Carlisle United on TV this Monday !

United States television history will be made this Monday, March 3rd at 2.45pm on the Setanta Sports Channel. It will be the first time that a Carlisle United game has been given live coverage in this country ! ... and about time too. The Onion Bag Drink Team will be at Nevada Smiths along with hundreds of other (OK, there will be ten of us at best) mad Carlisle United fans. United are 2nd in League One and are looking for automatic promotion to the Championship, Forest are one place below and are looking for the same thing. It should be a fantastic game, Forest will be out to avenge their 1-0 loss at Carlisle earlier in the season. See you in Nevadas !

Esta es la Banda del Gallinero

Courtesy of our friends at sofutebolbrasil.com, the new River Plate away jersey, similar to the shirt last used in 2001, only missing "Petrobras" across the front. Much better than the current black jersey!

Get Out Your Boots!

February 24th marked the end of Rodeo Week in Tucson, also known as La Fiesta de Los Vaqueros (The Cowboy Festival.. or better known as Rodeo Week!). Every year Tucson celebrates Rodeo Week towards the end of February. Kids in elementary school (and some adults with too much time on their hands) dress up in cowboy gear, and of course Thursday and Friday are school holidays. That's right, Tucson children get two whole days off from school to celebrate the rodeo. Yee-haww! The festivities are kicked off with the worlds largest non-mechanized parade which features a whole lot of horses, buggies, cowboys and rodeo clowns.

The Oscars

Viggo Mortensen, Cate Blanchett and San Lorenzo at the Oscars. Viggo spent some time in Argentina and unfortunately was conned into following San Lorenzo. Yesterday he not only didn't win any Oscars, his team also got dropped by River Plate 2-0. And the winner isn't.... Viggo! Next time leave the jinx flag at home, San Lorenzo and trophies don't mix well.

Snowed In...Still

Ice and snow still hasn't been cleaned up a full 24 hours later.

Surely, you've seen the reports on CNN how most of NJ is crippled after yesterday's 7" of snow.

That certain....Je Ne Sais Quoi

Nike, équipementier officiel de l'Equipe de France et de la FFF à partir de 2011. [Begin English translation thanks to Google] The Federal Council met today appointed Nike equipment as official Team France and the French Football Federation for the period from 1 January 2011 to the end of the 2017-2018 sports season.

The choice of the Federal Council is the culmination of a consultation on January 3 this year. By launching this consultation, the FFF has once again put into practice the decision taken by the new management team, three years ago, to use competitive bidding to select its strategic partners and the conclusion of contracts major.

The dossier consultation contained all the information and petitions allowing OEMs interested to build a comprehensive and strong, both technical, logistical and financial, responding to the specifications of the FFF: equipment needs for the Team France, the other national teams and the French Cup; commitments to be made on the choice of products and collections, the process for ordering, delivery, storage, technical innovation; human incurred in the performance of the contract; structure of the financial bid solicited; etc…

The file was sent on January 3, 2008 in ten major international manufacturers. By the deadline of 13 February, three companies have submitted offers to the Federation: adidas, Nike and Airness.

These three offers are offers high quality, reflecting a thorough understanding of the needs of the FFF and a genuine willingness of the candidates to get up to the expectations thereof.

Adidas and Nike were interviewed at their request by the monitoring committee set up within the FFF to drive the consultation, evaluate offers and make any recommendations to the Federal Council.

After a thorough analysis of the tenders received, it became apparent that:

Meet the three bids in a complete, detailed and convincing to the specifications set by the FFF on file for consultation;

Supply Nike is as offering the most financially advantageous;

The amount of the offer is higher than the reserve price at a bailiff filed by the Chairman of the FFF prior to the submission of tenders.

Consequently, and upon the proposal of the Monitoring Committee, the Federal Council decided to designate Nike equipment as official Team France and the French Football Federation for the period 2011-2018.

Nike pay the Federation a financial guarantee of € 320 million over the contract period, or an average of € 42.66 million per season (the contract spread over seven seasons and a half). In this contribution combined with an endowment equipment € 2.5 million per season and bonuses linked to performance of the France team in the final stages of the World Cup and the Euro. In total, the new contract will bring to the Federation of resources four and a half times higher than that for him the current contract.

The Federal Council has paid tribute to adidas, OEM title of the French Team and the FFF until 31 December 2010. For nearly 40 years, adidas has accompanied the Federal football in its development and Team France in its conquests. Le recours légitime à une consultation pour choisir le futur équipementier des Bleus ne fait pas oublier à la FFF la longue aventure partagée avec adidas et le partenariat étroit et fructueux noué au fil des années, partenariat qui se poursuivra jusqu’à la fin de 2010.

[/Translation from Google]

The Onion Bag's evaluation: Two Thumbs Up.

Snowed In

7" of snow fell.

Oddsmakers make this story the overnight favorite for tomorrow's excuse, at least from those staff members that are students.


This is a new feature on the blog. Through the years, we have heard it all, from recurring automotive misfortune to "I'm sorry, but I've been detained by the US Immigration agents in Houston, I probably won't be back to work (or this country) for 10 years." Some are more elaborate than others, but we try to give most the benefit of the doubt. One time we were told our employee couldn't make it in, not because he wanted to see his team's first match of the World Cup, but because a girl he was seeing had a seizure the night before and he was at the hospital all night.

The Magic of The FA Cup

Glad I'm not the only one who got highly excitable at the end of today's Liverpool versus Barnsley FA Cup tie. Matt Le Tissier, I have a new respect and appreciation for you. The look on Phil Thompson's face is beautiful, he can barely look at the camera. Oh, the justice of it all when Howard was denied a stonewall penalty and then regained the ball, breezed past three Liverpool defenders and slotted home in front of The Kop.

Swoosh Is The Sound of Pain On It's Way

Interesting article on CNBC following up Tuesday night's airing of "Swoosh! Inside Nike". Apparently there is an urban legend out there that claims Nike stole the name and swoosh logo from a Cold War Era Military missile system. Brings a whole new meaning to Tiempo Silo, Mercurial Silo, and Total 90 Silo. Click here to read the entire article.

Happy Valentine's Day

Maradona & Caniggia

Maradona & Tevez

Maradona & Colin Farrell

adidas' First #23

Probably old news to some of you, but I found this interesting tidbit on CNBC's site, where they're promoting a new special called "Swoosh! Inside Nike", debuting tomorrow night. In an interview with Michael Jordan, his Airness reveals that before signing his first contract with Nike he was in talks with adidas.

"The thing is I never wore Nike shoes until I signed the Nike contract. All through college, we wore Converse. And up to that point, my favorite shoe was an adidas. And at the time everybody was starting to recruit me, I was pro-adidas the whole time. Nike offered me the opportunity to have imput in designing the shoes I wanted to were. But I was very loyal. I went back to adidas and said, "Look, this is the Nike contract. If you come in and we're close, you know, I'll sign with you guys -- hands down. And they didn't feel like it was worth it, which in hindsight is perfect for me because it made my decision much easier." - MJ (Click here to read full interview)

Hindsight is 20/20, but this is hardly surprising now is it? What's incredible is how much the Jordan success at Nike has changed the way adidas does business. In fact, the whole "DB" strategy at adidas is a complete ripoff of the Jumpman, logo, #23 and all. Actually, adidas does a lot of things in response to Nike (adiPURE & this year's Chelsea yellow jersey come to mind) but rarely does it seem to go the other direction. But keep trying adidas, Impossible Is Nothing.

The Internet...a Fabulous Place to Whine

So this week Nike unleashed the latest United States jersey, or the USMNT to the "locals". The overall reactions from the staff at the Onion Bag were positive, concluding that the shirt looks even better with the name and number applied. Nike has a way of making a simple yet distinctive design which in our opinion is what sets them apart from their competitors. Even the designs we initially are skeptical about usually grow on us pretty quickly (see 07/08 Barcelona Away).

That said, it's pretty amusing to read the bitching and crying online about this jersey. First of all, Nike will come out with a new shirt every 12 to 16 months. Get over it. They get to do that in exchange for dumping millions into the USSF bank account. One place where global football is ahead of the sports curve in comparison to the major US sports is in merchandising the actual game shirts. It's pretty much accepted that your team will be getting new uniforms every year or so. That's true regardless of brand, from Nike, adidas, and Puma, to Garcis, Maraton, and Atletica. Probably more absurd though is the complaint that Nike is not respecting, or even creating, an identity for the team through the shirt.

[quoting internet whiner who shall remain nameless]"Why can't we be like Argentina with their stripes, Brazil with their yellow, Holland with their orange shirts!!! " [/quote]

OK, I see where they're going with this, but unfortunately, either their memory is short or they just started following "the Beautiful Game" (the most repulsively overused euphemism for soccer in the english language, a worthy blog topic on it's own). As far back as I can remember, the US has always been white shirt, blue shorts, white socks, red and blue trim. Red, white and blue, like Old Glory. Other than the demin blip of 1994, can you show me a picture of the USA's first choice shirt being anything but white? And it's not just a Swoosh thing, go back to adidas and the Hugo Perez Era, that shirt was white as well. So it would seem, that if Nike were to build on tradition, then logically the shirt should stay white...right?


The complaints about the design are funny too, because pointing to Brazil and Holland as examples fails to recognize that those very same teams have used the same base jersey models as the US in the past 3 World Cups*! Check it out, in 2002 Brazil had the same shirt, just yellow instead of white, green instead of navy. Triangular mesh panels along the sides, double layer shirts, single stripe across the lower back. The neck treatment varies a little to disguise the cookie-cutter effect. Holland as well, orange instead of white, black instead of navy. Remember the "billiards ball" designs of 2004 with the circle on the front? Yep, same exact shirt across USA, Brazil and Holland. Yet Brazil and Holland fans didn't complain that the shirt didn't respect tradition. (*The 2006 shirts each had their own unique features but essentially were "built" the same. Sphere dry, same trim on sleeves, same trim on back of the neck, same seam construction)

If anything, the 2006 US jerseys were the closest thing to fusing current trends with a touch of history. Wee bit of class, wee bit of style... Magic! (C) Harkes the Elder. But I guess that's not good enough for some people. Somehow, a white jersey with the variance of trim colors and design details isn't enough of a statement of tradition. Unless of course you're England. That's also a funny double standard the detractors apply.

What can you do, if Nike somehow kept the same basic concept people would complain that it's boring (ie: every adidas jersey released in the past 10 years). Damned if you Just Do It, damned if you don't.

As a side note, we're eagerly anticipating the new USA away jersey due to be released April 1st, preliminary photos look very sharp. Obsidian (dark navy) with red trim, a nice continuation of the current away jersey. Keep an eye on OnionBag.com for pre-order information soon.