World Cup and European leagues

[Mr. Ypsi]

Hoosier Titan,

As a fan of Liverpool FC, any thoughts on LeBron James becoming a minority owner?

[Hoosier Titan]

Hi Mr Y,

It's a marketing deal for both sides, I think.  Liverpool are now owned by Fenway Sports Group, the owners of the Boston Red Sox, and they're very keen to increase revenues in as many ways as possible.  They've moved the shirt deal from Adidas to Warrior, who will be making the shirts for the Red Sox, at an additional $25 million profit.  They're putting a new, or dramatically expanded, stadium as a high priority.  Where Le Bron fits in is his ability to increase the club's, and the sport's, visibility in the US, and also to bring in still more fans in Asia.  What most people forget is that Liverpool already sell more shirts worldwide than anyone except Barcelona, Real Madrid, and Man U.   There's a huge Asian market, and basketball is already tremendously popular in China, for example.  So just Le Bron wearing a Liverpool cap or shirt will reach a huge audience.

I don't watch the NBA--can't stop yelling "traveling!" about six times a minute--and so the only time I've ever seen Le Bron play was in the Olympics (I actually was impressed).  But other than the soap opera about which team he would play for, he seems like an okay guy.  Most Brits know next to nothing about basketball; the most common question when the deal came out was "but can he play center back?"  

Right now everyone is just waiting for the transfer market silly season rumors to die, and for the transfers to really get going.  And Liverpool fans are psyched for next season, given the way things turned around after Kenny Dalglish took over!

[sac]

Barcelona offered $27 mill for Cesc Fabregas I guess.

Lets see $35 mil for Andy Carroll, $50 mil for Fernando Torres.........Barcelona's not even in the ballpark, are they?

[Hoosier Titan]

Barcelona offered $27 mill for Cesc Fabregas I guess.

Lets see $35 mil for Andy Carroll, $50 mil for Fernando Torres.........Barcelona's not even in the ballpark, are they?

The last I heard, £31 million was the offer for Fabregas and that was turned down.  I'm getting tired of the Fabregas story--wish they'd do a deal or stop talking about it.  I also heard of a Villa-for-Fabregas swap, and I think Barca would be crazy to do that.

The story is that the price demanded for Torres was "Whatever Newcastle wants for Carroll plus £15 mil."  So it was Red Rom's money that went for Carroll.  A lot for a guy in his first EPL season?  Yes, but he's scored twice as many goals as Torres even though injured most of the spring.  Only time will tell if it was a good move--but it's seeming like it was time for Torres to go.  And if the new owners hadn't gone for a potential big-time player, they would have been open to charges of being like the previous (American) owners, holding a fire sale of any valuable players.

Numerous sources are saying Charlie Adam and Stewart Downing will both be going to Liverpool very soon...we'll see.

[WLCALUM83]

Mexico scores 4 unanswered goals to win the Gold Cup, 4-2.

[Gray Fox]

Mexico scores 4 unanswered goals to win the Gold Cup, 4-2.

Putting it that way makes it even worse.

[Joe Wally]

What a nightmare that second half was.  I understand that Cherundolo was the strength of the back four, but that does not explain the poor marking we saw in the second half.

[etbu27]

Yea it seems Bradley went with an 0-4-2 during the game. And the switch of Donovan and Dempsey was confusing...Sure they produced, but when dont they? I think having Donovan in the midfield could have helped out defensively....maybe?

[sac]

England is weird and fascinating place sometimes.

http://sports.yahoo.com/soccer/blog/dirty-tackle/post/Fulham-selling-Michael-Jackson-products-to-go-wi?urn=sow-wp2895

[etbu27]

Haha i couldnt agree more. Though I wouldnt narrow it down to England. Europe as a whole is kinda strange.

[Hoosier Titan]

Yikes!

I wouldn't advise painting all of England with a Fayad/London/conspiracy theory brush.  That statue at Craven Cottage is tacky beyond belief.  And (especially at a distance) a lot of things in the US look pretty weird too. I was about to make a comparison to Steinbrenner and the NY Yankees, but the Michael Jackson connection is too bizarre. That's in a class of its own.

[etbu27]

Has any one else in here been watching the U-17's. Some of the pitches are far from world cup worthy.

And as I watched the USA v GER game I wondered how USA makes it this far when all the european teens are already playing professionally, yet the forward for USA plays club ball down the street from my house, and spends his saturdays in the same league that I did when I played....and only 3 players on my entire team went to college to play...(all D3, all Hardin Simmons)

[etbu27]

Not saying im not proud, just noting a (IMHO) serious problem in US Youth soccer....

[sac]

Just as a comparison, there are 96 professional teams in the 4 highest divisions of English football.........in a country with a population of roughly 50,000,000.

To get the same ratio, we would need 576 professional teams in the United States.  I believe we have somewhere around 40 counting MLS and USL + their 2nd division.


From a professional soccer opportunities perspective, the U.S. is way, way behind.

[etbu27]

There just is a sense of national bandwagon-ism. In England people really can support the local team and the city team. In USA hypothetically, if Ft. Worth had a team and Dallas had a team that people would only support the team that is more successful. I think this is also a big problem.