Good afternoon folks. It is that time again. Time for you to send your soccer questions my way and time for me to try and either give you an answer or give you my opinion on the subject.
You know the drill. Send one or two questions of modest length to me and I will try to answer them by next week (key word being try).
Also remember to check out the Q&A archives. Chances are if you aren’t a regular reader and you have a question, I may have already answered your question before. If you submit a question and I don’t answer it then it’s because I have answered it before.
Let’s get it started, Send your questions my way.
NO MORE QUESTIONS!! Thanks to all of you who took part.
Bonjour Ives. At what level could Brazilian star Marta compete at the men’s level? MLS? English Championship? Below USL? Bundesliga? I have no idea.
The USMNT right flank: Donavon’s more effective in the middle supporting striker role, Dempsey doesn’t provide enough defensive cover against good left flank opposition… Is there another realistic option for 2010? Maybe a positional switch for an existing player and/or a new option that we haven’t considered?
Is Red Bull Arena being built to support expansion as the previous stadium designs have.
Ives:
Tomorrow you wake up and realize you’re the Colorado Rapids FO.
After therapy, you are tasked with hiring a new coach and shaking up the roster.
Who do you hire, and what roster moves do you make?
Great site- I visit several times a day. My #1 site for soccer updates.
Ives-
Yes or No time again!
1- Sunderland stays up this year.
2- Rangers break Celtic’s string of SPL titles.
3- Celtic gets out of the group stages again.
Have a good one.
With all the money going into the EPL right now, especially to Manchester City, it’s obvious that at least one really big club will be left out of the Champions League. Will England at some point get a 5th CL spot, and are those decisions made each year?
I liked your post about road qualifiers. A lost is made of the hostile crowds of CONCACAF opposition. Do small European countries have the same kind of crowds?
This is hypothetical, if the USA and England were to switch places for qualifying, how do you think each team would do?
With MLS picking off USL cities how will the USL going to keep on without the flatline?
Do you think that the USL could do Prom/Rel.?
Lastly what do you think how many more spots on the rosters do MLS teams need to compete in all these events,and what is a realistic bump up in salary cap?
Not a question – I just wanted to say that the Q&A is one of the coolest bits of soccer journalism I’ve ever seen. Guess that’s why I submit so many questions to you. It’s interaction like this that keeps your readers so loyal. You rock.
Biggest scandal in American soccer history?
Hypothetical for you: If Tim Howard were hurt for a crucial game, do we go with Guzan, or does BB make a desperate call to Keller and/or Friedel?
Yo, Ives. I heard the great story about the three Cuban soccer players who defected in Tampa during the Olympic qualifying tournament. I heard that they took a bus all the way from Florida to LA to be on trial with the Galaxy. My understanding was that the goalkeeper was pretty good. What ever happened with those dudes? Were they released by LA? Did another team pick them up?
Based on players under contract, and what you expect for off-season activity, any early guesses at which teams are headed up or down for next MLS season? Watch out for RSL? LA continue to suck? DC/NE get healthy?