shut on this whole Figo thing thinking–hoping(?)–it would just go away.  But it isn’t.  So, I’m posting to voice my opinion.

BTW, I hope everyone reading this had a great holiday season.  I haven’t posted much cuz, well, I was busy with the family and I was working on some stuff for ITFC-NASC in the little time I’ve had….besides, not much has really happened.

Now, this Figo nonsense.  Anyone who knows me…or has read my blog…knows I’ve followed LA since Day 1.  I’ve seen all the different ups and downs over the years.  Beckham coming to LA, in my opinion, was a good move on many levels.  However, from that time on, every agent in Europe has used LA and AEG as a pawn to get a better deal for their clients.  I have every reason to believe this is the case with all these Figo stories.

OK, so what if the stories are true?  God, I really hope they aren’t.  But if they are true and he arrives in LA in a couple of months.  This would be awful for the team.  We’d have 3 massive players (Donovan, Beckham and Figo) taking up almost all the salary cap and pocket change left over for Ruud to build the rest of the squad.

What about Cannon or Xavier?  That would probably empty the remaining space.  No, I haven’t done the math but….

We’ll have the most expensive 5-a-side team in the world.  Too bad we’ll be playing teams with 11 on the pitch.  LA need depth in their squad if they are going to succeed.  There’s no way to do with with a few guys (albeit quality guys) taking up most of the salary cap.  I don’t care how good a job Ruud will do, he’s got to have the right squad…and adding Figo isn’t what he needs.

Ok, rant over.  Back to other stuff.  Thanks for listening.

…did you get in on the bidding? It might have been your only chance to have it.