Chowda

Yeah, this sucks for me, but better for the club.

It's not?!?!? Gotta laugh at the ignorance of the statements professing American ignorance.

I'm not supposed to care you threw wild, ignorant accusations that everyone here is a racist and that's the reason behind the article? I was just showing you have no fucking clue who the hell you were attacking, and that the people you were attacking weren't responsible.

That's what most of us up here are saying. The people who want to put this on have no fucking clue what they are getting into.

OK, this is jumping to all sorts of wild conclusions about the Boston Globe. Let me fill you in on something here. The Boston Globe, by and large, hates the heritage of Boston, specifically the Irish Catholic community. This stems from a lot of things. Explicitly, it's due to the paper strongly crusading for laws to force the church to conduct and honor homosexual marriage. Implicitly, it's because they mainly hire people who didn't grow up in the area but went to school there (Boston's a huge college town). Those people have no roots and often want to erase the very stigma you described. So, it's the complete opposite. However, they will side with the Irish community when it comes to granting amnesty to everyone who came here illegally. Anything that bashes the United States or anyone else they perceive as being evil empirical powers (i.e. Britain), they will also run. That being said, that soccer writer had space to write whatever he wanted unedited on the glob's site. What he wrote was in no way, shape, or form what the paper itself thinks and I doubt he received money from them to write it. It's part of their new strategy to make money off of online advertising. It's money they desperately need as it has been in danger of going out of business for a few years now. You see, they are "one of the most respected newspapers" because they live off of it's old reputation. From Watergate to the early 90's every mainstream paper in America was center-left. With the rise of right wing media, nearly every one of them chose to firmly ally itself with the left wing. That alienated half their audience and now the old media standards are hapless shills for the cause du jour. So, feel free to bash the Globe, but just know where it actually stands.

They used to be a major ethnic group, even after most being there many generations. Forced busing changed that (The very start of The Departed is actual footage). It broke up the old neighborhoods, weakening the political muscle which resisted gentrification of areas in South Boston, Somerville, etc... But the city is very friendly to illegal aliens and there's no shortage of lawyers in Boston to rectify the status of someone who overstayed their welcome (i.e. Obama's Aunt is an illegal living in Boston public housing). The original source of that blog entry on the Glob's site was from the newspaper of the Irish immigrant community. I've seen the paper, it's filled with ads for immigration lawyers. The community still exists, but in much, much smaller numbers. Most immigrants who sneak in here and work illegally and are from countries that are much bigger shitholes than Ireland. But Boston has had the Irish identity for a very long time. The NBA team wasn't started by the Celtic Boys Club, it was renamed by a Jew from New York who took over the team (No, Red Auerbach wasn't Irish)and can't claim many Irish players (apart from those who had Irish slave names). St. Patrick's day is huge up here because the whole city gets drunk all day, not because we are celebrating out Irishness. So, it's sort of a mascot thing, not an ethnicity thing for the most part. If they do play this at Fenway, the danger won't exist inside the stadium. Tickets will go on sale early to Red Sox season ticket holders and corporate sponsors. The rumor is they won't segregate apart from selling block tickets to the clubs themselves because this is America and that sounds racist. The danger will be outside the stadium from those who either couldn't get tickets or can't pay the $300 that the scalpers will want for them.

Oh crap, they are playing this at Fenway Park. Yeah, expect to pay out the ass for this one. And I hope they know enough to have segregated sections. For the hockey game on 1/1:

There is still an Irish immigrant community in Boston. I met them all the time when I was living up there, and they have events, sports leagues, newspapers, etc... The vast majority of Italians in the area are at least 2nd generation, most are 4th/5th. Well over 90% of the "Italians" that were celebrating the World Cup win in the streets can't speak the language. But the thing is, there are 2-3 strong Celtic pubs up in Boston. That doesn't make for a partisan crowd. However, it's "cool" to be Irish. There's a ton of Notre Dame football fans around here and they play in Indiana. So, those types will don the green and and pack the stadium in July. I'm just glad Ted Kennedy is dead and won't be stealing the spotlight. John Kerry will try to do it, but he'll fuck something up like asking where about in Ireland Celtic play and we'll all laugh. Lastly, this: Pause at 4 secs, the guy in the Dempsey shirt is me.

They'll play it at Gillette Stadium, 20 miles south of Boston. I'm actually living in Rhode Island currently, so it's a short ride for me. I hope a lot of North American bears show up for this one.

Careful What You Wish For By Luke Cyphers ESPN The Magazine Article about Edu and Beasely at Gers from a US sports magazine. (Sorry if this is a repost)

Hey, I was at that game. Great view of the movement on the shot from the other end. Yeah, Holden had the advantage of coming into MLS with a well-established team and being phased into the lineup, not getting rushed. After a one or two attacking players departed, he fit right in and is Houston's creative force in the midfield. I'm not sure if he's making the World Cup team, but he's damn close.

When Rae called New England Revolution games in the 90's, he faked some weird accent. Pretty creepy. I did like his CL coverage and freaked out when he was snubbed for the World Cup in favor of a baseball announcer who had watched well under 50 games in his life before calling his first friendly. A funny moment was when he (Dave O'Brien) said Reyna had played for Glasgow United because he memorized thousands of facts about the sport in short order and his brain started merging them. But yeah, Rae's passable.

I think he'd be fine. In fact, I believe he's being wasted in Spain where they value skill over athletic talent and grit.

I doubt we could afford to buy the entire country of the USA we could try and take it over since most of their Army etc will be in iraq/afganistan etc We all own guns, mate. By all means, come and take them if you're froggy enough. Seriously, all this marketing to America stuff isn't a sound investment. I wish it were, but it's not. Would fielding a PDL team and using it to develop/scout talent pay off for Rangers? Maybe. However, you aren't going to get a decent enough ROI for signing an American over a better player from a second-rate country.

Been hearing unsubstantiated reports of Beasley returning to MLS.