By Mark Lincir

I love the fact that Benefica midfielder Freddy Adu is finally getting some looks with the full U.S. National Team. He’s only the most skillful player out there! He deserves to be on the field for every game from here until eternity. If guys like Mike Burns, Cobi Jones, Landon Donovan and Frankie Hejduk can amass close to, if not more than 100 caps, so can the most skillful player to ever don a U.S. National Team jersey. And stop calling him young! At 19, there are plenty of players around the world who have or are having significant impacts for their club and country.

I’m hatin’ (I actually dislike the term, but will use it in this article only because it seems to be trendy and I’m feeling rather fashionable this morning) the fact that the Los Angeles Galaxy seems to regularly give up two to four goals a game and many people are still calling them a good team. Just because the Western Conference resembles a Junior Varsity Division compared to the East doesn’t mean that they are a good team. A sign of a good team is consistency, something that the Galaxy has no clue what the definition of it is.

I love the fact that Bruce Arena doesn’t have a job (don’t cry for him too much, he’s got all that money from his Red Bull buyout)…well, except as an “analyst” (I use the term as loosely as can possibly be perceived) for the Kansas City Wizards. All he ever says is what we obviously already know. “Kansas City is down a goal, so they are bringing on another forward and will shift from a four-four-two to a four-three-three in the attack, which will give them more numbers going forward.” Thanks Bruce! How do you know so much?

I hate the fact that there are still games in MLS that I can’t watch because of the setting. Please stop putting Red Bull home games on television. Just put them on the radio where the announcers can at least fake to us that we’re listening to something in somewhat of a soccer stadium. I’m so sick of Giants Stadium! I know that the new stadium is only a year or so away (wanna bet an over/under on the completion date?) but I’m so OVER watching games on turf, in empty stadiums with football lines. We’re past it, get it over with now! New England, are you listening too?

I love that Brian McBride looks destined to land in Chicago to finish out his illustrious career for the simple fact that I wonder how he and Blanco will get along. These guys have had some great battles when the U.S. squared off and usually beat Mexico. We’ll see how Blanco likes it when Brian comes in to claim what I’m sure Blanco perceives to be “his” team right now.

I’m hatin’ the fact that during the Euros, ESPN let Andy Gray, Tommy and the rest of the crew honestly say what they thought of the action on the field. Now, in MLS, it seems like all we’re given is a bunch of scripted rah-rah talk that never really engages the listener or tells them anything they can’t already see for themselves. Stop dumbing it down! The American soccer viewing pubic deserves a lot more credit than you’re giving it.

I love the fact that there’s so much soccer on television now. It wasn’t too long ago that an hour a week of soccer from Germany was the best you could get. I’m always asked if there is such a thing as too much soccer? Absolutely not! It’s never enough.

I’m hatin’ the fact that I didn’t go to Austria/Switzerland for the European Cup. I feel like kicking my own butt (a la Edward Norton in Fight Club) for getting soft and not planning out this summer better regardless of the so-called softness of the economy (that’s what credit cards are for, right?). After being in Germany for 2006, it was almost unbearable to watch it from home.

I’m lovin’ the fact that everybody nowadays seems to have an opinion on everything soccer. That is what will truly continue to propel the game in the right direction. All the clever marketing gimmicks in the world don’t equate to the impact that billions of conversations around the globe have on a daily basis.

Mark Lincir writes soccer for www.sportstalkbuzz.com

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READER FEEDBACK

I have something I'm hatin!  I'm hatin that youth soccer "club teams" are mostly in it for the money.  We have so many talented athletes in this country that aren't getting further along unless they have the $$$ to participate.  What do you think?  Are there any solutions to this issue?
 
BTY enjoyed the article.  Take care

Lorne M