Just Don’t Let Vinnie Coletta Near the Inks
by tedski
The Sharron Angle press strategy seems to have traveled overseas: Southampton FC has banned all but their “official” photographer from their grounds. The local paper there has come up with a creative solution: they invited a sketch artist to cover the games.
Time And Thierry
by Jimmy Stagger
Here’s the theme song for our European “friends” in the media regarding Thierry Henry’s signing with New York (from henceforth to be known as “The Worst Kept MLS Secret Since Ever”). The usual half-witted, poorly-researched, blatantly anti-American “pieces” having been making the rounds despite all evidence to prove them wrong. The usual point-and-laugh line is “Oh LOL MLS is teh retirement league, m8, Yanks don’t kno footie!”
That was as painful for me to type as it was for you to read. And I mean the article as well. Is Henry past his prime? Of course he is. He was when he left North London for Barcelona in 2007 as a replacement, more or less, for Henrik Larsson who had left the Nou Camp at the end of 2006 to return home to play for Helsingborg. Oh my Lord, you know when you read that…La Liga is a retirement league! You heard it here first kids. They replaced one striker with his best days behind him with another one. But of course seeing as this all happened amongst the biggest clubs in Europe, everything is OK. Just another day on the Continent.
Somehow though when these movements involve an Atlantic crossing our league is suddenly neighbors with the Running Back Rest Home Emmitt Smith lives in on those Just For Men ads. Nonsense of course. If we’re on the same level as the famous (and undisputed) retirement leagues of Saudi Arabia and the UAE, how is it that there’s a decent amount of MLS-trained Americans plying their trade in the vaunted Barclay’s English Premier League? Haven’t really seen much movement from Dubai Club or Al-Ittihad to Jolly Old England, have you?
At 32 Henry is 2 years younger than Roy Keane was when he left Manchester United for an obvious final paycheck and farewell tour on the Irish Nationalist side of Glasgow. If you’d like to say the Scottish Premier League is a retirement league please join me on Saturday mornings at The Banshee in Dorchester, MA. First make sure your insurance covers dental work. Henry is only slightly older (3 years) than Jaap Stam was when he left Manchester United for Lazio and younger than Jaap was when he wrapped up his career with a final cash-in with AC Milan and a final homestand with Ajax. Juan Sebastián Verón wasn’t exactly his old self when left his loan at Inter to go home and play for Estudiantes de La Plata in 2006. How much hate mail (in 2, if not 3, languages) do you think I’d get if I wrote a mocking post here about how the Argentinian Primera División is just a rest home for washed-up old players with their Euro glory days behind them?
While we’re down in the Southern Hempishere let’s look at a situation the BBC’s Tim Vickery describes in his South American soccer blog. Seems like the Brazilian league isn’t precisely up to snuff anymore and the main playmaker is 38 year old Dejan Petkovic. Promising home-grown star Robinho has gone to Europe and failed, returning home with his tail between his legs. Oh my. Shades of Landon Donovan post-Leverkusen anybody?
I shouldn’t say that too loud for fear of being branded a know-nothing Yank by the European & Latin American Real Football/Futbol Writers Association (Luis Bueno, North American representative)…but you see what I’m saying. Yeah, Thierry’s past it. So what. He’s got plenty left in the tank and tickets are going fast which might the first time in the sad history of the New York MLS franchise you can say something like that. MLS is a young, growing league that needs some help at this stage in its development from established stars in the second half of their careers. It isn’t a sin. If you think it is, take off that Beckham AC Milan shirt.
P.S. I actually like Luis Bueno’s work.
Atmosphere
by Jimmy Stagger
Seeing as this is a blog named after a British post-punk band’s song, I figure my first salvo should include something from a band of the same scene. Anyway, if you’ve been watching the FIFA World Cup 2010 Brought To You By ESPN In Stunning High Definition then you too have noticed something. The lack of any kind, at all, of atmosphere. The drone of 20,000 vuvuzela’s does not count. Droning isn’t atmosphere. Droning is white noise. White noise isn’t atmosphere.
A soccer crowd, probably more than in any other sport, plays an integral role in the experience. The audible gasp of thousands when a shot goes wide or hits the woodwork, the "ooh" that goes up when a skillful pass is made, the sharp bark when a tackle is well-executed, all of these things are as important to the entire dog and pony show as the players or the officials. Can you imagine going to a bar or having your friends over and watching a match with the sound off? Of course you can’t. I want to ram a shillelagh down Tommy Smyth’s throat whenever he works a game, but I don’t turn the sound off. My grasp of the Spanish language is about as good as my grasp of ancient Greek, but I watch the Primera División on Telemundo with the sound on.
If you get this, you’re as big a nerd as I am
by Hoover Dam
A) If I were a Fire fan, I would’ve already done up a Fire Nation banner
B) Hair color + eye color + skintone = DeRosario is totally Water Tribe