In their 1994 hit single “I Want You”, Inspiral Carpets vocalist Tom Hingley opens with the line “No one ever said it was going to be easy”. In the dying days of the Madchester music scene, I doubt Hingley was having a premonition about my task of following Major League Soccer while vacationing in the north east of Scotland. His lyrics, however, proved to be rather apt.
Armed with my father’s antiquated desktop computer (which apparently pre-dates that Carpets’ release), a cable television package minus the subscription sports channels and a stack of newspapers, the Hawksport Week Nine review was always going to be a challenge. Looking at the glass as half full, here was an opportunity to gauge the growth of MLS awareness on British shores one year after leaving Blighty. My findings were far from positive.
Despite this prehistoric pc preventing me from accessing internet highlights, the show must go on. If Shaka Hislop, the former Trinidad and Tobago international goalkeeper, can produce weekly postings for the Guardian website when he has not witnessed the action then so can I.
I was heartened upon my arrival at Aberdeen Airport last Wednesday afternoon when my father informed me that D.C. United had sacked their manager. Not pleased because franchise management had moved quickly to remove Tom Soehn from the hotseat, but because the news was travelling across the Atlantic even quicker. My father told me that he “saw it on the Sky Sports News ticker” failing to elaborate that he was paying little attention at the time.
That evening would see Toronto narrowly defeat D.C. United 1-0 with Soehn firmly at the helm. Unsurprisingly, the event was somewhat overshadowed by the small matter of a couple of English teams playing a game in Moscow. On Thursday, San Jose’s 2-1 triumph over Houston Dynamo failed to make an impact in competition against the final night of Scottish Premier League action. At least my presence at the dismantling of Glasgow Rangers’ title hopes at Pittodrie Stadium in Aberdeen compensated for the disappointment of being unable to follow the action back in the US.
Saturday’s MLS fixtures barely received a mention either. The British media were awash with coverage of Rangers stumbling to the consolation of Scottish Cup success against lower league fodder. South of the border, Hull City were writing a new chapter in their history by reaching England’s top flight for the first time in their 104-year existence. So much for David Beckham raising the profile of American soccer!
The Englishman did receive a brief mention during Sunday’s broadcast of the English First Division play-off final between Doncaster Rovers and Leeds United on Talksport radio. Neil Sullivan, the veteran Doncaster goalkeeper, was famously lobbed from the halfway line by Beckham on the opening day of the 1996-1997 season while he was playing for Wimbledon against Manchester United. In the fledgling Cool Britannia era created by Tony Blair’s spin doctors, an artist of hype from the sporting world was born.
The Talksport broadcasters informed listeners that Beckham had scored a similar goal for Los Angeles on Saturday, but details of the Galaxy’s opponents and the final score were not supplied.
Beckham has not dined out solely on that strike for the last dozen years, but he has been living off his reputation since being deemed surplus to requirements at Old Trafford by Sir Alex Ferguson early in 2003. His insipid decline during the last three international tournaments (the World Cups of 2002 and 2006 plus Euro 2004), matched only inversely by his own personal aggrandisement, have seen his stock plummet in the eyes of his nation’s more astute viewers. Such feelings now render his American shenanigans as little more than an irrelevance, leading to a negative impact upon the image of MLS in the United Kingdom.
Still, Aberdeen’s local Evening Express newspaper carried a brief paragraph in Monday’s early edition under the heading “Becks Screamer”. It read:
“David Beckham scored a 70-yard wonder goal for L.A. Galaxy against Kansas City in the MLS”.
At least now I knew the opposition if not the score. For that I would have to rely on The Times, long considered the benchmark for UK broadsheets – at least until its purchase by Rupert Murdoch. Slightly more than 100 words were devoted to Beckham’s goal in Monday’s football supplement even if the rest of the weekend’s action was ignored.
But what of those Scottish players now plying their trade across the pond? Surely some local coverage would be found? The Daily Record, proudly proclaiming itself to be “Scotland’s Newspaper of the Year”, featured a paragraph headed “Tam Torment”. It read:
“Tam McManus scored for Colorado Rapids in a 2-1 defeat to Chivas USA in the MLS in America”.
Stunningly comprehensive. I assumed that Real Salt Lake’s Kenny Deuchar, christened Doctor Goals on Fox Soccer Channel due to his alternative employment as a medical man while playing part-time in Scotland, had taken ill.
So it was with thanks to that scourge of modern life, the Blackberry, for supplying me with the weekend’s results. Toronto were the big winners, moving up two places to fourth in the Eastern Conference by virtue of Danny Dichio’s solitary goal against D.C. United. In another quirk of the bizarre MLS calendar, the sides met again in the nation’s capital on Saturday. D.C. gained revenge with a 3-2 win but remain bottom of the East.
Chicago Fire moved above Columbus Crew after a thumping 5-1 win at New York. Cuauhtemoc Blanco was the chief tormentor of former Fire head coach Juan Carlos Osorio, now with the Red Bulls, scoring once and creating three goals.
L.A. Galaxy reached the Western Conference summit thanks to their win coupled with that of their Home Depot Center co-tenants, Chivas USA, at Colorado.
With the domestic seasons now over in Scotland and England, it will be interesting to see if the British media pays greater attention to Major League Soccer this coming weekend. I will not be holding my breath.
Week Nine Results
Toronto 1 D.C. United 0
San Jose 2 Houston 1
Dallas 2 Salt Lake 1 (Dallas win without Steve Morrow, the head coach who was actually relieved of his duties this week)
Columbus 0 New England 1
D.C. United 3 Toronto 2
Colorado 1 Chivas 2 (Apparently a wonder goal from McManus - I'll have to wait until I'm back in the US to judge!)
L.A. Galaxy 3 Kansas City 1
New York 1 Chicago 5
Standings
Eastern Conference
1) Chicago 19 points (played 9)
2) Columbus 19 (9)
3) New England 19 (10)
4) Toronto 14 (9)
5) New York 12 (8)
6) Kansas City 11 (9)
7) D.C. United 9 (10)
Western Conference
1) L.A. Galaxy 14 (9)
2) Colorado 12 (9)
3) Dallas 12 (9)
4) Chivas 11 (9)
5) Houston 10 (9)
6) Salt Lake 8 (9)
7) San Jose 7 (8)
Armed with my father’s antiquated desktop computer (which apparently pre-dates that Carpets’ release), a cable television package minus the subscription sports channels and a stack of newspapers, the Hawksport Week Nine review was always going to be a challenge. Looking at the glass as half full, here was an opportunity to gauge the growth of MLS awareness on British shores one year after leaving Blighty. My findings were far from positive.
Despite this prehistoric pc preventing me from accessing internet highlights, the show must go on. If Shaka Hislop, the former Trinidad and Tobago international goalkeeper, can produce weekly postings for the Guardian website when he has not witnessed the action then so can I.
I was heartened upon my arrival at Aberdeen Airport last Wednesday afternoon when my father informed me that D.C. United had sacked their manager. Not pleased because franchise management had moved quickly to remove Tom Soehn from the hotseat, but because the news was travelling across the Atlantic even quicker. My father told me that he “saw it on the Sky Sports News ticker” failing to elaborate that he was paying little attention at the time.
That evening would see Toronto narrowly defeat D.C. United 1-0 with Soehn firmly at the helm. Unsurprisingly, the event was somewhat overshadowed by the small matter of a couple of English teams playing a game in Moscow. On Thursday, San Jose’s 2-1 triumph over Houston Dynamo failed to make an impact in competition against the final night of Scottish Premier League action. At least my presence at the dismantling of Glasgow Rangers’ title hopes at Pittodrie Stadium in Aberdeen compensated for the disappointment of being unable to follow the action back in the US.
Saturday’s MLS fixtures barely received a mention either. The British media were awash with coverage of Rangers stumbling to the consolation of Scottish Cup success against lower league fodder. South of the border, Hull City were writing a new chapter in their history by reaching England’s top flight for the first time in their 104-year existence. So much for David Beckham raising the profile of American soccer!
The Englishman did receive a brief mention during Sunday’s broadcast of the English First Division play-off final between Doncaster Rovers and Leeds United on Talksport radio. Neil Sullivan, the veteran Doncaster goalkeeper, was famously lobbed from the halfway line by Beckham on the opening day of the 1996-1997 season while he was playing for Wimbledon against Manchester United. In the fledgling Cool Britannia era created by Tony Blair’s spin doctors, an artist of hype from the sporting world was born.
The Talksport broadcasters informed listeners that Beckham had scored a similar goal for Los Angeles on Saturday, but details of the Galaxy’s opponents and the final score were not supplied.
Beckham has not dined out solely on that strike for the last dozen years, but he has been living off his reputation since being deemed surplus to requirements at Old Trafford by Sir Alex Ferguson early in 2003. His insipid decline during the last three international tournaments (the World Cups of 2002 and 2006 plus Euro 2004), matched only inversely by his own personal aggrandisement, have seen his stock plummet in the eyes of his nation’s more astute viewers. Such feelings now render his American shenanigans as little more than an irrelevance, leading to a negative impact upon the image of MLS in the United Kingdom.
Still, Aberdeen’s local Evening Express newspaper carried a brief paragraph in Monday’s early edition under the heading “Becks Screamer”. It read:
“David Beckham scored a 70-yard wonder goal for L.A. Galaxy against Kansas City in the MLS”.
At least now I knew the opposition if not the score. For that I would have to rely on The Times, long considered the benchmark for UK broadsheets – at least until its purchase by Rupert Murdoch. Slightly more than 100 words were devoted to Beckham’s goal in Monday’s football supplement even if the rest of the weekend’s action was ignored.
But what of those Scottish players now plying their trade across the pond? Surely some local coverage would be found? The Daily Record, proudly proclaiming itself to be “Scotland’s Newspaper of the Year”, featured a paragraph headed “Tam Torment”. It read:
“Tam McManus scored for Colorado Rapids in a 2-1 defeat to Chivas USA in the MLS in America”.
Stunningly comprehensive. I assumed that Real Salt Lake’s Kenny Deuchar, christened Doctor Goals on Fox Soccer Channel due to his alternative employment as a medical man while playing part-time in Scotland, had taken ill.
So it was with thanks to that scourge of modern life, the Blackberry, for supplying me with the weekend’s results. Toronto were the big winners, moving up two places to fourth in the Eastern Conference by virtue of Danny Dichio’s solitary goal against D.C. United. In another quirk of the bizarre MLS calendar, the sides met again in the nation’s capital on Saturday. D.C. gained revenge with a 3-2 win but remain bottom of the East.
Chicago Fire moved above Columbus Crew after a thumping 5-1 win at New York. Cuauhtemoc Blanco was the chief tormentor of former Fire head coach Juan Carlos Osorio, now with the Red Bulls, scoring once and creating three goals.
L.A. Galaxy reached the Western Conference summit thanks to their win coupled with that of their Home Depot Center co-tenants, Chivas USA, at Colorado.
With the domestic seasons now over in Scotland and England, it will be interesting to see if the British media pays greater attention to Major League Soccer this coming weekend. I will not be holding my breath.
Week Nine Results
Toronto 1 D.C. United 0
San Jose 2 Houston 1
Dallas 2 Salt Lake 1 (Dallas win without Steve Morrow, the head coach who was actually relieved of his duties this week)
Columbus 0 New England 1
D.C. United 3 Toronto 2
Colorado 1 Chivas 2 (Apparently a wonder goal from McManus - I'll have to wait until I'm back in the US to judge!)
L.A. Galaxy 3 Kansas City 1
New York 1 Chicago 5
Standings
Eastern Conference
1) Chicago 19 points (played 9)
2) Columbus 19 (9)
3) New England 19 (10)
4) Toronto 14 (9)
5) New York 12 (8)
6) Kansas City 11 (9)
7) D.C. United 9 (10)
Western Conference
1) L.A. Galaxy 14 (9)
2) Colorado 12 (9)
3) Dallas 12 (9)
4) Chivas 11 (9)
5) Houston 10 (9)
6) Salt Lake 8 (9)
7) San Jose 7 (8)
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