With a large brush...

ADMINISTRIVIA: Sorry for taking the day off yesterday. Tuesday was a much busier day than I expected, and actually involved me going and trying to do some original fact-finding. It didn't seem like much happened yesterday, other than Josh Gros getting cleared to play, that was worth noting. Although BobbyBoswell.Com Live Tonight on Comcast should be fun.

NO, IT'S NOT ABOUT THE GOALS: The normally sensible Paul Gardner writes that with so few goals in MLS Opening weekend it made the game more boring - "the key to livening up the game is goal scoring." I honestly didn't feel that opening weekend was uninteresting. Chivas-Toronto was an interesting game, and despite the result of Houston-LA, there was enough action (and some great chances in the opening 20 minutes) that I enjoyed it. I'm told that New York - Columbus, a game I would have picked for a snooze-fest, was also fairly enjoyable despite the nil-nil result. If there's a problem, it's that announcers don't quite know how to call a game to accentuate the action that exists. I'm not saying that every back-heel in the center circle should be called "world-class" but when you see a player break down another player in an individual battle, that is an exciting moment if called correctly. Dave Johnson does a pretty good job of this, you'll often here phrases along the lines of "with a neat little move to get by..." which helps you realize some of the small, yet ongoing moments, that make this game fun to watch.

DUTY! HONOR! SOCCER! BLOGGING! Courtesy of DuNord, I was interested in Andrea Canales's comments on the Eric Wynalda-Fulham USA story. Ultimately? This sucks.

Look, at the DCenters, I don't think any of us have any formal journalism training other than reading Poynter. We do, however, try to comport ourselves honorably in our interviews and occasional news gathering forays. I've talked to players before, but I don't use their comments unless they know that I'm writing for a blog and they're on the record. If I'm told things off the record, they stay off the record though it may color my editorial perception of matters. And this has happened more than once, though not all the time. We have a 2 source rule in place on most stories, though if we've worked with a source in the past and they've shown themselves reliable we may just go with one.

Since we've had the chance to talk to Boris Flores, Jamie O'Connor, Jay Needham, and Jay Nolly, we've always tried to do the right thing in those interviews. And yet, one incident like this and Steve Goff has a lesson: "Don't Ever Talk To a Blogger!" Yes, I'm aware that this was meant partially tongue-in-cheek since Goff himself has a blog, but it was probably also semi-serious, since Goff is also a legitimate reporter for a Big Paper. It sucks. I'd like to think that in our interactions, and Lifton, and other great blogs around this site have shown that we can be responsible in our interactions.