Journalism and blogging

The LA Times takes a look at the future of sportsblogging.

Luis and I are in a bit of a different position here. We're journalists, but as freelancers, we don't get paid to write our blog. If anything, the blog costs us money, because time spent on it could be spent writing an article that would pay. I'm honestly not sure why we keep doing the blog anyway, other than that most of the time, we enjoy it and like getting out some extra info to fans of soccer.
It's also true that after trying hard to write something that will please an editor or an outlet, it's sometimes nice to just have a thought about something and be free to post it here without needing someone else's approval.
Because we are journalists, though, and we use our names on this blog, our reputation is on the line with every post. Sometimes I don't post stuff because I don't have the time to spend looking up what I'd need to find to make all the info completely accurate. Sometimes I don't post things because I don't want to deal with the blowback of being considered "girly" or the "We don't care about that, stick to soccer" comments.
Other times, I rebel against my self-censoring and post anyway, because if people don't want to read what I think, well, perhaps they shouldn't be reading this blog.
As far as whether or not to post rumors, though, I don't have too much trouble deciding where to draw the line there. If I have specific knowledge about something, I'll pass it along, otherwise, I don't bother. I'm not going to drive myself crazy wondering about the blog's reputation, though. Either people trust us to be honest with our observations or they don't.

Bow to the blog

When Luis called me to tell me that Steve Morrow had been sacked as coach, the first thing I did was check the FC Dallas website. Nothing there about the decision.

"No," Luis said. "It's on their blog."

It was. In a strange way, it made sense. If FC Dallas wanted to get out a quick confirmation that they let Morrow go, the blog was probably the easiest way to do it.

Though I've long thought that FC Dallas has the best MLS team blog, this has to be considered new and unchartered territory. Usually the blogs are cute PR features, with fun pics and videos. Now, though, giving the the blog the breaking news of an important move on the team's part has sort of upped the ante.

It's going to be hard to top this news for a while, but who knows? Perhaps the Seattle Sounders will confirm the successful acquisition of Thierry Henry on their team blog.

Cuban doesn't like us

Mark Cuban, that is. The NY Times updates some of the issues involved today in sportsblogging, and MC clearly feels that "someone on Blogspot" is less than legitimate. Granted, Cuban gets more traffic on his blog than we do, but did he get hits from Nigeria this morning? Well, maybe he did, but the global power of soccer is still something to behold.

Strong Language

In light of Mark Cuban's disparaging comments recently about blogs and bloggers, a Galaxy staffer and I were discussing some of the crucial differences between blogs and articles in print.

He mentioned that he thought Luis, for example, was more outspoken on this blog than he is in other outlets, pointing out that Luis will occasionally swear on our blog.

"I guess I do that, too," I admitted. "Sometimes I'll cuss or make fun of something in a way I probably wouldn't write elsewhere. It's our blog - we never rated it PG."

Sometimes, when people are just expressing themselves, those words come out.

Like during an interview with Ruud, for example.

Interesting that he made the comparison to Real Madrid, no? Beckham was on the squad during that era where they couldn't get the big wins despite having many stars.

Jaime's Alive!

Let me first thank Luis and Andrea for inviting me to come to the Sideline Views. I’m here to let people know that my blog (Korner Pocket) is not dead, but rather in deep, deep coma.

There is no truth to the story that my blog was found with sleeping pills scattered around the Web. There’s also no truth to the report that I’m making people sign up to be able to access my blog.

There are two ways to delete a blog on blogger. One is to erase everything and delete the blog, but I wasn’t comfortable with deleting everything I had done and went with option two, which to take the blog offline by restricting access to people. Unlike what one person on BigSoccer said, I’m not trying to make people sign up for my blog. I’m a fan and a believer of the First Amendment so I would never even consider doing that.

I hope not to be gone from the Web too long, but for now the best place to find me in will be the print edition of the Times— I know, how 1980s of me.

I know some of you (*cough* Luis *cough*) just can not get enough Chivas USA news, so I didn’t want to come in here and just talk about myself. Here’s what to expect from Chivas USA as training camp approaches:

1. Don’t believe the stories that say Jose Saturino Cardozo is close to signing a contract with the team. Cardozo has been invited to training camp, which open on Feb. 4, but Chivas USA is not going to sign a soon-to-be 37-year-old sight unseen. He will be on trail.

2. Antonio Cue left LA to go to Guadalajara yesterday to talk to Chivas de Guadalajara officials. Cue said, as he was boarding the plane, that he would take a look at some players while he was down there but didn’t give any names. I suggested to Antonio that he look at back up goalkeeper Alfredo Talavera.

3. Look for Chvias USA to try to implement the 4-3-3 formation more next year. While Preki’s defensive style was very successful, it was not always very exciting. And that’s just not the Chivas way. A switch to that formation makes more sense with Ante Razov on the team, but that’s not a guarantee at the moment.

4. Speaking of Preki, Mr. Radosavljevic will be on the hot seat this season. Preki’s new contract is only for two years, which, IMHO, is no security whatsoever. To make matters worse, the reigning MLS Coach of the Year will be playing with a short deck as he could possibly loose Brad Guzan and Ante Razov this transfer window and might be force to take on a player he may not like in the summer.

I would say something about the Chivas USA vs Columbus game next month at College of the Canyons Community College, but, after reading that Marcos Gonzalez won’t be back with the Crew next year, I’ll just let Andrea talk about that meeting later.

NYT stamp of something

I can't say whether or not the New York Times really approves of our little soccer blog, but people there do read us, they really read us.

They don't mention us by name in this GOAL blog post, but two of the quotes there are from "Quote jambalaya".

Maybe they didn't want to link to us because they don't like jambalaya?

100 percent guests

This is a pretty good read. Nick Green got Jesse Marsch to write a guest blog on his 100 Percent Soccer blog. Marsch takes the opportunity to write about diving and how much he despises diving. I'm telling you, Marsch continues to gain points in my book because I despise diving as well.

Anyway, Marsch pretty much tells us who he thinks the two biggest divers in the league are; however, I think Paulinho (aka Nagamura) might disagree with his subsequent comment about Brazilians.

Can't please everyone

Here's another soccer blog by a local reporter, Nick Green. The nice thing about a blog smorgasboard is that hopefully everyone is able to find one they like.

Hmm, that's a little odd.

I just realized that my other blog, National Scenes, has temporarily morphed into a Real Salt Lake blog. I have a couple of takes on the latest happenings there, one on John Ellinger, and the other on Jason Kreis.

Vicki has a blog - and dog

Proof positive that it really was meant to be for David Beckham to join the LA Galaxy. His wife, Victoria Beckham, has a little dog, named Twiggy, (clink on the vbtv link) which is the same breed, a Yorkie, as Alexi Lalas' dog, Bob.

Actually the whole set of videos on the blog looks like "A day in the life of VB". She even gets the private plane David apparently will not have when flying to games.

Despite the plane, fancy hotel room, Louis Vuitton dog collar and designer clothes, the one time I envied Posh was when I saw her Hello Kitty pajamas. Those are seriously cute.

Also, Posh, if a dog is eating its poo it's usually because the food the dog gets is so gourmet and yummy, that it still tastes good even after it has become poo. Our little Sheltie (RIP, Misty) used to eat hers whenever we fed her treats, so we stopped that. We began to feed her this dry, organic dog kibble that had hardly any meat. It was like dog health food. She could barely stand to eat it once, so she didn't eat her poo any more and lived to be 16.

Due to computer error. . .

A batch of four comments was inadvertantly deleted. Please post again, if you like, but at the least know that we didn't mean to silence your opinion.

Graffiti blogging

I write for a few places, and I wanted to alert Sideline Views readers to recent posts on the u17 squad, the game versus Ecuador, and other thoughts.

Blogbytes

A comment ages ago on this blog chastized us for the non-seriousness of this blog, wondering why we didn't provide more expert analysis and critiques of players. My response was that this wasn't, in my opinion, intended to be that sort of serious blog.

It doesn't mean I don't care about Sideline Views or don't take the work I put into it seriously. However, this blog started because Luis and I wanted to have a place where could put all the little trivial details and anecdotes of life as a soccer reporter in LA.

I'm a bit of an information junkie, and I figured, other people would like to get a lot of info on soccer as well, even if it's not as profound as some might prefer. I also hate to waste stuff, and sometimes there's just leftover quotes, jokes, funny pictures and things like that which wouldn't fit anywhere else I write for.

It's also more a reflection of our personalities than anything else, because it's so easy for us to post whatever we feel like, without any influence of a professional article format, length restrictions, or editors.

Czeching in

Greetings to our latest visitor!

The Czech Republic kicked the USA's tail at the World Cup, but then failed to advance out of the first round. They had some amazing players on their team. The Czech Republic could have really done some serious damage if they'd all stayed healthy.

Ecuador on board

Our visitor from Ecuador reminded me that I saw Ecuador defeat Costa Rica at the World Cup in Germany. It was a good game, with fervent fans on both sides having a good time. Ok, well, the Tico fans didn't have quite as good a time.

Nod to Norway

Norway's in the house! Or at least, was reading the blog for a while. Norway was the unfortunate victim of a 5-0 thrashing at the hands of the U.S. last year. Taylor Twellman scored a hat trick, then was controversially left off the World Cup team.

Of course, the U.S. wasn't playing Norway's first choice players. It was a very young and inexperienced team.

Welcome, Malaysia!

I have no idea what I could possibly say about Malaysian soccer. Wait, ok, I looked them up. It turns out the Malaysian national team beat the U.S. in 1972 by a score of 3-0. Not bad.

Hello, Hong Kong!

It's nice to think our blog is sweeping across the Asian continet. Next, up, Good Morning, Vietnam?

We forgot Poland

An electronic boojie to our visitor from Poland! Paraguay, alas for Luis and his best efforts, has yet to show up.

Luis the I, Luis the II

Luis Arroyave (and Don Garber, sorta) name-checks Luis Bueno in his blog entry (On the Bus, 10:25) about the SuperDraft.
Luis A. shouldn't feel too bad about the mix-up. When I covered MLS in 2005, my credentials would keep getting printed out as Andreas Canales. I, of course, wouldn't write it that way on my applications. It's gotten better since I started writing for MLSnet's site in Spanish - I guess they figured out who I am.