Sounders Timbers ON TV

real quick one, but FSC must have picked up some additional USL games b/c i just saw that the sounders and timbers game is on tv next friday. i am pretty sure that was not originally scheduled earlier in the season (but could be wrong on that) so that is nice that it was added. this is not only good b/c those of us that can't travel have a chance to watch the game now YAY. but also b/c if indeed it is an additional game picked up, then that must mean the ratings for USL is doing FSC some good. you don't put on additional games if the ratings are low. good news for footy on tv in the US.

banged up sounders to add players

when leighton o'brien suffered a broken wrist in the sounders win on saturday, he joined defenders:

Adam West (aka batman)
Danny Jackson
Taylor Graham
Michael Rodriguez
Kevin Sakuda

Midfielder Kenji Treschuk

Forward Roger Levesque

Schmetzer said of his ailing squad

I don't want to blame our mediocre record on anything drastic, but this year more than any of the last three years we have had more guys out with significant injuries

. And you know what, you can't really perform at your expected level with many of your starting team sitting on the physio's bench.

to help fill the gaps the Sounders expect to add attacking midfielder ciaran o'brien (leighton's younger brother) on loan from the Colorado Rapids and forward Kevin Forrest.

More about this in the PI.

in other news... ECS is organizing a bus ride down to portland for the final game of the season and what could be the final game between seattle and portland for quite some time. however, me thinks that a preseason friendly *cough* should be required between these teams to keep the spirit alive until the timbers can find their way into the MLS. more details about the bus ride here. I will not be able to make this game regrettably as i am hosting a friend from out of town (seriously where are all these friends from out of town coming from all of a sudden). Ironically he lives in portland. could have planned that one better me thinks.

other than that... sounders travel to puerto rico to take on the islanders this friday. game starts at 5 and you can watch it on usllive.com

cheers, ta, pip-pip, cheerio and all that fine stuff.

4th place is nice, but we won't be there for long

with our win over FIRST place charlston and vancouvers win, we find ourselves in 4th place just above rochester however they have 3 games in hand, and just above us vancouver has 4 games in hand.

the good news, we can beat the top of the table (just not the bottom). yest again proving my opinion that we have a seriously bad case of playing to our opponents level this year. not good. also, we are starting to find ourselves in playoff territory. i don't say this lightly and i surely don't say it assuming that it is a done deal. i am just saying that with a few more wins in the next 4-5 games or so, we will start to see that playoff sport coming more and more secure. lets get there first before we start breathing easy.

further more, we beat the team that we will meat in the US open lamar hunt cup of the ages of all the world. yes, it was at home for us, but that plays in their head. and it gives us confidence.

well it is late. and i have to go to bed.

oh, some stuff on vancouver and portland wanting an MLS team or something. good luck to both of them i say. would make for a great rivalry

opinion: the mls is equal to england champtionship division

there is no way i can write this without 100 different stat heads telling me i am wrong and that the MLS is better/worse than i assess. and fair enough, i am sure there are 100 different stats to dispute everything i have to say.but here is what i have to say.

the mls all stars have beat the last 5 "high" quality opponents. as the AP put it

The MLS All-Stars beat Mexico's Guadalajara 3-1 in 2003 and, after returning to an East-West format in 2004, defeated English team Fulham 4-1 in 2005. They blanked England's Chelsea 1-0 in 2006 before beating Scotland's Celtic 2-0 last year.

This isn't including the 3-2 win over west ham tonight....

so my thoughts..................Absolutely the EPL is in preseason mode.... but do you know how much any of those teams would hate to lose to an MLS team? i know they are all star and in mid season form, so they should be good for sure, but that really doesn't matter. there is a huge populace of english fans that would stake any preseason EPL team against the best that MLS has to offer.



so all in all, given that we are putting out an all star team and these teams are in pre-season form, i would put the MLS's level at EPL championship (1 level lower than EPL) form. what the hell does that mean? well in my opinion, on any given day any MLS team could beat any EPL team. over the long haul however (say a season) most MLS teams would be at the bottom of the table in the EPL, but fighting for the top of the table in the championship.

this is about as unscientific as it gets... but that is why it is my opinion.

bottom line? MLS is getting a lot better, and not b/c david f'ing bechkham said so. we are really starting to show what we are about and that is nice. it won't be too far in the future where most epl team really won't want to play any MLS teams. you can shrug off a preseason loss, but it is a much bigger deal to shrug off a true loss to a MLS side. not sure the format where any meaningful game would occur where an EPL team is paired with an MLS team, but you get my point.

anywho... to a wine enduced coma/sleep.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm wine

listen, i don't want to be debbie downer, but this won't do

as i said earlier today, we must MUST beat the teams 'lower' than us. if we don't, well, we are "that" team.

MLS hangover aside.... we won the league last year and this just isn't acceptable.

the official website isn't helping my attitude either... and i quote

"A superb goal from Youssouf Kante in the 43rd minute was offset by goals from defender Brian Kallman and forward Melvin Tarley within three minutes of each other. "

F the superb goal... we lost. lost to the bottom of the table. like we did a few weeks ago.

i am not kidding people. we continue this affair, especially at home, we will not be in the top 7 and that... quite frankly SUCKS

it is nice and fluffy to look forward to MLS next year but we need to take care of this season. i hope the coach isn't mls watching or he sure won't be in the running for our mls team.

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr


that is me being pg mad

is it a must win tonight? not really but we need to treat it like one

we lost to a then last place team rochester a few weeks back, and then again last week. we do not need to add a loss to now last place team minnesota tonight. sometimes you can swallow not beating the teams at the top of the table when you are putting away those at the bottom. it is ok to not be at your best all the time, but you must not play down to the level of your appointments. that is a terrible habit to get into, and one i know very well. put me in a game with people that are much better than me, and i even surprise myself on how i can hold my own at times. but put me in a game where everyone is worse than me, and boy do i suck. it seems like we (sounders) have been doing that lately.

we are a little over half way through the season with 12 games left to play. right now we are sitting in the playoff zone, but one or two poor results could change that rather quickly. just look at rochester, firmly at the bottom of the table and then 2 good weeks of footy sends them to 4th, above us even.

so do we need to win tonight to keep in the playoff hunt... mathmatically no, but we need to act like it.

opinion: the biggest obstacle in growing passionate fans in the US

i often debate with my friends, who are mostly NFL, NBA and MLB fans, why soccer is not a bigger sport in the US. of course there are the normal lame arguments about not enough scoring blah blah blah. but we all know that is the crappiest of crap arguments as there are countless dramatic 0-0 and 1-0 games that we have all watched.

one of the points that i always bring up however is the size of country. i think it is just too big and severly hinders the growth of US soccer. yes, the MLS is doing really well right now, but i do feel that if we lived in a country the size of france/spain/germany etc it would be a different story.

in all other countries around the world soccer has the passion and following of fans at home and away matches that beats any professionsl sport in the US. you think fans live and breath nba or nfl here like fans to in england or spain? then you are mad. the only thing that comes close i think is college basketball or football in some parts of the country. they are passionate about their teams and will travel good distances to watch, but lets face it, they don't fly accross the country for every game. but the rivalries in football between ohio v michigan or oklahoma v oklahoma state or even washington v washington st. are always passionate and sold out. even if the two teams are terrible (which is often the case with the last two i mentioned). in basketball you can point to many examples but duke and NC always stands out.

but how good the teams are or their current standings in their respective league doesn't really matter, the game will still sell out and it is the proximity that helps breed these rivalries.

when will the seahawks ever have a heated rivalry between any team on the east coast. it just won't happen. the closest rivals you can even say the hawks have is SF and oakland (although that has subsided with the reorg a few years back) but even that has to do with proximity.

we see this in soccer between seattle and portland. proximity. we have opinions of portlanders b/c we know them. but how well do we know houstoners? i don't, that is for sure.

imagine if washington was our country. for perspective, washington is about 50% larger than england and about 50% smaller than germany. but if this was our country, and all the games we played were in washington, how fantastic would that be? our opponents might look something like this:

tacoma
vancouver
bellingham
bellevue
everett
tri cities
spokane
centralia
wenatchee
yakima
olympia

how fantastic would some of those rivalries be? and you could drive to pretty much every game!

imagine seattle vs bellevue? those rich jerks that know nothing about soccer and drive their mercedes and show up at half time.... the passion and vested interest increases ten fold for me.


well i think i have made my point and of course there isn't anything we can do about it, but i do feel that US soccer is always going to be at a severe disadvantage from other leagues around the world because of this. true, the NFL/NBA/MLB leagues all have this same dilimma, but that just help proves my point. when a team sucks in any of those leagues, fan loyalty goes out the door. sure the patriots sell out every game now, but where were those fans in the late 90's? you also have a lot of bandwagon fans who will follow the team de jour, proven by an almost sold out safeco yesterday with boston in town.


anywho. that is my opinion, what are your thoughts?

calabro the voice of the sonics and every game on local tv

since i originally posted this talking point a week back, i have had a lot of time to digest the thought. and then last wednesday i learned that the rumours were true and then i really thought about it.

i really really really like this. calabro is a professional, he knows how to call a game, he is interesting and he is a seattleite. this is a great move by the FO.

in watching calabro's interview, i liked that he said that he was going to ask everyone about the nuances of the game. that was exactly the concern i had. looks like he already recognizes it and it going to sit down and become a pupil for the next 8 months. i have no doubt he is going to be a great great assett to this team and i look forward to watching away games with calabro calling the pbp.

the other news, which is really more important, is that every game will be broadcast. without that fact, calabro might not have a job. directly from the website.

Every home and away Sounders FC match will be broadcast live on KONG-6/16 or KING-5, except those broadcast nationally. Each broadcast will feature an exclusive pregame show and a postgame wrap-up. BELO will also produce a weekly show.

the only bummer that i know of is right now, there are no HD plans. yes king and kong have that capability, but it isn't cheap to use HD camara's, equiptment and broadcasting. so it isn't just down to the capabilities, it is a business decision on whether they think it is worth it. no doubt some execs are pointing to the mariners and saying "do we really want to dig that hole before we even know what the viewership is going to look like." can't say i blame them. this isn't to say that it will never happen, of course it will eventually, but it is up in the air on how soon. i personally would be a little surprised if it happens this year. but that would be sweet.


another great day in the building of our team.

MLS team? check
Proper team name? check
a lot of tickets sold? check
great sponsor with lots of money? check
all games on tv? check
great pbp commentator? check

now we just have a few more minor details.... mainly a coach and a team. but this FO has done nothing but prove themselves time and time again and i have a lot of faith in their decision making process.


going to have a beer for the sounders. or two. ahem

press conference set for this afternoon

i have seen two different sources, one says 3pm and the other says 3:30. none the less it will be soon.

in that conference expect to hear the tv/radio rights for all matches as well as who the new PBP announcer for the sonics (see my post on 7/15 for a big clue)

there may be more, but that is all i have heard

5-5-8 just ain't pretty

losing at home sucks

losing at home to a team 3rd from bottom sucks more

losing at home to a team 3rd from bottom and you fully deserve it sucks even more.

i wasn't there, i was "hosting" and as much as that sucked, it is a total coin flip on which one i would have rather be present at.... watching a painful loss of your footy team? or hosting a good friend and her lame ass new boyfriend that didn't manage to say 'thank you' once no matter how much food/beer/wine (and good wine at that i might add) we served up. anyway, that is for another day/blog even.

i don't have much to say other than it reiterates my belief that the USL cup is the most important for this team in this position (going to the MLS next year).

i am the first to admit that i have been a bit debbie downer but let's face it, our performances just haven't been up to snuff lately.

it is true that we are in fourth, but the 1, 2 and 3 teams have 2, 2, and 3 games in hand over us. and the 6th place team can pass us with a win, 7th place team has 3 games in hand, and rochester ROCHESTER could surpass us if they win their 2 games in hand. so it isn't all rosy in 4th place, not at all. that is how big that loss (losses) were to rochester (twice). we could be sitting at the top of the table. sheesh.


well at least i can say it is tight up there, noone is playing amazing footy right now and we have the chance to pull our act together. it is just tough when you could have been putting teams away and running away with the league but instead you are asking a bunch of what if's. too many draws. too many poor performances to teams at the bottom of the table.


back to pouring booze for an ungrateful SOB.

i am a fool

i have a secret. big news coming on monday

don't you hate it when someone says that they know a secret but they can't tell you?? i flippin hate it.

well guess what? i have a secret but i can't tell you. i would like to. i really would like to, but i am not supposed to know it and i am pretty sure the sounders really don't want a little blog like mine to steal their thunder. and you know what, i can fully appreciate it.

all i can and will say is that there are going to be two pretty nice announcements this coming monday. both of them fall within the media/TV/broadcast umbrella. and that is about all i am going to say.

so why write this? ooh i don't know, i guess i just want to prove my feable worth to the blogosphere world.

so now when you lie awake for the next 4 nights wondering what the huge announcement on monday will be, and then you are so tired that you finally pass out at 4am monday morning, and sleep through your alarm, and miss the first day on your new job and get fired right away, and then just to add icing to the cake you miss the announcement and then you are technically the last person to know rather than the first which you thought you were going to be by reading this blog with the slightly misleading title.... well, you can thank me for all that.

sounders match on usllive.com, other than that, all a bit quiet

not a whole lot going on news wise before tomorrows game against rochester. as the title suggests, you can watch tomorrows game on USLlive.com if you can't make it down to the game. we have out of town guests that i have to entertain so i will be doing neither. i am so excited to entertain out of town guests. no really. extactic.

seriously, really. i am excited


ahem....

back to the task at hand. 3 points really is a must tomorrow night. not just to make up for the dropped points last week against the rhinos, but to keep up with the teams ever distancing themselves at the top of the table.

a few other footy things to take care off. dickov and daren huckerby to toronto is quite nice for them (toronto that is). dickov may have had his best years behind him, but he always proves to be a pain in the ass for defenders. huckerby surprised me to be honest. he was always pacey and seemed to score every time i watched him play in the EPL. he was great for norwich a few years back and helped them win a famous match against ManU at old trafford if my memory serves me correctly. Anyway, those two players and TFC has the rights to McBride (although they will likely trade him to Chicago) and you just have to take your hat off to the management at toronto. They have created a great fan atmosphere and a great team and players want to play there.

this isn't a torontofc blog so what is the point of all this? well not much other than more than most MLS clubs, TFC has been pretty impressive in their handling of the club and in such a short time. not a bad blueprint to take note of. adrian should be paying attention, and i am sure he is.

sounders FC - who will call the matches? calabro?

while doing all i can to not work this afternoon, i have spent a good amount of time, all while having a good time, reading the blogs forums out there, but one string on bigsoccer.com got my attention and got me thinking. who would be the best person to call our sounders FC matches?

to me, the best announcers (not color men) are someone annonymous in that they don't take over the game. they also need to be able to call the play by play while interjecting a few obvservations that you might not see on the tv, i.e. "le toux is making a run into the box unmarked" or "the keeper is way off his line, if only le toux would lift his head right now he could have a go". (only using le toux as he is the only player so far). but in general, i don't like my commentators to be too loud and God help us if they like to use cliche's/metaphors/simies otherwise known as cletaphmes.

so the the name that seems to be creeping up, on that board in particular is..... kevin calabro. interesting. not sure i know what to think about that.

to be honest, i absolutely loathe basketball, but will watch it every once in a while over the past years if the sonics were in the playoffs etc. and calabro always had me entertained. his unbridled joy for the sport was clear and he clearly knows how to call a fast paced game. but soccer? hmmm, i just don't know if i see it. so let's break this down

reasons for
- he needs a job
- he is from seattle and love seattle
- he has a personality
- while he may not know a lot about soccer, if you know how to call a game, you don't need to learn a ton to describe what is going on in the pitch. he is a smart sports man and he would pick it up pretty quick
- could peak the interest of the average sports fan that normally wouldn't watch the sounders
- creates a buzz (hey, i know he would just be the announcer, but we need to keep this buzz going).

reasons against
- never called a soccer game in his life (that we know about)
- could be frustrating to listen to while he clearly missed some of the nuances and maybe even some of the finer points of the laws of the games
- is known to blurt out "AND BIG PAPER DADDY WITH THE PHI SLAMMA JAMMA" anything remotely close is just not right


i am sure we could add to both lists, but for me, those are the most important ones.

got to say that this is an interesting proposition and certainly should be entertained. there would be a lot that would have to happen for this to manifest, calabro wanting to do it and sounders management wanting him for starters, but if it were to occur, it surely would be entertaining at least. maybe in a car crash sort of way, but admit it, you always look.

bottom line, who ever we hire for this position MUST learn to not say terms like "boo ya", "raise the roof", "in the zone" and "phi slamma jamma". if calabro could learn to contain his slang sports diarhea of the mouth problem, i think he could be a great answer.

what do you think?

first win in league in 37 days... sounders finally win

to fall against the bottom of the table team at the time (rochester) hurts, but to fall against the new bottom of the table team (montreal) back to back would have just plain sucked. luckily le toux's 71st minute goal, along with our defensive shut out ensured that we get 3 points for the first time in the league since june 7th against minnesota. it hasn't felt that bad b/c we beat arizona, hollywood and KC in the US open cup. but it hasn't been a pretty run, that is for sure. more on the game here.

now it is 5 days rest before we take on rochester again but this time at home... these are the games you have to win. a little revenge is always nice.

what a blah game

caught the second half yesterday so i missed their goal... but BLAH, that is all i can say. Blah blah blah. we blahed it up against a blah last place team and blah to that.

other than kante's shot about 10 minutes from time, you just didn't see us giving it the effort that it deserved.

that is now 5 games without a win. and we head to montreal to try and break this run. we really need to get our act together if we are going to hang with the top half of the table.

ok, back to vaca mode doing nothing and caring about nothing.

sounders on national tv (FSC) for tomorrows game

the sounders are in rochester to take on the rhino's tomorrow and FSC will be playing it live at 5pm local. I think this is the last planned game for the sounders to be televised. i am going away on a nice long weekend but i will be sure to catch the game tomorrow.

been a bit quiet of late regarding sounders news, even the blogosphere is a little mellow. i suppose that is good and makes up for the busy times. not much else going on other than real salt lake (dumbest name ever) will be hosting next years all star game which lends me to believe that after a year or two of operating at qwest with sounders FC i suspect we will get the nod.

will update blog if i can, if not, see you sunday(ish)

Sounders 1/4 final PK Llive post. update. WE WIN. NICE

Wizards to shoot first

KW: pore (?) Scores

SS: Jackson Scores..... SICK SHOT. Unsavable

KW: Conrad SAVED. SAVED. SAVED. SAVED..... take that

SS: Le Toux OH NO.... Woodwork. not a great penalty... all you need to do is score and he hits the wordwork.

KW: McMahon. Scores...

SS: Treschuk. cool as you like. scores. we are level

KW: Espinoza. nice PK. up top to easily score

SS: Sakuda. Oooooooooooooooooh nice... easy kick to level it up

KW: Suh Bag nuh... errr whatever... but nice pk, no doubt

SS: obrien to keep us in it - HARD AND IN


into the extra players


KW: Harrington. hits it hard inside the post. looked like he would miss it, but nope

SS: Kante. oh man was he confident... unsavable. nice hit

ok eylander, time to save


KW: Wall. YES YES YES YES YES YES. just like i asked. SAVE. HUGE SAVE by eylander


SS: Zack Scott FTW


SOUNDERS

SOUNDERS

SOUNDERS



Scott slots it home.

Nice win

Nice win


take no credit away. we deserved that win.

bye bye wizards. see you next year. ha ha

sounders - wizards....heading into extra time

been watching most of the game but been unable to update the blog... my apologies... but you didn't miss much, at least as far as scorying goes...


ok, it is near the end of the game and it looks like we are heading to extra time

Update 85th minute: SICK and i mean SICK save by eyelander from point blank range.

pitch looks really nice as a soccer pitch... yes yes, it isn't real turf... but that is a discussion for a different day. none-the-less, it looks nice, especially without the american football lines.

CHANCE!: letoux had a 1x1 chance to be a hero but his first touch and speed were not great and he could not get free. ARGH.

Update. end of normal time. we are now at the 90th minute and it is still 0-0. to end the game, the sounders had some very solid organized defending to help curb a decend KC attack.

On to 30 minutes of added extra time... and then on to penalties??

Update: as it stands, the winner of this game will play charlston. lets make it an all USL affair.

CHANCE!!! OOOOOH 94th minute and cacsio had a great chance to finish of a prestine play that touched 6 different sounders but the keeper makes a relatively easy save


CHANCE!!! Treschk should have shot.... but whether he was nervous or was trying to be unselfish... he passed it to a not so open obrien... bad decision

Update: half time of added extra time... and it is official, the winner will be playing the top of the USL table USL charleston battery. and as pointed out by the commentators, if that were to happen that would guarantee a USL team in the final


CHANCE AND I MEAN CHANCE: halfway into the second overtime a lovely 1-2 gives le toux a flick opportunity and he HITS the upright. man that was beautiful. everything i see from le toux makes me happy that management signed him this early. so unlucky to not win it from that strike

FINE DEFENDING from danny jackson... on a move from the wizards that looked like they would have a SOLID shot on goal, jackson stuck his foot in with a perfect challange that helped keep the score scorless


CASCIO CHANCE: a little lucky with his run, but ALMOST chipped the keeper with a cross/shot. almost in for the crazy win

PLAYERS LOOK TIRED. must be heading to pk's now...

EYLANDER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! makes a massive save at the whistle to send it to penalties

going to publish PK's in new post.

back from a nice vaca... right now lets do KC

had a nice little trip to a local seaside community where sun was soaked up and beer were... well... soaked up.

hard to work in this type of weather, but we are all committed capatilists and we will do our part.

on to the task at hand. the sounders meet there 2nd MLS team in the lamar hunt US open cup tonight. a win tonight would put us in the Semi's and a very nice cup run would be completed... yes, we would want to win that and the next too, but i think reaching the semi's really puts you in the mindset of most folk paying attention. and two years in a row no doubt... no fluke there.

KC can be scored upon. they found themselves 2-0 down against fellow USL team carolina... so if we have our shooting boots on, lets get ourselves a 5-0 so we can withstand any comeback they have on their minds. more official speak here.

unfortunately, i can't make the game tonight due to some family stuff, but for those of you going.... YELL SCREAM CHEER for me... well not FOR ME... do it for the sounders, but do that little bit extra to make it feel like one more person, me, is there. sigh

when i said too many draws.... i didn't mean...

yes yes yes, i have been bitching about the draws... but yes, i would rather have taken one tonight over the loss.

that only puts us up to 3 on the year, but tonight was a night where we really needed to pull it together.

i am going to cop out and keep this one short, but leading up to a huge game on tuesday, this is a set back we really didn't need. i hope the lads can pick it up and show us what they are made of over the next few days

COME ON YOU SOUNDERSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

another draw....

coming from behind to get a late draw often feels like a win, just like giving up the lead late in the game feels like a loss.... that is what we did last night. giving up an 87th minute equalizer to drop 2 points.

last nights game feels like a loss.

what is it with all the draws this season. i did indeed say early on that getting a draw instead of a loss can be a very valuable practice but i did not mean that we should AIM for it. 7 draws from 13 games is crazy. crazy b/c a lot of those games we should have won. and crazy b/c that ratio is just bizarre. if we could have converted just 3 of those draws into wins we would be at the top of the table... that is how important those draws have become (important in a bad way).

it has to be pointed out that we do only have 2 losses this year which is phenomenal, but unless we start putting W's up instead of D's, the amount of L's doesn't really matter.

official game review here.

we play charlston tomorrow in what looks to be quite an important game... not least b/c they are top of the league. but we need to get off this 'draw' kick that we are on. 5 out of the last 6 games have been a D. let's put up a W!!!

happy 4th. don't blow your hand off.

jaqua to sounders FC?

According to the houston chronicle nate jaqua has been offered a contract by the dynamo in which would see the player traded to seattle for the start of the '09 season. jaqua scored 6 times in 15 games for the dynamo last year before moving to an austrian team.

jaqua has had a rocky start to his career. he started with the fire in 2002, but had a hard time getting games until beasley left for holland in 2004 where he was then able to start 21 games notching 4 goals. in 06, he was selected by toronto in the expansion draft but never played for them. he was then traded to the galaxy who then traded him to the dynamo.... and then as i said, he moved to austria. phew.

so it is fair to say that jaqua might want to go to a club where he has a chance to play consistantely for a few seasons... are we that club? could be.


more to come soon i am sure.

Sounders to play Wizards at Qwest. buy tickets now

the sounders will be playing the KC wizards at qwest on july 8th at 7pm. you can buy tickets now for $17 via ticketmaster. i am sure there is a $45 'convenience' fee though. how convenient. actually, it is $5.40 which makes the ticket $22.40. or $20 day off at the box office. i guess you are paying a premium to get the seats you want.

clearly there was much demand for last nights game and starfire would easily sell out for the next cup game that this is a nice move i think.

see you there!

FANTASTIC win

say what you want about my hair brained theories... tonight was a solid win against a current MLS team. no chivas are not the peak of their game right now, but i don't care. two years in a row we have knocked them off... and this team is pumped.

it may be the case that we are only getting up for big games lately, and that is a different issue all together, but it is a solvable problem. if we can prove we can play UP to the big teams, we can figure out how to take care of the smaller teams. yes, it has to get solved... but at least we have the talent.


it is late. i am in atlanta. and i have to get to bed.

but big win. big win.

ronaldo to the MLS?

no no no, not that one...

the overweight injured one.

i don't think there is a single thing in this article on cnnsi that is anything more pure speculation.... but speculation is fun right?

anyway...for speculations sake, let's entertain the idea and i for one say no. the last 4 years have not been kind to ronaldo. he had some serious weight gain problems (see pic). he seriously injured his knee again in a game against livorno. the same injury that stopped him breaking all sorts of goal scoring records back in 2000. and now, the icing on the cake, milan are terminating his contract. obviously, they don't think he will be back to even close to his old self.

not that i am a huge ronaldo fan, but you got to feel bad for the guy. yes, he made millions, is a world cup winner and will always be the original ronaldo, but 31 isn't exactly ancient even for a striker, and now he has the very real possibility to never play again.

so, what if an MLS team came knocking... well even for a player that should be able to pick his team, if the rumours about his knee are to be believed, not too many leagues would take a chance on him. so if a team from the US came and offered him good (not even great) money? i say he would take it. but none for me thanks. a slow striker or a striker that doesn't have the strength and confidence to win balls, make tight turns or shoot an audacious shot is pretty useless. i could be fat and not score goals for the team if they like, and i would cost a lot less money.

thanks but no thanks.

hUGE game tonight

i am sure that i am going to be the minority (heck, maybe i am the only one) in this thought.... but is tonights game bigger than winning the USL championship? i am going to say "yes".

ok ok, now before you have write me off as a crack pot, hear me out.

the USL seattle sounders will never die in the diehard fans that have followed them for so many years. but now is the time for the future. the future is an MLS club named seattle sounders FC. so my premise is that we need to raise the awareness of seattle as a fantastic city to play soccer in, and as a program committed to winning, be it the current USL team or the future MLS team. so if you can accept my premise, then what is the best way of raising that awareness?

i submit that a USL team beating a current MLS team and making a run in the US Open cup makes more headlines and talking points across US soccer than who wins the USL championship.

other than people who follow USL soccer, does anyone really care who wins the USL championship? even among the MLS soccer community, how many could name the last 5 USL champions? not many i bet. HOWEVER, ask any of them who was the surprise team of 07 in the cup... and every one will say seattle. now if we can do that again this year, the year before we get an MLS team, well that would create quite an attractive option for certain players wanting to get in at the beginning i think. even if this only raises the awareness level a tiny bit, but that tiny bit brings in that one extra quality player, that could mean the difference between a 35 point season and a 40 point season. the difference of making the playoffs or not (per 07 numbers). if you make the playoffs, then you keep all the season ticket holders renewing their subscriptions (not to mention those that sign up new). if you don't make the playoffs, then you are going to see a lot of one season ticket holders asking themselves if they really enjoyed going to 20 matches. i know, i know, those of you reading this don't think like that, but i am willing to bet that many thousands do. keeping the season ticket numbers high in the first few years has to be a priority of the management and that is done by playing good football and making the playoffs.

ok, so clearly i am taking this argument to quite an extreme and the early success of the sounders FC has a hell of a lot more variables than if we win tonight, or even if we win the USL championship at the end of the year, but i am trying to make my point and this is how my brain works so you are going to have to put up with it. sorry

so i guess the best answer is, "let's do both". let's go far in the cup and win the championship...and who could deny that doing both would be the best option right? of course.

but for now, i am going to say, winning tonight would be more important in the long run, than winning the championship in our final season.

i am sure most/all will disagree with me, and i fully respect that and can see why you would. winning in our final season would be one to tell the grand kids about. but i am sticking by my stance for now and hopefully you see my point. feel free to tell me how full of it i am ;-)

as for that all important game.... well you can read more here. Galindo is out for chivas with a "sports hernia". he he. i find it funny that they have to qualify that it was caused by sports. other than my uncle who suffers from a "fat out of shape" hernia.

would love to go tonight, but being in atlanta clearly puts me at a disadvantage.

i look forward to your comments on my genius/idiotic assessment of the importance of tonight's game.