Domestic Soccer 2009-10

[twi]

It looks like lower division US soccer is sorting itself out after the mess that was last seaosn. According to a few short articles in the local news, an 8 team NASL will be US Soccer Federation's Division 2 and a "regional" USL will be Division 3. Not quite sure what that means for the USL to be honest (or how many times this will change before becoming official in Feb.) but it's a start.

[fishheatcats]

It looks like lower division US soccer is sorting itself out after the mess that was last seaosn. According to a few short articles in the local news, an 8 team NASL will be US Soccer Federation's Division 2 and a "regional" USL will be Division 3. Not quite sure what that means for the USL to be honest (or how many times this will change before becoming official in Feb.) but it's a start.

Yeah hopefully things settle down and start to stabilize. NASL is adding San Antonio in 2012, and has an unannounced team lined up who has paid and is ready to join in 2013. Things are looking a little better. As for D3 and USL-Pro, they can call themselves "regional" all they want, but having a 16 team league with a club in Antigua, two in Puerto Rico and one in California, when most of the teams are in the mid-Atlantic, doesn't seem very regional to me.

Now that the league business is out of the way, next steps for NASL is for Miami FC to choose the proper "Fort Lauderdale Strikers" name for their rebrand and for FC Tampa Bay to get the Rowdies name back from those jerks in Texas, so we can have a proper Florida rivalry again

[Don]

DC United will announce the (re?)hiring of Ben Olsen as head coach tomorrow morning. This is a disaster. I love Ben, and no doubt with a competent roster he would be successful. But this just shows the hypocrisy of the Kevins. After the season, Ben had no experience thus would not be in the running for the head coaching position. I guess as they interviewed candidates, among them former Hertha Berlin head man Lucien Favre, they discovered that a good head coach might actually expect to get paid. So they went for the cheap option. What a joke.

Love United, Hate Kevins.

[Camden Crazy]

The league is undecided if it wants to continue to move teams across conference lines in order to ensure the best regular-season teams qualify for the postseason. Garber said he understood fans? and critics? confusion that the current system allowed two Western Conference teams to meet in last weekend?s Eastern Conference Championship.

Single table, then take the top 8 or 10 and do the playoffs from there. How hard is that?

[BrySmalls]

2011 FIFA Women's World Cup Draw:

• Group A: Germany, Canada, Nigeria, France
  
• Group B: Japan, New Zealand, Mexico, England
  
• Group C: United States, North Korea, Colombia, Sweden
  
• Group D: Brazil, Australia, Equatorial Guinea, Norway
  

[dfwabel]

The World Cup bid presentation can be seen here. As I post, the US is at the podium.

[Jer15]

It looks like lower division US soccer is sorting itself out after the mess that was last seaosn. According to a few short articles in the local news, an 8 team NASL will be US Soccer Federation's Division 2 and a "regional" USL will be Division 3. Not quite sure what that means for the USL to be honest (or how many times this will change before becoming official in Feb.) but it's a start.

Yeah hopefully things settle down and start to stabilize. NASL is adding San Antonio in 2012, and has an unannounced team lined up who has paid and is ready to join in 2013. Things are looking a little better. As for D3 and USL-Pro, they can call themselves "regional" all they want, but having a 16 team league with a club in Antigua, two in Puerto Rico and one in California, when most of the teams are in the mid-Atlantic, doesn't seem very regional to me.

Now that the league business is out of the way, next steps for NASL is for Miami FC to choose the proper "Fort Lauderdale Strikers" name for their rebrand and for FC Tampa Bay to get the Rowdies name back from those jerks in Texas, so we can have a proper Florida rivalry again

That team is supposedly out of Ottawa.

The reason it can't be announced is because the CSA has put a ban on expansion into Divison 2 leagues. The CSA feels that there are more teams than talent and are worried that too many Canadian teams will be fighting for a small amount of Canadian talent.

It's stupid. Grow the sport. End of story. But that's the situation.

Also, we don't have to exclusively sign Canadian talent.

[Don]

Unbelievable. 2018 World Cup goes to Russia. 2022 World Cup goes to.....Qatar. No words.

[Lee.]

I thought Qatar wasn't certain yet (an hour ago, anyway).

Money talks. Qatar has money. The US bid would probably have to be shared by China, given that they basically own you guys now anyway.

[goalieboy82]

the voting is rigged i think.

[Lee.]

Yes, there's no way any country could possibly ever want to vote against the US.

[rams80]

Yes, there's no way any country could possibly ever want to vote against the US.

You may have a point, but from an objective standpoint the Qatar bid was the worst of all of the bids-horrible infrastructure, virtually no stadia built yet, a poor security situation, and oh yeah....they'd be holding the tournament in a desert in the middle of summer!* If you don't like the US, give it to Australia.

*The sustainability freaks are going to have a field day with this one. At least the ones who don't die of apoplexy at the thought of a festival built on doing the exact opposite of everything they preach.

[AJM]

Unbelievable. 2018 World Cup goes to Russia. 2022 World Cup goes to.....Qatar. No words.

Shocked by the 2018 announcement and by Qatar winning...this cannot be real.

I think geography played a big part in regards to travel between U.S. cities. In Qatar, no stadium is more than an hour apart...which is nice if you're trying to catch multiple teams in different cities. Hosting the World Cup in a desert could't present any problems right? Not with ridiculous temperatures in a country that is number one in water and energy consumption per capita. Shouldn't become more of an issue...

The other that does shock me is that fact the U.S. already has the stadium infrastructure...we've already got amazing stadiums in our bid (that are complete) and can hold 65,000 plus each and 5 of them hold 90,000 plus. I guess given the world economical climate, I expected FIFA to go with a bid that did not require the building of proposed stadiums versus ones that already existed. Just my two cents though.

[Don]

Australia I could've handled. But Qatar? Rams stated all the reasons why this is a bad idea above, but I think the biggest obstacle is the security situation. They have the money and manpower to build the proposed stadiums, if they build domed stadiums the heat wont be much of a problem, just keeping those stadiums from blowing up is going to be a challenge IMO. I hope they prove me wrong, but this is a BAD idea.

[rams80]

Australia I could've handled. But Qatar? Rams stated all the reasons why this is a bad idea above, but I think the biggest obstacle is the security situation. They have the money and manpower to build the proposed stadiums, if they build domed stadiums the heat wont be much of a problem, just keeping those stadiums from blowing up is going to be a challenge IMO. I hope they prove me wrong, but this is a BAD idea.

I think manpower could also be a problem. The entire country has a population of under 1.7 million. Unless the presentation mentioned a plan to import say...2 million Filipinos (I think Filipinos are the Arabs' domestics of choice) to help with construction. (But only the finest 2 million Filipinos money can buy )

[dfwabel]

Australia I could've handled. But Qatar? Rams stated all the reasons why this is a bad idea above, but I think the biggest obstacle is the security situation. They have the money and manpower to build the proposed stadiums, if they build domed stadiums the heat wont be much of a problem, just keeping those stadiums from blowing up is going to be a challenge IMO. I hope they prove me wrong, but this is a BAD idea.

Qatar's bid was for all stadia to have roofs (not domes), but will be fully air conditioned via solar power. Most will be temporary and will be reduced after the games and donated to developing countries. As far as human labor, they have to bring in workers from India and Bangladesh, like many within the middle east. FIFA Bid Reportsshow that Qatar had the most "medium risk" evaluations of the 2022 bidders.

Blatter wants to win the Nobel Peace Prize, so influencing to have events in the developing world is what he will do to get it.

Plus, England only received two votes and was the first one eliminated for 2018.

[AJM]

Australia I could've handled. But Qatar? Rams stated all the reasons why this is a bad idea above, but I think the biggest obstacle is the security situation. They have the money and manpower to build the proposed stadiums, if they build domed stadiums the heat wont be much of a problem, just keeping those stadiums from blowing up is going to be a challenge IMO. I hope they prove me wrong, but this is a BAD idea.

I didn't even touch upon security, but you've hit the nail on the head. While this is a long ways out, I can't see many Americans making the trip to Qatar. The ones that do are pretty brave. With their bid receiving a "high risk" assessment by the FIFA committee, a bit of corruption in the process seems more likely now than ever.

I was nervous for security concerns in South Africa and Brazil, but Qatar is really testing the faith of traveling soccer fans. Looks like I'll have to wait until 2026 or later to attend a World Cup. Looks like the 2026 front-runner is China.

[rams80]

Australia I could've handled. But Qatar? Rams stated all the reasons why this is a bad idea above, but I think the biggest obstacle is the security situation. They have the money and manpower to build the proposed stadiums, if they build domed stadiums the heat wont be much of a problem, just keeping those stadiums from blowing up is going to be a challenge IMO. I hope they prove me wrong, but this is a BAD idea.

Qatar's bid was for all stadia to have roofs (not domes), but will be fully air conditioned via solar power. Most will be temporary and will be reduced after the games and donated to developing countries. As far as human labor, they have to bring in workers from India and Bangladesh, like many within the middle east. FIFA Bid Reportsshow that Qatar had the most "medium risk" evaluations of the 2022 bidders.

Blatter wants to win the Nobel Peace Prize, so influencing to have events in the developing world is what he will do to get it.

Plus, England only received two votes and was the first one eliminated for 2018.

1. OK, do you seriously believe that

2. I think Niger, Chad, or Nepal would rather have the roads, pipes, and airport components rather than the stadia themselves

3. Or barring that, the cash equivalent of the stadia

4. Because I'm pretty sure the very last goddamn thing they want/need is a Bleeping Do it Yourself (some assembly required) 21st Century soccer field.

[NEW.ERA]

So down with Russia and Qatar.

Gotta give Fifa some credit for trying new markets and that's what they did.

[rams80]

So down with Russia and Qatar.

Gotta give Fifa some credit for trying new markets and that's what they did.

Just to play devil's advocate with our Canadian posters, then why is Gary Bettman the Antichrist?