Quantifying the entertainment value of a soccer league is, obviously, difficult. You might want to
look at attendance, because people tend to show up to events they find entertaining. You might want
to look at disciplinary statistics, because games with a lot of cards can be pretty entertaining in
a trainwreck sort of way.
Still on the road...so here is the next part in our 2009 "Bringing the Fans" series. This post
looks at the "soccer hater" and asks whether they are a desirable target audience for MLS. Did
the World Cup change some minds? We should be back posting live Monday morning. The next part
in this series should run tomorrow.
3 Red Cards. A fight. A penalty retaken. These things, when combined, might be seen in one full
weekend of action in any other soccer league in the world. Yet it all happened in a single night of
Major League Soccer action. ...
Visit http://www.majorleaguesoccertalk.com for the rest of the story.
On the road, so no Monday After today. Instead, here is a favorite post from a long time back
about the power of video games.
At about the same time I was wrapping up high school in the early 1990′s, SEGA was the premier
video game system. Arguably the most popular game of that period was the EA Sports hockey.
Good afternoon and welcome to today's Musket Rounds. Forgive me if the preamble is short; I've
got a busy day ahead of me at work today. This edition of the Rounds features a lot of Open Cup
news, as well as some good stuff on the American women's professional soccer front, a few odds and
ends from the New England Revolution, and much more.
Our final post of the holiday week brings Part III of our 2009 Bringing the Fans Series. It
was three years ago that we first raised the issue of bringing soccer fans into the hold. The
presence of those fans has recently been confirmed by the great ratings for Euro 2012. Can MLS
capture that audience?
I hope everyone enjoyed their 4th of July celebrations. There was plenty of MLS action for
those with access to TSN, MLS Live or DirectKick. We are still celebrating, so here is post from
the Footiebuisiness vault dating back from 2009.
Back in 2009, we took a look at how teams were looking to increase the amount of fans coming out
to the stadiums.
No, I haven't given up on MLS. Things were just a bit too crazy between AP's, finals, the ACT,
the SAT, and Euro 2012. Rest assured, though, the MLS Offside is back in business, and will
continue to be throughout my time in Spain (yeah, I'm leaving today for a 5 week visit).
I haven't posted in two months, leaving me a ton of ground to cover.
Last night's Lamar Hunt US Open Cup results left the Rochester Rhinos as the Philadelphia
Union's opponent in the third round of the 2012 edition of the long running competition.
The Rhinos beat fellow New York club the Brooklyn Italians 3-0 to advance forward in the USOC.
The United Soccer Leagues PRO team will now face the Union at PPL Park on May 29, the first every
home game in the USOC for Philadelphia.
9/7/12 - The Professional Arena Soccer League (PASL) announced the Sacramento Surge have joined the
league as the sixth expansion team for the 2012/13 season. The Surge is owned by Airrick Harvey,
a...
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Rockford Rampage Added to PASL Lineup 8/21/12 - The Professional Arena Soccer League (PASL)
announced the Rockford Rampage have joined the league for the 2012/13 season. The...
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CONCACAF has confirmed that US National Team player Andy Mate died on May 13th at the age of 72.
Mate had one cap with the National Team, appearing in the 1964 game against England. During that
era, the National Team rarely played. That lone game in 1964 was the first for the team since 1960.
Mate played his club soccer in the German American Soccer League in the 1960's, and was key to New
York.
I spent a good part of my middle school and all of my high school years on Cape Cod. During that
time, you forget everything that people tell you about that particular community. You don't notice
the ideal scenery or the tranquility. You ignore the smell of the beach and the breeze that keeps
temperatures moderate years round.
I spent a good part of my middle school and all of my high school years on Cape Cod. During that
time, you forget everything that people tell you about that particular community. You don't notice
the ideal scenery or the tranquility. You ignore the smell of the beach and the breeze that keeps
temperatures moderate years round.
The Argentina v Brazil game at MetLife Stadium yesterday had been billed as a battle between
Lionel Messi and Neymar. But it turned into the Messi show as the Barcelona star dazzled the 81,994
in attendance with an incredible halt-trick as Argentina beat their bitter rivals 4-3.
This was Messi's last game of the season, and what a historical season it was as he scored an
unprecedented 82 goals for club and in 2011-12.
While we're in the middle of all this talk about the US Open Cup, here's a little piece of
history: a story from the Newark Sunday Call from October 5, 1924. What was then called
the National Challenge Cup was just getting underway, but some of the country's top pro teams from
the American Soccer League weren't competing because of a dispute over gate receipts
"scheduling.
Barcelona provided Pep Guardiola with the perfect sendoff by routing Athletic Bilbao 3-0 in
the Copa del Rey final on Friday night, the club's 14th trophy in four seasons under its most
successful coach.
Pedro Rodriguez scored in the third and 25th minutes, and Lionel Messi ended his record-setting
season with his 73rd goal in the 20th minute.
The earliest internationals in Philadelphia involved English clubs such as the Pilgrims and the
Corinthians, teams imbued with the spirit of amateurism who embarked on North American tours
between 1905 and 1911 that were motivated both by the desire to show Americans how the game of
soccer was meant to be played and to make money.
Lionel Messi's four goals helped Barcelona to a big win over city rivals Espanyol Saturday while
Atletico Madrid boosted their Champions League hopes.
Messi was at his brilliant best scoring all of Barca's goals, and his third of the day, from a
classy run and finish past Espanyol stopper Cristian Alvarez in the second half, gave him 50 league
goals for the season.
The European Championships are here and BigFourZa has decided to enter the fray in our own
style. We have a number of things lined up for you and today we bring to you the first of many; an
awesome predictor game with a dollop of goodwill involved.
As you might already know, BFZ has been quite seriously involved with the charity Slum Soccer
Refresh your memory here and our good friends are in a fundraising race organized by
streetfootballworld
We would like you to invoke the Carlton Palmer in you and predict the results of the Euro 2012
matches by playing the BigFourZa & Slum Soccer League in the Euro Predictor on the website Just
UNITED.
Barcelona have all the possessions. 75% of the play, hundreds of passes, gold
ingots embossed with Messi and his ilk. All that treasure waiting to be robbed.
It's a perfect plot for some good old London gangsters to exploit. Today, Chelsea burgled the
Catalans, stealing the goal in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final in England's
capital.
The National Women's Soccer League is a new league that will begin play in the spring of 2013. They currentlyrun afacebookand twitterpage@NWSL_soccer. A league web page will follow later.
Via Foxsoccer.com:National Women's Soccer League will be the name of the new league run by the U.
At this point the rumors of a new pro women's soccer league are quite strong. Calling them only
rumors is a caveat used here because of the odd nature of the launch - no name, only four named
cities of eight, claims of five named teams. There is a strong curiosity in the greater Puget Sound
about the Sounders Women and their future.
New professional league announces plans for 2013 season
Thanks to phillyhoosfan for the link. It seems like another womans soccer league is sprouting up
in the North America. Currently 8 teams are going to be apart of the league, but only four have
finalized the deal. I wonder if philly is one?
The Red Bulls hosted the Chicago Fire before a reported crowd of 15k plus on Wednesday. What
made the game unique was the mid-day, weekday start time. With temperatures near 100 degrees, the
game was played in searing in heat at Red Bull Arena. In baseball it is quite common for teams to
play mid-week camp day or businessmen special matches, but not in soccer.
In which, during a Euro Beach Soccer League game a week or so ago, Portugal's Bruno Torres
suffers a sickening double knee rupture after falling awkwardly while attempting to block an
acrobatic effort from the Spanish striker.
The WPS Officially announced on Friday they have played their last game and the league has folded.
The league had been rumored to be in trouble for the past two years after several teams folded in
2011. It's the second professional women's soccer league to fold. The WUSA ran from 2000-2003
before folding.
