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.