Calling all Toronto vistors and residents!

In my writing position at Ready to go I often come across USA Sunderland supporters who are interested in meeting other like minded fans and I like to think that I do my best to help them out. This time around I’m pleased to announce the creation of a new supporters group in Canada and would like to wish them all the best in contacting the other Canadian Mackems out there

This new group is not an association, nor is it an official group per say (at least not yet), instead, Based in Toronto they would simply like to get in contact with as many other Sunderland supporters in (or visiting the area) for drinks during the games.

For now my good friend Justin is my point of contact at the group and he can be reached at the following email address.

justin.warner@SAFCcogeco.ca

To email Justin, simply take out the word SAFC in the above email address (this is a spam blocker to stop rogue bots on the internet selling Justins address to random advertising sites that are continually trying to sell him porn).

….So if you are on Holiday and don’t want to miss a game, or simply want to meet up with some fellow Sunderland supporters who’ve been exiled from home, give him an email. Especially welcome are resident SAFC followers in Canada, and if you run a Canadian based supporters group as well and would like to help Justin out, I’m sure he’d be more then happy to hear from you.

Just like the supporters in Nevada Smiths in my home town of New York, they currently meet at scallywags bar (website and details below) for beer at times of the day that would normally make grown men cry.

http://www.scallywags.net/bar.asp

Contact Information
Scallywags Bar & Restaurant

11 St. Clair Avenue West
Toronto, Ontario
M4V 1K2
phone: 416-922-3737

fax: 416-922-3754

Sports Info Line: 416-975-INFO (4636) (phone to find what matches are on)

Management:
Jeff May, Owner : jeff@scallywags.net
Mike Connell, Manager (and all around cool guy): mike@scallywags.net
Kim Babcock, Manager: kim@scallywags.net

In the mean time the same goes for all New York Mackems. If you are living in or coming to the big apple, why not drop me a line. I can be reached via Personal Message at the sunderland Messageboard on this site (I'm the the yankee mackem) or you can see my forthcoming advertisment in A Love Supreme fanzine.

My Email address is Adam.Robson@FTMMSSM.edu (Remove the three letters FTM to email me)

We've all been on a USA Tour... Have You?

Standing in the carolinas last year after an amazing eleven days I never thought that I would be lucky enough to have sunderland come back to the USA again in my New York lifetime (like a new york minute but probably a lot shorter) but that's how it is looking at the moment.

Rumors continue to fly about a second USA and possibly Canadian Tour this summer. Now allegedly the Board at their last general meeting declaired that they would like to go on pre season this year to Canada, and last year Mic Himself told me himself that he would like to tour somewhere like new York with SAFC this preseason, but at the moment (and this is the first rumors so don't get your hopes up) neither look to be true.

Instead names thrown around of game locations so far are:
Vancouver, Seattle and Portland (In USA and Canada over on the west coast)

Of which this has notibly been said:
"...the biggest rivalry in American soccer today is also between the three oldest clubs in America and none of them play in MLS. The Seattle Sounders, Portland Timbers, and Vancouver Whitecaps. All three teams have staunch (some would say rabid) supporters and draw some of the biggest crowds in the A-League."

(taken from the ussocceruk.com messageboard)

To keep your eye on whether this is true or not, check up on the following links regularaly until SAFC or one of the teams either confirm or deny that we are playing.

http://www.seattlesounders.net/
http://www.pgepark.com/timbers/
http://www.whitecapsfc.com/index.html

Should Sunderland indeed end up playing in the USA again, I would like to invite all Supporters thinking about attending to get in contact with me at adam.robson@SAFCmssm.edu (take out the letters SAFC or the email won't come through, its a SPAM blocker) so we can organise a meeting before the game and/or group travel and accomodation.

Guys I AM NOT going by car to the west coast from New York. That is what planes and/or trains are for. A sleeper train isn't a bad idea but depending on how many people come over its probably by plane and then by hiring a bus or two from a central airport to take us to individual games. Its still to early to be bookin days off and flights just yet.

-Adam 'the yankee mackem'

A horrible way to spend a day - Brighton report

One of the features of this season has been an honest group of lads who have fitted together well and have fought for the cause in a way that has done us proud, resulting in us being one of the best teams in this league despite not necessarily having the best players. Unfortunately another feature has been the ability to suddenly summon up quite awful performances that are litterally (and yes I mean that literally) shocking to watch. From Plymouth early on to the dreadful Christmas period we've seen some real dross. So this one was in good company. As I look at the weather forecast and see the snow predicted for tuesday I have a heavy heart. Almost 600 mile round trip to see us play a night match against Rotherham, squeezed in between work on tuesday and an early start on Wednesday. Why do SAFC do this to us? Why do they continually take our hopes and crush them underfoot? Are we going to murder Rotherham as we did Watford (ignoring us leaving the pitch with 15 minutes to go) or are we going to turn in the sort of bizarre unable to get near the goal performance as with Gillingham? Will we have put this awful game behind us and be convinced we are back on track or will we feeling even more suicidal?

It all started off quite well watching Ipswich at Preston - Ipswich were awful and Preston should ahve murdered them. If the ref had his eyes open, they probably would have. Not only was automatic promotion in our own hands but so was winning the league. Watching Sheff U give Arsenal a good runaround in the pub was also entertaining. The Brighton lads in the pub were up for the game but realistic about the limitations of their players. Some of their players were on only £300 per week - some of ours are close to 50-100 times that even after the massive restructuring of the wage bill post-relegation.

The Withdean is one of the strangest grounds you'll ever visit - certainly in the second league. Only one permanent very small stand and a couple of temporary golf course style stands with both ends totally open. The away end is pushed miles back behind one corner of the running track. As our seats were in the second off back row there were probably people listening on Metro radio who had a better view than me. Frankly most of the match that was something of a mercy. Once again against limited opposition we had Jeff and Robbo in central midfield. I've accepted Jeff coming in for Thornton after Thornton has had a good game on the basis that the match in question was one where we needed a bit more steel in the centre. But surely the opposite should apply? If you don't get at teams like Brighton early on then you risk conceding and making the game hard for yourself rather than hard for the opposition. We must play Thornton from the start on tuesday and saturday.

Anyway Brighton came out and were at us much more than we were at them. Eventually this told as they got the goal they deserved. Arca went on a run down the left and with McCartney availaible he instead decided to run into three of their players. One of them got the ball off him and from that they broke - the ball eventually coming to one of their players just outside the box with more space than he should have had. Although it took a deflection the lead was no more than they deserved.

Brighton then had a man sent off. At the time I thought it was a straight red but apparently it was a second yellow. To say we failed to take advantage of it would be an understatement. Just before half time a corner came in and a striker on the centre of the six yard box got a clean header. For crying out loud how can we concede a goal like that? Whoever was meant to be marking him (I think it was supposed to be Breen but it was hard to tell he had so much space) needs shooting. I also can't help but think Poom would have been out to thump a ball like that.

The "tunnel" was right next to our end and a number of SAFC supporters decided to give the players and McCarthy a hard time. Half-time! Aren't we meant to be supporters? We were all cheesed off with what we had seen but having a go at half-time is hardly going to do any good.

The second half was better in the way it was bound to be. Brighton sat back well and their organisation and our lack of real penetration meant it didn't make much difference. We were kicking away from us and so it hardly got the pulses racing faster. You felt curiously divorced from what was going on down there. Whitehead and Whitley went off and Thornton and Brown came on, Later on Elliott went off and Bridges came on. As happened at Preston. Thornton's performance was pretty much the only thing close to a highlight. He tries to do things and moves the ball around. It was truly depressing how little we had seen of that beforehand.

Eventually we got a goal. Arca suddenly got a load of space and took the ball forward to score a similar goal (absent the deflection) to their first one. It is an indicator of how poor his performance had been (and perhaps memories of his part in their first goal) that there was no real singing of his name after the goal.

Some supporters tried to have a go after the match but there was a bit more appreciation of the second half effort. Frankly the over-riding emotion was not really anger but depression. This promotion is in our hands but we seem determined to muck it up.