Thoughts, ramblings and other stuff..

I'm back! Not that any of you noticed or were overly concerned that I was missing in action.. I am in the process of working with an outside company/sponsor to relaunch my online presence with a more professional site with extra bells and whistles (everyone loves advertisers) and possibly a new domain name. I also have a few radio appearances lined up for the World cup starting next month, so you'll all have ample opportunity to listen to my babbling and praise/criticize/make fun of my predictions.

All is not well in Impact land, with the "Montreal Eleven" (Hey, it sounds good in french o.k.!) already eliminated from the Canadian Championship following their 1-0 loss to TFC, leaving them with a dismal 1 point in 3 games. So far, most of the action in the tournament this year has been in the stands, as supporter groups from both teams battled it out at Stade Saputo with smoke bombs, flares and the usual 90 minutes of chanting (at least from the Montreal supporters) :





Ok, the Toronto supporters put forward an awesome flare display as well, but since this is Soccer Montréal you'll have to look elsewhere for those vids. Being in section 114 that evening with UM02, I couldn't help but think that this rivalry will be absolutely insane come 2012. It will probably be up there with Seattle-Portland as the 2 biggest and most intense derbies in MLS.

Speaking of the Timbers, the Impact is set to kick off in Portland tonight at 10:00pm ET and you can catch this game live on the Portland Timbers website. The "Boys in blue" ( trying to find an alternative to that Montreal eleven thing) are undefeated in USSF D2 competition since that opening day loss on that vomit-inducing pitch in Austin. Ironically, it is also their first game on artificial turf since that loss so it should be interesting to see how the team responds. Looking forward to hearing the Timbers Army, the only other supporters group worth noting in USSF D2 outside of Canada.

More later.