Who We're Buying a Beer For...

This Free Beer Movement thingy is all about spreading the love of soccer through free beer so it would be a damn shame if we didn't shower a bit of it on the people who make the sport (and the world around the sport) so great.

Introducing a new feature on the FBM site, "Who we're buying a beer for". Where, if we (or anyone of our "free beer movers" ever run into them, we required (by FBM by-laws) to offer up some brewskis, on the FBM tab, for their contributions to American soccer.

#1 Brad Guzan

Gave USMNT and Aston Villa fans something to look forward to after, respectively, Tim Howard and Brad Friedal hang up the mits. He had a MONSTER performance this week in the Carling Cup saving 1 PK in regulation and 3 in the shootout. The 25-year old America has a bright future and continues to put USA on the map (just in case you had a hard time finding it) for quality goalkeeping.

Hat Tip to The Shin Guardian (we don't think we promo this site enough!) for the clip.

#2 Hope Solo

Another American goalkeeper, but this one of the female variety. The USWNT defeated Germany 1-0 in a battle between Nos. 1 and 2 in the women's soccer world. How did our intrepid netminder celebrate this win? With a beer of course!

From her Twitter account:

"real heffweizen after a hard earned victory. not sure how much better life could be!"

A good win, another great boost for the USWNT, and a great ending!

#3 Nick Sindt

Our buddy who runs the blog, Snorting the Endline, was inducted into the Jimmy Conrad Wing of the Comment Hall of Fame over at The Shin Guardian (there they are again!) for his hilarious insights into ESPN programming.

"Want even further proof of ESPN’s hatred of the beautiful game. Back in 2006 (I think) Arsenal and AC Milan were squaring off in the Champion’s League Semi-Finals, second leg. ESPN2 had shown the Barcelona match the day before, but on Wednesday what did my Comcast tell me was going to be shown on ESPN2 instead of the match? Jump Roping. That is correct, a competition where people jump over ropes swung by others. So, I set my VCR anyway, praying that Comcast was just not updated and the match would be televised. What did my wondering eyes behold when I rewound the tape? Jump Roping!!! Effing Jump Roping!!!!! I almost went completely mental. Later that day I called and dished out an extra $5 a month for ESPN Deportes."

Keep up the good work, Nick.

#4 Jozy Altidore

The kid needs a beer (he's old enough if its bought in England, right?) after getting shelved by Hull City manager Phil Brown. The 19-year old future-of-American-soccer/man child overslept and missed warm ups for last weekend's English Premier League game.

To add insult to injury he Tweeted about missing it and was fined an undisclosed amount of money for talking about team business.

Have a beer on us, Jozy. Just as long as its not the night before a game.

#5 Bill Archer

Love him or hate him, his diatribes on Big Soccer are interesting and he served up a nice tongue-and-cheek slap to the EPL vs MLS/ promo/releg vs. playoffs battle that goes on in the American soccer discussion word with his latest column.

"Boy, I can't wait until Major League Soccer Soccer News Topics, the United States of Americas' First Division Professional Soccer League, comes to it's senses and dumps this stupid playoff format and finally creates a slavish copy of the vastly superior European (read: English Premier League) single table, winner take all, regular-season-is-all-that-matters setup so that we can have a little excitement at the end of the year.

All these boring, nothing-at-stake, drama-free MLS matches over the last few weeks are really putting us all to sleep. Boooooooore-ing. Wake me when it's over.

Because there's just nothing better than the last month or two of the EPL season when all those middle-of-the-table teams play all those breathlessly exciting games dripping with consequences as the fans are unable to sleep at night wondering whether their local club will finish 11th or 12th.

Meanwhile, the teams who somehow managed to get promoted at the end of the previous season and who haven't won a match since January add to the edge-of-your-seat drama as the punters furiously debate whether Wolves or QPR or EastMiltonFromminghamptonshire will finish 15 points south of the relegation line or only 12.

Because, as we're constantly reminded, that is where the real end-of-season excitement that we're all missing over here in the colonies is located: seeing which really crappy team can manage to somehow gain the right to remain for one more year in a league they cannot possibly hope to be competitive in.

Really grippping stuff."

The point being that the Major League Soccer playoffs are hopelessly American and we're totally fine with that notion. As one commenter said on Archer's post:

"isn't that why the pilgrims came over, to escape the promotion/relegation system? i thought that was what thanksgiving was about...."

While MLS fans (us included) will acknowledge that the playoff system is not perfect, it certainly is apart of American (and many other soccer league around the world) sports. Love it or leave we say.

Grab a beer and put it on our tab.