Dallas’ maverick owner asks, “Is it crazy to try to compete with the NFL?”

Why, yes, Mark. Yes, it is.

Interesting concept. Good luck with it.

You’ll never play a game.

Let’s look at what Cuban says about why the UFL is a good idea: (more…)

Soccer is a cruel game, and professional sport is a cruel business. Riding high in April, shot down in May and all that.

Such is the case for the Chicago Fire and head coach Dave Sarachan, whose club has gone winless in its last five matches. After the most recent one, a 0-0 draw with winless Real Salt Lake on Sunday, Sarachan faced the normally softball-pitching media contingent and was (shockingly, at least to some) asked “Do you feel pressure to resign?”

To which Sarachan replied:

“Why would I resign? I can’t go out and score goals. Look, they didn’t give me a raise when we had the best start in franchise history and it’s going to take small steps to get ourselves back on track. Nobody died here. We didn’t lose this game.”

The fact the question was even asked is apparently causing some consternation; my man Luis Arroyave reports in his blog that club president John Guppy was “upset” with the question.

Now, I’m not a big fan of changing coaches in mid-season (by my count, it’s happened 25 times in MLS’ short history, and only LA’s Sigi Schmid in 1999 and New England’s Steve Nicol in 2002 have turned things around and taken their teams to MLS Cup appearances), but that’s not what I want to talk about.

What I want to talk about is the notion that this wasn’t a fair question (and, in the spirit of accuracy, it wasn’t “Will you resign?” but “Do you feel pressure to resign?” which are two different things). Of course it’s a fair question.

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FIFA bans high-altitude international matches (ESPNsoccernet).

In case you’re wondering, Mexico City is 7,349 feet above sea level.

Missed it by that much.

You knew this was coming, right?

“As administrator of his son’s estate, Dean Hancock said he has an obligation to represent the family on all issues, ‘including any legal actions necessary against those who contributed to the untimely and unnecessary death.’”

One might think those who contributed to his untimely and unnecessary death would include Josh Hancock, himself. But that must just be the drink talking.

So, let’s see….when David Beckham signed with the LA Galaxy in January, the common wisdom went something like this:

• He can’t play in Europe anymore;
• He’ll never play for England again; and
• His club team, Real Madrid, hadn’t won anything since he’d been there and wasn’t likely to.

Since then, Real has admitted they should have made an effort to keep him, the club is tied for first place in La Liga, and oh, look at this, there’s a chance he’ll be called to represent England once again.

Huh. That’s odd. You mean the pundits and Bigsoccer morons got something wrong? Color me surprised. Or color me whatever colors the Galaxy are going to be wearing once he gets here.

He said he’s sick of seeing his adidas commercial.

This missive came today from US Soccer:

“The U.S. Under-20 Men’s National Team has been drawn into Group E with Belgium, Tunisia and Tajikistan for the 2007 FIFA U-17 World Cup in South Korea, which will take place from August 18-September 9.”

I think we’ll do quite well if we send our U-20s to the U-17 World Cup while other nations are sending their U-17s.

Take that, Tajikistan!

Thanks to my man Luis Arroyave, we know that Danny Dichio does, in fact, bite.

The Fire really needs to spring for 10,000 sets of those plastic vampire teeth and hand them out July 7 when Toronto FC comes to Toyota Park.

Something tells me this red card (the suspension for which Dichio will serve tonight when TFC hosts Houston) won’t be Dichio’s only one of the season. Diego Gutierrez, meanwhile, will sit out the Fire’s game Thursday night at home against FC Dallas (7pm CT, ESPN2, but do yourself a favor and buy tickets and just go).

This came out a couple of weeks ago, and I missed it until now.

You know I’m an NASLophile, and though I’ve been told it’s a bit disappointing, I’m looking forward to reading Clive Toye’s book, A Kick in the Grass (the rat stole the title I was going to use for a book about the Tampa Bay Rowdies). The longtime league exec gave an interesting interview to ussoccerplayers.com in which he discusses the state of MLS and American soccer in general. (Toye was also prominent in last year’s excellent Once in a Lifetime.)

One quote that jumped out at me right away was this:

“USSoccerPlayers: Do you think that MLS had adequately acknowledged the contribution that the NASL made to the growth of American soccer?

Toye: MLS has signally and deliberately ignored the fact that the NASL ever existed. Without the NASL, soccer in the USA would have remained as we found it in 1967.”

Yep. Just because the NASL folded and you wanted to distance yourself from their mistakes at launch in 1996 didn’t mean you had to ignore their successes as well (and many of the “soccer people” who were still around and willing and able to help at the time). Now MLS probably feels like because they’ve been around a dozen years and are likely to be around much longer than the NASL’s 17 seasons, they don’t need to acknowledge those who came before in any sort of meaningful way.

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