Friday Footie Link List, Feb. 22, 2008

How bad of an idea was the Pan-Pacific Championship? Not even the locals care about it, according to the New York Times' soccer blog. I seriously don't get the point, not even (especially?) from a business perspective. It's a tiny market in the middle of nowhere. Not so fast, though. One blogger in favor is An American's View on Futbol/Football/Soccer and he refuses to pan the Pan-Pacific Championship. Good for him. Diversity of opinion is what makes the blogosphere great. Hey, he has some good points too. Give credit where it's due.

A lot of attention has been given this whole Future of Football report (far more than it deserves if you ask me). PitchInvasion.net and The Offside have some of the more thorough analysis of the whole thing.

American Soccer Daily has an interview with Reading's Bobby Convey. I didn't know Convey was a Philadelphia native--but I like him anyway. In fact, he's one of my favorite U.S. national team players right now--and not only because his game is so un-American. Convey has technique, vision and field presence that I have frankly never seen in a U.S. outfielder (maybe Clint Mathis when he was at his absolute peak, circa 2002. But that was sadly very short-lived). Anyway, read the interview.

Speaking of Philly, Ives asks his readers to suggest names for its new MLS team. Some real good ones there. Some goofy ones too. And all points in between. My favorite is probably the Philadelphia Athletic, though Philadelphia Armpits is probably more appropriate. Watch Philly get a really cool name and built a really good team in no time, kind of like D.C. which also has a cool name and success on the field. Meanwhile, New Yorkers are stuck with a team in Jersey that is named after an Austrian soft drink popular with club kids and which has never won anything. Oh well, at least our mayor doesn't smoke crack.