Crouch and Turkey.

Just want to admit that Peter Crouch did okay the other day when he scored two against Galatasaray for Liverpool in the Champion’s League.

Liverpool won 3-2 in Turkey, which you might think ought to count for something in light of all the “welcome to hell” banners, flares, and flying goat innerds you’d expect around that Galatasaray stadium in Istanbul.

But Liverpool didn’t play their game at that infamous Galatasaray Stadium – Ali Sami Yen.

The Champion’s League game was played at Ataturk Olympic Stadium.

Here’s something that doesn’t make sense to me.

Galatasaray (I’ve just learned how to spell it correctly – You can too. Just sound it out and then keep hitting “a” between the consonants. It gets really fun after a while.) have this advantage of playing in a stadium that supposidly is the most intimidating in Europe.

And yet, what have Galatasaray done this year? They’ve booked their Champion’s League games in friendlier confines. And, if you believe the hype, anything is friendlier confines than the “hellish” Ali Sami Yen. And, in doing so, have given their opponents a little advantage.
So yes, even though they stormed back to lose 3-2, I’d argue that Galatasaray lost something when they decided not to hold their games at “home.”

Returning to Crouch, sure the scissor kick against Galatasaray looked impressive – but he did nothing against Bolton earlier today.
Kuyt is for real. That is all.

Who writes spam?

Just looking at the wordpress stuff here and the Spamguard thing (i know, it has some other branded name, but i can’t remember it right now even though i just read it two seconds ago) has stopped 58 pieces of spam comments.

Looking at the spam comments, i’m thinking, what’s the point of them?

They’re blatantly terrible. They’re badly written. They’re not good ads. Many aren’t even in english. or french.

To whoever out there who may be paying someone to write them spam comments to garner hits for their website – you’re wasting your money.

anyhow, don’t want to waste anymore of your time writing about spam.

by the way, have you seen spamalot? is it good?

Le Golie

If you play ball hockey, you know that unless you have a steady supply of friends who are somewhat nuts, it’s hard to find someone who will go in net.
(Poncho aside.)

Last weekend we picked up two inflatable goalies from Samko Toy Warehouse.
You just add air. It’s like filling up one of those killer whale things you’d get from seaworld – only it’s a goalie.
Mine has the New Jersey Devils. My brother’s wears the philadelphia flyers.
All you add is air to these things. They’re about the size of someone in grade two, and have about the same skill level.
That is, they just stand there in the net.

We plan on unveiling them during our Sunday Ball hockey games in two weeks.

It’s going to be Little Marty Brodeur against Tiny Ronnie Hexsmall. They come with inflatable sticks, so even if the Hexy decides to chop at people’s ankles it’s not gonna hurt.

Good times.

Atta boy Jays (sorta)

The BlueBirds finished the home part of their season with a 5-0 win over Boston last night.

They’re now in 2nd place – passing boston.

You know, really Boston is beat up right now, and they’re missing a number of their big players (ManRam is out). They also traded David Wells for a resin bag at the deadline. These aren’t excuses for the RedSox,  just clear what is.

The jays have played this last weekend like it matters, and Boston just mailed it in. So the jays deserve to be in 2nd.

But you know, all this reminds me of the 1998 winter olympics where Canada lost the bronze medal game in hockey to the finns.

This was after they lost to the U.S. in the Semi-finals.

Third place didn’t matter and Canada justmailed it in against the finns.

I think Boston and CAnada 1998 are similar – both played their season for first place, and after that was lost to them they didn’t seem care about 2nd or 3rd respectively.

So next  year, be like Boston and go all out for first place Jays. Who knows, you may get the wild card.

Kick some back where it came from.

Before I give you the back story, I have a message for Maple Leaf Sports and Enterainment:

Dear MLSE,

First i have to say, i’m really excited that Major League Soccer is coming to Toronto.

People will come to the Toronto FC games. We will fill the stadium, cheer for the team, buy jerseys and scarves, make lots of noise,  eat at the concession stands, and – in doing so – make you lots of money. I’m totally fine with that.

However, i don’t think you should profit on the building of the new soccer stadium in Toronto. Any money you’ve made on the naming rights deal with BMO should be refunded to the levels of government -city, provincial, and federal – because lots of public tax dollars have gone into the stadium’s construction. 

I love soccer.

But i also love a well run health care system, lower city property taxes, and kids having textbooks in school. And that’s why the public money should be refunded – because it can help in these other places.

Do the right thing. If you’ve made a profit on the building and naming of the stadium, refund the money.

Judging by the reported deal, you can afford it.

thanks,

michael.

ps- if you could get Jason DeVos that would be really great.
And now, the background:

The new toronto stadium will be known as BMO (Bee-Moe) Field. The Toronto star reported today that Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment have already made a profit by selling the naming rights to BMO.

The star reports that the federal government pledged $27 million to the project, while the provincial government added $8 million and the City of Toronto provided $9.8 and the land the stadium stands on.
MLSE, the organization that owns Toronto FC, was to contribute $18 million to the project, with up to $10 million of that cash coming from the sale of naming rights.

The Toronto Star reported that the 10-year naming rights deal between BMO and MLSE would be worth $27 million.

The Globe article says that MLSE and BMO didn’t disclose the amount of the deal. It’s interesting that the Globe isn’t curious the details of the deal.

The Derby (dar-bee)

It’s taken me a while to accept what happened.

Liverpool lost 3-0 (that’s three – nil for the purists out there) to cross-town rivals Everton on Saturday.

Not growing up in Liverpool or anything, and being a fan come lately. (As in i’ve only followed the team from the time  when my friend Andrew brought me a jersey back from Liverpool in 1997. Then in 1998 the phenomenum of Michael Owen solidified my allegiance… anyhow i digress)…

what i was going to say was, i know i’m supposed to hate Everton as a Liverpool fan, but there’s been a couple of things i’ve liked over the years. Actually, only two:
1. John Collins. The scottish mid-fielder who played most of his games in France, but he also had a stint for Everton. And

2. Tomasz Radzinski. Yes, i was always happy to see Tomasz do well for everton – even though i wanted Everton to lose. Say he’d score two on a 3-2 everton loss – that sort of thing.

So those two players have lessened my hate for Everton – the supposed hate i’m supposed to have for them.

Well, this year it’s easier for me not to like Everton.

First, they just beat liverpool 3-0. Liverpool outplayed them most of the match. Yes, yes, yes- how can i say that liverpool outplayed them and they lost 3-0? it seems stupid. but ‘pool took it to them with shots. They just didn’t connect with anything.

I have to put the blame on one guy – besides Crouch – it was the inability of Jamie Carragher to stop a ball, any ball, that came near him or to his part of the field.
He’s usually pretty good. On Saturday he was terrible.

Yeah, i’m done. i don’t want to talk about it anymore.

Except to say that Gerrard is the only thing going right now for Liverpool. I also loved the energy of Dirk Kuyt. That guy took some shots, ran around like a crazed Dutchman, and brought some energy to the field.

On to the things i don’t like about Everton. the one thing that makes it really easy to hate them in 2006 is their Neville brother.

Now, to be fair, i’m not even sure which neville brother they have – phil or phil’s brother.

They’re both terrible. I don’t even think their mom likes them.

For years I hated those guys on United. Just couldn’t stand them. I could never see what Sir Alex saw in them. Then, they kept getting picked to play for England.

Sheesh. The Neville brothers reminded me of the queen’s corgis. loud, useless, and -i guess- english.

Anyhow, they have a Neville.

Strike three is Tim Howard, their goalie.

Now, i don’t really have that much against tim howard – i’ve just made it standard policy to dislike american goalies.

i blame it on kasey keller.
I can’t stand Kasey Keller. The image of him doing the “guns” when he stopped all 5 of Canada’s penalty kicks at the last gold cup. makes me ill.

Liverpoo used to have an american keeper named Brad Friedel. Again, nothing against him personally – he just sat on the bench and collected a paycheck behind David James. He just wastn’ that good. at the time i didn’t have an opinion about him – since seeing keller rub it in Canada’s face – yeah, i’ve come to think Friedel wasn’t too good.

And now there’s Tim Howard. Again, like the Nevilles, a Sir Alex find – Howard being taken from the NY/NJ Metrostars and thrown onto the crazy pitchforked pitch that is “THEATRE OF DREAMS” … then cast aside.

What is THEATRE OF DREAMS anyway? It’s a 70s prog-rock nightmare is what it is. It’s pink floyd played to an empty planetarium with a broken strobe light that annoys the audience – and the theatre door is jammed shut, and the auditorium smells vaguely of bleach and pool chemicals.
It’s no dream, it sucks is what it is.

Oh, Tim Howard. It’s not you Tim, it’s just that you’re a yankee goalie – and you guys stand in the way of Canada making it to the world cup, is all.

So there are my reasons everton are terrible. And now that Radzinski is gone to Fulham, i have no reason to wish any good upon their team.

All i have to say is, they’ll get theirs when they visit anfield.

Lamport Stadium in the rain

We played a game tonight at Lamport Stadium in the rain.

Lamport is located on King Street just east of dufferin, right before you hit the rail tracks.

It is soooo 70s.

It’s mostly concrete. I don’t know how they would ever expect a professional team to play there. The field is just a patchwork quilt of astroturf.

And for some reason or another there are a ton of canoes in the north end.

It looked to have a good drainage system, so it couldn’t be to float around in.

(this might possibly be the worst blog posting ever in the history of the internet.)

yes it’s a bland blog post.

but it was a really bland stadium.

And for that, i really liked it.

It felt like the essence of the NASL for me. Well i’m not sure if there ever was an NASL soccer game there, it certainly came from that era.

That is: we built something with concrete and lights, and people may like it.

The NASL went away. Yes we still have the Vancouver Whitecaps, but they’re really just the 86ers with new retro jerseys.

And the new FC didn’t pick up the blizzard name.

And instead of the Cosmos, the New York MLS team has taken the name of an energy drink.

Taking the name of an energy drink is soooooo 2000000s. Very crappy. Hell, naming a stadium after a corporate sponsor is sooooooo 2000000s too.

I guess that’s why Alan Lamport Stadium felt like going to a time warp.

It was sterile, there wasn’t an ad in sight – yet there were stands , so it was intended to hold crowds. (say 5,000 people or so). And it wasn’t named after some sponsor.

I imagined it was like playing in the fall of 1979.

Yeah, the 1980s were just around the corner, but tonight we’re holding onto the 70s – not the bad parts of the 70s like disco and abba, but the better parts like the Clash and Star Wars – and in the rain, in our Blizzard jerseys under the lights of Lamport stadium, we’re kicking a ball. And it’s one of those oversized black and white balls that Pele used to bicycle past the Rowdies.. And it felt good, cuz the rain calms the city and brings a stillness.

Brennan today!

All reports say that we’ll find out today that Jim Brennan will become the first player for the Toronto FC.

Yeah.

Looking at a transcript of an interview with Mo Johnston yesterday he said, ” And the fans don’t know this, but I spoke to the agent of Edgar Davids, Pavel Nedved; there were certain guys I would have loved to have brought in but with the salary cap, it was tough. They wanted to come to America. Those are two of the biggest names in world soccer.”

I love the idea of Nedved coming to play with us. Davids hasn’t been too impressive in the last two years playing in the English premiere league, but Nedved sure can still play.

I love the way Johnston is thinking: Go out and get some huge talent.

Brennan is the first step in the right direction. Keep it up Mo!
Oh, I have to add a player to my wish list: Jason DeVos.

Let’s see what happens.

Did Mo go shopping in Montreal?

Canada just beat Jamaica 1-0 in Montreal.
Rob Friend scored on a header – Tomasz Radzinski looked really good.

At half-time the guys on Sportsnet interviewed our coach, Mo Johnston (Sorry, is it Johnson?).

Mo said he’d like to take the whole team.

Thatta boy.

Starting from the back, if you have your pick take:

Goalie Sutton. That guy is huge. Huge as in height.

Defence: Sandro Grande.

Mids: Stalteri and De Guzman.

Forwards: Radzinski and Hume.

Canada looked pretty good. Radzinski was the oldest guy on for Canada.

Mo also said that FC may have news later this week about their first signing.

Radzinski would be a great surprise. Don’t forget Brennan.

Can’t wait.

You guys going to Bathurst and Bloor?

A strange event happened last night to my buddy Murray and I in Toronto.

We were heading to our post soccer game celebration for Tacos on Augusta (good place – they have this taco where it’s just cheese and mushroom. I’m not sure why, but it was pure heaven. I think cheese’ll do that to anything.)

We were driving along College on our way when we stopped at the lights at St. George. A woman approached our window and said,

“I don’t usually do this, but are you guys going to Bathurst and Bloor?”

We both replied, “No we’re not,” and started to drive off.

Murray hits the brakes and says, “What am i doing?” Stops the car and says, “Get in, we’ll take you up there.”

I’ve never picked up a hitcher. Never mind at the corner of St. George and College.

So we take her up to Bathurst and Bloor. We’re talking tacos and soccer – cuz that’s what you do when you’re heading for tacos and coming from soccer.

Somehow it comes out that she writes poetry, so she reads us two of her poems.

We reach the destination and we’re stopped on Bathurst listening to poetry she’s written inside her “Women of the Beat Generation” book.

I was curious why she asked us for a ride and she said “I felt good vibes from this car.”

Murray then asked her to roll-up the window of his car, and we saw that someone had drawn three hearts on his window.

She thanked us for the ride, and we thanked her for the poetry and continued down to meet our friends for tacos.

It was one of those experiences that make you like Toronto that much more.