Benny Feilhaber...After a career that spanned Germany, England and AGF Aarhus in Denmark, Feilhaber
is returning to the US, to undertake a new beginning with MLS. Having fallen off the radar as of
late with the US during friendlies despite some phenomenal outings, Feilhaber signed on the last
day for international transfers, April 15th.
Peter Wilt wrote an outstanding column on assembling and retaining a good team in Major League
Soccer-
MLS' strict salary budgets, weighted lotteries, drafts and allocations have made it a very
difficult league to stay near the top or the bottom of the standings for long stretches.
Incompetent, lazy or ignorant decision making can certainly make the latter an exception to the
rule, but staying on top requires the right combination of several factors including a little bit
of luck.
Sure, it was a loss. It doesn't feel good. About 100 people traveled, and they are hurt just a
bit more maybe. It was a performance that could not be called a good loss. Seattle Sounders FC was
outplayed in nearly every aspect of the match. If not for Leo Gonzalez and Kasey Keller this could
have been a 5 to nil thrashing.
It's all gone pear shaped north of the border. And I mean, totally. Toronto FC is melting down.
Montreal and Vancouver have been kicked out of USL. Bloggers are furiously trying to find the USL
teams a home and curb stomp TFC management.
Richard Whittall has coped with the crisis by succumbing to complete, barking madness:
This might put me on the business end of a very detailed flaming post, but why doesn't
MLS consider a radical move: a wholesale ideological change in direction away from purchasing
"ready-made" talent, either overseas or within the league, and toward investment in superb
managerial and coaching staff?
I read with some interest the news from Ivan Gazidis that away fans could potentially be moved
from their current position in the lower tier at the Emirates to the upper tier of the Clock End
that houses away fans in cup ties.
Whilst I think this is a great idea in principal, this suggestion has raised a few questions
that I'm sure will need addressing.
I read with some interest the news from Ivan Gazidis that away fans could potentially be moved
from their current position in the lower tier at the Emirates to the upper tier of the Clock End
that houses away fans in cup ties.
Whilst I think this is a great idea in principal, this suggestion has raised a few questions
that I'm sure will need addressing.
I read with some interest the news from Ivan Gazidis that away fans could potentially be moved
from their current position in the lower tier at the Emirates to the upper tier of the Clock End
that houses away fans in cup ties.
Whilst I think this is a great idea in principal, this suggestion has raised a few questions
that I'm sure will need addressing.
I read with some interest the news from Ivan Gazidis that away fans could potentially be moved
from their current position in the lower tier at the Emirates to the upper tier of the Clock End
that houses away fans in cup ties.
Whilst I think this is a great idea in principal, this suggestion has raised a few questions
that I'm sure will need addressing.
LONDON — Tickets for this season's Champions League final at Wembley will be the most expensive
in history, UEFA confirmed Thursday as officials revealed sharp price hikes for entry to the
football showpiece. While the cheapest tickets sold via allocations to clubs will be 80 pounds (129
dollars/95 euros), the cheapest on general sale "category [.
Manchester City have cut Manchester United's ticket allocation for the next upcoming derby on
November 10th, as punishment for United fans failing to comply with various safety standards during
last season's corresponding fixture at Eastlands.
Paraguay captain Paulo da Silva has been enticed to the sole-surviving Premier League
representative of the north-east region of England to join Sunderland on a free transfer after his
contract with Deportivo Toluca expired.
Following a previous arrival of Manchester United striker Fraizer Campbell in the shape of £3.
Reading v Swansea: Championship 2011 Playoff Final Preview is a post from: Just Football
On Monday, Swansea City and Reading will compete in the Championship
play-off final at Wembley Stadium for the right to play in the Premier League next
season. Both clubs have sold out their allocations for this match, which is worth tens of
millions of pounds to the victor the precise value tends to increase every time somebody reports
it.
Watching the FA Cup semi-final on telly this year, now that the game has been taken away from
venues like Villa Park and staged at Wembley instead, it was fairly obvious how the FA had fucked
over fans with their allocation. A good ten to fifteen minutes after the restart the best seats in
the house were pretty much completely empty.
FIFA announced the confederation allocations for the 2014 FIFA World Cup, and Chuck Blazer was not
happy at all. CONCACAF remained at three direct spots for the World Cup finals, with a playoff
place against a confederation to be determined later. (Asia, South America, and Oceania are the
other confederations with half a place.
Other than the announcement of allocations for the 2014 World Cup among the confederations, the big
news to come out of FIFA was the announcement of hosts for the age-level World Cups. In a historic
selection for Central America, Costa Rica has been awarded the right to host the 2014 Women's U-17
World Cup.
Ever wonder who the best players not playing in the World Cup are? Have you had questions about
just how much MLS allocations are worth? Have you spent time thinking about whether Canada will
ever be a CONCACAF power?
These are just some of the questions and topics covered in this latest installment of Your
January Questions Answered.
Ever wonder who the best players not playing in the World Cup are? Have you had questions about
just how much MLS allocations are worth? Have you spent time thinking about whether Canada will
ever be a CONCACAF power?
These are just some of the questions and topics covered in this latest installment of Your
January Questions Answered.
Every once and a while, our business coverage dovetails with more traditional coverage of MLS.Â
Today is one of those days. Commissioner Garber gave his annual State of League address and
highlighted some important business changes. We thought we would address some of these here.
The address started with the Commissioner noting the importance of the league presenting a new
champion in 2010.
In a great move for the New York Red Bulls they have signed their final Designated Player, Rafa
Marquez. The Mexican defender is a legend at Barcelona where he played with the other high profile
Red Bulls signing Thierry Henry. The Red Bulls have made the most of their 3 designated player
allocations providing their club with two proven strikers up front in Juan Pablo Angel and Thierry
Henry while still getting a veteran player in the back that can still easily play at MLS
standards.
Coming out of MLS Superdraft, the Red Bulls held the #1 allocation slot, meaning that the club
would have first dubs on any returning USMNT players. The Red Bulls' position atop the allocation
heap was the result of a deal that Peter Nowak and the Philadelphia Union made on the eve of the
draft to send its #1 allocation slot to DC United in return for Fred, DC's #7 pick in the first
round of the draft and a substantial amount of allocation money (believed to be more than
$200,000).
"Erik Soler loves pimping out like Tom Cruise, and says he is the General
Manager and OG (original gangsta) Sports Director at the severely clubbed and beated down MLS team,
New York Red Bulls"
And who is this man that is looking for a "klubben" this season?
When you worry about missing the playoffs this year, just take a look at Vancouver and remember,
that could have been us.
The Timbers didn't get the benefits of being a lone expansion team in 2011, but instead had to
split a lot of things with Vancouver: dividing up expansion draft picks and the top MLS draft slot,
as well as all kinds of other obscure rankings and allocations.
New York - MLS has toiled in American obscurity for nearly twenty years. For the last ten, it's
lost staggering mindshare to the billionaire train-sets of Europe that use August financial outlays
to determine May trophy allocations. As American soccer fans rail against unsustainable Federal
spending in their political lives, they gravitate to the TARP-ian business models of the Glazers,
Lerners, and Abramovichs like a Paulson to a broker bail-out.
We are on the road tonight, so we thought we would quickly touch on the recently released
mid-summer salary numbers. The salary list offers insight into the status of MLS earnings.Â
Highlights include the new DP salaries, including $300k for the Sounder's Fernandez and around
$500k for N'Kufo and Boscovic.
Southend Borough Council REALLY want you to take notice of the forthcoming census. They sent
Longpier.com and other media organisations a press release about the once-in-a-decade survey
earlier this week. But the actual forms won't be sent out to residents of the borough for another
ELEVEN months.
So says Michelle, but Schelotto won't be a designated player. They're looking at using allocations
to buy down his salary:
The good news for Schelotto fans: A new contract could be structured in a similar
fashion to Schelotto's deals in 2007 and 2008, with the Crew using allocation money and other
resources to "buy down" his salary and temper the hit to the Crew's salary budget.
This blog post takes a brief look at how Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) and its teams have
used Twitter. We'll look at the early days of Twitter integration and how it's evolved as a sports
marketing tool. Then, we'll discuss a couple ideas for utilizing Twitter's new List feature. Keep
in mind this is a very short post on a topic I could describe for days.
