Oh, we finally have a new thread!! I would add the coyote ugly list Red Bulls fans displaying Ben Olsen health issue. HD Net guys bashing you for coming up with Tino's article. The bad, DCU no clean sheet. The good, DCU first goal, beautiful display by Tino, Fred and Emilio.

Sorry, Blanco the first foul isn't persistent infringement! What a crybaby.

Blanco should be fined for specifically naming refs. Even though I see a lot of bad calls but I have never seen player coming up and say as he did. He is just tired and can't run and frustrated so now trying to blame the refs. Pathetic.

keep voting...our man is leading and rightly deserved.
http://web.mlsnet.com/sights/goal_of_the_week/

The Coyote Ugly

Australia and Ethiopia asking DC United to play matches in their countries to end their respective droughts. I think the local weathermen now check the DC United home schedule when they do their forecasts.

The Coyote Ugly

Australia and Ethiopia asking DC United to play matches in their countries to end their respective droughts. I think the local weathermen now check the DC United home schedule when they do their forecasts.
Posted by: Southeasterner | June 17, 2008 7:40 AM
===========
Why is this coyote ugly? Besides adding more hectic schedule. If it's in the off season that's good I think. It spreads DCU brand further. But that's just my opinion.

I was gonna say the Ugly was another poorly attended game at Chivas and Dallas (the other attendance bottom-dwellers such as Columbus, Colorado, etc. were playing away games), but I have seen the light. According to brilliant analysis I have read right here in this forum, as long its an SSS it doesn't matter if virtually no one goes to MLS soccer games in almost half its markets. MLS will make tons of money off of parking for tractor pulls and highschool football games. And MLS will command multi billion dollar TV contracts whether people go to or watch the games on TV or not. Or something.

Blanco is an idiot.

DCU Rookie Dane Murphy (via behindthebadge)
"Outside the locker room a true appreciation for the decibel level of United's fans cannot be felt unless you are on the field in warm-ups and during the game. I was awed by their deafening chants and the fact that there was no interruption throughout. A few fans offered their congratulations to me in some pretty unique verbiage and I thanked them for their support. It is an atmosphere that I hope to continue to grow and develop in."

What is this Ohio you speak of?

The Good: Goff is back.

The Bad: Goff was gone (have you seen what happens to old threads around here?)

The Coyote Ugly: Goff was gone for two days (again, have you seen what happens to old threads around here?)

The Ugly Coyote in lipstick: Saprissa's field (I'm going to start bashing it now).

The lipstick wearing Ugly Coyote dressed in drag: The genius of CONCACAF further exposing the weakness of it's region by allowing the likes of Barbados to face the region champ in a WCQ.

Hey Steve,

You didn't by chance make it to the Ohio Valley Mall, did you?

Question for Yallop: how do you create consistency by adding new players?

The Good: USA starts World Cup qualifying with a rout.

The bad: how off topic this is:

A not-so-bad article by a soccer hater attempting some fish-out-of-water stuff. Did anyone run into him at the DCU game he was at?

Repeat this Homer quote after me, td: "Oh, I get it. I get jokes!"

@Matt in Silver Spring: Did anyone run into him? Pretty much the entire Barra ran into him. It's pretty early in the article.

What do you guys think of DC United's draw in the CONCACAF Champions League?

Group A
DC United
Dep. Saprissa (Costa Rica)
Cruz Azul (most likely, Mexico)
Metapan (el Sal) or Olimpia/Marathon (Hon)

In my opinion DC should be in Playoff form and be able play good in these games but the Central American Teams in this group are strong, not to mention Cruz Azul of Mex who just played in the finals.

The Champions League draw should get its own thread, but it'll be a good challenge for DC United. Just the fact that we'll get to see United play more games that matter makes me think that the Champions League is a good idea. I hope it lasts.

Saprissa and Cruz Azul will be difficult. If we end up (gasp!) selling Emilio this summer, it'll be incredible difficult.

Senor Goff -- under Coyote Ugly, you might have mentioned:

- a large homophobic banner from travelling Red Bulls fans, in a month notable for a fair amount of bad press for the league after a seemingly isolated incident of bigotry in Columbus.

I was at the game and said the same thing about the banner...but by halftime they had taken it down. maybe it was the 3-0 WHOOPIN dc was givint the old Metros or Someone may have asked them to take it down.

@Joe Doc

Completely off topic but how in the world did you come up with the "Ohio Valley Mall"? Except for passing it on the way to Columbus, not sure how anyone knows about that part of the world?

What do you guys think of DC United's draw in the CONCACAF Champions League?

Group A
DC United
Dep. Saprissa (Costa Rica)
Cruz Azul (most likely, Mexico)
Metapan (el Sal) or Olimpia/Marathon (Hon)

In my opinion DC should be in Playoff form and be able play good in these games but the Central American Teams in this group are strong, not to mention Cruz Azul of Mex who just played in the finals.

Posted by: dcchilidog | June 17, 2008 8:27 AM
===================================

This looks like the group of death to me. Sounds like fun.

How about the Crew ending its goaless streak and shutting out the Wizards on a baseball field? Thats good and bad in one. Sheesh, after a trip to Ohio you forget about it's pro soccer team? For shame, for shame.

I actually thought the Ben Olsen banner was pretty clever. I'd guess he got a chuckle out of it, too. I don't think we should be too harsh on other teams bringing clever banners to RFK. I agree that patently insulting or stupid banners have no place, but c'mon...FailFuhgnugen? That's funny!

[required disclaimer: I am a United fan. I am a Ben Olsen fan. I wish him all the luck in the world and would love to see him back on the field. Thank you. End disclaimer]

After the home leg against Barbados, how likely is it that Bradley will call up some less experienced players for the return leg?

ugly: brother getting married in barbados a week after the usa game and he refuses to move the date up for me

Too bad, louis, the USMNT could've saved some money and called you in to play.

Anything's possible -- it just happened in Arena Football, where a former UMD kicker was signed out of the stands to play in that game (with Chicago?).

"I would add the coyote ugly list Red Bulls fans displaying Ben Olsen health issue. "

Boo freakin' hoo. Kudos to the DC fans who have a sense of humor.

I don't see any NY fans in a snit over the mockery of the perpetually-injured Claudio Reyna that shows up here or on that hilarious sign in Toronto.

Coyote Ugly:

KC on Saturday night, they were horrid.

The banner directed at Olsen was actually spelled "Failfagnugen". Of course, it's a play on the old VW "Fahrvergnuegen" ads. But I couldn't tell if the use of the word "fag" in the banner was a result of a lame attempt at homophobic humor or just the failure of RB fans to quickly check the spelling of the original word. (Spelling? What's that?) I decided it was the latter, but I guess some others think it was the former. Either way I thought it was a pretty weak attempt.

Re: The Ben Olsen banner
If it had said "FailFuhgnugen" then it is simply stupid and annoying. But since it was "FailFagnugen"-it become homophobic and unacceptable.

@ron, dallas had close to 15,000 attendence this week against chicago so i don't see how that is really considered ugly. if your going by what was on tv, as you see above goff mentions the 101 degree game time temp, that sent most people scattering for what little shade they could find at PHP.

The banner directed at Olsen was actually spelled "Failfagnugen". Of course, it's a play on the old VW "Fahrvergnuegen" ads. But I couldn't tell if the use of the word "fag" in the banner was a result of a lame attempt at homophobic humor or just the failure of RB fans to quickly check the spelling of the original word. (Spelling? What's that?) I decided it was the latter, but I guess some others think it was the former. Either way I thought it was a pretty weak attempt.

Posted by: Doppler | June 17, 2008 9:31 AM

--------------------------------

I think we could find worse things to get offended by. If thats the worst the NY fans could come up with, then we should be laughing at them.

I'm surprised, first, by how MLS-centric this GBCU list is, and second, that no one has yet commented on that. How about the Dutch beating Italy and France by a combined six goals, for instance?

Speaking of which, where are good places where the setup is such that one can keep two TV screens (as in Netherlands-Romania and France-Italy) within one's field of vision? I'll probably try RFD in Chinatown.

the good: galaxy supporters group turned the oakland coliseum in to a home game.

the insanely stupid and short-sighted: mls continuing to hold to true to the myth that taking a break for internationals will somehow turn people off from the sport (note to garber: those people left a long time ago, they're not coming back, and we don't want them)

Good(???) Only one team, Chivas USA, failing to top the attendance numbers of the USL Montreal Impact.

Montreal Impact 13,034
Chivas USA 10,573

[Note, I don't count KC whose stadium can only hold around 10K)

@Mastodon Juan

Are you the gent who's getting expelled from Nationals Park for being shirtless?

tri,

the heading of the coumn is:

"The Good, The Bad, The Coyote Ugly
MLS's weekend in review....."

MLS... get it? Not Euro. Not World Cup, not La Liga, not the Premier league, not soccer in general... it's a column about MLS.

----
I'm surprised, first, by how MLS-centric this GBCU list is, and second, that no one has yet commented on that.
----

maybe that's because people can read, and know that the GBCU list is about:

MLS's weekend in review.....

lucky bar should have both games going at the same time in the same room

I can read, too. (I can also refrain from personal insults.) Perhaps I should have rephrased my comment to say that I was surprised that given all that has been happening in Europe, that Goff went with the MLS-specific format this week (although I certainly realize that MLS alone provides lots of raw material for a list, and it is probably unfair to ask Goff for even more), and that more people haven't volunteered non-MLS material on their own. It's not as if we've ever stayed strictly on-topic.

If there were 15k at the Dallas game I would say 2/3 of them came dressed as empty red seats. But no matter anyhow. The revenue from tractor pulls and cheerleading contests means MLS is rolling in the dough and laughing all the way to the bank.

I think the NYRB fans' banner was in bad taste because it was making light of injury, perhaps career-ending injury at that, and it was probably homophobic, too.

Now was it an unforgivable insult and will it devastate poor Mr. Olsen and the whole team? No, of course not. I don't even think they should have been forced to take it down. But if some of them decided themselves to take it down, then good for them.

If a banner pokes fun at performance, or mistakes - for example Gallardo being missing last weekend because of that head-butt attempt in Chicago - then great. I just don't think injury is fair game. Of course, others might.

As much as I detest Donovan, Reis, and Guevara, for example, I don't wish injury on them, and would not lampoon their injury on a banner. Just me.

Anyway, on a more positive note the hat tricks by Emilio and Buddle were great, and , wow, Buddle had some nice goals in his trips.

The bad: how off topic this is:

A not-so-bad article by a soccer hater attempting some fish-out-of-water stuff. Did anyone run into him at the DCU game he was at?

Posted by: Matt in Silver Spring | June 17, 2008 8:20 AM

_________________________________________

He's kinda the same type of person that most of my friends that I bring around DCU games are. Think soccer isn't their thing, then really enjoy the total atmosphere of it and want to come back.

@Joe Doc

Completely off topic but how in the world did you come up with the "Ohio Valley Mall"? Except for passing it on the way to Columbus, not sure how anyone knows about that part of the world?

Posted by: kasdc | June 17, 2008 8:50 AM

I went to college in the northern panhandle of W.V. (cue creepy music) and, for Saturday get-aways, we'd head to the Ohio Valley Mall for a movie or bite to eat. Or Wheeling. Or Wellsburg.

I know, I know. Sad. I'm recovering, and the meds are helping...

Speaking of which, where are good places where the setup is such that one can keep two TV screens (as in Netherlands-Romania and France-Italy) within one's field of vision? I'll probably try RFD in Chinatown.
Posted by: tri-village | June 17, 2008 10:22 AM
====================
ESPN at 11th & D has more than 40 tvs on the same floor all showing euros so they should have both games going.

US WNT beat Brazil 1-0. Goal came in the 41st minute by Amy Rodriquez

http://www.ussoccer.com/articles/viewArticle.jsp_6881283.html

Yeah Lucky Bar. You should be able to sit right at the bar and have both games right in front of you.
The drummies are pretty tasty as well.

the good: galaxy supporters group turned the oakland coliseum in to a home game.

-----
dashiel, don't break you arm trying to pat yourself on the back.

Don't fool yourself, Beckham did that, not the LA supporters.

This looks like the group of death to me. Sounds like fun.

Posted by: bennyf118 | June 17, 2008 8:54 AM
--------------------------------------------

Yep, i cant wait to see our boys play Cruz Azul!

Brazil was playing without Marta and others who are in Europe. A win is a win, but this was not Brazil's A team, and it doesn't sound like US really got their attack on track. If Rampone's ankle is anything serious, that could be a real problem in China.

@ Joe Soc:
I went to college in the northern panhandle of W.V. (cue creepy music) and, for Saturday get-aways, we'd head to the Ohio Valley Mall for a movie or bite to eat. Or Wheeling. Or Wellsburg.

I know, I know. Sad. I'm recovering, and the meds are helping...

Posted by: Joe Doc | June 17, 2008 11:14 AM

I understand completely! I grew up 20 minutes from said mall. I never heard of soccer until I went to college. Happy to be out of there!

"dashiel, don't break you arm trying to pat yourself on the back.

Don't fool yourself, Beckham did that, not the LA supporters."

So were all those Bay Area Beckham fans the ones singing Riot Squad songs I heard throughout the broadcast?

For the Good:

I would add that the number of quality finishes being seen in MLS this year is worthy to note. It used to be that the Goal of the Week was maybe one class strike and 4 just for the sake of being on there. But we are now really seeing some goals worthy of highlights in our league.

Here's to hoping that the trend continues and I'll have a reason to buy MLS 2008: Year in Review and 100 Greatest Goals

Geez Ron, glad you're not commisioner of MLS Mr. Doom and Gloom.

Just admit it, you hate soccer now.

Brazil was playing without Marta and others who are in Europe. A win is a win, but this was not Brazil's A team, and it doesn't sound like US really got their attack on track. If Rampone's ankle is anything serious, that could be a real problem in China.

Posted by: OWNTF | June 17, 2008 12:06 PM
=========================================

For whatever reason, Kai sat this out. Also, Barnhart is on the bench, which suggests that:

-- She is healthy once more.

-- She, not Scurry, is #2 on the depth chart.

They say that if you are driving through unfamiliar territory, and you want to know where to eat, you should look for the joints with the 18-wheelers in the parking lot. After all, many, if not most of those people drive up and down that stretch of highway regularly, so they have the biggest incentive to search for decent food at a reasonable price.

Similarly, when I read Ron's posts, I think of the all the people in Montreal, Miami, NYC/Queens, St. Louis, Portland, Vancouver, Las Vegas, etc., etc., who are knocking on MLS' door. These people would be putting their money where their mouth is to the tune of $30 million and up, so I suspect that they have done their homework and know more about the situation than you or I or Ron ever could.

I was at first impressed by the stat about Dallas' record when Cooper scores, but then I said to myself, what is United's record when Emelio scores or JM or Gomez. Am I wrong to speculate that those might lead to strong correlations as well? A baseball analogy would be the Red Sox record when Manny and Big Papi go yard.

Mastodon Juan: I'm surprised you find anti-gay bigotry really funny. I suppose you found the Columbus thing funny too. Sad.

Mastodon Juan: I'm surprised you find anti-gay bigotry really funny. I suppose you found the Columbus thing funny too. Sad.

Posted by: Bootsy | June 17, 2008 2:17 PM

----------------------------

Please, there is a big difference between the two incidents. Are we really that thin skinned nowadays? All this PC crap has gotten out of hand.

Yes, there is a difference between the two incidents. The difference is that lots of people still consider it acceptable to use epithets to refer to homosexuals, but not acceptable to use epithets to refer to people for racial or religious reasons. In more circles than for race or religion, it's still OK to be a bigot if gay people are the object. But that doesn't make it any less classless to put up a huge banner calling a player a "fag".

I always enjoy the reflexive response of "that's just PC crap." Anytime anyone gets called out for any kind of bigotry, you can always count on someone to claim that the reaction is just rampant political correctness. Usually it's deployed to dodge criticism for failing to show not political correctness, but what our grandparents would have called simple courtesy and respect.

Can someone explain the entire sign? Or was it just "Failfagnugen"? Because, quite frankly, it's just dumb and too obtuse to be worth all of these comments.

"Ben Olsen's Ankles = FailFAGnugen"...

fag was in red if I am not mistakened

The stupid sign read:Ben Olsen's Ankles = Failfagnugen.
It was weak. but so are classless Red Bulls fans hiding way the hell up in the top of the stadium.
Me and my boy were on our way up there but found better seats to poach on the way.
They got plenty of jeers and middle fingers from us on all 4 of our goals.
Who cares.
Tell the NY supporters to stop being such wimps and come down closer to the field to support their team.
DC supporters have had lame signs too, the Blanco I beat my wife sign comes to mind regardless if it's true or not. It still is a little funny though.
It could have been worse, they could have thrown streamers from way up top there...

I don't think Yallop has to worry about *consistency* -- they've got that! It's just not the kind of consistency he wants

Yes, there is a difference between the two incidents. The difference is that lots of people still consider it acceptable to use epithets to refer to homosexuals, but not acceptable to use epithets to refer to people for racial or religious reasons. In more circles than for race or religion, it's still OK to be a bigot if gay people are the object. But that doesn't make it any less classless to put up a huge banner calling a player a "fag".

I always enjoy the reflexive response of "that's just PC crap." Anytime anyone gets called out for any kind of bigotry, you can always count on someone to claim that the reaction is just rampant political correctness. Usually it's deployed to dodge criticism for failing to show not political correctness, but what our grandparents would have called simple courtesy and respect.

Posted by: Bootsy | June 17, 2008 3:30 PM

-------------------

Well, I know that you will disagree but in my opinion it is ethnicity vs. a lifestyle choice. Large can of worms there but thats why I feel like the Columbus incident (which included dangerous projectiles) was much, much worse than a stupid sign in the upper deck of RFK.

"Give it a rest": Is religion also a lifestyle choice? After all, people choose a religion, change religions, and choose to follow no religion all the time. If so, would religious epithets be OK?

Reading the bad, I think DC needs to wear hoops when playing Chicago in the playoffs.

Don't understand Louis' problem. Just stay in Barbados for a week dude!

(Barnhart), not Scurry, is #2 on the depth chart.

Boy, do I hope that's true! When does she become #4 on the three-player depth chart?

The sooner they get rid of Scurry and all the other over-pampered WNT vets from the past (Lilly, Wambach) who conspired against Hope Solo, the better the women's national program will be.

"Give it a rest": Is religion also a lifestyle choice? After all, people choose a religion, change religions, and choose to follow no religion all the time. If so, would religious epithets be OK?

Posted by: Bootsy | June 17, 2008 5:43 PM

------------------------

I think you've misunderstood everything I've said...perhaps intentionally I've never said that any of this is "ok." I don't believe it is. I simply stated that what happened in Columbus was much worse and that we shouldn't get all up in arms over something we saw on a stupid sign. I've heard and seen much worse exchanges between opposing fans.

I guess we just disagree. The awful epithet hurled in Columbus was apparently audible only to the people *immediately around* the idiot who yelled it; lots of Columbus fans who determined from the video that they were very near the offender nonetheless never heard it. Without it being captured in a youtube video and posted, none of us would have ever known about it. The "fag" banner, OTOH, was hung in clear view of over 18,000 people for 45 minutes.

And yes, of course supporters groups have done worse, e.g. Red Star's supporters chanting "We hope you die like the Italians at Heysel." But the existence of the very very very bad does not excuse the just bad, you know.

BTW, the DCU F.O. also thought it crossed the line -- apparently the banner was down in the second half because representatives of DCU went up near halftime and spoke to the Jersey fans, and the banner was removed.

You can shrug off bigotry if you like; but I can't silently nod my head in agreement with you, no matter how many times you insist others "give it a rest."

@ Eric B
"So were all those Bay Area Beckham fans the ones singing Riot Squad songs I heard throughout the broadcast?"

=============

The broadcast? Please. It rarely reflects the sound heard in the stadium. Watch the Quakes broadcasts from Buck Shaw, the sound changes from the Ultras to the Casbah depending on which end of the field is being shown.

Are you trying to say that all those fans outside the groups are savvy enough to know the LA soccer songs? I don't think so. I'm also sure there wasn't a run on Buddle jerseys after the game.

The only chant I heard from them was "Beck-ham!" when he got subbed. The only other noise? The screaming whenever he touched the ball. And I was closer to the LA supporters than to the Casbah and Ultras.

Dadryan:

The Red Bull fans weren't hiding in the 400 level. That's where away fans sit at RFK. It happens every time a different team's supporters' group(s) buy tickets. Toronto, New England, and Chicago have all had a group (of varying size) in that section. KC has no travelling support, and Columbus fans seem to just buy random tickets, because you'll see like 10 or 20 spread throughout the loud side when they come to town.

I don't really enjoy defending NY's fans, but calling them scared for sitting where our ticket office tells them to is like blaming them for your car getting a flat tire.

***

On the Olsen sign:

My sober recollection of it was that only "fail" was written in red. I am fairly sure of this. My reaction seeing it was that it was a mediocre attempt at mocking a player we all love, and nothing more. I figured the "fag" portion of the sign was just down to no one checking the spelling of the old VW ad campaign.

Yes, they should have done a more thorough job checking the spelling and being aware that people might look at it and see it as an epithet rather than just an insult. I think it was just an unintentional consequence of lazy banner-making. Granted, I have no inside info and avoid BigSoccer like the plague, so I don't know what their actual position is. Outside looking in, though, I think it's a misunderstanding.

My Bad Chest.
Honestly I never really notice anyone up there, but in the pouring rain from my poached seat they were hard to miss.