Thursday, July 19, 2007

Settling in

I threw in the towel on the All-Star game. It wasn't very dramatic, and I've got to start on my SI.com column. Well, I've already started on it but I like to dedicate some quiet time to writing it and now that my girls are in bed (thank GOD) I can finally relax and write. I had my 21-month-old daughter crawling in my lap while I was trying to write a PE story today. She won, and I had to wait until the cavalry arrived to finish it.


I guess my Man of the Match at this point would have to be Angel; second Toja; third... uh, any other Colombians?

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

excellent andrea, thanks for the esfuerzos. I hope also to be a 'the calvary' soon. adam , mexico

L.B. said...

Hi Adam,

Andrea's actually watching the match in person and she'll probably watch the entirety.

I, however, was not fortunate enough to attend the game in person but rather am in my office in my home here in hot and muggy Riverside, Calif., transcribing some interviews.

No worries, though. I wish I was in Mexico right now, actually, with the ability to go and get some tacos de lengua somewhere... yum.

Anonymous said...

hey l.b., are you married to Andrea?

L.B. said...

I'm happily married...

but not to Andrea ;)

Anonymous said...

Why no love for De Ro?

I thought he and Toja were co-MOTM for the first half. Dangerous throughout the half, set up Angel's goal.

If only the USMNT could have Joseph, De Ro, or Toja. They owned the match for the MLS tonight.

Anonymous said...

Luis,

Do you think the league should just dump the all-star game? It seems like they should. Unlike basketball, futbol isn't really fun to watch when people do a lot of 1-on-1. And the players do not play together for long enough period of time to develop cohesion for it to be a good match. So, the fans don't really get much out of it.

Also, because of the difference in calendars, the game certainly isn't a way to get our players more experience playing quality teams.

Anonymous said...

These taco de lengua you speak of, I can arrange them to be delivered from Mexico, provided you give us the name of the big CUSA signing.

But srsly, I was wondering if you've got an article coming up on this somewhere? Thanks LB.

L.B. said...

I'm not a big fan of All-Star games in general. It's just for show, really. I watched the first MLS one with interest, in 1996, and honestly every year since then my interest has been nowhere near as high. Actually, the only exception was 2003 when they played Chivas. That game was interesting.

If they did away with it, I wouldn't be upset. Then they could focus their attention on SuperLiga or the US Open Cup.

But if they're going to have it, they may as well roll it out in this format. If they ever go back to East vs West, that'll be a nightmare.

L.B. said...

Deal!

If I had a name...

All I can tell you is they're looking at Hispanic players but don't have a player signed or on the way quite yet.

At least not as of 8:53 p.m. on Thursday, July 20. That could change by Friday, so I'll stay on top of it.

Anonymous said...

Holy Crap, Luis!!

You better be careful sitting on that powderkeg.

CUSA is looking a lot like the clippers right about now.

Tacos de lengua? How about tacos de tripas!

Murfmensch said...

Personally, I like the way soccer puts players in different venues at a time. Club and Nation but also, this All-Star thing.

The lack of team cohesion on the MLS side was matched by the pre-season heaviness that takes hold of British teams.

I enjoyed all the trouble the MLS team caused Boruc. We can only imagine the effect Nakamura would have had but he was in the Asian Cup. Also, there was very little diving or cheap fouls.

I enjoyed the game and hopes this slows down the all too predictable barrage of anti-MLS statements in England. It won't. English pundits on MLS sound like Jim Rome on Soccer. How do they know so much?

Anonymous said...

Nakamura from Chivas USA is in the Asian Cup? Are you serious?

L.B. said...

Nakamura from Celtic.

Anonymous said...

At least it gives MLS something to shoot back at the British press and makes them write about excuses.

And I hate to say it but Lalas may have proven his point again that if your drop a good core of MLS players in the EPL that they would be competetive. Yes Celtic and Chelsea are not fully fit but you have a group of guys who never played with each other on the other end.

Anonymous said...

Well Celtic doesn't play in the EPL they play in the SPL but I get your point. However I sure hope that a whole league would be able to field a team that could be competitive in the EPL. However, the fact that it would take one gathering the best from a whole league tells you how sparse the talent is. Its not about winning one or two games its about competiting weekend and week out. Would the best MLS players be able to competite on that weekly basis?
Obviously a few can but most would drop off during the course of a season. If the EPL thought they could do well many more teams would come knocking. Unfortunately with the work permit thing we don't know how many would really stand a chance in the EPL.