By Andrew Dixon - MIAMI, FL (Dec 22, 2008) USSoccerPlayers -- It’s the end of the year, so several Grown Men and Women with Opinions will be penning columns about the world of football from 2008.
You know, salute the various domestic and international champions, speak about some off field issues that the game saw this year, pay homage to those special performances and moments that had the significant portions of the soccer world buzzing throughout the year. They’re fun to do and gives pundits a chance to celebrate the game.
But that ain’t happening here.
No, today I’m taking dead aim at my villains of 2008.
You know.
The suckas.
The ones that made me shake my head and say, “This one right here.” The people who straight ticked me off or stuck their foot out and tripped up the collective game we love so well.
So here are some of the entities that might end up on a dartboard in Chez Grown Man’s TV room:
GolTV/Dish Network
Everything was going fine. I had my ESPN. Had my FSC. Had my Setanta Sports had my GolTV. All the soccer I could want to watch. Then Dish Network and GolTV had to go and screw it up by getting into a financial dispute that ended up with GolTV being dropped from Dish Network’s service, right in time for the start of Spanish league.
Each side sent out dueling press releases blaming the other. GolTV was dropped, according to GolTV, “despite efforts to continue GolTV’s availability to Dish customers,” while DISH Network stated that they removed this channel after asking for unreasonable terms to renew the contract and we’re working to solve the problem.”
Bah. Both of these cats are villains because the only way soccer will continue to catch on in this country is through the visibility and availability of top flight matches such as those on GolTV (ok, they can keep the Guatemalan league but still). By being unable to work out their contract dispute they severely limited that availability and deprive fans such as my self and the countless others who watched those matches. Message boards were filled with outraged people who switched to Direct TV to get those games. I would have been one of them, but Mrs. Grown Man wasn’t having it.
Martin Taylor
I try to play pickup once a week (or whenever Mrs. Grown Man allows me) and play right back. Every once in awhile I'll get physical with a forward, just to let him know I'm there. Just about every defender does it.
Speaking as a pickup defender who has angered enough pickup strikers in my time, what Martin Taylor did to Arsenal forward Eduardo earlier this year was criminal. For all three of you who were unaware, in the third minute of a game between Birmingham and Arsenal, Taylor came in high and hard, studs in the air and snapped Eduardo’s leg in one of the most gruesome football injuries of recent time.
The debate raged as to whether the tackle was a fair one, what the length of Taylor’s suspension should be and whether Eduardo’s injury brought the title charge of a young Arsenal team to a screeching halt.
Count me as one of those who said that Taylor should have been banned for more than just the three matches he had to sit out. Taylor clearly left his feet and his foot was clearly half way up Eduardo’s leg. Fair? More like criminal. Thankfully, Eduardo is on the comeback trail but Taylor is an absolute villain.
Ruud Gullit
It might be a little harsh to call him a villain but, heck with it, I'm calling him out.
See, it was bad enough that he took the LA job without learning about the league and its differences from the European setup. You know, little things like our reliance on draft picks, salary caps and combines. Then he whined about the lack of training academies, about the conflicts with international dates, the lack of personnel for reserve matches. Bruh, shouldn't you have found this out BEFORE you took the job?
For awhile, LA was in first place and Gullit seemed to be getting it done. Then LA imploded like the stock market and Ruud boy had had enough, resigning in a major shake up that sent Alexi Lalas back to the pundit’s desk.
But no, that’s not what puts him on my list.
It was the interview he gave a few months back where he dissed MLS and declared that there is a conspiracy to keep soccer down. It went something like this:
"I think they are afraid of football because it’s so popular everywhere around the world. I think they will just control it so it doesn’t become more popular than their American sports."
Oh I see. All this time I thought MLS’s struggles were about tough ratings and a crowded sports scene when actually it was Don Garber, Sunil Gulati, Phil Anschutz, Robert Kraft, the late Lamar Hunt all meeting on the grassy knoll to keep soccer from being as popular as the NFL.
When someone of the stature of Gullit comes to MLS, you can only be hopeful that he leaves it in better shape than he found it. His exit and his comments thereafter are one of the most disappointing story lines of MLS.
For real though? Good riddance.
Racist Fan in Crew Stadium
You.
Yeah, You.
The racist in Columbus that was caught on camera calling Khelli Dube the chosen racial epithet of too many in this great land of ours. That would be the n-word, for all you grown-ups out there, as close as we'll come on a nice family site.
You defiled your fan club. You defiled our League. You made Crew fans in particular have to reach to the outer limits of common sense to make this not about them.
You see, the one thing we could say that our League had over La Liga is that we don't have people shouting racist slurs or doing monkey chants like you're apt to hear in any given match in Spain.
A 'Say No to Racism' campaign has never been necessary in MLS like it has been in Spain or Italy. But your ignorance caused attention to be taken from the play of your championship quality team to addressing your stupidity and how the League should address it.
In a League that features so many players of color from these shores and beyond, in a game that people of all complexions play the world over, in a country that just elected its first Black president, you impugned your team, city and fellow fans.
Oh and for those that dismiss it as a isolated incident, the frequency is not the point. The point is,
It
Should
NEVER
HAPPEN.
Not in this League, not in this country, and not in this game.
You, Racist Columbus Fan, wherever you are, are the biggest villain of the year in this Grown Man’s Opinion. Aside from insulting me personally as a Black Man, you soiled the game we both love.
Oh you villains. May you all get your comeuppances.
Fresh for 2008. Suckaaaaaas.
Andrew Dixon is a soccer writer based in Miami and a weekly columnist for USSoccerPlayers. Contact him at: golnoir@golnoir.net
