Magical Disappearing Comments
As we mentioned in Backpasses last night, UF will be unable to defend its prestigious title at the 4th Best Soccer Blog in America or something. We were left out of the final list of nominees in favor of Ives and some blogs we’ve never heard of.
Well, we’re pretty sure Ives would have been there no matter what, but some of the others, suffice it to say, we’re not intimately familiar with them (nothing personal, and some of them might be great sites, we’re just too self-absorbed in some ways).
While we’re not particularly upset about being left out of the proceedings, we did notice that, for the most part, everyone still eligible treats US Soccer and MLS very nicely.
We maintain our stance that Bob Bradley isn’t maximizing the talent we do have, makes terrible in-game adjustments (or rather doesn’t make them at all), and he seems to love Conor Casey. For those reasons, we’d prefer to see him back coaching in MLS sooner—before this summer to be exact—rather than later. As for Sunil Gulati, the fact that he is totally happy with Bradley is enough to make us totally not happy with him. And we say as much.
So you’ll forgive us if we think not making the final round of voting has something to do with our general attitude about US Soccer. We’d keep it to ourselves and silently grumble in our email threads, but a certain bit of shenanigans was noticed by the NY Kid, which is worth pointing out if only because it makes USSF seem even more like a coddling bunch of nonces.
Check out the full screengrab of the page with the nominees on it (link here). The first two comments (larger detail above) from a ‘desco’ first ask what happened to The Yanks Are Coming, and second produce a quote from a USSF email saying that The Yanks Are Coming are first time finalist nominees. Yet, scan the list on the USSF site and The Yanks Are Coming is nowhere to be found or voted for.
It’s a reasonable question to ask what happened. Unless you’re maybe selectively manipulating the competition to reward blogs that talk about the genius of the USSF and the joy of MLS or America soccer in general. In which case you wouldn’t want people to know you changed your mind about who the finalists should be.
Now, check back to the USSF site. The two comments by ‘desco’ seeem to have been removed.
Nice going guys. Good to know that the people running the show in Chicago are so thin-skinned. Taking your ball and going home won’t stop people from criticizing you, in fact it opens you up for more criticism.
We’re not crusaders of truth or anything around here. We love football. And we get a forum to say whatever we want. And we love that we have readers who are amused enough by us that they check back regularly and even participate.
But we’ve had really serious discussion amongst ourselves about what language we should or should not use, whether we should change wording on some posts to get links from higher-profile blogs, etc. And we always end up agreeing (for the most part) that we’re not going to change how we operate to appease someone else, and that, while we shouldn’t need to use profanity, it’s up to the individual writer of a given post to determine how often they want to use the f-word. And if that means finishing behind the US Women’s National Team blog in a rigged vote, then f**k it, we’ll suffer the consequences of our own churlishness.
Still, we’re slightly disappointed with the USSF (but not the least bit surprised). It’s their contest and they can run it how they see fit. But they are at best clumsy and at worst bigger wusses than we previously thought.
We maintain our stance that Bob Bradley isn’t maximizing the talent we do have, makes terrible in-game adjustments (or rather doesn’t make them at all), and he seems to love Connor Casey.
You forgot to mention the nepotism of always playing his out-of-form son in midfield.
You forgot to mention the nepotism of always playing his out-of-talent son in midfield.
went ahead and fixed that for you.
I’ll admit it. I wrote this Sunil Gulati piece.
conspiracy theories are weak at best. i love your site, and think you guys do a great job with your articles. I don’t completely agree with all of the USMNT hating, but to each his own. but it just sounds like you are the spoiled kids from the big house across the street that didn’t get picked for kickball.
I’m pretty sure the way you could become a finalist is by having readers write the UF name as an entry into the competition. Then, the USMNT blog would take the sites with the most write-ins and they would be the finalists.
I could be wrong, and I am too lazy to check back at the archives, but I don’t remember any posts on this site telling the readers to go vote for UF, which means that less of your normal followers probably went to the USMNT blog to vote for you.
The other blogs invited the readers to vote for them, and some (probably) actively pleaded with their members (USWNT blog).
All of the blogs, except for the random USWNT blog are pretty well known blogs so i don’t think it is a conspiracy to keep you guys down because you occasionally hate on Bob and company.
better luck next year.
@Charley: We posted it and had comments from readers saying we were nominated, but that’s not really the point. We don’t mind that we weren’t included in the nominations because it is not that big of a deal, but the fact that there appears to be some machinations going on, as evidenced by the comments that were deleted, with the nomination process, we thought it should at least be noted.
Moreover, our experience with USSF in the past has been that they are overly sensistive to viewpoints that do not coincide with its own. That said, it’s their contest and they can do what they want with it.
US Soccer should try being professional instead of child-like.
Last year the whole thing was rigged, we checked site popularity numbers and were beaten by a blog with 12 visits a day.
Oh and the MLS sucks. Its Blue Square conference football.
First off, I agree that there might be something shady going on with the nominations. I saw those comments yesterday on the US Soccer site — interesting.
That being said, some of the other blogs are fairly well-known, especially to those who follow USMNT players and soccer closely. With your more EPL-centered focus, I can understand why they aren’t on your radar.
And lastly, I am tired of the Michael Bradley nepotism claims. For all that Bob Bradley does wrong (and there’s a lot), playing his son is something he does right. Exactly who in our player pool is better than him at center midfield? Clark, Kljestan, Dempsey, Holden, Edu, Beckerman? Only Donovan could make a claim. To claim he’s out of form and out of talent is just plain wrong. He already won back his starting place at Gladbach. Plus, he’s 21. 21 year old no-talent soccer players don’t start at Gladbach — they rot on the bench at Monaco and Belenenses.
“21 year old no-talent soccer players don’t start at Gladbach — they rot on the bench at Monaco and Belenenses.”
And in the MLS. Ahem.
Wut?
Its because I was pulling for Spain in the CC isn’t it?
@TFA fair enough, there could be something sketchy going on. you guys were just starting to sound a little too like MLS Rumors, and that isn’t something you want to sound like.
@Norfolk Ned you can’t be serious about the Blue Square Conference football bit. MLS may not be as good as the top leagues or even the second tier, but guys like Landon Donovan, Shalrie Joseph etc are waaaaayyy better than conference players. the league may not be great, but the Blue Square Premier can’t compare to the MLS.
Charley: Absolutely no sour grapes on our part. We don’t do this for the awards (obviously), and we had a bit of a laugh about not being included. We just thought it was funny how ham-handed USSF handled even their own posting of the final nominees.
Also, I didn’t mean to imply that all of the other blogs were completely obscure and not deserving. It was just a couple on the list that were head-scratchers.
It’s pretty clear fan nominations aren’t the only thing taken into account for this, not just for best blog, but for some on the other categories as well. Case in point: Kenny Cooper’s goal against Panama being nominated for “Best Clutch Moment” of ’09.
Corky: I would take Edu and Clark before Bradley on most days.
@umlaut: Really? I like Edu’s potential, but Clark is a lot of effort but few results. I actually think Bradley suffers when playing with Clark due to Clark’s poor positioning and strategic sense.
Really. Clark is prone to lapses, but less prone to stupid yellows/reds (as long as he isn’t kicking someone in the face). Edu is a better offensive presence from MF, Heerenveen scoring stats be damned.
Bradley is good enough to be on the NT now. I just don’t think he’s an automatic starting XI guy like his daddy does.
Good to hear your perspective. I really rate Bradley. I think he suffers from playing with bad partners on the USMNT. I’ve already made my feelings about Clark known. Feilhaber forces Bradley to play d-mid, something he really isn’t. I am really curious to see him play with Jones – it’ll be the first time he plays with a world-class d-mid. I think we’ll see the USMNT make a jump in quality. If Edu can heal and get good time with Rangers, he can be the samt type of player as Jones. I hope I’m right. But I really disagree with the nepotism claims. That’s a lazy criticism of Michael Bradley.
@Charles: I agree with umlaut’s sentiments regarding Bradley. Plus, I don’t think he’s that great of an attacking midfielder either. He gives up possession way too much, does not pass that well and really isn’t that great skill-wise.
Yes, why would you want to sound like a site which gets way more traffic than this one and has Glenn Davis from ESPN and Rene Romano from Fox Sports writing for it.
The MLS Rumors bashing has gotten old.
[...] says: Corky: I would take Edu and Clark before Bradley on most days. … See original here: Unprofessional Foul Share and [...]
@ Charlie
Yeah why would anyone want to sound like a blog that has Glenn Davis from ESPN and Rene Romano from Fox Sports writing for them. MLS Rumors may get bashed a bit too hard IMHO.
Good call Onion Bag. What brought you here?