Good afternoon folks. Since I know there are plenty of SBI readers on the West Coast who often find themselves looking for some news to fill their afternoons, I am going to make it a part of the post rotation to have more late afternoon posts for West Coast readers.
Here are some tidbits to consider as your Monday winds down.
Several stars out for Wednesday Friendlies
If you were hoping to catch a glimpse of the world’s best players in Wednesday’s heavy slate of international friendlies, good luck with that. Cristiano Ronaldo won’t play for Portugal, AC Milan star Kaka won’t play for Brazil, injured Barcelona sensation Lionel Messi is nowhere near ready to play for Argentina, which will also be without Juan Riquelme and Carlos Tevez, Inter Milan striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic won’t play for Sweden against Brazil, and France will be without the trio of Thierry Henry, Patrick Viera and Karim Benzema.
It’s enough to leave you depressed.
So who WILL be playing on Wednesday? Cesc Fabregas should play for Spain against Italy, Wayne Rooney should play for England, Gigi Buffon should play for Italy and Michael Bradley should play for the United States (Just wanted to see if you were still awake).
What will Seattle MLS team’s name be?
The quest to choose the name for the new MLS franchise in Seattle continues and while the club came up with three options for fans to vote on, the reaction to the choices is not that enthusiastic.
Seattle Alliance, Seattle Republic and Seattle FC are the choices fans will have when they vote on the team name on the team’s website, which will accept votes from March 27 to March 31.
I think Seattle fans are right to feel as if they are being rail-roaded into picking Seattle FC. It’s either that or have their team sound like an insurance company or clothing store. The ownership might as well have made the three choices Seattle FC, Portland Timbers or Washington Mutuals.
Seattle fans could just do what some fans of Red Bull Salzburg have done, choosing to continue calling their club by its old name (SV Salzburg) and wearing its old colors as a sign of support for the old name.
Remember ‘Jimmy’ Hoffer?
If you watched the Under-20 World Cup, chances are you may remember Austrian striker Erwin "Jimmy" Hoffer, the forward with the terrible haircut who helped the Austrians knock off the U.S. team in the World Cup quarterfinals.
He had himself a pretty good weekend, netting a hat-trick in Rapid Vienna’s 7-0 thrashing of Red Bull Salzburg. Not only did the result hand Salzburg its first loss at Bullen Arena all season, it helped Vienna retake first place from Salzburg.
No word on whether he got rid of the haircut.