I'd give you a Nicol, if you let MoJo coach

I saw the following headline, Scotsman gets the call to guide MLS stars against Celtic, and for a moment I got excited about this year's All-Star game. I thought, oh my God! It's Mo Johnston! He's going to coach against Celtic! And all the stories of Johnston's defection from Celtic to Rangers came flooding back into my consciousness. Then, I remembered that Mo Johnston coaches Toronto FC and the TFC currently sit at the bottom of the Eastern Conference and have the third-to-worst record in MLS. Crap. Then, clicking on the link and seeing that it was Steve Nicol, my enthusiasm waned like a slow leak in a birthday balloon, complete with the farting noise. Oh well … it was nearly a titillating match-up.

For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, in 1989 it was reported that Johnston, a Roman Catholic, would be re-joining Celtic from French side Nantes, but he shocked all of Scotland and angered both sets of supporters when he chose to sign with Rangers instead. Celtic fans were obviously angry that he would join their bitter rivals, and many Ranger fans were upset by the signing of a one-time Celtic player and a Roman Catholic to boot (although he was not the first Catholic to be signed by Rangers, he was the highest profile player).

Of course, it's been a long time since then and things have certainly changed. Haven't they? Well, as recently as 2005, MoJo had to pull out of a Celtic-Rangers charity match featuring former players because of a fan threat to boycott the match if he played. They were going to boycott a charity match! And Middlesbrough star Bernie Slaven, who grew up a Celtic supporter, recently compared Mark Viduka's defection to Newcastle to MoJo's Celtic to Rangers switch. He is quoted in Australian Four-Four-Two as saying, "I was brought up in Glasgow as a Celtic fan and the last time I felt like this was when Mo Johnston had posed with a Celtic shirt and then ended up going to Rangers." The whole sorted affair was later detailed on the 2002 BBC series "Footballers' Lives." MoJo has since discussed the numerous death threats that forced him and his family to live in England where he would often clandestinely commute in for matches.

The MLS All-Star match is typically a boring affair, even when MLS manages to lure a high-profile European club over as competition. More often than not, the invited clubs take it as a holiday. The other formats, East vs. West or World vs. American, end up being defense-less goalfests, like playing Brazil vs. Slovenia in FIFA 2007 for the PS3.

So another Scotsman, Steve Nicol, will coach, but he's hardly controversial since he only briefly played in Scotland for Ayr United and spent most of his career with Liverpool. I know that MLS really had no choice. The rules dictate that the best record (points/game) dictates who coaches the All-Stars, so Nicol was it. But imagine for a moment that the stars had aligned and TFC were on top.

I even have the headline, "MoJo rising: Sinners repent!"
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Ranger Danger DaMarcus
In a completely unrelated story, except for the fact that it is about Rangers, DaMarcus Beasley appears set for a switch to the Scottish side. Click here