Blanco/Gomez trade?!?

This is one of the best pieces of satire I've seen in a long time. Dang howdy does it hit the comedy sweet spot. Stop over to the MLS Rumors Rumors web site and show them some love.

Blanco to Rapids for Gomez?

The First 48

My wife and I are addicted to a show called The First 48 which airs on A&E. The basic premise is that the first 48 hours of a homicide investigation are crucial, and if no solid leads develop in that time, solving it is more or less a lost cause.



Each episode follows two actual murder cases, each from a different city. Having watched 30 or so episodes from it's seven seasons, some patterns have appeared. At least in the cities they have visited, the following items are risk factors for being shot:

• Being involved in the drug trade, or having family/friends who are. A surprisingly large percentage of these cases involve drugs
• Renting rather than owning the place you live.
• Being a member of a minority group.

In all seriousness, it's disturbing how callous and stupid many of the perpetrators are. Take for example the woman who wanted to bail her boyfriend out of jail. What was her solution? She called a cab and had the cabbie drive her and some friends into a deserted part of town where they shot him for his fare money. How much money did they get? Less than $100 -- far less than they needed.

On a less somber (and more sophomoric) note, one of the detectives on the show is Officer Lusty. I kid you not. That would be a fantastic stage name for a male stripper. Even better than "Officer Naughty" who advertised in a local paper a few years ago.

That's Not Jo' Public

While Hankook Verdes is a great sounding name, there is one league in CONCACAF whose team names easily outshine the rest of the region. That league is of course the T&T Pro League of Trinidad and Tobago.

Check out these names:

• Joe Public (T&T's entry in the CONCACAF Champions League)
• Defence Force
• W Connection

Defence Force is made up of players from the Army and Coast Guard. W Connection was founded by the Williams brothers, so that name's origin looks pretty obvious. Joe Public? You've got me...

Adios Verdes

Cruz Azul's 6-0 thrashing of their opponents from Belize all-but eliminated one of my favorite team names from the 2008 CONCACAF Champions League: Hankook Verdes.

I understand the Verdes part (verde = green in Spanish - hence the uniforms,) but where did the Hankook part come from? Googling this was surprisingly unhelpful, although I did learn that they changed their name from Real Verdes Football Club in 2004*. Salt Lake, are you listening?

If anyone knows what inspired the Hankook part, leave me a comment!

*thanks Wikipedia

I've Got Mad Hits Like I Was Rod Carew

I just finished watching Chivas USA lose 2-0 to Tauro FC of Panama. My question is... what the heck was up with the turf at Estadio Rod Carew?

I've heard of crop circles before, but crop squares? Was the groundskeeper going for the Boston Garden look? With the gradation from dark to light borders it's like an Escher woodcut... except without the fish.

On another note, boy is it painful to see Chicago Fire icon Zach Thornton lumbering around out there. He still holds the career records for wins and saves for my beloved Fire. At his prime he was a brick wall in front of the goal. Now he looks and moves like a brick wall. Ugh.

Gallardo vs Gomez

Before the season started, DC United inked their first Designated Player - Marcello Gallardo. To make room for the crafty Argentinian, DC sent perennial all-star and the barra's favorite drummer Christian Gomez to the Colorado Rapids in exchange for a first round pick in the 2009 Superdraft and the always intriguing "future considerations."

The common logic was that DC needed to blow up the team to win some silverware, and that Gallardo would be the mastermind of the new DC attack. So, with less than a third of the season left, are they on track? Is DC really any better off with Gallardo than they were when Gomez ran the attack?

The stats so far:

Gomez 19 games (1373 min) 3 goals, 6 assists
Gallardo 12 games (995 min) 4 goals, 3 assists


Gallardo has spent a fair amount of time injured this year. He didn't contribute anything to United's run to the US Open Cup final, nor did his presence keep them from being bounced from the CONCACAF Champions Cup. As a neutral fan Colorado looks to be slightly ahead on this deal... but the remaining scenarios make this interesting:

1. If Colorado wins MLS Cup with Gomez, the Rapids win this hands down.
2. If DC wins MLS Cup and Gallardo contributes mightily, Kevin Payne will have achieved his objective.
3. If DC wins the CONCACAF Champions League with Gallardo running the attack, that would also be a significant trophy.
4. DC still has a well-placed SuperDraft pick to use. If it's still even at the end of the year and DC ends up with a real stud from the draft, the balance of this deal could shift in their favor.

It should be interesting to see how this pans out. I'll revisit this at the end of the year.

In the Beginning

Since this is a new blog, it's time for the obligatory opening statement. So what should you expect to see here?

• Items relating to Major League Soccer. Hopefully backed up with some sort of factual analysis. However it's likely to devolve into pithy comments.
• Soccer tidbits from other leagues.
• Video game stuff. I'm a geek. Deal with it.
• Things that annoy me to the point that I want to vent my spleen.

Enjoy!