There may not be a Valencia around to play in an All Star Game. Take a look at the headline of Sid Lowe’s weekly report from Spain.
Lovely. It gets worse.
I hope MLS has some kind of Plan B available if Valencia are deep in administration and/or playing in the second division. Is a simple East v. West, or Yanks vs. the World match that bad? I just hope MLS is aware of how bad of shape Valencia appear to be in.
Imagine this place filled with Mexicans…
CONCACAF brings the Gold Cup to, well, nearly everyone.
Here’s the preliminary schedule:
I really like this a lot. This will bring these Gold Cup matches to places they haven’t been before like Columbus, Oakland, etc, while also (hopefully) putting teams in the places where they can draw well and keep the positive momentum this tournament earned two years ago. Once the groups are formed, we’ll know exactly who goes where, but already you can formulate some ideas. That semifinal in the new Dallas stadium will surely involve Mexico. It’s hard to see the games at FIU not involving Haiti. The games here in DC will probably have El Salvador, Guatemala and/or Honduras.
My only question mark is the FieldTurf they’ll be using in Seattle, Miami, Foxboro and Dallas. It’ll be interesting to see what the reaction is to the stuff, especially since it seems to be so varied from venue-to-venue. CONCACAF says Giants Stadium will lay down grass for the final.
Peace in our sarong-covered time. “L’affaire Beckham” finally comes to a conclusion with what is being described as a “timeshare” arrangement. I dunno if something was lost with the translation, but I am unsure as to why Beckham’s PR people would want him associated with 2 bed, 2 bath duplex in Boca. I actually think that MLS as a league and negotiating entity won this battle, but the Galaxy as an actual soccer-playing team are somewhat hosed. What are they going to do with salary cap space that you know is gone come July? If you’re an LA fan, you can’t be feeling too good right now, can you? Mr. Loney, the eyes of the lonely Galaxy nation turn to you.
Manchester United continues to squeeze the life out the sport in England. I give them full credit for putting together a great team and to Ferguson for clearly being the best manager in England by a long distance, but come on, this is starting to get boring. They strolled past Fulham like they were hardly there. If United can get by Inter this week, I absolutely see them marching to the quintuple. End of story.
Time of first total panic of 2009 by DC United supporters: 7 p.m., 3/7/09. That’s the time most fans began hearing of United’s 3-0, two-sending off, two-injury bludgeoning at the hands of RSL in Charleston. Allow me to speak for the panicked masses. Reports from Carolina say that United looked like a complete and utter mess out there. Certainly it’s early, but another bad start to the regular season is going to make Soehn’s seat very, very hot as folks look for someone to blame.
Can someone remind folks in the Metroplex that they have a professional soccer team in town? Less than 5,000 seats sold for the home opener in Frisco? Wowza. I knew that Dallas wasn’t lighting the world on fire with its attendance numbers, but that is a total utter disgrace. According to Buzz’s report linked above, GM Michael Hitchcock has had ticketing removed from his portfolio of responsibilities. I would think so. But in classic HSG-management style, they correct the mistake once its far too late and now they’re probably still looking an embarrassing opening day gate. HSG’s motto should be “shutting the barn door after the cows have gotten out.”
I share EPL Talk’s taste in beer. I rarely agree with too much EPL Talk says, but if this story is anything to go on, they do have very good taste in beer. Anytime I find a bar with Fullers on tap, I am a very happy man. Most of the time, I just settle for a six pack from the wonderful folks at Total Wine and More (also known as reason #5,432 why Virginia remains better than Maryland).
Soccer fans seem to lead way jumping on World Baseball Classic bandwagon. From my totally anecdotal and incomplete research consisting of talking to my sports fan buddies, it seems that my friends who like both soccer and baseball are getting more into the World Baseball Classic than my friends who only like baseball. I guess it’s safe to say that soccer fans are for more comfortable with the concept of international compeition (and the idea that the USA might lose) than more blinkered baseball fans. Personally, I am loving the tournament. The USA-Canada game was outstanding, Japan looks like world-beaters, we’ve had two genuine upsets already (Holland over the Dominicans, and the Aussies beating Mexico), and Adam Dunn is single-handedly giving Nats fans like me reasons to be optimistic.
Fighting Talker 