... remember: firm and manly ... firm AND manly. If you've read me in any form of media over the years, you'll know I have no extra love saved up for ESPN aside from my unofficial English uncle, Ian Darke -- the most earnest man in sports media. No sense rehashing what makes ESPN insufferable, although it could be argued its a byproduct of the 24/7 news cycle.

We've admittedly given short shrift to the fate of the WPS, which announced that it was suspending operations for 2012. Over the years, we had expressed cautious optimism about the league both on this site and elsewhere. The three year old league has definitely had some ups and downs in the last couple of years.

Still being several weeks away from the start of a new season for association football in the US, much of the current chatter surrounding Major League Soccer revolves around the announcement of this summer's All-Star Game in Philadelphia and, well, oatmeal. Okay, perhaps not specifically about oatmeal, but rather the unveiling of Quaker as the new shirt sponsor for Chicago Fire SC that begins with this video of a morning bowl of Quaker Oats and has continued by sending these rather special packages to not only sports media but also prominent US football bloggers to spread the word.

Slava Mogutin, from "Brosephines" for Vice (October 2011)
I might as well just say it: I've been busy with work. I've been avoiding watching soccer matches on TV and following sports media - because these things provoke me. Plus - and this the biggie - I'm injured and alienated from the local scene which is my muse.

MLS Commissioner Don Garber admits MLS underestimated how much David Beckham was capable of dictating the terms of his five-year contract with the league when he joined the Galaxy in 2007. Nothing we didn't already know about how bush league MLS was back then, but interesting to hear Garber admit how little control over Beckham the league exerted.

This is the second ever Union Debate. I posted the first one about 19 days ago, just before my concussion occurred, so apologies for the lapse in publishing a second one of these fanposts.

My hope is that these drive discussion and activity up on this site, something that I feel is necessary for the Brotherly Game to become a bigger part of the Philly sports blogosphere/sports media sphere.

Tom English was strutting his stuff in the Scotland on Sunday yesterday. Gird your loins fellow bloggers. He had his sights set on us:
"This is the reality of the online blogger. They can spout stuff that turns out to be untrue and, when they get it wrong, it never boomerangs back and hurts them.

The big news last week was the announcement that FOX was awarded the English language rights to the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups. FOX outbid NBC and ESPN to claim the rights for approximately $400 million dollars. The Spanish language rights were won by Telemundo for an estimated $400 million.

The Seattle Sounders travel down to the Home Depot Center to face Chivas USA. Each team could really just consider this a 'super reserves' game. For the Sounders it will be preparation for the MLS Cup Playoffs and the ultimate goal of the 2011 team, the MLS Cup. For Robin Fraser with Chivas it will be another chance to make decisions about next year's talents.

When there's no match to preview, what do you do? News Roundup!

Well, to be quite honest, at the time of writing, there is a scarcity of meaningful Arsenal news this week. The few morsels are of the "brush aside after skimming" quality, but the show must go on. We'll start with the type of news every single Arsenal fans love to hear about- transfer rumors!

EDITOR'S NOTE: Someone (me) once said (just now, for real) that American soccer is a question in search of a question mark. But who asked that question, and what other punctuation might it contain? To find out, we deployed two brilliant young sportswriters, the latest in electronic-communications technology, and the copy-paste function.

The Major League Soccer Players' Union has released the latest batch of player salary numbers. The numbers are offered both by team and player and show the wide range of salaries in the league. This latest release is most interesting because it reveals the wages of some of the league's most recent signings.

The story circulating these couple of days in SPANISH FOOTBALL circles is the apparent interest of FC BARCELONA for INTERNACIONAL DE PORTO ALEGRE forward LEANDRO DAMIAO. Spanish Sports media are making echo that Barça has been following the new Brazilian International & maybe thinking about next season as a new incorporation to the squad.

The inaugural award came about in a partnership between UEFA and its member associations of the European Sports Media (ESM). The award is based on all appearances in the past year... Read more »

25.08.2011 - Tras la medida de la Federación Turca de Fútbol de excluir al Fenerbahçe SK de la UEFA Champions League 2011/12 por estar implicado en un caso de amaño de partidos, el Panel de Emergencia de la UEFA (presidente + 4 miembros del Comité Ejecutivo) decidió que el Fenerbahçe SK sea sustituido por el Trabzonspor AŞ, subcampeón de la liga turca 2010/11 en el sorteo de la fase de grupos.

By the time Keane and Arena finished the post-game presser, the visitor's locker room was almost all devoid of Earthquake players. That wasn't too surprising, because in general, the losing team clears out quickly.
The lovely Mrs. Keane was in the hallway to have a quick word with her goalscoring hubby.

By the time Keane and Arena finished the post-game presser, the visitor's locker room was almost all devoid of Earthquake players. That wasn't too surprising, because in general, the losing team clears out quickly.
The lovely Mrs. Keane was in the hallway to have a quick word with her goalscoring hubby.

Written yesterday. Computer died. Posting today.

Our media panel took center stage at the Women's Football Symposium today, and it's impossible to recap the entire session mainly because I was so high on adrenaline the entire time that I'm still trying to process it all. But with a quick reaction, here are five things I learned.

Spanish Football Sports has received several e-mails today from readers, especially from the Asian region, asking what's the current situation between Brazilian young 19 year old sensation NEYMAR & REAL MADRID. Good question, the situation is full of gossip although the consensus from the Spanish Sports media is that the deal is almost done.

Abby Wambach's dramatic stoppage-time header, Hope Solo's amazing reflexes, and an incredible 10-women team effort saw the United States Women's National Team triumph over the anti-soccer tactics of Brazil and capture the nation's interest.
Unfortunately, no matter how many heroic these women perform there will be one thing that they can't triumph over.

Brazilian scholars Sebastião Votre and Ludmilla Mourão observe that there are "two faces" to media representations of the women's game, "skill and sensuality." These two qualities are divided, as the media uses one player to represent beauty, another to represent skill – and pits the two against each other, as bitter rivals.

Mr Gianni Merlo, President of the International Sports Press Association (AIPS) has called for members of the world's peak professional sports media body to join in the fight against manipulation and to defend their right of expression. Merlo has also urged the media to find innovative ways to harness and better exploit the use of new technologies in order to invest in culture.

post source:spanish football sports When SPANISH FOOTBALL goes into summer slow mode, the whole industry that is dragged by it also suffers. The media see how their newspapers sell less & TV Sports shows even that the time to go on holidays. The real creativity over the summer-break in Sports media departments is to figure out what the hell to publish or talk about the following day to get people

It's the Christine Sinclair show within Canadian sports media circles today. The star Canadian forward, who scored her country's only goal in their 2-1 loss to Germany in the Women's World Cup, made it easy for Canadian journalists in search of a story this morning (including yours truly, although I'm not a journalist).

If you listen to sports talk radio, then you are probably familiar with the Dan Patrick Show. He has become widely known in the world of U.S. sports fans. He has developed his show over the years and clearly has major influence on the direction of how sports fans receive their sports news.
So many entrenched sports media types ignore what is happening with Soccer in the U.

As many readers of this blog will know, some German women who play competitive football posed for Playboy. These are not members of the national team, but they are women who play high level football in the country.
March Presentation of 2011 WWC kitTitus Chalk from When Saturday Comes does a nice job with this story.

As we all know, diving is one of the most reviled tactics in sports. The outcry over Charlie Davies' flop that may have cost RSL three points on Saturday, and the much more muted hand-wringing over a possible Jermaine Jones dive on Sunday, has the concept of soccer players falling with minimal contact becoming a talking point for many in the sports media.

Three days ago the story from Turkish media was that Tukish Club GALATASARAY was in Madrid making a 3 player offer to ATLETICO DE MADRID. The three players sort by the Turks were defender Tomas Ujfalusi, midfielder Reyes & Forward Reyes. At Madrid defender Ujfalusi News just in from the Galatasaray website & Spanish Sports media is that Tomas Ujfalusi has accepted the Turkish .

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- See Bushman's 1970-1980 Season Flashback Photos
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- Throughout the day, the QPR Report Messageboard has news updates, comments and perspectives - even links to other board comments of interest re QPR matters (on and off the field) along with football (and ONLY football) topics in general.

Whether you are a fan of Jim Rome or not, his influence on the American sports world is undeniable. He has a daily 3-hour national sports talk radio show and a half-hour TV show on ESPN, Rome is Burning (He is reportedly leaving ESPN and taking his show with him to CBS). His style is different than other personalities in that he references his followers as 'clones' and what they have to say as 'takes.

News today in the local Newcastle sports media that the Magpies are after Watford striker Danny Graham. Danny Graham - would prefer to join Newcastle This is not the first time Newcastle have been linked with the player who was born in Gateshead, and scored 27 goals in 49 appearances for Watford last season.

Flop of the Season? Not from this angle, he's not. Images: Getty Image/Zimbio

Yes, since our methods of attracting votes redefined the political scene the world over, we have made it our business to keep a close eye on other sports media and their methods of gauging reader opinion. Not because we feel we can learn anything from them, obviously, but it's always good to keep abreast of what's going on outside our pinkly painted party pad.

Blasphemous though it may seem, for all the dazzling array of skills which they bestow upon me as a mere spectator, I do not worship at the altar of Barcelona. I worship at the altar of football. Despite the Catalan club's increasingly jubilant marketing campaign, there is a distinction between the two.

Cary Leibowitz, Misery Pennants (1989)By the end of the summer, I was in a dark place in relation to the men's game: unable to care about who wins what international tournament or league's season, because who cares what a bunch of spoiled brats do in the service of hyper-leveraged clubs that look more and more like individuated versions of the real estate bubble.

MLS announced that the 2011 MLS Cup Final will be played at the Home Depot Center, home of the Los Angeles Galaxy and Chivas USA, on November 20. The Galaxy have hosted the Cup three times since MLS began in 1996.

This marks the second year in a row that MLS has scheduled its championship game at the same time as a Sunday Night Football game between the Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants.

At the beginning of the season, Jose Mourinho, as part of his I'm-not-Harry-Potter tone to condition the expectations of the Real Madrid faithful, said that this Real Madrid would hit their peak form on their second season, just as he did with Inter (winning the treble on his 2nd season). It was also with this as a ‘base starting point' that explained his early season decision to establish a core starting XI and play them over and over and over again within his set system to get them familiarized with the ‘Mourinho way.

At the beginning of the season, Jose Mourinho, as part of his I'm-not-Harry-Potter tone to condition the expectations of the Real Madrid faithful, said that this Real Madrid would hit their peak form on their second season, just as he did with Inter (winning the treble on his 2nd season). It was also with this as a ‘base starting point' that explained his early season decision to establish a core starting XI and play them over and over and over again within his set system to get them familiarized with the ‘Mourinho way.

At the beginning of the season, Jose Mourinho, as part of his I'm-not-Harry-Potter tone to condition the expectations of the Real Madrid faithful, said that this Real Madrid would hit their peak form on their second season, just as he did with Inter (winning the treble on his 2nd season). It was also with this as a ‘base starting point' that explained his early season decision to establish a core starting XI and play them over and over and over again within his set system to get them familiarized with the ‘Mourinho way.

I was gonna talk about the San Francisco Giants fan who was hospitalized at Dodger Stadium last week, and What We Can Learn From It. Thank heaven, Salt Lake gave us something more fun to talk about.
Now I can admit it. I thought the Royals were going to get jobbed like an American boxer at the Olympics.

I'm really excited by In the Game. This film by the producers of Hoop Dreams looks the realities of the highest levels of professional women's sports and the daily grind of girls fighting for access to training and facilities at especially urban high schools. From a leader in the WNBA, "Our biggest challenge is media coverage.