MLS Players Union has released new salary figures: http://www.mlsplayers.org/files/3_31_08_salary_info_club.pdf

Can't believe Chivas are giving Wicky 200k, am really surprised Colorado and RSL have so many guys over 100k, and my opinion of the Galaxy's stupidity has not changed--Jazic at 114k? Almost 200k for Chris Klein?--but I'm a bit relieved that we're not paying Vanney as much as many were fearing.

Here's David Beckham's take on things:

QUOTE:
Hello everyone,

I hope you are well?

Well, the new MLS season has begun, though not in the way I’d have liked. It was very disappointing, but we’ve got a good team and we need to stay positive and move on from this, starting against San Jose Earthquakes on Saturday. Congratulations to the Colorado Rapids, who deserved their win. I was especially pleased for Terry Cooke, who I played with in the youth team at Manchester United. He plays for the Rapids and has been unlucky with injuries over the years, so it’s great to see him fit and playing well.
We’re confident going into the game later today. It’s the first of four games in a row at home, so we’ll be wanting to get the right result and push on from there. The Earthquakes head coach is Frank Yallop, who was our coach at the Galaxy last season, so it’ll be good to see him again. We know how he prepares a team, so hopefully we can use that to our advantage!
After training yesterday, I was pleased to be invited to appear on Jay Leno’s Tonight Show. While there I also joined Ellen DeGeneres on her chat show. They’re both really nice, funny people and I really enjoyed being on their shows.
Back to football though, we’ve been training really hard this week before our home season opener. Ruud Gullit and the coaching staff have made sure that we forget about last weekend and stay focused on the next game. Now we just want to get back out on the pitch and get the right result on Saturday.

Take care,

David

Wonderful stuff.

Every time I look at those salary numbers, I am amazed at how little most of these guys make.

Anyone think that the labor discussions will actually result in the developmental players making more than the 17k they make now?

Oh, and it's really nice to see soccer in HD. I'm still amazed when it happens. I guess I'll always have in the back of my mind the first games I watched on tv - soccer from england, on the local PBS affiliate, coming in all full of snow and static, late at night, with the sound occassionally cutting out. And now I get to watch a picture clear enough to almost see Blanco pick up bruises...

1) What the hell happened in Chicago last night?

2) Those salary numbers - what do you figure is in "guaranteed compensation" that is not in "salary"? Because Edu and Wynne's contracts seem to be sturctured in an intriguing manner.

I would assume that they are guaranteed bonuses paid in a lump sum at the end of the season and/or allocated portions of deferred compensation (I don't know how the MLS salary cap works, but they are likely to be structured with those rules very much in mind).

Antonio Gramsci wrote:

QUOTE:
1) What the hell happened in Chicago last night?

Chicago came out lightning fast, scored within 4 mins and then the Revs had a man sent off in the 7th minutes - absolutely fcuking ridiculous decision - and that was that, game over. Chicago took full advantage of playing against 10 men - and finished well. Although the Fire failed to score in the second half.

Everything clicked for the Revs on saturday - and we pounded Dynamo, but last night was the complete opposite. No Steve Ralston in midfield last night and now for a couple more weeks and no Taylor Twellman so far, he is out for 6 weeks. Them's the breaks.

Good game from the Galaxy last night. If we had lost...I don't want to think what would have happened. True, it was San Jose's first game, but the team just looked more interested than they did in Colorado, and while the defense wasn't great, it had a lot more speed than last week.

Alan Gordon...love the guy's effort, but Jesus Christ, he's useless as a scorer. He does everything a target forward should do except score goals. Here's some moments from Andrea Canales' liveblog:

QUOTE:
60 - Comedy - Great passing by the Galaxy works the ball up to Alvaro in the box, who lays the ball back for Gordon, who has stopped to tie his shoe - NOOO - be like one-shoe Stammler and keep playing Gordy! Tragic.

72 - Tragic from Gordon. He gets a long pass and is in the box, but falls to his knees, untouched, before he can even get a shot off. Dang. That was poor. At least make Joe save it.

83 - Gordon heads a pass over the bar.

89 - LA counter, Becks threads a pass to Landon, who get in the box - SHOOT, Landon! Don't pass to - too late, LD passes to Gordy, who falls down in the box in front of the goal.

You think if I start my blog up again and label myself a journalist that MLS will send me one of these? Man, that looks cool.

This is what happened in Chicago.



I have little clue about what happened in the actual game. The way it started and went on in the first half meant it was absolute chaos in the middle of Section 8, all I saw were goals going in at the other end and then a lot of jumping around and cheering.

I'll have to watch it again on TV tonight.

Inca, that's the "new thing" for PR. I got one of those at the conferenc in Chicago. It was supposed to have all the powerpoint slides and info on the clinical trials that were reported at the meeting. Unfortunately, the one I got doesn't fucking work. I'm not sure if it's the memory stick or something with my computer.

I think these memory sticks, not to mention the internet, have all but rendered the CD-ROM obsolete.

Well, I'm only interested in it for the MLS info.

Apparently a writer from the SJ Mercury News commented in the press box during the game last night that the atmosphere at the HDC compared to games he's been at in Argentina. Andrea Canales, who related this on Sideline Views, seemed a bit skeptical, but he still said so. The very first Galaxy-Chivas game was really intense, but I don't think that comes through on TV all that well (I taped that game to watch later, and you could hear some noise, but it was nothing like it was in the stadium). You could hear the Galaxy groups (there's three now) a bit last night, but the biggest noises from the crowd were the little girls' shrieks for Beckham whenever he took a corner.

What was the rest of the crowd in the stadium like, goldstone? From what I saw on TV, the sideline facing the camera looked to have a lot of empty seats when Chicago scored the first goal, but filled up later.

I flew over Toyota Park last week on the approach to Midway Airport (how 'come SS and Goldstone never contacted me? I feel so hurt and rejected).

It seems really far out in the sprawl. I imagine most Chicagoans don't even know its there or that they have a pro soccer team.

Toyota Park was almost 80% full. There were definitely plenty of empty seats, especially as much of the crowd was concentrated in the Harlem End, which contains Section 8. The weather was very bad (rain and temps in the 30s), it was an evening weekday game (so few soccer moms and groups), and the earliest in the year we've ever had a home opener. I'd love to have seen it sold-out, but realistically it was a decent showing.

Section 8's two sections were packed: around 1,200 people in them all standing, double what we had in the section this time last year. Our owner was at the game and stood at the front of Section 8, apparently enjoying it and even doing some singing.

I have posted a few more photos here.

Reed, you should have contacted me directly! I don't read World very often these days (absurdly busy), and didn't see your post until too late.

The location of Toyota Park remains the biggest issue for the club, though it's not actually as far out as people think (one end actually borders the city of Chicago itself). But thanks to Blanco, at least 1.5 million Hispanics in the Chicago area now know who the Fire are, and I think we can grow fast if the new ownership grasps the opportunity properly.

I should have done that. Why didn't I? I don't know. That was stupid of me.

Reed: I guess you didn't see it, but in your Chicago thread on the old board, I mentioned I would be in DC that weekend. We probably passed each other at Midway.