Posts from the Washington Dc Category at FanHouse

The second edition of the North American SuperLiga, which pits four top MLS clubs against four top Mexican clubs, kicks off on Saturday, and we are reminded once again that this made-for-TV event is made for Spanish-language TV only. Telefutura is once again the only American TV network carrying SuperLiga matches nationally. This is in spite of the fact that three MLS clubs made it through to the knockout stage last season, even though Pachuca won the million-dollar prize.

You would think Fox Soccer Channel might want to jump in on SuperLiga to get people psyched up for the CONCACAF Champions League, which the fledgling network will air starting in August, but it seems they would rather show more Barca TV this summer. We might get English announcers on MLSLive.tv, but possibly not until the knockout stages, as was the case last year.

You can find a full preview of SuperLiga here.

Canada's TSN is reporting that unrestricted free agent center Sergei Fedorov has signed a one-year, $4 million deal to return to the Washington Capitals. The news comes a little less than 24 hours after FanHouse had passed on a report from Russia's Sovetsky Sport that KHL President Alexander Medvedev had announced that Fedorov had passed on an opportunity to play for KHL club SKA St. Petersburg, as well as multiple denials from the Capitals that any deal with Fedorov was imminent.

In other Caps news, the team announced that it had reached an agreement with restricted free agent forward Brooks Laich on a three-year deal. As is the case with all of the team's contracts, financial terms were not disclosed, though the Washington Post is reporting the deal is for $6.2 million over the length of the contract. Laich, 25, is coming off the best season of his career after scoring 21 goals and 37 points in 82 games. Laich, as many will recall, was originally acquired from the Ottawa Senators near the end of the 2003-04 NHL season in the deal that shipped Peter Bondra out of town.

It was a night of knockout soccer that saw three games go to extra time, two games go to penalty kicks, and one famous Mexican lose his temper and get sent off. By the time the smoke cleared, the glass slipper still fit for two USL First Division clubs, who had advanced to the U.S. Open Cup semifinals.

Why isn't this competition on TV again?

The Charleston Battery obliterated FC Dallas, 3-1, at Pizza Hut Park in Frisco, TX, scoring before an after an hour-long lightning delay in the first half and shutting down all but one meaningless strike in the 93rd minute. Meanwhile, the Seattle Sounders fought the Kansas City Wizards to a 0-0 draw and advanced 6-5 on penalties, thanks in part to a 12-save performance by Sounders goalkeeper Chris Eylander, who also saved two PKs to help Seattle advance.

Meanwhile, USL Second Division club Crystal Palace Baltimore pushed the defending Open Cup champion New England Revolution to penalties, but lost the shootout, 5-3. In Boyds, MD, Cuauhtémoc Blanco and Mark Burch were shown red cards in extra time, while Bryan Namoff scored the winner in the 99th minute to push D.C. United past the Chicago Fire, 2-1.

Television ratings across baseball haven't been great this season, according to an article in Sports Business Journal, but nowhere are they worse than in Washington D.C. That's not surprising. The Nats are terrible, thanks to factors ranging from injuries to poor work by the front office, but the cold hard facts are still eye-opening.

The Nats have lost 43.5% of their viewers this season and rank last in baseball in viewership. Just 9,000 households in the D.C. market tune into games which results in a 0.39 ratings share, numbers which could easily be mistaken as people who leave their TVs on to keep their cats company. For comparison, the Royals are 28th in households (the Blue Jays weren't included) at 28,000 while the Angels draw a 1.24 share.

Is there really that little interest in the Nats? Dan Steinberg's DC Sports Bog has hosted a lively discussion about that question and the reaction seems mixed. The team's lack of talent gets mentioned a lot, as does the nature of Washington being a city full of people from other places because of government jobs.

There's a fair amount of complaint about MASN's coverage, especially the lack of HD coverage on every game, but Steinberg also mentions that Washington Post web traffic figures on the Nats could be deemed very disappointing. There's no doubt that it takes time to develop an avid fanbase and it appears that the Nats have a lot to work to do on that front.

Once again, our friend Dmitry Chesnokov from Sovetsky Sport passed along a piece of news that ought to interest North American hockey fans.

According to KHL President Alexander Medvedev, center Sergei Fedorov is set to re-sign with the Washington Capitals. Here's the report from Sovetsky's Pavel Lysenkov, who was at a press event in Moscow earlier today where Medvedev was unveiling the new logo for the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL):

"It is sad that we will not see Sergei Fedorov in the KHL. Most likely, today he will sign a new contract with Washington."

Medvedev, according to Lysenkov, is on the board of SKA St. Petersburg hockey club, which was involved in negotiations with Fedorov.

I just got off the phone with Nate Ewell of the Caps PR office, and he said that while negotiations were ongoing and the team was hopeful something would get done, no announcement was imminent.

If the report is true, it can't be anything but good news for the Caps.

After he was acquired from Columbus at the trade deadline for a draft pick Ted Ruth, Fedorov didn't exactly make an immediate impact with the team on the scoresheet. Instead, it was abundantly clear that his veteran presence did have an incredible effect inside the locker room, especially on wingers Alex Ovechkin and Alexander Semin.

When it came to play on the ice, Fedorov more or less transformed the team's penalty kill, which had been something of a question mark for long stretches during the regular season. Better yet, working with Ovechkin and Semin, Fedorov helped form the top scoring line at the recently completed World Championships where Russia took the Gold Medal.

D.C. United and the Chicago Fire meet tonight in the U.S. Open Cup quarterfinals, one month after their testy match in Toyota Park in which three red cards were given and Luciano Emilio got a surprise goal in stoppage time to lift 9-man D.C. to a 2-1 win.

If you want to watch this rematch, though, you'll have to go to the Maryland SoccerPlex in Boyds and buy a ticket. By all accounts, this match will not air on TV or online. Neither will tonight's New England Revolution v. Crystal Palace Baltimore match, providing further proof that the U.S. Open Cup -- a competition in which the winner receives a spot in the CONCACAF Champions League, no less -- is truly the most disrespected competition in American soccer.

The other two quarterfinal matches at least have online video feeds. FC Dallas v. Charleston Battery will be shown on MLSLive at 8:30 PM ET, while Seattle fans log on to USLLive get a free glimpse of their future MLS club's home when the USL-1 Seattle Sounders face the Kansas City Wizards at Qwest Field at 10:00 PM ET. Let's hope the groundskeepers actually try to cover up the gridiron lines this year.

Considering that Elijah Dukes is only 24 years old and hasn't even played a full season's worth of games in the big leagues, he's already had quite a career. Unfortunately, just about everything Dukes is known for has occured off the field or after games. We're all more than familiar with his text messaging habits, and we also know that Elijah has a problem with his manager from time to time (seriously, just click on his tag and see all the fun he's had).

Lately, though, Elijah has been getting talked about more for the way he's hitting with the Nationals. After getting off to a very slow start to the season, Dukes hit .292 with four homers and 15 RBI in June. He has carried that play into the first week of July as well, as he's currently hitting .368 with two homers and three runs driven in this month. That's why it's such a shame that Dukes hurt his knee making a catch on Saturday, and he's going to be out four to six weeks because of it.

Dukes tore cartilage and partially tore a tendon in his right knee when he slammed into the left-field wall after catching a flyball in the seventh inning. He grabbed his knee and was taken off the field on a cart.

Dukes will have surgery on Monday. The Nationals didn't immediately replace him on the roster.

Let's all just hope that Elijah spends his time off working his way back from this knee injury, and not taking advantage of his unlimited text messaging plan.

Let me start off by saying I would never give anyone back $16 million. Also, I have no problem with Gilbert Arenas making more than $100 million over six years -- I was ecstatic when hearing a rumor my favorite team had offered him the max. Finally, Gil has shown to be one of the most generous NBA stars alive, giving away his jerseys, his shoes, and his time to fans constantly. He's a hero.

That said, his $16-million discount -- very warm, very generous for him -- does it even actually help the Wizards on the court? The surprising answer ... yes! (It's surprising because we're a cynical people.) The Washington Post's Ivan Carter reports the structure of the deal should allow the 'Zards to sign a player to the full mid-level and vet's exceptions. Had Arenas taken the max, the full mid-level would have thrust the team into luxury tax territory, which isn't going to happen. So the team can add a piece with this move.

What piece will it be? Carter offers up current 'Zard Roger Mason (he wouldn't technically take the mid-level, but would use up some of the luxury tax cushion) and roaming man James Posey. And Gil's got an extra pitch to make from whomever Washington targets.

"I want to win a championship here in D.C. I want to have a parade that goes right past the White House. Me and Barack Obama. How cool would that be? I really think that with the players we already have and with a couple of moves, we can do it."

Besides maybe Spencer Hawes, who wouldn't want to parade past President Obama? That might be a better pull than Baron Davis.

Antawn Jamison, Washington Wizards fan and bloggers everywhere can breathe easy: Gilbert Arenas has agreed to ink a lower-than-max deal which will reportedly pay him $111 million over six years.

Arenas told the Washington Times and Washington Post that he was offered a maximum deal in the neighborhood of $127 million on Tuesday, the first day of the free agency period.

"(The Wizards) offered me the max, and I'm basically giving back $16 million," Arenas told the Washington Times from China, where [he] is traveling as part of promotional tour for a shoe company. "This is in line with what I've been saying the whole time. You see players take max deals and they financially bind their teams. I don't wanna be one of those players and three years down the road your team is strapped and can't do anything about it."

Jamison was putting the screws on Arenas to resign, Wizards fans were worried they would be mediocre and fail to entertain, and well, we bloggers just like Hibachi hanging out in the capitol. It makes for good news.

Arenas had two separate max deals on the table from the Wizards and the Warriors, but no one really thought he was going to do anything other than sign again with Washington.

Agent Zero also noted that he took less than the max, and that is true. So kudos to him, but remember, Jamison did the same thing so Gil could get paid, and without any additional cap space, this is a second round team. In other words, not taking the max actually benefits Arenas in the long run as well.

If you go to eBay right now you can bid on an autographed rookie card of Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson. No surprise there.

But it is a little surprising that the seller, identified as cooley717523, is none other than Washington Redskins tight end Chris Cooley. Cooley explains on the Shutdown Corner blog that he has always loved football cards, and he and his wife are now becoming collectors and sellers:

At home with hundreds of cards, we decided that it would be fun to create our own account on eBay and sell them. We tried to take great pictures and then describe the cards. Christy wants to describe every card as beautiful. I don't know if that's a great way to describe a card, but it seems catchy enough.

We have our first cards listed for sale and three of them have bids already. I'm pretty sure we'll spend way more money buying cards than we'll ever make on them, but we've had a blast giving it a try.

Cooley has set the starting bid on the Peterson card at $150.