Crew Season Preview, part 1

Take a look at Steve Davis of ESPN.com's Crew Season Preview

He makes the fairy obvious points about the Crew's newfound riches in the goalscoring department and the question mark in goal. A couple of early observations:

1) If talent didn't improve at all, you'd have to think the Crew will be better if only, let's say, 1/2 of the team suffers serious injury. Last year, they filmed an episode of Gray's Anatomy in the Crew locker room.

2) I'm surprised he didn't talk more about the central midfield situation. Though early signs are good, with Ned Grabavoy looking sharp and some really exciting performances from Stefan Miglioranzi, there's always a danger of trying to fix your goalscoring problems with finishers, only to find that your true deficiency was in service and control from your midfield players.

3) On a personal note only tangentially related to the story, Frankie Hejduk's return has a lot of people happy. However, while his experience in German and International football make him a competent MLS player, I'll go to my grave saying he's one of the most grossly overrated players ever to don the USMNT strip.

He's a phenomenal "effort" guy who made up for talent deficiencies with work rate and pace. Now that he's getting old (ouch --he's 4 months younger than me) the pace is fading and he'll be a cagey veteran with a 50/50 chance of putting a routine cross into the 6th row.

Soccer Specific Stadia and Real Salt Lake's blues

Brian Garrison of An American's View on Football/Futbol/Soccer has a really nice piece on the funding being pulled out from under Real Salt Lake's stadium plan. He lays out not only the consequences of the deal falling through, but also the domino effect of RSL either being contracted or sold and rebranded.

First, I'll say that breaking ground on a stadium before you have funding is like reporting on where some big American center back will transfer before you see him with a new jersey. Rolling the dice.

Secondly, this is a real shame for the RSL fans. It's bad enough they've had to suffer with that name--the jarring collison of poetic Castilian and prosaic, um...well...Salt Lake.

I realize I've been really spoiled as a Columbus Crew fan that I always watch my MLS games in a soccer-specific stadium. I remember one particular evening before a game with D.C., walking with some friends through the parking lot, waving at tailgaters, dodging the errant juggling of teenagers, and watching parents and their children kicking soccer balls around the field. It was twilight, and in the distance, you could see the whole stadium aglow and hear the fans chanting and stomping the bleachers. The stadium was in full voice, and kids were buzzing with excitement to see Freddy Adu.

My friend and I looked at one another and didn't have to say a word. This was soccer and this was the U.S. We never thought we'd actually see the day, but it was beautiful.