Busy Saturday

Busy Saturday over in the old Continent:

FA CUP FINAL: Chelsea defeated Man Who? 1:0 at New Wembley taking the FA Cup and the chance for a Double away from Manchester United. Before this month, Man U looked forward to a possible Treble, with the Champion's League and FA Cup in their sights, but losses to AC Milan and now Chelski means that the Red Devils has to console themselves with the Premiership title. Poor sods.

GERMAN BUNDESLIGA: VfB Stuttgart roared back from a 0:1 deficit to defeat Energie Cottbus to win 2:1 and stay ahead of FC Schalke 04 to win their first Bundesliga title since the 1991/92 season. Stuttgart are also in a hunt for a German Double, facing 1. FC Nurnberg in Berlin in the DFB-Pokal (German Cup) Final.

Miami FC to Play Games at Orange Bowl

MY DREAM COMES (partially) TRUE as USL side Miami FC will play two home games this weekend at the venerable Orange Bowl, near Miami's Little Havana neighborhood. The grand old stadium, which has hosted a plethora of international matches, club friendlies and even an AC Milan friendly, is set to host its first regular season professional American league soccer match ever. It also marks the first time that a soccer team with the name "Miami" in it will actually play within Miami city limits, as the old MLS Miami Fusion played in Broward County and the current Miami FC plays its matches in the Miami suburb of Kendall.

Miami will take on the Minnesota Thunder Friday night at 8 (which will be broadcast live on Fox Soccer Channel) and on Sunday will face the Atlanta Silverbacks.

Hopefully these matches will generate a good turnout and give notice to the MLS that perhaps Miami should have a team once again. I always thought that the Orange Bowl would be an ideal location to host a Miami MLS franchise because of its central location within Miami-Dade county, where, in theory at least, the majority of potential fans reside. I remember in the old Miami Fusion days, that the majority of the members of the supporters club resided in Miami-Dade and made the lengthy trip up to Lockhart Stadium to support the Fusion. The distance made regular attendance to Fusion games hard for many fans and thus hampered the potential success of the club. Even though the OB is an American football stadium, it isn't the ultra modern ones that used to awkwardly host all of the MLS teams and actually would do quite nicely if an MLS team with a (impossibly?) large fanbase can plant roots within our fair city. We can all hope, yeah?

Toronto FC 1 Rest of MLS Nil

It's official...Toronto FC is Major League Soccer's best club...in the "tangibles department" at least...



SO IT TOOK THE FLEDGLING EXPANSION CLUB FIVE GAMES to even score their first goal. But when Danny Dichio placed the ball in the back of the net for the first time in Toronto FC history, TFC's supporters let the entire country know who was the best supported club in Major League Soccer. The avalanche of giveaway seat cushions was simply an exclamation point of what American MLS fans sort of knew all along but had brushed aside with each of the first four Toronto losses: an MLS club finally got it right, and it's not even an American one.


I say that Toronto had it right all along because they considered the mistakes that all the previous Major League Soccer clubs, founding and expansion alike, had made before and was smart enough to make sure that TFC did not repeat history twice, as the old saying goes. First they made sure that they had one of those newfangled "soccer specific stadiums" ready for the franchise by the time it was ready to play. Okay, give one for the MLS in general for making sure that soccer specific stadiums are a priority and a prerequisite for new expansion teams. Second, they got the name right finally! The only other examples of "good names" in the MLS belong to D.C. United and (perhaps) FC Dallas, with the latter being a name change (from the Dallas Burn) and the former squeaking by, using a traditional football club name (United) as an American-style nickname (luckily singular nicknames have been in place in American sports, otherwise it could have been the Uniteds, you never know!)

But what really impressed me is the amount of support TFC has from it's fans. Perhaps it is the culture already in place in Toronto, with a high percentage of immigrants and Canadians born of immigrant parents, thus already having a base of fans interested in football beforehand, but this is the case with many MLS cities. It seems that the difference in Toronto's case is that the club seemed to focus its attention on these people first and to accommodate these fans, rather than to try to convert Americans (and now Canadians) who are unfamiliar with the sport, as was the case with the MLS for most of its short history.

But ultimately it seems that Toronto was able to do what previous clubs haven't been able to: make Toronto FC's the team for all Toronto. There seems to be a connection with the city that most MLS franchises don't have with theirs. Even the name reflects the importance of the city, just Toronto Football Club; no silly mascots or nicknames attached to it and thus focusing all the attention on the city itself. Rather than being a soccer team within the city of (enter name here), TFC is Toronto's team and Toronto is TFC's city.

And the results are obvious. For example, when was the last time you heard chanting like this in a MLS match?




In my experience with MLS games, chanting usually only occurs in one section of the stadium, so for a stadium of 20,000 to be this loud, well more than one end of the stadium has to be singing, and with this being an MLS regular season match makes it that more impressive. But what really solidified TFC being the best supported team in the MLS was the reaction from the crowd after they (finally!) scored their first ever goal:



So here's to Toronto FC, you may be the newest club in the MLS, but you have quickly become one of the best in this young league. Now if only you could win a few more games...

World Cup 2010

FOR THE UMPTEENTH TIME, FIFA President Sepp Blatter confirmed the decision that South Africa's hosting of the 2010 World Cup will occur. Despite rumours about South Africa's inability to host the world's biggest single-sporting event, South African organizing chief Danny Jordaan has stated that the country is on or even ahead of schedule. Blatter has stated that the only reason for not having the World Cup being held on South African soil would be a natural disaster. Possible alternative venues, in case of such a disaster, would be the United States, England, Japan, Spain, Mexico and Australia.

Qualification rounds for the 2010 World Cup begin later this year.

The Football Association Gets What the Football Association Wants

And the FA wanted a Man U-Chelsea FA Cup Final...and got it.

IT'S NO SECRET. The Football Association clearly had it's favourite during this year's FA Cup. As the teams dwindled down to the final four earlier this month, it was apparent which two teams would get the support of the FA. Although I personally would have enjoyed to see Watford and/or Blackburn Rovers in the final, just the possibility of those two teams making the final would have caused the FA enough heartburn to bother them all summer.

And it's easy to see why. This season's final will be the inaugural Cup Final to be held at the brand new New Wembley Stadium, and to have one or both of the English Premiership's marquee clubs to miss out on the party would have surely spoiled the FA's parade. Imagine this scenario playing out: Watford vs Blackburn Rovers for the FA Cup, a duel between a mid-table, regional Blackburn club and a Watford club that performed so poorly in the Premiership this year that they'll be relegated to League football next season.

Which is exactly why the Football Association sighed a sigh of great relief when the results of the semifinal round had Manchester United and Chelsea coming out on top. By having the first big match at New Wembley feature the two biggest clubs in English football, the many parties with a stake in this match will come out happy. Just consider how many people, companies and organizations has a marked interest in this match, financial and otherwise: the various television networks broadcasting the match, the sponsors on the jersey, the advertisers on the sidelines, the management at New Wembley, the clubs involved and the Football Association themselves all stand to gain from a high profile final. Additionally, with such popular clubs in the final, interest in the match is high from within the United Kingdom and especially outside it's frontiers. The fan clubs of both Chelsea and Man U. outside the UK are numerous, especially in the lucrative East Asian market, and this match will surely have television sets from Boston to Bangkok tuned in, something that neither Watford nor Blackburn could promise.

But although this might delight the movers and shakers at the Football Association, as well as Chelski and United fans alike, this is not necessarily the best result the FA Cup could have provided, when football is concerned. Surely, the money made and media exposure will be at its greatest with these two facing off, but it will be at the expense of English football and for that matter, world football in general. It's no secret that money has a tremendous influence in contemporary football, and has been for a long time, but the way the pursuit of the pound, euro and dollar (or yen, won and yuan for that matter) has basically overtaken any other factor means that football is becoming increasingly less competitive, that the large clubs will have even more influence and that the results of competitions will become more predictable. (Question: Who won the English Premiership this season? Answer: Manchester United...) The days of when Provincial Town FC from the Division Three Regional League had a chance to make it far in the FA Cup are long gone; those who support underdogs now root for mid-table clubs from the top league (e.g. Blackburn, 10th this season). Now the FA and its financial backers support the top clubs, because that's where the real money is at. Not to mention the FA's desire to reach middle class fans(read: more money), while alienating (abandoning?) the traditional working class fan base. And the result will be that the European football leagues will follow in English football's transformation into an "American style league," following the footsteps of the mega-rich pro sports leagues of the United States, especially the National Football League. What will that mean to Joe Public, football fan? Only time will tell if the FA's gambit will pay off or if there will be a backlash from the regular folk...

The WNT versus the World.

The United States women's national team ("The WNT") just learned about it's draw for the women's World Cup, which will happen this September in China. The Stars and Stripes will face off against North Korea, Nigeria and 2003 women's World Cup runner-ups, Sweden. More posts on the women's World Cup to come as the event comes closer.

CELTIC CHAMPIONS

Congratulations to the Celtic Football Club for winning yet another Scottish Premier League title

***

With Japanese ace Shunsuke Nakamura's stunning injury minute strike from a free kick, the Bhoys where able to defeat Kilmarnock 1-2 and secure their 41st(!) league championship with four matches to go. The three points earned at Rugby Park meant that the 81 points accumulated this season by the Celts is too high of a plateau to reach by the second place (and eternal rivals) Rangers.

The First Post

THE OFFSIDER. With the Internet already inundated with countless blogs, with many devoted to a single subject, one question comes to mind and must be asked: what good would another blog do? Furthermore, how many people does one come to expect to reach out to? Even if I were to attract readers, would they return to visit, or would it be a one time experience?



As to the latter question, I do not know. As with any form of written language that would be available for the general public to view, I suppose that I do wish for a few passer-bys to somehow come across this work and take a gander, with perhaps even the hope that some would enjoy or at least appreciate my work to some degree. But I guess that my objective in this project is to produce something that I think is at least a bit different from the other football* related blogs that are available and with that perhaps learning something new about this game I love very much.



With THE OFFSIDER, I hope to offer a slightly different perspective about the beautiful game. There are plenty of Americans out there who regularly contribute with their own blogs about this sport, and some of them are of Hispanic/Latino background. But with this blog, I won't be writing so much about specific leagues, or devote paragraphs to performance summaries of such-and-such team or this-or-that player, but rather write about the stories that flesh out the scoreline and add an element of humanity to the global game.



As I mentioned, I am of Hispanic/Latino background. To be more specific I am an American-born citizen whose parents come from Mexico and Chile. My love of football was encouraged by my father, who brought his love of the game from Mexico. My mother, not to be outdone, is not as avid of a follower of game, but when the Chilean national football team is playing, she is as supportive as any other veteran of the terrace.



My own interest in the game, interestingly enough, actually occurred while visiting Chile. It just so happened to be that during my summer break from school in 1998 my mother thought it was time for her children to spend an extended period in her native country (the entire length of my vacation). It was enough time for me to experience a little event known as the World Cup that was taking place in France that summer. It also just so happened to be that Chile had qualified for this edition of the World Cup finals, so one can imagine the clamour and excitement of being in a football-mad country with a shaky national team that only manages to qualify for the biggest football tournament of them all every now and then. Needless to say, I was just engulfed in all the madness and excitement and it has shaped my view of this game ever since.



So with that said, I hope that this little experiment in football blogging will be a success, with interesting posts and hopefully insightful comments, etc. etc. Now a little disclosure, as I quickly describe my favourite teams, just so you know the full score:



United States: No "top flight" team in Miami right now, was a fan of Major League Soccer's Miami Fusion, but they folded back in 2001 or around that date. There is a Miami FC playing in the United Soccer League One, the equivalent of a lower league, but I am still hoping that the MLS will return to the Miami area some day.



Mexico: Without a doubt, "my team," regardless of league, would have to be Club America. Before France '98, my interest in soccer wasn't as strong, and I wasn't a strong supporter of any team, but I was so awestruck with Mexican striker Cuauhtemoc Blanco's performance that he became my favourite player. He just happened to play for America, but before you know it I became a full fledged supporter and to this day I support this club 100%. It also helps that a lot of Mexican League football is shown on the television here.



Chile: Unlike Mexican soccer, trying to catch a Chilean League game on the television is like trying to catch a glimpse of a comet: it happens so seldom that when it does happen it's almost worth celebrating. With that said, my level of support is lower than that of America, probably because I can't follow it as closely as the Mexican League (or even the English Premiership for that matter). My team is Universidad Catolica, although I suspect manipulation by my uncle and godmother, both of whom are big fans. What I love about my family, though, is that they all support different teams, which make for interesting conversation. My grandfather was a huge supporter of Union Espanola, while another uncle supports Universidad de Chile. My mother's brother-in-law lives by Colo-Colo, while my grandmother likes Audax Italiano. Good times.



England: Manchester City. I absolutely hate Man U, for the same reasons baseball fans hate the New York Yankees. Plus an acute appreciation for the music of Mark E. Smith of The Fall may have influenced this decision.



Spain: Barcelona. I usually like to root for the underdog when I don't have a team, and although Barcelona is quite the opposite of an underdog, I really appreciate the fact that they are so closely connected with the Catalan community and identity (especially during the Franco era)and create a sharp contrast with the right-leaning Real Madrid.



Italy: Livorno. Because they are the enemy of SS Lazio. Bunch of fascists! Not to mention Roma (more fascists!) and besides that, AC Milan is owned by Berlusconi and Internazionale is also a bit too elitist for my taste. And they are quite the underdogs when compared to this bunch. And don't even get me started on Juventus! Still not too happy with Germany 2006 by the way... :)



Germany: For some reason I never really found a team to support. In high school, I was friends with a German kid who was a fan of Bayern Munich (another Yankee-esque team) so I jokingly rooted for 1860 Munich, who probably are stuck in the Second Bundesliga by now (but they did have one of the coolest club crests of them all!). Starting to look at FC St. Pauli right now, because of the team's association with counterculture and all that, but they are in the Regionalliga, which makes it that much harder to follow. Time will tell.



Scotland: Celtic Football Club! Bhoys forever! The European side that I support the most, influenced by my distant Hibernian blood and an early fascination with The Old Firm.



France: Edge to Olympique de Marseille for their fans' support. I love Paris very much as a city, but Paris Saint Germain never motivated me much. And the Hapoel Tel Aviv incident didn't help much either.



Netherlands: Feyenoord Rotterdam, because of this kid:


:)

*By the way I like to use the word "football" over "soccer," although I will use the dreaded s-word from time to time. Just a note to my fellow Americans!