Social media has been a revelation for players and fans to engage in talks, express themselves to each other and establish a stronger relationship. There's a downside to tweeting before thinking things through, however.
Vancouver Whitecaps midfielder Lee Nguyen used a homophobic slur in a joke-toned tweet at teammate Brad Knighton Monday night, drawing immediate backlash. He promptly deleted the tweet, issued an apology and corresponded with the advocacy website Gay4Soccer, but the damage had been done. The Whitecaps issued a warning to both players but is not taking any further disciplinary action.
In a club statement, team president Bob Lenarduzzi wrote: "Earlier (Monday), two Whitecaps players engaged in an exchange on Twitter that the club considered unacceptable. The players involved acted swiftly to remove the tweets on their own accord. We believe that the involved players are both sincere in their regret, and in their apologies. The club has issued the players a formal warning."
Here are a few more items from around MLS:
RAPIDS EYE PLAYMAKER
The Colorado Rapids' makeover continues to take shape.
According to the Denver Post, the club is set to announce the acquisition of 22-year-old Argentine playmaker Martin Rivero, who is currently with Argentine club Rosario Central but is reportedly on the outs with the club after a winter dispute.
Rivero would be the second South American attacking midfielder brought into the club after the addition of Colombian Jaime Castrillon a few weeks ago. The duo would bring a sense of attacking flair to the Rapids midfield that has long been lacking as the club shifts its philosophy under new coach Oscar Pareja.
BROWN TO BE HONORED BY FIRE
Former Chicago Fire defender and captain C.J. Brown will be inducted into the club's Ring of Fire when Chicago hosts Real Salt Lake on May 9.
Brown, now an assistant coach for RSL, was a Fire original and spent his entire MLS playing career with the club. He is the Fire's all-time leader in appearances (372) and will join Peter Nowak, Lubos Kubik, Frank Klopas, Peter Wilt, Chris Armas and Bob Bradley among those enshrined in the Ring of Fire.
SOUNDERS DRAW ORLANDO CITY
Sammy Ochoa scored an equalizer to help the Seattle Sounders to a 1-1 draw with Orlando City SC in an exhibition in Bradenton, Fla., on Monday.
Orlando took the lead in the first period (the game was split into three 30-minute periods) through Dennis Chin before Ochoa tied the score in the 53rd minute, as he took a feed from Mike Seamon on the left side of the box and finished to the far post.
Seattle had a chance to win the game, but Servando Carrasco had his late penalty kick hit the crossbar after he had been taken down in the area.
GALAXY CUT THREE
The Los Angeles Galaxy cut three players on Monday, parting ways with Ryan Thomas, Dustin McCarty and Stephen Posa.
Posa is the most notable of the bunch if only because he was taken with the draft pick acquired by the Galaxy from Chivas USA in exchange for Juan Pablo Angel. Thomas appeared in just the regular season finale last season in his rookie campaign out of Stanford, while McCarty, the younger brother of New York Red Bulls midfielder Dax McCarty, did not make an appearance in 2011, his rookie season.
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What do you make of the Nguyen situation? Do you like the Rapids' new approach? Think Brown is a deserving inductee? Reading anything into the Sounders' preseason results so far?
Share your thoughts below.
Are you a terrorist too? Would not be surprised, since you have brains of one.
Sure that a creator exists is probably true, but there is no evidence that this creator is christian and follows the bible, so saying the bible is fact is a huge strecth
no.
Nothing comes from nothing.
What existed before the universe was a singularity? Research it and when you die before you find out; you’ll believe in a creator.
I said, force yourself to be with, not upon. A subtle difference in wording, but a big difference in meaning. I say this because, apparently you are of the opinion that your sexuality is a choice. I assume you take your own personal experience into account when making this statement and that it does not contradict your little thesis. Anyhow, based on your statement- you aren’t w/ women because it comes naturally, that you involuntarily, reflexively, innately find them attractive….you could swing either way, but you choose to be with women. Interesting.
“Studies show”, that’s hilarious. Maybe it’s OK to choose your toothpaste based on that logic, but science doesn’t so much work that way. Maybe you need to expand the scope of your reading above and beyond random websites and pamphlets dispensed by special interests that moralize/politicize science. Look up nature vs. nurture for starters, you might find the influences on who and what we are and become are a bit more complex than you think. Cheers.
Force my self upon women, really!!! Is that your best. I do read and maybe you should read and you’ll understand how small sounds or images can be imprinted on a child brain. Studies show to is the reason for being gay and its a choice.
I’m pretty sure heterosexuality gets celebrated on an almost daily basis in our culture. TV shows that glamorize sex, pretty much every pop song on the radio, jewelry commercials……I mean, c’mon. How exactly do we repress the celebration of homosexuality?
what censorship? is it so much to ask to not be offense to people in public? how deep do you think this idea is? yes, we are conforming to trying to respect each other. there is no call for everyone to think the same way, just to understand that some people do and think different things and that is okay.
in what way(s)?
even if being gay was a choice, which the majority of science does not support, why does it matter?
right, like that is right around the corner. this was something public that nguyen did, so not just between friends, he apologized and removed the tweet, and i don’t think he meant anything by it, although it was insensitive to any ENTIRE group of people. I don’t think people understand the stigma that goes with being gay, i mean it doesn’t seem like a big thing to ppl who don’t have to deal with it, but for them having your identity be always tied to negativity and hate is not easy. in private is one thing, but making it public brings those negative feelings to the forefront in a senseless way
no one is forcing any beliefs, the only message is to judge people individually based on their character instead of insulting a wide base of people for no reason.
they’re public figures whether they like it or not, there is no escaping the fact that young and impressionable fans look at what you do. you don’t have to be perfect, but you do have a responsibility, it’s part of being a professional and being an adult
there is actual scientific proof, read a book
No, I’m actually in agreement with you there. I have no problem with comedians making offensive jokes. Because there’s no way to have a hard and fast standard about what’s OK to say and what’s not, the best course of action IMO is to just be reasonable about whether or not something you say might cause pain to someone else. Forum and audience matter. A comedian can reasonably believe that people who would be offended by racist (or whatever) jokes would avoid his performances (and yeah, a lot of my favorite comedians say things that could be incredibly offensive to some). But a soccer player writing comments on Twitter should know that his comments are going to reach a wide audience of people who have no way of reasonably expecting that he might say something homophobic. There are more ambiguous situations for sure where it’s harder to know what’s reasonable, but that general rule of thumb works most of the time for me.
I didn’t interject science into the discussion, smartass. Read up.
You’ve missed the point entirely anyway. He implies that his standard is that he only believes what is proven, and then chooses to believe what is unproven.
You’re entitled to your own opinions. You’re not entitled to your own facts.
I hear ya, people should just agree to disagree and move on
Have to disagree with you here Joamiq. My favorite comedians are always the most offensive. Why should they get to be and I can’t with same intent (which is to laugh and to poke and stretch societal constraints)?
-Lenny Bruce, George Carlin, Bill Hicks, Dave Chappelle….
Being PC means that I can have a gay parade, however, you cannot celebrate being heterosexual. Being tolerant means that I don’t agree with your beliefs, however, I don’t treat you differently because of those beliefs. Writing this many posts because you want to force your beliefs on another person, instead of talking about soccer, just makes you boring.
Who are you calling knuckle draggers?
Racist!
See how this game works?
I’m a native Pig Latin speaker and you have offended me!
The Bible is slowly being proven as a fact with the more we learn about the universe. It’s been awhile since you’ve listened to Stephen Hawking, I take it. Unless you study physics (professionally) on any level, don’t mock any God or Allah because physics is proving more than disproving many religious texts.
Science would have to prove that it is genetic. Your argument holds no weight. Think hard about it next time before you interject science into a discussion.
It’s the double standard that plagues all progress and the reason the discrimination still exists.
The use of the term gay does not display the education level of somebody. Crawl out of your hole.
Sir, being a person of Moronic American descent, I DO take great offense!
Haaas to be joking… right? Don’t project Tywon. Just because you have to use great effort to choose/force yourself to be with women, don’t assume that it is the same for everyone. For some, I’d suspect the vast majority… sexuality is completely natural- attraction to one sex comes without choice, force or effort… it is inborn. We put way too much emphasis on people’s sexuality. Other than the woman I am with, I could care less what someone does behind closed doors.
I think the real story here is that anyone noticed, that people are actually paying attention to and reporting on marginal MLS players on expansion team’s Tweets!
MLS is all growedsed up, it’s all growedsed up!!!!
Ron Paul! Yea!!! I’ve seen it over in the American Outlaws but now I have to see it over here? Libertarian right wing talking points. PUKE.
Well, I’m a conscientious objector so I shouldn’t have my taxes go to war. Not to get sidetracked but religion is a belief just like any other. If you believe the world is overpopulated should you have to pay for public schools? That Nguyen is one funny ni**er, what a little slave!
Again, this is what you believe. It’s not an objective examination of both sides , which some of us (I was a divinity student for a decade) have actually done.
You’re stating what you believe are facts. I’d challenge you to go out and look for the perspectives that disagree with your preconceptions, because on the face of it, this statement is ridiculous. An overwhelming number of members of the scientific community are both agnostic and believe being gay is not a choice.
First, let me educate you. God is all things,Albert Einstein said that he believed in god. He said that our thoughts, actions and behavior could affect another part of the universe. Think of the universe as god mind and we are connected to the mind. Also we are all energy. From us touching a table, to the atoms that make up are body, we are energy. Science says,that energy can not be destroyed but transformed into something else.Science is now starting to understand that the mind is not connected to the brain, the mind exist outside the brain. So science is starting to catch up with religion. However being gay has no science backing. Many scientist believe being gay is a choice, they believe that imprint of sexual tendencies happens at child hood. They do not agree that you are born with it. So lets examine the information, being gay according to scientist is a choice that the brain comes to when a child sees or hears that sexual action. In other words its a choice.
Wow at some of the comments in this thread, with relatively anonymous usernames the true feelings come out…
Refusing to look for information that might contradict your existing belief, and instead putting the onus on everyone else to try to change your mind, is intellectually lazy and — based on the fact that we rationalize using the best available evidence and not just what we like — profoundly illogical.
Unfortunately, that’s human nature. We’re hardwired cognitively to stick to beliefs, because it keeps us in groups that we subconsciously believe will protect us, via the strength of numbers.
I’ll put it to you this way, Tywon: there’s enough physiological evidence, from the development of the cortex of the brain to the common occurrence in twins, to suggest being gay is something you are born with.
In fact, there’s a lot more evidence that being gay is biological than there is — because there’s none — that there’s a God.
The same people from who you get your information would have told you 500 years ago that the Earth was both flat and the center of the solar system — that was accepted Christian perspective at one point, too.
The only good thing about this whole debate is seeing which commenters are going to embarrass their grandchildren in 10-20 years with their quaint beliefs.
“Okay, kids, remember to thank grandpa tywon for the birthday card, but don’t bring up civil unions around him. He was raised in a different era, that’s all.”
Because people are freaking stupid that’s why. People sleeps with freaking animals too, were they born that way too? Is there a freaking gene for that too?
“Get over it this same PC is what has people scared in offices in any job of being sued for harrasment of any kind. People need to drink a pill of man the fu$: up and learn to tell people directly if there is something they don’t like. ”
Wow Ives, some of your readers f***ing suck. Is this^ person referring to sexual harassment laws? There are some unbelievable opinions on this blog.
Its a choice so me a gene and maybe i’ll change my mind.
The only “choice” is either to live free and be yourself, or hide and live a double life.
My attractions were never a choice, they are what they are and they are a part of my being.
Thank you!
Did you see that 30 Rock when the “Idiots Alliance” held a protest.
a joke, right? please?
Zing!
I thought Tywon was joking/trolling until I saw his second post. Wow.
Tywon, how’s that life of ignorance treating you? That is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. It is not a choice. I am heterosexual, and that is not a choice either. That is the way I am programmed.
How old are you, anyway?
I like how the people complaining about PC run amok are pretending like removing a word used to hate people from their vocabulary is just such a burden. this is the bigot test. Do you walk upright or do your knuckles drag on the ground? Well since half the country are rightwingers that is kinda self answering.
+1
Wow….
the word “awkward” offends me becasue of some experiences in the past. Plesae don’t use that word. Thank you.
Why do people chose to base Jump? Very dangerous but they do it for the thrill.
What a queer world we live in.
You’re only seeing the surface of the issue though. What PC claims to want to do and what it actually does is different.
You can see the results of PC adherence in the de facto censorship of our culture. The widespread conformity and groupthink is evidence enough. Not that odd to me.