I was watching the FA Cup games over the weekend, enjoying the small stadiums, packed to the rafters, cheering their team on against bigger, more famous opponents.
The FA Cup brought memories of previous FA Cup ties that I saw as a kid. Standing on the terraces of Wembley watching Man United beat Liverpool in the FA Cup final. Or following Coventry to Leyton Orient in the early 1970’s and having the ground be full of only Coventry supporters at the end as the Sky Blues won easily.
Last week I asked whether the MLS was turning into a feeder league. Trading its best young up and coming players for over the hill European stars looking for a retirement home is not the way bets way for the MLS to proceed. Well it was good to see that the Toronto Star agreed with my assessment of the MLS.
As Cathal Kelley wrote in the Star:
The rumour mill is loaded with a host of other former stars looking for a soft, lucrative landing before they surrender to retirement – Luis Figo, Juan Sebastien Veron, Ronaldo, Andriy Shevchenko.
2007 was the year when the mantle was passed from the older superstars like Zidane and Beckham a new group of young superstars. Young players liked Cristiano Ronaldo, Cesc Fabregas and Lionel Messi transformed themselves into world-class performers during 2007.
Ronaldo, 22, and Messi, 20, were named as runners-up to Kaka in the FIFA World Player of the Year awards and Fabregas, 20, has helped turn Arsenal in to genuine Premier League title contenders.
Behind Ronaldo and Messi there is another group of young stats waiting to make their mark on the game.
I was reading about Andy Dorman’s move to St. Mirren today in the Boston Globe and I was shocked at the money that he was on in New England.
Dorman was drafted late in the 2004 draft out of Boston University and appears to have signed a 4 year contract. Dorman signed for $16,000 his first season, an amount that has been increased to $30,000 a year today. So in a little under 4 years Dorman has earned just over $100,000. His contract with St, Mirren is a one-year deal with a year option, will be worth nearly $400,000 with bonuses. What soccer player in his right mind could turn down that kind of salary increase?
Oursportscentral had an interesting article on who will get MLS franchises next. From the post:
Major League Soccer: St. Louis and Philadelphia are considered the top choices for the league’s 16th franchise that is expected to be announced early in 2008. The league hopes the selected location would be able to start play in 2009 when a Seattle team is set to join. The MLS reportedly will expand to 18 teams by 2010 or 2011 and recently announced investors for a possible Atlanta franchise and a second franchise in the New York City area. The league was also talking with the city of Miami about funding for a soccer stadium that could be part of a project with a Florida Marlins baseball stadium on the current site of the Orange Bowl. Kansas City officials recently approved a special tax incentive for a redevelopment plan in the Bannister Mall area that is to include a new soccer stadium for the Kansas City Wizards.
Well at the end of super Sunday in England, Arsenal and Manchester United solidified there positions as the top two teams in the country. When the dust had settled after two intriguing games the table looks like this:
Each of the big three have now played each other once and the results have had an impact on the table. The head to head table is:
I read in the Boston Globe today that DC United is in negotiations with Juan Sebastian Veron for next season at a cool price of $4 million a year. Veron who failed miserably in England and is now 32 years of age. My opinion is that that they over the hill former superstars is not the path that MLS should be taking.
Another aging player that the Galaxy is reportedly targeting is Celtic forward Maciej Zurawski. Zurawski, who is 31 years old, cannot make the starting lineup at Celtic. Yet he is supposedly the forward that the Galaxy needs to convert all those Beckham crosses.
In putting together my top 5 soccer players of all-time my only criteria was that in order to be considered, the player had to be retired. That is why someone like Ronaldinho is not on the list. I consider myself very fortunate to have had the privilege of seeing all 5 players on the list live and in person.
The players are in order of who I think was the best.Disagree with the list? Add who you think should be on this list in the comments section or leave a comment if disagree with a pick.
Pele:
The English tabloid The Mirror reported today that Chelsea star Andriy Shevchenko is considering following David Beckham’s lead and coming to play in MLS.
Shevchenko, 31, has struggled at Chelsea since his British record £30.9million signing from AC Milan and he now is considering a move to a Major League Soccer club as his final career step.
Why America? Well it seems that Shevchenko is married to American model Kristen Pazik who would welcome a move to the States after moving to London from Milan for the good of their two children.
How can the world champions not be a number one seed for the European Championships? How can UEFA seeded teams is a complete mystery and as a result Italy and France have to play each other again.
Drawn together in Group C with Holland and Romania, this is truly the “Group of Death” of this years Championship. The way the draw appears to be set-up, Groups A & B will winners and runners-up will play each other, with one team advancing to the final, while Groups C & D will do the same.