Keep Music Evil!

What is the general consensus on Maurice Edu and Beasley? Damarcus will be moving on it appears, but wonder if Edu has made enough of an impact on the pitch and with the fans to stick around. Was the Beasley injury a couple years ago the beginning of the end for him?

Edu done fantastically well since the "Boozegate scandal", Marcus Beasleys had his moments but far to frequentley injured and not had much of a chance to prove himself, possibly a bit to lightweight for the SPL.

I guess we'll never know!

Please can we have Dean Furman again. Please?

The topic here says Football fans..................of which I am one..........but it doesn't seem to be general a topic as indicated

I might actually understand this thread better if it was written in wingdings.

Well.... give us some input then. Who's yer team??

I'm a REAL footy fan cos I support a shitty 4th division team thus gaining the moral high ground over all the PLASTIC fans who glory hunt after premier league franchises.

I mean... watching your team play Barcelona in Rome for the "Champions" League. How the bloody hell can that compare to Accrington away on a Tuesday night in February??

Its not like I'm jealous or owt...

UP THE BANTAMS!!!!

In the world's view, I think I may have you beat as I am a proud fan of the Chicago MLS club.

Nice try our kid.

HOWEVER....

We ply our pityful trade in the FOURTH tier of English football. OK we draw crowds of 12,000 on average, but we are at a level where a rival club sold 126 season tickets. Yup.. 126.

Serious point now, What crowds do Chicago get? Do you have regional leagues that feed the MLS or is it a closed shop kind of set up?

The crowds fluctuate in Chicago. It can be as low as 9,000 or as maany as 20,000+ if the stadium sells out. I'm not sure about season tickets, but it is more than 126. They recently built a new stadium outside the city, so now they are in the battle with marketing to get people to go to the games. The Front Office definitely has some issues, but there is a grass roots supporters section that pack their area for the full 90 at home and have several that will travel to away matches when possible. Right now there is no promotion/relegation in any soccer leagues in the US. There are different divisions, but they don't feed one another. It's a very young league, 13 years I believe, and there are still plenty of kinks to work out. They have a new team joining in 2010 and two in 2011, so it is expanding. It's just going to take some time.

Are you sure about this? Portland has a USL team (second division) and has just been awarded an MLS team to arrive in 2011. However, some of its current players have moved up or down from current MLS teams.

Mbbcfc, you might be interested to know that Portland's team will play Burnley FC in July. Before that though, they host Club America (Mexico). On average, the attendance is 7,000-11,000. Their exhibition game against the Mexican club though will bring out the latino population in force and it will swell the attendance to 15,000+. That said, the latinos will all be supporting their Mexican club and not Portland.

What happened is the city of Portland was awarded an MLS franchise, so the USL team will be no more once the MLS club begins play. They didn't finish in top spot and were promoted. The same goes for Seattle, which is in it's first season in MLS this year after several years in USL. It's MLS expansion rather than promotion. Philadelphia will join the MLS next season, and they don't have a USL club at all. MLS was taking bids from several cities for expansion and Seattle, Portland, Vancouver, and Philladelphia "won". I guess technically you could say that they were/are promoted but not in the same sense in the English divisions, as they didn't necessarily earn it on the pitch.

Yes, I understand the expansion vs promotion thing. What I meant was, each year our roster changes and we get some players who were "relegated" from MLS to USL and some of our better players get "promoted" to MLS teams. So there is movement with the players.

Portland may have been awarded a team but it will only get it if the city pays the money for the stadium improvements and finds a new home for our current minor league baseball team. With current budget cuts across the state, 12% unemployment (second highest in nation), school cuts etc. the idea of spending 80 million on a stadium doesn't sit too well with the public.

Ahh, I see what you meant. Sorry to hear about such a high unemployment rate, and hope things turn around.

Who owns the players? Is it not the clubs themselves?