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designated players
the barometer
Another week without a US MNT manager, but hey, Pele and the German public are fine with Klinsmann taking the helm. Thank God. Eddie Johnson and Freddy Adu return home without transfer offers. Big Surprise. The storm is building strength; Hurricane Sunil is due any day now to rustle up some attention, but for now, we’re stuck with Klinsmann, Klinsmann, Klinsmann, MLS issues, MLS issues, MLS issues. Forget the articles rehashing the same tired rumors and obvious op-eds; what you need to read is after the jump…
1
Feeling a little bullish, those NY energy drinkers. With two designated player spots available for squandering use, not to mention the nation’s largest media market and all those Euros in the bank, Arena will be captaining the largest ship into the newly mysterious MLS waters. The abundance (or lack thereof) of targets on the international market will be only one of the issues to follow in this case study.
Guevara trade a gamble for the Red Bulls [Ives Galarcep]
2
In terms of training, I was raised in the school that wants you playing against the best competition at anytime. So of course I’m psyched to see MLS rookies being sent over the pond for a little dose of reality.
Top MLS youngsters off to England [Jonathan Nierman]
3
Living in nyc, you get used to playing on FieldTurf. The other option is usually concrete or seagull shit. But it usually goes without saying that anyone that doesn’t work for the company prefers real, live, grass. So why is FieldTurf creeping into the MLS? And instead of bitching about it, why can’t we get an investigative report on how and why this synthetic invasive species is getting used when the only thing it has going for it is that it isn’t Astroturf (and no, pro sport stadiums have no business calling it a maintenence issue). Well, anyhow, Frank is pissed.
Trend towards artificial turf is disturbing [Frank Dell'Apa]
4
Remember Landon Donovan? In case you haven’t heard, he had a rough year, which might have been a good thing for American soccer, which Landon might even agree with.
Adversity of ‘06 a learning experience for Donovan [Andrea Canales]
5
Lastly, in case you missed them during the week, LA Times’ Grahame L. Jones looks into the USSF crystal ball, and Yanks Abroad’s Poul-Henrik Worm promotes relegation in the MLS. I say we just curtail expansion - i’d much prefer fewer teams with better players - but the Worm abides.
James
on Dec 2nd, 2006 - 8:37am
Has Frank seen the horrid natural playing surfaces at places like The Home Depot Center?
I remember a RBNY-LAG game from this past season where Shep Messing was commenting almost the entire time that the playing surface at THDC was an absolute joke.
And the field conditions at places like CCS and others have been poor at best as well.
Here in Rochester we have FieldTurf due to the high volume of soccer, lacrosse, high school sports (football and soccer so far), and other events (field band competitions for one), along with the environment.
I’ve talked with players about it and the only injury issue that they brought up was our goalkeeper saying that it caused mroe drag when he was taking goal kicks and he could feel it in is right leg a bit by the end of the season.
But other than that, there have been no turf specific injuries. The only knee injury (that is the #1 injury that people like to blame on turf) occured when a visiting keeper got run into by one of his own defenders.
Honestly, I like FieldTurf because you don’t have to worry about weather or an abundance of events turning a nice playing surface into a onion patch.
Joe
on Dec 4th, 2006 - 12:25pm
My argument to that, James, is that the MLS game fields shouldn’t be used for anything except for a practice before the game and the game itself. No top-class club spends every day on its game field. Heck, my college team practiced on a different field.
Personally, I think these artificial surfaces are completely contrary to the idea of playing OUTSIDE.
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