Smallball

I would like to go "off-topic" in this post to talk about this website I have known about for the past 10 years and have used for the past 5 years. It is called www.smallball.com . This site allows you to train your own baseball or soccer team and then play them in simulated games.

This game is good for the player who does not want to play a whole bunch of games or rely on your own keyboard skills.

USA Qualify for World Cup

It has been a dark road, it has been a long road, but it appears after the "Dos A Cero" game that soccer has arrived in the US. Nobody more than me is glad that it appears that soccer has finally come out of the shadows of a third tier sport and is gaining media attention.

Certain spots has accepted the sport as a first tier sport for many years (Seattle and Portland), but clearly with the national attention and filled stands that US soccer and the established leagues are now here to stay. With the prolonged run of qualifying for the World Cup has brought to the attention to many people that this game is no longer the punch line of jokes/

For some, soccer will always be hated especially for the baby boomers but who can fault them? They were raised in a era in which soccer was a "fourth tier" sport only played by kids until 7 or 8 when they switched to Football (American) or Baseball. The game was treated as a joke by the soccer federation and it showed on the field by not qualifying for the World Cup between 1950 and 1990. My dad is a classic example of this theory, to this day, he continue to mock the game when I have it on TV, he mocks me for getting up at 6:45am on most Saturdays to start watching the EPL games on NBC. My Dad and other people of his generation say that they do not understand the game and say that soccer is not a sport (but isn't soccer just over-sized hockey?).

But for all the dislike of soccer for the people raised in the 40 years after the 1950 World Cup appearance, soccer has found it mark with the younger generation. While American Football is still the preferred sport, soccer has hit its mark and the attendance figures in MLS show it. With the upcoming investments coming from Dave Beckham and Manchester City/New York Yankees this further enhances this as the fifth sport.

It is said that "it takes years to win a customer, and seconds to lose one", this saying no more than true with the MLS and the US men's national team. The house has been set up perfectly with good media coverage, good teams, top players coming overseas to play here along with good fans. I hope that we do not screw this up because nobody will be more disappointed than me.

2013-2014 (English) Football League Predictions

Back prior to the start of the English Football League season, I made some predictions for the upcoming season. Based on how the season is going so far, I'm already regretting some of my selections. I will post some time in December with my mid-season predictions.

2013-2014 Predictions		Promoted/Winner		Relegated
Premier League		Chelsea		Crystal Palace
Premier League		N/A		Hull
Premier League		N/A		Norwich City
Championship		Watford		Yeovil Town
Championship		Nottingham Forest		Huddersfield Town
Championship		Bolton Wanderers		AFC Bournemouth
League One		Crawley Town		Colchester United
League One		Wolverhampton Wanderers		Preston North End
League One		Sheffield United		Notts County
League One		N/A		Port Vale
League Two		Burton Albion		Accrington Stanley
League Two		Newport County		Morecambe
League Two		Portsmouth		N/A
League Two		Plymouth Argyle		N/A
Conference		Kidderminster Harriers		Nuneaton Town
Conference		Hereford United		Hyde
Conference		N/A		Salisbury City
Conference		N/A		Tamworth
Scotland Prem		Celtic		Hearts
Scotland Prem		N/A		St Mirren
Scotland 1st		Falkirk		Raith
Scotland 1st		Dundee		Cowdenbeath
Scotland 2nd		Rangers		East Fife
Scotland 2nd		Dunfermline		Stranraer
Scotland 3rd		Peterhead		N/A
Scotland 3rd		Berwick		N/A

Bury F.C. leaves me with so many questions

To sort of change gears, I was reading a story from the other side of the pond recently that League 1's Bury Football Club was over 1 million pounds in debt (That is $1,534,198) and was looking for external investment. I had known for many seasons and going into this season that Bury continued to struggle financially at Gigg Lane, but it just blows my mind how something like this could happen.

How does someone allow the situation to get that far out of control? How does someone not stop the club and make them pay up? How does someone in League 1 get that much credit? I'm thinking this is part of the "results now" society and when it does not turn out the way you planned it, someone is left in the wind.

I was under the impression that the recent UEFA FFP regulations that these types of situations would be reduced and clubs could not run up huge losses, but this shows that teams will do what they can to succeed, but in Bury's case, your club just might cease to exist.

Soccer Cheating Scandel

Just a short thought today... Europol recently announced that they were investigating possible match fixing ring. Hearing this story is no surprise to myself. With all the money that is at stake people are looking for a sure thing to ensure they get richer. When you have EPL teams talking about the possible money they would lose from the TV contact rather than the winning aspect we know the priorities are out of line.

Betting seems more prevalent in Europe, it is more accepted. When you mix that with the paid that thing or are underpaid, people will exploit as long as there is a dollar to be made. Baseball when through a similar phase in the early days with the White Sox World Series scandal being the most prevalent of all the game fixing.

I'm sure that this will be the first in a long line of match fixing scandals in soccer that will be exposed in the coming days, months and years. Let just get this hope this goes as quickly as the story came. Fair play is the key to keeping fans coming to the game. Without it, the fans do not show up.

Chelsea got what they deserved

While I like to watch soccer, I generally do not blog about soccer, but this Chelsea disaster is something to talk about.

The previous three managers for Chelsea F.C. have won the Premier League or the Champions League or international competition but yet have fired them all. That is insane to fire three coaches that have brought so much success to one club. That would be like hiring and firing three super bowl winning coaches to put this in American terms.

Saturday, I watched West Ham play Chelsea and getting what they deserved, a 3-1 defeat to West Ham. Now the fans do not like Rafael Benítez, well maybe you should have stuck with a good thing.

Someone has to win the games and someone has to lose them. Sometimes you have to ride out the rocky moments and success will come.

NFL in London? Think this one through

Another year, another game in London as New England played St. Louis and once again talk about putting a franchise overseas in London. This continues the thinking of expanding the game internationally for what the NFL thinks will make the sport an international game.

But one must think.... Is this the right move for the NFL? With the increased talk of player safety at all levels of the game along with some NFL teams having issues filling their home team stadium's, would the game hold up in the international sporting world?

As with any team that struggles in any sport, teams have issues getting people to attend the home matches. Putting a team in London means you have to compete with the national sport Soccer (or as they say Football). Overall, with the law of diminishing returns as the NFL loses it uniqueness to the British fans, less people will attend the games over the years with 8 home games a year. If this NFL team does not have a winning record, that will drive more fans away and all that will remain is the empty seats along with some worn out players that have to travel 3,500 - 5,500 miles for all roads games stateside.

Along with the above issues, there is one other thing to consider. How do you get the fans to attend your London NFL team instead of the established London Soccer teams? While most Soccer games in England are played on Saturday, there are a few "Good" games for Sunday. Who are the fans going to really care about? NFL or EPL? London alone has many winning established teams including but not limited to:

• Arsenal
• Chelsea
• Fulham
• QPR (Well... Maybe not a good team, but they are in London)
• Tottenham
• West Ham United

You also have to compete with some of the established lower level teams that would further draw fans away:

• Charlton
• Crystal Palace 
• Milwall
• Brentford
• Leyton Orient

With these issues present, the NFL should really question putting a team in Europe especially since the NFL has already had one failed venture with NFL Europe. Take care of your teams at home first, then think outside your domestic boarders.

About Football (A.K.A Soocer)

In my first post of this blog I want to talk about a sport that is emerging here in American as the fifth sport behind the established Baseball, Basketball, American Football & Hockey. That sport is.... Soccer or in the rest of the world .... Football.

Today, I got up early to watch the Merseyside derby between Liverpool and Everton on ESPN with Ian Darke and Steve McManaman with the call. In my opinion, Ian Darke is the best Soccer announcer around that calls games for America. His ability to relate to the experienced fan and novice fan without talking down to them makes him the best in the business.

Overall this was a great 2-2 draw and a great comeback from Everton in the first half with exciting disallowed Liverpool goal at the end of the game. With that disallowed goal (which was an incorrect call), I've thought this would be a good time to put in words some ideas to  "modernized" the game of soccer and take the game from the 20th century to the 21st century.

A great step to modernize the game was taken place in the 20th century with the implementation of the Taylor Report and the formation of the Premier League in 1992, but watching Soccer now for the last 10 years, I've got a few additional ideas to ensure that the game is played and refereed correctly.

1. The use of a instant replay system. Now this could be completed in two phases:
1. The implementation of goal line technology to determine if the ball has completely crossed the goal line. This has been talked about lately with the possible use of GoalRef and Hawk-Eye. In my opinion, this should be implemented in time for the World Cup in Rio to avoid any more unnecessary and conversational calls. In this modern age of computer technology, I still don't understand why this has not been implemented. That would be like saying "We have computers, but our Bank is going to continue to track our customers with pencil and paper"
2. The implementation of an expanded replay system for other on the pitch calls. After the technology in sub point one is put into place for a couple of years, there should be a expansion to other areas of Soccer. Give the ability for each manager to challenge lets say two calls per game within a set amount of time (15 seconds of incident?) by informing the fourth official. This could be used for throw in's, corner kicks, goal kicks, foul in/out of the box, ect. I've too many games adversely affected due to an incorrect call that could be easily and quickly correctly.
2. The stopping of the clock during throw ins, after goals, injuries, ect. Since the start of soccer there has been a continuous running clock which, in my opinion, is an outdated function of the game. Back in the early days of soccer, it was a necessary function, due to the clock management technology of the day, but now a days time can be stop, started, added, subtracted with ease. This would resolve the issue with how much injury time to add to the game since the clock will not be running during these stops in the game. This would also relive the issue of players falling down with fake injuries late in big games since the clock will not be running during these blatant attempts to run out the game.
3. Give the referees PA mics. There are usually a few calls a game that leave me wondering "What was that call?". This would be a good time to give the referee a mic to announce to the crowd the call similarly to American  Football. This would take the mystery out of the close calls and could avoid some adverse reactions from the crowd in the long term if they understand the officials reason/call
4. Two referees on field. In American football, there is seven officials for 22 on field players. In basketball, there is 3 officials for 10 on court players. In baseball, there is 4 umpires for 10-13 on field players. In hockey, there is two referees for 12 on ice players. In soccer, there is one referee for 22 players.... one referee and with a playing surface as large as soccer, that is too difficult in today world to see and correctly call the plays on the pitch. It is time to add another referee to the pitch to get a different angle of the close plays. There can still be a "5th Official" which is today's 4th offical. American football, basketball, baseball and hockey have all expanded their number of officials over the years since the inception of their professional leagues, now it's time for top flight soccer leagues to do the same. They owe it to the players, coaches and most importantly, the fans.
5. Awarding more Yellow Cards for barking at Ref's. One thing I have noticed since watching soccer is the amount of complaining to the referees for calls/no calls. Not only does this look bad, it holds up the game. It is time to start issuing more cards for questioning the calls on the field by the use of loud verbal language or gestures. In American Football, if you bark, you will be out of place for the next play due to the play clock but officials do eject players for touching officials. In basketball, you get a technical foul. In hockey, you get a 2 minutes unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. In baseball, you get tossed out of the game from the over-zealous umpire, but that is a subject for a another blog post.

 I would think that with any of these changes, the game would move towards the 21st century and make the game more enjoyable for the players, coaches, officials, and fans.