He's not bad I think, but then again Dallas has been running auditions to be Cooper's partner for like a season now and he still hasn't gotten to play much.

Meanwhile, the rest of the CONCACAF champions league draw was done, filling in the groups. TFC's potential reward is Olimpia or Marathon of Honduras, the Revs (who have to survive Jack Warner FC first, mind), and Atlante.

DC got the booby prize of Saprissa, most likely Cruz Azul and the Honduran team TFC doesn't get. Houston gets Firpo, and most likely UNAM Pumas and a crap Guatemalan team. Assuming Chivas USA survives their Panamanian opposition, they get the other crap Guatemalan team, Santos Laguna, and the Alajuelense/PR Islanders survivor.

Saprissa and Cruz Azul. Shit.

Atlante? Right. fucking. on!

Just last night, the wife said the only way we could go to an away match was if she got to go to Cancun.

If Cruz Azul are still as crap as they were when I saw them last fall, they are eminently beatable. And their stadium is a gas.

It is virtually impossible to predict how Central or South American club sides will perform in international competition on the basis of their current domestic form. I give you America's run in this year's Libertadores while rooted to the bottom of the Mexican table and the fact that finalists Fluminese are dead last in Brazil as two immediately relevant examples.

Still, one could do a lot worse than Quintana Roo for a winter away trip.

Mundo Deportivo have a story today claiming that the Galaxy have offered Ronaldinho a contract worth 32 million euro a year (16 of which is for his image rights), and are offering 26 million to Barca for his registration.

Of course, in the same edition, they are claiming that Inter are about to "steal" CRonaldo from under Madrid's noses.

Good on 'em.

Timbers, Whitecaps, Rowdies. I just might start paying more attention to the USL than to MLS.

Whitecaps lose 2-0 to Impact in their Canada Cup opener.

Cancun, here we come.

Just lulling you into a false sense of security . . .

Trust me, it's working.

The City of Toronto (majority owner of our stadium) and TFC have begun semi-serious discussions about expanding BMO to 30,000, largely through temporary/retractable seating. I can only assume that means ditching the beer garden at the North end, which would be no loss, frankly.

However, because the city's involved and the city wants the pitch to be a multi-purpose thing, we can't have grass (the pitch is domed to create an indoor facility in the winter). Montreal can have grass, but we can't. As a result, the Canadian National Team are having a strop about playing anywhere other than Montreal's Saputo stadium which they have, apparently, "fallen in love with".

Don't get hung up about grass - no-one will be playing on it in a few years.

Hang on...

Your ground has a fucking beer garden? How does anyone watch the games?

One of the grounds we play at, Radcliffe possibly, has a big fucking window in the club house, so you can watch the game while you drink. It's a nightmare. Second half, the fucking ground is empty, as everyone is still at the bar getting slaughtered.

Man, check out the needless swearing in that post.

That's a symptom of something, though I'm not sure what.

.

That's not a very good picture of the south end of our ground, but it'll do. People just stand around under the umbrellas watching the game. But since they come around with beer in the stands anyway, why bother?

That's the best thing I've ever seen, read and heard of.

A beer garden inside the stadium.

Fucking genius.

Well, you'll have to come over and see it soon or it will be gone.

We were shite today. 0-0 and not the merest hint of urgency. Carver has this insane policy of not rotating players if they won the last game. So Edwards, Harmse(!) and Cunningham all played ahead of Sutton, Edu and Guevara. Once Guevara and Edu were subbed in on about 65 minutes the game started to change in our favour, but if they;d been in from the start we'd have won, no doubt.