It's funny that Villarreal could have two starting forwards from Jersey..

Antonio Gramsci wrote:

QUOTE:
jefe - got a link to those salaries? I'm curious to know what we're paying Wheelchair Robert...and not a little stunned to find out how little we're playing Guevara.

AG: Steve Goff's blog at post.com. Robert's is in his archives, to save you the search you're paying him just short of $320,000. Incidentally, all those numbers are base salary, not guaranteed compensation which is higher. Robert is guaranteed $337,300 for instance. Claudio Lopez in comparison is getting $720/$820k from KC. I will now listen closely for the sound of your head exploding.

eta: Carl Robinson for instance is on $330,000 salary.

I knew about Robbo's salary. Last year, when he was a beacon of mediocrity in an ocean of crapness, he seemed worth it. This year, with all the new arrivals, you just look at him and think: "really? 330K? are they paying him on a per-five-yard-sideways-pass basis?"

More madness caused by insane roster rules.

Poor bastard having to eat shit from the people who canned him. Glad he's back, though.

There wasn't much discussion of the racist incident in Columbus on here, but a few of us in Section 8 decided to do something following it (we actually had an anti-racist campaign in the works anyway). Here are the results so far.

That's great.

Class, cultural, language and ethnic rifts have hindered the progress of the game here, but haven't really turned ugly very often.

However, it's never too early to nip it in the bud. If we pretend "it can't happen here" then it almost certainly will.

Reed, I agree. MLS' attitude has been a bit disappointing; why wait for it to become a bigger problem before doing something?

We've had problems in Section 8 before with racists. They were dealt with sternly and didn't come back.

MLS does have a response to racism. It seems to involve banning streamers.

QUOTE:
why wait for it to become a bigger problem before doing something?

In their sort-of-defense, I imagine they're afraid that if there are a lot of anti-racism banners around, the non-soccer media will pick up on it and then write a bunch of articles about the racism problem in MLS, replete with non-sequitor examples of violence at matches overseas. As we saw in that article posted above, the streamer "issue" is already being conflated with that racism incident. So I imagine they think that if they stay quiet it will go away.
(My first thought was "their PR people have probably advised them to use this strategy" but then I remembered from IMP's experience that MLS doesn't really have much of a PR apparatus.)

While I understand that approach, I think it is ultimately the wrong one and they should try to "get out in front" of this issue. Even if racism as such never becomes much of a problem in MLS, there's a lot they can do to bring together fans and players of different ethnicities.

I don't see how a bunch of anti-racism banners made by fans would make people jump to the opposite conclusion (that fans are racist). I mean, I do see what you mean entirely, but it's so wrongheaded I prefer to pretend otherwise.

MLS does have a PR person who reached out to me recently that I've contacted about this...Waiting for a response. The Fire's ownership commented that this was a very good thing, and the players are supportive too.

Ultimately, we'd like to make this a broader community effort about more than any racist incidents in soccer stadiums. Using the likes of Blanco and Beckham, we could ultimately reach out in very positive ways to various communities. To be mercenary, this could benefit MLS and supporters' groups in ways beyond the central aim of the campaign.

It's also a further step towards unifying supporters from different teams that needs to happen for the good of the game here.

My impression is that MLS' PR people don't coordinate very well with the people at the clubs, but you have more first-hand knowledge of that.

I agree that the best thing would be to create more bonds between different supporter groups across languages (Spanish/English being the most significant divide) between the clubs and with local grass roots organizations.

It's not just about stamping out racism, but creating positive connections too. At DC, for example, it seems like the hispanic supporters and non-hispanic supporters regard each other with benign indifference. I'm probably guilty of this too, but then again I'm not very outgoing anyway.

The Open Cup 3rd round matchups have been drawn, finally. DC hosts the winner of Pittsburgh/Rochester; Chicago hosts the Cleveland/Minnesota winner, and I would really like Palace to dump Harrisburg so I can see them and Red Bull play what would have to be the worst game in the history of the world here at UMBC.

You're at UMBC?

Here as in the general Baltimore area. It'll be nice to not have to drive to DC for once, especially on a weekday.

Who is going to DCU-NYRB on Saturday?

2 goals from Rohan Ricketts, one of them quite superb. Colorado so bad they only had one corner at the south end and none in the RPB zone, so we never really got a chance to see the new streamer rules in action (signs posted everywhere and a stadium announcement: streamers are not to be thrown at players or officials and are not to be used to impede play...this got almost the loudest boo of the night, bested only by catcalls for the ref when he gave Cunningham a yellow for diving when he should have given a penalty).

And hell has frozen over: Danny Dichio is now the league's joint third top scorer with 5 goals. His volley tonight was genuine class.

My throat is very sore.