Following a conversation with Andrew I have decided to make a concerted effort to show some support to an MLS team this season. With Andrew picking New England Revolution and Matt picking the team from Philly, I decided to stick to my curreny US sports city allegiance and pick Chicago Fire.
The team was founded in 1997 and entered the MLS in 1998 with immediate success winning the MLS Cup and US Open Cup double in their first season. The team followed up this success by reaching the MLS Cup final in 2000, losing to DC United, and also winning the US Open Cup that year. This initial success was attributed to a squad with the ideal mix of experience and youth.
Notable players in the club’s history include Hristo Stoitchkov, Paulo Wanchope, Piotr Nowak, DaMarcus Beasley, Jorge Campos, Josh Wolff and Eric Wynalda. The club’s first coach was Bob Bradley.
The current squad is coached by Carlos de los Cobos and captained by former Fulham ace Brian McBride, it also includes players such as former Premier League striker Collins John.
Barack Obama was sworn in today as the USA’s 44th president, the first African-American (or any ethnic minority) president in their history, with the largest TV audience ever for a presidential inauguration.
I am a fan of Obama’s, i like his social healthcare plans and his views on America’s role in world politics. I even like some aspects of his economic plan, even though he is a lefty when it comes to government spending.
His inaugural address was a masterpiece in speech writing, which of course we should expect seeing as it his first global address and possibly his mosyt important. His rhetoric was sublime, he quoted just about every famous American leader to date and threw in a few bible quotes as well. When discussing the religious make up of America he even nodded in the vague direction of atheists and agnostics.
What disappointedme about the speech though, was his persistant references to his black history ad to god and faith. He must have mentioned god, faith, religion, spirit and every other Christian buzz word known to man at least once.
I realise that to be a US politcian means being Christian, but surely you do not have to make reference to it every 5 seconds or so.
I like Obama, I really do. He is a breath of fresh air in international poliics, and possibly one of the finest presidents I am likely to live through, but his religion is going to annoy me. At least Geroge W had the decency to let everyone know he was a stauch evangelical Christian who actively listened to God from the beginning – mainly by being a Texan Reublican! – Obamaq has snuck his evangelism under the radar.
Oh well. We are getting there at least.