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.
Alright, I'm not going to take this post into an explanation on how valuable Twitter is. The
real time ability for celebrities, companies, politicians and rebels alike to communicate with
their fans and followers in mass has dramatically changed the way we consume news and content.
After a 1-1 draw with the Montreal Impact last week, the Men in Red returned to Toyota Park for
their home opener against the Philadelphia Union on Saturday night. The new-look Fire found the
back of the net in the 28th minute with a powerful header from Dominic Oduro, giving them a 1-0
lead.
The Union pressed in the final minutes, but Fire goalkeeper Paolo Tornaghi turned aside their
efforts and gave the Fire their first victory of the season, improving to 1-0-1.
By Andrew Villegas The problem with the MLS expansion draft candy dish is that you have to wade
through a hundred stale Tootsie Rolls (some of which cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, go
figure) to get to that proverbial Snickers bar. This is the worst kept secret in American soccer.
Teams stack the unprotected [.
NOTE: The following is absolutely not a response from US Soccer President
Sunil Gulati to supporters of the North American Soccer League after the letter
they sent him yesterday, but it could be. If Gulati were inclined to respond. And exceedingly
sarcastic. Read the faux-response after the jump.
Heading into tonight's match is about more than the three points that the Portland Timbers
desperately need. It's about vengeance. It's about restoring the pride that a team like the Timbers
should have given the city that loves them so much. With FC Dallas having outplayed Portland twice
at home in embarrassing fashion (4-nil last year, 5-nil just a couple weeks ago) it's time for the
Timbers to return the favor and deal Dallas the same kind of humiliating defeat.
This will be the weakest report ever written. With our principle author slumming it up in
England watching some non-league footie, no doubt, and yours truly had to give up his tickets for a
wedding (congratulations Rob and Shannon), it was necessary for some kind of report since the
others weren't really up to it.
Roberto Martinez looks set to snub Liverpool in favour of a bumper new contract and large transfer
kitty at Wigan.
Martinez has been Liverpool's number one choice to replace Kenny Dalglish and the Spaniard held
talks with the Reds American owners in Miami last week.
There have already been rumours circulating that Martinez would turn down the chance to move to
Anfield as he is unwilling to work under a Director of Football and now reports have claimed Latics
chairman Dave Whelan has convinced him to stay.
Day two of cleaning up my garage unearthed some more gems. This time it's "Football '90," which is
a small stack of Panini stickers from the 1990-91 season. There are about 50-75 stickers in all,
nowhere near the entire collection. ...
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Even before the terrible news that Vidic's season is over, many of us were already questioning
whether the football Gods were conspiring against United with an unusually high rate of injuries
this season. Indeed, some have gone further, raising the concern that this is not an isolated
phenomenon but the continuation of a trend that has been evident for several years—a fact that
would point to a more earthly cause such as human incompetence, rather than the mischievous deeds
of some dastardly deity.
Revealed: The stats that show why England are miles behind Spain... and the man who aims
to put it right
We all know how big the gap is on the field, a fact likely to be reinforced at Wembley Saturday.
While Spain bask in the glories of their world and European titles, reaching the last eight in
three successive tournaments under Sven Goran Eriksson up to 2006 is starting to look like
England's second golden era.
My last article showed how Liverpool have improved across the board during Kenny Dalglish's first
27 games in charge, but how does Dalglish's team stack up against Roy Hodgson's? This comparison of
each manager's first 27 games provides the answer, and it's a lot closer than you might think.
Hodgson was constantly denigrated by fans but as the figures below show, on some levels, his
results were not too dissimilar to Dalglish's:
KEY POINTS
* Under Dalglish, Liverpool score more, concede less, win more away games and achieve a higher
points-per-game average.
I've been a fan of Quizible.com for a while both for their LFC quizzes and a stack of general
footy ones (such as the football miniatures one) There is now an iPhone app so you can play these
quizzes on your iPhone & iPod touch which is reduced from ÂŁ1.79 to 59p today and tomorrow. It
works offline too so you can play on your commute, get it on the app store here
Remember Il Pulpo Paul? The mystic octopus who was denounced by Iranian
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and then secretly assassinated by the CIA after 'predicting' a stack
of results at the 2010 World Cup? Remember? Paul? Okay? Well now forget him, because there's a new
psychic animal in town a llama from Ashdown Forest Llama Park in east Sussex (of course he's going
to be a Chelsea fan).
I went through a stack of Panini stickers from the 1990 World Cup today, and picked out eight
different stickers that I thought you would be interested in. Click on the above photo for a larger
photo. A lot can ...
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Paul is an ex-octopus. RIP football's greatest psychic mollusc, nay, football's only
psychic mollusc.
Yes, Il Pulpo Paul, who correctly 'predicted' (rolls eyes) a stack of World Cup results this
summer, has passed away (according to a spokesperson at his aquarium) insert your lame "He didn't
see that coming.
KC had another standing room only crowd for last night's game against Real Salt Lake, the 4th SRO
crowd of the season. The 19,422 actually puts Sporting KC ahead of last seasons attendance rate
which was the highest attended game ever. Here's a look at the rest of the 4th home game
attendances in team history.
With just 2 home game left in the season, Sporting KC has set a record for average attendance. No
one could show up for the team's final two matches against Columbus and New York, and KC would
still set an attendance record this season. KC's average if no one shows up the final two games of
the season would be 15,589, topping the 15,573 that was set in the 2003 season.
Derek Llambias has come out and explained why the club sacked Chris Hughton in December of 2010 and
replaced him with Alan Pardew. Chris Hughton - a great guy and a very good manager Derek has given
a stack of interviews since Newcastle's excellent financial results were released yesterday, and
most of what he says [.
Norwich City have made an impressive start to their latest campaign in the top flight of English
football, but manager Paul Lambert is grateful for the current international break which he
believes will give his squad the chance to take stock of their achievements to date and recharge
their batteries ahead of the next stage of their season.
Scarper while you still can or hang in there and hope for the best? Ally McCoist and his boys have
some tough decisions to make. Image:Â Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images.
It's crunch time at SPL club Rangers FC, Kickettes. The future of the club depends on the
outcome of protracted negotiations between players and joint administrators David Whitehouse and
Paul Clark, who must cut costs.
According to Sky Sports News, Chelsea have submitted an opening bid of ÂŁ22 million for Luka
Modric this morning, presumably to test the waters and Tottenham's resolve to hold onto the wee
scamp.
Sky reckon that Spurs rejected the offer out of hand, but that Chelsea are now preparing a
further, larger offer and may keep doing so until their cross-city rivals eventually cave in,
despite the top brass at White Hart Lane repeatedly stating over the course of the last few months
that Modric is not for sale.
Continuing our pictorial round-up of the weekend's Premier League action, we come to Fulham v
Tottenham, and disengages neutral mode a triffic win for the mighty Lilywhites. It's also Fulham's
first defeat of the season, after a stack of draws that Mark Hughes seemed way too pleased
with.
After Arsenal's loss in the Carling Cup final, I decided to open the second canister in that
mysterious stack of dusty old D.W. Griffith films that were apparently never released in the 1910s
and '20s. I don't know what this means, but I'm not sure how much longer I'm going to feel safe
keeping these in the basement.
Arsenal History on Twitter @UntoldArsenal Untold Arsenal on Facebook here Untold Injury Index –
Gameweek 12 By Dale Higginbottom What's this, two injury articles in a week? Well yes, given the
midweek league games I thought another brief round-up was in order. We're now into Gameweek 12 and
here's how the injury figures stack up [.
Untold Injury Index – Gameweek 10 By Dale Higginbottom Gameweek 10 saw some interesting results
and performances by the so-called title contenders but how do the injury figures stack up? Arsenal
Vs West Ham Arsenal (7 injuries) Goalkeeper – Almunia (4) Defence – Vermaelen (7), Gibbs (3)
Midfield – Frimpong (9), Ramsey (10), Diaby (3) [.
On the eve of each season I write a preview, which looks at where we are as the season kicks
off. Obviously a lot can happen before the transfer window closes so these thoughts and conclusions
are based on where we are now, not where we might in at the end of August.
Let the tradition continue, starting with:
GOALKEEPERS
Last season's verdict:I'm hoping Wojciech can establish himself properly,
gain the experience he needs and really push on in his development.
It is finally here. This week the Sounders play what potentially could be the most important
match as an MLS team as they take on Santos Laguna of the Mexican Primera DivisiĂłn. The first of
the two-legged series will be played on Wednesday March 7th at Century Link field at 7:00 pm. If
you haven't gotten your tickets, by the way, you can get them at the box office.
How would Kenny Dalglish's superb team of 1987-1991 stack up against the current Barcelona team?
Liverpool legend John Barnes was recently asked that question, and despite being a huge fan of Pep
Guardiola's team, he questioned whether the likes of Messi and Iniesta would be able to cut it in
an era where players hardly got any protection at all from referees.
...and go buy Issue #1 of The Blizzard. It's a pay-what-you-like model, and I was suspicious of the
ÂŁ3 (~$5) suggested price for the ePub. But I'm a big fan of Jonathan Wilson, so I took the plunge
and feel richly rewarded for doing so, both in the quantity and the quality of the work included. A
nice stack of non-time-sensitive soccer/football journalism now sits on my phone, just waiting for
those little gaps in the day to appear.
