Onward! -- Archer, and a call for comments

[Ben Knight]

http://onwardsoccer.com/2009/04/06/its-called-frustration/

[uncle p]

Did he really claim a TFC fan dumped a beeer on a 4 year old child at crew stadium?!?!

What a DOUCHEBAG!!!!!

[maninb]

Did he really claim a TFC fan dumped a beeer on a 4 year old child at crew stadium?!?!

What a DOUCHEBAG!!!!!


Yeah I confronted him on it on BS and he said that the kid's father confirmed it on BS last week....yeah posting sh*t on a blog makes it TRUE!!! LOL!

[Parkdale]

my speakers were off.

I just flipped into the middle and saw about 20 seconds of Ben blinking.

[Lucky Strike]

Yeah I confronted him on it on BS and he said that the kid's father confirmed it on BS last week....yeah posting sh*t on a blog makes it TRUE!!! LOL!

It's sad that we are unable to just ignore him and forced to refute his outlandish and made-up claims, because so many others will listen to his lies. And I see the name of this Arch guy or whatever way too often here.

[GTA_WOLF]

I just found Archer's comments in relation to Canadian teams in the MLS to be incredibly shalllow-minded. This league needs expansion into cities where the league can flourish and survive. If TFC had not succeeded like it has, then I would find it hard to believe that cities like Seattle and Philadelphia would want to come and be willing to pay $30-40MM to join.

[Fort York Redcoat]

Thanks Ben for proving that Archer is an ignorant Jackass that I can now avoid like Kelly, Wheeler, and whoever comes next.

[smeghead]

Can you put barberez on the air next time, so he can tell us all to fuck off? please stick good guests and not turn to some kind of Jerry springer phone in show. After a couple of minutes i turned it off.

[Red CB Toronto]

Does Archer actually write for BS or does he just post there? I am curious.

[Lucky Strike]

Does Archer actually write for BS or does he just post there? I am curious.

He just writes BS.

P.S. To really answer your question, I believe he has a blog there. Don't know if that's really different from posting on a message board though.

[jloome]

He just writes BS.

P.S. To really answer your question, I believe he has a blog there. Don't know if that's really different from posting on a message board though.

No, nobody pays him, if that's what you're thinking. He might get some google ad revenue off his blog or something, but other than that he's a legend in his own mind.

[SweetOwnGoal]

No, nobody pays him, if that's what you're thinking. He might get some google ad revenue off his blog or something, but other than that he's a legend in his own mind.

I'm not sure that's true. BigSoccer approached a few of us last month to be feature bloggers on the new .ca re-direct. Although they weren't offering us anything of significance upfront they did imply that their feature American guys made about $500 a month.
Pretty much all the Canadian guys they approached told them the same thing: put money on the table or stuff it. I’ll be interested to see who they ended up finding.
They did offer me 20 to 40 per cent off at the BigSoccer store...:rolleyes:

[H Bomb]

It's really sad that you lot gave this guy a forum Ben, especially this week. There are many many reasonable thoughtful writers out there and you chose to give the angry lunatic the time of day. Please learn your lesson, this was a joke that I wish a journalist of your quality would not have taken part in. This guy has free speech, you gave him extraordinary speech...again, please learn your lesson

[Lucky Strike]

No, nobody pays him, if that's what you're thinking. He might get some google ad revenue off his blog or something, but other than that he's a legend in his own mind.

It wasn't and in fact it never occurred to me. Realizing that, I don't know how I could think he writes for BS rather than just writing on BS. Whoops.

[Nodoubtguy]

wow......that was tough to watch, can't imagine even trying to talk to that man.

[TorCanSoc]

I refused to listen to that Archer guy from posts past on BigSoccer. But OK I got sucked in. Yes he was not letting you guys get a word in edge-wise, that sucked.

He's pro-American, are we not pro-Canadian? He's anti-Canadian, are some of us not anti-American? (not me, my sister is, now, American...she's got some Shicaahgo slur, and doesn't say "eh" anymore)... but I'll keep personal stuff out of this.

First off, I wasn't at the 2009 away game, I went to the 2008 Columbus away game. The 2009 version seems to be have more issues than last year. Last year they were pretty innocent, no place to pee and made a mess. This year's issues seemed to be a bit more brow raising. I'm sure 2010 is going to have its share as well.

Back to Archer's no Canadian sentiment, is he saying this from a hate Canadians perspective, or a no canadian teams in an American league perspective? To put Canadian teams into MLS is going to have an immediate impact on our national team, to the point of possibly one day eliminating the USMNT from WCQ one day. So what's wrong with wanting to keep your MNT strong? That would piss me off if we had a Canadian League, and decided to let in smaller Central American teams to help them get stronger. Why is that a hate position?

What frustrates me about Archer is he gets anecdotal then paints a systemic picture. Meaning one offs become his mantra for a repeated culture. I have not read much of his posts lately, his old ones were pretty brutal because lets face it he was just a Crew fan, espousnig Crew virtues. Which we, as TFC fans, do a lot as well. No problem there. But he's trying to become a more influential figure in the soccer world, with some formal blogs (I think?), not just volume posts on BigSoccer.

The thing about him saying a fan poured beer on a four year old kid, that shocked the hell out of me! That's a bloody aggressive statement. Because, for one, if one guy poured a beer on my son, all 5'5" of me would pretty much need to be peeled off of said beer tosser. I read the Crew post about the beer and four year old, I think the dude and said four year old got a beer shower from high up from drunken idiots. Yes throwing a beer is not the brightest thing, but a lone beer being poured on a four year kid's head is a lot more serious and menacing than a prankster spraying a beer from 10 meters up. Anecdotal, misused, and borderline lying. Nice Archer.

Look it. Trouble is going to find its way to 2500 rev'd up, mostly drinking, young males. We all know this. Archer wants us to police ourselves, that's horsesh*t. Most people (Torontonian and Columbusan (?) alike) won't get into this kind of altercation with a, likely drunk, rowdy fan. We know this is NOT the supporters groups going there to do the damage. Archer has made up his mind, he's received his anecdotal facts, and close his mind to what's really happening here.

Now going forward. What can we do to nix this budding (not hooligan) but rowdy drunken idiot moniker. Lets face we know its a bunch of one offs. Is it a problem? Do we even need to address it? I'm not sure.

I do know, I don't like the language and flavour of some of hte posts going on in here. I played in the supporter's game against Chicago last year. It was fun, no one got hurt. While on-field stuff is going to raise tensions, that comes from 22 male egos thinking they are Danny Dichio. But at the end of the game, it was a group photo, group handshakes and group well-wishes. When I started all this supporters stuff, I thought cool we can play other team's supporters in a friendly game, and talk MLS afterward. But I'm not so sure thats the direction we're headed.

Maybe I'm a bit too nice, but I have no real hate for anyone else's supports. Not Columbus, not Montreal, not Vancouver.

My longest post ever. A lot said, but nothing suggested.... welcome to blogging!

[Oldtimer]

Bill Archer just doesn't get it.

He objects to being called the KKKrew because he thinks it's just the actions of that one idiot who posted his racist comments on Youtube.

He doesn't realize that he himself (and his following) are a major reason why the Crew are labeled as racist and xenophobic.

That, and the banana thrown at a black player at a later game.

[TorCanSoc]

I agree with you on the Archer assessment, he's an idiot.

But actions of a pair of bigger idiots should not paint the entire Columbus Crew with this brush. We're saying it when we get to Columbus, and a few drunks Torontonians ruin for the rest of us.

I think if we were constantly being called racists we'd object too, no?

[Oldtimer]

I agree with you on the Archer assessment, he's an idiot.

But actions of a pair of bigger idiots should not paint the entire Columbus Crew with this brush. We're saying it when we get to Columbus, and a few drunks Torontonians ruin for the rest of us.

I think if we were constantly being called racists we'd object too, no?

I think that it would be unfair to paint most of the soccer moms + kids at crew stadium as racist, probably they would object as much as we would. As Bill Archer pointed out, the Crew FO acted on the Youtube situation.

The problem though, is that there is enough Xenophobia coming from Archer and the HSH to help support the picture of Columbus being an unpleasant place to go to.

[Sullivan]

Archer reminds me of the kid in high school who always had his lunch stolen and his locker vandalized; now he's making everyone else pay for it.

but give the guy credit, nobody's shot him yet, and he's made it into adulthood... But jokes on him, he still has to live in OHIO!

[Keystone FC]

Bill Archer just doesn't get it.

He objects to being called the KKKrew because he thinks it's just the actions of that one idiot who posted his racist comments on Youtube.

He doesn't realize that he himself (and his following) are a major reason why the Crew are labeled as racist and xenophobic.

That, and the banana thrown at a black player at a later game.

I think it comes down to a certain type of culture that has come up with a few of the 'original' clubs.
Archer made a point, that I agree with, that from the beginning the Crew FO and league have played to the soccer moms and teeny boppers...not the true soccer fans and supporters. It is this culture that is still present in their stadium. They have only had a collective supporter groups for 3 years.
This comes into contrast with what Toronto soccer fans and supporters grew up with. Most of us are not native Canadian but from all parts of the world.
I spoke with supporters from Scotland, England, Ireland, Wales, Central America, and South America...in person during the home opener. These people bring with them different cultures on how to act, behave, and support their clubs and all of them are passionate about it.
Bill just doesn't get how complex our fanbase is.
I laughed at a Crew supporter on the boards who said that we are the true racists because we don't have a specific Latin American supporter group like they do (La Turbina Amarilla).
I laughed because: 1. We have Tribal Rhythm Nation, and 2. We have such a mixture of people in our groups that it would be impossible to seperate everyone by nationality.

[Roogsy]

That "specific latin american supporter group" only highlights the fact that they don't have any in their own supporters group.

Whereas in our SGs, we have members from all countries and geographic regions. Other than TRN, we don't need a "specific" group for any ethnic group.

[Keystone FC]

I agree with you on the Archer assessment, he's an idiot.

But actions of a pair of bigger idiots should not paint the entire Columbus Crew with this brush. We're saying it when we get to Columbus, and a few drunks Torontonians ruin for the rest of us.

I think if we were constantly being called racists we'd object too, no?

Plus he doesn't get that in a supporters culture the opposition will jump on anything that will keep the other fans quiet. SO the incident with the n word will be played up just as the Crew fans had signs mocking Canadas healthcare and an anti slash through a Maple Leaf...it's give and take. It goes both ways so don't cry about it or say it's in poor taste when your fans are doing the same thing.

[Keystone FC]

That "specific latin american supporter group" only highlights the fact that they don't have any in their own supporters group.

Whereas in our SGs, we have members from all countries and geographic regions. Other than TRN, we don't need a "specific" group for any ethnic group.

It's not also that but his comments on saying that Canadian teams take soccer jobs away from Americans...Hmmm:
As of March 29 the Crew had 9 players who are not from America on a 24 man roster. Shouldn't those places go to American players?
while on a 23 man roster for TFC we have 7 CANADIAN and employ 6 AMERICAN players.
So how can he say that we take jobs away from Americans when his own club employs 9 UN Americans and the fact that TFC has as many Americans on its' roster as Canadian just makes him out to be...a blogger who does little to back up his tirades. What's worse is that alot of Crew fans are in his grip and he can do and say no wrong...which is sad.

[Roogsy]

^ Good point, you back home dude?