Sweet Holy Moses

Touché.

Actually, 'cock' only refers to the rooster, the male of the chicken species (Gallus gallus.) Cock does not refer to hens, and therefore cannot refer to the entire species. Just sayin'.

He damn well better. Silva, O'Dea out for Bloom, Rey, Elmer and an Academy call-up is not enough. I know it's my hometown team and all, but bloody hell, it's hard to be a fan of TFC sometimes everyday. It's like they're trying to get us to cheer for Montreal or Vancouver.

Mick is a terrible Doge.

As a rule, I only play Civilization games while competing in long-distance running.

I've been saying this for years, Sousa. Just not here. And just not about Civ 5.

Seattle expansion has been on the radar ever since the new Seattle arena plan was confirmed. The whole 16/14 conference split only made it that much more apparent. There are better expansion options, but whatever. If the owners are there, I guess I can't be too concerned.

I know its early and there's much speculation, but I'm expecting the four new MLS teams to be: Miami - Beckham's got a clause to own a team, and his partner owns a business in Miami. Don't know if it'll work long-term, but the Beckham effect should help it in the short term. Carolina - A second team in the (sort of) southeast. There's plenty of soccer support already in the area (a NASL team and 3 USL Pro teams, plus a bunch of PDL and University teams). Orlando - Ever since this ownership group moved from Austin, they've shown their long-term goal is MLS. Good business sense, good fan support, sponsorship opportunities (Disney tie-in?). Plus every league needs a purple team. These three teams will serve to massive increase the MLS' geographic spread. They'll finally have coverage from NY-to-LA, Seattle-to-Miami, Vancouver-to-Montreal. San Antonio - This team was started because the fans in SA are tremendous. They've already got a soccer-specific stadium capable of quick expansion to MLS size, two built-in rivals (Dallas and Houston). If not this round of expansion, San Antonio will one day get a team, if only because the Crocketteers deserve a team. I'm not sold on Minnesota because they've had serious attendance/ownership/sponsorship issues over the years from what I understand. Detroit's got noted financial issues. Franchises in Atlanta have been on-and-off for years, much like Minnesota. If MLS expands to more than 24 (I expect an eventual 32-team league, 16 in each of the conferences) then Minnesota and Atlanta will be there, but not yet. St. Louis has a wonderful soccer history, so they'll hopefully get in there sometime, too.

I pretty much have a simple rule: if a word already exists in the language you're writing in for whatever it is you're describing, use it. The only time I stray much from this rule is for flavour, and only for small things. For example, I might have one character refer to another by his official title, even if the title is a direct translation of King, or First Citizen. I might have characters greet each other in their language. Two French-speakers would say <<Bonjour.>> Limiting your foreign phrases to these small instances reminds your reader that you're discussing a different world/planet/country/whatever, but doesn't overly confuse them.

The guy that really stands out as box-to-box is Dunfield. That guy's workrate is really only understood by seeing him live. He doesn't stop moving. That's mostly because he's nearly always out of position, but at least he's trying to get back into position, right? As for the rest of the midfield, I haven't seen much of Bostock or Ephraim yet (it seems I always have other plans during TFC matches. Weird. To be fair, many of the players appear to be in the same boat as me.) Russel and Lambe, while having a bit of potential, just turn the ball over way too much for my tastes. I wish TFC had a 4-2-3-1 setup right now. Earnshaw up front. Silva-Laba-Ephraim and Dunfield-Bekker (or something) in the middle. Our forwards strike me (no pun intended) as mostly meh. Let Morgan and Eckersley/Richter bomb up from wingback, with Califf/O'Dea/Henry/Boss in CB rotation. Maybe move one up to replace Ephraim in DM. Once we get Koef healthy, then maybe move to a 4-4-2 with Earnshaw/Koevermans up top. But for now, Earnshaw's our only real scoring threat. Putting Wiedeman or Braun up besides Earnshaw just seems a waste of a spot in the XI. But that's just my opinion. Nelson seems to be getting the results with his strategy. If the result is a truckload of 1-point games.

Him and Silva together feeding Earnshaw and Koevermans (when he's healthy) should be fun to watch. I'm not saying they're going to lead the league in goals, but still. Unfortunately, I think this means less development time for Bekker and Osorio, which is bad long-term for Canadian soccer. It's tough. Do you cheer for a better club team now or a potentially better national team five or six years from now? The MLS-USL integration plan can't come soon enough.

I'll take one.

The more things change, the more things stay the same with TFC. Sigh.

This. So very much totally this. I hate that teams are rewarded for being terrible. I understand that they want to create balance and parity and all. But a race to the bottom is not a way to do that. Plus, this method would also reduce the mid-season firesale phenomenon, I think. I hate seeing firesales. It would just suck to be a fan of a team that could be in a fight for a playoff spot just throw away all the good parts of a team just because they've decided they're not in it any more this year. This way would also make trade deadline day even less interesting than it currently is, though. So no real harm done on that front, I guess.

I love the concept, but haven't been able to get into a long-running game.

Leaf's Playoff Chances

There's somebody on TFC named Dalibor? Also, all-Canadian MLS Cup = ratings!

Other than the Adidas shoulder stripes, I actually really like that Bayern shirt. That said, teams need to stop getting Adidas to make their kits. Why can't teams just hire an independent designer, then go to Adidas and say "I don't give a fuck what you want. Make this shirt, or we'll find someone else that will."

This. Since the Cup run, the Flames have been downhill, and it's been readily apparent to everyone outside the organization.

The Thread Where Nobody Wants Kiprusoff, Gabriel, So Stop Trying?

James Reimer is 13-4-4 with a .920 save percentage. In terms of those stats, he's comparable to Rask, Schneider, Lundqvist. Luongo is 7-4-3 with .904 and Kiprusoff's 6-10-2 with .868. I read somewhere (I forget where, to be honest) that over their first 93 games, the number he's just recently passed, Reimer's stats are virtually identical to Price's. The only reason people are so highly critical of Reimer is because he's a Leaf. If we still had Rask, people would be crapping all over him, too. We don't need to trade for a #1 goalie. We already have one. We also don't need a #1 center. We have Nazem Kadri, who's 7th in points (5 more than Ovechkin!) and 10th in goals, despite only playing 16 min a night, 75% of Crosby's or Stamkos' ice time. Like Reimer, people are down on the name on the front more than the name on the back. If Kadri were on the Sens or Habs or nearly anywhere else, people would be recognizing that he's a legit #1C.

He did announce them. I was there. You could just barely hear him over all the 'Go Leafs Go', 'Nazem Kadri *clap clap clapclapclap*' and 'This is our house' chants.

This.

Personally, I wouldn't go after Cammalleri. He's not that much of an upgrade over the players we do have, and having him stick around at $6m for next year is not my idea of a good time. If anything, we need to remove an over-paid center (Grabo, anyone?) and get Kadri re-signed. Depending on what Bozak wants, I'd re-sign him, too. With Bozak, Kadri, Grabo and McClement, we've got thee second-line centers and Jay McClement. The only center we need is a legit, all-star, end-to-end #1C. Cammalleri is not that type of player.

Combine the two. Throw vodka.