Monthly Archives: October 2011

ten words or less #39

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andrei arshavin giraffe shirt

if arshavin's fashion sense catches on, we all have reason to be pessimistic.

It may just be me, but I feel like my recent posts have taken a rather pessimistic view of the beautiful game. A quick look at my front page shows a total of seven non-round-up posts, and four of them are nothing but me bitching about some current aspect of the game. I must think soccer is going to hell then, right?

Well, sort of… but I could also just be moody and hypersensitive to issues that I think are currently plaguing the game. If it makes you feel better, you can call me a pessimist. I won’t take it the wrong way.

However, if you’re not yet concerned about the state of affairs in professional football, just take a gander at a few of the links below. We’ll make you into pessimist in no time.

Is Serie A’s decline due more to TV than stadiums? – theelastico.com

The Home Nations collectively shudders at the site of this. – footballshirtculture.com

You can actually feel the sorrow in the author’s voice. – twofootedtackle.com

While a valid point, is there a workable solution? – soccerissue.com

Is Balotelli a Dynamo Dresden fan, or just their inspiration? – dirtytackle

Pelé makes boots now, undoubtedly thinks they’re the best ever. – theoriginalwinger.com

Neymar has nothing on these guys. – youtube.com

A good effort that needs revising: too much white space. – kckrs.com

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how about a brace?

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A second post in one day? This may seem impossible for wrong side of the pond, especially considering that it’s sometimes a struggle for me to pop out two in a week. But my regular readers know this kind of event can mean only one thing: Chris Rolfe must have done something special.

chris rolfe of aalborg bk

hey klinsmann... we need need a goalscorer or two in the USMNT ranks. i think this guy will do just fine.

And special is exactly what the native Daytonian did this past Sunday at the Energi Nord Arena in Aalborg, Denmark.

Squaring off against Odense BK, the side just north of them in the table, Rolfe’s AaB were in desperate need of a win. Having taken just one point from their last five matches, the club were on a dangerous slide of form with the winter break just over a month away. If they harbored any hope of pushing for European places in the spring, a reversal of fortunes would be needed to help lift the team’s spirits.

Perhaps it was this that drove Mr. Rolfe to put in such an impressive performance, as after the final whistle was blown, the scoresheet credited two goal scoring tallies to the American winger. The following is a recount in typical ESPN Soccernet fashion; if you’d like to skip the formalities, jump to the bottom for the video highlights.

His first came through a coolly finished 14th minute penalty, after Rolfe was brought down in the box by OB’s Hans Andreason. But Odense BK levelled just five minutes later through a penalty of their own, finished off by former Danish international Chris Sørensen.

Rolfe came out of the break looking to settle the affair quickly, lofting a through ball pass just over the bar in the 57th minute. But OB weren’t about to let the northerners walk away with all of three points that easy, and the teams traded chances several times throughout the match.

But in the 84th minute, Rolfe received a pass from Rasmus Würtz at the top of left corner box. He took a strong touch towards the edge of the box, and fired a left footed shot just inside the far post. AaB managed to keep OB at bay until the final whistle, giving the American the game winner and all of the glory.

And now the video that most of you likely just skipped down to:

The bonus for this video? A post-game soundbite from Chris… in English. For those of you who have tried to follow Rolfe’s career with AaB, you’ll know this is a complete rarity for anything coming out of Denmark.

The bigger picture here is that Rolfe’s brace this past weekend will hopefully be enough to catch the eye of new National Team coach Jürgen Klinsmann. Considering the USMNT has had a bit of a problem producing of late, it certainly wouldn’t hurt to bring in someone with some goal-scoring form. The November friendlies are just around the corner, and with MLS teams knee deep in the playoffs, how many clubs will be willing to give up their top strikers for friendly international duty at such a critical time? To me, it seems like the perfect time for the new gaffer to recall Rolfe to camp.

And while the pair of goals goes a long way to make it hard for the Jürgs (or anyone else for that matter) to ignore the former UD Flyer,he’s just happy to have helped AaB get back on the right track. As the interview showed, he’s just a humble lad.

the great schism

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There is a war going on, and it’s battlefield is professional football.

michel platini

if i were uefa's michel platini, i'd be very worried about the complaints from my biggest clubs.

Now, before you get all worked up about me calling a soccer problem a “war,” I know that any issue occurring in the game isn’t exactly comparable to any of the “real wars” that are currently plaguing the planet — Libya, Syria, Afghanistan, Sudan or even Mexico’s drug war, for example. It’s completely fair to say that any conflict brewing within a sport is effectively a first world problem. I don’t mean any disrespect, so why don’t you go ahead and put down that pitchfork.

But for all intensive purposes, I’m calling it a “war” because there is an enormous battle getting ready to take place over the future of the professional sport we all love and obsess over. Just like the Great Schism of 1054 that broke apart the Catholic Church, this impending war will shake the very foundations of professional soccer if not resolved.

I wrote a month ago about class warfare in the game, and the damage that financial inequality has done to it. The cascading pyramid system of European football has created a system where the powerful become more powerfulon the backs of the little guys (shades of real life, perhaps?). That’s why it takes a club like Manchester City to spend it’s way into powerful elite.

This system has also given increasing amounts of power to the clubs with respect to the international game, and rightfully so. After all, the national teams only pay a fraction of the costs in developing international caliber players, the majority of which is paid by the many clubs across the globe. But in the end, the national teams reap rewards from all of that investment by the clubs without as much at risk if a player get’s injured. At the very least, this is why I think it’s fair that clubs should be compensated by FIFA in those situations.

But as the club game has grown in popularity, the race to capitalize and profit on the club game has caused the clubs to continuously push for more and more concessions from the international game and the governing bodies.

And frankly, their demands are ever increasing and completely troubling.

jorge valdano

when a former major executive at a major club makes major accusations, i have major concerns.

Former Manchester City CEO Garry Cook was one of the first to publicly claim that the idea of a breakaway European Super League was being discussed back in 2008. But he wasn’t the last either. As recently as last month, former Real Madrid Sporting Director Jorge Valdano claimed that Real and Barça will eventually have to move on from La Liga because the competition isn’t strong enough for them.

Let’s focus less on the fact that both Cook and Valdano are publicly-shamed, formerly high ranking members of their clubs’ hierarchies, and focus more on the fact that they were both very high ranking officials at their former clubs.  These guys were the ones sitting in on and directing the shady backroom deals that everyone knows suspects happen at the world’s biggest clubs.

The fact that both of these departed executives, coming from two vastly different countries with very different sporting cultures, have declared that their clubs were at least kicking around the idea of breaking away from their existing domestic leagues… isn’t that extremely worrying to anyone else?!?!

Throwing fuel on the fire is the speculated work of former Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon. Unlike Cook and Valdano, Kenyon is very well respected within the game’s management circles, and apparently he is already working on a plan to help clubs break away when they want to do it. Though he has yet to publicly back up said claims, I can’t imagine Peter working on a project that was merely a pipe dream.

The idea of a break away “European Super League”, akin to the major sports leagues on this side of the pond, has long been a dream of the major clubs. The best playing the best, week in and week out, is — no matter how you put it — a mouthwatering idea.

But with clubs once again apparently threatening their imminent withdrawal, would a EuroLeague really be the right move for professional football?

The positives, at first at least, seem to heavily tilt the scales in favor of this breakaway league.

  • For the fans, it would easily be a mouthwatering opportunity to truly see a European champion crowned in the same way a normal national league system would crown a champion: through a weekly league table. The current Champions League format almost promotes conservative/boring tactics as clubs look to minimize the risk of conceding away goals while waiting for the other teams to make a mistake. Replacing the knockout rounds with a league table would allow teams to focus on putting in solid performances across an entire season instead of just trying to go on a good run towards the end of the competition.
  • The clubs would surely rake in a mountain of cash through a revised competition. By breaking away and drawing up their own rules, they would suddenly have the ability to take a significantly larger chunk of the profits than the current set-ups allow.
  • Playing off the potential increase in revenues is that money’s ability to possibly save some “super” clubs that are currently on shaky financial ground. Proud, illustrious clubs hampered by leagues they’ve outgrown (The Old Firm, Ajax, FC Copenhagen, etc.) could potentially return to their former glory by using the higher revenue provided by a Euro League to strengthen and balance their books. Some of these clubs, notably Rangers in Scotland, are already looking to break away from their existing leagues just to survive, and would surely jump if a bigger opportunity showed itself.
  • Players the world over, just as they do today with the Champions League, would undoubtedly strive to compete in this one competition to rule them all. Just like with James Milner, guys would leave behind starting spots at slightly less prestigious clubs just to ride the pine at clubs competing in the world’s penultimate league. The wages are sure to be higher for those that are able to make the jump, thus increasing the desire of players to make it to that level. And just like their employers, some are even calling for the league themselves.

But to be honest, all of those seem like such short term improvements. A look at the other side of the coin reveals some startling issues that would arrise from a breakaway European super league:

  • The little clubs that aren’t lucky enough to make the cut for the new league would eventually become second-rate, feeder squads to the EuroLeague clubs. The amount of financial discrepancies between the leagues would no-doubt cause the best players from the rest be cherry-picked by the elite sides. Not that this doesn’t already happen to an extent, but with no chance of ever being promoted to the big time, what other purpose could a small club serve? Welcome to the minor leagues of Europe!
  • How would the fans of the small clubs feel about supporting a club that could never possibly reach the big time? The appeal of the super league and it’s clubs would surely dilute the interest in smaller clubs and their competitions.
  • While the creation of a breakaway league would probably save some clubs on poor financial footing, the power vacuum left by their departure from smaller leagues will likely lead to the quick demise of many clubs and competitions. Think of leagues like the Scottish Premier League: without Rangers and/or Celtic to draw in TV viewers, would the SPL and all of its clubs actually be able to survive?

The potential ripple effect from a mass withdrawal of major clubs from European competitions could be devastating and far reaching. Stress on could.

The European Cup has long stood as UEFA’s answer to the clubs’ calls for a super league, though it’s never quite been the competition the clubs have desired. In fact, the threat of clubs breaking away from the traditional structure has essentially mandated UEFA to revamp the competition numerous times just to keep them appeased.The original rebranding of the tournament to the Champions League – a change that drastically increased the revenues generated for participating clubs — is one such example of this. And it’s good thing that they did, as the exit of the old continent’s major clubs from the domestic and international leagues which UEFA sanctions would have surely been a fatal blow to the organization.

liverpool's john henry

if you think that JWH wouldn't breakaway from the premier league to maximize his investment return, you're only kidding yourself.

Unfortunately for UEFA, the reorganized Champions League is already growing stale. The group stage is generally considered a bore, with the top teams even fielding weakened sides because the competition is often poor. There are already calls to revamp the competition to keep fans and clubs interested, once again creating leverage for the clubs to break away.

Of course, this all hinges on whether or not the owners of said clubs have the stones to make this kind of move. Considering the fallout and subsequent backing away from the purported desire of some Premier League foreign owners wanting to end the relegation/promotion system, as well as having clubs sell their own international television rights, I’m guessing that their stones aren’t quite as big as some fear.

But the failure of those initiatives doesn’t mean we shouldn’t worry about this one.

Look, I’m not sitting here saying I have a solution to this threat, and I’m not sure of anyone that does yet. Without a doubt, tackling the issue of financial inequality between the clubs is a good first step. Though as intimately tied to the solution as that financial inequality is, fixing that problem is another completely different mountain to scale itself.

I am, however, saying that I’m really worried about the prospect of a breakaway league. And if it happens, I can’t help but worry more whether Tottenham will actually be included in it.

blame shifting

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There are few common cliches that ring more true than the phrase, “everybody makes mistakes.” We humans are imperfect beings, and our propensity to make mistakes undeniably written into our genetic code. While we can come close to perfection, everyone has their own fatal flaw or skeleton in their closet that helps to level the playing field.

davies name has come up in the press a lot lately... but not necessarily for the right reasons.

Most times the mistakes aren’t so consequential. Like when Ashely Cole remarkably escaped punishment after shooting a Chelsea staffer with an air pistol. But occasionally, the consequences can be severe, life and history altering. Maybe if it weren’t for a ill-chosen headbutt, France could have won back-to-back World Cup titles, and we might be discussing how Messi/Ronaldo could be competing with Zidane for the title of the greatest players of the last decade.

But regardless of how dire the consequences of our mistakes might be, the one lesson that is certain in life is that you will have to live with those consequences… there’s really no escaping it.

Unless your Charlie Davies… or so he apparently thinks.

I’ve been rooting for Charlie openly on the blog for some time now. Like many American fans, I originally fell for him due to his meteoric rise from relative obscurity to national team stardom prior to the 2010 World Cup. A string of impressive performances had us all believing the hype that the in Davies and Altidore, the USMNT finally had a strike partnership that could give world-class sides a run for their money. We liked his charisma, his big marketable smile, his stanky-leg dance… he had us all dreaming big.

d.c. united's charlie davies

how could you not dig a guy who played with a smile on his face like this?

And even though we all knew that he had nobody but himself to blame for horrific his injuries from a deadly, late-night car crash in DC the night before the last WC Qualifier, we all stuck behind Davies because of his perceived humbleness and determined spirit during his long road to recovery. We cheered him on during his ill-fated attempt to recover in time for the finals in South Africa, even though we all knew deep down there was no way he could recover from such devastating injuries so quickly. We all wanted to believe in him, because he seemed like he was atonement for his sins.

So when Souchaux loaned Chuck to D.C. United this season to help him find his feet again, and he caught fire with a load of goals early on in the campaign, our hopes ballooned again. Currently, he has the lowest goals/minute ratio in MLS and is only four goals off league leader (and teammate) Dwayne De Rosario’s 15. Becaues of this, we allowed ourselves to whisper “Charlie’s Back!”  to one another, secretly plotting how Bradley/Klinsmann could now get him back into the national team fold.

But then the goals dried up (he hasn’t scored in over a month), and his minutes have diminished. After the midseason arrival of De Rosario from Red Bull, and with his return to Souchaux looming in February, United manager Ben Olsen has opted to leave Charlie on the bench for more “permanent” options. And with those downturns in fortunes, we’ve gotten to see a side of Davies we’ve never seen before: the ugly side.

Davies first lashed out at his lack of playing time last week, his attitude thinly veiled:

I can only do so much with the time that I have. I’m a guy that expects to play 90 minutes. I’m fit. I’m healthy, and it’s disappointing when you want to get the playing time to help the team win, and you only get 20, 15 minutes. I’ve done all I can do.

I can understand his frustrations at not playing, especially because the lack of playing time will likely affect his chances at first team action upon returning to France. That said, it seemed so out of character for a guy that we had all admiringly watched battle through diversity before.

But then he really dropped a bombshell this week, when it was revealed that Davies was suing the bar where he had broken curfew the night of his awful accident three years ago for $20 million. That’s twenty, with six more zeros after that. And why was he suing them for such a princely sum? Because Davies and his lawyers believe that the Shadow Room continued to serve alcohol to his driver that night, Maria Espinoza, even though they “knew” she was drunk.

And since he’s asking for such a large chunk of change for the bar causing the accident, you have to assume that he’s doing so because he believes the injuries he sustained in the accident have hurt his future earning potential.

In more simple terms, it appears the Charlie Davies — the guy we used to think was humbled by this entire experience — is blaming that bar for ruining his career.

Which is weird, because I don’t think the bar told him to stay out past curfew to drink at a bar with some of his friends. And I’m pretty sure the bar didn’t order him to get in the car with the what-must-be-clearly drunken Espinoza that night either. What’s even more weird is that Davies own lawyers says that the player didn’t even hang out with Maria that night, so he didn’t know she was drunk… even though that little factoid is the sole basis of the argument his legal team is making.

With that kind of logic, you have to wonder who they’ll be suing next. Maybe Espinoza, who is already serving a two year jail sentence for involuntary vehicular manslaughter, for not telling him that she was drunk that night? Maybe he’ll go after Bob Bradley for denying him a spot on the World Cup roster due to the Americans with Disabilities Act. Perhaps he’ll sue Ben Olsen for more playing time!

maybe we were the fools for not thinking that davies isn't like everyone else: a man with an ego.

It’s almost ironic that, for a species that is so prone to making errors in judgement, we’re actually laughably bad at accepting blame for those mistakes. You would think we would have learned after all of these generations of repeating the same mistakes over and over that it’s best to just be honest with ourselves, right?

Wrong. We’re vain, egotistical creatures that will never fully accept our blame in the negative consequences of our actions.

We shouldn’t really be surprised though. Afterall, Davies is a product of the American blame-shifting culture. That’s why we have an entire industry of ambulance chasing lawyers, ready to sue the pants out of the local grocer where you slipped and broke your ankle while you were talking on your cellphone and not paying attention to where you were going.

That said, maybe we all need to point the fingers at ourselves a bit too. This caught us all by surprise, and to say the least, it’s shocked a good number of us. Maybe we rushed to judgement on Davies based on his limited time in the spotlight. Maybe we’re at fault for our own shock and dismay.

Naaaaaaahhhhhh… that’s definitely not our fault.

ten words or less #38

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sadly, this is how i probably appear to anyone from europe.

Between the Euro qualifiers, friendlies, the League matches and the Champions/Europa League qualifiers, I have to admit that I’m having a hard time following this season. Everything feels so… disjointed.

If it weren’t for Rooney being an idiot and Tottenham throwing away a winnable match, I wouldn’t feel like I know what’s going on this season at all.

Assou-Ekotto always tells it like it is. – mirror.co.uk

Another game for the soccer bar I’ll probably never own. – theoriginalwinger.com

The science is in: football is good for men. – independent.ie

The Brasileirão’s in danger of becoming a two-horse race. – theelastico.com

Ever wanted to know why random strangers wear certain jerseys? - footballists.wordpress.com

Today I Learned: Liverpool’s Pepe Reina has OCD. – dirty tackle @ yahoo.com

Paying Modrić what he deserves could be very dangerous. – telegraph.co.uk

they’re doing something right

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To be considered a truly great, a club must prove itself successful both on and off the pitch.

Seattle Sounders 3 Time US Open Cup Champions

it's not just seattle's three straight open cup titles that make their club so great.

Any club can buy a trophy given the right investment, but trophies are worthless if the financing of those investments proves to be a horribly done. Just ask Portsmouth. And even if you can buy a club and subsequent trophies with what you think is intelligent financing, if you can’t capitalize on the opportunity by improving your popularity, then it can all still come crashing down. Just ask Blackburn Rovers. So when a club actually does everything right on and off the field — especially when it’s in the wilds of American soccer — it’s right to stand up and take notice.

Seattle Sounders FC, please stand and be recognized.

Last week, the Sounders defeated the Chicago Fire 2-0 to win their third straight US Open Cup title. This three-peat alone is impressive enough. It’s only the third time in the tournament’s 97-year history that a club has won the title three years on the trot, the last being New York Greek American, who hoisted the trophy each year from 1967 to 1969. And considering the men in various shades of green have only been in the top-tier of the North American Soccer pyramid for the three years… and well, I’m officially weirded out by the number of incidences of the number three in this paragraph.

But the world’s second oldest cup competition isn’t the only place the Sounders are experiencing on-field success. They’ve made the playoffs each year they’ve been in MLS and will do so again this year, and became the second ever MLS team to win their CONCACAF Champions League group. There aren’t many sides in the league that can claim near as many accolades despite having been around for four to five times longer.

So while three trophies in three years is a truly amazing feat — one I’m sure the fans of more prestigious clubs such as Arsenal could definitely appreciate — what makes the Sounders stand out from the hoards of normal clubs around the globe is what they’ve been able to do off the pitch.

A good deal of what makes them such an amazing club, first and foremost, is their incredible fan support. Though having a rabid fan base seems to come with the territory in the Pacific Northwest, Seattle’s following is leaps and bounds ahead of even their closest neighbors. Perhaps the reason they’re the only side in MLS that uses an NFL stadium that the league isn’t pushing to build their own soccer specific stadium is because they can damn near fill it every match.

Including their Open Cup and Champions League home matches for a total of 27, the Sounders have drawn over 830,000 fans this season, breaking their own the MLS attendance record for the (here we ago again) third year on the trot. The linked article above also provided a measuring stick to which we could benchmark the Sounders’ pull, including these eye-opening stats:

  • Compared to their European counterparts, they do remarkably well:
    • In the Premier League, their average attendance figures would see them as the 7th highest drawer in the league.
    • In the Bundesliga, they’d finish 12th.
    • And the Sounders would draw the 4th highest average in Serie A.
  • Their numbers are better than 56 of 60 NBA and NHL teams, even though each of those teams hosts 41 matches a season.
  • Taking into account just their MLS home matches (17), they still out draw 30 of 32 NFL teams.
http://draagynphoto.wordpress.com

without their fans, would the sounders be "just another" MLS club? maybe.

But how do you garner that kind of support in the first place, at least without bribing the fans?

Unlike Portland and Vancouver, Seattle don’t have the advantage of being one of the only pro-sports team in town. Because the MLS season overlaps directly with the schedules of MLB’s Mariners and the NFL’s Seahawks, the Sounders have to compete with them for the attention of the city’s residents and sports fans all year-long. Being able to engage the city’s fan base therefore became paramount to the team’s overarching goals.

From the very beginning, the MLS franchise in Seattle did just that. In 2007, the expansion team’s ownership group allowed the fans to select the club name through an online vote. But when “Sounders” wasn’t included as an option to “look to the future” and help “position the club globally”, there was so much public outcry that the owners had to make way for a write-in option in the online poll. The poll results saw write-in votes for “Sounders” account for a staggering 49% of the total.

Inspired by the city’s passion for a team not yet playing (Though technically, its predecessor A-League club and several of its current players were playing), minority owner Drew Carey persuaded his fellow owners to allow the fans a continued say in the club’s affairs. And thus, the nation’s first professional sport supporters trust was born: The Alliance. Through this system — and much like in Spain — should season ticket holders and paying members feel that the Sounders’ general manager is doing a crap job, they can vote to have him sacked.

But the club doesn’t stop there.

Emulating the tradition of many English clubs, prior to each match the Sounders largest supporters group — the 2200 paying-member strong Emerald City Supporters — conduct a march from Occidental Park to the stadium. The club saw it fit that this kind of march deserved a band, and created the 53-piece band called the “Sound Wave” to lead them in and play throughout the match.

Early on last season when the Sounders were spanked at home by the Galaxy, management made the bold choice to refund season ticket holders due to the poor showing. Sure, it was just a one game credit towards the purchase of this year’s season tickets, but shit… the Cincinnati Bengals would need to be giving away free season ticket packages for the next three years to make up for all of their poor play they’ve shown over the last decade.

At home matches, the club allows for massive banners to be unfurled by the supporters, something that at times has been banned by other teams. They’ve partnered with craft brewer Redhook to bring better beer to the stadium. An annual charity auction is held where fans can bid for dates with Sounders players.

seattle sounders' freddy montero

the income generated by the club's massive support allows seattle to hang on to star players, like the mercurial freddy montero.

Simply put, you just don’t see any other pro sports franchises in this country doing things like this. And the crazy part of all of this is that the off-field efforts Seattle makes are actually paying dividends for them on the field.

For each new fan they recruit to their first game, each person that buys a jersey, and each sellout they achieve, that equals more money they can invest in on-field talent. Couple that with the increased corporate sponsorship that is drawn to their rapidly growing fan base, and Seattle is able to improve their squad that much more. Assuming all goes to plan, that on-field talent will produce results and win trophies, which in turn helps to recruit even more fans. As the great Mufasa once said, “It’s the circle of life, man”… or something like that.

It shows that investing in your fan base — making them feel like more than just spectators — can be the same thing as investing in your team.

So as I stand here and take notice of a great club running itself in an honorable fashion, I would be foolish to suggest that other MLS teams aren’t at least trying out some of the Sounders methods. It would be equally stupid to assume that each club is working under the same set of circumstances. After all, Kansas City is by no means a Seattle.

If nothing else, Seattle Sounders FC is a template for other clubs to use as they strive towards. A blueprint for MLS success of sorts. The Sounders are there the for the also-ran’s and the almost-there’s to say, “They’re doing something right, and we need to do that too.”

wrong side XI: defensive center mid

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this is part VIII in the “wrong side XI” series, where i’ll be selecting my very own starting eleven, assuming of course that i could choose any player from any team in the world. you can read the rules i’ll be following to make my team selection, and what formation i’ll be squeezing them into, on the first post in the series.

these fine gentleman face off for my defensive midfield starting spot.

You probably thought I had forgotten about these Wrong Side XI posts, didn’t you? Admittedly, I haven’t been cranking out these posts nearly as fast I originally promised. And yet here we are, with summer in the rearview mirror and my summer post series is still dragging on. You can see my excuse on the site’s Facebook page if you’re really interested in hearing the reason for the delay.

Anyway, it’s high time we get back to it, and we’ll do so by narrowing down my selections for defensive midfield. I’m guessing due to the wait I put you all through to get to this point, I you’re probably not interested in a further wait, so let’s dive right into my #5 choice…

Continue reading →

ten words or less #37

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fc basel fans at old trafford

fc basel fans are bad asses. and to be honest, their team wasn't too shabby either.

International break weekends in the US are a departure from the footie fan’s normal routine of getting up at the crack of dawn to watch matches until the early afternoon. Unless you’re lucky enough to be able to afford/have access to GolTV, the selection of international fixtures available can best be described as “shite”. In fact, there’s nothing really on the television agenda save for tomorrow evening’s thrilling encounter featuring the USMNT as they take on world powerhouse Honduras.

And you know what that means? Two days of sleeping in, that’s what. But if you need something to fill your soccer fix in the mean time, feel free to browse through some of my favorite links from the last week…

Thank god I didn’t make this a Tottenham themed blog. – youllwinnothingwithyids.com

Abiding Financial Fair Play rules could get harder for Chelsea. – twohundredpercent.net

A shrine to American soccer. – placematters.net

I’d argue that I attempt to be a “Categorical Imperative”. – thescore.com

Someone lost their job over these, RIGHT?!?! – xarasoccer.com

But if PSG dominate, will the complaints begin? – inbedwithmaradona.com

Off with their heads!!! – kckrs.com

Adidas: bringing Pro Zone analysis to the (wealthy) masses. – dailymail.co.uk

cat and mouse

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My email inbox blew up yesterday, a multitude of emails from concerned and inquisitive friends filling it up several times throughout the day. They all asked about the same thing: how was I handling the news? And while the news of the passing of one America’s foremost innovators was the headline story of the day, that wasn’t the story to which my friends wanted to hear my reaction.

cesc fabregas in puma gear

the cat is out of the bag: cesc has jumped ship for puma.

No, they were all much more concerned with hearing my thoughts about Cesc Fàbregas’ traitorous, out-of-the-blue switch from Nike to Puma. Riveting, right?

Some in the boot-obsessed corners of the game are calling Puma’s capture of Cesc “one of the biggest brand transfers in football history”. Personally, I think that’s a bit sensationalist: Thierry Henry leaving Nike for Reebok in 2006 was a much bigger bombshell (Although ironically, Henry just signed on with Puma too.). But it’s still a massive move by a brand that’s been losing ground to industry leaders Adidas and Nike for years, as well as to upstarts UnderArmour.

So, what was my reaction to one of my favorite players leaving one of my favorite brands?

Admittedly, it was a bit hard to swallow at first. After all, my choice in boots has mirrored Cesc’s almost identically over the last few years. I’d argue that this wasn’t a conscious decision on my part, but I’m not entirely sure that’s true. But from the Tiempo Legend II’s through to both models of the CTR360′s, I feel like I formed a(n obviously non-existent) bond with my idol by way of our common footwear. And now that he was leaving Nike, I foolishly felt a bit betrayed and hurt.

Though, after seeing his first promotional picture for Puma — the awkward picture from the top of the post that makes him look a bit out-of-place in their digs — I did feel a bit more vindicated in my feelings. Then I remembered that Cesc jumping off the Nike boot train doesn’t mean that I have to, too. And then I remembered that none of this is really that important.

But, it did make me wonder why a player like Fàbregas — one of the elite players on the planet — would ditch a lucrative sponsorship with a deep-pocketed, innovative, industry leader to join forces with a company that appears on the wane.

To Nike, Cesc might have been the lead athlete on their CTR360 line of boots, but there are also a small herd of other stars that rock the same boot, including teammates Andrés Iniesta and Javier Mascherano. And considering that Nike already have the entire club wrapped up in Nike apparel, it wouldn’t be crazy for the Oregonians to think that they’re already getting plenty of exposure out of the Barça camp.

cesc fabregas and puma

cesc loyalty goes no further than the city behind him or the largest checks offered to him.

To Puma, Fàbregas appears the perfect pitch man for their footballing endeavors. By all accounts, the Catalonian is a good lad that won’t cause them much worry about exposure to bad PR on his behalf. He also just happens to be a member of the most famous and idolized team on the planet at the moment, and prior to his signing, Puma didn’t have a single endorsement on a roster that’s dominated with Nike (11 of 16 regulars) and Adidas ( 4 regulars) athletes. With Barcelona sure to make deep runs in the Champions League, Club World Cup and La Liga competitions, there are few other athletes that could offer the sheer amount of global exposure that Cesc’s feet can.

The plain and simple fact seem to point towards one conclusion: Puma offered more money to Cesc than Nike thought would be worth the investment to match. And though I’d love to believe with starry eyes that he would be loyal to the brand that’s paid him for so long, Fab4 has proven recently that he’s only loyal to two things: FC Barcelona and money.

Fàbregas — along with Kun Agüero – will now undoubtedly serve as the face of the brand now that their former face, Cameroonian striker Samuel Eto’o, has moved to the wilds of Dagestan far from Western eyes and their bank accounts. And it will likely do Puma, and the player’s bank account, well.

And to all of my friends who think that I’ll now be giving up my beloved Nike boots to copycat Cesc’s latest move, you’re crazy… I won’t be doing that until Chris Rolfe loses his endorsement and/or grows bigger feet than me.

the real idiot

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carlos tevez derp

derp... i has a hat.

Trust me when I say that I know that I’m hardly the world’s most PC football blogger. I know that I occasionally use offensive language to convey my points, but my hope is that my readers get that I’m not really a prejudiced/racist/offensive person… I’m just using slang as an to attempt to drive home my points and make the reading a bit more entertaining. So please don’t get offended with what I’m about to say…

Carlos Tévez might be retarded.

What? Do you have a better explanation for everything going on with the Argentine at the Eastlands Etihad?

I’ll admit that I’ve been giving Carlos the benefit of the doubt for a while. Regardless of the quasi-understandable excuses he provided for his behavior — not being able to adjust to life in England, trouble on the home front, he’s not being respected by his club, etc. — you could forgive his tirades as his regular goals and effort on the pitch made your side much better on the whole. So much did his on field exploits influence my opinion, I was even beginning to feel some sympathy for the guy.

But after the latest melee with Mancini in Munich, I’m starting to question Tévez’s mental capacity. The constant stream of blame shifting pouring from his mouth has become so regular, I suspect even he doesn’t know what he’s saying anymore.

Let’s take a quick look at the “Tévez Timeline” that I created below to try to catalog some of this madness:The Tevez Timeline

Noting that the above lacks the incident in which he controversially called Gary Neville the heinous name of “boot licker”, it’s clear that many of the decisions made by Crazy Carlos are not those of a sane mind. Collectively, they appear to point to a man who is mentally unstable.

The tryst on the Bayern sidelines has predictably resulted in the press, club management and both neutral and rabid fans alike all calling for Tévez’s head on a plate. How dare a player who is paid so much tell his manager no in such dire circumstances? And they’re right, as not many of us could speak to our bosses that way and expect to be able to talk about at the water cooler next week.

But thanks to such a polarizing choice of action, for the first time in ages it seems that the majority of public opinion is on the same side of an issue as Manchester City… something I couldn’t have ever predicted six months ago.

Tévez’s refual to play in the Champions League has been labeled the prime example of how players now garner too much power in today’s game. It’s players like Crazy Carlos that are to blame for the lack of loyalty in the sport, the undermining of managerial power within squads, super-high salaries, and Qatar bribing their way to a winning World Cup bid. “That’s why City should make an example of him,” they say.

And to some degrees they’re correct. But just as I’m about to light my torch and gather my pitchfork to go join the masses in marching Tévez to the gallows, I remember my offensive remark from earlier: Carlos Tévez might be retarded.

kia joorabchian and carlos tevez

joorabchian has skillfully used tévez to blind us from what's really going on behind the scenes.

How is it possible that a guy like Carlos freaking Tévez would be able to game the clubs so effectively? The guy can barely speak to the press without contradicting himself every other sentence; I hardly think that he’d be able to intentionally cause a constant flow of drama and rubbish excuses to always better his situation. After all, these guys that own influential clubs are fairly intelligent men: otherwise they wouldn’t be able to afford buying a club in the first place, right?

You see, Tévez isn’t the only idiot in town. All of us — the writers, the fans, the managers and the clubs — should be categorized as retarded, too.

While we all point fingers at a spoiled, hapless, scarred Argentine boy who just so happens to have made himself fabulously rich by being amazingly skilled at the sport of soccer… someone behind the scenes is pulling all of the strings and making even more money than Tévez could fathom.

Men like Kia Joorabchian lurk in the shadows, whispering in the ears of the players, telling them the clubs don’t treat them fairly and saying that they deserve more. Kia would be content for City to hold on to him, as he’ll still get his cut of the weekly salary even if Carlos is suspended and kept away from the training ground. And he could give a damn if the forward is sacked by City. In fact this scenario would be of of even great benefit to Kia, as   “advising” the club to either sell or sack Tévez will result in him netting even more cash when the inevitable deal with a new club is struck.

We just end up ignoring all of that because we’re too busy focusing on the spotlight that Kia has pointed at Tévez. The Argentinian, never the sharpest in the bunch, was nothing more than a puppet to distract us from the backroom deals that Joorabchian is wrangling. A lucrative move to a Inter was floated at the end of the transfer window, and it wouldn’t be outlandish to think the Kia and Moratti are already hammering out the provisions of a “rescue” offer for Tévez.

If that all seems a little far fetched for you, consider Corinthian’s failed bid for Tévez over the summer.

Even for a former fan favorite, a €40 million bid from the Brazilian side seemed a bit incomprehensible. While the Brazilian economy is on the rise and the country is making great strides forward, that kind of investment seemed a bit risky considering the Brazilian league system isn’t exactly rife with clubs turning profits. But then I remembered that Corinithians is partly “owned” by sports venture capitalist group MSI, which is in turn headed by none other than Kia Joorabchian. Yeah.

So when you hear that City pulled out of the deal because they wanted all of the transfer fee up front, a more clear picture starts to take shape. Joorabchian’s MSI would have been the one’s paying the transfer fee, and they didn’t want to fork out all of that money up front for a player the group is already making money from in the first place. Meanwhile, they’ve allowed the failed transfer to set a market price for Tévez’s services, and then set Crazy Carlos loose to squawk and throw hissy fits while they find a more suitable way to maximize their profits through another deal.

Brilliant, if manipulative, work if I do say so myself. They’ve made us all look like fools by shifting the blame for Carlos’ issues away from the root source (themselves) to the player, all while they plan their next scheme in the background. Blinded by our anger for such disrespectful behavior by, we’re oblivious to the trick being played on us.

While we yell at the idiot, the real shakers and movers are laughing all of the way to the bank.