Holy Kreis…what just happened?

I’m a bit slow today…did this really just happen?

The MLS all-time leader in goals scored retires from playing and just takes over for the departing (forced out?) John Ellinger? Wow. Oh and the GM, Steve Pastorino looking for a new gig as well.

Well, something had to happen eventually. They can’t go on as the worst team in the league forever…oh yeah, Toronto are now playing.

Catching up on some things

I’ve got a little time today so I thought I’d quickly mention some things which has caught my eye lately.

Where the heck is Collinsville? Continuing the trend of putting stadiums well outside the cities the teams are named after, St Louis looks like they are well on the road to getting a stadium for a possible MLS team.

Speaking of stadiums, will RSL ever get theirs?

…And then there’s KC who have had to bring in reinforcements to find somewhere (anywhere) to play. I’m hoping something good happens soon for them.

There’s always Cleveland.

Not one of those stadiums is in the cities they are named after. One of the great things about going to Ipswich games was being able to meet up with friends in a pub near the town center and be able to walk to the stadium from there in 10 minutes. Heck, I used to get stuck in traffic for more than 10 minutes trying to get to the HDC from Pasadena. That leaves less time for pre-game beers.

I meant to post this some time ago…but never got around to it. Soccer Dad did a good job of analyzing what happened with the Klinsmann fiasco. We’ve all had a lot of time to digest what happened and after the match last week I’m sure more of us are now comfortable with Bradley at the helm. But I will still maintain that the news wasn’t the story, the news was how much the media covered the story—and this was before the Beckham media blitz.

You’ve got to love the idea of a soccer made earthquake.

Even six months after the World Cup finished, Dave O’Brian is still catching flack.

It looks like some net geeks are trying to cash in on Beckham’s move to LA.

Speaking of big signings (well, not quite that big)…Reyna has now joined Red Bull. Anyone not think that was going to happen?

Wow, Chicago went after Zidane. Guaranteed every sports hack would be discussing the head butt 24/7 if it did go through.

Getting back to Beckham a bit. As a kid I used to stand on a milk crate in the Churchman’s Stand at Portman Road. Back then Town were managed by Bobby Robson. Now, Sir Bobby’s first management job was with the old NASL Vancouver Royals back in 1967. I’m guessing he hasn’t watched much soccer from over here since then based on these comments.

Now, back then Robson’s top striker was Paul Mariner. MLS fans may know him as the guy with glasses who’s always next to Steve Nichol on the bench. Back the 70’s/80’s, Mariner was one of the top strikers in England and was capped several times. He’s been in the US for a while now and I have to agree his response to Robson’s comments.

It’s an interesting observation. To be perfectly honest, far be it from me to disagree with such a great man, but I think I’ve seen more games and been involved in more games than my ex-boss has seen. I think it just goes to show that the general perception of leagues the world over, we take a look at the A-League in Australia, what level do we think that is, the J-League in Japan, what level do we think that is, I mean, for that matter, what do we think of the Portuguese League? I mean it’s all a debate, that’s why football is such a fantastic sport; everybody can debate until they are blue in the face what (the different) levels are like. For the boss (Robson) to say that we are sort of League One is completely wrong. I think it will be interesting to get David’s quotes at maybe six weeks or three months into the league and find out if he thinks this is League One. I would be absolutely shocked if he would say that it was… Having seen some English games over the Christmas period, from the lower leagues to the Premiership, I think that we are doing very, very well for a relatively young league. I think we are doing great and I think the stuff that most (MLS) teams are delivering and the product that MLS is trying to put together is fantastic for a league that is so young.

Problem is, if Beckham comes over here and does well then it proves their point that MLS isn’t any good. If Beckham comes over here and doesn’t take the league by storm, it proves that Beckham is well past his prime. Ya can’t win either way.

Oh and now all the “interesting” people looking for their 15 minutes of fame are taking advantage of the Beckham move. Can’t say I blame him for trying.

Finally, I’m still trying to decide if change is a good thing here. True, Johansson was a clueless muppet…but Platini…well, he is French.

Ok, that’s enough for now.

Boy, you blink and…

I don’t think I can remember an off season quite as busy as this one for Soccer in this country. It’s about time MLS kept the news flow going during the winter months.

So, I’m now getting used to the fact that Bob Bradley is the new national team coach. I’ve had a few days to reflect on the hiring and I’ve decided it’s not the end of the world. I’m sure he’ll do a great job. But the thing is, he’s not the guy who is going to give the team (and USSF in general) the shake up it needs. True, Bradley isn’t Arena. He’ll bring his own flavor the the team. I don’t think I’m going to be truly impressed with an American head coach until we having someone we actually saw play in a World Cup heading up the program. Perhaps John Harkes is working towards that…boy would that be fun.

Anyway, the big news the last 24 hours was the blockbuster trade between DC and RSL. Now, I’m cynical at the best of times, but for (RSL Owner…errr investor) Dave Checketts, this is probably a dream trade. In case you didn’t know, there’s this stadium Checketts is trying to build for the team. None other than LA’s future Spice Boy participated in a fake groundbreaking last summer. However, the stadium is hardly a done deal and the media, while giving the team very good coverage, is making it tough for Checketts to just railroad public money into the venture.

A few years ago my baseball team (San Diego) was trying to get a new stadium built. There was a lot of opposition to the use of public money to get it built and it ended up being put on a ballot for voters to decide. Wouldn’t you know it, the Padres suddenly had a great team and won a record 98 games in 1998. They then held a swap meet, sold their best players and were crap again until recently. Funny thing, the Chargers (love the Bolt) are trying to get a new stadium and they aren’t playing bad ball right now either. The reason I mention that is RSL are trying to get a stadium…right now it looks as if public opinion could be their best ally. Trading for Adu should go a long way towards helping that. Of course, winning a few games and actually making the playoffs wouldn’t hurt either.

The only question I’m left with is, how long will RSL get to keep Freddy?

BTW, getting Nick Rimando in the trade is probably the best part for John Ellinger.