First result of the new season is a success. The margin could have been bigger but I'm not too worried.

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MLS 1 Chelsea FC 0 thanks to a Dwayne DeRosario rocket midway through the second half. Yes, Chelsea was in preseason. Yes, they were playing 5,000 miles from home. Yes, it may be hotter in Chicago than in England. And maybe yes, "the grass was a bit long," as John Terry said. Still, a team of guys making under a half a mill a year each took soccer's Steinbrenner dream and beat them. Most were expecting the north London side to win by 3 or 4 goals. If you watched the MLS boys play, they played hard, made key tackles, didn't shy away from players worth millions more than them, and resisted a sharp onslaught at the death, including a John Terry cameo as striker. Let's hope this shows MLS investors, and Lew Wolff in particular, because I want a team in the Bay Area again, that MLS players have talent. The league has gone 12 years, is still solvent, and revenues get better and better each year. So hurray MLS and let's hope we can keep it up in inter-league matches like Champions Cup and friendlies. This can only be good for the league and the players looking to move overseas. Next year we take them on at Stamford Bridge, or take on Arsenal at Ashburton Grove, and when we can play well there we'll know we've made it.

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MLS has had the better of the play so far, 30 minutes in, against one of the best teams in the world. I don't care about preseason, whatever, this is pretty cool. Hope they can keep it up. I'm predicting 1-0 to MLS on a Joe Gaetjens header. And P.S. Peter Nowak please don't put in Freddy Adu cause he's not that great and Essien's just gonna try to get him to play for Ghana.

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This one should be interesting. I haven't watched MLS at all this year, since they moved my beloved San Jose Earthquakes to Houston. Chelsea, flush with money from Sibneft multibillionaire Roman Abramovich, is pretty much the all-star team of the world. However, this is just a warm-up game for them, and MLS players know that the world (well, more of it than watches a usual MLS game) will be watching. Since the highest salary in MLS is around $450,000 per year, putting on a good show could be highly lucrative. Of course if MLS can beat the #1 team in England it could mean increased respect and attention for our American league. The detractors will say that it was just a warm-up game and nothing was on the line, but if that is the case, American clubs will never play European clubs with anything at stake, except in World Cups.

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It probably is. Floyd Landis today tested positive for synthetic testosterone. It will be a while before people are going to care about cycling. Sporting outcomes need to be determined during a contest, not in a lab.

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The payout amounts for the World Series of Poker are unbelievable. There were 8,773 entrants staking 10,000 each for a shot at the title, which comes with a shiny bracelet and a cool $12 million dollars. Imagine if everyone that played in the Masters brought about 100,000 for a prize pool for the winner. Second place gets $6,102,499, all the way to 873rd place which takes home $14,597. This morning there are around 1400 players left that have each played 2 full days of poker against a widely amateur field. Each of the players still remaining probably has played the poker of their lives and combined it with some excellent luck. The problem with poker is that pocket aces, the best possible starting hand, lose once every nine times to 2-7 offsuit, the worst possible starting hand. It's entirely possible to get your money in with the better hand in the WSOP a lot of the time, yet get suckered out and be watching before you know it. Place Prize Money 1 $12,000,000 2 $6,102,499 3 $4,123,310 4 $3,628,513 5 $3,216,182 6 $2,803,851 7 $2,391,520 8 $1,979,189 9 $1,566,858 10-12 $1,154,527 13-15 $907,128 16-18 $659,730 19-27 $494,797 28-36 $329,865 37-45 $237,399 46-54 $164,932 55-63 $123,699 64-72 $90,713 73-81 $65,973 82-126 $51,129 127-189 $47,006 190-252 $42,882 253-315 $38,759 316-378 $34,636 379-441 $30,512 442-504 $26,389 505-567 $22,266 568-621 $20,617 622-666 $19,050 667-720 $17,730 721-774 $16,493 775-819 $15,504 820-873 $14,597

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If they're so hard to track, why not legalize all steroids?

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Eddie Pope announced his retirement from international soccer today. All I have to say is, YESSSSSSSSS!!!!!

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Even his fellow riders can't want him to be guilty, this doping scandal looks bad on cycling as a whole. I don't doubt that the B sample is going to show as high a testosterone ratio as the other one. The question is how it was achieved, and according to one newspaper's report, it was synthetic. Innocent until proven guilty, and I want him to be innocent as much as the next guy, I just don't think it's gonna happen.

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