The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Money Raised, More Bad Actors, and MLS Changes Geography

Those of you who listen to The Mane Land PawedCast know that I’m utterly exhausted from moving the past few days. I much prefer typing articles for you folks than lifting boxes and moving furniture. It’s good we got the new house, bad that I hurt so much from the effort, and ugly that there are plenty of boxes scattered around. But those are not the topics you clicked to read about, so let’s get to the soccer-related stuff.

The Good

You may have read in this morning’s Lion Links, that NWSL teams and players raised $45,146 through a league-wide auction for Libby’s Legacy. Libby’s Legacy is the breast cancer foundation chosen by the Orlando Pride’s Toni Pressley. Pressley was diagnosed with breast cancer in July, and returned to the team following surgery in the season finale. That match was the club’s first ever Breast Cancer Awareness Match, and there was supporting merchandise to help raise money. I was unable to make it to the match, but I absolutely bought the scarf, and it seems that so did a lot of other people. It’s rare that someone hasn’t had a loved one or friend who has dealt with cancer. Indeed, my aunt battled breast cancer for a long time, and I lost her just a few years ago. She was a strong, loving person, and cancer sucks. Scarves and other merchandise is still available on the Pride website, and a portion of the proceeds still goes to the cause. Well done Toni, and well done all of those who contributed.

The Bad

Racism. You’d think people would know it’s bad, and I know I’ve written about it before, but it just seems to keep happening. As such, I will continue to call it out. The latest incident was at the Manchester Derby, where Manchester United players Jesse Lingard and Fred were on the receiving end of racist comments and gestures. Everyone in positions of authority are rightly condemning the acts, and when caught those responsible are being banned, or even arrested. However, it doesn’t seem to be enough. On the PawedCast, Michael Citro suggested that the players shouldn’t be punished with losing opportunities to play and forfeiting games, but that the governing bodies should make the matches closed to the public. This allows the match to take place, but the club loses the financial benefits of the ticket sales, while the bad people lose the opportunity to see their team play. If that were to happen enough, everyone involved might get serious enough about addressing the issue.

The Ugly

Major League Soccer was so insistent on keeping the conferences even, and not making an existing team switch conferences, that Nashville FC is now a “Western” team. Chicago, an Eastern Conference team, is west of noted west coast city Nashville. This was not a great decision. Now, I’m no geography professor, but I believe that if you’re going to split the conferences of east vs. west and likely moving a team after the 2020 season anyway, that the easternmost teams should be in the East, while the westernmost should be in the West. Yes, I know that it doesn’t have to make sense, but how lazy do you have to be to put Nashville in the Western Conference? Never mind, I just answered my own question, MLS.

That will do it for today. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.