Indoor arena, anyone? Would we ever try such a thing?

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Monday’s suck. So do some of my opinions.

But I won’t let that stop me. Here are five thoughts to get the week moving:

ŸFIFA proposed a rule change last week that would limit the damage to a defending team adjudged guilty of denying an obvious goal-scoring opportunity inside its penalty area. Read about it here.

Currently if that happens a referee is obligated to award a penalty kick and eject the guilty party. That has always struck me as double jeopardy. A penalty kick (and perhaps a yellow card) seems more than sufficient. As it is, doing both seems overly punitive.  

In one sense, I always advocate justice. Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time, as they say. The problem is that referees are human and they don’t always get it right. If the man in the middle sees it wrong and awards a spot kick, the defending team has a chance to rally past the hardship. If the man in the middle gets it wrong, awards a spot shot and leaves the team a man short, it really might be a bridge too far.

Let’s hope FIFA does get it right and approves this change in the laws.

ŸRaul to the Red Bulls? Who knows? He’d be fun to watch.

This much I do know. When it comes to the next famous set of feet about to tear up the MLS fields and bring the misery down on hapless foes, I always say the same thing: Wake me up when they call a press conference to make it all official.

Through the years, everyone from Luis Figo to Thierry Henry and many, many others in between have been rumored to be on their merry way. Let me ask you: How many goals have Henry and Figo combined for in MLS. Oh, yes, that’s right. Exactly as many as me and my favorite house gnome have. Zero.

First, dangling MLS is one of bookmarked pages from the European agents’ handbook. They toss MLS out willy-nilly because of the vagaries of the negotiating process associated with the top-tier U.S. league. A big contract like that gets negotiated at league level. Well, kind of. There must be a team willing to pay enough to offload the freight. So, see, it all gets foggy. And agents abroad exploit the foggy gap, hoping to leverage it all into a better deal.

Besides all that, a compliant European media generally doesn’t have the right contacts in the United States to vet such rumors (not that most Euro media would bother anyway). So, that makes the leveraging strategy that much more convenient for handlers abroad.

On the other hand, there probably are talks that go on between some of these foreign luminaries and representatives of MLS. But that stuff is as routine as lunch. In other words, deals and trades are discussed every day. It’s the same way you talk about getting a new car, or upgrading your TV situation with one of the splashy new flat screens. You talk about it – a lot – but only occasionally pull the trigger. So there’s always plenty of chit-chat, but plenty of things have to line up just right for it to happen.

Is Raul truly considering a move to MLS? Quite possibly so. He’s in the sweet spot, old enough to have the experience and marketing value, young enough to make a difference on the field. Will it happen? I’d give it one chance in four.

ŸSeattle Sounders FC has proved once again that they “get it,” having identified a chink in the armor and then moving forward to fix it.

The Sounders have hired Arlo White to be the new “voice of the Sounders.” White is British, with most of his experience coming from work with the BBC. He represents a significant upgrade from Kevin Calabro, who had a basketball background but who could sometimes be absolutely brutal while calling soccer. The Sounders recognized a need and filled it, and good on ‘em for that.

But there is one element here that bothers me a bit. It’s the ongoing notion that all things soccer are better when read with a British accent. I’ve made my case here before, so I won’t stomp over the same old ground. Suffice to say, there really are plenty of American voices out there who have plenty to say about the game. I know about the rich history of the game in the UK. Fair enough. But I have a map. And when I look at the map, no MLS teams are in the UK.

All that said, good luck to White. Go knock it out of the park, eh? (That’s an American saying that means “I know you’ll do well.”)

ŸFreddy Adu’s first goal for his Greek will surely get a lot stirring in the pants from some U.S. Soccer supporters who are still convinced that the little man is the answer. They may even see this as a harbinger for movement toward South African inclusion. Three words: Not. Gonna. Happen. Bob Bradley has done nothing to indicate that Adu is in the plans. And he’s right on that account. Adu, 20, still has lots of growing up do to. He simply has to learn that it’s all bigger than him, that being a part of a team means subjugating the self. In fairness, I haven’t been around Adu or his managers since he left MLS in 2007. But I don’t get the feeling that much has changed – nor will it until he understands this larger snapshot of reality: there are lots of good players around, and he’s simply got to work harder on the deficiencies of his game, and work more within the structure of a team. Only then will Adu move past the sticking point. He’s been stuck at the same point along the development continuum for about four years now. 

ŸFinally, just curious about this: Will an expansion side in MLS (probably north of the U.S. border, up in the Great White North) ever flirt with the idea of an indoor stadium? It wouldn’t be some colossus like Jerry Jones’ edifice outside Dallas, or like any of the smaller domed or retractable roofed buildings in Houston, Atlanta, New Orleans,Detroit, etc. Rather, it would be much smaller in scale, more along the lines (but on a bigger scale) of this or even this. Not saying anyone should necessarily, just wondering if they might.