MLS Hates Fans

MLS Fan Code!

So yeah go ahead and cheer and all and make a great atmosphere, but no cursing, no smoke bombs, no flares, and respect the opponents and officials!

Fuck that shit! Fuck you Garber! If you want MLS to succeed then you'll let us do what we need to in order to create a great atmosphere. For god's sake you don't even have a clue about what goes on at matches around the world because you were working for the NFL for over a decade!

MLS Preview coming soon.

Faux News and MSNBC

All of a sudden Faux News is talking about revolution and how evil Obama is with his massive spending bills and socialist economic views. Meanwhile, MSNBC is cheering on Obama and rarely questioning him (only Rachel Maddow on occassion). It seems the two news networks have switched places. Fox News never questioned Bush's National Socialist policies, while MSNBC was going out of their way to demonize the entire Republican party, while maintaining their corporate liberal pro-state stance. But now the Republicans are out of power, and GE, who owns MSNBC, just received a government bailout. Now I'm suddenly hearing assholes like Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh yelling about why we need smaller government while Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews go on and on about why we need more troops in Afghanistan and this "stimulus" package.

There's a reason I watch al-Jazeera.

Stadium Designs

These are some stadium designs I've done on the Paint program on my computer. Paint is not the best thing to use when trying to make architecture.

Gray indicates terracing.

Random Fact

LA Galaxy's 2-0 win over Oita Trinita is the first time an MLS club has defeated a J-League club.

MONTREAL!!!

Remember when Don Garber said that Montreal was dropping out of the expansion race? Well they may be coming back. I guess selling almost 50,000 tickets (and it might go higher) for one of your biggest matches in club history grabs some people's attention.

MLS needs Montreal bad. Montreal has the stadium in place, the attendance figures and are in close proximity to one of MLS' most successful clubs (in terms of attendance and money) Toronto FC. Can you imagine what those matches would be like? They would have to move it to the Olympic Stadium. It would be insane. I can just imagine how intense it would be. TFC brought over 2,000 fans to Columbus which is much farther than Montreal. I could see 6,000 TFC fans making the trip.

And have you seen what an expanded Saputo Stadium would look like?

Here's what I think expansion should like like over the next 3 years:

2010: Philadelphia, Miami
2011: Montreal, Portland
2012: Vancouver or St. Louis

And can you imagine a Portland-Seattle derby at Qwest Field?

State-Run Competitions

AP:

BEIJING (AP)—China’s top soccer league will return to national TV when the
season opens next month, ending a four-month ban imposed because of on-field
violence.

CCTV, China’s government-run broadcaster, and the China Football
Association said Monday broadcasts will resume when the Chinese Super League
season starts March 21.

The government-run Super League has been beset by chronic mismanagement, match-fixing scandals and violence. Neither CCTV nor the soccer association said which games—or how many—would be shown on TV.

CCTV pulled the Super League from national TV in November, following a scuffle between players from clubs from Beijing and neighboring Tianjin. After the game, fans attacked the bus of the visiting Tianjin team.

Jiang Heping, head of sports for CCTV, said at the time some Super League players lacked “professional ethics.”

Despite winning 51 Olympic gold medals six months ago, China and its famed sports schools have failed to produce much soccer talent. China’s national team is rankedNo. 104 by the world governing body.

Its national team was knocked out of 2010 World Cup qualifying last year, failing to make the last 10 in continental competition. The only time China qualified for the World Cup was in 2002. It lost all three games and failed to score.

China is looking for a new national team coach. Yin Tiesheng has handled the team on a temporary basis, with a full-time coach expected this month. In December, Yin replaced Serbia’s Vladimir Petrovic, who was dismissed after China was eliminated in World Cup qualifying.

I have a wonderful idea! Privitize the CSL! Maybe then your entire country won't think you're a joke and there will be less corruption and a better standard of play. Dumbasses!

USA 2 Mexico 0

A little late on this one. But the USA just completely dominated Mexico. They just clogged up the lanes in midfield and Mexico couldn't really get into a flow. Klejstan and Bradley had one hell of a partnership and both are maturing at a fast pace. In fact Bradley just scored a goal for Borussia Monchengladbach this past Saturday. The problem is there's a lack of depth in the center midfield. Edu isn't getting enough playing time at Rangers, I don't know what's going on with Feilhaber in Denmark, Ricardo Clark did not look very good when he came on, and Mastroeni is getting kind of old.

I was happy to see so many Gadsden flags present at Crew Stadium. It's arguably the greatest flag ever made and pretty libertarian (although in this case it's more of a 'American soccer needs to be respected' kind of thing). It was really fucking loud too. Probably matched the Australia v. Japan match I watched in the morning.

On a different note, I'm glad to see Melbourne Victory in the A-League Grand Final. They have the best fans in Australia, by far. It will be fun watching them at 4:30AM on FSC in two weeks.

Coach McGuirk

Coach McGuirk. A ficticious elementary school soccer coach/alcoholic/part-time comedian and one of the greatest cartoon characters of all time in my opinion. Not only did I learn how to not play soccer, I learned about interventions, fighting below the belt, and what to do in a tornado. This man should be the symbol of asoccer in the US. I must make a banner with his face on it.

Must Watch Match- Japan vs. Australia, Wedensday, 5am ET, FSC

This is THE match to watch this week. Nevermind France vs. Argentina or even USA vs. Mexico tomorrow. This is a battle not only for World Cup Qualification, but for determining who is the giant in Asian Soccer. 72,000 people will be on hand to watch this in Yokohama. Japanese soccer supporters are some of the most passionate in the world, and the recent success of the Australian national team has led to a dedicated travelling support for the Socceroos. My prediction: 2-2.

Keynesian Indoctrination

In my school we have a senior lounge. In there is are offices, one of them for our schools UFT representative. After she was done talking about how we need to keep the microwaves cleaned up and stop blocking the path to her office door, she proceeded to talking about how we need to back this "stimulus" package so the city won't have a shortage of funding for our public school system and won't have to fire a bunch of teachers. Classic Keynesian indoctrination. No, we can't just repeal the Rockefeller Laws, hell even end the War on Drugs in order to cut spending say the statist pigs. We need to tax non-diet soda and raise college tuition. Fuck that shit.

RBA Funtime In Your Pants

RBA... FROM THE INSIDE!

Hazzah!

Waltz With Bashir

Never before had I cried after seeing a movie until I saw Waltz With Bashir. The surreal moments, the outstanding visuals that really captured the horrors of the 1982 Lebanon War and the Sabra and Shatila Massacres, and one hell of a sountrack to go with it. The last ten minutes of the film were just so depressing and sad that I was moved to tears. It's a shame it can't win Best Picture at the Oscars and can only be nominated for Best Foreign Film. This is one of the best movies I've ever seen, and definitely the best movie of the year.

I should make a two-pole flag with Ari Folman's face on it from the movie. That would look awesome.

RBA Virtual Tour

Virtual Walk Through of Red Bull Arena

WARNING: You may experience something wierd in your pants.

I can just imagine banners unfurling from the second tier as confetti and streamers pour onto the pitch and flares and smoke bombs go off and flags are being waved. This shit is going to be sick!

More Passion in the Stands!

Yesterday I was reading an article by Glenn Davis in the Houston Chronicle about raising the level of passion in the stands at MLS matches. What the article failed to do is point out how to do so. It did point out how successful supporters groups are in places like DC, Toronto, and Columbus, but why are they so successful?

Well when you look at the three clubs mentioned you'll notice how all three of them play in stadiums within the city limits and are much easier to get to than these new suburban soccer grounds in Frisco, TX (FC Dallas) and Commerce City, CO (Colorado Rapids). The so-called soccer mom crowd that MLS has tried to draw does not go into the city for safety reasons (life in the big city is just oh so hard with crime everywhere!). Who comes? A diverse crowd that comes from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds who import the passion for soccer seen in their native countries.

It's obvious that urban stadiums are needed in order to expand the MLS fanbase and passion for the game of soccer. But what's also needed is a new kind of stadium. Enough of the boring old bowl design with the open concourse, box seats on one long end and possibly a second tier on the other with some cover over the longer touchlines. Bring in the terraces. Bring in a roof over the heads of all the fans (RBNY is getting it right).

MLS has a partnership with Bundesliga right now. What it needs to learn from them is that cheap tickets, terracing, and relaxed stadium policing that allows the ultras to operate creates a successful league. The Bundesliga is the best attended league in Europe, and MLS needs to learn from them.

To sum this all up:

1.) Urban stadiums
2.) Terraces
3.) Roofs

This will lead to passion in the stands.

Inauguration Day

Well today is historic. We have finally seen a black man become president of the United States. Other than that... not much. I'm waiting to see if Obama's "stimulus" package or TARP goes through and how much it will cost. I'm going to keep my eye on the exchange rates for the next few months and if I see inflation is going to hit, I might just move to the Swiss Franc.

Obama's speech was pretty good. His oratory skills are excellent and he seemed pretty confident. But the message, not so much. More market intervention? Puhlease. We don't need more regulation, what we need is in fact less regulation. Let's do something with the Federal Reserve and use the Swiss National Bank as more of a model. It's partially private, partially public. Let's not spend our way out of this recession, rather let's let the cycle work itself out and allow people to save their money and by the end of it all the economy would be much stronger. But that won't happen with the military Keynesians in power. Forever hoping to expand the US Empire and government control of the economy, not to mention the people.

Obama also said that terrorists hate us basically because we're free and then went on to extend a hand to the Muslim world. Unless we reevaluate the consequences of our foreign policy and thoroughly reform it, the Muslim world will never except the hand of the US. This mean withdrawal from both Iraq and Afghanistan and our 700+ bases around the globe. It's time to move on from the Cold War and thinking up new enemies to face in order to keep the Military Industrial Complex going.

Am I optimistic? Not so much. I'm bracing for the worst.

At least Obama is a soccer fan, although a supporter of the wrong club, West Ham United (Fulham is my English club). Rumors are that the DC Scum are trying to get him to come to the opening match of the season at RFK and have a whole extravaganza. Haha. They're still waiting to get permission to build a new stadium. Dumbasses.

The Beginning

I'm a libertarian (note the small "L") ultra. Enough said. My libertarian beliefs lead me to despise regulation and centralised power. I love soccer (or football or whatever you want to call it, but I call it soccer), my club is Red Bull New York, but I refer to them as the Metros. I will discuss politics, soccer, and ultras culture and why MLS needs to do something to let it work here in the US.