Columnist Nick Green has written 100 Percent Soccer
since 2005. A
native of England, he began writing about soccer in
the mid-1980s and in 2000 permanently exchanged a seat
in the stands for one in
the press box. He lives six miles from Carson's Home
Depot Center, home of the Los Angeles Galaxy, Chivas
USA and the training headquarters for U.S. Soccer.
Married to a long-suffering soccer widow, he has a cat
named Pele.Galaxy To Participate in Another Irrelevant Tournament
In the wake of the World Series of Football and SuperLiga comes the latest meaningless tournament with a grandiose name: the Pan-Pacific Championship.
Essentially a MLS pre-season tournament scheduled for February, the four-team event in Hawaii unveiled today will involve trophy-winning teams from Japan and Australia, MLS champs the Houston Dynamo, as well as the Galaxy, which will participate because they have David Beckham and MLS Cup runner-up the New England Revolution doesn't.
"This tournament will unite four terrific clubs from across the region to crown a true Pan-Pacific champion," said Doug Quinn, president of Soccer United Marketing (apparently with a straight face), which is organizing of the event.
Well, no, it won't Dougie. If it did we'd have teams from Korea, Mexico, (insert other countries here) all playing as well.
Just call it what it is: a way to make more money off Becks and expose another American market to the MLS product. Or another excuse for a Hawaiian vacation. Nothing wrong with doing that is there?
MLS' credibility (or lack thereof) is called into question (yet again) when self-important and inaccurate press releases are issued containing such pronouncements as the tournament "will crown the top club from the Asian and North American soccer confederations.
Let's hope Becks doesn't twist his ankle again.
Full details are here.
The official Web site is here.