Top 5, 07.09: Ride ESPN, Adu Man-Crushes, Clavijo Watch

Since everyone else hit 'em hard, I figured I may as well hit 'em late.

- Want to see the United States' U-20s Round of 16 tilt against Old South American power Uruguay? Then join the campaign to, um, enlighten ESPN as to their self-interest in airing this game. Seeing as they finally invested in soccer broadcast rights, why not show off the young bucks on their way into the system (maybe...I know some will bolt to Europe - the good ones, especially - but we don't need to mention that...wait...shit! I just did!). Hat-tip to the LA Galaxy Offside for introducing me to this opportunity to harass a major broadcast corporation.

And if you're interesting in seeing who joined the U.S. U-20s in the Round of 16, Ives Galarcep obliges by listing the pairings. There are some good ones in there.

- Speaking of the U-20s, the man-crushes on Freddy Adu, as well as an apology or two, are coming in. Nice work, young man. Now, show them Sky Blue bitches how we play this game!! (Wow....don't know where that came from...).

- Dwayne DeRosario finally got his MLS pay-day. Naturally, us fans don't need to know the financial details...it would just worry our pretty heads. Anywhoo, good luck to you, Dwayne. In other news, the prospect of a re-awakened DeRo adding momentum to the Dynamo revival has some fans and players from the opposition a little worried...or it ought to...

- There's a fun parlor game well underway around the soccer-sphere: which hill-cresting foreign star will join Real Salt Lake and save them from the coming, pee-stained humiliation that has been 2007 (well, and 2005...arguably 2006)? RSLFM reports in a damned fine spread that Nigeria's Jay Jay Okocha is on his way. Meanwhile, The Other Football cites a report on Portugal's Luis Figo joining up. Not that I get a vote, but I'm pulling for Okocha. That cat is a hoot on his day.

- Let's wrap this up with the latest in the weird, sad tale of Fernando Clavijo. This ran in Steve Goff's Soccer Insider:

"-- I am hearing that Colorado's front office has had enough of Coach Fernando Clavijo, who has not won since late May, but that upper management really wants to avoid paying two coaches the rest of the calendar year. The way things are going for the Rapids, though, they might have to bite the bullet soon and make a move."


Wow. Too cheap to pull the trigger. That's something of a new low in leadership. If I were a Rapids fan, flaming bags would be appearing on the front steps of Rapids' corporate.

(##########)

5 comments:

Matthew: said...

That Colorado story just proved why we need to have relegation and promotion. With the threat of massive financial losses looming from a bottom one, two, or three finish, Colorado would be all over that shit, so to speak, and the players would be playing mad football (rather than limping around the field, kicking at tufts of grass, waiting for next season).

The Manly Ferry said...

Good point. I have to say, though, I want promotion/relegation for entirely different reasons. Ah, the joys of the Yakima Reds making it into MLS....

gnupate said...

the reds? ha! first they'll need to be able to beat Tacoma and BYU consistently. ;^)

Not to say I wouldn't welcome promotion/relegation though ... It'd be nice to see RSL win a (USL1/2) game with more regularity.

Anonymous said...

I'm up in Seattle, and another option here for the U-20s in CBC. Don't know if that works for Portland or not...

The Manly Ferry said...

Good tip, edsieg. I'll have to investigate that one...