Argh, dammit, and shite. The MLSPU and the League are apparently avoiding each other, with negotiations stalled to the point of of a "sabbatical" (Sounder James Riley's diplomatic characterization).


It's hard to make progress on a new collective bargaining agreement if you can't even stand the sight of each other across a slab of...cedar? Redwood? Hell, I don't know from what wood fancy boardroom conference tables are made. The point is the same; being in the same room with each other is kind of a major part of the negotiating process.


But wait, maybe there's light at the end of the tunnel, with Don Garber telling the Washington Examiner's Craig Stouffer at a US Soccer Foundation gala that the two sides will be back at it next week. That's good news, right?


Only Garber also recently said that he "doesn't expect the players to strike" in the same breath that he reiterated the league's hard-line stance on the issues in question, while also giving lip-service to listening to the players concerns.


That man can talk out of both sides of his mouth like no one else.


If anyone out there has a grasp on where things truly stand, and how there is any chance the League avoids a strike, I'd love to hear it. It would appear to me that the Players have dug in, the League is still intransigent, and everything is headed for an inevitable work stoppage.


Or maybe I'm just bitter it has even taken this long.


Oops. Meant to include this, but forgot. If you just can't get enough of me or the opportunity to rip me, there's now another place to find my work. I'm contributing an American soccer blog to FourFourTwo.com (their first), so go check that out.