Thierry Henry to Seattle FC?

It's the most wonderful time of the year. The MLS' 13th season is about to begin this weekend. The EPL season is coming down to a few more heated matches between serious contenders (Man U at 73 points, Chelsea! at 68, Arsenal at 67 & Liverpool at 59 trying to keep its 4th place spot away from crosstown rivals Everton). And the rumor mills are churning at a feverish pace.

If you didn't catch the Chelsea/Arsenal match on the Fox Sports Channel this past weekend, you missed a heckuva game. As busy as things have been of late, I settled for watching it over the course of Monday & Tuesday night (1st half Monday, 2nd half Tuesday). I maintained a soccer media block out. (Admittedly still not that hard to do here stateside). Arsenal have been playing below average - drawing in their previous 4 games. And Chelsea have been surging with their less than popular new manager Avram Grant. The Stamford Bridge faithful booed him loudly in the 2nd half when he made his substitutions. (Quite possibly game-winning substitutions!)

Our beloved FC Dallas will open their season up in Frisco's Pizza Hut Park this Sunday against Preki's Chivas USA at 2pm (Channel 52 - KFWD). Ante Razov & Mikel Galindo will start for the Goats.

Also Sunday: Fox Soccer Channel is showing the Rangers/Celtic match at 6pm CST (delayed) - one of the great sports rivalries - right up there with Yankees/Red Sox, Packers/Vikings, Lakers/Celtics.

The MLS rumor mill has been very active of late what with David Beckham's contract clause for MLS team ownership. I wonder where "The David Beckhams" will play? That's the other source of preseason rumors: Montréal, Quebec might be getting an expansion slot in the next couple of years. Might "The David Beckhams" play in Canada? The MLS has always stated that the league will eventually have a 2nd NYC team. Maybe Beckham will pay Pepe Pinton his $1 million for the NY Cosmos name. It's more likely that Beckham will purchase an existing club.

Then on the most recent World Soccer Daily podcast, Steven Cohen made mention of high level sources indicating that Seattle is in late-stage negotiations with France's all-time leading scorer Barcelona striker Thierry Henry to play for Seattle in their inaugural season next year 2009. This would explain those Gilette ads with Roger Federer, Tiger Woods & Thierry Henry.

20,000 attend pre-season match at Pizza Hut Park

(Photo courtesy of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Richard W. Rodriguez)
Thanks to Otto Gol for setting the wife and me up with choice tickets to the big UNICEF Charity Match against the LA Galaxy last night. We had a great time.

A few notes on the game: it felt like a regular season game what with the big Beckham crowd and the English National Team drama. All players were putting their full effort into the game. Coach Ruud Gullit has been busy in his first pre-season as coach of the Galaxy. They look like a different team. We were disappointed not to see Carlos "El Pescadito" Ruiz play for his old/new team, the Galaxy. He has a hamstring issue and didn't make the trip. No Juan Toja last night either unfortunately. Beckham's fit as a fiddle this year. Let's hope he stays fit this season. After his nice performance last night, he'll get his 100th cap vs. France this month. Barring an LA Galaxy MLS Cup win or Supporters' Shield where his play is a key part of team success, it'll be the last time he plays for England.

As for England's National Team scout Franco Baldini scouting Beckham at a charity pre-season match in Frisco, TX, well, it's a more than a bit of a ring toss. This Times of London report says that Becks will be called up for his 100th cap but denies that it will have had anything to do with his performance last night in Pizza Hut Park. The wife and I were in line at half time to get a couple of BBQ sandwiches. In front of us was this Italian guy with a Juventus baseball cap and Versace eyeglass frames. As he ordered his Pulled Pork sandwich, I wondered whether or not we were behind the very scout sent by England to evaluate Beckham's fitness! I hadn't bothered to check Google Images to see what this Franco Baldini looks like beforehand. (It wasn't Baldini after all, but it's good to see an Italian enjoying himself in North Texas at a professional soccer match enjoying the local cuisine.)

LA dominated the 1st half. LA Coach Ruud Gullit has definitely made an offseason impact on this team. They looked very sharp. A couple of players to look out for this year: Mike Randolph from Chino Hills, CA. He's really fast. Becks found him on a long ball to the left of Dario Sala and Randolph almost scored. And the former Red Bulls' goalie Steve Cronin. He looks tough to score against. Beckham & Donovan will find their mojo this season as well. Look for them to combine on some nice plays.

The game is nicely summarized here and here. So I won't bother trying to recap every little detail. FC Dallas finally put the pressure on in the 2nd half. There were a couple of missed shots. New kid Brek Shea made his home debut and scuffed a shot. (I used my digicam to take some very rough quality video of some of the plays. I've got Shea's flub in there too.) It's good that he got that out of the way in a pre-season match. He'll settle down with some more game time experience.



It was my wife's first visit to Frisco's Pizza Hut Park. She was really impressed with the stadium and enjoyed the game.

Frisco Traffic Notes: Driving north on the tollway at 6:55pm, we hit traffic a full mile south of the Main St. exit. So, it took us about 15 minutes to get through that and parking south of PHP & Frisco City Hall. Leaving the park after the game, we tried to avoid Main Street traffic and went south to access the Tollway from Cotton Gin Road. That proved to be a bad idea. Frisco is still a Minor League town traffic-wise. They have stop signs at the tollway & Cotton Gin Road. And right before the stop sign, the 2 lanes squeeze into one. Then you have to hurry across the frontage road to get under the overpass (no northbound stop sign or light) only to have yet another unprotected stop sign with southbound frontage road traffic speeding by as if lives depended on velocity. It's an act of bravery pointing your car into this onslaught.

Another Nice 2007 Review

This review by Paul Gardner of WorldSoccer.com was posted on SI.com yesterday. He takes note of the Beckham phenomenon's ups & downs but also highlights the perhaps more impactful 2007 undercurrent of Latin American players in the MLS. He tips the pen to Colombian Juan Pablo Angel in NY, Brazilian Emilio at DC United and fails to mention FC Dallas find Juan Toja from Colombia.

The review previews next season's expansion team, the resurrected San Jose Earthquakes. They are owned by the Oakland A's. Gardner explains the A's success on a limited player payroll through their use of Sabremetrics. Will "sabremetrics" take the expansion team back to their former strength as the team now known as the MLS Champs two-years running: Houston Dynamo? We are looking forward to seeing the results played out over the next couple of seasons.

Triumph and disaster

Beckham's first season in MLS showed mixed results

Posted: Monday December 31, 2007 4:02PM; Updated: Monday December 31, 2007 4:02PM

The most common view of David Beckham's MLS maiden voyage: on the bench. Simon Bruty/SI

By Paul Gardner, Special to SI.com, World Soccer

Question: When is a fiasco not a fiasco? Well, the answer has to be, "when it's David Beckham." His much-ballyhooed, incredibly hyped arrival in the U.S. to play for the Los Angeles Galaxy managed to take in, simultaneously, both ends of Kipling's equation: both triumph and disaster.

On the positive side, Major League Soccer immediately gained a ton of much-needed publicity, air time, ink, gossip-column stuff and online chat. And however cynical one might feel about that, it's a very big deal for soccer to get itself into the headlines in the U.S.

It can, of course, be argued that it wasn't really the sport that was getting all this attention; it was the personal attractions of superstar Beckham and his show-business wife, Victoria, which attracted the news hounds. And, by and large, that would be true. But it hardly matters. Getting MLS talked about, especially when the talk involves lots of money, is the important thing.

MLS commissioner Don Garber exalted that the publicity was far beyond anything the league had dared to imagine. And it sold tickets, too. There was immediate demand for Galaxy season tickets, while the other 12 clubs found that their home games against L.A. were suddenly a hot item.

That heady, euphoric atmosphere ought to have been shattered by the fact that Beckham was hardly to be seen on the field. He arrived injured, was injured again, played in only seven games and scored one goal. Clubs that had sold huge amounts of tickets for their game against the Galaxy found that the star attraction was sitting on the bench.

The Galaxy didn't help matters by being a decidedly awful team. They failed to make the playoffs, and coach Frank Yallop -- clearly exasperated and worn down by the Beckham circus -- quit at the end of the season.

But even that turned into something of a success, for the Galaxy then brought in Ruud Gullit, and "sexy soccer" became the theme for next year's team. So it can be argued that 2007 should not be seen as a flop or even as a mildly damp squib. Rather, it was a dry run -- we now await the real arrival of Beckham, a fit Beckham, in '08.

There are clear signs that Beckhamania will mean the Galaxy adopt the role of a touring team, traveling overseas in the offseason (to Asia in particular) to play exhibition games for large fees.

The Galaxy's first such game -- in Australia against Sydney FC last month -- continued the good-news-bad-news theme. L.A. lost 5-3, and Beckham picked up another injury. But he did score a great free-kick goal, and the attendance was an amazing 80,295.

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By Paul Gardner, Special to SI.com, World Soccer

The explosion of Latinos like Cuauhtémoc Blanco ended up being a bigger story than Beckhamania during the '07 MLS season. Simon Bruty/SI

Gullit now has to learn the ins and outs of signing players under the MLS single-entity system -- it's not straightforward -- because the team is clearly inadequate.

Amid the frantic Beckham saga, some words of quiet sense came from MLS deputy commissioner Ivan Gazidis, who pointed out that "the real MLS story for 2007 was that MLS was importing players from South America who are very significant players in our league."

What Gazidis didn't say was that this represents a clear change of direction for the league which, for the past 12 years, has been much more oriented towards bringing in European players. The Latin American trend has been quickly successful -- Brazilian Luciano Emilio (D.C. United) was the league's top scorer with 20 goals, one ahead of Colombian Juan Pablo Ángel (New York Red Bulls).

The Latinos have also brought flair and excitement -- the arrival of Mexico's Cuauhtémoc Blanco with the Chicago Fire immediately brought out the colorful Mexican fans and transformed the team into a championship contender. Blanco's individual skills were honored when he won the goal of the year award.

Gazidis also mentioned that MLS is stepping up its study of youth development programs in other countries. "We have really been going around the world, and specifically to Argentina, Brazil and Mexico," he said. Again, the emphasis on Latin America is new, but long overdue.

The Latin theme has also been taken up -- again tardily -- by the U.S. Soccer Federation. President Sunil Gulati took an unprecedented step in appointing Wilmer Cabrera as coach of the national Under-17 team and head coach at the USSF's Bradenton (Fla.) Academy -- a full-time school for the country's best 15- and 16-year-olds. Cabrera, a former Colombian international who now resides in the U.S., becomes the first Hispanic to hold a head coaching position with any U.S. national team.

Returning to MLS, after a poor championship final in the past two years, MLS Cup 2007 was a reasonably exciting game. The finalists, as in '06, were the Houston Dynamo and the New England Revolution -- and the result was the same, a win for the Dynamo. The luckless Revs represent another example of triumph and disaster within MLS -- they have reached four of the last six finals and lost them all, while managing to score just two goals.

For the New York Red Bulls, there was only failure. Another poor season ended with the dismissal of coach Bruce Arena. But where the ex-national team boss was left looking for a new job, the other major coaching casualty, Yallop, moved smoothly a few hundred miles up California's coastline to take charge of the San Jose Earthquakes. This is a new team (the old Earthquakes, which Yallop had also coached, moved to Houston in '06 and became the Dynamo).

Yallop's task of assembling a new lineup (the Earthquakes bring the number of teams in MLS up to 14) started with the expansion draft. The draft provided him with a basis of experienced and moderately salaried players, after which he can set about adding a few stars including, no doubt, a highly-paid "designated player."

There is another aspect of special interest in the Earthquakes' signings. The new club is owned by the same group that operates the Major League Baseball's Oakland Athletics. The A's have proved very successful over the past few seasons at maintaining a high level of success despite operating with a much lower budget than teams such as the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox.

This "cost-effectiveness" results from the policies of the A's general manager, Billy Beane, who has established a reputation for canny player deals on the basis, mainly, of specialized assessment of players' statistics. (The system is known as sabermetrics, from the acronym SABR, the Society for American Baseball Research.) Beane's methods have proved highly successful -- in '06, for instance, the A's had the fifth-best record in baseball with only the 20th-highest payroll.

Beane has expressed great interest in soccer and is keen to see whether his methods can be applied to the sport. He will get his chance to find out with the Earthquakes. His methods tend to pay scant attention to the subjective judgments of scouts and coaches, and more to evidence of "objective" playing stats. Whether soccer stats -- a comparatively recent discipline -- lend themselves to that sort of reliable interpretation, or whether the whole system appeals to Yallop, remains to be seen.

As for a quick assessment of '07 -- maybe it was the year of Beckham after all, with more to come; or maybe it marked the year when, at long last, American soccer began to pay serious attention to its potentially huge Hispanic fan base.

Or could it be that '07 will be remembered as the year when Beane upset the traditional soccer methods of player assessment? Only kidding of course ... but remember that word: sabermetrics. Soccer fans, you have been warned.

2007 MLS Season in Review

Happy Thanksgiving, Soccer-Point readers!

As much as it pains me to admit, the main question to be asked about the MLS & Soccer in America remains: "If a goal is scored in the sports wilderness, does it make a sound?" Last Sunday's MLS Cup is a case in point. It was a great game between two perennial MLS powers in the New England Revolution & the Houston Dynamo. It was a rematch of last year's championship game. There was Placido Domingo singing the national anthem. There was a military jet flyover. It was even televised live on ABC.

Yet the most remarkable feature of the game was the half empty RFK Stadium where MLS Cup 2007 was held. Casual observers note that perhaps the league front office was planning for an LA Galaxy presence in that game with a certain David Beckham selling out the 57,000 seats. Don't worry, the decision for where next year's MLS Cup has already been made. And, yes, it's going to be held in a more modest facility: the Home Depot Center - a 27,000 seat capacity Soccer Specific Stadium that is home to two MLS teams: David Beckham's Los Angeles Galaxy & Preki's Chivas USA.

Beckham's arrival on these shores has caused dissent in both Europe & America. "Beckham's washed up. Now that he's playing in America, he's not good enough for Europe." And, "Who's the pretty boy on the bench? What's he trying to do anyway? We don't watch soccer!" Seems as if to believe that Beckham in America matters at all you have to either be LA Galaxy GM Alexi Lalas or believe in the Tooth Fairy.

But before the Soccer Muggles start again with the put-downs & the insults about The Beautiful Game, let's recap what ended up being a landmark year for the game in this country. 2007 has been the most important year in Major League Soccer history since its inception in 1996.

• The signing & arrival of David Beckham, arguably one of the most recognized faces on the planet, brought unprecedented attention and fanfare in a non-World Cup-year. The media elite have been slagging off the arrival of Beckham because of the injuries & lack of game time. But they're missing the ball. In one fell swoop, the league acquired a media presence it never before had. This goes beyond raising the level of play. It is raising the profile of the league in ways that marketers will no longer ignore.

The Beckham factor has helped boost the MLS's bottom line in virtually every area, even though ankle and knee injuries restricted the former England skipper to just five appearances after he joined Los Angeles in July. Crowd averages (16,770) were the highest since the inaugural season. Television ratings were up 25 per cent. Shirt sales were up 800 per cent, largely on the back of Galaxy's [Beckham's] No.23. Even the MLS website's traffic jumped 80 per cent.

• Soccer Specific Stadiums in Colorado, Toronto & Los Angeles debuted to much acclaim. And this Lamar Hunt-proposed MLS "SSS" initiative continues with the Real Salt Lake stadium to open next year and proposals underway in D.C., K.C., San Jose, New England, Philadelphia & St. Louis. Houston has become MLS "Title Town". So it would be hard to believe that they wouldn't get their act together for a downtown "SSS" stadium.
  
• Club Tournaments: SuperLiga 2007 launched an important international initiative for the MLS & U.S. Soccer. Thanks to David Beckham's inclusion in the festivities, the SuperLiga tournament was a terrific success. Beckham scored his first Galaxy goal during the semifinal match against DC United and Home Depot Center went wild on national television. More importantly, MLS clubs & US players will have regular exposure to Mexican league teams. Congratulations go to Pachuca for winning the $1,000,000 final.
• Big Games: Aside from the fun SuperLiga games, LA Galaxy at Giants Stadium vs. the New York Red Bulls will be regarded as a watershed moment for soccer in this country. 66,ooo fans witnessed this regular season game at Giants Stadium. I regret not having subscribed to the ten year old Fox Soccer Channel that night. I did subscribe the following week though. That gave me the chance to see Germany trounce England at Wembley Stadium - in a part of the world where an international friendly brings together their two countries' leaders. It also brought the Fox Football Fone-In into our home on Tuesday nights. On Bastille Day, Juan Toja & FC Dallas came back from 3 goals down in DC to tie Juan Moreno, Emilio & the rest of the 2007 Supporters' Shield winners D.C. United. In the last game of the Western Conference Semifinals, FC Dallas lost to the mighty Houston Dynamo in a come from behind win in front of 30,000 rabid Heat Mizers in Houston. The Hoops can soothe their defeat somewhat knowing that they lost to the 2007 MLS Cup winners.
  
• Ticket Sales in Toronto & Announcement of new franchises: San José Earthquakes & Seattle. Toronto FC is an MLS ticket-selling phenomenon. The Seattle franchise will be a huge hit in a town that is about to lose its first professional franchise in the Seattle Supersonics. Seattle's MLS team will play in one of the best stadiums in the country: Qwest Field. Given that they've already sold 5,000 season ticket packages and that they won't start until 2009, I think it's a safe bet that they'll be strongly embraced by the Seattle crowds. OK Supersonics? Please.
  

Suggestions for 2008:

Major League Soccer: Embrace the Social Web! Twellman's spectacular playoff bicycle kick was nowhere to be found on YouTube after the Eastern Conference Finals. (Two weeks later I was able to find one) The MLS should encourage this kind of interaction. The MLS website looks like crap on Firefox. Soccer fans are tech savvy. Get with it.

FC Dallas: Play the SuperLiga Mexican team games at the Cotton Bowl. You're guaranteed a stadium full of Pachuca or Chivas fans. That looks great on TV. As much as I enjoy the games at Pizza Hut Park in Frisco, I sure miss the Dallas Burn games at the Cotton Bowl. The Toronto FC games at BMO Field look great on TV for a couple of reasons: they're packed full of young, urban, rabid fans with lots of disposable income. And they're buying lots of Molson Goldens and Toronto FC scarves. Also, the beautiful Toronto skyline looks great on TV. It gives that event a much more momentous feel than a game played out closer to the Oklahoma border than to downtown Dallas.

As Dwayne De Rosario said on Tuesday night's Fox Football Fone-In in regards to a potential SSS in Houston: "If you want to compete with the major sports in America, Football, Basketball & Baseball, you have to compete wherever they're at. And that's downtown. That's the prime location." So, while I know we have a terrific soccer facility up in Frisco, I daydream about a day when pro soccer returns to downtown Dallas...perhaps off the banks of the Trinity, maybe someday in a resurgent Cotton Bowl. What? A guy's gotta dream.

Twellman Thrills 'Em, ESPN Crawls

What a goal!

A chilly night in New England witnessed the bicycle kick goal of the year. In the 38th minute, Taylor Twellman followed a blooper up in the air all the way down to his tippie-toes. What a beaut!

Whenever FC Dallas faces New England, Taylor Twellman always has his way with our Hoops. So it's a relief to be able to root for him against the Chicago Fire. And what U.S. Soccer fan doesn't love to root against the Chicago Fire's Designated Player Cuauhtemoc Blanco? It's an instinctual response. And in that sense, it's great to have the Club America legend in our league.

Now that I have the Fox Soccer Channel, I have a basis of comparison for the different networks' soccer coverage. The Fox Soccer Channel is a premium station on any cable or satellite service. So perhaps it's unfair to expect too much from Basic Subscription ESPN.

Here's my gripe: Do we need to have the sports crawler on during almost the entire broadcast? Whatever happened the the 58/28 updates? That would be acceptable. But what is the point of cluttering up the beautiful pitch with the latest NBA scores? As a soccer viewer, is it really that important that I have up-to-the-minute news from the folks in Bristol? Spare me.

If anything, show us some frickin' soccer scores from around the world. We're SOCCER viewers, you numskulls. Get a clue. It's as if they feel embarrassed that they're broadcasting fútbol. So to compensate, they put the crawler on the screen for most of the game. "Earth to Bristol: It's on the Deuce! No one else is watching anyhow!"

That's my Friday rant. Dave O'Brien doesn't really bother me all that much. (I think he bothers Wynalda some, though.) Sure, Glenn Davis would be a better play-by-play guy. But, O'Brien doesn't offend me. But lose the crawler, Bristol.

We're Not Going To Take It!

Yes, I know Twisted Sister does not make it on the air waves anymore. But, the title of their album "Stay Hungry" says it all for FCD. Back in July, FCD was hungry and had a more youthful exuberance. Some injuries crept up around that time and they signed some slacker named Denilson (aka De-nada-son = The son of nothing much). Regardless of his signing, the one time adolescent intensity has since vanished. This is typical for FCD. It seems every year when they feel they have accumulated enough points for the playoffs, they hang up the boots and attentions are elsewhere. Now, they are scrambling to regain the magic they once had in the first half of this season.

Here are some suggestions for FCD as they approach the playoffs.

1. Play team defense. The reason the back line is weak is because no one else is coming to help. Defenses only excel when the whole team helps. Get back on D and rebuild the Big Red Wall.
2. Play young. Need a reference. Look at Dee Snyder above. Simply put, the young are hungry. Any player not hustling and not playing defense, get them out of the game. Keep the young guys in the game and good things will happen. Keep the old guys in the game and the same predictable sleepy sloth match will unfold. The young are hungry and the old are not. Oh and, start Ray Burse, Jr. in goal.
3. Play smart. Get back on defense, chase down loose balls, work together, pass quick. Trying to look impressive by juggling the ball while your teammates streak to an open area to receive your pass late while they're covered is stupid. If you are not going to pay attention to your teammates, please do not come to the park.

FCD played Houston 4 times this year. They earned 1 point against their in-state rival from these matches going 0-3-1. Things do not look good for FCD based on these results. If FCD could get the swagger it had in Superliga and the first half of the season, then they may have a chance.

Grasping at Straws ... In the last two years, FCD has taken on Colorado and lost in the first round of the playoffs. During those seasons, FCD dominated Colorado. I think Colorado won maybe one game over those two regular seasons against FCD. If the strange MLS history repeats itself, then FCD will win. Then again, they are playing the battle harden Dynamo ... The glimmer of hope rests on Arturo Alvarez, Abe Thompson, Juan Toja, Dax McCarthy, Chris Gbandi, Drew Moor, Carlos Ruiz and Kenny Cooper. If these guys rise above, the others will follow.

Last point ... FCD must win the first game by two goals. If they win by one, tie or lose, then they are done. A two goal cushion may be enough for them to survive in Houston. Anything less is another early exit.

If FCD wants to get fired up or have a good laugh, the link below should help. You will thank me for this one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gs37NSLy3z4

Toronto FC to share BMO Field with Argonauts?

Flipping through the soccer feeds and I stumbled upon a thorny thread on BigSoccer.com. The word out of Toronto is that the CFL's Toronto Argonauts are looking into a possible move from Rogers Centre (aka The Sky Dome) to Canada's National Soccer Specific Stadium (SSS), BMO Field. This story starts at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis. The Colts have the smallest stadium in the NFL. Owner Jim Ursay is threatening to dump Indy for Toronto if he doesn't get a brand new state-of-the-art football stadium.

So what happens in Indy may or may not launch the first foreign NFL team.

What does this have to do with the MLS? Well, this would paint BMO Field with those cruddy yardage markings. Nothing spoils a soccer match like yardage markers. It was painful to watch the Revs beat us the other night up in Gillette Stadium: mostly because the field was almost unrecognizable. You couldn't tell when the ball was out-of-bounds or not. It was a butt-ugly spectacle.

The MLS has to stick to its guns on soccer-specific stadiums. BMO Field, despite Toronto FC's tough 1st season, is a success story in the world of SSS: sellout games, great atmosphere, beautiful views. It would be unforgivable if the league allowed it to go mixed-use on a permanent basis.

The Brimstone Cup 2007

OK, so I had no idea that there was such thing as The Brimstone Cup. I was watching the Fox Soccer Channel's "Fox Football Fone-In" this week. Nick & Steven's guest was none other than FC Dallas Coach Steve Morrow. So they're asking him about the season so far. "Great year, besotted with some tough injuries, but we've done really well all considering." And they're asking him about the playoff picture. "Would've loved to have sewn things up in Boston. But we had a tough night."

Then he mentions something about the "Bridgestone Cup" and the Chicago Fire game. And I'm thinking to myself, is Bridgestone Tires headquartered in Chicago? (Nope, they're a Japanese conglomerate) Why are we playing for a "Bridgestone Cup"?

Well, it turns out we've been playing the Brimstone Cup for 6 years now. And every time we play the Chicago Fire, it's on the line. The Cup is on the line tomorrow night in Frisco, TX on national TV ESPN2 at 7pm. Tune in. Boo Blanco. And GO FC Dallas! GO HOOPS!

The Wide World of Fútbol

I just returned from a really nice trip to Montréal, QC (despite American Airlines' attempts to sabotage our experience). Yonder north of Burlington, Vermont lay Montréal: a beautiful city with a wonderful international vibe. The cuisine is out of this world. (The serving sizes are downright American!) The people are unabashedly friendly. "Pas posible!" you say?. Vendors, shops & restaurants readily accept American dollars and hand you back Canadian change, zesty Montréal Brisket & Cuban cigars. Order any beer at any dive in Canada, and you get bubbly gold. Gambling is legal. It's an American Dream!

And Quebecers love their sports. Montréal still mourns the loss of its beloved baseball Expos (Expos paraphernalia is ubiquitous, t-shirts, ball caps, etc.)

Montréal, not Canton

Montréal, it turns out, is the birthplace of modern American Football. British soldiers garrisoned in Montréal in the late 19th Century introduced a variation of their rugby football that has since evolved into its various forms today: the NFL, the CFL and the darling of summer: the Arena Football League. Nothing in my American upbringing would have led me to think that Canada was the breadbasket of American Football. We hiked up from downtown Montréal to the Parc Mont Royal (Montréal's Central Park). All along the way, we heard what we thought were flocks of Canadian geese. Au contraire! After a steep climb up the steps towards the Kondiaronk Belvedere (sure wish someone had told me there was a tram we could have taken!), we realized that what we were hearing weren't Canadian geese, but rather the cheers from nearby Molson Stadium of Alouettes' fans celebrating a victory against the BC Lions. And it's a very odd sensation to watch the Alouettes play on TV and hear the French language play-by-play. But their passion and enthusiasm is unmistakable.

During this trip we also had a chance to meet a Canadian lobbyist from Toronto. I happened to bring up the great Galaxy/FC Toronto game last month. And it turns out he had been to that game in person at BMO Field! He raved about FC Toronto (even though they've had a rough first season). BMO Field in Toronto has one of the most spectacular views in the sport: overlooking downtown Toronto's skyline. It also happens to be the National Soccer venue for the Canadians. So they play most of their big international games there. FC Toronto has sold out its season. Yes, that's right. A Major League Soccer franchise has a team that sells out regularly. Their fans are positively feverish with the fútbol spirit. They are young, upwardly mobile, urban-dwelling fans with a lot of loose change for Molsons, Labatts and FC Toronto soccer scarves. This bodes well for another Canadian franchise in the MLS. Vancouver? Montreal? Just make certain that the soccer-specific stadiums up north have retractable domes.

I watched the end of the FC Dallas/FC Toronto game from Canada. The Canadian broadcast team was pretty weak. They had a Canuck and a Brit on there. I'll cut them some slack because of how long it's been since FC Toronto has scored a goal. Frisco's Pizza Hut Park pitch had American football yardage markers all over. Why does a soccer-specific stadium have football stripes on it? But I'm very happy that locally we have Brad Sham. He's a broadcasting giant in DFW. He could have easily been a national play-by-play guy. But all the same, I'm glad we have him all to ourselves here in Big D.

Happy Birthday, Cristobal! Soccer-Point blogger Cristobal Cuarenton steered me in the direction of the "Fox Football Fone-In". I had recently begun listening to the podcasts of "World Soccer Daily" with Steven Cohen. And, as it happens, he co-hosts "Fox Football Fone-In" on the Fox Soccer Channel every Tuesday night with Nick Webster. (Thanks, Cristobal for the tip.) The two hosts, both ex-pat Brits, seem to be having a marvelous time talking futbol from L.A. They are nicely sun-tanned. They get along famously. Their humor & enthusiasm is contagious. They aren't snooty at all towards their American cousins. And the American callers are real soccer fans who follow the sport very carefully. Viewing the "Fone-In" is like sidling up to a couple of blokes at the local pub to hear them spout off about their beloved sport. They have great guests on the show. The first time I watched them they had Johnny Rotten on there. Turns out, he's a huge Gunner. They had Preki on last week. He has done an OUTSTANDING coaching job at Chivas USA. They're in first place in the West now after their Super Clasico victory Thursday night on ESPN2 against the lowly LA Galaxy. This past week's guest was Chivas player Jesse Marsh, the guy that tackled Becks a couple of weeks ago and a melee ensued. Nick & Steven can chatter away about the whole wide world of soccer: from Serie A in Italy to the EPL, Spain's La Liga, Australia's A-League and Le Championnat. That's a lot of soccer to cover.


Years ago we loved watching ABC's Wide World of Sports. Jim McKay's opening segment remains one of those few sports anthology shows along with NFL Films, the Olympics & ABC's The Superstars that gave me the chills. (OK, ABC's The Superstars was cheesy. But who didn't love their TV Theme Music: Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Jesus Christ Superstar"?)

Major League Soccer has its anthology soccer show now: It's called "David Beckham's Soccer USA". After this summer, you could question the judgment of programming chiefs naming the show after David Beckham. But this show is also televised in the UK. So they've got to convince otherwise unsuspecting Englishmen to watch Major League American Soccer. But I think this kind of show is very important in translating the sport to the American audience. The League has to get the stories across in this medium. I'm thinking specifically about a few passages in the NY Cosmos book I read this summer: "Once In A Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the NY Cosmos", the companion piece to last year's wonderful documentary. In the late 70's, the NASL really wanted a big time TV network contract to show their games weekly. But one of the ABC guys tried to convince them to instead go with a weekly anthology style show along the lines of the Wide World of Sports. The book goes on to explain how the network aired the games on Saturday afternoons when no one would be around at home to watch the games. The ratings were abominable.

October 28th, the NFL will take their product for another overseas exhibition in their International Series. This time it will be the Miami Dolphins squaring off against the NY Giants at Wembley Stadium. It appears that the NFL has shrunken their European operations so as to retool their efforts and focus on the UK.


It's very exciting to have the NFL season once again underway. I'm a huge Cowboys' fan. But the NFL has a much bigger challenge trying to sell their sport overseas than Major League Soccer has in getting a foothold in American Sports.

My Galaxy Jersey Just Came in the Mail

Wow, Becks out for all of September and probably most of October. I can't remember how long the MLS season is, but I get the feeling that LA won't be making the playoffs. Does that mean Beckham won't be playing any more in 2007?

David's arrival to play in the US has increased the interest in Major League Soccer in Europe. I'll agree to that, if only from a soap opera angle. It's unfortunate that he's now injured, but for some reason I figured something like this would happen.

(Beckham Photo courtesy AFP: Robyn Beck)

On the other side of things, guys like Keller and McBride continue to impress at Fulham (though McBride is out for the next couple of months himself), DaMarcus Beasley now plays for Rangers and recently scored a goal, and more than a handful of English teams have American players that have earned starting positions. Brad Friedel is by far one of the best keepers in the league; all of the US keepers play starting positions for English teams. It's those players that tend to earn more European respect. At least that's my perception as I have conversations with ex-Pats from around the world.

Elsewhere in Europe, it will be interesting to see what happens to Freddy Adu. He seems destined for the subs bench for the next little while, but assuming he gets an opportunity, he might just impress a few people, too.

Week after week, these players tend to keep a low profile, and quietly go about the task of gaining more experience. I'm just surprised that more players aren't following their lead. True, Fulham FC probably has more American players than any other Premiership club, but I'm certainly not saying that's the reason that they're currently in 2nd to last place. In fact, I'm saying quite the opposite. I think they're getting some excellent experience playing against some really really good players from around the world.

I seem to recall former US National Team Coach Steve Sampson saying something back in '94 or '98 like, "The US will win the world cup in about 12 years," and I'm not seeing that materialize. I'll excuse the loss to Sweden and consider that a bad day out at a friendly, but more US players need to get out and get some experience playing outside of the US. The MLS cannot afford to bring in another Becks to try to raise the level of play. They'll go bankrupt. Besides, one Becks cannot completely change the make up of a team. LA still look like they're going to hold up the Western Conference.

At least I got my jersey before it becomes a collectors' item.

Denilson in Big D

The Hunt Sports Group & FC Dallas are going to put Major League Soccer's Designated Player Rule (aka "The Beckham Rule") to use in its signing this week of Brazilian midfielder Denílson de Oliveira Araújo. A little "Jogo Bonito" might be all that's needed to sweep the Hoops into the MLS Cup (November 18th in RFK Stadium) for the first time in the club's 11 year history.

He won't be arriving as a very familiar name here in Texas. Aside from international glory on the 2002 World Cup Champion Brazil team, he played in Spain's La Liga for Real Betis Balompié (Sevilla) from 2001-2005. After Spain, he went to play in Bordeaux. A year later, Bordeaux was unable to match his salary demands. Off he went to Saudi Arabia to play for Al Nasr in Riyadh where he must've found little beyond riyal paradise: a soccer mirage. Come on now, a swinging, young Brazilian soccer star in Saudi Arabia? What was he thinking?!

If the contractual negotiations are any indicator, Denilson, 27, could prove to be inconsistent. The talks are rumored to have gone back and forth: frustratingly fickle, lasting all summer and having ended on a variety of occasions without a contract. On his Wikipedia entry, he's described as:

A player of outstanding close control and dexterity, Denílson is renowned for his 'stand still' stepovers, with many referring to the skill as the "Denílson".

This could be a very sly signing on behalf of Coach Steve Morrow. He & GM Michael Hitchcock have brought in some wonderful talent from south of the border. The Denilson contract won't be for anything in the range of the David Beckham's signing. It will be interesting to find out how much of a financial gamble FC Dallas are taking here.

DOWNLOAD THE NEW FC DALLAS FIGHT SONG!

Adidas and the MLS have teamed up to bring some Rock n Roll to each team. FC Dallas is represented by non other than Dallas' own Polyphonic Spree. Their stadium rocker is called HOOPS YES! and will hopefully be played at every opportunity during play. Its got a lot of drums and chants that is right in any true soccer fans wheelhouse. I can just hear all the drum lines in Pizza Hut Park playing along with this. I must admit my nubile soccer mind was confused by the terminology of HOOPS but I'm told that's what their stripes on their uniforms are called. What's so cool about this is that they make it downloadable for FREE and it's all legal! go here to check it out


http://www.adidas.com/us/campaigns/mls/content/default.asp

Within Reach: Soccer-Point USA

I'm beside myself that I didn't get to watch the LA Galaxy play the New York Red Bulls at Giants Stadium Saturday night. Yes it was a regular season Major League Soccer game. And no, it wasn't my hometown favorite: FC Dallas. This is the first time I remember ever being upset about not being able to watch a non-World Cup soccer match. I would have recorded it had it been available.

ESPN didn't pick up this duel in the Meadowlands. The ESPN programming heads must've been really disappointed that they opted out of the game. I don't have the Soccer Package on the Dish Network. That means no Fox Soccer Channel, no Fox Sports Espanol, no Gol TV, no Setanta Sports. (As a result of this, I'm seriously considering adding the Soccer package next season.)

This is a big indicator for me. "Soccer-Point" is the goal, the ultimate objective of Major League Soccer: to take the game to the top level of sports in the US and to be at the forefront of sports fans everywhere. We're talking big network television contracts, more huge sponsorship & naming rights deals and national & local coverage. I'm convinced that soccer has reached the same point that American Football reached in the late 60's in terms of national interest. You can feel it in the air.

Saturday night in the swamps of Jersey, soccer from an American professional league was the focal point. We're not talking about a preseason summer friendly between a visiting Real Madrid & Manchester United. In NYC, the LA Galaxy/New York Red Bulls game was the talk of the town. Beckham & 17-year old phenom Jozy Altidore toured soccer camps in Harlem on a goodwill tour. There was plenty of talk about the match-up before the game.

And then the game! What a shoot-out! Beckham had two beautiful assists. Jozy Altidore countered with 2 goals. Juan Pablo Angel, the Colombian Red Bulls striker scored. I'm so bummed I missed this game.

John Lopez over at the Houston Chronicle wrote a fine column on Friday ("Beckham only part of reason for league's higher profile") that sums up a lot of things that have been on my mind about the state of soccer in this country. In comparison to our big three sports:

"The big stars are not implicated in felonious crimes like dogfighting and triple shootings. It [this country] needs a sport where there is no taint from steroids. There are no puffed-up, record-breaking home run kings with dour moods and surly demeanors. There are no Tim Donaghys fixing games."

Having watched my share of soccer this summer thanks to the staggered ankle-injury delayed arrival of David Beckham, I am really enjoying uninterrupted play and getting into the flow of the game. I have grown to appreciate Abel Xavier's clutch defensive play. I envy Hawaiian Brian Ching's speed and swiftness for Houston (a tough loss tonight for the Hoops because of him!). Landon Donovan finally has someone to pass him the ball. Juan Toja & Juan Pablo Angel are two fine Colombians making their own potent impact on the American game.

I am closely following the rest of this great 2007 MLS season. A year after a disappointing showing for the US in the 2006 World Cup, it is the US pro league that is catching headlines and coming into its own. Well done, indeed!

Becks scores his first goal for the LA Galaxy

David Beckham finally had his chance to start a game for his new side: The LA Galaxy.

The SuperLiga 2007 semifinal game against DC United was televised here in the DFW area on TeleFutura in Spanish. It’s too bad that ESPN didn’t televise this one as David Beckham’s “first game in the US”. Because last night’s game had all the elements of a hallmark national broadcast.

After the tough East Coast swing that the Galaxy took last week, the team looked primed, loosey-goosey & ready for the Home Depot Center duel. DC United must have not expected a completely different team than the LA Galaxy they dominated against back at RFK last week. But that's what they got. With Becks as the new Galaxy captain, the team showed renewed vigor and organization. The LA defense was well assembled. There were plenty of stabbing attacks into DC United territory. And there was the free kick that everyone's talking about today. Mr. Beckham bent it like, well, Beckham. He also had a really nice assist to Landon Donovan in the second half.

The game was a blast to watch. It really is a shame that this wasn't the way that the LA Galaxy debuted Beckham. There were a lot of empty seats in the stands. But those that did show up and watched on TV, saw a real barn burner. It puts the Galaxy in the finals of the SuperLiga against Pachuca on Augugst 29th. And psychologically, this victory gives them a real boost for the remainder of the MLS season. While they're still an outside chance to get in the playoffs, they are a lot closer today than they were at this time yesterday.

Drew Carey on Soccer

Drew Carey has sort of become a celebrity booster for Soccer in America. (The Jack Nicholson of the LA Galaxy.) His brash American personality comes across loud & clear in this little piece from a German mag.

From Drew Carey's MySpace page:

Here's the draft of an article I wrote for a German soccer magazine, "Kicker". I just turned it in tonight and am waiting for their notes.

Hey world, if you think you hate the United States now, just wait. Because little by little, year by year, we're getting better and better at the sport you call your own. And soon, as soon as ten years from now, we're going to own it.
Think about it. There's 298 million people living in the United States right now. How many does your country have, huh? Unless you live in China, the answer is "not as many". And we only need so many of them to grow up playing soccer. Because on the world stage, it's just our best 11 against your best 11. And Im telling you, brother, it's getting to the point where your best 11 just arent going to be enough.
We're already ranked number 4 in the world by FIFA. Yeah, I think it's a mistake too, but considering the pool of athletes that are drawn to soccer in the US, it's something, isn't it? And as that talent pool grows bigger each year, which it does, it's only a matter of time before a kid who would've been a hard-hitting defensive back in the NFL becomes a hard-hitting defensive back in the MLS instead. Can you imagine the international damage some of these guys could do if they could only learn to kick a ball instead of throw it?
Now look, I know that not everyone reading this hates the United States. Some of you only resent the United States. Some of you don't hate or resent us, but are still disappointed in us. How come the Americans are always starting wars? Why are their movies so predictable and bad? Why must they poison our children with all of their burgers and fried chicken?
Well, get this: One day, before your children are grown, the United States is going to win the World Cup, and there's nothing you can do to stop it. Go ahead and try. Mobilize some students and take to the streets. Pass a UN resolution or two. It won't matter.
And when we do win the World Cup, we're going to be just as obnoxious about it as we are about everything else that we do well.
May God help you all.

DC United drop kick Galaxy at Sold Out RFK

Big night for the LA Galaxy & Major League Soccer last night at RFK Stadium. A few observations: It played beautifully on the ESPN2 national broadcast (yes, I skipped the Cowboys' first preseason game against the Colts for this). The field looked fine (besides the Washington Nationals' infield clearly visible on one side of the field). The crowd was great. DC's Screaming Eagles had a nice banner welcoming golden boy David Beckham: "We sing better than your wife!"

Dave O'Brien, Eric Wynalda, Tommy Smyth & Allen Hopkins did a bang up job broadcasting the game on ESPN2 (The Deuce!). ESPN brought on the wrath of loyal soccer fans everywhere in America when they hired baseball play-by-play guy Dave O'Brien before the 2006 World Cup. "He doesn't know our game!" It's the 2nd half of the MLS season here stateside. And this ESPN booth has a nice chemistry.

I can now say that I like the move by ESPN to hire an American broadcaster. O'Brien's got a great Mel Torme kind of voice. His timbre gives the broadcast a solid foundation for the American fan. I watched a couple of minutes of his broadcast of the SF Giants game with Barry Bonds home run race the other night. He's a great baseball play-by-play guy. The connection is obvious: he brings respectability to the sport stateside that no English or Irish announcer could do given the cultural differences. Good move, ESPN. (Side note: our very own Brad Sham does a WONDERFUL job of the same on the local FC Dallas games. He's a credit to the field and a real legend in Dallas broadcasting.)

DC United dominated the first half. They're a strong side. It's ironic that Beckham ends up on a bottom rung squad in the LA Galaxy. I can't imagine the Galaxy can make the playoffs this year. I've boon rooting them on if only to see more Beckham this season. But there's no way.

I didn't want Beckham to play last night & risk re-injuring the ankle. But the Galaxy put him in the game in the 2nd half right after Martino got a red card. So it was triple jeopardy for Beckham: rain, Galaxy down a man & a nasty, nagging ankle injury. It was thrilling to watch. He can steer this squad to a dignified finish this season. But this project won't catch enough steam until next year's season. His impact on the field is clear: pinpoint passes that open up new possibilities for the Galaxy's offense. It's immediately obvious when he gets his touches. He has a field of vision that, far and away, goes beyond what anyone in the game can see in play. The rest of the squad just needs time to acclimate to such a precise weapon. And it looks like Beckham is relishing being midfield.English national team coach Steve McClaren was in the box suites at RFK taking this all in. It's a long shot that he'll want Beckham on the England squad after a long, frustrating July & August. But it was really nice to see international figures at a regular season MLS game. The league is coming into its own.

For the skeptics: Michael Wilbon from Pardon The Interruption explains how Beckham being here isn't enough to take this game to the next level. I respect his opinions about the Beckham rule in the MLS. But I don't agree. Here's more.