Hello all. I am heading back home from Austria today so I won’t be posting today. I would like you all to use this post to discuss the soccer news of the day and to let me know what sort of topics and stories you would like to see more of on SBI.
I will be back this afternoon. Until then, share your thoughts on all things soccer below.
So a lot of guys here didn’t like my comment. (the first one on this thread)
But I ask, what does Ives know about European football that we all dont?
Same sources of info…internet and american TV. How can he know any more?
I love Ives, I’ve been a huge fan of his since before he started writing this blog, or for ESPN,etc. But why should he spread himself too thin? I’d rather him concentrate on the things that make him special, the local stuff, MLS stuff, where he has contacts. Why should I want to hear him talk about stuff he hears from the same places I hear them? It’s not like he’s a former player or administrator who can give us a unique perspective, he’s a journo who’s barely ever played the game at a decent level.
This is not to put Ives down. He’s exremely talented and probably the best MLS blogger out there.
I come to your site for MLS news nothing else.
Sampdoria, like most things on that site you are dealing with more fiction. I took a look at the link you provided and still can’t figure out where those stats are supposedly even from. You would think the people running the site would let us know since they’re trying to make people believe they actually get big traffic.
What a joke.
Ives, Keep the local coverage, as the Red Bull get better (hopefully) and move nito Red Bull Park they will be more fun to follow. I think your Banner at the top says it all and hopefully will be how you continue to write.
“Spanning the world of soccer with an American voice and a Jersey flavor”
I could use additional coverage of the US Nats and Euro soccer. If you have to cut back feel free to leave out Seris A.
Giacomo, Ives watches Euro soccer more than any of us (with the possible exception of a few people based in Europe who post here – YankatOxford, I’m looking at you). And if you know soccer, you know soccer. Ives knows soccer.
And on that note, I’ll echo Chris. I’m pretty much addicted to this site primarily for your insight and analysis and opinions, Ives. I’d like to see more of that, even when you’re just reporting a story.
And the only way MLS Rumors could actually overtake Ives is if they’re paying people to visit them. That site is garbage and I never go there, even though I can’t get my fill of MLS.
Eric – fully understood. You’re right more than I am. 🙂 Just thought I could get away with following this interesting thread without seeing the final result, right after it happened. No big, was pulling for Spurs in this one, so I am glad I did not watch it after all.
Ives, I love your site. You are are feeding my addiction to MLS.
I would like to see more coverage of the USL teams in NY. Long Island Rough Riders, Westchester Flames, Brooklyn Knights.
Of course, wall to wall coverage of the MLS expansion team in Queens will be greatly appreciated.
Hey Ives,
If you are still taking suggestions for topics for future SBI articles, is there any chance you can give reports of US teams camps? (Who’s looking good, etc.) I’ve looked everywhere for something about the U-23 camp but can’t find anything other than who’s there. It would be great to learn a little bit more about some of these guys I don’t know (like Orozco). Thanks.
john in atl – sorry man, but when i’m trying to avoid a score, i don’t check out the comments on a post that invites people to talk about the soccer news of the day…
Ives, more on the American’s abroad and what is going on with Convey. Also, what are your thoughts on Dc United signing Santino Quaranta. And why would any team go to Saltzburg at this time of year?
Yeah it was during the scrimmage with the RB Salzburg senior team reserves today. It happened in the 6th minute.
I know, I thought about the whole faking it idea too… haha there’s no way that would just be too funny. What a soap opera, I love it!
I’d keep the conspiracy theory going. It was what I thought the first I heard of it too. Too easy to do that.
What a brilliant idea. Tell people he’s injured and will be out for a long time (why stop at 6 weeks? Make it 15). RB signs him anyway (after Chicago backs off because of the injury) and WHOA! He makes a miraculous recovery and is ready to go for the first match of the season.
Or am I too prone to believe conspiracies?
“Looks like we won the Red Bull NY vs. Red Bull Salzburg scrimmage today! RBNY came from 0-2 down to win 3-2 on goals by Angel, Sassano, and Magee.
Also, maybe Chicago will lose their interest in Marmol, he injured his hamstring and is supposedly out six weeks! Seriously you couldn’t make this stuff up.”
Really, how many were killed? Just kidding!
Was Marmol injured in that scrimmage?
Looks like we won the Red Bull NY vs. Red Bull Salzburg scrimmage today! RBNY came from 0-2 down to win 3-2 on goals by Angel, Sassano, and Magee.
Also, maybe Chicago will lose their interest in Marmol, he injured his hamstring and is supposedly out six weeks! Seriously you couldn’t make this stuff up.
Ives do you know the results of the waiver draft?
Eric: thanks for logging on right away and ruining the PSV/Spurs result for those of us that were taping it today. Unintentional I’m sure but still. . .
Also, the Liverpool situation would be a very good story. It’s interesting to watch the anti-American sentiment trump what was some harsh criticism of Benitez and his rotation policy (remember 99 straight friggin’ games without the same line up in 2 straight) being out of control. I don’t think the supporters were too much behind him, and certainly the media wasn’t, before Hicks and Gillett got into town, and Rafa was turned into a symbol of “us against them”. The fans pretended like he was the greatest thing they ever had, and the media forgot how often they had said his run at Anfield was done.
Ole, Ole, Ole, Ole, Pe-Ru, Pe-Ru!
Farfan completely outplays both Berbatov and Keane as PSV beats Spurs in the UEFA fist leg, 1 – 0.
@Brett: I didn’t question whether he’s on Bradley’s radar. I just question the level of interest we have shown. I’ve seen the same info you have regarding his indecision. But I find it hard to believe that, if we really wanted him to figure in the MNT’s plans or the U-23s, he would
reject our offers.
Keep up the good work Ives. No drastic changes please. This is the best soccer site alreay so nothing major needed. Only one request – a little more coverage of the Women’s national team pls. Some good stuff goin on there, and some Jersey girls involved too.
Hey Brian,
I think i can answer your question on the Liverpool fans hatred of Gillette and Hicks.
Liverpool fans love Rafa Benitez. I may be the only ‘pool fan in the world who doesn’t, but the hometown fans truly are squarely behind Rafa. When the owners and Rafa had that bit of a falling out, then when the owners disclosed that they had had talks with Jurgen Klinssman about taking over after Rafa, the fans sided with the coach. Coach and ownership have since made up, but i think the damage has been done to the relationship between fans and ownership. Who knows when it will heal.
It would be cool to see some posts that are out of the ordinary, like your favorite stadiums, or behind-the-scenes MLS stuff, etc.
Keep up the good work!
Two requests:
More info on MLS in Seattle. We’re dying for info out here. What’s your take on the massive support in season ticket sales? What are your thoughts on a celebrity joining an ownership team? Etc.
On the Americans Abroad weekly installment, can you add your comments on how they played (not just if they played). I can look up on any site to see IF they played. What would be great would be a one sentence comment on if Eddie Johnson looked out of place or had some nice touches, etc. (for example)
Thanks for all your hard work and I love the site.
Your stories are great and entertaining and sometimes funny and I have learned so much from you. Some stories that I would love to see, especially from an expert like yourself, include:
1. Analysis of whether the Philadelphia franchise will succeed (for full disclosure purposes, I live in the Philly area);
2. Comparison of the American youth teams to the European youth teams and an analysis as to whether America is catching up;
3. More profiles/bio stories of American talent.
Did everyone see the lineups in the DCU vs Chivas game? It reminded me of a line from Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid.
“Who are those guys?”
I noticed Santino Quaranta is now back with DCU again. What happened to this guy? At one point he was doing well on the national team!
Why are so many top young prospects imploding? (Quaranta, Gaven, Magee, Szetela, Martino, the list goes on.)
I think this would be a good topic for an article Ives. Is their talent simply being exaggerated, is it MLS, what’s the problem?
How about Tim Howard and Brad Friedel? The latest Actim ratings show Howard within one point for top golie behind David James, and Brad Friedel is right there in third. Not bad.
@ Ryan: do you honestly think that Bradley doesnt have Subotic on his radar?? Overall its the players choice, and last i hear, he was teetering between the two. im sure Bradley has talked to him and expressed interest.
Keep up the good work Ives. This is the best site I’ve found for an American soccer fan. And Goff’s got nothin’ on you.
Anyways, I’d like to see a piece on Neven Subotic. He seems to be a top prospect and I am wondering why he has yet to be included in our U-23 and full national team plans. It seems to me that we should cap him before Bosnia gets to him.
Keep up the great work Ives. I do have an international question for you or anyone else that’s posting here…
Why do the Liverpool fans hate their owners so much? Is it just because they are American? Or have they done something else (i.e. restricted the war chest, etc)?
Overall, great work. At this point, just piling on to the above, really, but you are at your best when you go deep on a subject matter that most print journalists cannot or will not do. For instance, some profiles of some of the up-and-comers in US Soccer (Stefan Jerome, Charles Rankel, etc) would be interesting.
An interview with Sunil Gulati would also be appreciated–I would love to hear from him what he thinks about US Soccer and what he’s doing to build it out.
Ives, Will u be going to Tampa to cover the pre olimpic qualifying ? also would love to hear any news on what your take is on the upcoming matches for the concacaf champions cup
One more suggestion.
It might be to costly to do, but how about you going to one NYRB in every away city this season. You could report on the game for your NYRB fans, but also give a take on the stadiums, fans, concerns, etc of all the other teams in the league. Might be interesting. I’m sure there are SBI Mafia who would host you when you’re in each town, so airfare would probably be the only expense.
P.S. Doing a great job, Ives!
I agree with John in Atl that doing interviews and taking a topic and getting access to information because of your great contacts is really what I like best.
In this way I agree with Giacomo, in that you are most interesting in using your contacts that none of us could, to get questions we are interested in answered. But I disagree that you should ignore foreign soccer. With your S. American family background, why not try to introduce the SBI Mafia to the different game and leagues in S. America, so people understand and appreciate them?
And give RSL some love every once in a while 🙂
Hey Ives,
Are you traveling on the same flight as the team? Because i saw a picture of the team flying home and the plane they were on was damn fancy. High altitude ballin.
Giacomo is an A-HOLE! If you don’t want to read the EURO stuff then don’t read it. Why would we care what you know about or don’t know about. It’s a soccer site and a good one at that.
I think your site is very well balanced and I think you do well with both the local and International coverage.
I enjoy the news and I enjoy the fun stuff like “You write the caption.”
I would like to see more opinion in your reports. For instance, instead of just listing who was called into the u-23 camp, say which call-ups/omissions surprised you. I know you want some of these things to be discussed in the comments afterwards, but I know a lot of readers would be interested in what you think.
While Ives does excel in local news, unless you report on soccer for a living, I’d say he does know more than you. Plus, his European reporting is pretty objective (minus a few articles used to spark discussion).
I love your articles. As a series of articles, I would love for you to act as general manager and say what each team needs to do, within their relative means, to become a playoff team, contender, or Cup champion. I would also like to hear what you think are realistic goals for each team this year. Thanks.
Luis also said the Fire would make a timely decision on what they are going to do or not do with Marmol. So that is good news.
Overall, keep up the good work Ives. The timely updates are the best on the net and your current balance of info is spot on.
For a story idea, would like to see an indepth feature on the 2 main soccer channels in the US: GolTV & FSC.
The SBI Mafia spends considerable time watching these channels, and one can’t help but wonder how do these channels produce their programming, make money off advertising, etc.
Also would be interesting to know how they get their channels picked up by cable and satellite, and if there are future plans for HD programming. My HDTV is begging for these channels to upgrade!
Ray Hudson & Phil Schoen interviews would be good reading as well. Count me as a big-time La Liga convert!
John in ATL
Luis at the Red Card is saying that the Fire have interest in Linder.. i see fireworks!
Wow,
I could not disagree more. I could really care less about red bulls news. I come to this site to get all of my soccer news in one place and to read the quality feedback. You seem to have a very good grasp of the euro leagues as well as the mls. If you go more local, I would lose interest quickly.
Stick with what you know. Red Bull, MLS.
If I want to get Euro news, I’ll go to someone who knows something about the Euro game. Your forte is definitely local. You have your contacts here. You know more than most about the soccer here.
When I see you post about Euro stuff, or your rankings, I think to myself….why am I gonna read this if I know this guy don’t know much more than I do about it? When I read your MLS and Red Bull stuff, THEN I get informed because you know much more than most about this.