Wednesday, June 27, 2012

A football pipe dream.

Reliant to bid for title game of new college football playoff, Joseph Duarte, Chron.com
The city of Houston and Reliant Stadium plan to make a push to host college football's new football championship game, the head of the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority said Tuesday night.
"We decided we want to aggressively pursue this opportunity for Houston," said Janis Schmees, the executive director of the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority. "We want the decision-makers to know Houston is serious about hosting."

Of course they do. And hopefully we can pack thousands hundreds of people onto the toy train and run them up and down 7 miles of line, (maybe even re-opening some of the downtown dance clubs that closed!!) to play a game in a middling stadium, in an isolated part of town with few amenities, possessing a sub-par turf that's typically brown, patchy and slippery.

Or, they could play in larger stadiums with better amenities in either Dallas of Phoenix.

What do you think the answer is going to be?

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Sad day for USMNT, but not for Soccer in the US

Once again, Jose de Jesus Ortiz gets it wrong.....

Sad day for soccer when you can watch Mexico for free, but not the US, Jose de Jesus Ortiz, Chron.com
It’s a sad day in America and a definite step back for soccer in the U.S. when fans of the Red, White and Blue can watch Mexico’s World Cup qualifier for free on the same day they must pay to watch the U.S. against Guatemala
Yes, it sucks for the USMNT (who will be playing to a crazy Guatemalan audience but almost no one in the US tonight) but for soccer overall it doesn't even put a ripple in the pond.

More importantly, we can still get Euro 2012 on ESPN. (which, amazingly, Ortiz has not even covered)

When he's not spending his time ripping on (USMNT head coach) Jurgen Klinsmann for not being somehow "American enough" (hint: he's German, and understands what it takes to win at the highest levels) or taking childish pot-shots at MLS' most popular player Ortiz is typically getting it 100% wrong when discussing the beautiful game.

You would think that, in America's 4th largest city and a hotbed for football, the newspaper could get someone to write on the game who at least has a working knowledge of how it's played at the highest levels.


(Hint: the USMNT is NOT competitive at the highest levels, the game against Brazil laid that out fairly clearly)