Fernando Morientes was the last player before today to score 5 goals in La Liga(2002).
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**Official Football (Soccer) Thread"
- Thread starter ArsenalCannon357
- Start date
Messi breaks Gerd Müller's record.
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Police arrest 9 in Rio Ferdinand incident
Nine people were charged in connection with trouble at Sunday's Manchester derby, although they are still looking for the person who threw the coin that injured Rio Ferdinand, Greater Manchester police confirmed Monday.
Ferdinand was hit above the left eye by a two-pence coin thrown from the crowd as the team celebrated after Manchester United's last-gasp winner in their 3-2 Barclays Premier League away victory.
Among the charges faced by the nine people are racially aggravated public order and pitch encroachment.
Police are continuing to work with City to identify the offender who threw the coin at Ferdinand, a police spokesman said.
A Manchester City supporter ran on to the pitch to confront Ferdinand.
Football Association chairman David Bernstein this morning condemned the attacks on Ferdinand, and said the FA would investigate.
"I think it's disturbing that we're seeing a recurrence of these types of incidents. We've had racial abuse issues, the odd pitch incursion, things being thrown at players -- it's very unacceptable and has to be dealt with severely," he said.
"To my mind it's for the FA, the whole game of football and the authorities to work together to deal with this most severe matter.
The following people were charged: Peter Harrison, 30, of Springfield Road, Kearsley, Bolton, was charged with a racially aggravated public order offense.
Matthew Stott, 21, of Southfields, Knutsford, and Christopher Johnson, 52, of Ancoats Lane, Alderley Edge, were charged with pitch encroachment. Warren Singh, 19, of Oakdale Drive, Heald Green, Stockport, was charged with a public order offense. Sam Weatherby, 21, of Grant Street, Farnworth, Bolton, and Philip O'Leary, 24, of Heysbank Road, Disley, Stockport, were each charged with breaching football banning orders. Christopher O'Neil, 21, of Swainsthorpe Drive, Manchester, Andrew Martin, 20, of Northdale Drive, and Nicholas Morley, 21, of Chapel Lane, both Blackley, were all charged with being drunk and disorderly.
All are due before Manchester City Magistrates' Court on Jan. 4. Four other arrests were made.
Stott, 21, has had his season ticket removed for the rest of the season and faces a lifetime ban if found guilty in court of a charge of pitch encroachment.
"His season card has been immediately removed for the rest of the season and he has been charged to appear at court. If he is found guilty he faces a lifetime ban," said a City spokesman.
Stott, described by his solicitor as "not a stereotypical drunken football fan," said in a statement he would be writing to United defender Ferdinand to apologize.
Nine people were charged in connection with trouble at Sunday's Manchester derby, although they are still looking for the person who threw the coin that injured Rio Ferdinand, Greater Manchester police confirmed Monday.
Ferdinand was hit above the left eye by a two-pence coin thrown from the crowd as the team celebrated after Manchester United's last-gasp winner in their 3-2 Barclays Premier League away victory.
Among the charges faced by the nine people are racially aggravated public order and pitch encroachment.
Police are continuing to work with City to identify the offender who threw the coin at Ferdinand, a police spokesman said.
A Manchester City supporter ran on to the pitch to confront Ferdinand.
Football Association chairman David Bernstein this morning condemned the attacks on Ferdinand, and said the FA would investigate.
"I think it's disturbing that we're seeing a recurrence of these types of incidents. We've had racial abuse issues, the odd pitch incursion, things being thrown at players -- it's very unacceptable and has to be dealt with severely," he said.
"To my mind it's for the FA, the whole game of football and the authorities to work together to deal with this most severe matter.
The following people were charged: Peter Harrison, 30, of Springfield Road, Kearsley, Bolton, was charged with a racially aggravated public order offense.
Matthew Stott, 21, of Southfields, Knutsford, and Christopher Johnson, 52, of Ancoats Lane, Alderley Edge, were charged with pitch encroachment. Warren Singh, 19, of Oakdale Drive, Heald Green, Stockport, was charged with a public order offense. Sam Weatherby, 21, of Grant Street, Farnworth, Bolton, and Philip O'Leary, 24, of Heysbank Road, Disley, Stockport, were each charged with breaching football banning orders. Christopher O'Neil, 21, of Swainsthorpe Drive, Manchester, Andrew Martin, 20, of Northdale Drive, and Nicholas Morley, 21, of Chapel Lane, both Blackley, were all charged with being drunk and disorderly.
All are due before Manchester City Magistrates' Court on Jan. 4. Four other arrests were made.
Stott, 21, has had his season ticket removed for the rest of the season and faces a lifetime ban if found guilty in court of a charge of pitch encroachment.
"His season card has been immediately removed for the rest of the season and he has been charged to appear at court. If he is found guilty he faces a lifetime ban," said a City spokesman.
Stott, described by his solicitor as "not a stereotypical drunken football fan," said in a statement he would be writing to United defender Ferdinand to apologize.
Brazilians could have a patent on shots like these.
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Soon THE DEAD BALL KING will land in NYC. 
New York Red Bulls sign Juninho Pernambucano
The 37-year-old Brazilian, who won 47 caps for the Selecao, has decided to make the move to MLS and reunite with former coach Gerard Houllier
The Brazilian played under the club's head of global soccer, Gerard Houllier, at Stade de Gerland, and the Frenchman has decided to bring the veteran playmaker to MLS.
And, despite the player's advancing years, sporting director Andy Roxburgh is certain that he will be a success in the USA.
"Juninho is a world-class player who our global sporting director, Gerard Houllier, and I have known and admired for many years," he said in a team-issued release.
"Aside from being a top dead-ball specialist and a tremendous talent, Juninho is a fantastic professional both on and off the field.
"He is in great physical shape, and we think he can make a positive impact for us in 2013."
New York Red Bulls sign Juninho Pernambucano
The 37-year-old Brazilian, who won 47 caps for the Selecao, has decided to make the move to MLS and reunite with former coach Gerard Houllier
The Brazilian played under the club's head of global soccer, Gerard Houllier, at Stade de Gerland, and the Frenchman has decided to bring the veteran playmaker to MLS.
And, despite the player's advancing years, sporting director Andy Roxburgh is certain that he will be a success in the USA.
"Juninho is a world-class player who our global sporting director, Gerard Houllier, and I have known and admired for many years," he said in a team-issued release.
"Aside from being a top dead-ball specialist and a tremendous talent, Juninho is a fantastic professional both on and off the field.
"He is in great physical shape, and we think he can make a positive impact for us in 2013."
Zenit St Petersburg fan group warns against buying black or gay players
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/dec/17/zenit-st-petersburg-fan-group
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/dec/17/zenit-st-petersburg-fan-group
Tito Vilanova suffers cancer relapse
BARCELONA, Spain -- Barcelona coach Tito Vilanova will undergo surgery Thursday for a recurrence of parotid gland cancer.
The club said the operation will take place Thursday and Vilanova likely will spend four days in a hospital followed by six weeks of chemotherapy and radiation.
"Tito is strong and we are convinced that he will be back soon," Barcelona team President Sandro Rosell said. "We have absolute confidence in the team and our staff and that they are equipped to overcome this."
Assistant coach Jordi Roura will take over for Saturday's league game against Valladolid, Barcelona's last match until Jan. 6.
"Tito is our coach and will continue to be our coach," Rosell said. "Jordi will be on the sidelines for Valladolid, but all the rest is pure speculation."
The 44-year-old Vilanova had a tumor removed from a saliva gland in November 2011. He took over as Barcelona's coach from Pep Guardiola this season after passing medical checks.
Under Vilanova's guidance, Barcelona is off to the best start in Spanish league history at 15-0-1. The club has 46 points, nine ahead of Atletico Madrid and 13 in front of Real Madrid.
"During this time, depending on his evolution, Vilanova may be able to combine treatment with his work regime," Barcelona said Wednesday.
"Very sorry to hear the news," Barcelona midfielder Xavi Hernandez said on Twitter.
Hernandez attended the news conference along with teammates Carles Puyol, Andres Iniesta and Victor Valdes.
"All my strength and support to Tito Vilanova," Spanish tennis star Rafael Nadal said on Twitter. "We are all with you so you may overcome this news step."
This is the second case of a serious illness affecting Barcelona's squad in recent years.
French defender Eric Abidal underwent surgery to remove a liver tumor from his liver in March 2011, returned to help Barcelona beat Manchester United in the Champions League final that May, then underwent a liver transplant this April. He has resumed training but has not played in a game this season.
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/s...d-gland-cancer-relapse,-barca-reports?cc=5901
BARCELONA, Spain -- Barcelona coach Tito Vilanova will undergo surgery Thursday for a recurrence of parotid gland cancer.
The club said the operation will take place Thursday and Vilanova likely will spend four days in a hospital followed by six weeks of chemotherapy and radiation.
"Tito is strong and we are convinced that he will be back soon," Barcelona team President Sandro Rosell said. "We have absolute confidence in the team and our staff and that they are equipped to overcome this."
Assistant coach Jordi Roura will take over for Saturday's league game against Valladolid, Barcelona's last match until Jan. 6.
"Tito is our coach and will continue to be our coach," Rosell said. "Jordi will be on the sidelines for Valladolid, but all the rest is pure speculation."
The 44-year-old Vilanova had a tumor removed from a saliva gland in November 2011. He took over as Barcelona's coach from Pep Guardiola this season after passing medical checks.
Under Vilanova's guidance, Barcelona is off to the best start in Spanish league history at 15-0-1. The club has 46 points, nine ahead of Atletico Madrid and 13 in front of Real Madrid.
"During this time, depending on his evolution, Vilanova may be able to combine treatment with his work regime," Barcelona said Wednesday.
"Very sorry to hear the news," Barcelona midfielder Xavi Hernandez said on Twitter.
Hernandez attended the news conference along with teammates Carles Puyol, Andres Iniesta and Victor Valdes.
"All my strength and support to Tito Vilanova," Spanish tennis star Rafael Nadal said on Twitter. "We are all with you so you may overcome this news step."
This is the second case of a serious illness affecting Barcelona's squad in recent years.
French defender Eric Abidal underwent surgery to remove a liver tumor from his liver in March 2011, returned to help Barcelona beat Manchester United in the Champions League final that May, then underwent a liver transplant this April. He has resumed training but has not played in a game this season.
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/s...d-gland-cancer-relapse,-barca-reports?cc=5901
Sat March 2nd: Real Madrid vs. Barcelona
..Tue March 5th: UCL- Manchester United-Real Madrid
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All the best to Tito going forward.
His YouTube training video's are the staples of my coaching sessions with youngsters.
As for Madrid, that's going to be an interesting battle. Crazy as this is going to sound, but I believe it will come down to who DOESN'T have the ball the most.
Both are counter attacking machines, so i'm sure they'll happily allow possession to the other. We will see.
His YouTube training video's are the staples of my coaching sessions with youngsters.
As for Madrid, that's going to be an interesting battle. Crazy as this is going to sound, but I believe it will come down to who DOESN'T have the ball the most.
Both are counter attacking machines, so i'm sure they'll happily allow possession to the other. We will see.
Malaga just styled on Madrid.
Mourinho also benched Casillas for no known reason.
Mourinho also benched Casillas for no known reason.
Mourinho is such a bitch:
Mourinho mocks Pellegrini
- http://www.worldsoccer.com/news/mourinho-mocks-pellegrini
Now he's getting clowned on twitter.
Mourinho mocks Pellegrini
- http://www.worldsoccer.com/news/mourinho-mocks-pellegrini
Now he's getting clowned on twitter.
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Lol...
All the best to Tito going forward.
His YouTube training video's are the staples of my coaching sessions with youngsters.
Link plz!
Mourinho also benched Casillas for no known reason.
I think Jose is well past caring about competing egos in Madrid at this point. It's a shame really. Still, the mind games and trolling had to backfire sometime.
There are some other ones out there as well.
I take you have heard of the Coerver method.
He's competing with likes of Ashley Young and the likes at ManUre.
Seriously though..
Why American soccer is succeeding despite Sepp Blatter
By Brian Phillips on January 3, 2013
A sport is not a business. You can make a business out of a sport, in the same way you can make a business out of sex or alpaca hair or tomatoes,1 but you'll be selling something that's tangential to the sport itself. The NFL doesn't sell "football"; it sells access to the best football players. Fans buy that access in the form of game tickets. NBC buys it in the form of broadcast rights, then airs the game to attract a TV audience whose sports-captivated attention it can sell to a sports-advertising firm hired by Gatorade, which is selling a drink people might choose to consume while playing a sport.
Sport generates economic activity, but sport isn't inherently economic. Sport is just some people playing a game. You could argue that playing a game is always an economic activity on some grad-studenty, breathing-is-an-economic-activity level, and you'd probably be right, I don't know. I have a PhD in economics, but I made it myself, out of graham crackers. The point is that if you got rid of the whole system of professional American sports, just handed it over to the North Koreans and let Kim Jong-un plumply deliver his Glorious Leopard Make Wrong Sunday Ticket Decree,2 football would still exist, would still be played, would still saturate the culture in all kinds of ways, even though there would be no NFL and Football Night in America would draw a Nielsen rating that could only be represented by a drawing of a bomb landing on a sheep.3
A sport is not a business. I'm working my way through this point because I'm about to talk about two of my least favorite things — Sepp Blatter and the question of whether soccer will ever make it in America — and I want to get a little armature in place. Over the weekend, Sepp Blatter alienated, or re-alienated, or re-re-re-re-alienated, American soccer fans. He did this by making a couple of brief remarks, at the end of an interview with Al Jazeera, about MLS and the state of the American game. These remarks were not flattering. They were also not that big a deal, but when the president of the world organization governing your sport turns his stupid-beams on you, it's only natural to flip out a little.
Here's what he said:
"The problem in the United States — it's a little bit different. Don't forget that soccer, as they call football there, is the most popular game in the youth. It's not American football or baseball; it is soccer. But there is no very strong professional league. They have just the MLS, but they have not these professional leagues, which are recognized by the American society.
It is a question of time, I thought when they had the World Cup in '94, 1994. But '94 — now we are in 2012, it's now 18 years. So it should have been done now. But they are still struggling."
So, OK. What bugged MLS fans about this was pretty much what bugs everybody Blatter decides to distraction-troll; at 76, the dude simply plays with an impossibly well-crafted blend of cluelessness and malice. He's the Johnnie Walker Blue of grandfatherly, passive-aggressive smack talk. You never know whether he's misinterpreting facts because he's unacquainted with them or because he's working some Big Lie–type long con and it suits him to deny a trend. So, for instance, if he doesn't know that MLS is now the third-ranking American pro sport in terms of live attendance, or that (as league commissioner Don Garber emphasized in his response) it has recently signed personal-best sponsorship and TV deals totaling $230 million, or that it's well along in its successful long-term program of stadium-infrastructure improvement — that's maddening, because he's the president of FIFA and he should know stuff. If he knows it and he's deliberately ignoring it, that's maddening because he's the president of FIFA and he shouldn't be a smug, puffy liar, probably. It's a mark of the truly great cultural trolls, the Trumps and Becks and Morgans, that they make you hate them for being stupid enough to be as wrong as they are while simultaneously making you hate them for being smart enough to exploit the stupidity of their audience. Blatter takes the confused-moron-but-also-evil-genius routine to a whole other plane, though, because you can't even say whose stupidity he's trying to exploit. He's rousing no rabble — brilliantly. He's hosting history's most appalling drive-time talk show for an audience of zero, and somehow he keeps signing bigger and bigger contracts.
And then — as if that weren't enough! — there's the fact that he's kind of right. Not really right, not right on the level of detail, but right in a big, soft way that's hard to argue with. MLS's 13-year trend under Garber has been one of gradual, steady, intelligently managed growth. You can point to a hundred measurables that confirm this.4 On the other hand, has the league been embraced by Tonight Show American society? Obviously not. And yes, it's crazy to assume we should have reached that stage in 18 years, given that there are a couple of other sports over here that compete in a small way for public attention. But by the time you say all that, you've already conceded Blatter's main point, and he just sits there, smiling his dumb smile at you, twinkling horribly.
Anyway, what got me about Blatter's interview fragment was what it said about his, and by extension FIFA's, view of soccer in general. FIFA, and try not to laugh as you read this, is technically a nonprofit organization that exists to support soccer at all levels. A 6-year-old practicing with a ball in an alley is, and don't forget to download my comedy podcast on iTunes here, technically as important as the Premier League, as far as FIFA is concerned. FIFA is inevitably going to be involved with the commercial sphere around soccer, but the group's main concern is supposed to be the game itself. A sport is not a business! And yet: Blatter looks at America, sees a country where soccer is the most popular youth sport, and calls that "struggling" because they don't run MLS spots during How I Met Your Mother.
Well, "FIFA is about the money" isn't exactly a moon-landing headline, news-wise. This would be a pretty minor entry in the old anti-FIFA account if it didn't so instructively misrepresent what's actually happening in American soccer. Because the thing is, the quarterly report of a pro league is only one way to measure the state of a sport; it doesn't tell the whole story. And where American soccer has grown the most over the past decade is in the area where sport exists outside the business of sport.5 Or at least outside the traditional benchmarks of the business. To understand a sport's place in a culture you have to look beyond TV and even outside stadiums — you have to look at playgrounds and mall concourses and the jokes people you haven't talked to in 12 years are making on Facebook. And I'm sorry, but by those measures, the condition of soccer in America is roughly a billion times healthier than it was 18 years ago. It's countless little things. You see grown-ups playing soccer in the park. You see college bros in Messi jerseys killing time at the airport. Manchester United shows up on the front page of nytimes.com — not once, but regularly. Strangers you meet know about the Champions League. I hope this doesn't sound too anecdotal/Thomas Friedman's–cab–driver–ish, but the whole point is that you can't really measure it. Soccer is just much more of a steady everyday presence than it was a few years ago. It just is.
And isn't it naive to expect anything else? The NFL and superhero movies are all that's left of the monoculture these days, and the Internet means France is right next door to everybody. It's the fate of almost every interest to be carried along by complex, dedicated, decentralized groups of fans. You don't know them because their One Big League suddenly starts throwing off billionaires, you know them because you see three matching T-shirts in the subway one week and realize that this is a thing. In America, soccer fans are painting their faces for MLS games and/or streaming gray-market Blackburn matches and/or hanging out in soccer bars and/or arguing with Spanish fans about Thierry Henry on Barcelona message boards. There's no real rubric for evaluating the success of that kind of diffuse participation. Maybe someday someone will figure out how to fuse it into a consolidated moneymaking operation, but regardless, is it even debatable that the game as a game is in better shape here than it has been in 80 years? That fans, whether or not they're also customers, are having a better, easier, less isolated experience?
The World Cup is a business. FIFA is a business. Sepp Blatter runs a business. Soccer is something else.
http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/8803609/sepp-blatter-criticizes-mls
By Brian Phillips on January 3, 2013
A sport is not a business. You can make a business out of a sport, in the same way you can make a business out of sex or alpaca hair or tomatoes,1 but you'll be selling something that's tangential to the sport itself. The NFL doesn't sell "football"; it sells access to the best football players. Fans buy that access in the form of game tickets. NBC buys it in the form of broadcast rights, then airs the game to attract a TV audience whose sports-captivated attention it can sell to a sports-advertising firm hired by Gatorade, which is selling a drink people might choose to consume while playing a sport.
Sport generates economic activity, but sport isn't inherently economic. Sport is just some people playing a game. You could argue that playing a game is always an economic activity on some grad-studenty, breathing-is-an-economic-activity level, and you'd probably be right, I don't know. I have a PhD in economics, but I made it myself, out of graham crackers. The point is that if you got rid of the whole system of professional American sports, just handed it over to the North Koreans and let Kim Jong-un plumply deliver his Glorious Leopard Make Wrong Sunday Ticket Decree,2 football would still exist, would still be played, would still saturate the culture in all kinds of ways, even though there would be no NFL and Football Night in America would draw a Nielsen rating that could only be represented by a drawing of a bomb landing on a sheep.3
A sport is not a business. I'm working my way through this point because I'm about to talk about two of my least favorite things — Sepp Blatter and the question of whether soccer will ever make it in America — and I want to get a little armature in place. Over the weekend, Sepp Blatter alienated, or re-alienated, or re-re-re-re-alienated, American soccer fans. He did this by making a couple of brief remarks, at the end of an interview with Al Jazeera, about MLS and the state of the American game. These remarks were not flattering. They were also not that big a deal, but when the president of the world organization governing your sport turns his stupid-beams on you, it's only natural to flip out a little.
Here's what he said:
"The problem in the United States — it's a little bit different. Don't forget that soccer, as they call football there, is the most popular game in the youth. It's not American football or baseball; it is soccer. But there is no very strong professional league. They have just the MLS, but they have not these professional leagues, which are recognized by the American society.
It is a question of time, I thought when they had the World Cup in '94, 1994. But '94 — now we are in 2012, it's now 18 years. So it should have been done now. But they are still struggling."
So, OK. What bugged MLS fans about this was pretty much what bugs everybody Blatter decides to distraction-troll; at 76, the dude simply plays with an impossibly well-crafted blend of cluelessness and malice. He's the Johnnie Walker Blue of grandfatherly, passive-aggressive smack talk. You never know whether he's misinterpreting facts because he's unacquainted with them or because he's working some Big Lie–type long con and it suits him to deny a trend. So, for instance, if he doesn't know that MLS is now the third-ranking American pro sport in terms of live attendance, or that (as league commissioner Don Garber emphasized in his response) it has recently signed personal-best sponsorship and TV deals totaling $230 million, or that it's well along in its successful long-term program of stadium-infrastructure improvement — that's maddening, because he's the president of FIFA and he should know stuff. If he knows it and he's deliberately ignoring it, that's maddening because he's the president of FIFA and he shouldn't be a smug, puffy liar, probably. It's a mark of the truly great cultural trolls, the Trumps and Becks and Morgans, that they make you hate them for being stupid enough to be as wrong as they are while simultaneously making you hate them for being smart enough to exploit the stupidity of their audience. Blatter takes the confused-moron-but-also-evil-genius routine to a whole other plane, though, because you can't even say whose stupidity he's trying to exploit. He's rousing no rabble — brilliantly. He's hosting history's most appalling drive-time talk show for an audience of zero, and somehow he keeps signing bigger and bigger contracts.
And then — as if that weren't enough! — there's the fact that he's kind of right. Not really right, not right on the level of detail, but right in a big, soft way that's hard to argue with. MLS's 13-year trend under Garber has been one of gradual, steady, intelligently managed growth. You can point to a hundred measurables that confirm this.4 On the other hand, has the league been embraced by Tonight Show American society? Obviously not. And yes, it's crazy to assume we should have reached that stage in 18 years, given that there are a couple of other sports over here that compete in a small way for public attention. But by the time you say all that, you've already conceded Blatter's main point, and he just sits there, smiling his dumb smile at you, twinkling horribly.
Anyway, what got me about Blatter's interview fragment was what it said about his, and by extension FIFA's, view of soccer in general. FIFA, and try not to laugh as you read this, is technically a nonprofit organization that exists to support soccer at all levels. A 6-year-old practicing with a ball in an alley is, and don't forget to download my comedy podcast on iTunes here, technically as important as the Premier League, as far as FIFA is concerned. FIFA is inevitably going to be involved with the commercial sphere around soccer, but the group's main concern is supposed to be the game itself. A sport is not a business! And yet: Blatter looks at America, sees a country where soccer is the most popular youth sport, and calls that "struggling" because they don't run MLS spots during How I Met Your Mother.
Well, "FIFA is about the money" isn't exactly a moon-landing headline, news-wise. This would be a pretty minor entry in the old anti-FIFA account if it didn't so instructively misrepresent what's actually happening in American soccer. Because the thing is, the quarterly report of a pro league is only one way to measure the state of a sport; it doesn't tell the whole story. And where American soccer has grown the most over the past decade is in the area where sport exists outside the business of sport.5 Or at least outside the traditional benchmarks of the business. To understand a sport's place in a culture you have to look beyond TV and even outside stadiums — you have to look at playgrounds and mall concourses and the jokes people you haven't talked to in 12 years are making on Facebook. And I'm sorry, but by those measures, the condition of soccer in America is roughly a billion times healthier than it was 18 years ago. It's countless little things. You see grown-ups playing soccer in the park. You see college bros in Messi jerseys killing time at the airport. Manchester United shows up on the front page of nytimes.com — not once, but regularly. Strangers you meet know about the Champions League. I hope this doesn't sound too anecdotal/Thomas Friedman's–cab–driver–ish, but the whole point is that you can't really measure it. Soccer is just much more of a steady everyday presence than it was a few years ago. It just is.
And isn't it naive to expect anything else? The NFL and superhero movies are all that's left of the monoculture these days, and the Internet means France is right next door to everybody. It's the fate of almost every interest to be carried along by complex, dedicated, decentralized groups of fans. You don't know them because their One Big League suddenly starts throwing off billionaires, you know them because you see three matching T-shirts in the subway one week and realize that this is a thing. In America, soccer fans are painting their faces for MLS games and/or streaming gray-market Blackburn matches and/or hanging out in soccer bars and/or arguing with Spanish fans about Thierry Henry on Barcelona message boards. There's no real rubric for evaluating the success of that kind of diffuse participation. Maybe someday someone will figure out how to fuse it into a consolidated moneymaking operation, but regardless, is it even debatable that the game as a game is in better shape here than it has been in 80 years? That fans, whether or not they're also customers, are having a better, easier, less isolated experience?
The World Cup is a business. FIFA is a business. Sepp Blatter runs a business. Soccer is something else.
http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/8803609/sepp-blatter-criticizes-mls
"Succeeding" is a highly relative term in this, depending on perspective and the time frame involved. Still, Mr Phillips is spectacularly missing the point. In fairness to him, he's not alone amongst his compatriots.
What exactly would be the alternative?
Some good video's on 60 Minutes about Barcelona.
Lionel Messi and the ascent of Barca soccer
January 6, 2013
With stars like Lionel Messi and a youth academy bringing up the next generation of athletes, is Barcelona becoming the world's best soccer team? Bob Simon reports.
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50138328n
Xavi Hernandez on playing for Barca
January 6, 2013
The Barca midfielder talks about playing for his hometown team, and about the political battle exploding outside -- and inside -- the stadium.
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50138333n
Soccer academy "La Masia:" A model for the U.S.?
It's hard to imagine any American kids playing at the level that you'll see in this week's Overtime feature on "La Masia," the youth academy that feeds pro players to what's arguably the best soccer team in the world, FC Barcelona.
But until recently, the US had nothing like La Masia to nurture its most talented young soccer players. Major League Soccer (MLS) has recently launched nineteen of its own soccer academies, two of them residential academies, in cities across North America-- and they're modeled on European soccer academies like La Masia.
To learn more about the La Masia system and hear from the 60 Minutes team who reported on "Barca," watch the video above and tell us what you think.
Could a youth training system like La Masia work for America?
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504803_...soccer-academy-la-masia-a-model-for-the-u.s./
Lionel Messi and the ascent of Barca soccer
January 6, 2013
With stars like Lionel Messi and a youth academy bringing up the next generation of athletes, is Barcelona becoming the world's best soccer team? Bob Simon reports.
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50138328n
Xavi Hernandez on playing for Barca
January 6, 2013
The Barca midfielder talks about playing for his hometown team, and about the political battle exploding outside -- and inside -- the stadium.
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50138333n
Soccer academy "La Masia:" A model for the U.S.?
It's hard to imagine any American kids playing at the level that you'll see in this week's Overtime feature on "La Masia," the youth academy that feeds pro players to what's arguably the best soccer team in the world, FC Barcelona.
But until recently, the US had nothing like La Masia to nurture its most talented young soccer players. Major League Soccer (MLS) has recently launched nineteen of its own soccer academies, two of them residential academies, in cities across North America-- and they're modeled on European soccer academies like La Masia.
To learn more about the La Masia system and hear from the 60 Minutes team who reported on "Barca," watch the video above and tell us what you think.
Could a youth training system like La Masia work for America?
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504803_...soccer-academy-la-masia-a-model-for-the-u.s./
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