Some thoughts the morning after LA Galaxy clinched their third MLS Cup:

Yes people we get it. Beckham pays a lot of bills. However, there were another 21 players on the pitch last night. The match hadn’t even kicked off and the whole “is this his last game” angle was already worn out. Ian Darke sure didn’t help matters by not going five minutes without bringing it up.

Those of you who have been reading my blog for a while–yeah, I know, I haven’t posted much recently–will know I’m not a big fan of the All-Star Game. But what are you going to do? The league has managed to stumble on a a formula which works. The MLS XI vs some “big club” from another country seems to be selling out stadiums and attracting a large enough TV audience on a Wednesday night to keep ESPN happy.

I’ve been having a lot of fun–maybe too much–winding up my English friends ever since the World Cup draw in December. To be honest, the best thing about playing England in the first round of the next month is listening to their over-confidence and giving them grief on how little they really know about the sport of soccer in the US.

Kartik had a pretty scary post on his blog last night.  The basic statement in the post was that EPL broadcasts on ESPN the last couple of weeks have basically blown away anything MLS is doing.  Worse, MLS ratings in 1996 were better than they are now…bad news potentially.

Related posts

Pride for Africa, Gold for Spain (0)
Not now honey, I’m watching the game (0)
Who’s in charge anyway? (0)
D-Day (MLS Style) (0)
What goes up… (0)

I don’t know if it’s just soccer fans or Americans in general these days but, well, these knee jerk hysterics depending on the latest result has got to end. Sorry but, yeah losing at the Azteca was a disappointment. But ya know what? We’ve never won there. Not once.

Related posts

Who’s in charge anyway? (0)
Pride for Africa, Gold for Spain (0)
Is TV starting to like Soccer? (4)
Happy Ending in TV for US at Azteca debate (0)
A good sized baby step (0)

Like most other soccer fans in this country, there’s really only one thing on my mind today—the match at the Azteca this afternoon. I decided to watch ESPN last night just to see if there was anything and, as I figured it would be ignored, I could get my mind off the match and probably be put to sleep by endless Baseball and NFL training camp news. (I didn’t expect Rick Pitino to be the main event)

Related posts

Who’s in charge anyway? (0)
Pride for Africa, Gold for Spain (0)
Happy …

Don’t you love a happy ending?  Here we were (well, I was) all worked up about potentially not being able to watch the US play their World Cup Qualifier at the Azteca.   I’d even called DirecTV to see what it would cost to get one (or both) of the channels just for the day–actually, I still haven’t heard back yet on my last email.  Oh well.

Related posts

Is TV starting to like Soccer? (4)
Calm down US Soccer fans (0)
A step back for soccer in the US? (0)
The sky isn’t falling …

I’m sure US Soccer fans are going to be dissecting the Confederations Cup run for a long time.  Well, I hope that’s what happens.  There’s a million talking points to examine.

Related posts

Who’s in charge anyway? (0)
Pride for Africa, Gold for Spain (0)
Calm down US Soccer fans (0)
And then there were 30 (0)
Woulda Coulda Shoulda (0)

I’ve really done my best to keep quiet here and leave my comments to simple tweets letting the media do must of the story telling.  After all, it appears you, your ‘people’ and those in charge at AC Milan seemed to negotiate your end of the deal to stay in Italy via that medium.  However, now that you’ve finally come on US TV and told your story to us (remember us, the LA fans?) I just have to vent a bit.

Related posts

Yeah, I’m still alive (4)
What’s with this Beckham guy …

I recently lived in Colorado Springs for a year. One of the most frustrating things about living in “The Springs” was that the local paper had next to zero MLS coverage. Yeah, they’d have the occasional AP article about the Rapids (only an hour drive away) when they were at home. That was pretty much it. So, I was amused to read this in the Gazette.
OK, they did have a reporter at most of the local PDL teams home games and they did have someone cover …