Well, he often looks like this:



But sometimes looks like this:

Oh yeah, that guy.

My impression is that the Brazillians think MLS is a vacation and think they can phone it in.

Rivaldo could be fantastic for an MLS team. But then, he probably wouldn't actually be so.

Reed: Rivaldo also scored the Greatest Hat-trick of All Time, scoring all three goals for Barca on the last day of the season in 2001 to put them in the Champions League at the expense of Valencia, their opponents.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVnPaYa8rlE

I recall that vaguely.

I try to see quality soccer when I can but it occurs to me now that I may be the only American soccer fan alive that actually cares infinitely more about our inferior domestic product than the Champions League or anything in Europe. In my mind, sports are something to be enjoyed locally with friends.

I have no personal connection with any European city with a major professional football club (except the vague mystical connection I have with that bit of Ipswich grafitti at college. I've mentioned that before), so I could really give a shit. I do have relatives in Germany, but they live in Ravensburg. I also have a superficial connection to Lewes and I desperately want to visit there, but their teams aren't on tv much in the US.

Awesome, but aren't they in the German equivalent of the Gray Hooper Holt LLP Mid-Sussex League Division 8?

I'd like a Ravensburg scarf too. None of the relatives that we communicate with there are football fans and the ones that are mainly support BM.


To clarify, who is all coming to the DC-Chicago match on the 8th?

Ravensburg are in the Verbandsliga Wuerttemberg, which is the regionalised Fifth Division.

So like the Conference South?

In terms of level, the Conference (Proper), but the comparison doesn't really work because in England one doesn't get to regionalised leagues until the Sixth Division, whereas in Germany they start at the Third Division (to become the Fourth Division next year, when a new national 3. Bundesliga is introduced).

There are roughly 300 teams in a higher league than Regensburg.

Ravensburg.

Indeed. And well spotted at quarter to five in the morning.

I presume that you know that Ravensburg's claim to fame is that it is the home of the eponymous producer of puzzles, toys and children's books.

They make cool stuff like this:

Oh yes, our family has lots of their products, but I have not seen that product.

In the run-up to the 2006 World Cup, they made "mini puzzleballs" replicating each of the official World Cup balls since the Telstar. The one above is a full size (540 pieces) version of the 2006 Teamgeist.

Ursus minor has an incomplete collection of the minis.

Writing about Ravensburg football club must be an absolute dream. Manager searches for missing piece of the jigsaw. Puzzling over poor performances..