It’s always fun for me to see what’s being said, shown, shared, etc. about our team online and today is no exception…
- One Columbus fan thinks we’re the Kansas City Warriors. After their friendly versus West Ham last night, maybe thats what they should be calling themselves. In the who knew department, Kansas City does have a team named the Warriors; they’re national champions, no less.
- Another Crew fan gives us the anatomy of a dive, courtesy of KC midfielder and Ohio State’s own Roger Espinoza. To his credit, he gets a great photo of Wolff celebrating his equalizer MJ-style. But how did his tap-in make its way to the upper 90??
- Roger’s superb first time strike is a Goal of the Week nominee, but currently trails the other four choices, including Guillermo Barros Schelotto’s free kick from the same game.
- After calling out the Wizards advertising efforts, it’s only fair I mention the ad I saw on the Kansas City Star’s online sports page. Is this new or have I just not seen it before? Good location, good color — hopefully it directs a few more folks over to the team site where they then get the full screen ad for the Galaxy game in September.
- Likewise, after calling out the Kansas City Star’s soccer coverage, it’s only fair I give credit for today’s story on the US Women’s Olympic Team by Mechelle Voepel and yesterday’s midseason MLS report by Pete Grathoff. Interestingly, Mechelle notes that the WBNA will be suspending league action for a month during the Beijing Games, an idea that some MLS supporters have lobbied for during major international tournaments when players are away on national team duty.
- Speaking of USMNT players, Wizards’ captain Jimmy Conrad is doing an ESPN.com chat at 2 pm tomorrow. Send in questions for the ESPN.com contributor here.
- A sports fan chose Thursday’s Kansas City – Columbus match as his virgin MLS experience and kept a diary to mark the memorable occasion. His analysis is interesting but somehow he was left unimpressed, citing the lack of American talent and poor defensive effort. Then again, the BBC felt the same way about the LA-NY thriller from Saturday, comparing it to watching the English second-division. Eurosnobs, all of em.
- Wizards blogger and photographer Thad Bell is the new Soccer By Ives’ KC correspondent and gives us his take on the roller coaster ride that was Thursday’s goalfest. On a related note, Oz City contributor Tony Felich, a blogger himself, is now writing for American Soccer Reader.
- Finally, Sounders goalkeeper Chris Eylander was recently unanimously named “Player of the Round” for the US Open Cup quarterfinals after his performance in Seattle’s shootout win over the Wizards on July 8th. Good interview with him on the game and the team’s impressive 421 minute shutout streak. KC keeper Eric Kronberg was also up for the award.
Check back for more news and notes tomorrow, lots more information to share.
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how i miss you, oc!
Haha, if Oz City ever needs a team name I may have to use that: Real OC.
Thanks for reading my post and linking others to it. Perhaps my assessment was a little biased. I knew comparing the MLS to European soccer would be unfair. But when you are putting out a similar product you have to expect that to happen – it’s only natural. I also didn’t want to emphasize scoring. I had a preconcieved notion that if it was going to be high scoring, it had to be quality goals. Unfortunately in that game, about half weren’t.
After posting I also realized that maybe I caught a bad game. Even so, I really enjoyed KC’s style of play. I was surprised to see how poorly they’ve been doing this season and also that the offensive production in that game was not indicative to the rest of their games.
I’d really like to ‘adopt’ an MLS team next season and follow them all the way through, including friendly matches and all the tournaments and post my experiences. That would only be fair to get a true feel of where the MLS stands. Plus, I plan on attending a regular season game next summer hopefully in Toronto. Hockey and soccer are two sports that are not always translated well on television.
Thanks again for taking the time to read. I post every Monday.
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