Thursday kickaround

Is that Milos Kocic in Toronto I hear laughing?

I doubt it RK. Toronto and their sell out crowds know Milos has trouble keeping when the "crowd is too loud" right?

Pachuca advanced to the CONCACAF Champions League finals. (When will an MLS club win this thing again?)
By Steve Goff | April 8, 2010; 9:15 AM ET

Did LA qualify for next year's iteration of the cup? If so, a healthy Beckham, Donovan and, um, er, Buddle could lead them to victory. Because we all know that Beckham came to LA to chew bubblegum and win championships. And he's all out of gum.

Thx,

Jay!

Anyone vote for player or goal of the week yet? I have been unable to find it on the MLS website. Along with anything else anyone would like to know.

Have knee injuries replaced hamstrings as United's new injury bug?

So Lyon is the only representative from an Allied country in the final 4.

But . . . "France is not alone! She is not alone! She is not alone! . . . . She can align with the British Empire that holds the Premier League and continues the fight. She can, like England, use without limit the immense support of the United States."

Go Lyon!

Kim Jong isn't going to be happy with you Goff

I sure hope DCU don't sell their fans short when they finally get the investors to get their stadium done. I don't care if it's in PG, MOCO, Dulles, Haymarket, DC. I'll be buying season tickets. 26K+ minimum.

Posted by: DadRyan | April 7, 2010 11:02 PM | Report abuse

Dad,

By the time it finally happens, I just hope I'm still around to buy tickets. :)

Stay healthy, Troy.

Fergie is full of s*** as usual. If I were Fabio Capello, I'd be giving Ferguson an Italian version of the hairdryer treatment.

The Curse of Poplar Point continues :-(

Hope Andrew Quinn gets better soon

I've been trying to figure out the name for our injury curse for a while - is that what we'll call it? The Curse of Poplar Point?

Now taking other suggestions as well!

anyone have that quote from Onalfo about how he was confident his superior (revolutionary, even?) fitness and training tactics would result in less injuries this year?

The Curse of Poplar Point hangs over the entire club - not only with injuries, but with everything. Literally nothing has gone right for this team since Fenty kicked MacFarlane square in the jibblies during the summer of '07. Team was cruising to the Supporters Shield that season, crashed in the playoffs and it's been sh*t sandwich ever since.

Though we did win the Open Cup in '08

{sad single balloon listlessly falls from rafters}

Speaking of Sir Alex Ferguson, they just signed Javier Hernandez. Yayyyy...

It wasn't easy but North Korea was able to find a country to train in that North Koreans wouldn't even want to defect to.

The North Koreans will be fine in Zimbabwe. They've got nothing worth stealing, er, I mean, "re-distributing."

Why don't we make it personal and call it the Curse of Fenty? We could harken back to olden days and say Curse of the Fentino, but I'm not looking for an 80 year title drought...

True - but The Curse of Poplar Point sounds more like a Scooby Doo episode title, so I'm sticking with that.

Blame Fenty.

Quinn had better run for the hills. Whenever United gets a guy who needs knee surgery, the next story seems to be about the infection he develops and how he'll be out for at least a year.

Run, Quinny, run.

Why didn't MLS/ESPN try to have a game tonight?

North Korea may be the team least likely to make it out of the Group Stage. There are teams in other groups that may be weaker but Kim Jong Il's bunch have to play Brazil, Portugal and Ivory Coast.

Paging Dr. Quinn - Medicine Woman.

I guess I should say, "Limp, Qunny, limp. But limp quickly." Just don't Limp Biskit.

This is a very good read:
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/are-barcelona-simply-the-greatest-team-of-all-time-1938556.html

@Joel_M_Lane,

No ESPN game tonight because of a little thing called The Masters and Frozen Four Hockey.

**** Wild speculation alert ****

The Hernandez signing is interesting on a few levels, but I like the bit about Man Utd agreeing to visit Guadaljara to open up Chivas' new stadium.

Maybe, DC United could extract a similar concession in a couple of years for dealing Najar or Hamid? A commitment from Man Utd would be a nice down payment on the cost of a new stadium. 25,000 x avg ticket price of $100 = $2.5 million, before concessions and parking. Maybe the team could promise two games -- one at FedEx, before 80,000+ and a return visit to open up the new stadium. Save the English side some money and bring the DC side more money than getting their small cut if MLS sells the contract.

They play golf at night?

Not really - but everyone who can't take the afternoon off will want to see the highlights of Tigger's new Buddhism at Amen Corner.

And, if we're all lucky, another 5 minutes, no-holds-barred speed interview from Tom Rinaldi!

MLS won't win CONCACAF until MLS wises up and allows greater roster size. Also, the scheduling is a CONCACAF sell-out to the Mexicans. Remeber when the event in 1997-99 was in the summer? Well, that was when MLS teams did well and the Mexican teams were in their preseason. We had the fitness advantage. Mexican teams whined and said they wouldn't play unless the knock-out games were played when their players were at a better fitness level and CONCACAF rolled over like a poodle at a great dane convention and caved. So the knock-out games are when MLS teams are in preseason and Mexican teams are fittest.

Despite the fact that I'm no fan of Chivas - or that they've been building this thing since 2007 - the Nuevo Estadio Chivas looks great.

Kim Jong isn't going to be happy with you Goff

Posted by: SexyOffender | April 8, 2010 9:50 AM | Report abuse

Actually, Goff, you make him Ill.

"... CONCACAF rolled over like a poodle at a great dane convention and caved."
Posted by: lgm6986 | April 8, 2010 12:54 PM
====================

I think that's over-egging the poodle.

Maybe the South Park boys could do a take off on North Korea again this time in WC vs. Brasil. It'll be funny anyway, all three of those teams are going to run them silly...

Not really - but everyone who can't take the afternoon off will want to see the highlights of Tigger's new Buddhism at Amen Corner.

Posted by: VirginiaBlueBlood | April 8, 2010 12:50 PM

Don't they just replay their entire (allotted) round coverage in the evening? And who could blame them... if my math is correct, a Masters replay would get about 400 trillion times the ratings of an MLS match.

Well played, World Cup. xxx

Maybe the South Park boys could do a take off on North Korea again this time in WC vs. Brasil. It'll be funny anyway, all three of those teams are going to run them silly...

Posted by: anti1 | April 8, 2010 1:20 PM
_________________________________________

No possibility of a repeat of '66, eh?

"Run, Quinny, run?" With a torn meniscus and ligament damage?

everyone who can't take the afternoon off will want to see the highlights of Tigger's new Buddhism at Amen Corner

"Big hitter, the Lama. Long."

lgm6986:

The summer schedule helped a lot. However, I think it's just as important to note that US Soccer and MLS made sure that MLS clubs got to play their games at home (this was during a stretch where the tournament format changed every year, and often did not have a home-and-home set up).

From 1997 to 2000, the tournament was hosted by US Soccer at RFK (twice), in LA, and in Las Vegas. At least one MLS club made the semifinal round in each of those years, and both DC and LA managed to win it all during that stretch.