We’ve Moved!

Please surf on over to our new site located at Bigsoccer!

Ringing in the changes for 2009

It’s been an amazing 2008 for Fighting Talker. I started this site back in March pretty much so I would annoy my friends less by not babbling about soccer as much. Needless to say, this site and the audience we now have has exceeded my expectations by an immeasurable amount. Obviously, it wouldn’t have been nearly this much fun without you, the readers, and both Ed and I thank you enormously for “tuning in” every day.

It’s with great pleasure then, that I announce that Fighting Talker is moving to become a featured blog at Bigsoccer.com. Yes, that Bigsoccer. We’ll be joining some of the best writers and photographers in American soccer like Dan Loney, Andy Mead, and Ollie Irish. Ed and I are both enormously honored to have been approached by Bigsoccer and are excited at the prospect of expanding our readership even more.

That said, with the move will come a few changes. Here is the new address. This site, fightingtalker.wordpress.com, will cease updating later this week. Hopefully, if all goes well, www.fightingtalker.com will begin routing to the Bigsoccer site later on this week as well.

For those of you that subscribe to the site via Google Reader, Bloglines, or other aggrigators, you will need to change the feed to this one linked here.

For now, the podcast’s links and RSS feeds remain the same. If that changes, we’ll be sure to let you know in the future.

My questions about St. Louis

Ives comes right out and endorses St. Louis as one of the next recipients of an MLS expansion franchise. He cites all the usual reasons people give when hyping up St. Louis like its history, heritage, youth teams, etc.

My question remains, if the market really cared about pro soccer that much, why does it not have a team above the PDL level? Heck, in Hermann Stadium, they even have a stadium that seems ideal for a USL-1 or USL-2 team. And yet, they haven’t had one.

A guess and a potential mess

Goff starts the trade rumblings in earnest today.

*MLS draft fever: 10 days and counting. More on that later today. Lots of trade rumblings, including a potential three-way deal involving Dallas and Toronto and another club. I also hear Dallas is in the market for a veteran left-side midfielder.

I have no idea what Dallas, Toronto, and Team X are up to but I am willing to bet that the left-sided midfielder on the market is Eddie Lewis of LA.

Don’t ever change, Antonio

Oh, Antonio Cassano, what would we do without you? When you’re not dating 17-year old water polo stars, throwing tantrums after getting sent off, or weeping on the job more than a Project Runway competitor -  you’re describing your interconnected relationship both with women and…. pastries.

Sampdoria striker Antonio Cassano’s Dico Tutto (Telling All) – reveals how he’s “done it with around 600 or 700 women in hotels”. “In Madrid it was easy because I lived in a hotel. The bell boy’s job was to bring me three pastries after sex. He would hand me the pastries, I would hand him the girl, and he’d return her into the night. Sex plus pastries – could it be any better?”

Don’t ever change, Antonio. Don’t ever change.

Fun Stuff from England

Ed here. I had a chance to watch a bit of the Tottenham-Wigan FA Cup match yesterday (which Spurs won, 3-1) on Setanta Broadband. Spurs are on to the fourth round, keeping them alive in both domestic Cup competitions with their upcoming Carling Cup two-legged semifinal vs. Burnley.

Early in the game, Spurs appeared to suffer an injury blow when Didier Zokora was struck in an unfortunate place (the produce section, the jigglies, the demilitarized zone – however you care to refer to the region) at close range by a teammate’s attempted clearance.

The commentators were not sympathetic. The incident got a good laugh out of the analyst, after which the PBP man offered this gem.

Who needs what entering the MLS draft?

We’re now t-minus two weeks to the 2009 MLS draft and I wanted to take some time to explore what teams need what as we enter the most busy part of MLS “silly season.” Of course, not all the needs I mention will be able to be filled by draftees, but it’s during the period before, during, and after the draft when many needs can get filled whether through the draft, or through deals. So I am trying to take all those into account here.

Today, I go over the Western Conference. On Monday, I’ll go through the East.

United linked with Veron yet again

It just refuses to go away, doesn’t it?

DC United remain interested in former Manchester United and Chelsea midfielder Juan Sebastian Veron.

Veron is weighing up his options at Estudiantes and has been linked with a move to Brazil during the January transfer window.

Should he indicate a willingness to leave Estudiantes, DC United will push to bring the midfielder to MLS. Even if they fail in January, DC United officials are confident they can land the 33 year-old when the next transfer window opens in June.

Just as with the Ghana friendly rumor, count me as extremely skeptical.

When Google News feeds go a bit wrong

That first story really isn’t what I had in mind when I added an “Arsenal News” feed to the site.

CONTEST: Who’s the Ugliest Person in MLS?

Can anyone in MLS compete with former Bulgarian international Trifan Ivanov in the ugliness department?

We here at Fighting Talker are always up for a good contest. Audience participation is what makes blogs go round, and Ed and I think we have a good one here for you.

Quite simply, who is the ugliest person in Major League Soccer? Back in my old radio days, we used to have an Ugliest Guy in the Big 10 competition, which was soon retired because no one could compete with the immortally ugly IU big man Tom Coverdale.

Well folks, who is the Tom Coverdale of MLS. It can be a coach, a player, even a fan.  Please note, I am working on a prize for this contest, I’ll announce it later this week when I finalize it.

To “enter,” just leave your answer and preferably a link to an appropriate picture (as evidence) as a comment below this post. Feel free to leave a witty comment with your image, as cleverness will always help if we’re dealing between two equally “fugly” entries.