In our first installment, Shaka Hislop touted Chris Albright as a good player for the Galaxy. He was sent to New England months earlier.

In yesterday's column, we have another Galaxy-related error:

QUOTE:
The Galaxy's big-name players - David Beckham, Landon Donovan and Abel Xavier - will have been affected by the travelling most because they're all getting on a bit.

Beckham? Approaching 33.
Xavier? Turned 35 in November.
Donovan? Just turned 26.

Donovan? He's still playing?

Old fogey.

I will repeat what I said about this in the MLS thread: find me anything printed in the British press about MLS that doesn't contain at least one factual error. (stuff written by North Americans doesn't count)

I have to admit that my CL viewing has mostly consisted of the ESPN highlights show. Last week, Shaka Hislop was one of the panelists, with no mention of the absence of Tommy Smyth. What, has he gone on to the great onion bag in the sky?

Tommy's still on the daytime CL broadcasts, unfortunately, but he's been sacked from the MLS Thursday night show, thank God, because he had less clue what he was on about than Shaka. Wynalda got the push as well - a shame, because though he's a prize cunt, he's a fairly entertaining one too who knows what he's talking about most of the time. He's been replaced by John Harkes - polished and more professional, and the best co-commentator in the country at this point.

Shaka's obviously decided to try and make a living out of this - good luck to him. Sadly, his MLS columns for the Guardian are as dull as fuck. Then again, for what they pay, he probably doesn't think it's worthwhile making too much effort.

Speaking of dull, who did the Guardian podcast had on as their MLS correspondent last week? Not Shaka, that's for sure.

Antonio Gramsci wrote:

QUOTE:
Speaking of dull, who did the Guardian podcast had on as their MLS correspondent last week? Not Shaka, that's for sure.

I missed that episode, only caught all of the negative comments from the listeners.

I said it on the MLS thread, we need to start a campaign to get someone from OTF to be their MLS expert. I nominated goldstone or imp, sorry that I forgot you could also fit the bill, Gramsci.

Nah. I know shit about the rest of the league, to be honest. Other teams are merely a series of interchangeable golems who arrive to humiliate TFC every two weeks or so.

This week's gem.

Apparently stung by repeated factual howlers, Shaka has responded with a column that says absolutely, precisely nothing whatsoever. Christ what a waste of space.

Wow...that was...wow.

QUOTE:
First off, an apology. I have to confess I didn't keep abreast of the goings-on in the MLS last weekend as much as I normally would or should. I christened my son on Sunday so I had friends and family from all four corners of the world here to stay, which means I was a bit distracted. So sorry to all you bloggers.

However, for those of you who were demanding more of DC United in this blog, you picked a bad week because I did catch their results, which were most disappointing. I always follow the fortunes of DC with a keen eye because I went to university there and the city is very close to my heart. They are a strong side and have fantastic and passionate support - of the 14 teams in the MLS, the players regard DC and Toronto as the best places to play, simply for the atmosphere. So I was somewhat surprised that they should be thrashed 4-0 at Real Salt Lake at the weekend.

Read that a few times--I did. It's like a vast emptiness, or a black hole that has sucked in everything meaningful which could be written about the game.

The funny thing is that he's not *that* bad on ESPN's Champions League wrap-up show. He's not great, but he usually disagrees with Tommy Smyth, which makes me happy. The crime of ESPN's CL coverage is that Janusz Michallik is not given a more prominent role. He's excellent on the wrap-up show.

I emailed the Guardian - letting them know of my sadness of a wasted opportunity. There are so many (insightful, funny) people writing/blogging about MLS who could do a brilliant job for them, and they pick this useless waste of space, who doesn't even watch the games !! Jesus.

Vernons, just curious: are you or your fellow revolutionaries thinking of restarting you zine in internet form?

One of our group of three who produced the zine wanted to revive the name and put out a 'net version of it, but us other two nixed that idea.

This week's exciting offering.

Marginally better than previous articles in that he seems to have watched more than one game and hasn't made any glaring factual errors, but still largely infected by "well, when *I* was a professional player..."

After that ringing endorsement, I think I can just about resist the urge to click on the link.