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Blanco and Beckham Headline MLS Cup Playoffs
Posted by: | CommentsYou have to admit that us Americans are pretty spoiled with the wide variety of sports we can play. From my house I can walk across the street to a nice indoor basketball court available to me at almost any time of day for free. There are baseball diamonds, basketball hoops and football fields within a short walking distance from my front door.
It is the same for almost anyone in America. No matter your background or where you live, there is always a sport to play. With that being said, you also have to take into consideration the equipment that has to accompany each one of these sports. To play basketball you have to have a hoop. For football you don’t necessarily need pads, but you sure do need that special kind of ball. I think you get the idea. It makes it hard to just walk outside and start playing. With soccer that is not the case at all.
Soccer is one of the few games I can think of where you need a ball and nothing else. I have seen soccer balls made out of rags tied together and then kicked around on a street. Adding goals is easy enough: all you need to do is lay a couple of pebbles in the street, on a field, in a parking lot, or even the hallway of an apartment building and voila, you are set. In countries where there is hardly enough money to pay for food, you can bet there is no money for a basketball hoop or the concrete needed to bounce the ball. Yet you will still see kids playing soccer- all you need is a ball.
No wonder so many people around the world play soccer. It costs next to nothing.
As soccer continues to take hold in our country, we so easily turn a blind eye to the talent playing at the professional level. The kids who s were in the streets of Mexico and Europe kicking rags so many years ago, dreaming they would one day be stars, are now contending for the playoff title. They have come to America to finish already successful careers, and you’d better believe they have been instrumental in getting their teams to the finals of each conference respectively.
David Beckham of the Los Angeles Galaxy and Cuauhtemoc Blanco of the Chicago Fire are only two players of a long list of talented foreigners now playing in the MLS. There are few places outside the Unites States where they can go through a crowd unnoticed. Sure, LeBron James can draw a crowd of 20,000 for an NBA game, but these two can double the attendance without even coming off the bench. That is true star power. Fortunately both of them live up to expectations and play incredible soccer. This weekend their names alone won’t be able to move them closer to the championship. They will have to come together with the other ten men on their team to solidify their chances.
So did you watch soccer over the past couple of weekends after I encouraged you? If not, starting this Friday, you have a chance to redeem yourself and watch two of the most influential soccer players ever. Watching these two world legends play is like watching Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. One day your kids will be watching old film, and you can say you witnessed it live.
In the Western Conference Finals, the Houston Dynamo and Los Angeles Galaxy will play in L.A., while Real Salt Lake and the Chicago Fire play in the windy city. Since these are the conference finals, we are now in the single elimination stages. These teams only have one chance to move on.
Logan Millard works and lives in Salt Lake City, Utah. Aside from his full time job he works for the Utah Jazz as a media relations coordinator on game nights, and also helps Fox Soccer Channel when they are in town.
Popularity: 2% [?]
The Forgotten Fall Classic
Posted by: | CommentsThere’s so much going on in sports right now: we’ve got a heated Yankees/Phillies World Series, the start of the NBA season, the NFL is at the halfway point, and hockey is revving up too. Yet with all of these great sports options this time of year, there’s one particular event starting this weekend that has been unfairly overlooked, ignored, and hardly mentioned.
This weekend the playoffs begin for Major League Soccer, and I will be the first to admit that even thinking about it gets my blood going. Let me give you an idea of how myself, and thousands of others can get so hyped up on what you may consider such a boring thing to watch. Let me see if I can impart some of my fire.
In America we love high scoring games. We love to see one team pummel another so much that the physical evidence is displayed blaringly in bright lights. Scoring point after point in sports gives us some unexplainable satisfaction. We live for it. We can’t get enough of it. We always want more.
With that being said, think back on the last game you attended or watched on television. Sure, it was cool to see your team hit another three, or score another touchdown. You might have even cheered and done a fist pump, but less than a minute later that feeling is gone. You know another score is coming, and the anticipation does not last long. The only real time you get yourself wholly committed to the game is when it comes down to the wire. Seconds are ticking away too quickly as your team makes its final push. Then, when that last shot goes in at the buzzer, you are out of your chair screaming at the top of your lungs, chest bumping your neighbor, and spilling beer all over yourself. That is the real moment we live for.
Now take those feelings, and imagine that excitement lasting for ninety minutes.
Soccer is the only sport I can think of in the world where the anticipation for that one single goal keeps people standing the entire time. You can physically feel the energy as soon as you enter the stadium. Even the most hardened anti-soccer fan is drawn into the game by the positive vibe oozing from absolutely every corner of the field. I have personally seen the transformation of a ‘soccer is so boring’ attitude into a diehard soccer loving freak. It’s all because they allowed themselves to enjoy one game.
Remember the elation from the final seconds of the fourth quarter? Take those feelings and bottle them up inside yourself. Now watch as the soccer ball moves closer to the goal, as the player tries time and again to put one in the net. Every moment puts you closer to letting it all out. Multiply that by 30,000 other people around you. The air becomes thick with the excitement because you know it is going to happen.
There it is. We finally score. In that one moment all of those feelings building inside come bursting out in your very own prehistoric yell and mixes with everyone else around you. Absolutely electrifying. Even now I have goose bumps. I cannot wait to feel that again this Saturday.
Scoring in soccer is not a given. It is a gift. So each time that gift is given it is relished far more than any touchdown, any layup, or RBI. Each individual goal has its own power to change the outcome of a game and a season.
In that spirit, starting this coming Saturday, eight teams begin their push to be called the champions of soccer in America.
Of the fifteen teams that make up the league, seven were fighting for only three playoff spots heading into their final games of the regular season last weekend. To go into each separate scenario would not only take up a lot of time, but also cause more headache than anyone can handle. For example, Real Salt Lake could have moved on or been kicked out with no less than eight different outcomes. Fortunately, the stars aligned and they pushed through. For other teams like the Colorado Rapids (who ended their season last week), too much was left to chance and the performances of rival teams.
In case you’re not familiar with the structure, here’s a summary. In MLS, the top three teams of each conference are rewarded with spots in the playoffs. The next two teams with the best record then take slots number seven and eight. This year seemed to have ended up a little lopsided with three teams from the East and an astonishing five from the West.
Here is the breakdown with the total point accumulation next to each team. Three points are earned with a win, one with a tie, and zero for a loss:
East: Columbus Crew (49), Chicago Fire (45), and New England Revolution (42)
West: Los Angeles Galaxy (48), Houston Dynamo (48), Seattle Sounders (47), Chivas USA (45), and Real Salt Lake (40)
The playoff format starts with every matchup playing one game at home and one away. (It is interesting to note here that Chivas USA and the Los Angeles Galaxy play in the same stadium. So the question would be who has home field advantage?) The team with the most goals scored moves on to the next round, which is the conference championship, and from that point on the tournament turns to single elimination. The winner of each conference will then face off in the ultimate showdown of soccer domination. How can you not be excited?
This weekend take a moment to find a team to follow. Whether it is the Galaxy because of David Beckham, or Real Salt Lake as the underdogs, just pick one and get ready to cheer. Letting soccer into your already overloaded sports lifestyle may seem hard at first, but I promise after you give this game a chance you will be cheering louder than you thought possible.
Logan Millard works and lives in Salt Lake City, Utah. Aside from his full time job he works for the Utah Jazz as a media relations coordinator on game nights, and also helps Fox Soccer Channel when they are in town as a sideline producer.
Popularity: unranked [?]
A Sweepstakes Winner’s Experience
Posted by: | CommentsGrowing up I had a paper route near my home that gave me just enough money to save a little and spend a little. Being eight years old meant that a lot of my money went to candy and baseball cards, which made my world seem perfect. I had that paper route until I was 18, for that extra few dollars, but somewhere in the mix of growing up I left the baseball cards behind. Close to another ten years had passed before I felt the thrill of opening a pack of cards again.
My interest was peaked when I read about the value of a certain Hillary Clinton error card that had been pulled from production. Being an avid memorabilia collector, I decided that the Hillary Clinton card would be the perfect addition to my collection. Not wanting to spend the ridiculous amount of money that someone was asking on eBay, I decided that the only way to get one was through random selection, buying cards. It also reminded me of how much fun I had buying and opening cards as a kid.
I forgot that opening a pack of cards could be so much fun! I found out about the Presidential Predictors Sweepstakes on the Upper Deck website. It was easy enough: just put the code in. My thinking was that if I won anything, even an extra pack of cards, it would be pure gravy. Who knew I would find myself on the mound at a San Diego Padres game throwing out the first pitch. How lucky!
Even though I had practiced throwing that distance of sixty feet six inches with my dad, nothing could have prepared me for the nervousness that set in when I first walked onto the field. The anxiety continually mounted from batting practice, to watching them paint the lines, to the National Anthem, and the long walk to the mound. The pitch was straight and hard and went fifty-nine feet six inches. Oops. At least it was straight. Nothing the Padres will sign me for, but respectable. The rest of the night was spent watching the game from great seats in the beautiful stadium. Petco Park is something to be proud of for everyone in the area. One day I hope Salt Lake City can follow suit.
My wife can attest to the fact that I was just as excited, or even more excited, for our tour of the Upper Deck building than for the pitch. After seeing the display cases in the lobby I knew I was in for a treat. Lisa Caffrey took us to the various departments of Upper Deck and explained the entire process of how a card is made. I even had a chance to help design my own card. Who knew that so much went into making a baseball card? Even more impressive is the volume of cards Upper Deck produces. On top of that is the quality that seems to surpass all others.
The highlight of the tour for me was when we went to the game used equipment room. The shelves run floor to ceiling and are stuffed full of everything you can imagine. There was a Kobe Bryant jersey, Ernie Banks bat, Babe Ruth signature from a restaurant registry and even some of John Adams hair. This was just a fraction of everything they have in that room. They are so lucky that they get to be around it all day every day.
Everyone at Upper Deck seemed genuinely excited to see us and made us feel welcome. It’s easy to see that Upper Deck takes great pride in their product, but it was especially encouraging to feel that they genuinely care about the people who collect them. After this experience, I have been turned into the ultimate fan of Upper Deck and everyone that works there.
Who knew that a kid from Salt Lake City would ever win such a wonderful prize. The phrase ‘like a kid in a candy store’ seems so cliché, but I can honestly say my inner child was beaming. Next time you are thinking of entering a code, don’t hesitate. Take the five seconds to do it. Regular people win those contests. Trust me. It is worth it.
Thank you Upper Deck!
Popularity: unranked [?]
