Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Who We're Buying a Beer For....

The one thing we love more than drinking beer and watching some soccer is being able to share said beer with people. We do it all the time and so do the fine men and women that subscribe to the Free Beer Philosophy of the Free Beer Movement. We share our beer with our friends, family, and co-workers who desperately need some education on the soccer front to understand the passion that drives our connection to the sport of soccer.

Some people already get it and their working day in and day out to improve the atmosphere in the U.S. for soccer. Those people or groups deserve some recognition and we only know who way to thanks.

A beer on us.

Each week we serve up a healthy dose of brewskies for the individuals and organizations that are building a foundation for soccer in America. Hey... kinda like us at the FBM!


Yeah... most of this is literary flourish, but if we were to ever run into one of our honorees, say Sir Alex Ferguson (Mar. 8th, 2010) or Landon Donovan (Jan. 4th, 2010), we'd be obligated to let them know that their next drink is on the Free Beer Movement. And we'd hope, dear readers, if you ever ran into one of the ladies or gentlemen you'd let 'em know the FBM owes them a beer (or better yet pick up a drink for them and send us a picture and the tab!)


----------------------------------------------------------

LeToux and Mwange: Double Trouble.
First up is the The Sebastien LeToux and Danny Mwange Show from Philadelphia. The Union duo is tearing up nets all across Major League Soccer. The pair have a combined 17 goals making them, by far, the league's most dangerous attack pair. Despite Philly's dangerous position near the bottom of the Eastern Conference LeToux's and rookie Mwange's contributions are keeping the Union in a fight for the playoffs in the parity-driven MLS.

But let's talk about the guys a bit more. LeToux, a French international who just got his Green Card, and Mwange, on his way to U.S. citizenship have formed an effective attach up top for Union coach Peter Nowak. LeToux also leads the league in shot, shots on goal, and assists. At seven goals on the season Mwange is just five goals off the rookie scoring record in MLS with 11 matches left.

The best thing about is how the two are rocketing up the scoring charts in style. LeToux and Mwange's last two hooks up have both been quality set-ups with great finishes. Check the Free Beer Movement's video archives:

August 11 vs. Real Salt Lake

Get Microsoft Silverlight

August 14th vs. Colorado Rapids

Get Microsoft Silverlight

How soon til we see these two in the red, white and, blue?

Next up from the beer-vending machine (how cool would that be?) is the soccer-fan-and-gamers' wet dream the annual release of EA Sports FIFA. The 2011 edition of will, of course, be their best effort to date and is made even more special with the spectacular receding hairline of one Mr. Landon Donovan aka "Captain Clutch" on the cover. At that point we we're like "Carlos Vela, who?" "Kaka, what?" and wondering why Donovan just didn't get the whole box top to himself. Admittedly we're very biased towards the American "legend". With the release of FIFA 11 slated for September we're positively giddy with excitement. Mrs. FBM? Not so much.

When we saw LD10 we thought back to other great moments in FIFA video game cover history: LD back in '07, Jozy Altidore, and Sacha Kljestan gracing it as well.

We're sure the game is going to be outta sight (as always), but with EA choosing yet another American to grace it's cover it send another positive signal that American soccer is on the up and up; most certainly as a soccer gaming nation, but as a soccer playing nations as well.

And one more thing to consider. The FIFA video game series is a huge gateway drug to soccer watching for the average sports-watching American. We know loads of friends who because of their love for video games have found FIFA to be one of the best sports games available period. Because of this they've also figured out soccer and know the players and teams from all the best leagues. The FBM has personally taken several newbies who were FIFA nuts and that's almost... almost as effective as free beer.

Consider how powerful a free beer and FIFA party would be.... DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMN!

Lastly a sympathy beer out to USWNT and Boston Breakers midfielder Leslie Osborne who's season ended last week when she fell and broke her collarbone during Women's Professional League action last week. We're particularly fond of Osborne given her Milwaukee, WI roots as the FBM called Wisco home for most of our life and did the majority of the "beer" training part of the Free Beer Movement in the "City that Made Beer Famous," Mil-town.

This is Osborne's second major injury as she missed out on gold in the 2008 Beijing Olympics with a torn ACL (a terribly common injury for young female athletes). Here's hope that her recovery is swift and she can regain her National Team spot before the 2011 Women's World Cup.

We're rootin' for ya, Leslie!

Photo Credits: FIFA 11 (SoccerNotFootball.com), Osborne (TopFamous.net), LeToux and Mwange (Getty Images/MLSSoccer.com)

Support the Movement. Get the Free Beer Movement T-Shirt. Only from Objectivo.com

2 comments:

  1. Um, FYI, FIFA has like 11 different covers for the different regions the game is distributed. Still cool to see LD on the cover. Just bursting bubbles homie.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Right. That we know. Point is though that for many FIFA players they're not always thinking "America" when they play so to get an MLS-based, USMNT player on the cover helps raise the profile our our domestic game.

    Certainly the end goal is to have that American to be so marketable that he does grace FIFA covers globally.

    ReplyDelete

"Anyone who tells me soccer is boring, I'm going to punch them in the face."
- Former Dallas Burn (aka FC Dallas) coach Dave Dir

Thanks for leaving a comment!