Friday Footie Link Feature, Nov. 23, 2007

USsoccerplayers.com is reducing its coverage of MLS next year due to "several incidences concerning access and basic media relations at the local and league level." They lay out their reasons in some detail in an entry on their Web site. It's a shame, because they really do a great job and have poured a lot of resources into covering MLS. Unfortunately, the league didn't reciprocate. You'd think it might be in the league's interest to do what they can to attract media coverage in all its forms, but maybe not. I certainly hope they try to extend an olive branch, but I'm not holding my breath for that either.

Some of you may remember a piece I did a few weeks ago on Indian football. If not, I'll summarize: Basically, Indian soccer sucks so badly it makes the U.S. look like Brazil. I'm not even exaggerating, either. But SoccerBlog.com tells us about the country's football association (the All India Football Federation, or AIFF) is starting a new professional league that is modeled in part on Japan's J-League. As you might imagine, there have already been a few issues.

Speaking of issues, arguably the biggest one this week has been England's failure to qualify for next summer's European championships. The Footie Fool has an interesting factoid on the British singer who performed Croatia's national anthem before that game, apparently butchering one of the lines so badly it literally came out obscene. I thought only Americans pulled stuff like that!

On the subject of Euro 2008, Pitch Invasion's Thomas Dunmore (an England supporter) asks his readers what country to support now that the Three Lions have fallen short of qualifying. He manages to find reasons not to support all 16 teams. My only suggestion to him is to forget about Euro 2008 and tune in to MLS next summer! He gets to watch his countrymen play (Beckham) and coach (Paul Mariner, who may even be a head coach by then) and catch up on some players he may even see in the Premiership soon (Michael Parkhurst, Jozy Altidore, and others).

England's failure holds a cautionary tale for MLS. So says USA Soccer Spot in this missive about the dangers of overexpanding and importing foreign talent. I'm not sure I agree with this conclusion, partly because I'm not sure the influx of foreigners has in fact hurt English football. It has been going downhill for some time (like, since 1966?) nor is this the first time England has failed to qualify for a major tournament. But the arguments are worth looking at and may hold some water. I'm just not convinced yet. More on this at some later date (maybe).

Finally, The Offside Rules (again, don't confuse them with The Offside or Caught Offside) has a piece on Diego Gutierrez' wife that caught my interest, because I had just met her at MLS Cup over the weekend (I walked up to her table in the VIP room--which I later learned I did not have access to--and introduced myself. We spoke for about 20 minutes maybe?). TOR rants and raves about how hot Ms. Gutierrez is--and he's right--but I can also say that she's very cool and well-spoken as well. One thing she isn't, however, is Latina (told me so herself) which is what TOR identifies her as (I'm pretty sure they also spell Gutierrez with two r's, but whatever). But the Gutierrezes are pining for a good cause: NothingButNets.net, which is dedicated to fighting malaria in Africa. Gutierrez himself even has a blog on there. Check it out.