Rapping Up The Footcer Rumors Of The Day

I am a crap footcer fan today. While there was a match between the USL All-Stars and Sheffield Wednesday, I chose to see "The Devil Wears Prada" instead (oh yeah, and then there's the small matter of New England Revolution v. Celtic). Well, I guess it's a way to be involved in something New York City without discussing Red Bull New York's hiring of Bruce Arena as new coach and technical director.

And such settles one rumor. But there are two others which are much more interesting floating around the footcer world right now.

The first involves Clint "More Animal Than Man" Dempsey (why that hasn't caught on yet, I'll never know) who is being, according to the rumor mill, courted by West Ham United and Charlton Athletic.

I can only imagine the hooligans at West Ham United and how they'd embrace Clint Dempsey. I mean, he'd need to start listening to grime to fit in the east end, but I think his rap career could take off in London. And, of course his footcer career as well.

The other rumor that's really gaining some traction is Jared Borgetti coming to the Chicago Fire as Bolton wants to offload him.

This isn't even a real rumor, but more wishful thinking on the part of Chicago Fire fans. Well, me. It's been so long since the Fire had a legitimate superstar and Borgetti would fit that bill nicely (as well as serving as an example for our young striker corps).

The factual part of the rumor is that Borgetti is being shopped around and the team that has shown the most interest is Racing Santander. Much as I'd love to have another recognizable face in La Liga (for purely selfish reasons as unlike the Prem, La Liga news isn't easy to come by so the players can kind of be a blur), I wonder how a move to a team that stands a great chance of being relegated to the Segunda Division would benefit Borgetti.

He'd be much better off coming to MLS where each week he'd have people coming out just to see him. Well, maybe not every week but most weeks. But here in Chicago, he'd be a draw amongst the Mexican populace which is something the Fire lost in recent times.

And from what I hear, he's available for about a million (transfer fee, not personal terms). Sure he'd be the highest paid player on the fire - but when your star player who's supposed to draw is Tony Sanneh (at least he's our player who makes over $300,000) we need something.

I mean there's other places he could go like FC Dallas (but with Ruiz and Cooper, he's just overkill) or Los Angeles but Chicago is Borgetti's kind of town.

Come to Chicago or don't bother joining another side. :)

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Speaking of other sides, here's a funny picture from the Nicaraguan League:





I would like to again thank the leagues of Central America for making MLS seem like a well oiled machine.

One thing came out of the incident that was sort of odd - a realization. As I made fun of the Nicaraguan League, a suppoter from El Salvador said the following to me: "I'd rather watch a game from my poorly organized but exciting local league than an MLS match."

Which lead me to the following conclusion - MLS is just a whipping boy because it doesn't bother fighting back. When people from countries who MLS teams usually beat - basically every Central American country but Costa Rica (and then they only lose to Saprissa) - start knocking MLS there's just no other explanation.

Maybe MLS just wants to be a good neighbor or something but they need to remind the small leagues that we steal their best players that don't go to Europe on a regular basis and we'd steal more if MLS allowed more than four senior internationals per team.

Well I for one am not putting up with it anymore and MLS shouldn't either.

By the way, on that note: FC Dallas 2, Tigres 0.

They could blow the lead in Monterrey but MLS has again proven that at home, the teams can beat anybody. What's that old saying about the national team matching the personality of the country (or at least the country's domestic team)?