| Top Ten: Things I KNOW to Be True | ||
| 1 | Uniforms | The home team dark/road team white thing is idiotic and short sided. Home should be whatever the home wants, road should adapt. (see NFL or EPL). Purple needs to be put into use as does home white (Hello RSL); no more red and no more blue. The uniform’s overall scheme, color, and pattern are a brand image just like anything else that should be dictated by the home side: FCD hoops, DC three stripes, Chicago bar, Galaxy Sash… Props to the Crew for not having a white road uniform. |
| 2 | Red and Black | FCD should not have changed colors from red and black. Hoops are true greatness and I campaigned for them starting back in 07, but black and red hoops with white shorts would have been the Schiznit. Hey Hitch! Red and black at home, red and white on the road! I like it! Ok 3rd kit, how about it for a 3rd kit for the SuperLiga? |
| 3 | Single Table | Single Table is the way it should be. Soccer deserves a single table. Top 8 make the postseason cup. Yes, cost, Yes travel, blah blah blah, I don’t care. Single table. For this to work we need 18 teams. Play each team twice, home and away, for a 34-game season. |
| 4 | adidas 10 | Remember those adidas ads about the unnamed #10 who would win the World Cup for the US? Right now he should be 20’ish. Have you seen the 20s this year? Did you see him? Me neither. I wonder where he is? Keep an eye on the Worlds for both 17s and 20s later this year, or maybe the 08 Olympic team, to see if you can spot him. |
| 5 | Roster Numbers | Roster numbers should be 1 to 28. (ok, maybe an occasional 0) and that’s it. Nothing more. No 30s, no 99, and certainly no 66. Anyone wearing something different is a clown trying to make a marketing splash. |
| 6 | DC Style | DC United is the only club to get their branding right in 1996: name, logo, colors, and uniform. Everyone else has been playing catch up ever since. DC United is a great name, cool eagle logo (on the third try), solid black kits are sharp, and the three white stripes across chest give them a style too… Outstanding all the way around. Honorable mention to Chicago Fire in 1998. Good name, good colors, the Boca Jrs type bar on the uniform, and the great fire department style badge. |
| 7 | Brimstone Cup | The original, and still the only rivalry cup founded, run, and paid for by fans. All others are imitators. Chicago and Dallas being in opposite conferences is a crying shame. See point #3 |
| 8 | Melting Pot | This country is a melting pot, our culture is a melting pot. Therefore our league, just like our national style of play, is a melting pot of soccer cultures. That means American names, and Euro names, and Latin names. That means different styles of play and different styles of teams. Euro style names are good, like FC Dallas, but so are old US names like Bethlehem Steel, South American names like CD Chivas USA, and modern US names like Tampa Bay Rowdies and Los Angeles Galaxy. There is no universal right way to do things… and in this country that means we will take the best of everyone else and combine it into one better style that is uniquely American. The biggest piece of this melting pot puzzle missing? Varity of coaching, to many recycled US Nat system coaches (aka Arena school) getting rehired over and over that play the same style of game. |
| 9 | Expansion | San Jose needs a team, so does Florida. The Northwest needs a side, as does Philly. That gives me 17… so who’s the 18th? Puerto Rico. Backed by a English team they will seek to corner the Caribbean market on talent. (It’s called taking a flyer people) |
| 10 | Go South | FCD should not spend its DP slot on some over priced, along in years euro with a big name. FCD should look to the south and sign a mid to late 20s player in the prime of his career. Forget the marketing value you “buy” in Europe, spend 100% of your money purely for talent. If you are going to break your cap for a player make it for as much field value as you can. Take $2 million and buy a hotshot player in the prime of his career. I bet between Sala and Pareja you could find a real nice player that would love to come play in the US. |
Nothing is absolute, all things are relative. Which makes everything I said here worthless beyond them being anything but my opinion. Then again it’s my list, so deal.
Flame on.