A New Beginning For A New Year

With 2011 in its final stretch, and the MLS Playoffs nearly in our midsts, it’s definitely a funny time to be talking about beginnings. But for most high schoolers, such as your truly, the new year doesn’t start so much on the first day of January as it does on the first day of school, and now that we’ve entered 2011-2012, it’s time to lay down the law for the MLS Offside. This article won’t be so soccer-heavy (which I’m sorry about; it’s obvious that I owe you guys more than a couple articles), but it’s just as important. I want to really bring some changes into the blog, and I really think you’ll like them.

First of all, I want to make sure that the posting situation this year is a bit more consistent. That means at least one article every other day, with at least a daily dose or something of the sort for off days, and now month long dryspells. Last year’s entries were fairly sporadic, coming often within periods of weeks and sometimes every few hours, which really hurt the opportunity for my readership to grow. This year will be more regular, which, I hope, can put us on pace for more readership.

But the content of these posts is just as important. In the next year, I want to shift even further from the “news source” arena, and into the “discussion” area of the MLS internet contingent. Sure, I’ve never really been an Ives Galarcep, and I often give some opinion, but I want to expand on that. There’s millions of soccer news sources on the web, from MLSnet to Fox Soccer, but few that offer opinions from real fans of the league. That’s what I’ll be shooting for: articles which assess the news and give an educated, if hopefully commented- upon opinion.

That’s important too: in being more of a discussion based blog, I’m going to need help from all you guys. I’ve always asked “What do you think?’ at the end of my articles, but the number comments per article can range from one or two to a boatload. I would really like more consistent feedback from you readers (we are, of course, all equal in MLS fandom, and just because I write the blog doesn’t mean in any sense that my opinion is worth squat), so feel free to voice it. If you’ve got an opinion, we’d all like to hear it, and I think that’ll come naturally in the next year as I give more opinion in the articles.

However, I’m going to also need your help in two more respects. There’s really no way for me to advertise beside word of mouth, so I encourage you, use that mouth and say some words. If you have friends who support MLS, feel free to direct them to this “awesome blog you know” (no, I don’t mean THAT blog). Use Facebook, use your words, use anything you can to spread the good name of the MLS Offside.

But more importantly, I need help writing on the site. It’s that simple; all other blogs that cover an entire league have three, or possibly four people writing for their page. We may not be the biggest league, but having only one writer (yours truly) is just way too much to handle. So if you like writing, and have a few spare minutes in your day, shoot me an email at kaufmb@d-e.org, and I’d love to get you on board. Soccer blogging is a lot of fun, has a ton of perks you’d never think of (can you say, “press pass”?), and definitely looks great for college.

So, while this article didn’t really cover much action, (which I promise the next one will. Promise.) I think this year’s poised to be a great one for the MLS Offside.

Let the games begin.

Category: MLS