What do Landon Donovan, Omar Gonzalez, Giovani Dos Santos, Romain Alessandrini, Jonathan Dos Santos and Cristian Pavon, all have in common? Every single one of them was under 30 when they signed their first Designated Player contract with the Los Angeles Galaxy. Let’s get something out of the way right off the bat: we who […]
Read more "The MLS “Retirement League” Hand-Wringing Continues"The Glazer family: majority owners of Manchester United and among a large section of the club’s support, about as popular as a beat-boxer at a eulogy. For nigh on a decade-and-a-half, the LUHG (Love United Hate Glazer) movement have been doing all manner of things in protest of their ownership, from donning the green and […]
Read more "Man United bin Salman Link: Hating Glazers Above Loving United?"Well that happened. Another Man United season is in the books. Another underwhelming post-Alex Ferguson campaign has lolloped sullenly over the finish line. It all started routinely enough, with a home win against Leicester City. Then came a decidedly non-routine 3-2 loss to the shared Albion of Brighton and Hove. Next up, United curled up […]
Read more "Man United Moods: the 2018-19 Season"#SaveTheCrew It’s the rare tagline that footy fans dotted about the fractious US soccer landscape can actually unite behind. There are exceptions of course: a few resigned pragmatists, a huddle of giddy enthusiasts in Austin, temporarily sating themselves with bottles of “New Team Smell”. Generally though, most of us agree that it would suck to […]
Read more "Taking the Moral Soccer High-ground Over MLS May Expose You to Mudslides."Second place and FA Cup runners-up. Burnley would be ecstatic. PSG would be disappointed. Bayern Munich would be inconsolable. There was a time when Man United would have certainly considered it a failure. In the post-Ferguson era however, we’ve had to learn to be a bit more pragmatic. This is after all, our best season […]
Read more "Do Man Utd Owe More to the Man at the Top, or the Man at the Back?"As a Manchester United fan, it’s been a while since a UEFA Champions League final has given me precious memories. Usually, your team has to be playing in one for that to happen. After Liverpool got past Roma to reach the biggest game in European club football – if not the World – I was […]
Read more "Laughing At Loris: No Need to Feel Guilty"If there were to be a tagline for the current EPL season, it should probably be something like: “Erm… sorry… this has never happened to me before”. We just passed into January. This is traditionally the time of year when the season gets interesting. The league standings are now settling into something meaningful, narratives are […]
Read more "The Premature Premiership 2017-18 Review"I often champion MLS in these pages. I sincerely think that it’s a very solid league and continues to show encouraging signs of growth and improvement. Attendances average commendably north of 21k each season. A decade ago it stunned the world when David Beckham decided to come to the league. Today the league, while still […]
Read more "A Fleeting Moment of MLS Disillusionment"In a sporting culture where the hardness of the core of your support holds great currency, I’d like to claim some extra credit. As the sun beat down from the evening sky in Carson, CA, I sat swaddled in the man-made fabrics of my Los Angeles Galaxy Jersey around which was wrapped the thick polyester […]
Read more "Red Devilfest 2017: LAG 2 – MUFC 5"With the UEFA Champions League final in the books and the Premiership long since petered out in an anticlimactic malaise, it’s now time for a review of Manchester United Football Club’s 2017 season. All things considered, it turned out alright in the end. Two trophies won (no Jose Mourinho, you don’t get to include the […]
Read more "Man United 2017 Season Review"
Barroldinho's Blog O'Stuff 