Did you miss me?
I'm back after spending most of last week down in the native land, aka South Carolina. It was a good time - I'm sure you were dying to know - but I've got to do a better job of planning out my travel times. I drove down to South Carolina on Tuesday - missing all but the final seconds of Italy's semifinal win over Germany - and drove back home on Sunday - missing the entire World Cup final. So, unfortunately I don't have much to offer in the way of opinions about the Azzurri winning it all or about Zidane losing his mind.
I do have a couple of World Cup links of interest though. First, non soccer-fan Bill Simmons of ESPN.com explains why he likes the World Cup. I'm a bit more of a soccer guy than Bill but I echo many of his sentiments. I too will miss getting up in the morning and getting to watch live sports on tv while working.
Then Bill Syken, he of the Scorecard Daily at SI.com, opines on the negative effect this World Cup could have on MLS.
I'm afraid Syken may have a point. With its wall-to-wall coverage ESPN has likely brought in more non-soccer fans, like Simmons, who are enthralled by the passion of the World Cup. But they're also asking this questions - how good can the MLS really be if it can only produce a handful of players on the also-ran U.S. squad? As Syken points out, all other major U.S. sports leagues feature the best in the world. As much progress as the MLS has made, it's nowhere near the talent of leagues like the Premier League in England or the Serie A in Italy.
Perhaps the biggest snub for the MLS came when former French national team member Youri Djorkaeff, a hero of Les Bleus' 1998 World Cup title run, told his current team New York Red Bull, that he had to go home to attend to an urgent personal matter. That matter, as cameras revealed, was apparently watching France play Brazil in the quarterfinals. Whoops.
Oh, but never fear, reports are now surfacing that Zidane, who was supposedly done with soccer after the World Cup, may actually finish out his days in the MLS.
U.S. professional soccer: retirement home to the stars.
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