Henry, and MLSGear.com

By: Ben | January 2nd, 2012

liechenstein

The picture here is my interpretation of the logo of Liechtenstein’s national soccer federation. Just sayin’.

Now for MLS:

As far back as November, rumors swirled about David Beckham’s next move. Under the surface of the MLS blogsphere, a small media circus simmered near a boil regarding whether Becks would stay, or move on to Paris. And now, in January, he still hasn’t made a move. Then there’s Thierry Henry. Only a couple weeks ago, some talk popped up of him possibly taking a loan back to his beloved Arsenal. Lo and behold, Henry is now in London, training with the club. Clean, quick, no media circus necessary.

Oh, I don’t mean to rag on David, as much as I would like him to just make up his freaking mind already. More importantly, though, (and it really is more important) I hope Henry does well with Arsenal. Lets be honest: he didn’t have the best run at Barca. Henry needs to prove to the world (yes, the whole world) that he’s still worth something, and that, contrary to international sentiment, being good in MLS doesn’t mean you can suck everywhere else. A strong showing at Arsenal would let the world know that Henry’s mastery in MLS can translate to, at the very least, sizable success at the level of the Premier League.

On another note, with all the money I got for Hanukkah, I’ve been spending a good amount of time on the MLSgear.com (MLS’s online shop) and I’ve found some interesting things. First of all, MLS is now selling replica match balls from the MLS Cup Final for, you guessed it, one hundred and fifty dollars. I mean, gosh, who wouldn’t be begging to spend ten times as much on a ball when it comes in yellow and gray and has a print of Don Garber’s signature on the side?! It’s a no brainer, people.

Then there’s the new 2012 jerseys. Look, I have nothing against the Columbus Crew. They’re a great team. But gosh, their 2012 away jersey really does just suck. I don’t mean to be harsh, and I get that they were taking a stylistic risk here, but this time they gambled and lost. This jersey looks like it would make more sense on a WPS team than on the Columbus Crew.

I’m in between on Phillie’s new jersey. The light blue is nice as an add-on to the home jersey, but the away one is a bit much. Its kind of, how can I put this, shiny.

New York’s new jersey is basically the same thing as the old one, but without the dinky button that the team has donned since 2010. So there’s some improvement. But I have to admit, I am a bit disappointed. With a seemingly endless supply of cash from their Austrian overloads, you’d think New York’s brass could call up some designer out there to figure out something a bit cooler than what they have. I mean, there’s nothing necessarily wrong with their current jerseys, you’d just think that the people at Red Bull could make use of their swaths of cash to figure out something a bit more eye-catching.

Montreal’s Jersey’s are nice. Plain, simple, clean. That easy.

Enough of jerseys. The MLS Combine is growing nearer, and we’ll have coverage of that soon. Until then, happy new year.