It's been a busy week for us here, with no less than six different people making contributions, but we do have time to give props to those linking back and not thinking us idiots for wanting Freddy to play. At least it was a reasoned request by our own Craig Stouffer. Actually, I want to see more of Josh Gros on the field.
I guess it's not just me, but I also thought that the US MNT against Mexico looked a lot like the DC United team we've seen this season. Heavy pressure from the forwards on back, hard fouling early and often, and overall, a disrupting, dominating menace except when it comes to finding the goal. At least the US shouldn't have to worry as much about El Salvador, as Ian Plenderleith writes.
It's a triple-threat this weekend along the I-64 corridor, as Virginia Beach opens their season with a home-and-home series against Richmond. Why triple threat? The matches count in the A-League standings, James River Cup and US Open Cup qualifying, but perhaps more importantly, the match tonight is a fundraiser for the Jamie Hess Memorial Fund, which holds a lot of meaning to Kickers defender Chris Fox. After taking a trip with the team last year for a feature that didn't quite pan out, Fox asked me after a 2-0 loss to Pittsburgh if I didn't have anything better to do with my Memorial Day weekend. Sadly, even after the loss, I didn't.
The Kickers, meanwhile, are off to a 0-1-1 start, barely getting a result in Charleston last week after losing to the Battery at home to start their season. Look for Mike Field and the Mariners to set up their tailgate on enemy turf in the parking lot at U of Richmond Stadium tonight.
After all that, if they're not fired up to play this weekend.
Beau Dure notes why relegation/promotion won't work between MLS and the A-League. In a word: stadiums. But in reality, even if you got every MLS team with their own reasonably-sized soccer-specific stadium, you'd still have the problem in the A-League. Rochester and Atlanta are building facilities, but Rochester is a likely MLS franchise in the near future, so they don't really count. Atlanta's building a place in the 5-7K range, and with a handful of exceptions, no A-League team is going to draw more than 5K on a regular basis. Blue Sky Soccer, in an interview with USL CEO Dave Askinas, he thinks teams can have their own SSS within the next decade:
We want to be the best league we can be. The ideal , and we can get there faster than you think, is to have all of our teams in 5-10,000 seat soccer specific stadiums where tickets are in demand. I don't think this is an idle dream but one achievable through 5-10 years hard work. We know what we have to do and we have to continue to aggressively market our product and increase our profile in order to make that kind of progress.
In an article about Olympic spending, it notes that US Soccer spent $31.5 million in 2000, the year the US women won the silver medal. The article does note, though, that the Olympics aren't the only--or main--goal for a lot of sports, including soccer.
Nebraska Says Goodbye To Cooper
On a much sadder note, perhaps by now you've heard about Nebraska's Jenna Cooper, slain at a party last weekend. Lucky Iromuanya, the man who shot her is is being charged with second-degree murder. He allegedly wanted to kill someone else over a shot glass, and fired a bullet that hit Cooper, who was standing nearby. Iromuanya's bail, originally $1 million, was cut in half.
She was laid to rest today. Let's hope the US WNT will use their upcoming match in Louisville, where Cooper was from, as a tribute match to her.

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