News and Views of the Day:

The Clean Sheet: All-Star performance

East notes: No place like home. Commentary on the All-Star game

Guess who got to watch the All-Star match, live, today!!!!!!!!!!!!!1 :) (The answer, in case the exclamation marks and smiley face did not give it away, is me.) I took notes. Say it. I know you are thinking it: CrewFan is pathetic. Oh, well. After all, that is what sports writers do, and I am a sports, er, blogger! My pick to win the match was the West, mainly because the top two teams in the league are in the West. That said, as a die-hard Crew fan, I was rooting for the East. The East, in case you did not get to watch the match, won. This was one of those rare times that I was glad to be wrong! :) (Hey, if those MLSnet.com columnists can make bad picks, so can I!) I also predicted that it would be a goalfest. Thankfully, again, I was wrong! The match was surprisingly good. The East won 3-2, which is a decent score for any match. In about the 20th minute, I thought to myself, "Nobody's scored yet. I wonder if there will be any goals going into the match." Guevara (East) scored less than a minute later. A minute or two after that, he scored again, that time on a PK (penalty kick). That got me thinking - penalty kicks are abbreviated to PKs, but why aren't corner kicks abbreviated to CKs, goal kicks to GKs, etc.? Hmm, maybe I should start something. Then again, people in different areas of the world might already abbreviate them as such. Anyways, back to the game. Seeing Landon Donovan (West) playing, I thought that it is still a surprise to me that he is still in MLS. After all the attention he received in Japan/Korea '02, I thought that he would have been off to Europe the following season, but I was wrong. Poor Jeff Agoos. Every time I see him play, I think back to when he scored an own goal in the World Cup ('02, I do believe). I think that most of us have done that at one time or another, so it is sad that I think of that when I think of him. I think that is enough of my commentary for now. Maybe I will post more on the match at a later time.

News and Views of the Day:

Rules for stocking expansion teams

Sorry, but it has been a long day. Maybe I will post more later.

News and Views of the Day:

An All-Star opening for the NYSE. Very cool stuff. Go read.

First XI: A guide to the Last XI. This is a guide of games to watch for the next 11 weeks of MLS.

Beasley, Convey moving on up. This is an interesting article on the All-Star Game.

That is all for now, folks. Come back again. :)

News and Views of the Day:

Three captain comebacks in Week 17

The Clean Sheet: 'Tis the season. This is a pretty good column. Go read it. I am not patriotic, but I do love the following quote from the last paragraph: So Mexico goes to Copa America to represent for CONCACAF in a glamour quarterfinal with Brazil and ... gets annihilated. Sheesh ... do we really have to do everything ourselves these days? That aside, Palace makes his points well, and I do happen to agree with him. Teams do need the motivation to play better. Then again, we are talking about the league that used to have shootouts to break regular season draws. Never mind some of the seriously weird playoff formats they have had over the years. Enough of the MLS-bashing for now. I hope that the fact that I maintain a blog on MLS is enough indication that I do enjoy and support the league. However, I believe in thinking critically, analyzing everything. Yes, I know. I am weird. Get over it.

Crew host one more before break

Today has been a rather slow day, MLS article-wise. However, here is an article you can read:

Goals lacking in Crew, Rapids draw

News and Views of the Day:

Metros eye top prize for MLS And which team is not eyeing the Cup?

Chicago Fire coach fined for criticism. Interesting.

British imports coach kids. I think I linked to a similar article before, but this one is definitely a good read. If you do not read any of the other articles I am linking to today, read this one.

365 Q&A With Preki. Wow - he is still playing! I really need to get with it! Anyways, as I think I have said in the past, I like getting current and former players' and coaches' points of view.

D.C. loses Convey as deal is finalized. He got the work permit.

News and Views of the Day:

Crew land Szetela in draft lottery. "I'm happy. I'm hoping to start my career, to become a star in the U.S. and to help make soccer bigger here," said Szetela. Am I the only one who glared at the screen while reading that quote??????????? Whatever happened to, *gasp,* playing for love of the game? Do not take me for a naive fool; I know that professional sports are all about money. However, that by no means justifies the motivation. Face it: a soccer game (or any sporting event, for that matter) that is played by people who truly love the game and are playing for love of the game is way more exciting than a game played by people who are in it purely for the money. That is true of nearly every profession or activity: those who have a passion for whatever the job/activity is will perform better and enjoy it more. Still, as someone who has never played professionally, I am hardly one to judge. Anyways, you so do not want to get me started on that soapbox. Help make soccer bigger in the US? Sorry, bud, but if Pele of all people could not make soccer the #1 sport in the US, you probably cannot, either. I am not saying that soccer will never be the top sport in the US: what I am saying is that it will take a collective effort, from the grassroots level up through the pros, to make soccer attractive and popular in the US. You do not want to get me started on that soapbox, either. End of rant. Moving on...
D.C.'s Convey transferred to Reading FC of English first divison. Cool stuff. Congratulations and good luck, Convey! (Not that he will ever read this, but, yeah.)
Anyways, that is all for now, folks! Happy reading!

News and Views of the Day:

First XI: Star struck moments. This article is Bradley's top 11 moments in MLS All-Star game history. MLS All-Star matches tend to blend together for me, so I really have no opinion on the subject. Reading the article, I was able to somewhat remember some of the events, though not all of them. If I remember anything about a particular game, it is because something really unusual happened, like a goalie from one team (Meola maybe?) and a forward from the other team wrestling...don't ask me why I remember that, or when it happened, for that matter! Anyways, go read the article and then watch the All-Star game when it happens.

Time for the weekly standings! :)

1. LA
2. KC
3. Metrostars
4. Colorado
5. DC
6. Columbus
6. Dallas
6. San Jose
7. Chicago
8. New England

Chicago towards the bottom and KC towards the top! One of the things that I truly like about MLS is how the standings change every year.

News and Views of the Day: (And why did I not think of that obvious title earlier?)

Crew-Revolution end in stalemate. Official recap of the Crew-Rev match.
MLS - Greatest Goals 1996-2003. I have never heard of this DVD, but the review looked interesting. Out of curiosity, I checked Amazon, and they do sell the DVD. I am by no means advertising it, but am posting the links here because I found them to be somewhat newsworthy.

That is all for now, folks. I hope you enjoyed your, er, stay! Thank you for visiting, and please come back again. (Oy...way too much coffee! LOL!)

Teen star Adu has US in a frenzy. Yes, I am a little tired of the hype over Adu, but I find this article interesting because it is from a South African newspaper. I enjoy getting different perspectives on issues, and therefore I am linking to this article.

Other than that, today is a rather slow day, MLS-news-wise. Oh well. I am sure that there will be plenty of MLS-related article in due time for me to blog on. Until then, smile, go play soccer/football, and check out the relevant and irrelevant links on the left of the page.

Crewfan's noteworthy links of the day (yes, I am still experimenting with titles):
D.C. United Is Hurting: Olsen, Convey, Stewart Suffering From Injuries.
Report: Beasley headed to Holland. Wynalda was referring to this.
Crew prepared to host Revolution Go get 'em, Crew! :)
Hmmm...I wonder why the team websites are now hosted by MLSnet.com.
View of the Crew: A mid-season appraisal of the Crew. Interesting take. Yes, I suppose I could wax eloquent with reasons, but I do believe in life off the Web.

Wynalda: Europe a good move. This article is certainly not one of Wynalda's finest, but it does have, uh, one good point: there is nothing wrong with players going to play in Europe. I have been saying that all along. Other than that, though, the article, in my opinion, is not a must-read.

Bradley on the cusp of 100th MLS win. I just now found out that Bradley is no longer with the Fire. Where on earth have I been? Anyways, congrats to Bradley on a job well done.

Here is the official news on the United-Nottingham match.

Hmm, it looks like Blogger is making changes again. Anyways, go read TCS. As always, it is a good read. I like the following quote: Soccer fans are a passionate bunch, so they will be outspoken about their opinions on all of these issues. Really outspoken. *Grin.*

More MLS news and views:
Salt Lake City's winning recipe. Yes, so this is the same article I linked to in the last post, but I figured that it is relevant enough to deserve a little blurb about it on my blog. I never would have pegged Salt Lake as a possible expansion team, but this article proves me wrong.
Wynalda: The future of MLS coaching. Wynalda always has something interesting to say, whether or not I agree with his opinions. The gist of this particular article is that former MLS players, e.g. Nowak, should coach MLS teams.
MSL expands to 12 teams. Reason for this link: Utah has the highest per-capita participation in organised soccer in the US with an estimated 200,000 players. I never knew that. Interesting tidbit of information.
MLS press conference in Utah. I like this article because it quotes various opening statements.
D.C. United Tops Nottingham Forest. Do you have any idea how many articles I have come across, with that very title?????!!!!! To be fair, I am simply linking to the first article I came across with that title. As of right now, United's home page has not posted any articles on the match, only that the match was a draw. According to first link I posted on the match, there was a shootout that D.C. United won 4-3 after playing Nottingham Forest to a 1-1 tie. Hopefully I will be able to post something more official later.

Dang it. I was wrong. It was Miami, not Tampa. Well, at least I was right, in that Tampa did not work out. (See here.)

Well, Salt Lake has been chosen as an expansion team. Hopefully it will work out. One of the previous two expansion teams in the past did not work out, if my memory serves me correctly (Tampa Bay, maybe?). Chicago worked out wonderfully, so hopefully these new expansion teams will work out, as well.

MLSnet.com does not say what the Salt Lake announcement will be about, but rumors are rampant on the Web. Here are a few headlines:
MLS expanding to Salt Lake, possibly L.A.. Um, I have news for you. LA already has a team. It is called the Galaxy. Do you really think that MLS will want to have two teams in one city? Granted, Major League Baseball has doubled up on cities (NY and Chicago), but MLS? You have got to be kidding me! Moving on...
MLS not expanding to area yet. Apparently, there was speculation about introducing a team to northeast Ohio, which would have been great. I expect that it would have gone over well there, although it would have put me in a very tight bind, as I am a dedicated Crew fan who happened to grow up and learn how to play soccer in northeast Ohio. Oh well, I guess I will not have to come to any decisions about that any time soon.
MLS OKs Expansion Team for Salt Lake City. The only newsworthy statement in this article is the following quote: A league source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the city will become the 12th MLS team as part of its 2005 expansion. That explains all the hype (even though my first thought when I heard about the announcement was that it was an expansion - after all, it has been rumored for some time that MLS has been planning on expanding).
Believe me, there are plenty of other articles on the subject that say essentially the same thing, but I have work to do. More on the subject after the announcement is made.

Crew Fan's articles of the day (as usual, they are listed merely in the order in which I find them):

Crew preparing to face New England. Do I really need to say why I picked this article for my list?
MLS: All-Star Game Starters

Do you have any idea of how many articles I came across that mention Freddy Adu being selected for the All-Star game?!?!?!?!? If you do not believe me, go to Google news and type in Freddy Adu or MLS!

So much for my attempt to post MLS standings weekly, for future comparison. I have an excuse for the few weeks I spent in Japan, but, I confess, I have been a slacker ever since! Confession aside, here is today's standings:

1. LA
2. KC
3. Metrostars
4. Colorado
5. Dallas
5. DC
6. Columbus
7. Chicago
8. San Jose
9. New England

Wow! I really need to plot out the standings for this year; they certainly have been a roller coaster!

*winces* I have certainly been quite a slacker this summer, when it comes to blogging! Oh well, here goes. Read this week's The Clean Sheet. You have to love the little blurb in the article about KC players and their love of crosswords.

This is not MLS-related, but Greece won Euro 2004. Congratulations, Greece!