DISQUS

Just announced by FSC: 66,237. The highest attendence in a stand-alone MLS game in league history.

Since Beckham is somewhat the subject here, I was wondering if you saw today's Pardon the Interruption? Kornheiser and Wilbon talked about Becks at one point, and Tony came down on him hard, openly calling him a fraud. I know there is no such thing as bad publicity, but should the league and Galaxy at this point hold back a little on Beckham mania until he's sure to go?

Just realized that comment looks like a slam towards you. Sorry. More appropriately speaking, it looks like everyone gave up on Benfica just a tad too soon.


One question: Does RSL really only free up 250,000 dollars on their salary cap by this move? That seems rather low.

Looks like you may have given up on Benfica a tad too soon: Washington Post is now reporting the deal is 99 percent there and Adu is flying out to Portugal right now to finalize it. Probably will be announced either tomorrow or Monday.

Hey, what do you know, the community section is now back up!

I really wish I could find myself getting more into the Superliga. However, it just reeks too much of a "Made for TV" trophy. I understand a lot of people are finding this a high event, and I'm sure they will enjoy it. However, I'd rather get back to the season at this point.

I'm going to be joining the side of mj and eplnfl on this one. Anybody who didn't expect what they saw last night out of the broadcast has not watched ESPN enough. This is how ESPN works and has worked for a number of years. The reason it hasn't been as noticable in other MLS broadcasts by the network is because they haven't had an occasion like this one. This was a moment to sell, and it takes more than the game to do that, for better or worse. I'm not thrilled with that, but it was what I expected.


Last night's game was ok. It was comparable to this year's FA Cup final, but that wouldn't be saying much. But this isn't about one night. Now the real work begins; building a base on the next five years. Last night is just a small start.

And since I forgot to say this last night, very nice work on this Gaffer. Certainly a lot of interesting choices for the first few months.

Gaffer, just looking over the lists at Sky, and I see one you've missed.


On Sunday August 12th at 1:30 PM, Chelsea v Birmingham City is going to be on Sky in the UK. If I remember correctly, this game will be on Setanta Sports in the US.

Gaffer, just checked SoccerTV, and it says that the game on Setanta Sports at 10 is going to be Tottenham Hotspur against Manchester City. Has there been a change already?

I know I'll be in the minority on this view, but I hope this doesn't happen.


The one previous time ESPN bought out another network was Classic Sports Network in 1997. While it wasn't a top-end network when bought, it was a good channel for more historical sports buffs.



Today? ESPN Classic. Which has... well, American Gladiators and poker reruns. Maybe the most pointless network on cable today.



If they kept Setanta management, maybe I would have hope. But they won't, because they won't be brand guys. With ESPN, it's all about the name and it's power. They will not keep everything the channel has now that's for sure (I'll bet that non-EPL soccer will be the first to go). While I originally got Setanta for the EPL, I have grown to love a lot of the programming they offer. They'll probably change the name to ESPN Europe as well (ugh).



Also, forget Setanta Broadband. They'll dump that into ESPN 360 and make it only available to the ISPs they can extort to pay it.



It's tempting because we want the EPL available to everyone under the sun. But if you want this, be prepared to lose a lot of what makes Setanta stand out as a sports channel today.