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Portland and Vancouver were absolutely the right choices for the two new MLS expansion teams. St. Louis, Ottawa and even a return to Miami had been discussed but Portland and Vancouver were more deserving over all three of these cities.
Portland and Vancouver have paid there dues in USL for a long time now and have created quite a Northwest rivalry alongside Seattle so with the Sounders getting a franchise, these two cities were the logical choices.
St Louis may feel hard done by but i don't believe it would have been fair for it to get an expansion over two sides that had auditioned for long enough at the USL level.
Portland and Vancouver will help create a great rivalry with Seattle in the Northwest and we will start to see an atmosphere that is really only seen at Toronto games and with the Chivas/Galaxy rivalry.
We should also start to see away fans at games with Portland, Vancouver, and Seattle in such close proximity and that will create an even better atmosphere throughout the league.
I have been lucky enough to play in the Northwest and the fans are some of the best in the country. Seattle fans showed what an atmosphere they can create in their home opener and my prediction is Portland and Vancouver fans will rise to the challenge and at least match it when they play their first MLS game in 2011.
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Don Garber
Tuesday, November 25, 2008, 09:55 PM EST
[General]
Love him or hate him you have to respect how MLS commissioner Don Garber can command a room when he is speaking.Last Thursday i had the pleasure of attending a speaker program at USC in which Garber spoke about the future of MLS, a single table, and the chances of their ever relegation within American soccer.Here is some of what i got from the speech/Q&A session.
1. The decisions on which cities will be awarded an MLS franchise will be largely based on the financial commitments that city can provide to MLS and not necessarily how that city has performed attendance wise with soccer in the community before.(Meaning if Miami can come up with the cash they are a shoe in despite already failing to attract large crowds in their first stint in MLS.) 2. Although not entirely ruling out a single table in the future, it does not seem likely that we will see it in the next few years. 3. Relegation is almost impossible to do in the MLS system given that it is hard to get investors to pump money into a club long term when they run the risk of not even having top class MLS action if the team fails to perform. Garber also spoke about how MLS is not unlike any other business in that it is affected by the current economic climate and that the league will continue to try and find new ways to generate income in the future. Tags:
Keane a better fit for the Reds.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008, 12:03 PM EST
[General]
Rafael Benitez has rolled the dice in the transfer market this summer and I believe the moves he has made will finally make Liverpool Football Club a legitimate title challenger again. A lot was made of Rafa's decision to allow Peter Crouch, now a proven England International to move on to Portsmouth. Many people believed the decision to cash in on Crouch was down to Rafa's continued use of one forward in his formation, that man being of course being Fernando Torres. That theory was blown out of the water with the blockbuster signing of Robbie Keane from Spurs and left many wondering why Crouch was never given a fair chance to partner Torres if indeed Rafa was open to playing two forwards. The reason Crouch was never given a fair crack of the whip last season was not down to his own ability as a striker, but more on how it would affect the positional play of Fernando Torres. Rafa brought in Torres to be his number one striker and have the Spanish hit-man use his pace to expose defenses from a very central position. Torres hadn't always shown the discipline to stay central for Athletico Madrid and his goal-scoring figures certainly reflected that. El Ni Tags:
Post season awards
Wednesday, May 14, 2008, 04:39 PM EST
[General]
With the Premier League season in the bag I have decided to hand out some of my post-season awards. Awards like Player of the Year and Best team may be no-brainers but lets see if you agree with some of my other picks.
Best Signing of the Season: It would be easy to plump for Fernando Torres but at a cost of $50 million dollars you expect that kind of season (Shevchenko take note) so my signing of the year would have to be Rogue Santa Cruz of Blackburn. Cruz cost a bargain $7 million dollars from Bayern Munich and promptly scored with just his third touch for his new club with a goal against Middlesbrough. He hasn't stopped scoring since and a return of 23 goals in all competitions has to have exceeded all Mark Hughes' expectations. Santa Cruz is easily the best value for money signing of the season.
Worst Signing of the Season. Chelsea paid Lokomotiv Moscow 18million dollars for Branislav Ivanovic but I would bet that not one Chelsea fan could pick their new signing out of a police line up. The word is that because of his lack of match fitness he could not be considered for first team football so that makes Ivanovic one of the most expensive spectators at Stamford Bridge. Behind Roman Abramovich and Andrei Shevchenko of course.
Best Fans of the Season: The fact that Derby fans continued to show up and cheer on their team despite the fact that this side was by far the worst to ever grace the premier league means that the County faithful are deserving of this award. The funniest part of the season was when Derby fans actually believed the signing of Robbie Savage would actually save their season. The fact that the Derby faithful were actually looking forward to the arrival of Robbie Savage shows just how pants the rest of this squad really was. Great fans but I don't expect to see them in the Premier league for quite some time.
Worst Fans of the Season: Sacking Jose Mourinho may have been devastating to most Chelsea fans but I could scarcely believe my eyes when i saw fans voice their displeasure at owner Roman Abramovich. This is the man who has pumped in millions of dollars to make Chelsea a worldwide force and a footballing super power. Mourinho took all the attention but the Russian is the real reason for the rise of Chelsea Football Club. Talk about ungrateful.......... Biggest Fiasco of the season: This award has to go to the struggle for power in the boardroom at Anfield. We have had partners falling out with each other, secret meetings with new coaches, Chief Execs being fired and refusing to quit and a brand a new stadium design that has had more facelifts than Joan Rivers. One only knows what the summer holds for the Liverpool faithful.
Player of the Year: Cristiano Ronaldo has put together one of the best seasons in modern footballing history and is a country mile ahead of anyone else when it comes to the player of the year award. The fact that Ronaldo has scored 40 goals is impressive enough, but take into account that he plays out wide and then you can truly begin to understand just how talented this young man is. The scary thing for the rest of the league is that at 23, Ronaldo will only get better....... Yikes. Manager of the Year: Alex Ferguson may get all the plaudits but I believe David Moyes produced the best coaching job this season in leading Everton to fifth position in the premier league. While Ferguson had the likes of Carrick, Hargreaves Scholes and Anderson to choose from in the center of the park, Moyes had to build his side around journey-man Lee Carsley and Leon Osman as his already bare squad had to do without Tim Cahill for a large portion of the season. Moyes has now proved he is one of the best coaches in British football and Everton better sort his contract out soon because there would be no shortage of takers if the Scot decides to move on. Team of the Year: Manchester United scored the most goals, conceded the fewest and produced some amazing attacking football to deservingly win their 10th premier league crown in the last 16 years and are hands down my team of the year. Ferguson has never lost his will to win and rarely sacrifices his desire to play attractive football in doing so. This is a young United side that could rule Europe for many years to come.
If you can think of any other awards feel free to mention them and i would love to hear if you agree with my picks. Tags:
FA Cup Magic
Monday, January 28, 2008, 11:07 PM EST
[General]
The FA Cup is all about the small sides getting a shot at the big guns and hopefully providing us with a shock or two. For the first 45 minutes at Anfield last Saturday Havant and Waterlooville gave their illustrious hosts all they could handle and the 2-2 scoreline could have been even better for the non-leaguers had they taken their chances.
Even though Liverpool eventually did get the win, the Havant players did themselves proud and their fans rendition of "Stand up if you hate Man U" was one of the funnier moments of this seasons competition.
Sheffield United looked very tasty as they shocked Man City in Sven Goran Erickson's first taste of FA Cup action.(Foreign coaches never get this competition do they?) Bryan Robson probably saved his job with the win but i believe the fact that he does not have this side of the top end of the championship is criminal. Robson has lived too long on the back of his playing career and this one win can't convince me that he is a good manager. He should be sacked and hopefully no club is dumb enough to give him another job again. The draw for the next round has given Liverpool and Chelsea relatively favorable draws while the tie of the round is undoubtedly Man U against Arsenal. Some people feel that it is better for the competition if the bigger sides avoid each other until the later rounds but i certainly don't and this gives some smaller clubs the chance for a potentially profitable cup run(Watford last year) Something tell me that Wenger won't be playing the kids this time round.........Your thoughts Tags:
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