A List Of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago

AMONG YOUSE THUGS: So, will soccer become a major sport in America? A British GQ writer hung out with Philadelphia's Sons of Ben [HT: @dhm] to explore the nature of American soccer fandom:

But the fans, he thinks, are different from the base of young working-class men who traditionally have made up English football crowds. "I find them a bit studenty, to be honest," [Reuters reporter Simon Evans] says, "They're very active online and like to argue the toss with Liverpool fans or whatever. You get a lot of Anglophiles interested in it, like people from New Jersey who are really into New Order and support Man City. But the fakeness will be lost as the league grows up."

...Don Garber, the league's commissioner, is also worried about the swearing. In fact, having originally praised the Sons of Ben's valour in campaigning for a team, during a recent Q&A with MLS fans he said he was worried about a "lunatic fringe" among MLS supporters, and about the "dynamic" of travelling fans. He singled Philadelphia out twice, citing their habit of shouting "You suck asshole" when the opposition keeper takes a goal kick, and the fact that fans had to be escorted into PPL Park. "There are two things I worry about," he said. "One is that we're going to have a terrorist attack in an MLS stadium. The second is that we're going to have a riot in a stadium."