Ridiculous that they get paid for their services? They get paid to go to school, in the forms you mentioned. Why is it ridiculous that they get paid more than that?

College Football seem to me to be this artificial market where every athlete on a particular team is paid exactly the same amount (or absolutly nothing for a walk-on), where the university reaps the benefits (or costs) with a completly fixed wage scale. It seems highly unfair to me.

I would have much less problem with the whole thing if the NFL allowed players in at any age. Don't forget that athletes essentially have to play college football.

on the rocks.

Actually I'm going to disagree with you. Man U's young players are playing for playing time, MLS's are in playoff hunts and international competitions.  As fans, it means more to MLS, but as players it means more to Man U.

I'm not going to say MLS doesn't have that advantage, or can sniff the EPL in talent. This is a friendly for both sides, and yes, MLS is embarrassing itself so far.  As a big MLS fan, we in general think it's a little better than it actually is. The value comes in getting to watch live soccer, the play has made steady progress but still has to get better.

It's also one of the best clubs in the world playing against 23 players who have, and will, only play together for three days of their lives. National teams have hard times coming together, an all-star collection barely qualifies as a 'team'.

Edit: Sorry meant this to be a reply to the above comment about third stringers.

Lamarr Woodley (and Jerome Jackson) destroyed us 56-7 my junior year.  Saginaw was awesome that year, and then they lost the first round of the playoffs.

A lot of the ratings I've read come with the caveat that they don't take into account mass audiences - exactly what you are talking about.  I assume those are more difficult to estimate, and I have a feeling soccer has one of the biggest bar crowds of any sport.  Don't know if these numbers account for these or not.

I know you tried to avoid it, but I'll throw in my opinion of soccer in the country - MLS has been steadily growing and will continue to grow.  It's hard to say when, but I wouldn't be surprised if we are talking about the MLS as clearly in the #5 spot, and competing with NHL for being considered the fourth sport in the country in the next five or so years.  To be fair, I may be overly optimistic, I am hoping for more popularity for the MLS, as more more will raise the quality.

MLS has had a steady climb in attendance in the past few years, and any temporary boost in attendance can be really beneficial, as I think watching a soccer game live is a unique experience, and some of the temporary boost will become permanent fans.

Crossing my fingers, at least.

I watched US-England at Up and Under's at it was a great atmostphere.  It's a lot smaller than Waysides so it was pretty packed with soccer fans.  I've never really liked Wayside, to be fair.

Yes!  I loved Lucifer's Hammer, though a lot of what Niven and Pournelle did together was good quality.

On the sci-fi topic, I love Richard Hienlien, Stranger in a Strange Land and Starship Troopers are both fantastic book.  If anyone is a fan of military philosophy, Starship Troopers is a really interesting read (along the lines of Ender's Game).

I'll second Herodotus, I don't recall how much of him I read, but I starkly remember reading about the Persian Wars, especially the Battle of Thermopylae.  

If you like ancient histories, I'd also recommend Twelve Cesaers by Suetonius, it's on the lives, both public and personal, of the Cesaers from Julius to Domitian.   I found it fascinating, and the parts that describe the depravity of Caligula and Nero are haunting.

Oh I wasn't disagreeing with the call, just wasn't a whole lot Kewell could do about it.

Kewell handball in the box, red card and Ghana converts the penatly. 

A little unlucky to get a red like that, but 65 minutes a man down will spell doom, although Ghana will make this fun to watch!

After watching the england game, my first thought for Slovenia was bring on Torres and Buddle.  I was very unimpressed with Clark, and Findley was about exactly what we expected.  I'm a little worried about us giving up some dangerous counters, but our talent level should win out.

So excited for tomorrow....

At Up and Under's in Kalamazoo.

Also, I can't imagine that there won't be crowds watching it at most places, BDubs had fans there for just about every WC game in 2006, if that's your style.  If I were in Ann Arbor, I'd probably go to Connor's, I'm sure there'll be a big crowd there.

I'd start Torres over Edu at this point, the US seemed to have trouble getting any link to the forwards without him.  I'd slot Gomez in as a second half sub up top as well, but other than that I agree.  I'm pretty excited after they looked pretty good in the second half today.

I was really impressed with Findley today, as well at Torres.  I was definitely was surprised when Robbie was included in the 23, but he looked really good today.

14 days...

Italian stadiums are pretty outdated.  The feeling is they need the motivation of winning a Euro cup bid to get to work updating the stadiums, although they are starting to slowly do so.  Juventus just starting breaking ground on a new stadium in Turin, and both Roma and Lazio are trying to get bids for their own new stadiums built so they can move out of the olimpico, but I don't think either of those are moving yet.

of matchfitusa.com also.  I like Jason's podcast (American Soccer Show) if anyone's into that scene as well.