Bay Area Sports Blogging

Soccer is not America's favorite sport by a long shot, but it is very popular around the world. While soccer has not been in the spotlight in this country, it is slowly gaining momentum. The premiere professional soccer association in the U.S. is Major League Soccer, or MLS. With games televised on ESPN, ABC, and various local networks, soccer is increasing its exposure.

But what fun would it be if you don't know what's going on? Because soccer is not a common game in the U.S., most people do not understand the rules of the game. Watching a soccer game and not knowing the rules is about as exciting as watching a foreign film without subtitles. To alleivate that problem, we're going to explain one of soccer's infamous calls: the offsides.

The 2008 season opener for the San Jose Earthquakes is on Thursday, where they will play against David Beckham and the Los Angeles Galaxy. The new look Quakes are an expansion team this year, with the old team moving to Houston and forming the Houston Dynamo.

Even as a new expansion team with a completely new roster, they are not ranked the weakest team in Major League Soccer. Out of the 14 teams in MLS, the Quakes are ranked 11th by Yahoo! sports. Cheers for not being the suckiest team in the league, unlike those awful San Francisco Giants.

The 2008 season of Major League Soccer is set to begin this Saturday, March 29. Bay Area soccer fans will once again have a reason to watch MLS this season; the San Jose Earthquakes are back! Ignore the terrible open tryouts from last year.

What? You didn't know the MLS was starting the new season? Yeah, marketing and advertising for MLS is on the low end. It lacks media coverage from the major networks. You probably have to start watching ESPN Deportes to get MLS updates.

Saw this last night on ESPN SportsCenter. While in Tampa playing the United States soccer team, five Cuban football / soccer players have defected Cuba. That means the players have left the Cuban team to join a USA team. The players are said to play for Miami FC, a professional soccer team.

I don't follow soccer that much, but this was surprising news. Also note worthy is the fact that this isn't front page headline material. I had to dig through the news stories to find more information on this. Maybe this sort of thing happens all the time and I'm just not aware of it.

I got this from the SJ Quakes newsletter...

This Saturday, January 26, come out to the Oakland A's FanFest for an Earthquakes autograph session! Earthquakes players will be at McAfee Coliseum to greet fans and sign autographs from 12 - 12:45 p.m. Be sure to stop by and don't forget to sport your favorite Earthquakes gear! Pre-purchase tickets online now at only $5 each by using the coupon code "fanfest". Tickets are also available for purchase at McAfee Coliseum on the day of the event for $10 each.

It appears that Liverpool Football Club owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jr., are struggling to keep their team after a collapse in negotiations. Unable to strike an agreement with banks on restructuring the loans, Dubai International Capital put forth an offer of $700 million to buyout the team.

Knowing how passionate Europeans are with football/soccer, it might be a good idea for the two to fold and establish their own team in the states. MLS is expanding. Might as well take that $700 million and invest in MLS. Bring Zidane and Henry over!!

It looks like another American is being linked to a football club in the Premiership. Fulham is in potential talks of signing Chivas USA goalkeeper, Brad Guzan. With Carlos Bocanegra, Brian McBride, Clint Dempsey and Kasey Keller already at Craven Cottage – and Kansas City Wizards striker Eddie Johnson due to join them next week subject to a work permit – the club has strong American connections.

MLS has never gotten so much interest from top Euro leagues before. Let's hope we are not sending all our top players overseas with nothing in return.

Beckham, I am talking to you.

With the recent crap of local Bay Area teams such as the SF Giants, the Golden State Warriors, and the SF 49ers, one professional sports team stands out as having recent success: the San Jose Earthquakes.

The Earthquakes is a professional soccer team for the Major League Soccer. The Earthquakes won the MLS Cup during the 2001 and 2003 year, with star player Landon Donovan. In 2005, the owner brought the team to Houston and was renamed to the Houston Dynamo. However, the Dynamo was considered an expansion team so the Earthquakes team name, records, and history remained in San Jose without an actual team. Until now. The Earthquakes are getting the band back together!

The Earthquakes will be competing in MLS for the 2008 season. Since the previous team moved to Houston, the current team is not carrying a full roster. One of the Quakes' first move was to hire former LA Galaxy coach Frank Yallop as the new head coach of the Earthquakes. The second move is to hold open tryouts to fill out the roster list.