Herpes Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and all that crap!

-From the Royal Review

Ninja...Ninja rap, even

Sorry for the Vanilla Ice reference. I was watching that the other day on Youtube. Hilarious stuff.

ANYWAY, on to the latest from RSL Land (also known to fans as the 19th level of hell):

"The [USA U-23] roster has been reduced to 20 players, with Nate Sturgis (calf) and Adam Cristman (hamstring) not fit enough to make the trip to China." Straight from the US U-23 blog
Thanks RSLFM Report for the heads up.

I hate to think this, let alone say this (and jinx him further), but Sturgis seems to be turning into an injury machine. This is almost certainly giving the (and I use this term VERY loosely) "braintrust" in LA too much credit, but maybe there is a reason they let Sturgis go so easily. Hopefully Nate can use the rest of his time off this offseason to get healthy and come back and have a great year next year. That way we can just call him a "talented player" instead of "talented but injury prone".

On a completely different topic, not a day goes by where I don't hear about (possible and real) signings and trades in MLS, including the latest doozy:
D Bobby Boswell to Houston for GK Zach Wells & a second round draft pick

So Houston, already the MLS champs, trade away their backup goalkeeper for a former MLS defender of the year. Yes, Boswell had a poor season last year, but I think a change in scenery and the motivation to prove himself again bodes well for him and Houston. Meanwhile, RSL does nothing (other than waving goodbye to Eddie Pope and then waiving promising defender Kipre). Somehow I think not changing, and even losing THE key piece of, a team that has yet to make the playoffs while the champs bolster their defense is not the way to bring a winner to Utah.
Even LA is looking to further skirt the salary cap by adding Polish striker Maciej Zurawski to the roster from Scotland's Celtic FC

Meanwhile, there is not a word on any moves coming from RSL's camp. Note to Dave Checketts: 'People like to cheer for winning teams. Especially in sports that may be considered "fringe" by some. Especially in Utah. Try getting some decent and ESTABLISHED personnel in here, including in the front office. Winning can be fun, I promise.'

How RSL plans to suddenly become better than teams that have already proven themselves better than RSL just by losing their top defender is beyond me. Can anyone explain it to me? Anyone?

PS to Dave-Seriously, I love this guy. Open the checkbook.

PPS-

Seriously???

As much as RSL makes me say "What the hell are they thinking?", those in charge of MLS often have me saying the same thing. ESPN has posted a list of all seven opening week games for the 2008 season, with the games to be played on the weekend of Saturday, March 29. Let's take a look:

Toronto @ Columbus
DCU @ Kansas City
NY @ San Jose
Chivas @ Dallas

Nothing too bad about these four, but then there's these 3:

Houston @ New England
LA @ Colorado
Chicago @ RSL


What on earth is MLS thinking??? It's March. Why do you send Houston to the northeast??? Why is Chicago going up into the mountains??? And why, oh why, is LA headed to Denver??? Why are these games not the other way around? Granted, Chicago isn't great in winter either, but I would wager it's nicer than a city that HOSTED THE WINTER OLYMPICS!!! And what was the thought process in sending two warm climate teams to much colder climes in March? Seriously, very odd.

In other news, I'm still super pissed about this Jamie Watson (and to a lesser extent Jimenez) thing. And now, even more details have emerged at the RSLFM report. No employer should ever treat an emloyee that way. Especially if the allegation of basically holding him hostage in order to get something out of Dallas is true. To make matters worse, he was basically the only positive PR face this franchise had. To make matters even worse, he was a solid ballplayer! He seems to be playing well with Dallas according to the 3rd Degree blog (scroll down to the bottom for a Watson blurb).

And finally, a boy can dream can't he? It'll never happen (for various reasons), but, man, I'd love to see Archie Thompson in red... It would make my brown eyes blue...or something...
I wanted to post a good video of one of his truly awesome, over the top goal celebrations but I can't find a good quality one off hand. Let's just say he is possibly beyond even Cunningham in this regard. Here's a couple Archie vids nevertheless:

Here's the main part of the goal celebration:


Here's a modified one, adding the gun celebration:


And a few more for your viewing pleasure:
Archie (13) and Australia (31) set world goal scoring records.
Very nice goal (granted, against lower competition, but still).
A-League 2007 Grand Final Highlights, Archie with 5 goals.

Tell me celebrations like that wouldn't play here in the States. Just try.