Once again, members of the Avoiding the Drop team are participating in a Striker Manager private league. There are two spots left for anyone who would like to join.

Make your way over to Striker Manager and sign yourself up for a team. Once your done with that, post your username in the comments section and we’ll send you an invitation to be part of the challenge and fun of running your own soccer team!

We are limiting the teams to Level 5 and 6 teams so no one should run away with the title this season. (We learned our lesson after last season!)

If you have any questions, ask those in the comments as well. Best of all, joining Striker Manager is FREE.

Hope to see you in competition soon.

We are one month into the Major League Soccer season, and so far it would appear that FremonterBerg  and Bluesfan  might want to consider a to Vegas and start making bets! Their current overall winning percentage is 46% for the season, although they both  hit a bit of a slump this week. Ben however, hit it big as the weekly winner with five correct picks for the week. There is still time to catch them however, so read on after the jump and make your picks for this week.

Here are the overall standings after three weeks of play. You can also click the title to see the overall spreadsheet used for keeping track. It is a lot more fun if we have more pickers, so please encourage your friends to stop by each week and submit their sure fire wins (and wild guesses!).

WEEKLY RESULTS

OVERALL RESULTS

This week there are 9 games again, beginning Friday with Dallas v. DC.  Games end on Sunday night. All time listed are Eastern. Many of the matches are shown on local networks, so be sure to check your TV listings to see if your team is on.

WEEK 3 GAMES

Have a great weekend and make your picks in the comments.

COPY/PASTE SECTION

FC Dallas @ DC United
Columbus @ Toronto
Montreal @ New York
Vancouver @ Philadelphia
Real Salt Lake @ Portland
San Jose @ Seattle
New England @ Los Angeles
Chicago @ Colorado
Sporting Kansas City @ Chivas USA

Below are the final standings for 2011, before the playoffs began. Mark your spot and set your goal to improve on your last season’s record.

LAST TWO WEEK’S CUMULATIVE RESULTS

This week there are 9 games again, beginning tonight with Houston at Seattle.  Games end on Sunday night with ESPN’s love affair with the Redbulls continuing for another season. All time listed are Eastern. Many of the matches are shown on local networks, so be sure to check your TV listings to see if your team is on .

WEEK 3 GAMES

Have a great weekend and make your picks in the comments.

COPY/PASTE SECTION

Houston Dynamo @ Seattle Sounders FC
San Jose Earthquakes @ Toronto FC
Portland Timbers @ New England Revolution
Montreal Impact @ Columbus Crew
Philadelphia Union @ Chicago Fire
Chivas USA @ Real Salt Lake
DC United @ Vancouver Whitecaps
Colorado Rapids @ New York Redbulls
FC Dallas @ Sporting KC

Apologies to all. I have been in California (still there actually) for a funeral. Read on after the jump for a quick and dirty Week 2.

Week 2 Games

(With BIG THANKS to FremonterBerg!)

Chicago Fire @ Montreal Impact
Houston Dynamo @ San Jose Earthquakes
New England Revolution @ Sporting Kansas City
Portland Timbers FC @ FC Dallas
Toronto FC @ Seattle Sounders FC
New York Red Bulls @ Real Salt Lake
Vancouver Whitecaps @ Chivas USA
Colorado Rapids @ Philadelphia Union
DC United @ Los Angeles Galaxy

Good Luck Everyone!

Below are the final standings for 2011, before the playoffs began. Mark your spot and set your goal to improve on your last season’s record.

LAST SEASON’S FINAL RESULTS

Here is the schedule for the first week of Major League Soccer. All times are Eastern. All TV coverage is national, but be sure to check your local team’s website for regionally televised games.

WEEK 1 GAMES

WELCOME BACK TO THE PICK’EM!

Have a great weekend and make your picks in the comments.

COPY/PASTE SECTION

Columbus Crew @ Colorado Rapids
Montreal Impact @ Vancouver Whitecaps
Sporting KC @ DC United
New England Revolution @ San Jose Earthquakes
Real Salt Lake @ Los Angeles Galaxy
New York Red Bulls @ FC Dallas
Houston Dynamo @ Chivas USA
Philadelphia Union @ Portland Timbers

Five years? Already?

This week marks Clint Dempsey’s fifth year with Fulham FC.  To honor him and celebrate his FA Cup hat trick

Fulham have released a slide show with about 2 dozen pictures of Deuce in action. So if you’ve got the time head on over here and help to honor one of  the best United States players.

]]> http://avoidingthedrop.wordpress.com/2012/01/11/dempsey-turns-5/feed/ 4 Kevin Clint Dempsey http://avoidingthedrop.wordpress.com/2012/01/06/thank-you-and-goodnight/ http://avoidingthedrop.wordpress.com/2012/01/06/thank-you-and-goodnight/#comments Fri, 06 Jan 2012 15:00:41 +0000 Fuse http://avoidingthedrop.com/?p=14899 ]]>

Dear Readers,

The time has come for me to leave Avoiding the Drop.

I would like to thank you for your loyal support and your always civil, insightful, and witty participation in the site- it has made every minute of the last three years worthwhile.

I would also like to thank my fellow writers for always setting the bar at the site high both in terms of content and tone- both have set, and I’m sure will continue to set, ATD apart from other sites.

I hope that in addition to remaining frequent visitors to Avoiding the Drop you will also find time to visit my new project, The Tanner Ba’.

-Fuse

Not so much a clue as a statement

Allow me to begin with an apology for the vagueness of the first question of this week’s challenge.  The life and accomplishments of the individual in question are so singular and so impressive that even giving you a single additional fact would have made it too easy for all of you Google jockeys to answer the question.  If you manage to find the answer anyway, read up on this guy.  Every time you think you’ve found out about all of the amazing things he accomplished you’ll stumble across another one.

1. What American player accomplished so much off the field before and after his NASL career that being a professional soccer player ranks third (at best!) among his accomplishments?

 2. Pelé named me one of the “125 Greatest Living Footballers,” FIFA named me one of the 100 best players ever, I played in a World Cup, I won the Cup Winners’ Cup, the European Super Cup, and the European Cup. After my career ended I was a coach and president of my nation’s F.A., but I knew I’d really made it when people started naming their children after me. Who is the player and what player- also an international- was named after him?

3. What three U.S. universities have produced the most MLS players?

4. What three U.S. universities have produced the most successful (by games played) MLS players?

5. What is the only Division II institution to produce 10+ MLS players?

There’s been a little change when it comes to submitting your answers, so read carefully.  As always, your answers will need to be submitted by midnight EST next Tuesday.  However, going forward you’ll be sending them to a new email address (thetannerba@gmail.com) and the answers will be revealed at www.thetannerba.com next Wednesday morning.

While listening to “As It Happens” (from the Canadian Broadcast Corporation) the other night, I caught a short blurb about the World Cup that starts tomorrow in Nantes, France. That’s the Foosball World Cup, if the picture above didn’t give you a hint…

The blurb I heard on the radio indicated that Canada would be sending seven players to this year’s Foosball World Cup. So being a proud citizen of the USA, I looked up our country’s roster on the United States Table Soccer Federation website, but alas their website doesn’t seem to have been updated since 2010.

However, the world-wide governing body’s website does have information about the event, including live streaming of matches. Here’s the link to the English homepage.  And it was here I found the USA roster:

Coach:

Captain:

List of players

Tony SPREDEMAN

Billy PAPPAS

Ryan MOORE

Robert MARES

Dan BARBER

Rick MACIAS

Tom YORE

Bruce NARDOCI

Yes, that is correct. The USA does not have a coach or captain. Tony Spredeman is currently ranked as the #2 individual player in the world, trailing German player Jamal Allalou by only four points. Jessica Stepp is the highest ranked American woman player at #10 overall.

So if you’re looking for something to watch on your computer tomorrow during lunch/afternoon, point your browser over to the World Cup Site and watch yourself some “baby-foot”

County old boy Conor Gethins makes good

There was only on entrant this week- Andrew M.- but he did well, missing only one of eight questions.  Click through to see what Andrew discovered when he a) should have been working, b) was ignoring his girlfried, or c) should have helping the less fortunate.

1. In what recent tournament did Mexico finish ahead of the Netherlands, Japan ahead of Argentina, and Uzbekistan ahead of the United States?

These results took place in the group stage of the recent 2011 U17 World Cup.

2. Only one Scottish footballer has scored 100 or more goals for two Scottish clubs- who is he?

James McColl scored 117 goals for Celtic and 130 goals for Hibernian in a career that lasted from 1913-1932 and also included time at Peebles Rovers, Stoke City, Partick Thistle, and Leith Athletic.

3. Only one French footballer has scored 100 or more goals for two French clubs- who is he?

Bernard Lacombe scored 153 goals for Lyon and 142 goals for Bordeaux in a career that lasted from 1969 through 1987 and also included 39 matches for Saint-Étienne in which he scored 29 times.

4. What league’s list of top scorers includes no less than six players who averaged at least a goal per match over their careers?

The Hungarian top flight’s list of top scorers includes Imre Schlosser (1.33), Gyula Zsengeller (1.22), Jozef Takacs (1.01), Ferenc Puskas (1.01), Ferenc Deak (1.28), and Sandor Kocsis (1.00).

5. What former Ross County player once led a European second division in scoring?

Conor Gethins led the Irish First Division (second tier) in scoring in 2007 after spending four years playing for the Staggies. He is currently a fullback with Highland League outfit Nairn County F.C.- maybe.

6. What striker, who just led his country’s Premier League in scoring for the sixth time in a row, has never been capped by his country’s national team?

Striker Rhys Griffiths of Llanelli F.C. has been the league’s leading scorer for the last six seasons, part of the league’s “Best XI” for the last six years, is the all-time goal scoring leader in the Welsh Premier League, led his club to the domestic double in 2007-2008, and has never been called up by Wales.

7. What are the six cups that have been open to both Irish and Northern Irish clubs since 1941?

The Dublin and Belfast Inter-City Cup, the North-South Cup, the Blaxnit Cup, the Texaco Cup, the Tyler Cup, and the Setanta Cup.

8. What tournament, held only twice, was created for communist countries and those sympathetic towards them?

The Games of the New Emerging Forces were set up as an alternative to the Olympics and featured a soccer tournament. The 1963 tournament saw the UAE defeat North Korea and the 1966 tournament saw North Korea defeat China.

I’ll be back in the morning with a new, difficult, and very special challenge.