Lots of empty seats at Toronto this afternoon. Is the novelty wearing off, or do TFC fans refuse to watch football played on real grass?

jason voorhees wrote:
Martin C, the one at Giants Stadium ? I remember that game as well. Granitza hit a free kick in sudden death OT for the win. I was in 2nd grade, and one kid went to the game, and he said only one person was cheering when the Sting won.

No it was at Wrigley Field. I thought the set up worked quite nice for football/soccer. The field went from the third base line towards right field. I recall sitting in the upper deck along the third base line which would have been upper deck behind one of the goals. If I am not mistaken, remember this was 29-30 years ago, there were nearly 40,000 fans jammed into Wrigley Field for that match.

Add another friendly. Revs v Benfica, May 19th.

imp wrote:
Lots of empty seats at Toronto this afternoon. Is the novelty wearing off, or do TFC fans refuse to watch football played on real grass?

It was a cold, rainy April day, and that was about a normal showing for cold, rainy April days. Also, there was construction on two of the main arteries into exhibition place which snarled traffic which meant that there were a lot of people who arrived late. Announced attendance (which I assume means tickets purchased) was about 18,500.

Too bad, because TFC managed to play some of the most intelligent football I've ever seen them play (which, admittedly, is setting the bar at "extreme limbo" level). They were genuinely good in the second half. De Ro bossed the midfield. DeGuzman finally played a game in which his technical skills outweighed his seeming refusal to actually break a sweat. The whole team suddenly showed an ability to play patient, possession football. The fullbacks are still a disaster, and no one has any idea how Martin Saric is holding down a starting position, but we kept a clean sheet and put out a full-game effort so it was pretty hopeful.

Mo is still an evil troll who needs to be packed off to North Korea, though.

The Cummins interview in its entirety is available on The Score's website.

Truth is a defence in Canada, isn't it?

Last I checked, yeah. But Cummins was interviewed over the phone whilst in the UK. Any chance Mo could go jurisdiction-shopping given that the slander occurred in England?

Much of the Cummins interview rings absolutely true and explains a lot about what happened in the last eight weeks of the season. But there are some details that don't sound right...the Canadians v. Americans thing for instance (where would that put Dichio, Robbo, Guevara, and Vitti, all of whom were shipped out in the off-season?). I think there is still more to come out, and many people are awaiting some candid interviews from Robinson and Serioux in particular.

I always thought that British libel tourism was based on the dissemination of the material in the UK, not the fact that it may have originated in the UK.

And out of an abundance of caution, I've edited to remove the link above.

Galaxy to host Boca Juniors in friendly at the HDC. Some Galaxy fans are disappointed it isn't an EPL team. I call them "idiots."

So, the USOC, then.

(Meanwhile, Montreal vs Toronto in the kickoff of the Canadian championship round robin thingy).

There were a series of coinflips-which MLS actually felt the need to document and put up for viewing on the old site, of who would play whom in the playin's for the Open Cup. RSL beat San Jose a while ago, Colorado beat KC 2-1 out west, Claudio Lopez the matchwinner for the Rapids, oh the irony. Then you have the "eastern" half of the bracket. Philly is playing at the Red Bulls right now. Winner hosts New England. Winner of THAT hosts Colorado. Dallas is at DC (again, like last year) tomorrow. (I confidently predict a crowd of less than a thousand at RFK.) Winner of that hosts RSL. The two survivors of that awful screwed up bracket qualify for the Open Cup.

Next year, when Portland shows up and there are an even 16 MLS teams making things lovely and symmetrical, this shit better come to a SCREECHING halt.

Philadelphia *is* the 16th team.

Next year we go back to an unbalanced schedule when we go up to 18 teams (at which point we probably go to a 3-division set up unless we convince one of the Texas teams to go into the East). Or maybe 19 if they find a way to get the Impact in the league for '11.

I wrote poorly. 16th American team making the USOC bracketing nice and simple.

Ah. yes. that would make more sense. Though you're still going to have the problem of figuring out which Texas team to put in the east bracket, no?

They'd probably phase them in-worst 8 from last season, then best 8, and hope the Texas conundrum doesn't come to pass.

RBNY 2-1 Philly. IN which Le Toux got injured, and Peter Nowak was so pissed at his players he made them run after the match. NOW I remember why we cut him loose.

DCU vs Glasgow Rangers July 24th.

DCU resigns Luciano Emilio on a 3 month contract.

<head explodes>

jefe wrote:
Peter Nowak was so pissed at his players he made them run after the match.

Dear god, that's childish. He's trying to break Tom Runnells' record for fastest time to losing the dressing room (Runnells showed up to spring training in combat gear and lecturing the Expos about his service in 'Nam.)

TFC-Impact starts in two hours. I'm going with an unfamiliar and probably totally baseless feeling of optimism. But damn I want to see another performance like Sunday's.

Some Galaxy fans are disappointed it isn't an EPL team. I call them "idiots."

Indeed. What's not to like if Boca sends their best team?

If MLS ever gets a place in the Copa Libertadores it's clubs like Boca Juniors that we'll be facing, so for me a match like this is quite intriguing and makes it slightly less meaningless as friendlies go because it offers a foretaste of what we're in for if we ever get to that level of competition.

The fortunes of North American soccer spins on the same axis as South America so I'm more interested in seeing how we compare against the best South American clubs than subsidizing EPL branding tours.

Boca came to DC United many years ago, and played on a Sunday afternoon in August. It ended 0-0, and was possibly the worst match in the history of the world.

I was at that match. It was about 90 and humid. Shitty match. But DC wore those special red shirts, which I thought were nice.

This news is of interest to me, but probably nobody else.

www.fcdallas.com/news/2010/04/fcd-hires-...n-technical-director

So there's a good college soccer job opening. If anyone wants to apply, they can stay with me until they find permanent lodging.

DCU 4-2 Dallas, to play RSL mid May probably.

And DC acquires Stephen King from Seattle for a 2nd round draft pick next year.