Been Awhile!

Well Bucks fans, it has been quite awhile since I blogged last. In fact the last time I think I blogged the ground was covered in snow, and now we are on the verge of hitting 60 degrees. Even though the span of those two things happening here in Michigan could be an hour apart.

Don't get me wrong the warm weather is a nice sigh of relief from the doom and gloom that has been here the past few months. I am not much of a golfer, in fact I think I can count the number of times I have golfed on one hand. Rumor has it however, that some of the courses have opened up for today, I would have to imagine they are getting some business.

Bucks Tickets
Recently I have been trying to finalize all of the season ticket packages that we are planning on offering for the upcoming season. Once again we will have the Flex-Pass and our popular Supporters Group Package as well. I wont give away all the surprises, but each package has some new additions from last year that I think you guys will enjoy. We are hoping to have those finalized within the next few days, and they could go on sale in a week or so. This is always an exciting time for me and the rest of the staff. This is the point we know that the season is starting to grow near, and we can start to hear the chatter of people that will be attending Bucks games. Keep an eye on the website if you are interested in Bucks season ticket packages.Bucks Roster
Just as important as the ticket packages is the roster of the product you are coming out to watch. Along with creating the packages, I have been working on getting our roster together as well. As many of you know, we were happy to see several of our guys to get drafted and tryouts with professional clubs. With that being the case, we are going to have some new faces to the Bucks roster this year. However, we are going to be fortunate enough to bring back some of the top athletes that we had last year as well. I wont give any names, I will leave the speculating up to you guys.

ESPN Streak
Well since the last time I posted, Jeff and I were the only two really keeping track of our streaks. Since then, we have created a group on the ESPN website, and now I can keep track of how horrible I am doing compared to the rest of you guys. To be perfectly honest, from what I have seen so far, it doesn't look like any of us will be the lucky one to bring home a million dollars. But best of luck to anyone, and spread the word.
Current Leader - Kyle Karns (yeah, thats right) with 2

Video of the Day
As always I like to end most of my blogs with a random video. Click on this link to see a great goal in a high school soccer match.
click here

Well have a good weekend everyone, and get outside and enjoy the nice weather.

Kyle Karns
President of Operations

Enough is Enough

For those who've not paid attention to the CONCACAF Champions League in the last week, Major League Soccer has already been out done by this country's unofficial "Second Division". Houston Dynamo, the only MLS team that made it out of the group stage fell 4-1 on aggregate after losing 3-0 to Atlante in Cancun on Tuesday night.

Flash forward to last night, with USL First Division side Puerto Rico Islanders taking a 2-1 lead into San Pedro Sula, against Marathon of Honduras. Playing a strategic match and looking to save their lead, DC United castoff Nicholas Adderly struck at the death, helping Puerto Rico to a 1-0 result and 3-1 aggregate victory. Tonight the Montreal Impact (also of the USL First Division) go into the 2nd leg with Santos Laguna of Mexico with a 2-0 lead.

One question I've been asked is how did these two teams qualify? Puerto Rico qualified as a Carribean team and Montreal had already superseded an MLS team in Toronto FC during Canadian qualification for this tournament.

One Upped

Forget the fact that MLS was given 4 spots in the tournament which began in August. The only other country that gets as many spots is Mexico. Two teams, New England Revolution and Chivas had to go through a home and home qualifying round, which neither made it out of. New England lost to Joe Public of Trinidad & Tobago with a disgraceful 6-1 aggregate result, while Chivas fell to Tauro FC of Panama 3-1. DC United, who qualified directly to the group stage as the 2007 Supporters Shield winner, became the whipping boys of their group, only taking 1 point from 6 matches. Houston barely even qualified for the knock out stages, need a 1-0 result on the last day of the group stage to move on.
The case has been made that all 4 MLS teams did take part in the North American SuperLiga, which the Revolution actually won, but were worn out when the CONCACAF Champions League started a month later. The problem is both Atlante (just beat Houston) and Santos Laguna (match tonight vs. Montreal) participated in that tournament as well and both teams have played roughly the same amount of games over the past year.

MLS clubs haven't won a CONCACAF tournament since the home-and-away format was adopted in 2002. Their performances have previously been excused because the tournament has been held mainly during the MLS preseason and teams aren't in top form yet. This argument no longer works because USL teams play nearly the exact same schedule as their counterparts in MLS. There is no longer an excuse.

Puerto Rico and Montreal's payroll are smaller than any team in MLS, in fact any team in the Mexican top flight, yet one is in the Champions League semifinal while the other is on the cusp of being there. These teams both have players that supposedly couldn't hack it in top flight American soccer, but are now outperforming the teams they couldn't run with. MLS should already be EMBARRASSED for being one-upped by the second tier league in its own country, but if Montreal comes away victorious tonight in Torreon, the league will have serious egg on its face.

The CONCACAF Champions League is far more important that Major League Soccer’s SuperLiga, for which the league rewards Mexican teams more money for winning than their own. On the other hand, the winner of the Champions League has a berth in the FIFA World Club Cup (where just participating earns a team $500,000), for which no MLS club has been able to qualify. Participation in the FIFA tournament would go much further to earn MLS the respect it so badly craves. It doesn’t come from winning your own made-for-TV cash grab or signing a major superstar on his last legs.

Going forward, I'd be worried Major League Soccer clubs will begin to lose their allocated spots in the Champions League if they don't perform better in the future. It is up to MLS to make this tournament what it should be, not make it second fiddle to something that means so little.

Until that time, Up the USL!

Alumni Update

I first need to apologize for the lack of a blog posting in nearly a week. From the bottom of my heart, I'm very sorry. I thought I'd do a quick update on how our alumni are doing.

Besmir Bega, currently playing in Albania with Partizani, on loan from city rivals KF Tirana, scored his first professional goal on Sunday, March 1 in a 1-0 win over KS Elbasani. The win puts Partizani in 10th place in the 12 team league. Here is Bes' goal:

Steve Clark spotting: Here is Steve (orange), still in camp with Real Salt Lake, image posted in Real Salt Lake to the Core. Real will be taking part in the Carolina Challenge Cup in Charleston, SC this week, other teams attending: DC United, featuring former Bucks Boyzzz Khumalo and Greg Janicki, Toronto FC, and the hosts Charleston Battery of USL-1.

Which leads me to…

Kyle Russell, who is currently in training camp with the Battery. Kyle is looking to join another Bucks alum, Stephen Armstrong, in calling Charleston his new home.

Ty Shipalane (Columbus) and Mike Holody (Colorado) are in training camp with their respective teams. Doug DeMartin (Kansas City) has been recovering from sports hernia surgery but is expecting to join back up with the Wizards very soon. All three are in the running to make their respective rosters. Decisions will be made soon as the MLS season is just two weeks away...

Dave Hertel has popped up in training camp with USL-1 expansion club, Austin Aztex. Dave was in training camp earlier this year with Steve Clark and RSL.

Joseph Kabwe (above) has signed with the Carolina Railhawks of the USL First Division after spending the past three seasons with USL-2's Charlotte Eagles. Kabwe was given the Paul R. Scicluna Award for his excellent play for the Bucks in 2004.

Lastly, I want to encourage readers of the 14 Point to follow us on Twitter.