Thursday, May 31, 2007

The daily news (and views)

$35 million bet on pro soccer An MLS expansion team in Vegas?

Crew cruise past Michigan Bucks Of USL Premier Development League, 3-0, Wednesday

Toronto FC missing slew of players
Thin squad for Galaxy this weekend I'm starting to see a pattern here.

I haven't quantified the results, but when doing searches on MLS, it's surprising how many of the results mention Beckham. Here are a few (and I do mean a few!) of the headlines:

Beckham could play for Premiership again Headlines like this beg the question: so why did he leave the Premiership in the first place?

Schwarzenegger, Beckham in US kangaroo skin row Apparently the issue is over the legality and ethics of wearing cleats made of kangaroo skin, and somehow the author found a way to fit Beckham into the story.


Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Blogroll update

Please welcome Through Ball and Bobby Boswell to the blogroll.

Today's news and views

YouTube and Major League Soccer team up for strategic content and advertising partnership MLS and YouTube have "announced a strategic content and advertising partnership that will see MLS game and featured highlights uploaded on a dedicated channel, www.youtube.com/mls". Considering the popularity of YouTube, this is good news for MLS.

Drew Carey to Play U.S. Soccer Stars in FIFA 07 Drew Carey v. Landon Donovan. Should be interesting.

Lalas, Galaxy make plans to juggle Beckham's schedule "Galaxy president and general manager Alexi Lalas already has tripped the sensitive wires of the English media with an offhand comment in a BBC radio interview. Lalas said he's thrilled to see Beckham get a call back to the English national team but hopes he'll be called for "appropriate" or "competitive" games." And this is news because...? Love him or hate him, Lalas has a hard-earned reputation for being, shall we say, rather blunt when it comes to airing his thoughts and opinions. (Here's the Guardian article mentioned in the USA Today version.)

Beckham Will Be Frustrated In The USA Yet another perspective on the Beckham move.

Weekly update: Visit to Fire's house A little preview of the upcoming Crew game this weekend, along with some other miscellaneous Crew news.

Edit: broken link corrected

Weekly standings

1. NYRB (+2)
1. New England (0)
2. FC Dallas (0)
2. KC (+2)
3. Colorado (+2)
4. Chicago (+2)
4. Chivas USA (+3)
5. DCU (+3)
6. Columbus (+2)
7. Toronto FC (+2)
7. Houston (+1)
8. LA (+2)
8. Real Salt Lake (+3)

If the Cup were to be played today, it would be between the NYRB (or NE, but NY has one less loss) and FC Dallas.

Five ties in one week is quite a bit, which is precisely why why everyone except New England and Dallas jumped at least ranking in comparison to where they were last week.

As a side note, I am very much amused by the fact that the #7 teams (Toronto and Houston) have 7 points each.

Sunday, May 27, 2007

FIFA bans high-altitude matches

According to the BBC (as well as dozens of other news sources), FIFA has decided to ban high-altitude matches. Needless to say, several high-altitude South American countries are less than thrilled.

Saturday, May 26, 2007

Columbus/Toronto FC draw

Toronto FC 2: Columbus Crew 2. Is it sad that I actually celebrated a Columbus tie? I was just thrilled that they didn't lose. Normally celebrations are supposed to be reserved for wins, not draws. (To see the game in brief, you can peruse the matchtracker or the MLS summary.)

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Daily news and views

Dynamo to visit White House, President Bush, to commemorate 2006 MLS Cup championship According to the article, this makes them the second team to visit the White House in celebration of a victory.

L.A. set to face Scotland's Rangers LA v. Glasgow Rangers FC. Should be interesting, though it is certainly not the first time that an MLS team has played a team from the other side of the pond. My favorite statement in this article: "The prestige of Rangers wasn't lost on Galaxy head coach Frank Yallop either". It's one of those odd understatements that reporters are fond of making, things like, "You just won the Super Bowl. How does that make you feel?" I'm just waiting for someone, one of these days, to reply with, "Horrible! I'm so disappointed that I just won the championship!" The game is tonight. Should be good if you're able to catch it.

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

The news part of the name

Rapids rearguard battling injury bug

Cunningham traded to Toronto FC
Toronto FC trades Alecko Eskandarian And now for the other side of the story.

Fouls piling up for Toronto FC

FC Dallas buoyed by May run After Sunday's 2-1 win against Real Salt Lake, FC Dallas has now won three consecutive matches, all by the same score. Nice streak.

Weekly standings

1. New England (0)
2. FC Dallas (0)
3. NYRB (+1)
4. KC (-1)
5. Colorado (-1)
6. Chicago (-1)
7. Chivas USA (-1)
8. Columbus (-2)
8. DCU (0)
8. Houston (-2)
9. Toronto FC (-2)
10. LA (-2)
11. Real Salt Lake (-3)

If the Cup were to be played today, it would be between New England and FC Dallas, the same as last week.

Saturday, May 19, 2007

Weekly standings

As my memory serves, I typically post these at the beginning of the week, in order to accurately reflect the weekend's games. However, I am making up for lost time here.

1. New England
2. FC Dallas
3. KC
4. Colorado
4. NY
5. Chicago
6. Chivas USA
6. Columbus
6. Houston
7. Toronto
8. DCU
8. LA
8. Real Salt Lake

Based on mere numbers, if the Cup were to be played today, it would be between New England and FC Dallas.

Not having followed the season to date, I must say that the biggest surprise for me is the very low DCU ranking. Despite the fan that I'm hardly a DCU fan (I've always considered them to be a serious threat to my beloved Crew), I am surprised at how low they are; historically, they've been a pretty solid team.

The biggest disappointment is the Crew's poor 1-1-4 record. However, that is, in an odd way, comforting. Historically, Columbus has often begun the season strong, only to grow progressively worse as the season went on. Maybe this year the reverse will be true: despite a slow start, maybe they can pull things together as the season progresses, and end up the Cup winners. I can dream, can't I?

I'm back

As you doubtless can tell, I have been on a blogging hiatus for the last several months, during which time I have not even followed the scores and standings. You may also notice that the length of my hiatus corresponds with the length of a spring semester at your average American university. There is a definite cause-and-effect relation there; this semester has been unbelievably busy and hard for me. However, it's over, and I can once again resume a more "normal" level of posting. Enjoy.