I was going to post a whole series of articles about the two freaking feet of snow dumped on the eastern United States, and ask whether Don Garber has followed up with Sepp Blatter about that move to a winter schedule. But, this apparently isn't the right week to make those jokes.
Maybe Europe ought to move to a summer schedule. It's not like they're competing with baseball.
Yes, I'm aware that the NFL delayed East Coast games for hours instead of weeks. The NFL has enough fans who are willing to sit in the cold; MLS doesn't and might never. The NFL also doesn't make its money from attendance anyway, but from television, so watching games in horrible weather is actually better for ratings. If and when MLS can afford games played in hilarious weather, I guess we can talk.
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Trust me, you don't want to know the weater in southern California this weekend. Landon Donovan could probably tell you, though. If he's already on a plane back, I'm fine with that. How is a Merseyside winter supposed to help him with a South African…oh, yeah, winter. But STILL.
If I'm a football fan in the Home Office, I think seriously about denying Landon's work permit. Just to mess with him. I'm sure there are a multitude of laws to prevent a bureaucrat from making himself into a national hero, but if it were an English player, and the US government were ill-advised enough to hire me, Beckham would never set foot back in this country.
I'll come right out and say it – we need more corrupt, venal, or prejudicial sports partisanship in our democracies. Look at how well Brazil is doing.
Anyway, Everton rents a player for three months. He will start in January, leave in March.
Usually I'm pretty good about looking at international sports from an international perspective, but this one I don't get. The best I can do is liken this to the ten-day contracts they give to journeymen in the NBA. If that's the right analogy, we're getting awfully excited over not very much.
Donovan, what with the ink still wet on his new contract, is a tiny bit pricier than you would think a team would spend to keep their bench company.
Nick Green has a different theory.
That's one theory about the new contract – it's so MLS and AEG can wet its collective beaks if and when Donovan is on the auction block.
It's also nice in case the United States crashes out of the World Cup, an eventuality for which Donovan would take by far the desert fox's share of the blame. I don't know what the going rate for a US soccer pariah is – did the Quakes renegotiate Agoos' contract for 2003? – but better safe than sorry.
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Okay, no one else is saying this, so I will. Goff didn't win the USSF blog of the year award. Yay!
Even if you don't have a problem with a professional reporter being nominated, you should have a problem with that particular nomination. Unless you're just a big fan of guys screwing over other bloggers, I guess.