Am I reading too much into Landon getting Dixie Dean's old jersey number? I realize they don't retire numbers in association football, but Brazil and Argentina don't give the backup goalkeeper #10, either.
It's just that 9 is a very low number to give to a guy that's just going to be renting, is all. I'm probably reading too much into it.
Landon's saying all the right things…except, if he changes his mind, they will be all the wrong things.
It's a little tough to reconcile this:
With this:
Or maybe it's just that Artela wouldn't give up #10 and 9 was just lying around. Would have seemed just as easy to give him 13 like Bayern did, though.
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WPS news, and this one hurts. Jay Hipps tells me (well, and the world) that the LA Sol have offloaded Camille Abily to the Gold Pride for Tina DiMartino and "the rights to one of FC Gold Pride’s 2009 International Discovery Players." DiMartino started 18 games and is on the US fringes, so she's not necessarily flotsam, but it's unlikely your kid has a DiMartino poster in her room.
The key unknown here is which International Discovery Player we're talking about. The best-case scenario, for LA, would be Solveig Gulbrandsen. But this sentence from the blurb argues otherwise:
I realize FCGP was a death ship last year, but she sounded like she was willing to give them a chance.
So it's probably not her.
Maybe it's Christine Sinclair. No, probably not her, either.
But it's a bad move because it's any kind of move at all. The Sol gagged in the final because they were hurt in the back, because Abily was off being all Euro and stuff, and because God had Sky Blue season tickets last year. Two of those things are going to be solved for next season – it's not like all those defensive players the Sol signed are going to have another ridiculous string of injuries. And with Abily around, Marta was able to run riot over the league.
With only Han Duan and Miyama providing cover though, Marta's too easy a target. Maybe Duan remembers how to shoot next year, but I don't think Aya ever will.
So it's going to depend on who that extra player is. Maybe it's Inka Grings HA HA HA crap, I'm gonna watch Marta being kicked and throwing tantrums all next year.
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The Thunder are dead, long live the Insert Naming Contest Winner Here?
I'll miss the Thunder, and I'll treasure the rain cloud scarf I have. But my first thought, and I'm sure your first thought, was that the KICKS ARE COMING BACK!
If you don't love that logo, then YOU CAN'T BE MY FRIEND!
Then I thought, MAYBE THIS IS ALREADY IN THE WORKS! Let's see what we get when we type in minnesotakicks.com!
…okay, that's not great, but it means SOMEONE OWNS IT! LET'S FIND OUT WHO!
….oh.
I'd have more sympathy for vulturesquatting if (a) their shirts didn't have that stupid faux-distressed look pre-fabbed in, and (b) I thought they were actually in the business of selling shirts to people. The company named when you call that 877 number doesn't match the name of the companies on the website, there's no links to any order form, but there is a link to a list of trademarks they own.
Which is not a coincidence – these are the same people who are suing the New Rowdies.
So no Kicks for me.
In fact, by posting that logo, I'm probably violating federal law! Oh no! I'd better take it down before I go to jail!
On the bright side, we have a second division again! A league that consists of unprofitable teams with owners who hate each other run by a distracted bureaucracy headed by an MLS intimate that will schedule games between teams located in two and a half different countries covering distances larger than any sports league in the world (except when Vladivostok is in the Russian Premiership) and whose most popular and profitable teams are guaranteed to jump as soon as 2011. WHAT COULD GO WRONG?
And now, my entry in Sarcastic Question for 2010. I know it's early, but I think I can clinch the title early. Here goes. Wish me luck.
Wait…no FC New York?