LA Galaxy will be 2008 MLS Cups Champs. That or 2008 Open Cup Champs. Or at least 2009 MLS Cup Champions. They have too much talent not to win a trophy. If there is one thing Ruud is guud at, it's Cups. He won’t drive them to the Supporters Shield for the best record regular season, but he will get them to the final like he did with Chelsea and Newcastle in the 97 and 99 FA Cups.
One hitch might be WC qualifying. If Becks has to fly back and forth for Capello's army it could cost the spoiled brats of the league, but they will win something. They have to.
Ruud has the cojones to push David Beckham out wide where he is the best in the world. All they need is a left midfielder with positional sense and that backup goalie to come of age and things should take care of themselves especially with Ruiz and Donovan up top.
I met Ruud Gullit at Wembley in May 1997 right after he became the first foreign manager to win the FA Cup. He was really cool and introduced me to Zola, Di Matteo, Juninho and the rest of the stars from that game so I’m going to do him a favor. I'm going to go around to some of the barrios here in SoCal and search the latino men's leagues for that left mid he needs and then drive him over and drop him off at the HDC. Trust me he's out there and he won’t push them over the salary cap. Only problem is after I leave he'll end up with Chivas because he's probably never heard of the Galaxy.
Friday, March 7
Knock-knock ...
Can you believe it? I am excited for the first game of MLS to get here. Then I’ll miss the next 30 games and get excited again towards the end about who will make the playoffs. I will watch the interesting 2 legs of the 1st round of the playoffs because it’s sort of like champions league and then forget about the rest (two 1-game semis at the higher seeds stadium and a final at a neutral ground) until someone passes on the news that it’s over.
I don’t understand why these brilliant financial minds at MLS can’t understand that what makes soccer irresistible is when there is something at stake - like a League Championship or promotion or relegation or qualification or just plain money.
Maybe they do know this already, but don’t want to put their investors into a situation where they have to deal with risk. That is probably smart from an MBA point of view, but from a fan's point it takes the fun out of it. Isn’t investing another word for risk taking with money? If you risk going down a division you will undoubtedly gain interest in the results. All of a sudden that corner or that turnover or that save matters and you can’t take your eyes off it. If the first game matters as much as the last, both will be sold out along with everyone in between. That’s why you buy a David Beckham -not because he's sexy, but because he might swerve in a corner or a free kick that might win you the league or keep you from relegation. If I thought my $15 for parking at the Home Depot Center went to bring in players to achieve these things then I would understand, but as it is now who cares? And why waste time and money and sit in traffic for something that doesn’t matter?
I hope soccer continues to grow and eventually the league gets this through their heads. We wouldn’t have to get satellite channels and rearrange schedules to watch interesting leagues in Europe. It would be taking place here. Would be exciting wouldn’t it?
I don’t understand why these brilliant financial minds at MLS can’t understand that what makes soccer irresistible is when there is something at stake - like a League Championship or promotion or relegation or qualification or just plain money.
Maybe they do know this already, but don’t want to put their investors into a situation where they have to deal with risk. That is probably smart from an MBA point of view, but from a fan's point it takes the fun out of it. Isn’t investing another word for risk taking with money? If you risk going down a division you will undoubtedly gain interest in the results. All of a sudden that corner or that turnover or that save matters and you can’t take your eyes off it. If the first game matters as much as the last, both will be sold out along with everyone in between. That’s why you buy a David Beckham -not because he's sexy, but because he might swerve in a corner or a free kick that might win you the league or keep you from relegation. If I thought my $15 for parking at the Home Depot Center went to bring in players to achieve these things then I would understand, but as it is now who cares? And why waste time and money and sit in traffic for something that doesn’t matter?
I hope soccer continues to grow and eventually the league gets this through their heads. We wouldn’t have to get satellite channels and rearrange schedules to watch interesting leagues in Europe. It would be taking place here. Would be exciting wouldn’t it?
Sunday, March 2
Thoughts after watching the Columbus Crew train
I had the chance to watch the Columbus Crew train the other day. It was your typical impressive Pro team practice. Warm up, possession focusing on spacing, followed by work with the back four and functional training working in crosses.
Two thoughts came to mind while watching:
1) Columbus have a lot of really good young players. Hopefully MLS will not break up this group. This is the first time the league has seen a team build rather than go for immediate success. They have been forming this group for 3 years and I think it will pay off this season or next. If this team sticks together and learns from veterans like Schelloto Heyduk and Ezra Hendrikson, they could challenge for not only MLS Cups but also those intercontinental championships that nobody really understands - they just pop up for the teams that won something. MLS loves parity and moving players, but it would really be a mistake if when one of these kids shows well they send him to Colorado or something to help that market. This is one of the down sides to league owned teams.
2) I overheard Sigi Schmidt's speech to the 30 or so players afterward. Unbelievable - the same things you would say to your youth teams or college team. He was talking about focus and responsibility, accountability for yourself - how the drive to become the best player you can be has to come from inside the player not from the coaching staff. It was remarkable to me to hear this from a coach basically still deciding who to sign and who to cut. If he was getting the impression these players could do better attitude-wise, then is there any hope for the rest of us?
Thursday, November 22
Call it Capitalism but sure tastes like Communism
You know that addicting feeling you get participating in soccer games? The one where while playing it seems you are in a natural healthy state of euphoria? Not everyone is equal but everyone’s contribution is equally important. The best players try to score, the hard workers in the middle help them and the brutes at the back contribute by destroying the other teams creators. It’s a team. A unit. Everyone working for each other, doing what they do best and not worrying that it isn’t the same as the other guy. Some small and quick some slow but tall and good in the air.
The best soccer teams in the history of this great activity were always the diverse teams. The players had differing strengths. Their weaknesses hidden by the contributions of their teammates. Everyone supported and sacrificed for one another.
I am happy soccer is taking this last frontier US of A by storm. Everyone is playing, David Beckham is here signing autographs and smiling for pictures.
The thing that worries me however about this soccer craze over taking the lower and middle class in the United States of America is whether or not we are craving the euphoria of an interactive soccer match as an escape from the fact that we have lost our real utopia. It used to be that in the USA you could be who you are and not feel bad. You could use your strengths to make a living and all in all by doing what you did you were helping the team – the country. Other communist third world countries played soccer because that is where they found 90 minutes of escape into a pretend world of equality and opportunity.
Well whatever has gone down in the last 10 years here (a result of the last 60 years here) has forced us as citizens to search out the sport of soccer to get that daily feeling we used to get just by living here.
This is not good.
I would rather 22 hours and 30 min a day of euphoria in a free classless society and 90 minutes of struggle, rather than the other way around, but this is the life we are living at the moment. We repeatedly hear how great capitalism is but as things stand if you don’t live in the capital you don’t get to live.
I am not blaming soccer. We should continue to use it as a vehicle to teach our young how life is meant to be, how to function in a community, sacrifice for another, work for a goal, and carry every lesson learned out into a similar reality of life.
We just need to be every bit as aggressive in regaining our liberty here in America as we are in screaming at the ref when he makes a call that is unfair in a game that after all, really doesn’t matter.
The best soccer teams in the history of this great activity were always the diverse teams. The players had differing strengths. Their weaknesses hidden by the contributions of their teammates. Everyone supported and sacrificed for one another.
I am happy soccer is taking this last frontier US of A by storm. Everyone is playing, David Beckham is here signing autographs and smiling for pictures.
The thing that worries me however about this soccer craze over taking the lower and middle class in the United States of America is whether or not we are craving the euphoria of an interactive soccer match as an escape from the fact that we have lost our real utopia. It used to be that in the USA you could be who you are and not feel bad. You could use your strengths to make a living and all in all by doing what you did you were helping the team – the country. Other communist third world countries played soccer because that is where they found 90 minutes of escape into a pretend world of equality and opportunity.
Well whatever has gone down in the last 10 years here (a result of the last 60 years here) has forced us as citizens to search out the sport of soccer to get that daily feeling we used to get just by living here.
This is not good.
I would rather 22 hours and 30 min a day of euphoria in a free classless society and 90 minutes of struggle, rather than the other way around, but this is the life we are living at the moment. We repeatedly hear how great capitalism is but as things stand if you don’t live in the capital you don’t get to live.
I am not blaming soccer. We should continue to use it as a vehicle to teach our young how life is meant to be, how to function in a community, sacrifice for another, work for a goal, and carry every lesson learned out into a similar reality of life.
We just need to be every bit as aggressive in regaining our liberty here in America as we are in screaming at the ref when he makes a call that is unfair in a game that after all, really doesn’t matter.
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