Month: May 2015

soccer

Thursday FIFA media frenzy roundup

Posted on by Beau Dure

Here’s what everyone’s saying now that we’ve had more than 24 hours to digest the news of a whole bunch of FIFA bigwigs being indicted:

Who’s who, and who’s facing what charge: Good breakdown here from The Washington Post.

The 2010 World Cup: Did South Africa literally out-bribe Morocco? The Telegraph picks up that part of the indictment:

It also said that the former Fifa vice-president Warner was offered $1 million (£652,000) by South Africa’s rival bidder Morocco but that Blazer learnt from his colleague that “high-ranking officials of Fifa, the South African government, and the South African bid committee, were prepared to arrange for the government of South Africa to pay $10 million to ‘support the African diaspora’ ”.

Vindication in Brazil: A lot of critics are happy, says USA TODAY correspondent Taylor Barnes.

The 2022 World Cup: Did the Qatar decision shock the USA into action? (One of several pieces in today’s Washington Post.)

The 2018 World Cup: Also from the Post — Russia mad.

2018 AND 2022: The bid process for those World Cups is the focus of Switzerland’s investigation:

In the Swiss criminal proceedings, opened by the OAG on 10 March 2015, it is suspected that irregularities occurred in the allocation of the FIFA World Cups of 2018 and 2022. … Subsequently to today’s seizure of files, the OAG and the Swiss Federal Criminal Police will be questioning 10 persons who took part in voting on the allocation of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups as members of the Executive Committee in 2010. These persons should be questioned as persons providing information.

For reasons of criminal procedure (principle of proportionality), the procedure coordinated with the requested acts of the U.S. authorities was designed in such a way as to allow the procurement of any criminally relevant data in an effective manner, and to avoid any possible collusion. These measures were carried out simultaneously as a large number of persons involved in allocating the World Cups were currently in Zurich. These legal actions concern two criminal procedures conducted separately by the OAG and the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York. The Swiss and US law enforcement authorities are not conducting any joint investigations, but are coordinating their respective criminal proceedings.

Blame the game: FIFA’s one-country, one-vote structure — along with the GOAL and FAP system of spreading the wealth — is ripe for corruption, says a FiveThirtyEight analysis.

USA! USA! Slate’s Stefan Fatsis sees a confident nation flexing its muscles to clean up the sport.

Jack Warner, always defiant: I’ll paraphrase – “My lawyers advised me not to say anything, but you have to be naive to think it’s a coincidence that they did this before the FIFA election.” (Maybe they made the arrests now because they had everyone in one place?)

Chuck Blazer and the Warner sons, reluctant whistleblowers? The Guardian paints a picture of absurdity: “Loretta Lynch spent years on the case, in which prosecutors turned to tactics used to fight organised crime – and a scooter chase paved the way.”

Though unconfirmed by prosecutors this week, the Daily News report suggests Blazer even agreed to secretly record future meetings with Fifa officials, allegedly carrying a recording device hidden in a keyring to London’s May Fair hotel during the 2012 Olympic Games.

But Blazer was not the only big fish to succumb to threats from prosecutors. The two adult children of Jack Warner, a former Fifa regional president and Trinidad and Tobago politician charged under this week’s indictment, were caught in equally colourful circumstances.

The prisoners’ dilemma: Michael McCann breaks down the defendants’ legal options, including rolling on the others.

The sponsorship bomb: Visa sounds like a company that has had enough. The BBC includes more sponsor concerns in its roundup.

Is Nike involved? Still hard to say whether the company will face any problems down the road. The indictment lets us connect a few dots but doesn’t spell anything out.

Shopping for prime real estate? Take a look at the properties facing forfeiture, including the Versailles of Loganville.

And from The Onion: FIFA Frantically Announces 2015 Summer World Cup In United States

At press time, the U.S. national team was leading defending champions Germany in the World Cup’s opening match after being awarded 12 penalties in the game’s first three minutes.

So something good will come out of all this …

The Guardian continues to live-blog events as they happen.

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soccer

Highlights of the FIFA indictment

Posted on by Beau Dure

In case you don’t have time to read all 1xx pages of the indictment against various FIFA-ish people, here are a few items of note:

(All of the following are alleged in the indictment. All defendants are innocent until proven guilty.)

– Former CONMEBOL president Eugenio Figueredo obtained U.S. citizenship in 2006. He claimed he was exempt from the English language and civics exams because of a mental disability, specifically severe dementia. Seven years later, he was CONMEBOL president and a member of FIFA’s executive committee.

– CONCACAF president Jeffrey Webb owns a residence in Loganville, Ga., along with other property in Stone Mountain and Conyers. Unless you really want to own property in Clint Mathis’ hometown, I have no idea what would possess someone from Cayman Islands to do that.

– Allegations against Jack Warner: He “established and controlled numerous bank accounts and corporate activities in which he mingled his personal assets and those of CONCACAF, CFU and (Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation).” Then “(a)mong other things, Warner began to solicit and accept bribes in connection with his official duties, including selection of the host nation for the World Cups held in 1998 and 2010.” Then there’s the condo in Miami, bought “with money drawn from an account held in the name of a soccer facility that was ostensibly affiliated with CONCACAF.”

– CONMEBOL’s Nicolas Leoz “began soliciting bribe payments” for Copa America and other things. “Co-Conspirator #2” (identified not by name but as the “founder and owner of the Traffic Group,” which would be Jose Hawilla unless someone is dramatically misidentified) then agreed to pay tens of millions in “Copa America contracts, media and marketing rights to other South American soccer tournaments, and sponsorship rights acquired by United States sportwear companies.”

– “Co-Conspirator #2” relocated to the USA and negotiated with Jack Warner to get marketing rights to the Gold Cup. Traffic got the rights to the Gold Cups from 1996 to 2003. “In connection with the acquisition and renewal of those rights, Co-Conspirator #2 and Co-Conspirator #3 together caused bribe payments to be made to Warner and Co-Conspirator #1.” (Co-Conspirator #1 is identified as the general secretary of CONCACAF from 1990 to 2011, which would be Chuck Blazer. Co-Conspirator #3 is “a high-ranking executive of Traffic USA.”)

– More Traffic bribe allegations.

– And other sports marketing groups joined the fray, including Sports Marketing Company A, a New Jersey-based company owned and operated by Co-Conspirator #5. This company got the marketing rights to the Copa Libertadores.

– When Warner and Leoz departed CONCACAF and CONMEBOL, “(t)he change in administration at CONCACAF and CONMEBOL did not usher in an era of reform at those organizations. Instead, the new leadership continued to engage in criminal schemes in violation of their fiduciary duties.”

– The Webb allegations hinge on the way Traffic got the rights to Gold Cups and CONCACAF Champions Leagues since he took office.

– Here’s a big one: “In connection with the acquisition of the media rights to the Copa América and Centenario tournaments from CONMEBOL and CONCACAF, Datisa agreed to pay $110 million in bribes to the defendants JEFFREY WEBB, EUGENIO FIGUEREDO, RAFAEL ESQUIVEL, JOSÉ MARIA MARIN, and NICOLÁS LEOZ, and several other soccer officials. Datisa agreed to make these payments at various times over the life of the contracts. At least $40 million has been paid to date.” (Datisa, we learn much later, was created in 2013, with Traffic, Torneos and Full Play each holding a one-third interest.)

– Many other tournaments’ marketing rights follow in the next several pages. The paper trail on World Cup qualifiers is interesting.

– When does this leave the realm of the Americas and into broader FIFA stuff? That would be page 80, where you won’t be surprised by what you read about Warner but perhaps a little disappointed in South Africa.

– Page 89: “In or about March 2011, Co-Conspirator #7 declared himself to be a candidate in the FIFA presidential election.” That would be a high-ranking official in FIFA and AFC. In May, that candidate was denied a visa to go into the USA, so he wound up in Trinidad and Tobago, where Warner advised Caribbean officials they could pick up a “gift.”

– Money went toward Jeffrey Webb’s pool at his house in Loganville? That’s page 98.

– For recent Gold Cup and CONCACAF Champions League rights: “Thereafter, the defendant JEFFREY WEBB and Co-Conspirator #4 discussed the best way to effectuate the bribe payment in a manner that would conceal its nature. Ultimately, WEBB decided to use an overseas company that manufactured soccer uniforms and soccer balls (“Soccer Uniform Company A”), the identity of which is known to the Grand Jury. Co-Conspirator #23, like the defendant COSTAS TAKKAS a close associate of WEBB, had a connection to Soccer Uniform Company A. WEBB eventually instructed Co-Conspirator #4 to submit a false invoice to Traffic USA for $1.1 million to be paid to Soccer Uniform Company A, which Co-Conspirator #4 did.”  (A little while later, we learn of a wire transfer to a Soccer Uniform Company A account in Panama.)

So now I’m wondering who gets the marketing rights to all these upcoming tournaments.

And what happens to this house in Loganville.

Finally, one word that appears absolutely nowhere in the 164-page document: “Blatter.”

 

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mma

The Ultimate Fighter 21, Episode 5: The streak ends

Posted on by Beau Dure

What we learned this week:

– My cable company doesn’t have The Ultimate Fighter on demand. I had to wait to catch the Sunday rerun.

– Some guy from American Top Team is really good at climbing ropes.

– American Top Team finally picks Hayder Hassan to fight. They don’t mention the hand injury ruled him out of the last four.

– The Blackzilians pick Andrews Nakahara, who claims a world championship in Kyokushin karate. He is seen training on a beach. Then a 250-pound guy comes up to kick sand in his face, and Nakahara signs up for a Charles Atlas course.

– (The last sentence is fictional.)

– Hayder confronts Blackzilian Jason Jackson, saying Jackson has been spreading rumors that he’s a dirty fighter. It seems Hayder knocked out Jackson in 2013. Jackson at first plays down the “dirty fighter” thing, but says all he knows is that Hayder pulled his hair. Then Jackson says not to call him a bitch. Hayder doesn’t care to continue the discussion. In confessional, he says if he’s matched up with Jackson, he’ll just hit rewind and then play and beat him up again.

– We’ve established that Michael Graves was drinking a good bit. This time, he drank too much to wake up to roll out with the American Top Team van in the morning. The editors cleverly cut to shots of Graves looking very cozy in bed. When ATT leader Dan Lambert gets the news, he’s calm but unhappy. Will they kick him out of the house? Stay tuned.

– Oops — after the ad break, Graves shows up. The ATT guys don’t jump up and greet him like the prodigal son. “(Bleep) you, Graves” is heard from someone off camera.

– Both fighters make weight. Hayder smiles. Nakamura winks. Dana White, reporting from his bunker in a gym equipment warehouse, is intrigued with the striker-vs.-striker matchup. Jackson says Hayder only has an overhand and a hook, because no fighters ever add anything to their arsenals in more than 12 months of training.

– Hayder talks about his faith — he’s a Muslim who prays five times a day and feels totally at peace, which might be a surprise if you’ve been watching the show.

– Andrews is confident. That’s about all we hear. And it’s getting late in this episode, so we know it won’t be a three-rounder. Maybe not even a two-rounder.

– We go back to Hayder, who has all the good lines in this one. He says he’s going to get so close to Nakamura that the guy will know what he had for breakfast this morning. The Blackzilians, he says, just wrestle and hump you to kill time.

– Din Thomas! The TUF alum and ATT coach says Hayder has dynamite in his hands. Lambert reminds us that Hayder has never been to a decision.

– Fight time: They touch gloves. Nakamura tries several high kicks. Hayder just keeps walking him down. Then a little more than 40 seconds in, it’s left-RIGHT-LEFT. The combo bounces Nakamura off the cage and sends him down. Hayder pounces right away. The ref warns Nakamura to fight back, but it’s not happening. TKO in 48 seconds.

– Hayder jumps on the fence, says a few things that are bleeped, then bounces down and puts his finger to his lips to shush the Blackzilians.

– Blackzilians owner Glenn Robinson just shrugs. “It happens.”

– At the decision, Hayder again shows respect for Nakamura at least. They bow to each other, and Hayder raises Nakamura’s hand. It’s the first time Nakamura has been knocked out.

So now ATT gets home gym advantage at last. Robinson just feels bad for Nakamura.

“This season …” promo again tells us nothing about what’s coming up.

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soccer

Washington 1-0 Sky Blue: Lightning strikes

Posted on by Beau Dure

I hope no Washington Spirit players are expecting a nice, happy training session when they get back to work next week just because they pulled off a 1-0 win over Sky Blue on Saturday.

“About the 60th minute, I was already thinking about training and I wouldn’t know where to start, because there were about 200 things you would want to touch on,” coach Mark Parsons said. “Last week, when there were a few slip-ups, that’s normal.”

This was not.

Goalkeeper Kelsey Wys might get a pass, having stood her ground against a 21-shot onslaught, nine on goal. Maybe Crystal Dunn, who saved one of those shots off the line and created some opportunities, including a long lob for the winning goal in stoppage time. And Francisca Ordega, who looked like she wouldn’t be able to continue after a first-half knock to her ankle, got on the end of that lob from Dunn and willed the ball past Sky Blue keeper Brittany Cameron for the winner. Besides, it’s Ordega’s last practice before she goes to play for Nigeria in the World Cup.

The rest of the thirteen players who saw the field will be getting an earful.

Thirteen players? Not fourteen? The Spirit didn’t use all three subs.

“I didn’t make more subs because I couldn’t decide who needed to come off more,” Parsons said. “‘Cause it was bad. Really bad. And they know it.”

The backline, Parsons said, was heroic. Not solid and organized, but heroic. Estelle Johnson made a couple of last-second tackles. Whitney Church stood her ground nicely. And they were under pressure because Sky Blue played a much more direct game than the Spirit expected, blasting the ball up to twin forwards Nadia Nadim and Kim DeCesare. Nadim outmuscled Spirit defenders to win several balls, while DeCesare forced Wys’s best save with a clever redirection.

“Fair play to them — they came in with a game plan,” Parsons said. “I thought they were the better team tonight. They didn’t take their opportunities. We stopped them.”

“That’s the best by far we’ve played, the most chances we’ve created,” Sky Blue coach Jim Gabarra said. He was planning to be direct the first 10 minutes, anyway, but he decided to stick with it when Sarah Killion (knee) was unable to go.

When the Spirit managed to get forward, which wasn’t often between roughly the 25th and 85th minutes, Dunn and good friend Maya Hayes had a fun battle for a while. Hayes is typically a forward but assigned to the Sky Blue backline this time, shadowing Dunn for much of the game.

“It was really fun to see her out there,” Dunn said. “She’s a forward at heart, and I was joking with her that it’s really weird seeing her back here. She’s really fast, really tenacious.”

Dunn was also whistled offside many, many times. The stats say the Spirit had six offside calls against them — they may all have been against Dunn. Some were questionable. Some weren’t.

But even as the Spirit go through what’s sure to be a serious training session in a couple of days, they can be happy in knowing that they’ve really got something here. Wys is ably filling in for Ashlyn Harris, who’s off with the national team. Dunn, who only had a brief time to re-integrate herself with the Spirit after flying back from fill-in duty in national team camp, is the best American player left in the league with the World Cup players gone. They’ve got Caroline Miller and Tiffany Weimer ready to join the fray with Ordega gone.

And they still have the best field in the league, which held up nicely despite an apocalyptic thunderstorm that pushed the game’s start back a few minutes. Fans stuck it out, and the Spirit drew more than 3,000 on an evening in which driving was a nerve-racking experience.

They won’t get this lucky every night. They might not need to.

 

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mma

The Ultimate Fighter 21, Episode 4: A scare for Creepy

Posted on by Beau Dure

What happened in this episode:

– “Creepy Steve” Montgomery botched his weight cut and had a terrifying seizure. The panic on his American Top Team teammates’ faces was one of the harshest moments of reality on this long-running reality show. He’s OK. And he seems like a great guy, saying he just wants to spread positive energy, either through fighting or smiling. Most people watching would probably love to buy him a beer.

– Carrington Banks, the Blackzilians’ choice to fight this week, also seems like a great guy. He spent a lot of his childhood in Georgia, so I’m biased. He describes himself as a “chill” guy outside the cage. In the cage, he’s … a boring wrestler.

– Sabah Homasi, the replacement for Montgomery, also seems like a decent fellow. I hate to see him lose.

– But lose he does, in a controversial decision. They split the first two rounds and went to a third. A lot of online commenters gave all three rounds to Sabah. But that might be wishful thinking and rooting for a striker over a wrestler. Banks did more with his cage-leaning than most of the fighters so far, landing a lot of good knees to the body and Sabah’s legs in the first round. Both guys threw messy strikes; Sabah actually fell on one of his own kick attempts.

– Dana White, who has been reporting much of this season from an unidentified location, was there this time. The inset camera picked him up a couple of times during the fight, just to remind us. He was very impressed with the atmosphere, with the Blackzilians clearly bringing a lot of guys who aren’t on the show into the gym to surround the cage. He was less impressed with the fight, particularly the third round.

– Absolutely nothing else happened. You’d think putting these two teams in the same swanky house would create some conflict, but we’ve seen very little of that.

Tune in next week, when … wait, they’re giving scenes from the season. At some point, Jason Jackson and Sabah are involved in some arguments — maybe the same one, maybe not.

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soccer

U.S. Open Cup: Meet the first-round winners

Posted on by Beau Dure

The big story from last night’s U.S. Open Cup first round is Harpo’s FC of the Colorado Amateur Soccer League, billed as Colorado’s Most Competitive League. It must be pretty good — Harpo’s is only in third place in Division 1 East.

They’re bringing a lot of attention to the U.S. Specialty Sports Association, which was only added to the U.S. Open Cup field in 2013. And I’d imagine a lot of people now have an interest in checking out Harpo’s Bar and Grill in Boulder. At the very least, I know where I’m going if I’m ever in Boulder while a UFC event is on.

And hirsute goalkeeper Zac Gibbens will surely be a cult hero for stopping several shots, including one in the PK shootout.

The starting points for reading about the first round are:

1. TheCup.us first-round preview, with each club’s Cup history.

2. USSoccer.com recap

3. TheCup.us recap

Other first-round results (home teams listed first):

PDL over NPSL

West Virginia Chaos 1, Fort Pitt Regiment 0: Two first-timers in the Cup. West Virginia will get a few more players for the next round; they were busy with finals this week.

Long Island Rough Riders 3, Brooklyn Italians 1: The Italians won the Cup a couple of times in the pre-MLS days but couldn’t hang in here despite the heroics of keeper Mike Bernardi. The Rough Riders, who got two goals and an assist from Hofstra/England midfielder Joe Holland, are two decades old and were a big-time player in the USL A-League days. Footnote for women’s soccer fans: Former co-owner Louis Ederer represented Dan Borislow in his legal action against WPS.

Michigan Bucks 3, Detroit City FC 0: The perennial PDL and Cup contenders are still kings of the warehouse. And we have a Peri Marosevic sighting — goal-scorer for the Bucks. DCFC’s noisy fans were the talk of Twitter last night and impressed Detroit Free Press columnist Jeff Seidel.

Midland/Odessa Sockers 3, Tulsa Athletics 1: Yet another first-timer advances, in this case over a second-timer. TheCup.us counted eight countries represented on the Midland/Odessa roster. The Sockers’ coach flew in three hours before the game.

FC Tacoma 253 2, Kitsap Pumas 5: Please don’t name yourself after an area code. The other interesting tidbit from TheCup.us: Tacoma features a player on loan from an Italian Serie D side. Didn’t help here — Kitsap took a 5-0 lead and cruised.

NPSL over PDL

Western Mass Pioneers 1, Greater Binghamton Thunder 1 (GB 4-3 on PKs): First Cup win for the Thunder, knocking off a Cup perennial. Pretty impressive for a team with one player on the roster. The Pioneers were down to 10 men by the end.

AC Connecticut 2, Virginia Beach City FC 3: Each club was appearing in the Cup for the first time. ACC was formerly known as Connecticut FC Azul. I’m guessing this is the first time a Virginia Beach/Hampton Roads team has advanced since the Virginia Beach Mariners did it in 2006. I’d love to know how #7 Player Name and #13 Player Name fared.

Miami United 2, SW Florida Adrenaline 1: 93rd-minute winner. These two teams are also first-timers. The Adrenaline lost a player in the second half and then squandered an equalizer from 17-year-old Ray Gerke. Miami United also beat the Miami Fusion a few days ago. Yes, Fusion.

Chattanooga FC 1, Ocala Stampede 1 (CFC 5-3 on PKs): Late equalizer for the home team, which upset the Wilmington Hammerheads last year and will advance to face … the Wilmington Hammerheads. Chattanooga keeper Greg Hartley pulled a Matt Reis, stopping two PKs and making the winner.

Sonoma County Sol 2, Burlingame Dragons 1 (AET): Goals in stoppage time and extra time for the Cup veterans over the first-timers. The Sol roster includes a lot of players from “local high schools, Santa Rosa Junior College or Sonoma State.”

NPSL over USASA

Lansing United 0, RWB Adria o (Lansing 4-2 on PKs): Only one shot on goal for Cup debutant Lansing. Nice scarves. And nice camera angles on the PKs:

Upward Stars 3, Triangle Brigade 3 (Upward 3-1 on PKs): Back and forth in Spartanburg. What, you didn’t guess their location from the name “Upward Stars”? TheCup.us says the Brigade was formed in 2014 by a bunch of UNC club players.

PDL over USASA

Jersey Express 3, New York Greek American Atlas 0: Four-time champion Atlas, part of the New York area’s strong Cosmopolitan Soccer League, just couldn’t hold off the Express. Juan Correa had two assists.

Reading United AC 1, Maryland Bays 0: If only the debutant Bays could’ve found a home field. No, the Kris Ward who played in goal for the Bays is not the former Spirit assistant coach.

Global Premier Soccer 1, Seacoast United Phantoms 2: Down 1-0, down 10 men on the road in Massachusetts, the New Hampshire club scored in the 70th and 88th minutes. GPS falls to 0-3 in the Cup. Former Phantom captain Ben Brewster now plays for the Tulsa Roughnecks, their next opponent.

Des Moines Menace 2, Madison Fire 1: The perennial PDL powerhouse had little trouble with the Cup first-timers from the Wisconsin Soccer Leagues Major Division. Fifth-year Menace player Charlie Bales had two assists.

Laredo Heat 0, NTX Rayados 0 (Laredo 4-2 on PKs): Both teams have advanced in the Cup before. The last PK was converted on a retake — keeper moved early.

Ventura County Fusion 3, Cal FC 3 (Fusion 6-5 on PKs): The 2012 underdogs that knocked off the Hammerheads and Timbers couldn’t do it this time — this is the first time they’ve been ousted by another amateur team.

USASA over PDL

FC Tucson 1, Chula Vista FC 2 (AET): The visitors scored the equalizer in the 82nd minute. Tucson missed a chance to equalize on a PK in extra time.

PSA Elite 7, Golden State Misioneros FC 1: They went to PKs last year. Not this time, apparently.

Have anything to add? Comment away.

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soccer

Major League Soccer oral history and other new research

Posted on by Beau Dure

In Long-Range Goals (available in print, on Kindle, on Nook, and possibly elsewhere), I said I hoped the book wouldn’t be the only book on MLS history in a few years. The league has plenty of stories to tell.

Complex tells a few of those stories today in “An Oral History of Major League Soccer’s Frenzied First Season,” gathering then-commissioner Doug Logan, founding father Alan Rothenberg, U.S. Soccer’s Hank Steinbrecher, MLS exec-turned-USSF president Sunil Gulati, a few other executives and some of the more notable and outspoken players. (Yes, Eric Wynalda speaks.)

Some of the stories will be familiar to those who’ve read Long-Range Goals or other pieces on the league. We know how FIFA nudged Rothenberg into the picture and how Rothenberg tasked Mark Abbott with devising the single-entity structure. Logan once again tells the great story of Lamar Hunt falling asleep while he was interviewing for the commissioner post.

But some things are new, in part because Complex did what I neglected to do — talk with Kevin Payne. He once asked me why I didn’t talk to him, and I honestly didn’t have an answer. It was an oversight on my part, and I’m glad he got a chance to tell his story from his vantage point as the man behind D.C. United.

I will quibble with one thing, and that’s the characterization that “real soccer people” were not involved in the conversations on changing the rules to suit the American audience. See Long-Range Goals, page 22: Abbott says “serious soccer people” were pushing for quarters rather than halves. And if you go back farther, FIFA was always happy to use the USA as its laboratory, and the foreign administrators and players in the old NASL were happy to oblige. (One of many reasons I find it ironic that the “we must do things exactly as they’re done in Europe” crowd has latched onto the neo-NASL banner. And before you ask, no, the Complex story doesn’t address promotion/relegation.)

Some other fun things revealed here:

– Logan says MLS had logos and branding ready for expansion teams such as the Chicago Rhythm, but that name was rejected because Catholicism. Seriously. Doug Logan should write his own MLS history one day — it’d be a wild read.

– Alexi Lalas and company speak up on behalf of the quality of play in the early days. They have a point, at least on the better teams. Talent was concentrated on 10 teams, and you could have a team like D.C. United that had nary a weak spot in its top 15. Preki says every team at the time had 4-6 players who could’ve played at any level.

– Wynalda says the colorful soccer ball actually blended into the crowd when it was airborne.

That’s a highly recommended read, and so is this: The Society for American Soccer History has launched a website. It links out to online resources (I would expect that list to grow over time) and produces original content. Early offerings include Roger Allaway on the Soccer War (1928-29), Len Oliver on Philadelphia soccer in the 1940s and 1950s, and Ed Farnsworth on the first U.S. international tour.

It’s a great time in U.S. soccer history. And there’s no better time to look back and see how we got here.

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soccer

Hipsters, posers, bros and women’s soccer

Posted on by Beau Dure

The Washington Spirit’s Tiffany Weimer wrote a guest post at the Post with a frightening thought on the women’s soccer audience:

It’s not just an older generation that doesn’t give us the time of day. There are young, hip people who dislike women’s sports and soccer. There are also people who absolutely love the Premier League, Champions League and Major League Soccer. Those same people don’t like women’s soccer.

In other words, “bro” culture? Or just hipsters and posers who like the EPL, Euro and MLS accoutrements but don’t give a crap about the game?

When I first started talking soccer online about 20 years ago, I found people were willing to support any sort of soccer for the good of the game. I don’t get that sense any more. It’s my form of soccer or crowd noise or whatever.

And that’s a pity. Spirit games are fun.

Source: Guest column: NWSL and women’s soccer are in the game – The Washington Post

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mma

The Ultimate Fighter 21, Episode 3: Please, please throw a punch

Posted on by Beau Dure

A few observations on this week’s episode of the biggest fight series in South Florida since Kimbo beat Afropuff and Big Mac on the same day in the boat yard.

– The new theme song is as lame as it gets. The credits tell us nothing. No idea why they did this.

– Is American Top Team saving its best fighters for when the point values increase? But then the best fighters don’t get to fight twice. Are they just not that good?

– Was Valdir “Baby Monster” Araujo motivated by ATT’s Michael Graves stealing his wine?

– Does the house really have a spa and sauna — only on the Blackzilians’ side of the house?

– Where is Dana White filming all his cutaways? Is NORAD involved?

– Lots of cameos by TUF alumni: Rashad Evans (Blackzilians), Din Thomas (ATT), Robbie Lawler (ATT), Michael Johnson (Blackzilians).

– Will Florida refs ever break up the fight when it’s stalemated against the cage?

– ATT’s Nathan Coy might have made the snappiest comeback in TUF history. ATT’s Steve Carl missed weight and needed to cut a bit, so he headed for the Blackzilian sauna. A couple of Blackzilians took issue, to which the incredulous Florida commission guy asked, “Um, you guys didn’t work this out in advance?” Blackzilian Tyrone Spong tried to kick Carl out, justifying it with a trite “In war, there are no rules.” Coy: “If there’s no rules, we’ll stand here and barricade the (bleep) sauna.” Gotcha there.

– If your corner tells you to punch … punch! Steve Carl didn’t, and ATT is down 75-0.

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