we are gettin there! This is a big accomplishment for an American team to get to the final against a Mexican team Monterrey

MLS is improving, maybe quite slowly but improving none the less. Our national team did quite well in the world cup(by american soccer standards). I hope the sport gains a little respect in the U.S. however I went through high school being called a field fairy despite having the best soccer team in our conference and most successful sport at the high school. Either way as of right now i would much rather sit down and watch a Barca game (Favorite team), like todays UEFA cup match VS Real Madrid, Which Barca Won!

I could keep going but i'd rather not turn this into an Obi post ;)

The field fairy is correct. The MLS is a good little league. If it could only drop some of the bizarre US sporting traditions holding it back (crazy season times, draft systems, powerful player unions etc) it could become a major footballing power pretty sharpish.

@Octavious- screw you ;)

i think that slowly and surely that field fairy reputation is disappearing. You see mroe peopel with jerseys on the street than you ever did

very true, and it's been a couple years since I walked the halls of a high school. I feel that in 3 ish years if the U.S. fairs well when the world cup comes around again soccer could really explode

i'm in highschool and right now its a baseball vs soccer fight. Baseball players claim soccer is boring and we argue that at least we move lol. But i see a bunch of jerseys including some MLS teams. Seattle mostly

i'm also in high school right now and here soccer is relativly popular we have has many players as the football (amercian for those of you not form the US) team

MLS has never been able to anything in the Champions League. As much as I loathe Salt Lake I hope they do well. The problem has been that the clubs have dispersed the talent too much, which is both a blessing and a curse. The Europeans are good at investing all their money in a couple of clubs in their leagues and everybody else fighting for the scraps. America has this thing about parity, which hurts when it comes to CONCACAF tournaments.

I have been a chicago fire fan for some time, but i find myself paying more attention to the portland timbers, a young team with tons of energy, fun to watch.

hahahaha baseball calling soccer boring, wow that is a little ridiculous, i've played baseball and i've played soccer, when playing baseball i ended up trying to make shapes in the grass by walking on the same path over and over :)

I'm just a huge soccer fan, I've followed liverpool and Barca since i was about 6, so i hope america catches soccer fever

@Putin- you are completely correct

Barca helped by the refs as per usual. Mourinho is correct, the refs always manage to help Barca.

haha Real had plenty of chances, ronaldo didnt show up, and messi did. though the red card was questionable, not the first wrong call in the history of sports though.

Well the issue is that it's a trend over several years now, Barca never seems to play against a full strength team in the CL.

Okay so I did some research, and in the past three years Barca has seen 4 opposing players sent off. one of those players was sent off after receiving two yellowcards, one player was sent off in the 91st min when the aggregate was already 5-3 barca, one was sent off and barca lost, and then we have the most recent.

In that same time barca has had two players sent off.

I would barely call 4 opponents sent off in 3 years a trend, but if you feel it is then go for it

Well it's not always send offs, but also penalties like blatant handballs which are never called on Barca. Do you deny that refs helped out your team in 2009 and 2010 in the CL? I mean Pique even admitted he handled the ball vs Chelsea and it wasn't called.

pretty dissapointed RSL did not win last night. That would of been major. but getting to the final is good as well

I never said anything about penalties, you strictly said "Barca never seems to play against a full strength team in the CL" So i contested what you said.

Here is what I say about the "blatant" handballs - Although a disgrace to the game, not all handballs are seen, ie Henry's handball against Ireland, and the infamous "Hand of God" moment. If you expect everything to be called then you need to wake up, there are missed penalties and bad calls in every major sport in the world. Maybe there is some sort of "conspiracy" but you cannot prove that the refs help out Barca by missing calls and making others. Pique admitted he handled the ball, which to me is a huge loss of respect, but because the ref didnt see it, then it didnt happen, just like in every other sport. If a ref doesnt see kobe throw a wild elbow and doesnt call it, would you be accusing refs of letting the lakers off the hook?

@ DJ- I was pretty bummed, I was hoping for RSL to score a goal and tie things up, but like you said even reaching the final was good

Ok akilies, I'm sure you'd have the same thoughts if the shoe was on the other foot. In 2006 won they won the thing they were rewarded with a 10 man Chelsea. In the final that very same year they defeated a 10 man Arsenal in the title game.

In 2009 Barcelona got away with 2 handballs, one which was admitted. There are also 2 other blatant fouls that weren't called, especially the one where Malouda was fouled inside the box. Platini had publicly said he didn't want a rematch of a Chelsea-Man U final - lo and behold due to admitted referee errors (Ovrebo didn't deny he made significant errors) they win.

In 2010 the referees did all they could to help Barca vs Inter Milan, with a ridiculous "foul" called against Motta in which Busquets is seen looking up at the referee while rolling on the ground like a child to see if he'll get the penalty. They end up sending Motta off. Inter has 10 men for most of the game, but manages to win despite everything. In 2011 they're gifted another red card vs Real Madrid.

How much more blatantly does the head of UEFA have to come out and say he loves Barcelona?

But no, there's no bias.

http://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-275385.0.html
http://www.caughtoffside.com/2008/06/06/uefa-chief-labels-man-united-and-chelsea-as-cheats/

Interesting articles, So maybe there is a little bias, but that doesnt mean that the refs are getting orders from the top to make sure that barca advance.

and regardless, I would hope that you would agree that barca is one of the top 5 clubs in the world

Yes I agree. Hard not to be when you have 400 million euros to spend.

Anyway speaking of soccer, anybody figure out why Celtic is getting bombs sent to them or whatever?

haha, oh to acquire that sum of money :)

Anyway at least you support an EPL/FA team. Most La Liga team followers do not, (admittedly the opposite is also true).

I'm a big fan of both leagues, both bring a different style of soccer to the table and I love watching CL finals between the two.

you have a favourite team?

an interesting article, apparently i'm not the only one who thinks Mourinho gets a little ridiculous

http://espn.go.com/sports/soccer/news/_/id/6441958/jose-mourinho-taken-antics-too-far

Mourinho does go too far, but in some cases he's right.

Yes, my team is Leeds United. I also follow teams in a couple of other leagues - namely Partizan Belgrade & Hansa Rostock.