August 8, 2007
Apparently the work that Thierry Henry started with the "Stand Up Speak Up" campaign needs to continue.
A segment of fans of FK Zeta were heard making monkey chants directed at DaMarcus Beasley and Jean-Claude Darcheville of Glasgow Rangers in a UEFA Champions League qualifier last evening.
But, the US midfielder would get the last laugh as he scored the lone goal of the match in the 81st minute and Rangers advanced in the qualifying stage 3-0 on aggregate.
Hopefully the goal is the first of many this season for the American winger.
News & Notes:
- This Is American Soccer.com has a story that could have been really cool. Some members of the Red Bulls were going to play a pick up game with one of Steve Nash's teams. Alas, the killjoys that police Central Park put the kibash on the game.
- John Ellinger has stepped down as techical director with Real Salt Lake. Somehow, I can only think that this is a good thing for a club that has never been able to come up with the winning formula.
- The Red Bulls are releasing more info on their new training facility. With the facility set to open in December 2008, it will only barely beat out the opening of Red Bull Park.
- Fans that want to bring MLS to Phoenix, Arizona have a presence on the web and they want to make a road trip to LA for a Chivas USA-DC United game. I wonder if this will mean all that much in the big scheme of things. Somehow I doubt it.
- Paul Gardner at the NY Sun has an article on young American players moving abroad. And while the article focuses largely on Freddy Adu's move to Benfica, there were a bunch of members of the US U-20 team in Canada that were already plying their trade in Europe, most notably Michael Bradley, and Adu isn't the only member of the team moving to Europe after the tournament (Sal Zizzo and reportedly Danny Szetela). Hopefully this does mean good things for the USMNT down the road as in the short term, it's certainly not helping MLS.
- With Beckham doubtful for LA's match versus DC tomorrow night, Frank Giase looks at the downside of the hype. But really, even if LA were saying that Beckham would be out two months a month ago, that wouldn't have stopped the hype that was building as soon as the move was announced.
- Congrats to Rhinos Women midfielder Camie Bybee and Washington Freedom midfielder Casey Zimney for being named to the W-League Championship All-Tournament Team.
The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author, and not necessarily those of the Rochester Rhinos or SoccerSam.com. Feel free to send any comments or complaints to news@soccersam.com. James promises to read (but not to respond) to all of them.
