I’m missing MLS already

I woke up this morning and I’m not sure why but I was thinking it’s a long break until we get some more MLS. It’s not like Baseball which gets in the news all winter–often for the wrong reasons–MLS has little to no news to keep us occupied. At least we still have foreign leagues to fill the void. Oh, and I supposed I should congratulate the Orange Smurfs (AKA Houston) for another title. Personally, I’d love to see Dwayne DeRosario wearing Blue at Portman Road by the time the new MLS season starts. Well, one can dream right?

This MyFootballClub thing is amusing. Based on comments on other blogs, BigSoccer and other boards, I wonder how many of the new ‘owners’ are on this side of the Pond? More American investment. Actually, has anyone seen a breakdown of where the investors are from? Something about the whole thing just seemed odd. Honestly, I never really like the idea of owners getting involved in what goes on match-wise. Off the field stuff? Sure. But let the manager/coach handle players. I guess I’m not alone in this opinion.

As for the matches on Saturday. I fell asleep after the goal in the South Africa-US game. Missed the Israel-Russia game but guess I’ll need to find a way to see the big game on Wednesday. I wonder how England will mess up this opportunity?

Hey, the expansion draft is next week…WooHoo… Pass me some turkey….zzzzzzz.

The sky hasn’t fallen…yet.

I grew up in the UK and used to fall for the “chicken little” type of reporting which goes on in the UK.  Some of it is justified–Band/Live Aid would never have existed if it wasn’t for the BBC–but a lot of it is just sensationalistic hype.

Here’s a classic example.

England players will be covered with insurance indemnity of up to £100,000 a week in the event of injuries suffered in the Euro 2008 qualifier against Russia on the artificial pitch here tomorrow.

Ok, so it’s the FA and not Fleet St this time.  However, the amount of press coverage the pitch has been getting the last few months has been amusing…at least it has in my opinion…which is the only one that counts here.   I’m surprised that none of these articles has mentioned the fact that Spice Balls (that would be the injured English guy in LA) has played 90 minutes on the same surface and came through in harmed….his injuries were sustained on traditional grass pitches.  But I guess that would ruin the hysteria.

Speaking of hysteria–well, maybe not–Nick Webster has done his best to create some.   Then I read Dan Loney’s piece which tears Webster apart.

My personal opinion, I’ve witnessed hooliganism at US Mexico games.   I’ve seen the video of the NY/DC game a couple years ago.  Will it be organized?  No…not by groups like LARS.  They (and other supporters groups) work with their teams administration too much to even think about that type of thing…besides, supporting a team has nothing to do with beat downs.  However, unless MLS and others running the pro leagues here get a clue, something bad will happen at the rate things are going.  There will be some renegade individuals who could very well start stuff.  That’s how it starts.   But then again, I’ve a feeling with the way stadiums are constructed over here (vs. how stadiums were in England 30 years ago) it’ll be a lot more difficult to start stuff…if security have a clue how to react…but that’s a whole different rant.

Becks to LA good for England?

By the time he heads to Moscow, Becks could have played as many as three matches on the stuff. In typical England fashion, the media will completely over react to the surface and after the match the players will say it was no big deal.

More TV rights

Wow, ABC/ESPN have bought the rights to the 2008 Euro Championships.

All 31 games will be televised in the United States: two by ABC and the rest by ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPN Classic. The tournament will be played in Austria and Switzerland from June 7-29.

It wasn’t that long ago that I had to go to a pub to see the matches on closed circuit and pay at the door to see it. Now it’s on free (well, over the air and basic cable) TV. Who said no one in this country watched soccer?