Tickle v. Tackle 28

Back in the saddle after my many travels and busting out the TvT a few days late! Purge yourself of the turkey-sloth and horrified glances at the status of your post-shopping credit accounts, it's off to the DVR and back into the line of fire . . .

Tickle

CONCACAF is finally starting to put some thought into their own version of the Champions' League, and it looks promising. Negatives? Sure--what happens to the nascent SuperLiga? I'm guessing an eventual shift in scheduling is in the cards, but it sure does create a whole boatload of extra fixtures for the successful teams. Will MLS respond by expanding rosters and the salary cap? Diagnosis--unlikely. Also, having the new Champions' League conclude in the spring means that any MLS team that advances to the later stages may be radically different from the team that qualified for that stage given transitions aplenty in the off-season . . . In other "one step closer to the rest of the futboling world" news, MLS is considering simplifying the foreign players rule by making it a seven-player limit, regardless of age. Baby steps now people. We're getting there . . . Congrats to the Houston Dynamo on two in a row, though it was painful to watch a cup lifted in RFK by a team not wearing black. At least you spared us the horror of having the likes of Heaps and Reis get their day in the sun.

Tackle

$5 mil a year for a moderately successful coach whose biggest asset is name recognition? Say, is that the Ghost of NASL's past rattling its chains in the dark, dreary basement of American Soccer? . . . And, Lalas' Abomination get to keep Captain Kissypants courtesy of MLS fudging the rules for LA again. That is, assuming that Landon and Lalas can kiss and make up after their latest series of spats . . . Ah, the three lions will be sobbing enough to rival the rains that dump on that blessed, sun-drenched isle (cough!). Couldn't have happened to a nicer bunch of over-rated players dubiously gifted with a real turd of a manager and backed by an arrogant and ill-informed fan-base that gets its futbol news from a patronizing dung heap of a news media. Cheers lads!