No Wizards soccer this week so I decided to dip my toes in the editorial waters of general soccer news.

So last week MLS President Don Garber was talking to the A.P. about how the downward economy has affected sports. As an example he mentioned that in the new Yankee Stadium (the house the Ruth didn't build and probably could not afford to watch a game in) there were empty seat.

Big Story
Ok, well, according to Time she's not public enemy #1...but Elizabeth Lambert is in the top ten. The magazine has named the college soccer play of Youtube infamy as one of their "Top Ten Pariahs" of 2009, putting her in the same group as Bernie Madoff, "Balloon Boy's Dad", a Lockerbie bomber and most humiliatingly, Rod Blagojevich.

With the (fantasy) Premier League season just 6 weeks away, and world football entering a post Confederations Cup summer lull period, FIFA President Sepp Blatter is once again focusing on trying to find a way to curb the EPL's spending power.
Though Real Madrid are the team that has spent hundreds of millions of dollars this summer acquiring just two players, Blatter is still focused on England - and the migration of talent to the Premier League from the continent.

Liverpool v. Leeds, Elland Road

The power and glory of the Carling Cup returns for Liverpool fans, and what better way to start than at a side with a tortured past!

Leeds United do find themselves top of the League One table as of today's kick-off, but they've struggled to maintain form since Bernie Madoff took charge of their finances in 2001.

For the last couple weeks, I've been ruminating on some way to close out the Elizabeth Lambert saga. And lo and behold: Time Magazine has dropped that way right into my lap by naming Lambert as one of the top ten pariahs of 2009.
The list places Lambert in the company of Bernie Madoff, who cost investors $20 billion dollars in his ponzi scheme; Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis, who cost US Bank shareholders billions in the acquisition of Merrill Lynch; convicted domestic abuser Chris Brown; Lockerbie bombing convict Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi; baloon-boy's dad, who invented a hoax that cost local governments thousands and could land him in jail; corrupt politician Rod Blagojevich; and convicted child rapist Roman Polanski.