Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Kevin Payne is asking for your help
Below is a personal letter sent to D.C. United Supporters from United President and CEO Kevin Payne. I agree with the letter completely, and hope you will make it out. D.C. United, unlike most teams in MLS, truly measures itself on how many Championships they win. Everyone counts, and it's been nearly four years since the last major Cup was added to the largest trophy case in MLS.
Here's the letter. See you on the 3rd!
Dear United Supporter,
On Wednesday, September 3, 2008 D.C. United will play the Charleston Battery in the Championship match of the 2008 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. We are committed to winning this championship, but we need your help to do it!
The U.S. Open Cup is important to us for a number of reasons. It is the oldest national soccer competition in America. We were the first MLS team to win it, but we' ve not won it since. Most important, winning the Championship will secure our place in the 2009 CONCACAF Champions Cup.
This has already been a very busy season for the D.C. United family, and the support we've received from our supporters has been, as usual, the best in the league! But, we need you again!
Please come out on September 3rd and help carry DCU to victory in this important Championship. Many of you have already received an invoice for the match -- all you have to do is go on-line, pay the invoice, and print your tickets at home.
If you have not received an invoice yet, contact your sales representative or D.C. United Customer Service at 202-587-5000 or via e-mail at dcucustomerservice@dcunited.com
With your support, we can add another great trophy to our legacy as America's most decorated soccer team.
I'll see you at RFK on September 3rd!
Best wishes,
Kevin J. Payne
President/CEO of D.C. United
Labels: d.c. united, U.S. Open Cup
Monday, August 18, 2008
Bruce Arena's LA Erasure
With Bruce Arena’s hiring out in LA LA Land, another chapter in a very long story is about to begin. With the exception of his admittedly ill-timed stint in New York, every thing the stoic coach has touched has been considered a success. No one can argue that his time with UVA and D.C. United was anything less than spectacular, and not many national team coaches spend eight years and two World Cups in a job, including a Quarterfinal appearance.
But with New York his last gig, Arena clearly could use another successful bookend to squash that time from memory. And other than reserving the right to wish hateful, miserable things on the Galaxy whenever they face D.C. United, I hope he succeeds.
I am a big Bruce Arena fan, and also beleive a successful Galaxy team is necessary in order for MLS to maximize their David Beckham investment return.
Good luck to "the Bruce". Just no so much when you're facing the Black and Red.Labels: Bruce Arena, d.c. united, David Beckham, LA Galaxy
Friday, June 13, 2008
Flawed Logic in Stadium Fight
Yesterday, David Nakamura of the Washington Post published a story about a trio of political opponents to public financing of sports stadiums who are trying to stop the District Council from helping keep D.C. United in the city. It’s the same trio that tried to stop the baseball stadium – and failed.
They claimed then that was a bad investment by the city and that tax dollars shouldn’t be used for a soccer stadium. However, in typical political fashion they’re conveniently “spinning” the truth while using several key arguments against the project.
First, the D.C. government isn’t planning to levy any new taxes at all to help pay for the facility. They’re using excess (and unexpected) funds from the baseball stadium revenues.
Second, Umm, guys? If the baseball stadium hadn’t been built, there wouldn’t have been excess revenues in the first place, yet you opposed that too.
Third, in the same breath they used to say the MCI Center was a success [thanks to a large number of events there per year], they betray their own claims of intelligent debate by saying there would only be 30 events per year at a new soccer stadium. Yet even a caveman would know the Washington Freedom, Major League Lacrosse, college and high school sports, concerts, and other special events would clearly stand in line to use the facility.
In my opinion a D.C. United Stadium anywhere outside of the city would be a disaster that represents the difference between soccer becoming truly main stream in this country within the next 10 years as opposed to the next 30 - if ever. This country needs to prove to our own eurosnobs that we can match the overall experience and passion that goes with the sport world wide. And when we do, the sports columnists, TV dollars, and international stars will follow.
D.C. United has an opportunity to become the first truly global soccer team from this part of the world by offering a game-day experience with real "buzz" and a palpable energy from the stands that burns the experience into fans' amygdalas, creating a craving to return again and again (addiction). We need an atmosphere that is hardly discernible from attending a match in London or Berlin, and to get that the stadium has to be downtown, surrounded by commercial businesses, pubs, restaurants, and public gathering spaces in order for that to happen.
MLS does not need another suburban stadium. The final location of where to build this stadium needs to be where we draw a line in the sand and refuse to let soccer be pushed to the edges of the mainstream.
Sign the petition
Contact the Mayor
Contact City Council
Tell D.C. United you won't attend games outside the City
Discuss the issue:
Soccer Insider
BigSoccer.comLabels: d.c. united, stadium
Monday, April 14, 2008
Remembering a forgettable night in Salt Lake
I took the time to put some thoughts down over on a BigSoccer discussion thread, and thought I might share it here to.
The subject - D.C. United's horrible loss to the horrible Real Salt Lake on a horrible field.
Although the thread topic was "fire the coach", my contribution was more reflective of the meaninglessness of the MLS regular season, and offered the idea that coach Tom Soehn actually made a smart decision in not really going for the win - but rather wanting to see if the bench could win.
Here is/was my take (BTW, my BigSoccer handle is "chummer"):
I really felt while watching [the DC/RSL match Saturday] that [Coach] Soehn had literally punted this game on purpose. Not that they didn't want to win, but that they really didn't care if they won or not. This game was NEVER going to mean anything. It was depressing, disappointing, and even a little inspiring at the same time for me:
Depressing because we really looked bad - not a single player had a "good" game, and it just wasn't soccer. Any game with visible "throwball" lines is depressing for me, even the ManU v Arsenal match would be depressing played on turf with football lines. Pushing to build SSS is the best thing MLS ever did, and will go down in history as the BIGGEST reason the league survived the "early years" when historians look back in 40 years when we're bigger than Hockey and Baseball.
Disappointing because with all talk about our adding "depth", this game made it look like we were no better off than a crappy team like RSL that has a brand new front office and barely a candle to hold against our foreign recruiting relationships. Have we really invested all this effort only to have to rely on $17K/year reserve players?
A little Inspiring because I actually get a warm fuzzy thinking that Soehn basically stood up on the mountain top - literally - and screamed to the league
"I'm not going to waste my time trying to win every MLS regular season game because it's a meaningless endeavor that only keeps us from our primary goals. Teams that only have MLS Cup to play must take seriously what I cannot, because D.C. United has other major concerns. All we have to do in the MLS regular season is get results at RFK and then peak at playoff time."
The inspiration continues as I imagine him continuing with "The season is all about winning a couple of tournaments for us. We put our all into CCC and clearly could have advanced, while beating the so called "best" team in Mexico. We will now focus on SuperLiga and the Champions League, and winning at RFK so we can also then focus this Fall on the tournament that is MLS Cup playoffs. EVERYTHING ELSE between now and those tournaments is little more than training for us. As long as we win 9 games we'll be in the MLS Cup playoffs, so take your away games on a concrete field with throwball lines and shove it MLS."
If this thought process is even close to what TS was/is privately thinking, then we shouldn't fire him, we should enshrine him for knowing how to focus on what's really important. And who can blame the players for not thinking the same thing. You never like to see a professional "take a night off", but we did, and it was a good lesson, but it is in the past now and should be completely forgotten, as most of the regular season in the early months truly is forgettable.Labels: d.c. united, Real Salt Lake, Tom Soehn, Turf Fields
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
A re-Sounding victory for fans everywhere
You may or may not have been following the naming saga going on up in Seattle over their newly approved MLS franchise. The team will join the league this time next year after several years with a dominating USL-1 team named "Seattle Sounders". Well, with that team "put on hold" because it's owners were part of the group starting the MLS team, the fan base and brand for "Seattle Sounders" just happened to be ripe for use by the MLS startups desperate to get busy with their marketing efforts.
The team owners simply did not want to use the "Sounders" name, which I'm assuming was because they wanted to separate themselves from ever being confused as a 2nd-tier pro club in the USA. Big mistake guys!
Offering very uninspiring choices "Seattle FC", "Seattle Alliance", and "Seattle Republic", the 14,500 fans that voted mounted a write-in effort that would make Ralph Nadar so proud of his Green constituents in the upper northwest. So, "Seattle Sounders FC" it is. We'll see you in April 2009 boys, just don't take any of our D.C. United players in the expansion draft, and we might buy you a drink when you come to RFK for your first reSOUNDING defeat.Labels: d.c. united, MLS, Seattle Sounders FC
Friday, April 4, 2008
Has United bitten the hand that feeds them?
When I'm coaching, and need a way to pick a player or a team that gets first dibs on something for a drill, etc.. instead of telling someone to "pick a number between 1 and 10", I usually ask a question about a recent pro or college game on TV, and the first player to answer correctly "wins".
On Wednesday night, I asked a group of U13 girls if anyone could tell me the score from the D.C. United game from the night before. They had no idea, but I got an instantaneous chorus of good guesses, with one girl obviously guessing the correct 2-0 without any real clue.
So, I DQ'd everyone on the grounds of poor support of the black and red, and gave them a follow up question. The results disturbing, and it really made me think about the risk of such a high player turn over undoing all the work United has done "branding" themselves to thousands of kids they literally depend on attending each game.
My question was "name five current D.C. United players". The answers were not guesses, but they were disturbing, and should make Dan Giffin and Scott Miller pretty nervous -
Player - "Freddy Adu!"
Coach - "ahhh, nope."
Player - "umm, umm, umm, ohhh Gomez - Christian Gomez, ha hah!"
Coach - "NOPE"
Player - "WHAT?"
Coach - "They traded him"
Player, "WHY!!!, He's awesome. That was stupid."
Coach - "Sorry, don't take it out on me"
Player - "oo oo, Gros, that Josh guy with the cast"
Coach - "nope, he retired"
Player - "darnnit!"
Player - "I know, Eleco"
Coach - "nope, common guys you've got know someone."
Player - "I loved Eleco! What's going on?"
Player - "Why'd they get rid of Gomez? That was really dumb"
Coach - "sorry, but they got someone better instead"
Player "nu ahh, Gomez was the best, that's dumb"
Player - "Oh yeah... Perkins baby!!"
Coach, "nope, he went to Europe"
Player - "ahhhh!"
You get the point right? These girls rattled off more names of players than most youth players could, thanks no doubt to all the games I've taken them to over the years and my regular use of United Trivia in practices.
The fact that all the D.C. United players they had come to know were not gone, created an immediate backlash. DCU had finally taken root with youth players, only to turn them off by selling/trading/losing all the players they've worked so hard to "brand" all this time. All of us "adults" perfectly understand trying to bring in new players that are "supposed" to improve the team, but it sure must drive the marketing staff crazy! And if the team doesn't perform, there surely will be a lot of "see, I told you so" around the office staff water cooler at RFK.
I'll close with this, then ask your thoughts:
The player that LOVES Gomez so much asked - "What team did he go play for?"
Coach - "Denver"
Player - "When they play Denver, that's who I'm rooting for - GO DENVER!"
Coach - "ouch. I might have to cut you now"Labels: d.c. united
Sunday, January 13, 2008
D.C. United stadium study to be conducted by State of Maryland
You have to be a subscriber to the Baltimore Business Journal to read the whole thing, but they just updated their web site with the opening of an article about the study.
It says the Maryland Stadium Authorty will oversee the study in order to access the potential economic impact of a new soccer stadium for D.C. United in Prince George's County, Maryland. Supposidly, in a letter written by Senate Budget Committee Chair Ulysses Currie, the stadium authority will use as much as $75K in non-budgeted funds for the study.Labels: d.c. united
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Don't email D.C. United
At least not this week. I hope you're not trying to contact anyone with an @dcunited.com email address. It will bounce back. Not clear as to why, but have confirmed many there are without email access. Why they don't use a third party with a guaranteed mail uptime in this day and age is puzzling. In any case, all systems are predicted to be up and running next week. If you've sent any emails this week, it's probably a good idea to re-send again next week just in case. We don't want them to miss any big ticket orders!Labels: d.c. united
Here's the letter. See you on the 3rd!
Dear United Supporter,
On Wednesday, September 3, 2008 D.C. United will play the Charleston Battery in the Championship match of the 2008 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. We are committed to winning this championship, but we need your help to do it!
The U.S. Open Cup is important to us for a number of reasons. It is the oldest national soccer competition in America. We were the first MLS team to win it, but we' ve not won it since. Most important, winning the Championship will secure our place in the 2009 CONCACAF Champions Cup.
This has already been a very busy season for the D.C. United family, and the support we've received from our supporters has been, as usual, the best in the league! But, we need you again!
Please come out on September 3rd and help carry DCU to victory in this important Championship. Many of you have already received an invoice for the match -- all you have to do is go on-line, pay the invoice, and print your tickets at home.
If you have not received an invoice yet, contact your sales representative or D.C. United Customer Service at 202-587-5000 or via e-mail at dcucustomerservice@dcunited.com
With your support, we can add another great trophy to our legacy as America's most decorated soccer team.
I'll see you at RFK on September 3rd!
Best wishes,
Kevin J. Payne
President/CEO of D.C. United
Labels: d.c. united, U.S. Open Cup
With Bruce Arena’s hiring out in LA LA Land, another chapter in a very long story is about to begin. With the exception of his admittedly ill-timed stint in New York, every thing the stoic coach has touched has been considered a success. No one can argue that his time with UVA and D.C. United was anything less than spectacular, and not many national team coaches spend eight years and two World Cups in a job, including a Quarterfinal appearance.
But with New York his last gig, Arena clearly could use another successful bookend to squash that time from memory. And other than reserving the right to wish hateful, miserable things on the Galaxy whenever they face D.C. United, I hope he succeeds.
I am a big Bruce Arena fan, and also beleive a successful Galaxy team is necessary in order for MLS to maximize their David Beckham investment return.
Good luck to "the Bruce". Just no so much when you're facing the Black and Red.
But with New York his last gig, Arena clearly could use another successful bookend to squash that time from memory. And other than reserving the right to wish hateful, miserable things on the Galaxy whenever they face D.C. United, I hope he succeeds.
I am a big Bruce Arena fan, and also beleive a successful Galaxy team is necessary in order for MLS to maximize their David Beckham investment return.
Good luck to "the Bruce". Just no so much when you're facing the Black and Red.
Labels: Bruce Arena, d.c. united, David Beckham, LA Galaxy
Friday, June 13, 2008
Flawed Logic in Stadium Fight
Yesterday, David Nakamura of the Washington Post published a story about a trio of political opponents to public financing of sports stadiums who are trying to stop the District Council from helping keep D.C. United in the city. It’s the same trio that tried to stop the baseball stadium – and failed.
They claimed then that was a bad investment by the city and that tax dollars shouldn’t be used for a soccer stadium. However, in typical political fashion they’re conveniently “spinning” the truth while using several key arguments against the project.
First, the D.C. government isn’t planning to levy any new taxes at all to help pay for the facility. They’re using excess (and unexpected) funds from the baseball stadium revenues.
Second, Umm, guys? If the baseball stadium hadn’t been built, there wouldn’t have been excess revenues in the first place, yet you opposed that too.
Third, in the same breath they used to say the MCI Center was a success [thanks to a large number of events there per year], they betray their own claims of intelligent debate by saying there would only be 30 events per year at a new soccer stadium. Yet even a caveman would know the Washington Freedom, Major League Lacrosse, college and high school sports, concerts, and other special events would clearly stand in line to use the facility.
In my opinion a D.C. United Stadium anywhere outside of the city would be a disaster that represents the difference between soccer becoming truly main stream in this country within the next 10 years as opposed to the next 30 - if ever. This country needs to prove to our own eurosnobs that we can match the overall experience and passion that goes with the sport world wide. And when we do, the sports columnists, TV dollars, and international stars will follow.
D.C. United has an opportunity to become the first truly global soccer team from this part of the world by offering a game-day experience with real "buzz" and a palpable energy from the stands that burns the experience into fans' amygdalas, creating a craving to return again and again (addiction). We need an atmosphere that is hardly discernible from attending a match in London or Berlin, and to get that the stadium has to be downtown, surrounded by commercial businesses, pubs, restaurants, and public gathering spaces in order for that to happen.
MLS does not need another suburban stadium. The final location of where to build this stadium needs to be where we draw a line in the sand and refuse to let soccer be pushed to the edges of the mainstream.
Sign the petition
Contact the Mayor
Contact City Council
Tell D.C. United you won't attend games outside the City
Discuss the issue:
Soccer Insider
BigSoccer.comLabels: d.c. united, stadium
Monday, April 14, 2008
Remembering a forgettable night in Salt Lake
I took the time to put some thoughts down over on a BigSoccer discussion thread, and thought I might share it here to.
The subject - D.C. United's horrible loss to the horrible Real Salt Lake on a horrible field.
Although the thread topic was "fire the coach", my contribution was more reflective of the meaninglessness of the MLS regular season, and offered the idea that coach Tom Soehn actually made a smart decision in not really going for the win - but rather wanting to see if the bench could win.
Here is/was my take (BTW, my BigSoccer handle is "chummer"):
I really felt while watching [the DC/RSL match Saturday] that [Coach] Soehn had literally punted this game on purpose. Not that they didn't want to win, but that they really didn't care if they won or not. This game was NEVER going to mean anything. It was depressing, disappointing, and even a little inspiring at the same time for me:
Depressing because we really looked bad - not a single player had a "good" game, and it just wasn't soccer. Any game with visible "throwball" lines is depressing for me, even the ManU v Arsenal match would be depressing played on turf with football lines. Pushing to build SSS is the best thing MLS ever did, and will go down in history as the BIGGEST reason the league survived the "early years" when historians look back in 40 years when we're bigger than Hockey and Baseball.
Disappointing because with all talk about our adding "depth", this game made it look like we were no better off than a crappy team like RSL that has a brand new front office and barely a candle to hold against our foreign recruiting relationships. Have we really invested all this effort only to have to rely on $17K/year reserve players?
A little Inspiring because I actually get a warm fuzzy thinking that Soehn basically stood up on the mountain top - literally - and screamed to the league
"I'm not going to waste my time trying to win every MLS regular season game because it's a meaningless endeavor that only keeps us from our primary goals. Teams that only have MLS Cup to play must take seriously what I cannot, because D.C. United has other major concerns. All we have to do in the MLS regular season is get results at RFK and then peak at playoff time."
The inspiration continues as I imagine him continuing with "The season is all about winning a couple of tournaments for us. We put our all into CCC and clearly could have advanced, while beating the so called "best" team in Mexico. We will now focus on SuperLiga and the Champions League, and winning at RFK so we can also then focus this Fall on the tournament that is MLS Cup playoffs. EVERYTHING ELSE between now and those tournaments is little more than training for us. As long as we win 9 games we'll be in the MLS Cup playoffs, so take your away games on a concrete field with throwball lines and shove it MLS."
If this thought process is even close to what TS was/is privately thinking, then we shouldn't fire him, we should enshrine him for knowing how to focus on what's really important. And who can blame the players for not thinking the same thing. You never like to see a professional "take a night off", but we did, and it was a good lesson, but it is in the past now and should be completely forgotten, as most of the regular season in the early months truly is forgettable.Labels: d.c. united, Real Salt Lake, Tom Soehn, Turf Fields
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
A re-Sounding victory for fans everywhere
You may or may not have been following the naming saga going on up in Seattle over their newly approved MLS franchise. The team will join the league this time next year after several years with a dominating USL-1 team named "Seattle Sounders". Well, with that team "put on hold" because it's owners were part of the group starting the MLS team, the fan base and brand for "Seattle Sounders" just happened to be ripe for use by the MLS startups desperate to get busy with their marketing efforts.
The team owners simply did not want to use the "Sounders" name, which I'm assuming was because they wanted to separate themselves from ever being confused as a 2nd-tier pro club in the USA. Big mistake guys!
Offering very uninspiring choices "Seattle FC", "Seattle Alliance", and "Seattle Republic", the 14,500 fans that voted mounted a write-in effort that would make Ralph Nadar so proud of his Green constituents in the upper northwest. So, "Seattle Sounders FC" it is. We'll see you in April 2009 boys, just don't take any of our D.C. United players in the expansion draft, and we might buy you a drink when you come to RFK for your first reSOUNDING defeat.Labels: d.c. united, MLS, Seattle Sounders FC
Friday, April 4, 2008
Has United bitten the hand that feeds them?
When I'm coaching, and need a way to pick a player or a team that gets first dibs on something for a drill, etc.. instead of telling someone to "pick a number between 1 and 10", I usually ask a question about a recent pro or college game on TV, and the first player to answer correctly "wins".
On Wednesday night, I asked a group of U13 girls if anyone could tell me the score from the D.C. United game from the night before. They had no idea, but I got an instantaneous chorus of good guesses, with one girl obviously guessing the correct 2-0 without any real clue.
So, I DQ'd everyone on the grounds of poor support of the black and red, and gave them a follow up question. The results disturbing, and it really made me think about the risk of such a high player turn over undoing all the work United has done "branding" themselves to thousands of kids they literally depend on attending each game.
My question was "name five current D.C. United players". The answers were not guesses, but they were disturbing, and should make Dan Giffin and Scott Miller pretty nervous -
Player - "Freddy Adu!"
Coach - "ahhh, nope."
Player - "umm, umm, umm, ohhh Gomez - Christian Gomez, ha hah!"
Coach - "NOPE"
Player - "WHAT?"
Coach - "They traded him"
Player, "WHY!!!, He's awesome. That was stupid."
Coach - "Sorry, don't take it out on me"
Player - "oo oo, Gros, that Josh guy with the cast"
Coach - "nope, he retired"
Player - "darnnit!"
Player - "I know, Eleco"
Coach - "nope, common guys you've got know someone."
Player - "I loved Eleco! What's going on?"
Player - "Why'd they get rid of Gomez? That was really dumb"
Coach - "sorry, but they got someone better instead"
Player "nu ahh, Gomez was the best, that's dumb"
Player - "Oh yeah... Perkins baby!!"
Coach, "nope, he went to Europe"
Player - "ahhhh!"
You get the point right? These girls rattled off more names of players than most youth players could, thanks no doubt to all the games I've taken them to over the years and my regular use of United Trivia in practices.
The fact that all the D.C. United players they had come to know were not gone, created an immediate backlash. DCU had finally taken root with youth players, only to turn them off by selling/trading/losing all the players they've worked so hard to "brand" all this time. All of us "adults" perfectly understand trying to bring in new players that are "supposed" to improve the team, but it sure must drive the marketing staff crazy! And if the team doesn't perform, there surely will be a lot of "see, I told you so" around the office staff water cooler at RFK.
I'll close with this, then ask your thoughts:
The player that LOVES Gomez so much asked - "What team did he go play for?"
Coach - "Denver"
Player - "When they play Denver, that's who I'm rooting for - GO DENVER!"
Coach - "ouch. I might have to cut you now"Labels: d.c. united
Sunday, January 13, 2008
D.C. United stadium study to be conducted by State of Maryland
You have to be a subscriber to the Baltimore Business Journal to read the whole thing, but they just updated their web site with the opening of an article about the study.
It says the Maryland Stadium Authorty will oversee the study in order to access the potential economic impact of a new soccer stadium for D.C. United in Prince George's County, Maryland. Supposidly, in a letter written by Senate Budget Committee Chair Ulysses Currie, the stadium authority will use as much as $75K in non-budgeted funds for the study.Labels: d.c. united
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Don't email D.C. United
At least not this week. I hope you're not trying to contact anyone with an @dcunited.com email address. It will bounce back. Not clear as to why, but have confirmed many there are without email access. Why they don't use a third party with a guaranteed mail uptime in this day and age is puzzling. In any case, all systems are predicted to be up and running next week. If you've sent any emails this week, it's probably a good idea to re-send again next week just in case. We don't want them to miss any big ticket orders!Labels: d.c. united
They claimed then that was a bad investment by the city and that tax dollars shouldn’t be used for a soccer stadium. However, in typical political fashion they’re conveniently “spinning” the truth while using several key arguments against the project.
First, the D.C. government isn’t planning to levy any new taxes at all to help pay for the facility. They’re using excess (and unexpected) funds from the baseball stadium revenues.
Second, Umm, guys? If the baseball stadium hadn’t been built, there wouldn’t have been excess revenues in the first place, yet you opposed that too.
Third, in the same breath they used to say the MCI Center was a success [thanks to a large number of events there per year], they betray their own claims of intelligent debate by saying there would only be 30 events per year at a new soccer stadium. Yet even a caveman would know the Washington Freedom, Major League Lacrosse, college and high school sports, concerts, and other special events would clearly stand in line to use the facility.
In my opinion a D.C. United Stadium anywhere outside of the city would be a disaster that represents the difference between soccer becoming truly main stream in this country within the next 10 years as opposed to the next 30 - if ever. This country needs to prove to our own eurosnobs that we can match the overall experience and passion that goes with the sport world wide. And when we do, the sports columnists, TV dollars, and international stars will follow.
D.C. United has an opportunity to become the first truly global soccer team from this part of the world by offering a game-day experience with real "buzz" and a palpable energy from the stands that burns the experience into fans' amygdalas, creating a craving to return again and again (addiction). We need an atmosphere that is hardly discernible from attending a match in London or Berlin, and to get that the stadium has to be downtown, surrounded by commercial businesses, pubs, restaurants, and public gathering spaces in order for that to happen.
MLS does not need another suburban stadium. The final location of where to build this stadium needs to be where we draw a line in the sand and refuse to let soccer be pushed to the edges of the mainstream.
Sign the petition
Contact the Mayor
Contact City Council
Tell D.C. United you won't attend games outside the City
Discuss the issue:
Soccer Insider
BigSoccer.com
Labels: d.c. united, stadium
I took the time to put some thoughts down over on a BigSoccer discussion thread, and thought I might share it here to.
The subject - D.C. United's horrible loss to the horrible Real Salt Lake on a horrible field.
Although the thread topic was "fire the coach", my contribution was more reflective of the meaninglessness of the MLS regular season, and offered the idea that coach Tom Soehn actually made a smart decision in not really going for the win - but rather wanting to see if the bench could win.
Here is/was my take (BTW, my BigSoccer handle is "chummer"):
I really felt while watching [the DC/RSL match Saturday] that [Coach] Soehn had literally punted this game on purpose. Not that they didn't want to win, but that they really didn't care if they won or not. This game was NEVER going to mean anything. It was depressing, disappointing, and even a little inspiring at the same time for me:
Depressing because we really looked bad - not a single player had a "good" game, and it just wasn't soccer. Any game with visible "throwball" lines is depressing for me, even the ManU v Arsenal match would be depressing played on turf with football lines. Pushing to build SSS is the best thing MLS ever did, and will go down in history as the BIGGEST reason the league survived the "early years" when historians look back in 40 years when we're bigger than Hockey and Baseball.
Disappointing because with all talk about our adding "depth", this game made it look like we were no better off than a crappy team like RSL that has a brand new front office and barely a candle to hold against our foreign recruiting relationships. Have we really invested all this effort only to have to rely on $17K/year reserve players?
A little Inspiring because I actually get a warm fuzzy thinking that Soehn basically stood up on the mountain top - literally - and screamed to the league
"I'm not going to waste my time trying to win every MLS regular season game because it's a meaningless endeavor that only keeps us from our primary goals. Teams that only have MLS Cup to play must take seriously what I cannot, because D.C. United has other major concerns. All we have to do in the MLS regular season is get results at RFK and then peak at playoff time."
The inspiration continues as I imagine him continuing with "The season is all about winning a couple of tournaments for us. We put our all into CCC and clearly could have advanced, while beating the so called "best" team in Mexico. We will now focus on SuperLiga and the Champions League, and winning at RFK so we can also then focus this Fall on the tournament that is MLS Cup playoffs. EVERYTHING ELSE between now and those tournaments is little more than training for us. As long as we win 9 games we'll be in the MLS Cup playoffs, so take your away games on a concrete field with throwball lines and shove it MLS."
If this thought process is even close to what TS was/is privately thinking, then we shouldn't fire him, we should enshrine him for knowing how to focus on what's really important. And who can blame the players for not thinking the same thing. You never like to see a professional "take a night off", but we did, and it was a good lesson, but it is in the past now and should be completely forgotten, as most of the regular season in the early months truly is forgettable.
The subject - D.C. United's horrible loss to the horrible Real Salt Lake on a horrible field.
Although the thread topic was "fire the coach", my contribution was more reflective of the meaninglessness of the MLS regular season, and offered the idea that coach Tom Soehn actually made a smart decision in not really going for the win - but rather wanting to see if the bench could win.
Here is/was my take (BTW, my BigSoccer handle is "chummer"):
I really felt while watching [the DC/RSL match Saturday] that [Coach] Soehn had literally punted this game on purpose. Not that they didn't want to win, but that they really didn't care if they won or not. This game was NEVER going to mean anything. It was depressing, disappointing, and even a little inspiring at the same time for me:
Depressing because we really looked bad - not a single player had a "good" game, and it just wasn't soccer. Any game with visible "throwball" lines is depressing for me, even the ManU v Arsenal match would be depressing played on turf with football lines. Pushing to build SSS is the best thing MLS ever did, and will go down in history as the BIGGEST reason the league survived the "early years" when historians look back in 40 years when we're bigger than Hockey and Baseball.
Disappointing because with all talk about our adding "depth", this game made it look like we were no better off than a crappy team like RSL that has a brand new front office and barely a candle to hold against our foreign recruiting relationships. Have we really invested all this effort only to have to rely on $17K/year reserve players?
A little Inspiring because I actually get a warm fuzzy thinking that Soehn basically stood up on the mountain top - literally - and screamed to the league
"I'm not going to waste my time trying to win every MLS regular season game because it's a meaningless endeavor that only keeps us from our primary goals. Teams that only have MLS Cup to play must take seriously what I cannot, because D.C. United has other major concerns. All we have to do in the MLS regular season is get results at RFK and then peak at playoff time."
The inspiration continues as I imagine him continuing with "The season is all about winning a couple of tournaments for us. We put our all into CCC and clearly could have advanced, while beating the so called "best" team in Mexico. We will now focus on SuperLiga and the Champions League, and winning at RFK so we can also then focus this Fall on the tournament that is MLS Cup playoffs. EVERYTHING ELSE between now and those tournaments is little more than training for us. As long as we win 9 games we'll be in the MLS Cup playoffs, so take your away games on a concrete field with throwball lines and shove it MLS."
If this thought process is even close to what TS was/is privately thinking, then we shouldn't fire him, we should enshrine him for knowing how to focus on what's really important. And who can blame the players for not thinking the same thing. You never like to see a professional "take a night off", but we did, and it was a good lesson, but it is in the past now and should be completely forgotten, as most of the regular season in the early months truly is forgettable.
Labels: d.c. united, Real Salt Lake, Tom Soehn, Turf Fields
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
A re-Sounding victory for fans everywhere
You may or may not have been following the naming saga going on up in Seattle over their newly approved MLS franchise. The team will join the league this time next year after several years with a dominating USL-1 team named "Seattle Sounders". Well, with that team "put on hold" because it's owners were part of the group starting the MLS team, the fan base and brand for "Seattle Sounders" just happened to be ripe for use by the MLS startups desperate to get busy with their marketing efforts.
The team owners simply did not want to use the "Sounders" name, which I'm assuming was because they wanted to separate themselves from ever being confused as a 2nd-tier pro club in the USA. Big mistake guys!
Offering very uninspiring choices "Seattle FC", "Seattle Alliance", and "Seattle Republic", the 14,500 fans that voted mounted a write-in effort that would make Ralph Nadar so proud of his Green constituents in the upper northwest. So, "Seattle Sounders FC" it is. We'll see you in April 2009 boys, just don't take any of our D.C. United players in the expansion draft, and we might buy you a drink when you come to RFK for your first reSOUNDING defeat.Labels: d.c. united, MLS, Seattle Sounders FC
Friday, April 4, 2008
Has United bitten the hand that feeds them?
When I'm coaching, and need a way to pick a player or a team that gets first dibs on something for a drill, etc.. instead of telling someone to "pick a number between 1 and 10", I usually ask a question about a recent pro or college game on TV, and the first player to answer correctly "wins".
On Wednesday night, I asked a group of U13 girls if anyone could tell me the score from the D.C. United game from the night before. They had no idea, but I got an instantaneous chorus of good guesses, with one girl obviously guessing the correct 2-0 without any real clue.
So, I DQ'd everyone on the grounds of poor support of the black and red, and gave them a follow up question. The results disturbing, and it really made me think about the risk of such a high player turn over undoing all the work United has done "branding" themselves to thousands of kids they literally depend on attending each game.
My question was "name five current D.C. United players". The answers were not guesses, but they were disturbing, and should make Dan Giffin and Scott Miller pretty nervous -
Player - "Freddy Adu!"
Coach - "ahhh, nope."
Player - "umm, umm, umm, ohhh Gomez - Christian Gomez, ha hah!"
Coach - "NOPE"
Player - "WHAT?"
Coach - "They traded him"
Player, "WHY!!!, He's awesome. That was stupid."
Coach - "Sorry, don't take it out on me"
Player - "oo oo, Gros, that Josh guy with the cast"
Coach - "nope, he retired"
Player - "darnnit!"
Player - "I know, Eleco"
Coach - "nope, common guys you've got know someone."
Player - "I loved Eleco! What's going on?"
Player - "Why'd they get rid of Gomez? That was really dumb"
Coach - "sorry, but they got someone better instead"
Player "nu ahh, Gomez was the best, that's dumb"
Player - "Oh yeah... Perkins baby!!"
Coach, "nope, he went to Europe"
Player - "ahhhh!"
You get the point right? These girls rattled off more names of players than most youth players could, thanks no doubt to all the games I've taken them to over the years and my regular use of United Trivia in practices.
The fact that all the D.C. United players they had come to know were not gone, created an immediate backlash. DCU had finally taken root with youth players, only to turn them off by selling/trading/losing all the players they've worked so hard to "brand" all this time. All of us "adults" perfectly understand trying to bring in new players that are "supposed" to improve the team, but it sure must drive the marketing staff crazy! And if the team doesn't perform, there surely will be a lot of "see, I told you so" around the office staff water cooler at RFK.
I'll close with this, then ask your thoughts:
The player that LOVES Gomez so much asked - "What team did he go play for?"
Coach - "Denver"
Player - "When they play Denver, that's who I'm rooting for - GO DENVER!"
Coach - "ouch. I might have to cut you now"Labels: d.c. united
Sunday, January 13, 2008
D.C. United stadium study to be conducted by State of Maryland
You have to be a subscriber to the Baltimore Business Journal to read the whole thing, but they just updated their web site with the opening of an article about the study.
It says the Maryland Stadium Authorty will oversee the study in order to access the potential economic impact of a new soccer stadium for D.C. United in Prince George's County, Maryland. Supposidly, in a letter written by Senate Budget Committee Chair Ulysses Currie, the stadium authority will use as much as $75K in non-budgeted funds for the study.Labels: d.c. united
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Don't email D.C. United
At least not this week. I hope you're not trying to contact anyone with an @dcunited.com email address. It will bounce back. Not clear as to why, but have confirmed many there are without email access. Why they don't use a third party with a guaranteed mail uptime in this day and age is puzzling. In any case, all systems are predicted to be up and running next week. If you've sent any emails this week, it's probably a good idea to re-send again next week just in case. We don't want them to miss any big ticket orders!Labels: d.c. united
The team owners simply did not want to use the "Sounders" name, which I'm assuming was because they wanted to separate themselves from ever being confused as a 2nd-tier pro club in the USA. Big mistake guys!
Offering very uninspiring choices "Seattle FC", "Seattle Alliance", and "Seattle Republic", the 14,500 fans that voted mounted a write-in effort that would make Ralph Nadar so proud of his Green constituents in the upper northwest. So, "Seattle Sounders FC" it is. We'll see you in April 2009 boys, just don't take any of our D.C. United players in the expansion draft, and we might buy you a drink when you come to RFK for your first reSOUNDING defeat.
Labels: d.c. united, MLS, Seattle Sounders FC
When I'm coaching, and need a way to pick a player or a team that gets first dibs on something for a drill, etc.. instead of telling someone to "pick a number between 1 and 10", I usually ask a question about a recent pro or college game on TV, and the first player to answer correctly "wins".
On Wednesday night, I asked a group of U13 girls if anyone could tell me the score from the D.C. United game from the night before. They had no idea, but I got an instantaneous chorus of good guesses, with one girl obviously guessing the correct 2-0 without any real clue.
So, I DQ'd everyone on the grounds of poor support of the black and red, and gave them a follow up question. The results disturbing, and it really made me think about the risk of such a high player turn over undoing all the work United has done "branding" themselves to thousands of kids they literally depend on attending each game.
My question was "name five current D.C. United players". The answers were not guesses, but they were disturbing, and should make Dan Giffin and Scott Miller pretty nervous -
Player - "Freddy Adu!"
Coach - "ahhh, nope."
Player - "umm, umm, umm, ohhh Gomez - Christian Gomez, ha hah!"
Coach - "NOPE"
Player - "WHAT?"
Coach - "They traded him"
Player, "WHY!!!, He's awesome. That was stupid."
Coach - "Sorry, don't take it out on me"
Player - "oo oo, Gros, that Josh guy with the cast"
Coach - "nope, he retired"
Player - "darnnit!"
Player - "I know, Eleco"
Coach - "nope, common guys you've got know someone."
Player - "I loved Eleco! What's going on?"
Player - "Why'd they get rid of Gomez? That was really dumb"
Coach - "sorry, but they got someone better instead"
Player "nu ahh, Gomez was the best, that's dumb"
Player - "Oh yeah... Perkins baby!!"
Coach, "nope, he went to Europe"
Player - "ahhhh!"
You get the point right? These girls rattled off more names of players than most youth players could, thanks no doubt to all the games I've taken them to over the years and my regular use of United Trivia in practices.
The fact that all the D.C. United players they had come to know were not gone, created an immediate backlash. DCU had finally taken root with youth players, only to turn them off by selling/trading/losing all the players they've worked so hard to "brand" all this time. All of us "adults" perfectly understand trying to bring in new players that are "supposed" to improve the team, but it sure must drive the marketing staff crazy! And if the team doesn't perform, there surely will be a lot of "see, I told you so" around the office staff water cooler at RFK.
I'll close with this, then ask your thoughts:
The player that LOVES Gomez so much asked - "What team did he go play for?"
Coach - "Denver"
Player - "When they play Denver, that's who I'm rooting for - GO DENVER!"
Coach - "ouch. I might have to cut you now"
On Wednesday night, I asked a group of U13 girls if anyone could tell me the score from the D.C. United game from the night before. They had no idea, but I got an instantaneous chorus of good guesses, with one girl obviously guessing the correct 2-0 without any real clue.
So, I DQ'd everyone on the grounds of poor support of the black and red, and gave them a follow up question. The results disturbing, and it really made me think about the risk of such a high player turn over undoing all the work United has done "branding" themselves to thousands of kids they literally depend on attending each game.
My question was "name five current D.C. United players". The answers were not guesses, but they were disturbing, and should make Dan Giffin and Scott Miller pretty nervous -
Player - "Freddy Adu!"
Coach - "ahhh, nope."
Player - "umm, umm, umm, ohhh Gomez - Christian Gomez, ha hah!"
Coach - "NOPE"
Player - "WHAT?"
Coach - "They traded him"
Player, "WHY!!!, He's awesome. That was stupid."
Coach - "Sorry, don't take it out on me"
Player - "oo oo, Gros, that Josh guy with the cast"
Coach - "nope, he retired"
Player - "darnnit!"
Player - "I know, Eleco"
Coach - "nope, common guys you've got know someone."
Player - "I loved Eleco! What's going on?"
Player - "Why'd they get rid of Gomez? That was really dumb"
Coach - "sorry, but they got someone better instead"
Player "nu ahh, Gomez was the best, that's dumb"
Player - "Oh yeah... Perkins baby!!"
Coach, "nope, he went to Europe"
Player - "ahhhh!"
You get the point right? These girls rattled off more names of players than most youth players could, thanks no doubt to all the games I've taken them to over the years and my regular use of United Trivia in practices.
The fact that all the D.C. United players they had come to know were not gone, created an immediate backlash. DCU had finally taken root with youth players, only to turn them off by selling/trading/losing all the players they've worked so hard to "brand" all this time. All of us "adults" perfectly understand trying to bring in new players that are "supposed" to improve the team, but it sure must drive the marketing staff crazy! And if the team doesn't perform, there surely will be a lot of "see, I told you so" around the office staff water cooler at RFK.
I'll close with this, then ask your thoughts:
The player that LOVES Gomez so much asked - "What team did he go play for?"
Coach - "Denver"
Player - "When they play Denver, that's who I'm rooting for - GO DENVER!"
Coach - "ouch. I might have to cut you now"
Labels: d.c. united
Sunday, January 13, 2008
D.C. United stadium study to be conducted by State of Maryland
You have to be a subscriber to the Baltimore Business Journal to read the whole thing, but they just updated their web site with the opening of an article about the study.
It says the Maryland Stadium Authorty will oversee the study in order to access the potential economic impact of a new soccer stadium for D.C. United in Prince George's County, Maryland. Supposidly, in a letter written by Senate Budget Committee Chair Ulysses Currie, the stadium authority will use as much as $75K in non-budgeted funds for the study.Labels: d.c. united
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Don't email D.C. United
At least not this week. I hope you're not trying to contact anyone with an @dcunited.com email address. It will bounce back. Not clear as to why, but have confirmed many there are without email access. Why they don't use a third party with a guaranteed mail uptime in this day and age is puzzling. In any case, all systems are predicted to be up and running next week. If you've sent any emails this week, it's probably a good idea to re-send again next week just in case. We don't want them to miss any big ticket orders!Labels: d.c. united
It says the Maryland Stadium Authorty will oversee the study in order to access the potential economic impact of a new soccer stadium for D.C. United in Prince George's County, Maryland. Supposidly, in a letter written by Senate Budget Committee Chair Ulysses Currie, the stadium authority will use as much as $75K in non-budgeted funds for the study.
Labels: d.c. united
At least not this week. I hope you're not trying to contact anyone with an @dcunited.com email address. It will bounce back. Not clear as to why, but have confirmed many there are without email access. Why they don't use a third party with a guaranteed mail uptime in this day and age is puzzling. In any case, all systems are predicted to be up and running next week. If you've sent any emails this week, it's probably a good idea to re-send again next week just in case. We don't want them to miss any big ticket orders!
Labels: d.c. united
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