90 MINUTES SOCCER MAGAZINE: Scores a Goal!

Today we welcome 90 Minutes Soccer Magazine to the newsstand. This monthly magazine, which also calls itself 90:00, is all about professional soccer. About two-thirds of the December 2005 issue is devoted to American Major League Soccer, the rest to soccer in Europe. You know the magazine's going to be edgy and irreverent when you read the opening editorial from editor-in-chief Bill Hodson. Apparently 90:00 had previously criticized powerful Newcastle United manager Graeme Souness, and some London soccer journalists had told Hodson that if they had done that, "Souness would tell his players to never speak to their publication again." Hodson adds, "One of the advantages of being a North America-based soccer publication is that independence from the black balling, cabal-like mentality of most of the sycophantic world soccer press." With the MLS season winding down, there's a lot of "best ofs" and "worst ofs" about the season; they really like young Justin Mapp of the Chicago Fire, while DC United 16-year-old phenom Freddy Adu is labeled the "most overrated" player in the league. You'll no doubt be interested to learn that the San Jose locker room is the worst in Major League Soccer: "I can stand in the middle of the locker room and touch all four walls at once," complains writer Alecko Eskandarian. But on to Europe. There's a comprehensive one-page summary of the prospects of each team in England's Premier League. The magazine seems to like Chelsea's chances to repeat as champion, and devotes several pages to an article about the team's imperious manager, Jose Mourinho, who is quoted as saying, "Some people may have thought the one problem would be controlling the egos in my dressing room. Well, there isn't any problem there because mine is bigger than any of theirs." 90:00, published in Anaheim, CA by LiveWire Sports Group, Inc., is a fun read for the soccer fan. But old fuddy-duddy me does take issue with the magazine's designer, who seems to enjoy breaking every rule in the book regarding type. Multi-line subheads have absolutely no "leading" or space between the lines; there are occasional columns of white type over graphics which themselves have very light areas, and white type on a light background can't be easily seen. This stuff may be "in" but it isn't readable―and isn't readability the point of a magazine? An annual subscription to 90:00 (12 issues) is $29.95 from the publisher; you can get a sample copy from us for $2.59.