Good Article

Calling on the MLS to stop being stupid. HERE

Rant 2

Ah. It was perfect. The slow motion replay almost made me cry. The graceful-ness, the perfection, the utter sadness of a great dive. In his defence, he has been a good boy so far this season. He has gone through a lot of tough challenges, including one earlier in the game that seemed to have made him gone dizzy. I am of course talking about Drogba.

His sheer strength is known. Some of the goals he has scored in the Prem have been amazing and his goal in the game yesterday showed his touch. If one thing about his game changed it would be his diving. I mean he has cleaned it up along with C. Ronaldo but its not all the way there for either of them. But the topic of diving isnt just relegated to those two anyway but to the state of the game in its essance.

The best part of the game in its present state is its pace. It goes back and forth and keeps the heart racing for all 90 minutes. But there are different types of dives. There are the fall overs - when the player gets touched a little and falls, these are the most confused. There are the blatants - when they jump and fall over when not even touched, example would be drogba. Then there are those that get fouled but over shadow the foul to draw a card or waste time.

A place to start is with the players themselves. They need to realize how they are hurting the game. Blame needs to rest on their shoulders since they decide to dive and no one else. 2nd comes in the Coaches and Board of Directors. Cause in the end the buck stops there. Clubs can dish out fines for unsporting behavior and coaches can bench people or speak out about their players to the media. 3rd or 4th depending how one counts, in comes the league. Who says they shouldnt review those falls that seem as though the player is acting he is going to lose a leg.

In the end of course comes the referee. He or She is on the field as well. I dont think the first step is with them but it isnt the last either. Leagues need to be there to back up their referees. No chastizing them to the public like Sepp Blatter because they get enough in the media and from their fellow peers. Yes, referees are harsh on fellow referees. At first, a dive is a hard call to make and its hard to give the player a yellow card for such an offense especially if play continues and the referee doesnt want to slow down play. For example the referee gave Henry a yellow for using his arm before scoring against Moscow. Of course the replays show that the ball didnt touch the arm but then again the Referee made the judgement to go against the grain and call something very similar to a dive. In the end they are all simulations of legal play.

thoughts welcomed

Champions League win shows Man U weaknesses

I watched Man U play today and despite their 3-0 win over Copenhagen (please tell me why are some of these teams even in this thing? Real plays a team from the always powerful Romanian league and we are supposed to care?) I can't help but be concerned. Carrick looks like he is intent on proving that someone can be more overpriced than SWP for Chelski, O'Shea looks like a statue despite his goal (which was pure luck), Scholes does not scare anyone anymore except for with his shooting from distance, Giggs is 103 years old, and Darren Fletcher may play well for Scotland but for the Red Devils he seems to run around aimlessly. This team has no midfeild player (except for Ronaldo who really is a forward out on the wing) who can put his stamp on the game, has no ability to consistently move the ball through the midle of the pitch and the lack of service is killing Rooney. I have pointed this out before, but Sir Alex hasn't won anything except for an FA Cup in 2004 (and that was against Millwall for pete's sake) without Beckham. For all his faults, there is no better crosser of the ball and his style worked great in the EPL.

As much as I hate saying it, it doesn't seem that this team has any chance of keeping the Chelsea "team" from winning the title again, and certainly Arsenal- losing in Moscow was very impressive- has no chance.

Rant

I wont lie nor do I feel like I should lie. I havnt watched a baseball game in a while. A long while. And Ill be blunt: Its all because of steroids. But then again to be honest I have been less and less keen to watch most sports. Whether it’s the ‘roids or anything else there is too much scandal in sport nowadays.
Rafael Palmeiro ruined it for me. I am a D.C. boy, born and raised. So I rooted for the Os. Palmeiro was one of the good guys. Always there, always trust worthy, sure he took a break and went to the Rangers, but he came back. And when asked he flat out denied he used anything, only to be proved wrong.
That’s where it started. Baseball lost all interest to me. Basketball lost taste after Artest rushed the crowd. Plus with a postseason as long as the regular season why not just start paying attention in April instead of November. Oh yea, is the NHL even around even more? And if you really want to know, I am a soccer lover. The beautiful game cause it truly is, yet diving is uncontrollable. I will be pompous here as well by saying the MLS needs to change its format cause if 8 out of the 12 teams make the playoffs then you might have the 8th place team winning the cup (and its happened). Ridiculous (cause D.C. United should have the title).
Something needs to be done in the sports realm. How many players remember those days when they dreamed about playing in that big game? That they used to sleep in their pee-wee jerseys the day before the game. Did Big Mac and Sosa forget that their kids will one day ask them the same question that reporters do every day?
My suggestion: force every professional player in their respective sport to go to a youth game. Spend a day at those fields. Those very fields they grew up playing on. The field of my youth is in downtown D.C. with Stoddert Soccer. And calling it a field would be nice, it was a dust bowl, just compacted soil.
I come back to baseball because yet again another October is upon us. Which means that the Yankees are playing, it has been that way for most of my life (in the playoffs every year since 1995). Yet, the boys in pinstrips wont get my support, not sure if it’s the AL East hatred, or my father’s Red Sox blood in me, or that Steinbrenner who just throws money at the trophy. Maybe just maybe Jason Giambi’s mom will pick him up after a game and give him a little chat and remind him about what his dreams used to be.