Tag: mls

soccer

Should MLS fans rise up and oppose Queens stadium?

Posted on by Beau Dure

Like Eddie Murphy in Coming to America, Major League Soccer is dead set on coming to Queens, and it seems nothing can stop them from doing so.

That hasn’t stopped local opposition in Queens. They’re not necessarily opposed to MLS itself, but they have issues with the site selection.

In the meantime, other cities are lining up for expansion opportunities. And a couple seem worth exploring:

Tampa: Land of the the surprise stadium plans.

Atlanta: A finalist a few years ago, and now they’re looking at a possible Seattle-style NFL-MLS combo.

St. Louis: Another finalist from a few years ago. Sullied by the NASL/WPS debacle, but a different ownership group has taken the first step toward a stadium.

Fort Lauderdale: Miami has been in the league before and was a recent finalist before a partnership with Barcelona fell through. But now the NASL Strikers are pursuing stadium plans. (To wrap up the finalists from a few years ago: The seven were Atlanta, Miami, Montreal, Ottawa,  Portland, St. Louis, Vancouver. Three are in the league, three are on this list, and Ottawa went in a different direction.)

Elsewhere from NASL and USL: Four of the last five “expansion” teams were essentially economic promotions from the lower divisions. San Antonio is thinking about the leap in the long term but knows it might take time. From the SB Nation roundup, we can see a few teams pursuing stadium construction or expansion: Orlando, Carolina (Triangle), Pittsburgh, Minnesota, etc.

And whatever happened to Las Vegas? Baltimore? Detroit?

Longtime MLS fans know it’s pointless to start rooting for specific expansion sites. They need owners and stadiums, not Twitter campaigns.

But how many of these partially developed stadium plans would be fully developed if MLS threw open bidding for the 20th team?

And so MLS fans have a right to ask, along with a few folks in Queens: Why here? Why now? Why not consider other options?

 

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soccer

Bradenton residency, Class of 1999: Where are they now?

Posted on by Beau Dure

Is U.S. Soccer’s Bradenton program adequately preparing players for soccer careers? Or college? Or anything else?

Those questions popped into my head in thinking about several youth sports and college sports questions. Some of my Twitter buddies seem convinced that college sports (“big-time” college sports, at least) are nothing more than a holding pen for people trying to go pro, apparently not buying the NCAA ads in which a bunch of perky people with microscopes say they’re going pro in something other than sports.

As U.S. soccer “academy” programs drift downward in age groups, perhaps we need to be asking more questions. What happens to players who give up significant chunks of their childhoods for soccer?

We won’t be able to track every single player who passes through the Development Academy. But we can take a look at a few specific groups, particularly from the U-17 residency program in Bradenton, and see how they fared.

So what better place to start than the original Bradenton class?

A few of these players don’t require any detective work. We know where to find Oguchi Onyewu, Kyle Beckerman, DaMarcus Beasley and Bobby Convey. There’s also another guy named Donovan who may have been in the news recently.

And then I’m not the first person to try this. Soccernet checked in on the Spring 1999 players in 2008. So all I’m doing here is updating and adding the players added in the fall. LinkedIn helps.

For other info, I’m open to crowd-sourcing. If you find anything about these players that I’ve missed, please mention them in the comments. I was going to list each player’s youth clubs, but their bios tend to start with Bradenton and mention a high school but not a club. Funny how things change.

Nelson Akwari: Went to UCLA, then through an assortment of MLS and USL teams — MetroStars, Columbus, Real Salt Lake, Charlotte, Charleston, Vancouver (pre-MLS), Los Angeles Blues. Didn’t play in 2012, but an RSL blog caught up with him and found him finishing school, starting a family and considering a return at some point.

DaMarcus Beasley: Funny how everyone frets about Donovan not playing in Europe, and then few people pay attention to Beasley, who did it in a big way. After a good run with Chicago, he went to PSV and started in a Champions League semifinal. He went on a yearlong loan to Manchester City, but injuries started to take a toll. He moved to Rangers instead and played less and less each year, eventually moving to Germany’s Hannover and all but disappearing. Now building his career back up with Mexico’s Puebla and looking for a national team return, having already played in three World Cups.

Kyle Beckerman: Brief stop with Miami, where he spent much of his time on loan to the Project-40 team for young reserves that played in the A-League (now USL, not Australia!). Then a long stay with Colorado before hopping over the Rockies to Real Salt Lake, where he has been a cornerstone of a successful team. Also gets occasional national team calls.

Danny Bolin: Spring 1999 only; didn’t play in U17 World Cup. Wikipedia sometimes puts things so well: Bolin is listed as a “former U.S. soccer midfielder and current helicopter pilot in the United States Air Force.” Sums it up pretty well. He started out at soccer power Wake Forest, then transferred to the Air Force Academy and moved into the military from there. Don’t say Bradenton didn’t recruit overachievers. The most recent substantive Wikipedia edit, which isn’t sourced, is from 2011. Any update?

Filippo Chillemi: Spring 1999 only; didn’t play in U17 World Cup. Went to Notre Dame and injured his ankle in practice, colliding with fellow residency grad Greg Martin, the Soccernet roundup reports. Still got a bit of pro experience in Italy before deciding on his fallback career — medicine. Again with the overachievers. Looks like he’s a resident at South Alabama now, unless there are two young orthopaedic surgeons in the USA named Filippo Chillemi.

Jordan Cila: Went to Duke and took some flak for not going pro right away. Finished up at school and went undrafted, then clawed his way onto MLS rosters at Colorado, Real Salt Lake and New York. Now he’s an analyst at Goldman Sachs. That “college degree” thing seems to be working for him.

Bobby Convey: The youngest MLS signee at the time, joining D.C. United at age 16. Went to England and helped Reading win promotion to the Premier League. Then came the knee problems. He returned to MLS with San Jose and then Kansas City.

D.J. Countess: Goalkeeper had a stellar youth career and a good year at UCLA before briefly to the MetroStars and then to Dallas, where he seemed to be the goalkeeper of the future. Then off to Chicago, where we wound up as a backup, then to expansion Salt Lake, where he was shelled. Stops in Sweden, Chile and Argentina followed, and a wrist injury ruined his career. The Offside Rules found his 2009 wedding video, calling it “100% baller” and “an advert for affluence.” I’m surprised it wasn’t on MTV. The production quality is unreal. I can find absolutely no record of him after that, including any confirmation of the anonymous rumor on The Offside Rules’ comments that they did not live happily ever after.

Steve Cronin: Goalkeeper went from Santa Clara to San Jose (briefly) and then to Los Angeles, where he was the backup on the MLS Cup-winning team of 2005. He started for the 2008 Galaxy, then moved into the USL with Portland. After bouncing back and forth between Portland and D.C. United, he went clubless in 2012. His Twitter feed has given a few updates — he’s a father, he’s retired and …

Kenny Cutler: Went to Clemson and had a few years with Real Salt Lake and then the USL’s Richmond Kickers. Then he disappeared and … oh, nope — like Cila, he’s at Goldman Sachs, except that he’s based in Salt Lake City.

Justin Detter: Fall 1999 only; didn’t play in U17 World Cup. Played at Notre Dame along with Chillemi and Martin. Made the Kansas City roster but didn’t get above developmental level. Now a facilities manager in Michigan.

Landon Donovan: Whereabouts unknown. For the moment, anyway.

Adolfo Gregorio: To UCLA, then England’s Darlington, then Real Salt Lake, for whom he played six games in 2005. Went back to run Pro Soccer shop in Modesto and was profiled in the local business press this year for taking advantage of lower property values. Sharp guys in this class.

Bryan Jackson: Made the rounds in Europe, getting a rough start to his career, before retiring to be a sports performance coach in New York. One woman from his class left a review calling him a “cutie who reeks of euro-cool.” But he’s also a tough trainer, apparently.

Kellen Kalso: Played at Michigan State and spent a few years managing restaurants. This fall, he moved to ESPN as a sports development manager. Twitter account says he’s going for an MBA and is an aspiring pro golfer.

Greg Martin: Notre Dame captain went into the energy field. This year, he founded a company called EdgePoint, which “represents the next generation of smart grid solutions.”

Oguchi Onyewu: Starting defender for Spain’s Malaga, which won Champions League Group C ahead of his former team, Milan. Take that! Also has a reputation for reducing Mexican forwards to tears and frustration. Just look at this picture. And he and Jay DeMerit will be forever famous for shutting down Spain in the 2009 Confederations Cup semifinals.

Raul Rivera: Spring 1999 only; didn’t play in U17 World Cup. NSCAA junior college All-American (a division below Dane Richards and Omar Cummings). Spent a lot of time with the PDL’s Fresno Fuego but took 2010 off to work on his degree. Showed up for Fuego preseason in 2011 but wasn’t on season roster. The Soccernet piece said he was also working with van customizer SportsMobile. Found nothing after that.

Matt Roberts: Spring 1999 only; didn’t play in U17 World Cup. Declined to be interviewed for Soccernet piece. Went to Maryland and made the ACC honor roll.

Abe Thompson: Fall 1999 only but DID play in U17 World Cup. Went to Maryland, played a few years in MLS with Dallas, Kansas City and Houston, played a bit for the NASL’s Fort Lauderdale Strikers and then retired this fall to move into the USL’s administrative ranks.

Seth Trembly: Might be best known for missing a Colorado Rapids game to go to his prom. Played a bit with Colorado and Salt Lake over the next few years and was RSL’s Humanitarian of the Year in 2006. Moved into youth coaching with Colorado Rush and now with Albion Soccer Club in San Diego.

Peter Withers: Fall 1999 only; didn’t play in U17 World Cup. Played for Ohio State and went on to work for adidas, where he’s now soccer sports marketing manager.

Alexander Yi: Went to UCLA, then Belgium’s Royal Antwerp, then FC Dallas. Hamstring problems ended his career, and he went back to school — first at Dayton, where he also started coaching, then back at UCLA, where he also works with the Galaxy’s academy program.

So leave any other updates and observations in the comments. Which class should we do next?

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soccer

Landon Donovan: Life and how to live it

Posted on by Beau Dure

When it comes to Landon Donovan, I have to admit a bit of bias — one that goes beyond the typical reporter’s bias of having good interview experiences. Sure, he’s been helpful whenever I’ve talked with him, from a USA TODAY chat in 2000 (he had to delay to drive his sister to school) to a 2009 cover story in which he talked frankly about his relationships with everyone: David Beckham, Bianca Kajlich, even Eric Wynalda. He’s consistently one of the most interesting people in U.S. soccer. (Men’s soccer, especially.)

My bias stems more from being able to relate to decisions he has made that have puzzled other people. He has put family and his own well-being first. I get that. It’s why I’m no longer a full-time employee of a large national newspaper. It’s why I turned down opportunities to do techie-type things in journalism and opted instead to keep putting words together in this thing … what’s it called … oh, right … writing.

Ever since he won the Golden Ball at the U-17 World Cup in 1999, Donovan was supposed to be a big star in Europe. He was supposed to lead the U.S. national team to greener pastures.

To an extent, he’s done both. No one can deny his impact in the 2002 and 2010 World Cups or in plenty of vital qualifiers along the way, and he was a key player in the 2009 Confederations Cup that stands as the most stunning U.S. men’s performance since 1950. The European breakthrough finally came, albeit on a short-term basis at Everton.

But for some people, it has never been enough. Over the years, he always had to defend his choice to play in MLS instead of Europe. If he disappeared in a game, it was a calamity or proof that he was just softer than everyone else.

Frankly, he’s more courageous than most. The U.S. soccer community still heaps immense pressure on every prodigy, perhaps because we’re not used to having them. It’s far healthier to fly under the radar and emerge in MLS, a la Clint Dempsey. But no one has faced the level of scrutiny Donovan has faced, something the women’s soccer community and journalists should remember before making ridiculous “double standard” arguments about Hope Solo.

As Donovan matured and that hairline crept backwards like a U.S. goalkeeper’s, he started to exude more California Zen. He talked about living in the moment and not trying to please everyone. It was a classic example of separating the substantial from the insubstantial in his own life.

And it’s something we all need to do in our lives. The “substantial” in this case is the enjoyment derived from watching soccer. The “insubstantial” is micromanaging someone else’s life to suit our needs. Soccer folks have done the latter on a smaller scale, too — a lot of fans took issue with Jordan Cila going to Duke instead of going pro. Donovan has dealt with it throughout his career.

Criticism of his play is one thing. He’s as harsh on himself as anyone — at least, anyone reasonable. He has had bad games, domestically and internationally. He has gone through bad spells. The psychoanalysis has gone over the top.

After all these years, Donovan still isn’t doing what people would expect or like. He would seem to have an opportunity to transfer to Everton — if they could afford him. Instead, he may follow in the footsteps of Jim Brown, Mia Hamm and other athletes who have left the stage when they clearly have more to offer.

Soccer America‘s Mike Woitalla hopes he doesn’t step away. So do I. So, surely, does Galaxy coach Bruce Arena. So does Jurgen Klinsmann, if he has started to appreciate that CONCACAF World Cup qualifying isn’t the cakewalk he was expecting.

But that decision is Donovan’s alone. If it frustrates you, or if you think you would surely act differently in his shoes, you might need to follow his example and reassess your own priorities.

—

Headline inspired by some old-school R.E.M., when they shot incomprehensible art-school videos and Michael Stipe had shaggy hair:

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soccer

MLS: Making Little Soccer players? Not yet

Posted on by Beau Dure

The Major League Soccer “State of the League” conference call was predictably professional yesterday. The reporters asked legit questions, something we still don’t quite get in MMA calls. Commissioner Don Garber spoke at length about everything, only occasionally needing correction or clarification from the sharp PR crew next to him.

And the answers were mostly logical:

– Expansion to the South is a great idea, but the prospective groups need stadiums.

– Competition rules aren’t changing much. (Alas for my Page playoff system. We’ll break through one day.)

– David Beckham was great for MLS, but the league is ready to move on without him. (I don’t get the fretting over Beckham’s departure. He seemed more like an afterthought this season than a huge attendance-driver. It’s hard to quantify that, though — the Galaxy’s road attendance was immense, but some of those games were special events, and some were “road” games against Chivas USA.)

– The stadium situation in D.C. seems much better than it did a year ago. I don’t recall hearing the word “Baltimore” on the call this time around.

A couple of things were clarified, including the Beckham Future. He has an option for team ownership at some point, but it can’t be in New York. That would seem to throw a lot of cold water on the Beckham-to-Cosmos rumor, at least in terms of Beckham being a player-owner there.

The pursuit of a second team in New York is clearly irritating a lot of MLS fans and journalists, but Garber stands by it.

So that gets us to one issue that came up in a couple of questions: Youth development.

MLS is spending a lot of money on academies now — Garber tossed out the figure of $20 million, though it’s not quite clear what that entails. Where MLS once had a handful of associated teams playing in top youth leagues, they now have teams playing a full year-round schedule in the Development Academy against all the clubs that build powerhouses up through U18 and then abruptly stop playing. (Quick aside: Does any other country have youth-only clubs that develop international-quality talent? Or is that only an American thing?)

But a lot of the academy alumni come up through the ranks, sit a couple of years on an MLS bench, and quietly disappear. Bill Hamid, Andy Najar and Juan Agudelo are exceptions.

What’s going wrong? How can it be fixed? Yesterday’s call brought up two possible solutions:

1. Require teams to play young players a certain percentage of the time. That started a nice Twitter debate:

http://twitter.com/JerseyJBradley/status/273184420167557121

I’m with Jeff. It’s one thing to limit the number of international players on a team, as MLS currently does. It’s another to make a coach think about minutes for young players when filling out a lineup. This isn’t U9, where coaches like me carefully track everyone’s time to make sure everyone’s playing enough.

And what’s the biggest complaint about MLS? (If you said “no promotion and relegation,” please put your hand down.) It’s quality of play. Wouldn’t the quality suffer even more if coaches are forced to trot out players who aren’t ready?

2. Some sort of unspecified deal with the lower divisions to give reserve teams more time on the field.

Ding ding ding ding.

It seems pretty obvious, really. The academy teams are playing roughly 30 games a season (though with their giant rosters, some players may get a bit less than that), and then the players that skip college to go to an MLS reserve team play … 10 games?

For once, what’s done in “the rest of the world” (a few parts of it, anyway) makes perfect sense for MLS. If there’s a compelling reason to keep MLS reserve teams out of the NASL or USL Pro, I’d like to hear it. And not from someone who’s just defending someone’s turf in the endlessly frustrating in-fighting that has held back the game for so long.

Getting a suitable stadium site in sprawling, traffic-choked Atlanta may not be easy. Getting 20-year-old MLS players more games is far easier.

 

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soccer

The Chivas USA delusion

Posted on by Beau Dure

Starting with a confession: I was wrong about Chivas USA. I thought the brand name would draw fans. I thought they’d come up with enough Mexican or Mexican-ish players to compete with a different style.

That didn’t go so well. After an awful first year, they became competitive under the non-Mexican coach Bob Bradley and stayed competitive under Preki, who grew up about as far away from Mexico in the geographical and cultural sense as possible.

Their best players were mostly U.S. college alumni: Ante Razov, Brad Guzan, Sacha Kljestan, Jonathan Bornstein and Jesse Marsch. They had a couple of solid Mexican players in Francisco Palencia (briefly), Claudio Suarez and Ramon Ramirez, but everywhere else, they were a basic MLS team.

In the past three years, they’ve ceased to be competitive. The personnel decisions haven’t been great. The good news: Their Academy program is solid, getting good marks in most categories in U.S. Soccer’s tough evaluations.

So now owner Jorge Vergara is going back to the club’s shallow roots, pledging to be more Mexican and less like a typically physical MLS team.

They may eventually get out of their ground-sharing situation at the Home Depot Center, which would be a step in the right direction. But it may not be far enough to get out of the shadow of the Galaxy.

Turning away from the “physical” style in MLS would be attractive. But it’s not as if Chivas USA was a nice, friendly team when it was more Mexican. They were third in the league in fouls in their debut season. (They dropped off over the next couple of years, then led the league in fouls under Preki in 2009.)

They didn’t work — on the field or at the box office — as a Chivas de Guadalajara “B” team of sorts. They were a bit better as a more conventional MLS team with a couple of prominent Mexican players. Put that team in an area in which fans can’t or don’t get to many Galaxy games, and you have a strong MLS presence.

Has Vergara learned enough from his first attempt with the team to do it a little differently this time? We’ll see. But it’ll depend on whether he goes back to what works, not what didn’t.

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soccer

D.C. United-Columbus Crew: Random views from Section 302

Posted on by Beau Dure
After Lewis Neal’s goal made it 3-2.

My youth club was one of several in the stadium as D.C. United fought for and eventually clinched a playoff spot against the Columbus Crew.

The stadium’s falling apart. The quality of play was wretched through much of the game. Columbus played like a bunch of punks. (To some extent, so did United.) The referee was a shambles.

And still it was a great night. Good food. Good company. And a game that was exciting, if occasionally sloppy.

A few things to mention:

– D.C. United does so many things right as a club. With a baffling construction project blocking a major exit from Lot 8, the main tailgating lot, the club put a detailed detour on its site and handed out cards with the same map and directions. Getting out was a breeze. Great work, guys.

– Bottomless popcorn? Big hit with the kids. And some adults.

– No overhead TVs in our section, and no view of the video screen. Some kids moved to another clump of kids from our club so they could watch the big screen. That’s a bit much, but still, I would’ve liked to have seen some replays. I also couldn’t understand the PA, and they put very little info on the scoreboard. I thought the first D.C. United goal was scored by Pidge Eon. Turned out it was Nick DeLeon. Very different.

– Columbus’s first goal — in the seventh minute — was a direct result of a D.C. United defender lagging behind the others and leaving a couple of Crew players onside. Columbus’s second goal — two minutes after Pidge Eon’s equalizer — was a direct result of a D.C. United defender lagging behind the others and leaving a couple of Crew players onside.

– Edvin Jurisevic will not give a penalty kick for any foul committed without firearms.

– Bathroom in prime area closed for repairs? Why, yes, that’s terrific timing! I mean, RFK has all those winter events coming up, and they don’t want the stadium to be in bad shape.

– The game was chippy and sloppy, particularly in the first half. I began to wonder if we should’ve left the kids at home, lest they pick up any bad habits. Picked up a bit in the second half, when United pinned Columbus in its own half much of the time, even though a tie was fine for United. Then the Crew made things interesting when they threw everyone forward for the goal they needed to stay alive in the playoff race.

– Doug the Food Dude’s salmon wrap wasn’t quite as good as I remembered, but it was still a great value for hungry fans in Lot 8.

– Screaming Eagles were in fine voice. Should I complain that they blocked the tunnel from Lot 8 when I was trying to meet the coach who had my tickets? No? I’ll think about it. Maybe not something to bring up when the lower bowl was full and loud. The “quiet” side was into it, too.

I might need to figure out a way to get to the playoff game. Maybe take the same families with us.

Maybe I’ll get back to the pressbox at some point, and I can’t say I have no complaints with the view from Section 302. But I’m looking forward to going there again.

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mma, olympic sports, soccer

Monday Myriad: Tifo, Kimbo, figure skaters playing hoops!

Posted on by Beau Dure
OK – ready to face Kimbo?

We’re still in that lull between summer Olympic sports and winter Olympic sports, but we have plenty to report from the weekend. Names in the news include Landon Donovan, Chris Wondolowski, Brad Friedel, Kimbo Slice, Lance Armstrong, Lolo Jones, Dana White and Johnny Weir.

MLS

Nearly every game meant something …

– Columbus 1-1 Kansas City: KC only leads the East by three, and Columbus stayed within a point of the fifth playoff seed in the East.

– New York 0-2 Chicago: A massive hurt on the Red Bulls, who have just announced a front-office shakeup and dropped to fourth in the East, not yet assured of getting into the playoffs at all. Chicago‘s up to second and has clinched a berth.

– Toronto 0-1 D.C. United: United stands third, one ahead of the Red Bulls.

– Philadelphia 1-0 New England: The only game of the weekend with no playoff ramifications doomed the Revolution to ninth place in the East. The Union could still move up to seventh.

– Houston 1-1 Montreal: A little controversy, with Brian Ching‘s late goal wiped away on a late offside call. Houston is clinging to the last playoff spot, and Brad Davis‘ absence didn’t help. Summing up the East (all contenders have two games left): KC 59 pts., Chicago 56, DC 54, New York 53, Houston 50 // Columbus 49.

– Colorado 1-4 San Jose: A couple of months ago, I said Roy Lassiter‘s single-season scoring record was unbreakable. Chris Wondolowski is getting dangerously close to proving me wrong after netting a hat trick. The only other suspense for the Earthquakes is whether they’ll clinch the Supporters Shield next week — they have 64 points to KC’s 59.

– Seattle 3-0 Portland: The Sounders drew 66,452 for the big rivalry game, and neither the home team nor the home fans disappointed. Check out the Sounders’ tifo:

– Chivas USA 1-1 Dallas: Huge disappointment for Dallas, now trailing by four points for the last playoff spot in the West.

– Los Angeles 1-2 Salt Lake: From watching the first 30 minutes, you never would’ve guessed the night would end so badly for the Galaxy. But Real made a great comeback, and to make matters worse for the Galaxy (and possibly the USA), Landon Donovan is hurt.

(Highlights and so forth at The Kickoff.)

NASL

The top two seeds are in good shape after the first leg of the semifinals: San Antonio left Minnesota tied 0-0, and Tampa Bay won 2-1 at Carolina.

EUROPEAN SOCCER

Heard Barcelona-Real Madrid was terrific. Sorry to miss it.

And sorry to see the end of an era. After eight years of starting every Premier League game his club played, Brad Friedel finally surrendered the starting spot at Spurs to Hugo Lloris.

Goal of the weekend: Man U’s Tom Cleverley?

TRIATHLON

What? Lance Armstrong isn’t cleared for sanctioned races? Fine — we’ll go unsanctioned.

BOBSLED

Track and field Olympians Lolo Jones, Hyleas Fountain and Tianna Madison joined the fun at the annual U.S. push competition, with all three placing in the top 10 and Fountain barely missing the top three. Rookie Aja Evans took the win. Veteran Steve Langton won the men’s event.

CRICKET

Sri Lanka had West Indies baffled in the World Twenty20 final. The host country held the fierce West Indies batters to 32 runs in the first 10 overs, on pace to score an anemic 64. Then Marlon Samuels played the innings of a lifetime, scoring 78. West Indies scored 137 — still not a great total.

But while West Indies took a while to warm up, Sri Lanka never did. Samuels added a terrific bowling performance to his vital spell with the bat, and Sunil Narine simply mowed down Sri Lanka just as it tried to get going. With defeat all but mathematically certain, Sri Lanka gave up its 10th and final wicket, scoring just 36. West Indies took the championship.

The women’s final was considerably closer — Australia held on to beat England by four runs.

MMA

Big weekend, with cards in the UFC, Bellator, One FC and Invicta. A few of the highlights:

– The UFC’s free cards continue to be pretty good, though Travis Browne‘s injury spoiled a compelling matchup with Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva. And John Dodson is ready for his UFC flyweight title shot.

– Dana White will take a bit of flak for thinking he could bail Jeremy Stephens out of jail in time for his fight with Yves Edwards. But the UFC clearly went above and beyond for Dennis Hallman, who is in the midst of a horrible child custody dispute.

– Remember when Brett Rogers was the man? He was 10-0, having just beat Andrei Arlovski, and he arguably took a round from Fedor Emelianenko? He looked horrible in Bellator against Alexander Volkov.

– All-female Invicta FC delivered another strong card from top to bottom. If you saw a better contest than Michelle Waterson‘s bout with Lacey Schuckman this weekend, please tell me.

The weekend highlights are on a comprehensive Bloody Elbow playlist, along with this …

BOXING

I like Kimbo Slice, having met him a couple of times. But it’s a little painful to see him go from the UFC to boxing matches against guys who fall down every time he hits them. I’m sure Kimbo hits hard, but seriously? The opponent in this case was one Howard Jones, and we have to say things can only get better.

FIGURE SKATING

And finally, from the intentional humor department, here’s a group of figure skaters putting away the glitter and showing us some hoops trickery. This is clearly a parody of something I haven’t seen, but it’s still amusing, and it features nearly every skater who’ll be in the upcoming Grand Prix season (preview forthcoming). Watch the video.

But winter is fast approaching, and several figure skaters tuned up for Grand Prix action at the Finlandia Trophy, with Richard Dornbush second in the men’s competition, Mirai Nagasu third in the women’s event, Madison Hubbell/Zach Donohue third in ice dancing, and the returning Johnny Weir fourth in his first competition since the 2010 Olympics.

More Oly sports in the Team USA roundup: Vincent Hancock is still shooting well, Kim Rhode‘s a little distracted, and Janet Bawcom edged Kara Goucher in a 10-mile run.

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soccer

Beat the rush: Debate the MLS playoff format now

Posted on by Beau Dure

Major League Baseball has copied Major League Soccer’s playoff format, and Sports Law Blog’s Howard Wasserman proclaims it to be a good thing:

The difference this year is that both the Rangers and Orioles had a real incentive to catch the team ahead of them on the final day, in order to avoid that one-game playoff.  In previous years, by contrast, the Orioles would not have cared about catching the Yankees in the final two days of the season; they only would have worried about staying ahead of the Rangers, then getting to play in the division series. So, credit where credit is due–baseball made changes that create the right incentives.

To relate that to MLS, which has two divisions rather than MLB’s six: The race for third place is important. It’s slightly less important than the race for fifth place (the last playoff spot) and slightly more important than the race for first.

But baseball purists, if any remain, would say 10 teams out of 30 are simply too many to take to the playoffs. In MLS, taking 10 out of 19 is surely too many.

In baseball, the weakest playoff teams have an 88-74 record. That’s not bad. In MLS, the Vancouver Whitecaps are clinging to the last playoff spot with a mediocre record of 11-12-9.

The bloated MLS playoffs are also a scheduling problem. We could be playing another couple of weeks of the regular season this fall, and perhaps that would have left time for a reasonable summer break.

The other issue: Incentives. In each sport, the first-place teams don’t get enough of a reward. If the East ended today, Sporting Kansas City would play the winner of the wild-card game between D.C. United (51 pts.) and Houston (49). For their effort in finishing first, they avoid a matchup with Chicago (53).

If you’ve known me for a while, you know it’s time for my Annual Page Playoff System Push. The incentives for each place would be:

  • 1st seeds (best conference champion): Home games throughout, must lose twice to be eliminated
  • 2nd seeds (other conference champion):  Home games unless paired with No. 1, must lose twice to be eliminated
  • 3rd-4th seeds: Home game in second round or semifinal, must lose twice to be eliminated
  • 5th-6th seeds: Home game in first round
  • 7th-8th seeds: You made it. That’s all

So every place has an incentive.

Next, we’ll figure out how to make this work with a split season!

 

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soccer

Sounders GM Adrian Hanauer faces the voters

Posted on by Beau Dure

When Drew Carey was indulging his soccer fandom in his pre-ownership days, he learned about the concept of fans voting to keep or dump a club president.

He vowed to do the same thing as an MLS owner. And he’s a man of his word. General manager Adrian Hanauer — also a co-owner — is facing a fan vote on his job.

Technically, a “no” vote is a “lack of confidence” vote. From the official voting site: “A lack of confidence vote signifies that season ticket members are not pleased with the job of the general manager and direction of the team.”

But it doesn’t look like he’ll have to worry about it.

The Sounders are promoting the Twitter hashtags #AdrianIN and #AdrianOUT, and most of the OUT tweets are essentially saying only an idiot would vote OUT.

And that sentiment matches the comments I received when I asked aloud on Twitter. Also the comments on the Sounder at Heart blog.

Finally, the Emerald City Supporter feed has already made its feelings clear:

We probably don’t need Nate Silver to run the numbers for us. Four more years.

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soccer

NASL splits season — ready to re-open some old arguments?

Posted on by Beau Dure

The NASL is ditching most rounds of the playoffs and switching to a split-season format in 2013, Brian Quarstad reports.

Brian sees it as a cost-cutting measure, saving teams the cost of reserving venues and players for playoff games in which they might not participate. At the NASL level, that’s probably true.

But I recall someone suggesting a split season in MLS as a means to bring some sense to the playoffs, give teams a long break for the World Cup or other tournaments, and maybe even appease Eric Wynalda in his quest to appease Sepp Blatter on the nonexistent clause in the “international calendar” that says all leagues must play fall-to-spring schedules regardless of climate.

Usually, we fret about the MLS playoff format during the MLS playoffs. Shall we beat the rush this time?

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