Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Kei Kamara's Miss

Kei Kamara mis-times his lunge and ends up handling the ball across the goal line.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Friday, March 12, 2010

A Theory Tested (well, if the MLS actually decides to play its season)

Collins John signs with Chicago Fire - Soccer - SI.com

So, for some time, Jeremy and I have had a running list of players who have had modest success in the Prem but not been able to really break through as first team regulars that we think would be great players in Major League Soccer here in the States.  We're of the opinion that MLS should be focused more on younger players who have some upside but may never be superstars rather than the fading stars losing their powers (like Becks or Henry or Raul or any of the others frequently linked to an MLS pre-retirement tour). 

One of the first guys on our list when we created it a number of years ago was Collins John.  He showed flashes of talent at Fulham when he was there but he couldn't sustain it and was destined to be a reserve at best if he tried to stick around the Prem.  Others who have made it into this conversation are Alidiere, Jeffers, Laurent Robert (who did eventually make it to decidedly mixed reviews but he was too old at that point to really qualify for this category), Marcus Bent, Ebanks-Blake, James McFadden, and the like.  I guess you should think about this list about the same way you think about the "wow, this guy isn't Prem quality but he'd be awesome at Celtic/Rangers list" but with taking into consideration that there is less money to spend.

Anyway, the reason I'm telling you this is that we get to test our intuition by finding out what one of our original nominees for this designation does now that he's done the right thing and come to MLS (again, assuming they have a season and all).

Now back to your regularly scheduled blog...

Cheers - Neal

cross-posted from the Fantasy English Premier League Blog

Monday, March 1, 2010

Sports Guy Doubles Down on Donovan



From Friday's chat with Bill Simmons, The Sports Guy:
Dan (NJ)
Landon Donovan playing great for Everton. Ready to jinx it for him?

Bill Simmons
(12:19 PM)
It's very tough to root for anyone but Everton right now in EPL when they have Donovan and Tim Howard. I am an EPL sports bigamist - like Everton and Spurs.
And then Lando goes out on Sunday and hit Rodwell's cross wide of an open net.  It was so bad he had to apologize to the team after the match.
Landon Donovan issued an apology to his team-mates in the White Hart Lane dressing room after missing an open goal against Tottenham yesterday and costing Everton a point.

The United States forward, who came on as a substitute, admits he cannot understand how he stabbed his finish wide after being picked out by Jack Rodwell at the far post.

"Landon said sorry to us afterwards," said midfielder Mikel Arteta.

This of course after Simmons famously had a long discussion with Donovan about his cool under pressure in taking spot kicks days before Donovan missed his penalty in the MLS Cup shootout with Real Salt Lake.

Oddly enough, he's also being blamed for Canada beating the USA in Olympic hockey.  Fun!

Note: Cross-posted from Fantasy English Premier League Blog

Thursday, February 25, 2010

MLS Interlude



We've covered MLS extensively over on our sister English Premier League blog. Here's a small taste of what you can expect on this blog... once MLS' labor issues have been sorted and we can focus (hopefully) on the 2010 season proper.

MLS Interlude
It is a difficult time to be playing MLS fantasy as the NY Red Bulls don't play again for two weeks. So one can't just load up on whomever is facing them. Though to be honest, that didn't really work out so well for me last week. Cummings did get an assist, but Kimura came on as a sub so he didn't earn the clean sheet points.

So what to do?

MLS Interlude
i have NO interest in MLS anymore

That's how I started my converstation with Neal this morning. And I really don't. With the Premier League gearing up it's hard to keep the enthusiasm for what I call my methadone, which I use to bridge the gap between English seasons. But that being said, and I'm sure to jinx it here, I'm well placed in the overall standings and I have a reputation to uphold. And a trophy to win back from Neal. So here we go again.

Football. Futbol. Soccer.
Time for another look at the rapidly (oops, MLS pun alert!) approaching week in MLS fantasy.

Of course, there's a lot more.

Coming Soon!



From the folks that brought you Fantasy English Premier League... it's Fantasy Major League Soccer blog.  Coming soon.