Columbus Crew

[BuckTwenty]

Just found out Marshall's contract is a 3-year contract. Good news.


More good news from...
MLSnet

U.S. National Team coach Bob Bradley picked 5 members of the Columbus Crew to help represent the U.S. in a friendly against Sweden January 25th in L.A.

GK - William Hesmer
D - Chad Marshall
M - Robbie Rodgers
M - Eddie Gaven
M - Brian Carroll

1/5 of the team will be made up of players from Columbus. Outstanding.

[BuckTwenty]

Rumor with a "high liklihood" of happening (!). I don't know what they did, but Columbus must have appeased The Soccer Gods. I won't cut and paste this one, but read #2. It's a must read.

10 Argentines Who Could Follow Schellotto to MLS -- Sports Illustrated

Mark McCullers needs to form a partnership with Boca Juniors. NOW.

[BuckeyeMac]

The more foreign players come here to play in the US, the better. Maybe it will boost soccer here, and possibly get these teams competing with other countries club teams.


Back onto the World Cup qualifying vs Mexico, I wish they would release ticket information already. I can't wait any longer, I WANT TICKETS!!!

[BuckTwenty]

Wow. I'm gone for 7 days in Arizona and Crew world explodes. In order to keep from continuing to pad my post count on this thread (), I'll throw them all into one:


-FINALLY! Ticket info for the USA v Mexico game (via the Dispatch blog today). Get out your pocketbook... they're going for a lot more this time around. Even THEY know they're gonna go fast.

-Dispatch -- Ezra Hendrickson retires after an amazing career and 3 MLS Cup championships. Gonna miss him in the locker room. He had a career soccer fanatics dream about having.

-OSC -- Stefani Miglioranzi is traded to the LA Galaxy for a conditional 4th round pick in 2010 Superdraft. Galaxy win in this trade. Salary cap move for the Crew (at least $150,000 between Stephani & Ezra, according to the Dispatch blog).

-Crewture -- Interesting speculation about the draft and future aquisitions. If you like the Crew, you should check out www.crewture.com. One of the best and most dedicated Crew blogs out there and a great source of Crew info.

[BuckTwenty]

Sounds sacrilegious, I know. Here's the blog version, because you have to sign up to read the original article.

Crewture -- "Michigan Bucks Owner Looking to Launch a Detroit Top Tier Affiliate of the Crew" (01/11/09)

The Michigan Bucks finished as the #1 team in the 67-team PDL last year and are looking to make the big jump to USL-2 or USL-1, thanks to a $7 million investment by their gracious deep-pocketed owner, Dan Duggan. The other pro Crew affiliate, the Cleveland City Stars (who gave us Adam Moffat), just made the jump from USL-2 to USL-1. This makes the Bucks jump to USL-2 sound like the most likely destination.

I don't quite understand all the details yet, but sounds like a good thing for the Crew. Would be real interesting if they were to make USL-1, giving us two affiliates in that league. One could argue this team was the best sports team in Detroit last year, which doesn't say much.

[Messi18Man]

One could argue this team was the best sports team in Detroit last year, which doesn't say much.

Detroit Red Wings ?

[jimotis4heisman]

Originally Posted by Messi18Man

Detroit Red Wings ?

they didnt have a pro sports team last year, they had an all star team...

[BuckeyeMac]

Originally Posted by BuckTwenty

Wow. I'm gone for 7 days in Arizona and Crew world explodes. In order to keep from continuing to pad my post count on this thread (), I'll throw them all into one:


-FINALLY! Ticket info for the USA v Mexico game (via the Dispatch blog today). Get out your pocketbook... they're going for a lot more this time around. Even THEY know they're gonna go fast.

-Dispatch -- Ezra Hendrickson retires after an amazing career and 3 MLS Cup championships. Gonna miss him in the locker room. He had a career soccer fanatics dream about having.

-OSC -- Stefani Miglioranzi is traded to the LA Galaxy for a conditional 4th round pick in 2010 Superdraft. Galaxy win in this trade. Salary cap move for the Crew (at least $150,000 between Stephani & Ezra, according to the Dispatch blog).

-Crewture -- Interesting speculation about the draft and future aquisitions. If you like the Crew, you should check out www.crewture.com. One of the best and most dedicated Crew blogs out there and a great source of Crew info.

Straight from the U.S. soccer website for the 2/11 Mexico match....Ticket Prices etc....

The Official Site of U.S. Soccer - Men's National Team

[Messi18Man]

Let's hope for some cold weather so we can freeze out those Mexicans, not that we need any help anyways but it could surely help us get 3 pts.

[BuckeyeMac]

We should get a BP tailgate going...who all is planning on attending?

[BuckTwenty]

Originally Posted by Messi18Man

Detroit Red Wings ?

I stand corrected. Next time I'll be sure to use my sarcasm font

Originally Posted by BuckeyeMac

We should get a BP tailgate going...who all is planning on attending?

The ticket prices are making me rethink whether I should go (seeing as though I'm gonna want to buy a bunch together for friends and such so we can sit together), because this is gonna be a significant investment on my end. I'm certainly down for a BP tailgate though if I end up crawling out of my wuss hole and pony up the dough. Gonna be a hell of a game.

[Messi18Man]

Does anyone think the Mexican fans will out number us on our own soil ONCE again ? I can understand why that happened in Glendale and Chicago but does anyone think it will happen again in Columbus ? It's very disheartening as a USMNT supporter to see the team play on its own soil and yet it feels like an away game because the Mexican fan's outnumber us by a considerable margin every game it seems on American soil.

[BuckTwenty]

Originally Posted by Messi18Man

Does anyone think the Mexican fans will out number us on our own soil ONCE again ? I can understand why that happened in Glendale and Chicago but does anyone think it will happen again in Columbus ? It's very disheartening as a USMNT supporter to see the team play on its own soil and yet it feels like an away game because the Mexican fan's outnumber us by a considerable margin every game it seems on American soil.

It happens elsewhere, but it doesn't happen in Columbus. I believe we discussed it earlier, but there are quite a few reasons. Big ones include the notoriusly cold weather this time of the year; restricted ticket sales due to short supply of seats (Crew Stadium only seats so many compared to what a college or NFL stadium can seat) and the huge demand for tickets (tickets are only sold in packages of a maximum of 4 per customer); and Columbus's location (pretty far from Mexico and doesn't have a big latin community like some of the other cities that host games).


In MLS...
Street & Smith's Sports Business Journal -- "ESPN Booting MLS From its Thursday Slot"

Don't let the article title get you mad or upset... sheep in wolf's clothing. ESPN's trying to increase viewership by pairing the games with live programing of NIT basketball, college football, motorsports, etc. to precede the games to see if "average joe" will give soccer another chance. Before, ESPN had taped programming preceding MLS soccer coverage on Thursdays and this gives ESPN more flexibility as to when to pair it up with another live coverage event.

ESPN's got a contract with MLS for another 6 years (including this coming year), so they are by no means dropping programing. They're also claiming this gives MLS more flexibility, but they don't need flexibility in programming... they need stability.

[OHSportsFan9]

Originally Posted by BuckeyeMac

We should get a BP tailgate going...who all is planning on attending?

Not for sure, yet, but I'll likely be there with my dad and my [shameless plug]mlsnet.com writing[/plug] uncle.

Originally Posted by BuckTwenty

ESPN's got a contract with MLS for another 6 years (including this coming year), so they are by no means dropping programing. They're also claiming this gives MLS more flexibility, but they don't need flexibility in programming... they need stability.

It seems like ESPN has been working pretty hard to get more soccer coverage. It's getting better every year in America in regards to the popularity and coverage of the sport.

Check out ESPN.com's links to other sports at the top of the page. It lists NFL, MLB, NBA, and Soccer in that order- followed by College (Football/Basketball) and finally NHL. It's a little thing, but I don't know, it seems like ESPN is finally ready to cash in on the world's most popular game.

Now if they could just get better commentators.

[Messi18Man]

It seems like ESPN has been working pretty hard to get more soccer coverage. It's getting better every year in America in regards to the popularity and coverage of the sport.

I completely agree with that assessment. Ever since the 2006 World Cup ESPN hasn't missed broadcasting a single UEFA Champions League Matchday. They also have added a highlights show on Friday's during those weeks and have also added a presspass show on espn classic at nights during those matchdays. They also did an excellent job of broadcasting Euro 2008 this summer which was a highly entertaining tournament. I like that ESPN has only increased its coverage of "the beautiful game"