August 29, 2010
CUTTONE’S CONCEPTS
Thanks for 35 years of memories
There is a line in the epic baseball movie Field of Dreams, where James Earl Jones says baseball has marked the passage of time in America. Maybe so, but in my life it has been soccer. Sure I have been to many memorable sporting events, the World Series, Super Bowl, U.S. Open and New York Marathon, but it has been soccer that’s been there almost every step of the way.
August 8, 2010
CUTTONE’S CONCEPTS
To designate or not
A sellout at Toyota Park Sunday and another at Red Bull Arena next Sunday. It looks like the signing of designated players is having the desired early effect on Major League Soccer by boosting attendance for the teams signing the players.
July 30, 2010
CUTTONE’S CONCEPTS
New DP rule should be named for Beckenbauer
Another day, another designated player. It seems like everyone in Major League Soccer is getting in on the act.
June 24, 2010
CUTTONE’S CONCEPTS
No cheering in the press box, but the living room doesn’t count
There is an age-old axiom in the sports writing profession. No cheering in the press box. Fortunately, this rule does not apply to one’s couch, where a journalist is free to also be a fan.
June 19, 2010
CUTTONE’S CONCEPTS
Even for the World Cup soccer doesn’t stop
They say the world stops every four years because of the World Cup. Streets in the major capitals of the world are often deserted when the home country is playing, or fans are packed into plazas to watch games on giant screens.
May 29, 2010
CUTTONE’S CONCEPTS
For U.S. change has been for the better
PHILADELPHIA---When one reaches a certain age—and I don’t know what that age is, other than I am sure I have reached it---you have a tendency to look back at things and remember how they were and to think about how much has changed. Some remember the good old days, perhaps a little too fondly than they really were and others decry how much things have changed, usually for the worse.
April 28, 2010
CUTTONE’S CONCEPTS
Will over-expanding be a problem for MLS?
Major League Soccer has caught lightning in a bottle with its last three expansion efforts. Toronto FC continues to fill BMO Field game after game, despite the lack of much of a reason to do so from the revolving door of players on the at-long-last-grass pitch.
April 27, 2010
CUTTONE’S CONCEPTS
The lives one touches are the mark of a memorable man
There is a line in one of my favorite movies, It’s a Wonderful Life, where Clarence tells George Bailey it’s amazing how many lives one touches.
It’s equally amazing that those lives and similar stories can intersect some 30 or 40 years later.
March 20, 2010
CUTTONE’S CONCEPTS
Happy homecoming
Sitting in an empty Red Bull Arena hours before the start of Saturday’s game, I tried to remember how many opening days in how many stadiums I have been to. I lost track somewhere around a dozen.
February 24, 2010
CUTTONE’S CONCEPTS
No buzz to spring training
There is no Freddy Adu coming into Major League Soccer this year. No David Beckham, either. There isn’t even a “will he or won’t he be back” debate or feud between Beckham and Landon Donovan. In other words, there is no buzz in the run-up to the coming MLS season.
January 7, 2010
CUTTONE’S CONCEPTS
Labor battle can hurt soccer
Labor problems have plagued every American sport for the better part of the past four decades. Baseball, football and hockey have endured and survived major work stoppages.
I am not sure Major League Soccer can.
December 5, 2009
CUTTONE’S CONCEPTS
Draw does matter to many
To read or hear certain comments in the media the last few days, you’d think no one in the United States cared about Friday’s World Cup Draw in South Africa.
Don’t tell that to the folks who gathered in Nevada Smith’s in New York or Fado’s in Philadelphia or La Huasteca and ESPN Zone in Los Angeles.
October 24, 2009
CUTTONE’S CONCEPTS
Stadium will go, memories will last
They’ll play the last soccer game at Giants Stadium Saturday night. Like my colleague and good friend Michael Lewis, I was at the first ever soccer game at the stadium. Unlike Michael, however, I won’t be at the last.
October 5, 2009
CUTTONE’S CONCEPTS
Chicago’s loss should be lesson for WC bid
Friday’s crushing defeat of Chicago’s bid to host the Olympics in 2016 should serve as a lesson for the United States World Cup bid committee.
August 22, 2009
CUTTONE’S CONCEPTS
Red Bulls need a prince of New York
Now that Red Bulls coach Juan Carlos Osorio has resigned amidst the most abysmal soccer season in New York area history, rumors have again started to surface that the Red Bull energy drink company is looking to sell the team.
Let’s hope those rumors are true, and let’s hope they find the right buyer.
