I love this video blog of the KC-LA MLS game in Kansas City. The 2:23 mark has the best video of his confrontation with a fan that I have seen.
FIFA President Wants MLS to begin in the Fall
Riiight. I’m sorry. So the MLS will be competing with the NFL, college football, and the baseball playoffs.
To his soccer only stadiums, I would support. Given the economy, they would probably need to be multipurpose stadiums. So teams would have to share the space.
Hey Becks, here before you, here after you, here despite you
Reuters summed up the entire Becks/MLS situation the best:
He was supposed to be the man who would take soccer in the United States to the next level yet David Beckham is in danger of becoming an embarrassing liability to the game in the country.On a weekend when 65,000 people turned out for a friendly match in Seattle, 82,000 watched a Gold Cup game in Dallas and the U.S. national team continued their impressive form with another victory, the soccer news was all about Beckham being booed by his own fans.
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Soccer Tribalism?
With the World Cup coming to South Africa in 2010, the issue of tribalism when it comes to soccer in Africa is something that might get some coverage.
I will be honest. I knew about tribalism, but had no clue about how it impacted the sport. I read this article about it and it inspired me to at least look into this issue. I encourage you to read it.
Be careful what you tweet soccer players, Part 2
Do we need to go over this again?
Jimmy Conrad, a member of the U.S. men’s soccer team, made news in Mexico from his Twitter account. Funny at time. Not so much today.
From the Kansas City Star:
Conrad, though, made news in Mexico with his Twitter account of being on the same plane last week as the Mexican team.
“I hope the Mexico coach doesn’t kick me while I walk past him in the aisle,” Conrad wrote before his Twitter account mysteriously disappeared. Conrad was poking fun at first-year coach Javier Aguirre, who served a three-game suspension for kicking a Panama player.
“It was definitely a joke,” Conrad told Televisa Deportes on Saturday. “It’s been blown way out of proportion. I, myself, have a lot of respect for their coach and their team as do all of our guys.”
Bet he got a good chuckle with the line. He probably was not chuckling around 5 p.m. Sunday after the U.S. got kicked around by Mexico.
Needless to see, this got a big response in Mexico. Screencap from Diario de Yucatan
Mexico wins 5-0, claims Gold Cup
I wrote before the match that Mexico had the better talent, so I was not surprised that El Tri won.
However, the Americans got their butts handed to them. Mexico scored five second-half goals to route the U.S. in front of 79,156 at Giants Stadium Sunday afternoon.
The U.S. collapsed and got embarrassed by a better team. The Mexican team was 0-9-2 in road games against the U.S. since a March 1999 victory at San Diego.
The scary part: Mexico did not play its best players. Neither did the US hopefully. Most of the Americans are okay, but clearly are not ready for primetime.
Two more post-match thoughts: 1. Giants Stadium was unbelievably pro-El Tri. I knew the game was played in the States, but you would not know it from watching. I thought it would be 50-50. But the Mexican flags hanging from the stands on the telecast, it was hard to see a single American flag or colors in the stadium.
2. Despite the lost, football has had a good stretch of press in the last few weeks, David Beckham aside. The Gold Cup, beating Spain and finishing second in South Africa, the World Football Challenge. We will see what happened in August for the big rematch in Mexico City.
Special category for soccer deaths?
From USA Today:
Soccer violence is killing about four people a year in Brazil, according to a sociologist’s study.Mauricio Murad says deaths related to soccer games are also on the rise in the nation hosting the 2014 World Cup.
His data show 42 people were killed in connection to Brazilian soccer games in the last 10 years, behind only Argentina (49) and Italy (45).
But Murad says that in 2007-2008, Brazil had the most deaths — seven — while five were killed in Italy and four in Argentina.
Murad called Monday for Brazil to pass laws specifically targeting soccer violence.
Now, this is an issue. But a law “targeting soccer violence” makes little sense. If Person A kills Person B, charge the person with the crime. A football game is not a “hate crime”. It’s an idiot crime.
That being said, god help Brazil if some kills a player during the 2014 World Cup. Or, a player kills a fan. You can not say that will never happen.
A Colombian soccer player who admitted killing a heckling fan this month said he was drunk at the time and wanted to simply scare the man with a gun. The fan had been taunting Javier Florez after Athletic Junior lost in the local Colombian league July 5. Florez said he reacted after a stone was thrown at his car.
“I was drunk, full of hate, of fury,” Florez told the Spanish sports newspaper Marca. “They challenged me to fight. I went up to them, pulled the gun out and one of them jumped at me to take it away. In this altercation, the horrible thing happened. I shot several times. I don’t remember very well.
U.S.-Mexico final match in Gold Cup
The U.S. Men’s National Team advanced to the CONCACAF Gold Cup final for the third time in a row and seventh overall with a 2-0 victory against Honduras in the semifinals this evening behind goals from Clarence Goodson and Kenny Cooper at Soldier Field in Chicago.
The U.S. will be looking for their third straight regional championship on Sunday, July 26 at 3 p.m. ET at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. against Mexico.
“We are very pleased with the effort tonight, but also know the job isn’t done.” said U.S. head coach Bob Bradley. “We knew from the start of this tournament that it was a great opportunity for a lot of players, but we also made it very clear that we are defending champions, so it was with that idea that we got started and we have gone about it the same way we do every time we come together. We are now looking forward to the chance to accomplish our goal of winning the tournament.”
The U.S. side will be very different when the two teams meet next month in the World Cup qualifier.
The world will be watching this game, they will not care that the best American players did not play. After beating Spain, they will be looking to see if the U.S. is ready to be a contender in 2010.
If the U.S. loses to Mexico, it will be seen as losing to an “inferior” team. However, in reality, the two sides are pretty even. The Mexican team have more experience, but the Americans are playing at home.
The history between the two teams are interesting. Mexico has trouble with games in the States since 1999. The Americans almost never beat Mexico in Mexico.
Whatever happens, it should add more juice to the August match in the Azeteca.
Club America wins again, downs AC Milan 2-1
So far, the World Football Challenge might be overblown exhibitions. But they have produced pretty good games.
On Wednesday, America used a header by Daniel Marquez in the 84th minute to get AC Milan 2-1 in front of 50,000 fans at the Georgia Dome.
The Mexican team took the lead in the 55th minute off a great finish by Enrique Estrada as he beat U.S. defender Oguchi Onyewu. Onyewu recently became the first American to sign and now play for Milan.
On the 65th minute, Filippo Inzaghi score on a breakaway goal for Milan.
U.S.-Mexico TV update
Two updates (both personal):
Live blog for the match is here
1. I thought for sure they would change the time of the game so it would be in prime time. There is still no reason why the game will be in the middle of the afternoon in Mexico City.
2. I found out that mun2 is on a special sports package that I do not have access to and I will not by buying the package to watch the game. And no, I am not interested in The Chicas Project (okay, I may be interested. I will need to research it). So I will be watching on Telemundo.
Here the press release:
Coverage of the game on mun2 will be called “Showdown at the Azteca.” mun2, the lifestyle cable network for bicultural Latinos 18-34, recently surpassed 31 million U.S. households in national distribution, and offers popular series that include “The Chicas Project,” “18 and Over,” and “Reventon Countdown.” Coverage will begin at 3:55 p.m. Eastern, 12:55 p.m. Pacific on mun2. The network will offer exclusive game announcers, graphics and English-language feed for this novel television event.
“Deportes Telemundo has unparalleled experience in producing major international soccer events for U.S. audiences,” said Jorge Hidalgo, Telemundo executive and a nearly 30-year veteran of soccer production. “The expertise of our soccer production team will make this a must-see event in any language for soccer fans across the country.”
Red Card Sports 