Söccer Röcker

As most of you out there already know the Revs will facing a team with one of the more unique names in world football, Joe Public FC of Trinidad & Tobago. Yes that is seriously their name. It sounds like something you’d make up while trying to make a point to your friend at the bar after a few drinks. “Yesh, yesh…so, yunno what they need to do? They need some creative midfielders y’see. I don’t where they come from, they could be from Man City or they could be from Joe Public FC. I don’t give a damn.”

Now you hear a lot of talk from non-MLS soccer fans about how American team names are weird or out of step with international naming traditions. My friend Mickey, a lifelong West Ham supporter who makes his living on this side of the Pond now with the MBTA, has on more than one occasion shook his head at me and said, “Your league is alright far as the quality goes but the names are bloody awful.”

The Revs have in the past played a whole host of colorfully named teams. Wiz, Clash, City Islanders, Fusion, Mutiny, and Crystal Palace Baltimore (sorry, I just had to say that one more time) have all appeared on the scoreboard as the away team against our boys.

This got me to thinking. I know it isn’t just America that doesn’t follow the “(insert town name) F.C./United” naming scheme. What are the most interesting names in the world of soccer? So what follows are my picks. They’re not rated in any real order because honestly each one is as unique (to put it mildly) as the others.

01.) ANSAN HALLELUJAH F.C. (South Korea)

Amen! The name of the city they represent, Ansan, only appears in the full version of this club founded by Christian missionaries so regularly they’re referred to as just Hallelujah Football Club. They were one of the founding member teams of the K-League in 1983 (also the first K-League champions) but now play at the amateur level in the Korean National League. Their trophy case also holds two Korean President’s Cups which is the Korean equivalent to the English FA Vase. In another example why you should probably never mix religion with soccer (yes, Old Firm, I’m looking at you) Hallelujah was forced by extremist Buddhist monks to leave their original home stadium in the city of Iksan in 2003.

02.) INTER SHANGHAI (China)

Before there was Real Salt Lake there was this 2003-2005 incarnation of the current Chinese Super League team now known as Shaanxi Baorong Chanba. Originally founded in Shanghai in 1995 as Shanghai Pudong this team has also been known as Shanghai Pudong Whirlpool, Pudong Lianyang 8848, and Shanghai COSCO before taking the Inter moniker. After the team moved from Shangai to the city of Xi’an in 2006 they adopted the name Inter Xi’an for a single season before using their current name. “Inter” remains their nickname. Got all that?

03.) HOME UNITED F.C. (Singapore)

Originally named Police Football Club, this S-League team’s nickname is…wait for it, the Protectors. The team is affiliated with both the Singapore Police and the Civil Defense Forces of Singapore. I wonder if some Singapore comedian has written a “Who’s On First” style sketch about these guys.

“Who’s the away team?”

“Home.”

“No, I know who the home team is. Who’s the away team?”

“Home!”

Good stuff.

04.) WESTERN SUBURBS (New Zealand)

Known to their fans as the Wests, this lower division team hails from (you guessed it) the suburbs of the city of Porirua. They formed in 1906 as Hospital AFC and drew players from the staff of a mental hospital. They are something of a lower division giant having taken home the won their league 4 times in the 12 years and have won New Zealand’s knockout tournament, the Chatham Cup, 3 times. Before you ask, yes, there is an Eastern Suburbs team too.

05.) AIRBUS UK BROUGHTON F.C. (Wales)

The Wingmakers are associated with an aerospace/airplane factory and have been named after whoever owns the plant at the time (Vickers, British Aerospace, BAE Systems, and so on). They hold the interesting distinction of playing next to a working airfield so their ground has retractable floodlights. Of course it’s called The Airfield. Awesome.

06.) BLOEMFONTEIN CELTIC (South Africa)

Now there are a lot of “Celtic” teams running around out there. You’ve got that little club from the East End of Glasgow for starters but have you heard of Farnsley Celtic? Donegal Celtic? How about Stalybridge Celtic? I would have written about one of those but they’re all in the British Isles. A Celtic that hails from South Africa (“Where in Ireland is Bloemfontein?” you might ask yourself) is something else again. In 1984 Manguang United’s ownership adopted the Glasgow club’s name as well as their green-and-white hooped jerseys. Their fans, the Siwelele, are some of the more famous in the country. I want to see a tournament featuring these guys, Celtic FC, Donegal Celtic, and Shamrock Rovers for the rowdy all-hoops madness that would ensue.

07.) CLUB JORGE WILSTERMANN (Bolivia)

07a.) DEPORTIVO WALTER FERRETTI (Nicaragua)

No greater love hath a team than to name themselves after a local hero. In the case of the Bolivian entry it dedicated itself to the memory of that nation’s aviationpioneer. The airport in the city, Cochabamba, is also named for Wilstermann. They’ve made 15 appearances in the Copa Libertadores. They also have the distinction of being one of only 3 teams in the Bolivian top flight to never have been relegated. Walter Ferretti was a former president of the club, which was called MINT when it was founded in 1987 in Managua. When he died in a 1991 car wreck the club honored his memory by changing their name. The stadium they play in honors another person, Baltimore Orioles legend Dennis Martinez.

08.) SERBIAN WHITE EAGLES (Canada)

08a.) BONNYRIGG WHITE EAGLES (Australia)

Part of the Serbian diaspora and the larger football tradition in immigrant communities of naming their clubs after their homelands, the White Eagles name comes from the two-headed eagle on the Serbian flag. Canada and Australia are home to the two biggest examples. I’m leaving out Canberra, Springvale, Dianella, and Albion Park’s White Eagle teams. The Canadian entry is from Toronto and plays in the Canadian Soccer League’s International Division alongside teams like the Italia Shooters, African Icons, and their rivals Toronto Croatia (who won the NASL title in 1975 as “Toronto Metros-Croatia” featuring Eusebio). The traditional Serbs vs. Croat rivalry unfortunately is much more heated in Australia between Bonnyrigg and teams with ties to the Australian Croatian community like Sydney United (formerly Sydney Croatia). Bonnyrigg has produced two “Socceroos” (Australian national teamers) in the form of the retired Milan Blagojevic (1991-2002) and young prospect Danny Vukovic (currently with the A-League’s Central Coast Mariners).

09.) KING FAISAL BABES (Ghana)

The top flight league in Ghana has a wealth of great names. You’ve got Hearts of Oak, All Stars, Heart of Lions, All Blacks, The Feyenoord Academy, Ashanti Gold, and the Great Olympics. However in the Ghana name stakes nobody scores higher than the King Faisal Babes. Sharing the Baba Yara Stadium with giants Asante Kotoko, the team is owned by Saudi Arabians who named them after the beloved deceased King Faisal.

10.) F.C. TORPEDO MOSCOW (Russia)

You can’t have a list like this and leave off probably my favorite team name ever. From 1936 to 1995 this fallen Russian giant was simply known as Torpedo. They were founded as Proletarian Forge in 1930. Once a powerhouse of Soviet football (they once drew 105,000 in a 1966 European Cup clash with Inter Milan and won 6 Soviet league titles), the Black-Whites were relegated to the First Division in 2006. Torpedo is one of 3 teams that inhabit Moscow’s massive Luzhniki Stadium, alongside CSKA Moscow and Spartak Moscow. The field is our favorite surface, FieldTurf, and Manchester United fans will always hold it dear as the sight of their 2008 Champions League victory.

I can already hear some griping about teams left off this list. No Deportivo Wanka? No Total Network Solutions F.C.? And how in the name of God did I leave off the Ohio Xoggz?! Those are all screaming no-brainers right? Not really.

In my defense if you don’t know about Wanka then I can’t help you. Total Network Solutions is now The New Saints and that’s not all that interesting in my opinion. I did include an old name of a current team but come on, New Saints or Inter Shanghai? Don’t be silly. Lastly, and as wonderfully disgusting as the name is, Ohio (later Columbus) Xoggz lost out because I didn’t want to use any American or defunct clubs. We could be here all night if I opened those floodgates. Bad American and/or defunct name choices could be their own list. Just ask anyone who ever pulled on a Roanoke Wrath, San Diego Top Guns, or an Austin Posse jersey.

Take your hats off, however, for all those German clubs who had to change their names under the East German system. Dwayne De Rosario’s former employers at FSV Zwickau chafed under the name BSG Aktivist Karl-Marx Zwickau during the Communist regime. Fit that into a chant. I dare you.

END HITS: If you’re looking for something to raise your blood pressure I direct you to the comment section of any YouTube video from our SuperLiga matches where you will sadly find the worst sort of racist and nationalist verbal trash from fans both Mexican and American…the Austin Posse probably also deserve their own column as anyone who recalls their brief 2004 existence would agree (trying to join the Mexican 2^nd division is only part of it)…Speaking of SuperLiga please bring as many friends and family as you can to Tuesday’s because if our attendance is 10,000 for this that’ll just be pathetic…Spare a moment’s prayer for the Telefutura suits who must be ripping their hair out at this all-MLS final which basically ensures sleep will rank higher than the game in Mexico…The Toronto away trip can’t get here fast enough and you know we have to rip ‘em in song for losing to Montreal…Although as a lifelong Bruins fan singing something even vaguely pro-Montreal-anything causes my soul to hurt…R.I.P Ahmad Basri Akil, the so-called “father” of the sport in Malaysia, who leaves behind 3 wives and 10 kids.

This column goes out to Trevor in Petaluma (thanks for waiting) and also thanks to Matt Magliozzi for his help in compiling this list!

            Taylor Twellman, Kenny Mansally, and a bunch of guys you’ve never heard of but play for our team managed to brave the monsoon conditions down in New Britain last week, handing the Richmond Kickers a 3-0 caning in front just under 4,000 folks. The offense was provided by reserve team young’uns like Joe Germanese (24) and Sam Brill (22) with one for good luck knocked in by Twellman, while Chris Tierney (22) notched two assists on the night.

The rain was apparently a serious mess according to the, oh, 10 or 15 text messages about it your faithful scribe received. Hopefully the sun will be kinder this coming Tuesday when the Revs’ return to the southernmost part of their kingdom this time to face the tournament’s Cinderella side, Crystal Palace Baltimore. Oh you read that right. The team is also known as Crystal Palace F.C. USA. They’re the American affiliate of 103 year old (and 1991 Full Members Cup champion) English team Crystal Palace. The American team was formed in 2006 by Crystal Palace and a local consortium headed by horse trainer Randall Medd.

Palace booked their first-ever trip into the Open Cup quarterfinals with an absolutely stunning 2-0 victory over the New York Red Bulls last week at Broadneck High School in Annapolis, MD. New York’s team featured regulars like Mike Magee, Sinisa Ubiparipovic, Carlos Mendes, and Jeff Parke. Although starting Zach Thornton in net might have been a mistake. Palace started the scoring in the 17^th minute with an Andrew Marshall header and Gary Brooks finished it off in the 75^th. Amazingly Palace played the last 56 minutes of the game down to ten men after Ibrahim Kante was shown the door for a two-footed tackle on New York’s Puerto Rican starlet Chris Megaloudis.

Prior to beating New York Palace had defeated L.A. Legends F.C. (Premier Deveolpment League) and the Harrisburg City Islanders (Division 2), respectively, in the previous rounds. They’re the lowest ranked team still in the tournament, although they’re not the only USL team left. Charleston Battery (Division 1) again knocked out the Houston Dynamo in penalty kicks after the match ended 1-all in extra frames, despite the Battery being down to just 9 men towards the end. They’ll next face FC Dallas in Dallas. In the other deja-vu result, the Seattle Sounders (also Division 1) bounced Chivas USA out of things after a 2-0 win. The first player signed to Seattle’s 2009 MLS roster, Sebastien Le Toux, and Puerto Rican international Taylor Graham provided the goals as the Goats were sent packing for the second year running by Seattle.

Palace are currently in 3^rd place in Division 2 and are coming off a 2-1 victory over in-state rivals Real Maryland F.C. Their leading scorer is the aforementioned Gary Brooks (6 goals) a lower league veteran who has also turned out for the Virginia Beach Mariners, Atlanta Silverbacks, and Vancouver Whitecaps in his 6 years in the USL. Palace’s makeup is an interesting mix of older players like Brooks, former Yokohama F. Marinos midfielder Shintaro Harada, and player/co-manager Jim Cherneski alongside younger prospects. They play their home games at UMBC Stadium on the campus of the University Of Maryland, Baltimore County. Despite never having faced each other there are two New England connections between the clubs. Older (uhm, I mean, fans with more experience) might remember Ibrahim Kante from his time with the Revs in 2003. Palace midfielder Bryan Harkin played his college soccer at Fairfield University in Connecticut and was part of the Cape Cod Crusaders’ 2002 run to the PDL  title.

END HITS: Sebastien Le Toux, despite being born in France, told the Prost Amerika website (www.prostamerika.com) on July 2^nd that he would be “honored” to represent the United States on the international level and it is his “only international ambition”…the winner of the regular season series between Crystal Palace Baltimore and Real Maryland takes home the DeOrsey Maryland Cup (named after Medd family friend and Maryland soccer stalwart Matt DeOrsey who passed away this year at age 31)…despite a comment to the contrary last time the Revs logo is STILL above the mayor of New Britain’s picture on the city’s website (www.new-britain.net) …nothing’s been announced yet so I’m not sure if the Revs website will again be doing an internet radio broadcast of the match…

Tomorrow night down in the Hardware City (a.k.a. New Britain, New Britski, and some combination of those two prefaced with “hard hittin’”) your New England Revolution begin their first title defense in their history. In the hometown of Lamar Odom and Tebucky Jones the Revs will meet the Richmond Kickers of USL Division 2 at Veteran’s Memorial Stadium. Fun fact, the stadium’s Wikipedia page cites last year’s victory over the Carolina RailHawks as the most famous thing to happen in the stadium. Apparently the late Connecticut Wolves’ nine years there didn’t rate.

The Kickers qualified for this tournament by virtue of winning their league. They arrive in the third round thanks to their late penalty kick victory over the Western Mass Pioneers, a contentious match in which four players saw ye olde red card and hit the Lusitano Stadium showers early. This, of course, kills an all-New England match-up in the third round. Richmond is one of the three remaining Division 2 teams left in the tournament, along with the Cleveland City Stars (who face four-time cup holders the Chicago Fire) and Crystal Palace Baltimore (who sadly don’t face Chivas USA in what would be the all-foreign name showdown, they’re up against the New York  Red Bulls).

Richmond holds the distinction of being the last US Open Cup winner before MLS involvement, winning the Dewar Trophy in 1995 (the team’s second year of existence) in a victory over the El Paso Patriots. At the time the team played in the old USISL system. The Kickers also “did the double” that season as they also won the USISL’s Premier League (which today is the Premier Development League). In last year’s Open Cup campaign the Kickers knocked off the LA Galaxy in the third round, performing one of the more famous giant-killings in recent Open Cup play. They were eliminated the quarterfinals by the Carolina Railhawks.

The Kickers are 3-6 all time in the Open Cup against MLS opposition and have never advanced beyond the quarterfinals since 1996. The team currently stand 4^th in Division 2 and are coming off a 3-1 win over the Pittsburgh Riverhounds on June 29^th. The team’s leading scorer is Stanley Nyazamba of Zimbabwe with three goals. He spent the 2007 season in the PDL with the Cape Cod Crusaders. Another notable player is Ricky Schramm who is on loan from the Red Bulls.

Although this is the first meeting between the two clubs there are connections between them. The man who scored the first two Revs goals ever in 1996 was Rob Ukrop who is the Kickers’ record holder for goals, assists, and appearances. In 2005 the Kickers retired his #6 jersey. His family owns the Richmond-based Virginia supermarket chain Ukrop’s Supermarkets who co-own the Kickers. Adam Cristman played the 2004 PDL season with the Kickers Future team, leading it in scoring with 11 goals. The Kickers also feature former Revs midfielder Luke Vercollone who spent 2005 in New England.

If you can’t make it to the Vet, the only way to find out what’s happening is the online radio broadcast from the Revs’ team website (www.revolutionsoccer.net). I still want to know what “international television exposure” that Hartford Courant article was talking about.

The U.S. Open Cup is a rarity in the soccer scene in this country. It’s a tournament with rich history (something we’re short on with soccer here) that goes all the way back to 1912 when Sir Thomas Dewar bequeathed a trophy to spur interest in the sport on this side of The Pond. The tournament has survived leagues coming and going. It is one of the oldest knock-out domestic cups in all of world soccer. New England, in particular, has a big role in the history of the Cup with legendary teams like the Fall River Rovers, Fall River Marksmen (what a name, huh?), New Bedford Whalers, and Pawtucket FC having lifted it and the current defending champions being our very own Revs.

Major League Soccer, eager to not repeat the mistakes of the North American Soccer League, has always fielded its members in the competition. The NASL never took part in the tournament leading to rise of amateur powers in the Seventies and Eighties like Greek American AA, New York Pancyprian-Freedoms, and Maccabee SC of Los Angeles. However since MLS’s involvement only the 1999 Rochester Raging Rhinos have managed the wrest Sir Thomas’s trophy away from MLS’s grip. The main battles lay between Division One clubs of the United Soccer Leagues and MLS squads.

This isn’t to say English FA Cup or NCAA March Madness-style “giant-killings” don’t still occur. Lower-level teams like Dallas Roma and the Harrisburg City Islanders have pulled off some pretty impressive upsets over MLS teams in recent history. Of course, MLS teams haven’t always fielded “A” squads over the years until recently, with a few exceptions, although now that winning grants you a slot in the new CONCACAF Champions League that is likely to change.

So with all this great tradition and history, why haven’t more people heard of this thing? It seems tailor-made for American sports fans. It’s the ultimate David vs. Goliath set-up and alone in American professional sports in that regard. You’re not going to see the Long Island Ducks throwing down against the Arizona Diamondbacks anytime soon. The short answer is: nobody, not at US Soccer and not at MLS, is stepping up.

The USL, for what it’s worth, does a pretty good job of getting the Cup out there. As best it can with its limited resources, that is. There is no Nike or Adidas money behind USL or the teams that play within it. The onus here is on US Soccer and MLS. So what’s going on? Finger pointing. Major League Soccer claims the responsibility is that of US Soccer and you guessed it…US Soccer says the reverse.

However even that isn’t the whole story. MLS has no interest in really putting its weight behind the tournament for the simple reason that it doesn’t control it. This illustrates a sad fact in American soccer and shows the difference between the US Open Cup and what it is modeled on, the English FA Cup. MLS views USL as competition (which is kind of like Domino’s viewing your local pizza joint as competition) and sits back until the last teams standing are theirs. Then Don Garber shows up and throws his arms around the winner and says nice things about how great the US Open Cup is. US Soccer just doesn’t do anything unless someone confronts our friend Sunil Gulati, who directs you to Don Garber.

This criminally low profile has a ripple effect. The sports media, by and large, doesn’t understand what’s going on and generally ignores the whole thing. In discussions with long-time Riders I’ve heard stories of Cup games being described as friendlies. In turn, fans don’t really know what’s going, especially the casual fan and the all-important AYSO/youth market. So attendance isn’t going to be great which leads MLS teams to view the whole thing as competition to lose money. Teams like DC United and the Revs play their “home” matches at places like the Maryland Soccerplex and Lusitania Field, respectively. Last year’s match between the Revs and City Islanders at Gillette drew fewer people than “Ishtar” did in its second week.

In last season’s run to eventual triumph the Revs booked their “home match” against USL Division 1’s Carolina RailHawks at Veteran’s Stadium in New Britain, CT. The event drew better it would have at Gillette (around 5,000) and allowed the Revs’ to claim they were simply bringing the Revs to a different part of the region they represent. Which was cute, to be sure, and in a way sort of true but the real reason is of course economic. Opening up Gillette is expensive and the Revs aren’t exactly box office gold for regular season matches, let alone obscure cup ties against lower-league opposition.

For the second year running the team will again return to what the locals refer to as “hard hittin’ New Britain” and its Vet for a matchup against either the Richmond Kickers or Western Mass Pioneers on July 1^st. This year, like every year, MLS and its teams’ haven’t done a whole hell of a lot to promote the tournament. Economic necessity dictates Gillette remain closed and the Revs take their show on the road. Everybody knows why.

Or so I thought until I read the June 25^th issue of the Hartford Courant and it’s write up about the Revs (I’m sorry, “the Revolution soccer team”) return to the Nutmeg State. According to the Courant’s story, here’s why those wild and crazy Polish New Britain fans get to walk home after the tailgate. You might want to get seated.

“The major league soccer team [sic] plays home games at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., but the team will compete in New Britain to avoid over-saturating fans at Gillette, where the Revolution has several games lined up in a short time period, said Craig Tornberg, the team’s general manager.”

As my late Nana Mason would say, that is a whoppin’ whopper. Over-saturating? How can you over-saturate fans if you haven’t really done any sort of promotion? Has there been some big-time SuperLiga advertising I’ve missed? Is there an Open Cup radio ad pumping away on WEEI between Ernie Boch, Jr. spots? Have fans complained to the team that we’re playing too many games? Oh no, not MORE Revs’ soccer at Gillette. Big Frank and William Sunsing deliver us from such evil and let not Daniel Hernandez trepass against us!

In the end I don’t know what’s worse. The Lords & Masters of American soccer mistreating what should be their crown jewel or our team’s management telling big fat ones about why they’re playing in a glorified high school stadium in their very first championship defense campaign. Ugh.

Oh and before I go, here’s one more winner from the Courant article, “The game will give the Revolution the home-field advantage, drawing fans from New England, New York and New Jersey, and give New Britain international television coverage.”

There’s too much in that single line to address it all, so I’ll just say I hope the team told the promoter that this game won’t be on television. Oh what a tangled web we weave and all that…

author’s note: This piece originally appeared as part of Mr. Fran Harrington’s final for his art school degree and is reprinted here with his kind permission. Also because I wanted more people than just his professors to read it.

In the middle of the seventh decade of the 20th century, those vaunted Seventies, young people in the Western World rose up against the established cocaine-and-caviar cruise control rock and roll was set on and began a movement later known worldwide as punk rock. In it’s heyday “punks” were scoffed at, attacked in the street, their records banned, their singles and albums not played on commercial radio. They were basically rejected by the mainstream media as a fad. Who could possibly ever think bands like the Sex Pistols and Ramones could ever replace things like the Bee Gees and The Eagles?

Nearly 30 years later punk rock is one the basic DNA strands of contemporary rock and roll and I highly doubt anyone under the age of 40 or so could name you a Bee Gees song beyond “Stayin’ Alive.” It took a while, but eventually the outcasts and rejects took over, or at leastgot some respect. Also in the Seventies, the sport of association football (known more popularly on these shores as soccer) began to elbow its way into the American sports mainstream. The North American Soccer League, with its leading light the New York Cosmos and their superstar Pele, began to make inroads into the notoriously anti-soccer American sports landscape before it burnt out under the weight of its own excess. Despite that failure, some 30 years later that struggle is ongoing.

I’ve been saying for a long time now that American soccer fans are the punk rockers of world sports. Nobody likes us and there are powerful forces aligned against our eventual move into respectability. First I must clarify some terms. When I say “American soccer fan” I am talking about Americans who follow a Major League Soccer team, for the most part. “Soccer fan” does not yet equate in this nation to “MLS team fan.” There are millions of Americans (or at least those who live in the United States) who follow the sport and are not fans of an MLS team. They concentrate on teams in Europe or in Central and/or South America. A good portion of them also actively dislike and insult MLS.

This is one force aligned against us, the American-based non-MLS fans. The catch-all term is “Eurosnob” but like I said, some are fans of teams from Latin American nations. To them MLS isn’t “real” soccer. Our teams have names they don’t like. Our teams (New England Revolution, Chicago Fire, San Jose Earthquakes, et al) have nicknames as part of the official name unlike “real” soccer teams where the nickname is unofficial. Manchester United Football Club is the official name of the team, and their unofficial (but widely used) nickname is the Red Devils.

Eurosnobs also feel indignant that the sport is not an American sport. We don’t understand it, not really. We don’t “live the game.” We don’t live and die by it. We are passionless, obese, short-attention-spanned Cro-Magnons who’d rather be watching giant men in pads slam each other to pulps in a sport we dare call football. We are interlopers and fakers.

On the other side you have the home-grown haters, the American sports media and its functionaries. To them we American soccer fans are almost akin to traitors. Soccer is for foreigners, immigrants, and girls. It’s not a “man’s sport.” There’s no contact. It’s boring. Nobody ever scores. The game is too long. The field is too big. The teams have stupid names. This attitude filters down to your average “Joe Sixpack” American fan. They can’t see our counter-arguments like, “Hey, a NASCAR race is three hours long and nobody scores.” They reject our claims that no sport that lacks time-outs (especially NFL-style TV time-outs)and where the ball as well the clock is constantly moving can possibly be boring.

Like the punks of the Seventies and Eighties we American soccer fans have set up our own counterculture outside the main-stream. We read our own magazines, we read our own websites, subscribe to Fox Soccer Channel and GolTV, and congregate in our own bars. I watched the opening match of the 2007 MLS season between Colorado and DC at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park at a party I managed to finagle control of the remote and flipped to ESPN’s coverage. During the pre-game show a partygoer remarked (as the camera panned the stadium, which has “COLORADO RAPIDS” spelled out in its seats), “What in the hell did they do to Mile High Field?”

When I told this person that this game was not in the home of the Denver Broncos it was in fact the Rapids’ very own stadium, his surprise was written all over his face. “Wait, you mean soccer teams have their own stadiums now? Whoah.”

I don’t expect MLS to reach the heights of baseball or the NFL, at least not in my lifetime. However I have the faith of those original music fans standing around watching oddly-dressed people bash away at their guitars in bars in London and New York in 1976 that I (and we) will eventually be proven correct.

Recommended Listening:

01.) Real McKenzies- “Raise The Banner”

02.) Beerzone- “Alcoholic Heroes”

03.) The Fall- “Kicker Conspiracy”

04.) The Bouncing Souls- “Ole!”

05.) Vif Klanen- “Fotballsangen”