Football Comment

Zizou, The Legend Continues.

2006-07-10T09:24:00.000-07:00

I was going to write a report on the World Cup final. But, really, what's the point? After figuring out that the easiest way to defend corners is to not concede corners, France dominated Italy for 90 minutes to an extent that almost makes it unbelievable that they are not celebrating their second triumph. Ultimately, the Italians held on for the penalties for which they have obviously been practicing and France (poor Trezuguet) were denied by a ball flighted an inch too high, that landed a foot too far forward. Whatever some may say, this match is not likely to be thought a classic ten years from now, at least not for the game itself. But no matter. No one save the Italians will really remember this match for the result in any case. We will all remember Zidane's exit.

It was an exit worth remembering. Zidane was sent off with ten minutes remaining for leveling Italy's Materazzi with a headbutt. He has been almost universally vilified in the press for this action. But I wouldn't be so quick to judge. Zizou is a man not only blessed with remarkable skill and vision but also burdened with a fierce temper. But he has every right to his anger after a life of enduring racial prejudice. I cannot be the only one wondering what it was that Materazzi said to Zizdane. And I cannot be the only one who suspects that it was a racial slur. If that is the case, then I fully excuse Zidane for his action. No, violence cannot be the answer, even to the reprehensible taint of racism, but it can and sometimes must be the trigger to action. If Zidane chose the final moment of his career on the biggest stage in sport to show everyone the rage that we should all feel over this issue, then his end is worthwhile. He clearly chose this action, and I think we owe it to him to ask why.

As a technical aside, it is interesting to note that while Zidane's headbutt clearly waranted a red card, he should probably not have received it. The referee clearly missed the incident and it seems obvious that so did the other three officials. The report is that the fourth official saw the attack on a video replay and notified the referee. Since when did FIFA sanction instant replay? FIFA has been adamant in its opposition to replay or any other technical assistance for referees. If FIFA really believes in its position it should sanction the officiating crew for making a video-assisted post-facto ruling. FIFA needs to be consistent to maintain the few shreds of respectability that it has left. That said, I actually support the introduction of video replay in the form of a video official who would have constant access to live and playback video and who would communicate the information to the referee. There also needs to be game-by-game comprehensive review of all officials. This would increase accountability and aid in officials' education. It's also time for that computer chipped ball that senses the goalline.

What a Long Strange World Cup It's Been. Wait. What Do You Mean It's Not Over Yet?

2006-07-07T09:05:00.000-07:00

Has it really been two and a half months since I've posted? Good lord! I might as well just start a whole new blog. But here I am to chime in with a few thoughts on the past month's goings on over in Deutschland before the whole thing comes to its conclusion.

I am going to start off by stating (partly as a matter of pride and partly as an embarassing admission) that I have seen every single game of this world cup. (Well, almost. I haven't seen Switzerland-Korea or France-Togo, but I still have them on the DVR and I feel duty-bound to watch them at some point.) And I am therefore brimful of opinions on every slightest aspect of the tournament. Unfortunately, I've been wasting all of this musing by writing angry letters to Jamie Trecker over at Fox Sports instead of being dilligent and productive and posting on my own blog. I guess you could say that I've been too much Cristiano Ronaldo and too little Lukas Podolski. Thats right. I did just say that.

So, how about that Podolski? Apparently he's the young star of the tournament. I can't disagree. But mostly because there really wasn't a young star to this tournament. The only other option is Ronaldo (the skinny, long-necked one, not the rotund, spherically-headed one). But, as they say, he is all hat and no stick. His performance reminded me a lot of a certain Denilson in 1998. Stepovers galore, speed and lots of falling down, but not really anything to show for it. Podolski is unpolished and needs to develop his off foot (being a little more efficient in front of goal wouldn't hurt either) but he worked his butt off every game and came away with three goals so far (all from the run of play, no less). He has every right to enjoy his reward. The undoubtably talented Torres and Messi are relegated to also-rans by their teams' performances and coaching decisions.

But the real "young" stars of this tournament are actually from the slightly higher age bracket. I would point any interested readers towards Phillip Lahm, Frank Ribery and Carlos Tevez. All of these players have shown more than enough to suggest that they could be true stars come 2010. Fortunately, two of them still have a game left.

And speaking of those remaining games, since no one can contradict me, I'm going to say that I predicted this all along. And should you suggest that I am taking the piss, I would say to you that I would never take any piss from anyone. That's disgusting and unhygenic.

In any case, it has been quite a turn of events. I'm not surprised to see Germany playing one last game. Sure they're not a great team. But they are more talented than people give them credit for. They have a good chemistry, they work hard, play fun football and have the home advantage, which is enormous in a World Cup. Italy, I find surprising. It's a solid team and capable of playing very well. But it's not one of the great teams. They've managed to be just as consistent as they've needed to be, they've gotten a favorable road through the knockout stages and they played their hearts out against Germany (I was gutted by that because I personally abhor the
Italian team, but credit where credit is due). Portugal was always going to be a tricky team to pick. They've got talent and a desire to win in any way that they possibly can as long as it doesn't require playing tough, honest, hard-nosed football. That makes them a bit frustrating to watch. And, of course, France who are doing their best to turn this World Cup into their very own "Grumpy Old Men". After struggling to wake themselves up, the heros of '98 have moved through the knockout rounds with a sort of easy and somehow appealing crotchetiness. And they've brought some young supporting players along for dramatic diversity. Who could have predicted that they would end up in the final. That will teach us all to think that Zidane would retire with anything less than a second World Cup medal.

For the games themselves, I have no idea who will win. I just predict that the consolation game will have more goals. Not exactly a bold prediction given that it almost always does, and that Italy are in the final. Playing in front of the home crowd should give Germany the edge over a Portugal team that will probably be struggling to raise their emotions. Italy has a team that can win it. But France have a team that knows how to win it. Zidane, Viera, Makalele and Thuram have craftiness enough to deal with the Italians. The question should be, do they have the legs? I don't think this will be a classic in the way that many are predicting, but I think it will be a very interesting game. Watch it closely.

Back and Better than Ever (Unlike USA B)

2006-03-23T04:21:00.000-08:00

Yes, I am back to post about some things football. The second claim may be something of an exageration. I don't really have any excuse for my long absence. It's not as though the football world stops turning for even a minute. I've just been busy and somewhat less than inspired by goings-on. I am, dare I say it, awaiting the return of our beloved MLS. What?! you say. You are not overcome with awe by the drama of the climax of the European season? No. It's been hideously dull. And Fah! I say to you. False fan! If you truly cared about football you would be eagerly supporting our own league and players and bursting with anticipation at their return nine days hence. Which isn't to say that don't still watch the European game (and I still support Chelsea). But enough.

I was finally awoken from my stupor by yesterday's 1-4 loss to Germany in Dortmund. That score really doesn't look good for the USA. It also is even more meaningless than Germany's 1-4 loss to Italy at the beginning of the month. Here, at least, we can say that we fielded a substantially weakened side against what really is about the best side the Germans can put out there at the moment. That doesn't really excuse the result, and there are a lot of things about which we should worry. No one who claims to be an able professional should show such lack of awareness on the pitch against anyone as some of our defenders did between the 70th and 80th minutes. At least no one knocked it into our own net this time (Jeff, I'm looking your way). On the international pitch, or any football pitch, the game requires 90 minutes of concentration. 90 minutes really isn't that long a time. It's only about as long as the average college class... Ah... now I see a connection. We need to only field players who haven't been ruined by college ball. Damn you higher education! Acclimating our young men to late-in-the-period naps. Whoever we field at the World Cup has to be prepared and accustomed to playing for the full 90. Just that alone can bring unexpected results. Ireland, for example, have made it into an art.

Concentration issues aside, there really wasn't anyone on the USA who gave a complete performance. But that isn't to say that there isn't any good to take from this game. there were times when the USA moved the ball well against the Germans and we created at least 3 really good scoring opportunities. That without Donovan, Reyna, Beasley or McBride. Controling play and creating legitimate offensive opportunities against quality opposition has traditionally been another problem for the US. Admittedly, this may say more about the weakness of Germany's defense than anytihng else, but it's something we can take away from this game.

All in all, this really wasn't such a horrible result. The Nats have been coasting this year and really needed a difficult result. This also gives Bruce a better idea of which second tier players are really going to be ready for the World Cup. In addition, this may help us out by leading our group opponents to underestimate our team even more severely. We may know that this was a B team, but to an Italian, American players are distinguish only because they wear different numbers. I would actually be a lot more worried if I were Klinsmann right now. The score looked good for them, but it is likely to give them a little too much confidence and it was clear that they have done little to fix their defensive frailties. But only time will tell.

What's in a Name?

2006-01-26T08:24:00.000-08:00

I know it's been a long time since I've written. It's not that there hasn't been anything to write about (although the winter is pretty slow). Mostly I've just been really busy, tired and uninspired by goings on in the world of football. I mean, how excited can one really be about Svengate Part 503? I don't care how much he's being paid at the FA, I would still want out. And sure, it's a bit inconvenient for an employer if a key employee is spending his free time scoping alternative employment opportunities. That may be grounds for dismissal, but it's not illegal to my knowledge. We don't get upset about the average Joe trying to get out of a job he doesn't like. I defy you to explain to me how football is different.

I think we all know that the real issue is that Sven just happens to have this annoying habit of being not English. Fine. Get rid of him. People will very quickly learn that there simply isn't an English manager in the game today who's worth a damn.

But I'm getting sidetracked. All I wanted to comment on was the fact that Houston has announced it's new name. We now have a fourth pseudo-traditional sounding team in MLS (well, fifth if you count United). Houston 1836. Destined, I hope, to be called the 36ers (you heard it here first). I actually quite like the name. It sure beats the hell out of Real Salt Lake (except when you just say RSL and forget what the letters stand for). I'm just a little skeptical about the motivation. Apparently the name is modelled on all of those venerable German clubs with names like Schalke 04, Mainz 05 etc. Of course, the dates in those names commemorate the founding dates for the clubs (ok, we have to be a little careful. Munich 1860 football club was certainly not founded in 1860. I think that date refers to the founding of the larger athletic club.) I guess Houston 2006 just sounds a little silly right now. Hey! We're no years old! It's like all of those silly Ye Olde Crappe stores all over this country with signs proudly proclaiming Est. 1983. Hell. I was established earlier than that. Now, the motivation behind the Earthquakes replacement name may simply be to honor the founding of one of the country's great cities (you can argue with that, but hey, everyone's heard of Houston, that must count for something). If that were the sole motivation, I would be all for the new name. But if it's just another gimmick to make this league sound more respectable to foreigners, then it just sounds a little silly. The way our teams play is what will bring our league respect, not the names we give to our teams.

Here's to the New Year!

2006-01-04T04:58:00.000-08:00

Wow. It's been a long time since I've found the time to sit down and write anything here. The end of term and the holidays really take over the schedule. But now I have some free time and the benefit of the winter breaks to try to catch up on all I've missed. So here's a shot at getting out my thoughts on all the major football events of the past month.

The World Cup Draw:

The poor US. We really got the short end. The presence of Argentina and the Netherlands alone makes their group the highest profile and perhaps even the group of highest total quality (hey, those two count for a lot) but it is true that, overall, the US got dumped in the most competative group. I think that we can make it out. It will take some luck, though. The real disadvantage is having to play the Czech Republic first instead of Italy. The Czechs are not only talented, but hungry. Their abilities aside, I think the Italians are always vulnerable. Just think back to Euro 2004 or Korea/Japan. And I hope that no one is underestimating Ghana. Sure they have only two players that anyone here is likely to have heard of, but the same could have been said of Iran in 1998 and their two players alone took the US apart. Now, we're a lot better than back then, but it is a cautionary tale.

As for all the complaints about seeding, here's what I think. Get off it! FIFA's methods and motives are obsure and seemingly arbitrary, but what good is seeding the entire tournament going to do? We'll still have plenty of yawners. The problem there is due to the huge format of the tournament. And if the groups are determined entirely by seeding we'll be likely to end up with groups that look like European qualifying all over again. If we have to sit through minnow first rouders, I would much rather watch minnows from different confederations battle it out.

I think the commentators need to be a little more circumspect when arguing our own placement. Yes, it stings to watch Mexico snag a seed when we just crushed them in qualifying, took the Gold Cup out from under them and can still look back fondly at that World Cup round of sixteen drubbing we handed them. And yes, as the pundits are fond of pointing out, we made it to the quarterfinals in 2002 while Mexico has only ever made that far in the distant past and only on home soil. However, it should also be noted that Mexico has made it past the first round in at least the last four World Cups it has contested. This is more than can be said for the US (we still have to live down that dead last showing in 1998, sure that's a while ago now but we all still remember it). Also, recall that Mexico also have this curious habit of beating Brazil with alarming frequency. The fact is, Mexico just have a better track record against the big teams outside of CONCACAF. Things are changing in our favor, but we have to be patient. I think it's healthy to complain, it shows we have passion, but at the same time let's keep some perspective.

World Player of the Year:

It's Ronaldhino again! Big surprise. I actually would have voted for Lampard. Not just because I'm a Chelsea fan, either. The issue is the interpretation of the award. Does it go to the single best footballer? I.e. the one who has demonstrated the greatest amount of talent and the greatest ability to entertain fans. If this is the case, Ronaldhino must win, hands down. But I would argue that the award should go to the footballer who has shown the greatest combination of achievement within the game and indispensibility to his team's achievements. If this is the case, it seems to me that Lampard is the clear winner. In either case, the winner is more than worthy. And it looks as though both will have highly succuessful ends to the current campaign. Moreover, we can look forward to seeing them in action against one another in the first CL knockout stage and, who knows, possibly in the World Cup this Summer.

The Club World Championship:

Or whatever the heck it's called. I wonder sometimes if I am the only English speaking person who thinks that this was an interesting and worthwhile tournament. Ok. So it ended up as the same old same old: Europe versus South America. But it was a pretty close thing. Al Ittihad really gave Sao Paolo a run for it, contrary to what the wire story might have said. Liverpool had no such problems making the final, but Saprissa should hold their heads high. They played as well as a teams of Costa Ricans could ever be expected to play against the champions of Europe and they really should have had a goal. The overall quality might not be even at the level of the CL or Libertadores, but it is early yet. Football is growing in the rest of the world and this tournament can give it an impetus.

The final may not have had many goals, but it had tension in abundance. In regards to the outcome, I have only one thing to say to the English language press. Shut the hell up and deal with it! Liverpool lost as fair and square as it gets. Yes, they dominated the second half in a way that left one wondering how they had failed to score by the bucketload. But if one wants to talk travesty, maybe some people need to be reminded about a certain other game last May. At least Sao Paolo controlled the possession for a period of greater than six minutes. Actually, Sao Paolo played a lovely first half and, though they were pressed at the end, they deserved their lead. What on Earth Hyypia thought he was doing is anyone's guess. The goal was well made and well taken.

Despite all of their second half dominance, Liverpool really have no one but themselves to blame. They had two goals called back for clear offsides. The third was debatable. Replays show that Luis Garcia was not actually offsides, but the same replays show that, when the ball was played, three other Liverpool players were. I think the linesman can be excused. Lesson for Liverpool: if you want the goals to count, make sure the entire team is onsides, just to be safe (it's not that hard). As for the foul on Gerrard, yes, it could have been a red card. But there are three things to consider. It was actually from the side, not from behind. Gerrard was not running straight at goal. And even if he had outpaced Lugano and turned in towards goal, there was another defender coming in to cover. You can rage all day about the enforcement of the law as it is written, but honestly, how many times have you seen the law enforced exactly as it is written? Don't worry, I'll wait while you think about that.

So all in all, I think this inaugural event was a success. For me, the clear winners were Sao Paolo (of course), CONCACAF who saw their side finish a surprise third, and Sydney, a team that counted it's history in months yet still managed to win their second match against Al Ahly. The losers would have to be Liverpool who must have been desperately disappointed and CAF who saw their "greatest team of the last decade" twice defeated.

Just one more thought. I haven't seen this mentioned anywhere else so I wonder if anyone else has thought of it. I find it funny that, even in this limited format, it is possible, though not likely, for the CWC to be contested by two teams from the same country. That would be Mexico, whose teams compete in both the CONCACAF Champions Cup and the Libertadores. Funny, huh?

The Angry Bogger Strikes Again:

I had an interesting experience shortly after I wrote my last post. I Googled myself. I found this blog referenced in a board discussion on We Call It Soccer. I was flattered that someone patronizing that much better established (and maintained) blog would not only have heard of my blog, but also have read it. So I checked out the conversation. It had to do with my blog's name (which as anyone could figure out is a refence to WCIS, intended mostly as a reverential one). To get right to it, I came across the comment that my "angry blog is actually pretty good". Flattering. But, I thought, angry? I'm not angry? I asked my fiancee, "Do you think I'm angry?" "Well", she said, "when you talk about football you tend to sound kinda angry." "I'm not angry," I replied. "I'm just very intense about football." "Yes", she said, not a trace of irony in her voice, "intense, that's it."

And it's true. I'm just a bit tense. I mean intense. But on reflection, I realized that there are a few things that do make me angry in football. Chief among them are the "esteemed" Paul Gardner and Brian Glanville. Apparently legends of football journalism, I must admit that I fail entirely to understand what has given them the stature they enjoy today. I won't even start with Mr. Glanville. Just read a wide selection of his columns. Mr. Gardner seems often to me to be a creature out of the nineteenth century (although this could be said about many who write about or manage British football). For this, I would refer the reader to his column on the smart ball and his ideas about the purposes of the game. What I find more galling still is his inability accurately represent the American game. He is unfailingly critical. This is sometimes justified but must be backed up with facts. I would refer the reader to his account of the MLS playoffs in the December World Soccer. He is certainly correct that the final was an abomination but his criticism of Steve Nicol is entirely unfounded. Nicol has been an unqualified success. He took over a disorganised, dispirited team and wrung every last drop out of it. Sure, it wasn't pretty at first, but things improved over time. He shrewdly analysed talent, select two consecutive rookies of the year and one runner up. He turned the unfailingly defensive Revolution into the unfailingly attacking team that we saw all season. Yes, as the playoffs progressed they became increasingly defensive, but they really can't be blamed for that. The Metros and Fire took what could be politely termed a vigorous approach to their match-ups with the Revolution. I hardly think a 3 goal second half comeback qualifies as defensive in any case. By the final, the Revolution had lost two key players and had at least three other starters significantly knocked. I would think that a truly legendary journalist would be able to incorporate this information into his analyses. If Mr. Gardner is going to comment on our league, maybe he should watch it.

That's my angry rant for the moment. I'm sure there will be more, but I'll try to keep most of these posts within the bounds of normal intensity.

The End of an Era (or the CL Group Stage, at least)

2005-12-07T11:15:00.000-08:00

So it's the final day of the CL group stage. My last chance to embarass myself picking the results of matches involving teams about which I know little to nothing. But, come on! Do you know anything about FC Thun? I think not! Have you ever seen (or wanted to see) them play? I think not! Do you even know where Thun is? (I actually do know this. One of the strange benefits of having a fiancee who grew up in Switzerland.) All of this notwithstanding, it sure is fun pick them each time and watch them disappoint me. If I didn't get worked up about this, I might get worked up about something that actually mattered and then where would I be? Huh? Probably somewhere a lot more interesting, doing something a lot more productive. That's where. But enough of this.

I'm not really going to say anything at the moment about my picks for yesterday. I was undone by teams calling it in and by boring, boring Liverpool. Oh well. It's always hard to pick these results when there is so little at stake for some teams except on the last day of the Italian season when everything is so crooked you can pick all of the results just by looking at the table and seeing who needs what from whom. My cynicism aside, here are today's picks.

Group A:

Bayern and Juve are through, Brugge are into the UEFA Cup. I think that Bayern and Juve would still like the top spot, although with teams like Chelsea and Real already entering as 2nd place teams, top spot doesn't guarantee an easy ride. I still think these two will win away to the small fry.

Group B:

Arsenal and Ajax are through. They play each other at Highbury. I would say that Arsenal would rest key players, but Ajax could do the same. I think Arsenal will edge this at home. Thun and Sparta are playing for the UEFA Cup place. I'm picking Thun to go through with the draw.

Group C:

Barca are through. Udinese look poised to go through except that they're playing Barca. A loss and a Werder Bremen win will put Bremen through instead. The question is: will Barca ease up enough to let Udinese get the point they need? I'm betting that they're honorable enough to beat the Italians fair and square. I think Bremen can manage Pana at home, although there is nothing guaranteed with Werder.

Group D:

This is wide open. You might think that that would make it an exciting group. Wrong! I almost don't care who comes out of the Group of Mediocrity. It seems that whoever does is due for an immediate exit in the knockout stages. I'm going to pick two more draws here. That would put Villareal and Lille through and send ManU to the UEFA Cup.

Back to the Grind

2005-12-06T10:04:00.000-08:00

Holidays are wonderful. Getting back from the holidays is not quite so wonderful. All that time off usually means there is plenty of work just waiting for you when you come back. So it has been that I have been kept from my beloved blog for this past week. But now I am returned! It is a European matchday and it is time to dispense some more "knowledge". Note how I put that in quotes so that no one could accuse me of false advertising. You make use of this "knowledge" strictly at your own risk. Of course, anyone who has been following my predictions thus far probably knows that my predictions are about as much use for personal gain as a rubber knife would be of use in a gun fight. And yet I persist. Silly me.

Actually, this week might have some interesting results. There is a strange combination of wide open groups, completely decided groups and groups with one qualified team in which the rest have everything to play for.

Group E:

This is an exciting group. Milan, Schalke and PSV all have chances to win. If there is a winner between Milan and Schalke, that team will win the group and leave the loser hoping that PSV loses as well. I think Milan will take this game at home. I also think that PSV will manage to beat Fener, leaving Schalke wishing that had made more of their chances. Of course, if Milan lose, I will enjoy a very hearty laugh at their expense.

Group F:

Lyon have won this group already. Madrid are going through too. Since the little guys are playing the big guys, the order won't change unless someone really mails it in. Lyon over Rosenborg and Real over Olympiakos are my picks.

Group G:

Liverpool and Chelsea are through and only have the order to work out. But getting the top spot can have important implications down the road. And whatever Peter Cech says, Chelsea are not very happy in general about Liverpool. They're at home, they have more to play for, I think Chelsea wins. Further down the table, Anderlecht have put together the astounding record of 5 played, 0 won, 0 drawn, 5 lost, 0 goals scored. Why did they even show up and what have they been doing with the money they keep getting for playing in this competition? Not improving their team, certainly. Do I even need to say that I think Betis will beat them?

Group H:

This could very interesting. Inter are clear through in top spot. Everything else is a mess. Anyone could follow them. Gers are in second, but they play Inter. Of course, the game is at Ibrox, Inter have nothing to play for and they might just dispense with the trouble and let Rangers get the win. That would be highly disappointing. Artmedia have Porto at home. They beat Porto at the Dragao. I'm going to pick them to win again. Since I think that Inter's effort notwithstanding, Gers will get a draw through their own ineptitude, that puts Artmedia through. Gers can have fun getting knocked out of the UEFA cup.

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With that taken care of, I just wanted to let anyone who hasn't already seen it know that the USA missed out on a seed for the WC draw. That's too bad. I can't say that I am all that surprised or that it is a horrible injustice, but it was a very close thing. We fell one point shy of Italy. Mexico made it in though. That would have been spectacular. Two seeded CONCACAF teams? Hah! That would have been something more for the AFC and the CAF to think about. The bigger news is that the Netherlands are unseeded. I can't say that I am all that surprised about that either. And neither was their coach, the great Marco Van Basten. The FIFA formula judges on the past two World Cups and the past three years of rankings. The Dutch failed to qualify for 2002. They saw this coming. But based on their performances in qualifying it's hard to doubt that they could be a very difficult proposition next Summer.

2005-11-22T10:16:00.000-08:00

The CL is back. Time for me to make some dubious predictions. I'm above .500, but barely. The matchups for the day look pretty easy to call, but with results going the way they are, who ever knows? Here's what I think.

Bayern over Rapid and Juve over Brugge. The gulf between the big clubs in this group and the makeweights is amazing.

Ajax over Sparta and Thun to draw Arsenal. Sparta are terrible. Arsenal are already through and will be playing some younger players. Thun are at home and would really like to take advantage of this opportunity to get some kind of result. Why shouldn't they?

Barca over Werder and Udinese over Pana. If Barca can play today the way they played over the weekend, Werder's defensive frailty will turn this game into a rout. I'm too confident in the other pick. I'll just see how it turns out.

Lille over Benfica and ManU to draw Villareal. In the Group of Mediocrity I think "home" field advantage is enough for Lille. I know that ManU put in a much better performance on Saturday than they had recently, but I still don't have a lot of confidence for their European prospects.

It's all there in black and white, now. Only time will tell the value of my predictions (I'm betting it's pretty low, though).

Who Needs a League Anyway?

2005-11-14T14:17:00.000-08:00

I think I will start this post with an analogy. Imagine that you sit for a long, difficult and varied examination. You've studied hard, you've sharpened all your number two pencils. At the end, the teacher says that he's going to look over the work and as long as you didn't do too badly, say, as long as you got about half of the questions right, you'll be given three bonus questions that you can go home and study for and your entire grade will actually be based on your answers to these. One might feel frustrated. One might feel cheated. One might feel that this was not necessarily the fairest, most accurate way way to determine one's grade. And one would probably be right.

Now consider this. You train hard in the preseason, you play hard for thirty-two matches. Sometimes you play stunningly attractive, flowing attacking football. Sometimes you bear down and grit it out for 90 minutes to get the result. You put up with injuries, national team call-ups, other teams targeting you. Despite all of this, you dominate your conference in a way that hasn't been seen for years and win the conference title going away. Then, in the playoffs, you're eliminated by a .500 team that essentially showed up to play six matches all season, Open Cup matches included. I'll bet that this is essentially how the New England Revolution and San Jose Earthquakes feel.

I have to say, at this point, that I have nothing against elimination tournaments and playoffs per se. They can be exciting. They are great levelers. One good day or a series of lucky breaks and anyone can win, in theory. There is certainly a reason why knockout format cup tournaments persist. However, there is also a reason why single table, aggregate point league competitions exist and there is a very good reason why national championships are determined by these and not by knockout. It is generally felt, for good reason, that a team that can perform at a higher level than its competitors throughout a prolonged league season is more deserving than a team that manages to defeat a series of competitors in one-off matches. A full season tests the overall qualities of a team. Not only are skill and teamwork necessary, but also physical and mental stamina. In addition, in a league season, a team is tested in a wide variety of situations: heat, rain, possibly snow, home crowd, away crowd, up a goal early, down a goal late. The team that is best able to cope with all of these situations as well as contigencies like injuries to star players has every right to call itself a champion. There is just something a little hollow about a victory that is achieved by playing one good match every two or three weeks, or with six good minutes, or after slinking through a season waiting for everyone else to tire themselves out.

All of this discussion applies directly to MLS' elected method of choosing a champion. And perhaps it applies better this year than in any other. By playing, as I said, essentially six matches all year (two real Open Cup matches and four MLS Cup playoff matches) the LA Galaxy strolled home with two trophies, doing the domestic double. This, I would argue, makes them the worst team in the ten year history of the league to win the title, much less collect the double. A .500 team in the regular season, LA started well and ended playing nothing more than utilitarian football. In fact, it could be argued that they only snuck into the playoffs because the Western Conference hosted both MLS expansion clubs. Once in the back door, Landon Donovan, who, despite his talent, really only seems able to perform on an intermitant basis, dragged his team along behind two solid performance (one against San Jose and one against Colorado). (Incidentally, this might be part of the reason why Landon has so much trouble in Europe where one needs to perform at a high level every week, sometimes even twice a week). In the other two matches the Galaxy put on good tactical displays to defuse a desperate San Jose overcome a depleted and battered Revolution. Was this mickle crafty of them? Yes. Does it make them champions in my eyes? Not really so much. Do they care? I seriously doubt it.

But I do care. And I think that something needs to be done to prevent things like this from happening. I know that there is the sense that an American audience will feel entirely disoriented with out a playoff of some sort. Maybe it is true. In any case, I don't think that we need do away with playoffs and championship finals entirely. We should just change what's at stake.

As far as I can see, there is no point in even having such an extended league season if, in the end, it means so little. MLS needs to limit the number of playoff spots. I know that there is the belief that this will diminish profit opportunities or fan involvement or excitement or some combination of the above, but that is not necessarily true. With fewer playoff spots, regular season games would be played with greater intensity. Each game would have more meaning. Sure this may lead to playoffs contested by bruised, battered and burned-out teams. But in all likelihood, all of the contestants would be suffering relatively equally. No one would have to worry about a fresh lower seed. The games might be a bit slower, but they would showcase the qualities that brought the teams success throughout the season. For example, we would see Chicago's quick ball movement through Thiago and their massive physical defense against the more subtle skills, teamwork and resilience of New England rather than watch a team that hadn't bothered to perform at a high level for several months come out and tactically exploit tired opposition.

So what would I propose we do? I think the most important thing is that only four teams should make the playoffs, although with future expansion, maybe six. Exactly how to choose these four is open to question. I certainly think that the conference champions must be involved. Otherwise the entire conference format is needless. However, something must be done about either the further selection or the seeding to take into account the disparities between the conferences. I don't think that anyone can doubt, San Jose and LA's two cups aside, that the Eastern Conference was vastly superior this year. Ives Galarcep at Soccernet.com has some good ideas about this. Performance during the season has to be rewarded with some distinct advantage come play-off time.

There is actually one more issue surrounding the cup competitions that I would like to address. That is how they are used to determine the American teams that will take part in international competitions. The reason that I believe this to be such an important issue is that it is through these international club competitions that American sides will become visible to the world. CONCACAF may not have a strong reputation for producing quality club teams, but it's champion is still allowed to contest the FIFA World Club Championship. This year the region's representative is Saprissa from Costa Rica. There is no reason that it isn't an MLS club intead. Even more important is the opportunity to be involved in CONMEBOL competitions. In the Sudamericana and in the Libertadores (if our teams are ever allowed to qualify like Mexico's) MLS clubs get the chance to go face to face with some of the biggest and most storied clubs on the continent and in some cases in the world. While I don't think that our clubs will immediately compete with the big Brazilian and Argentine (or Mexican) clubs, the Brazilians and Argentines will still have to play our teams on the field and they will have to fly here to play our teams in our stadiums. They will have to admit that we exist.

As it stands, the two MLS cup finalists are entered into the CONCACAF Champions Cup and I certainly hope that the MlS champion will still have the opportunity to contest the Copa Sudamericana. I believe that some thought needs to be given to altering this setup. I have heard that in the future the Supporters' Shield winner will be given a berth. I like the idea of rewarding regular season performance in this way, but I think that with a suitably altered playoff system, it won't be necessary to use the Supporters' Shield. I would actually like to see the second existing spot given back to the Open Cup winner. If we can get our teams (and fans) to put more emphasis on qualification for international competition, this would be a great way to induce more interest in the Open Cup. Hopefully, in the relatively near future, MLS will be invited to enter more side into more competitions. A lot of careful consideration needs to be put into how to reward these places in order to produce the optimal incentives within the domestic competitions.

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Now that I've finally managed to get my MLS final post up, and since the MLS season is now over, can turn my attention to the global picture. A lot has happened since I last wrote anything here. Most notably, the World Cup spots are all decided. Nothing terribly interesting happened in the European playoffs. The Czech Republic predictably outclassed Norway and Spain slaughtered Slovakia. Anyone who thought that the Turkey-Switzerland tie was anything but a toss-up was not paying attention to the previous performances of the teams and the personel involved. I'm not surprised that Switzerland won. I'm not surprised that it was close. And I am not surprised that the Turkish fans threw things at the Swiss.

The biggest qualifying story from my point of view is that T&T are finally going to the Cup. The Soca Warriors have overperformed for so long in this region and have come agonizingly close to qualification but just never managed it. Given the chance in a playoff with Bahrain, they took full advantage, although they needed to win in the Gulf to book their place. I'm most happy about this because of what it says for CONCACAF. Our region gets very little respect. This quadrennium's qualifying group seemed suspiciously weak even to those within the region. But this playoff victory shows that our small teams are a lot better than most people think. There is no shame in struggling to beat the Carribean nations away. There's a surprising amount of football quality to be found. None of this is to say that anyone from this region is about to hoist the Cup or is even set to make much of a run at it this year. But maybe now the AFC will shut up about wanting more places.

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And as a final bit of news: Roy Keane has left Man U!!! That is not a typo or a joke. Sure he was getting past it, but it's hard to imagine the Red Devils without him. Now we will finally see how Ferguson handles a Keanectomy.

2005-11-02T10:13:00.000-08:00

I didn't do half badly yesterday. 5-3 and oh so close to 7-1. My pick for the Artmedia/Rangers match was a bit ambiguous and I could be sneaky and claim the point for myself, but I'm going to be honest about that one. The only pick on which I really dropped the ball was the Chelsea/Betis match. But who can blame me? Incidentally, though I only saw the second half, that match presented some of the most boring football I have seen in a long time. Chelsea just didn't have any creative spark and Betis played the whole half with all 11 players behind the ball, only occasionally breaking forward in ones and twos to flop on the ground in the Chelsea end. Dani, apparently the goalscorer, was particularly offensive in my mind. In the one half of football he managed to simulate being hit in the face and the back of the head and "earned" several fouls for theatrical dives.

Though there are several tricky match-ups today, the only one with any real interest to outside observers is the only one that pits two actual challengers. That would be the rematch between Bayern and Juve. I'm going to call this a draw. Juve are starting to look vulnerable, but they ought to be able to hold on at home. If they can't, their title credential will have to come under severe scrutiny. Brugge should take of Rapid at home.

Arsenal should handle Sparta Prague at Highbury. And, damn it! I'm going to pick Thun over Ajax.

I'm also going to take Barca over Pana. I'm even going to pick Werder to finally get that win. There is no reason, except for their own underperformance, that they can't beat Udinese.

ManU and Lille has all of the makings of another draw in my mind. ManU are probably looking for some redemption after that 4-1 pasting they took at the Riverside, but they really are not playing well. Lille aren't the strongest of opponents but they had enough to hold United at Old Trafford and they should be able to do the same in Paris. I think Benfica will get the win at home to Villareal and really cement their case for advancement.

Yesterday gave promising signs that maybe my powers of prognostication are improving. Let's hope it wasn't just a blip.

2005-11-01T11:26:00.000-08:00

Yay! Another European mathday. I love making a fool of myself with European predictions. So here it goes.

How could I not select Chelsea and Liverpool to be victorious over Real Betis and Anderlecht, respectively? Chelsea are so far superior to anyone they have met this year that it is simply silly and Anderlecht have elevated losing in Europe to a science.

After their performance in the San Siro last time, PSV should be able to get a draw against Milan at home. Schalke do nothing but disappoint in the CL, but I'm still going to pick them to win at home to Fener.

The Lerkendahl can be a beastly place to visit and it has claimed some famous scalps in the past. But not today. Real Madrid shouldn't have too much trouble overcoming Rosenborg again. Likewise, Lyon have all the quality necessary to beat Olympiakos, even in Greece.

If Rangers couldn't even beat Artmedia at Ibrox, what chance to they stand in Bratislava? I think Artmedia is going provide just the latest indication that Scottish football is complete rubish. I also think that Inter will actually manage to beat Porto this time. They need to salvage some pride.

Hopefully this will boost my record above .500. Only time will tell.

Balance. Oh. And MLS.

2005-10-29T14:07:00.000-07:00

I'm finally back to post again. It's been a hectic period, but I've managed to finad a bit of time in my schedule to get some things off my mind.

First, I am still smarting from the beating I took on the last CL matchday. I went a total of 7-9 leaving me a rather embarassing 16-16 so far. How can be batting a measely .500? This is terrible. But it also got me thinking a bit about the state of football.

Isn't this supposed to be the era of the superclub? Big teams, awash in money are supposed to be sweeping all before them as they hold course for epic clashes over silverware. Sepp Blatter says so. All (ok, most) of the pundits say so. The managers of the smaller clubs say so. But the results don't say so. Porto defeated Monaco to lift the European Cup. Last year, a deeply flawed Liverpool, that finished more than 30 points behind Chelsea in England, came back to beat a highly regarded, very talented and very expensive Milan. They had eliminated an even more expensive Chelsea in the semis. PSV gave Milan a royal scare in that same round. And one only needs to look at the results of this year's competition to see the trend of big club underperformance continue. In fact, it extends to domestic leagues like the EPL in which I just watched Middlesborough thump ManU 4-1.

Clearly something is not right. Money is buying influence, but not results. At a time when the football world is supposed to stratifying like never before, it seems in many ways to be getting flatter. I've thought about this a bit and I think I have part of the answer. In the words of Carlos Alberto Parreira, the reason is balance.

Money can buy success. Chelsea showed that in past two years and are making an even stronger case for it now, a two match hiccup notwithstanding. But this is not because money can buy Zidane or Robinho or Shevchenko. It is because money can buy you Essien, or del Horno or Cech. Money means nothing on its own. It needs to be used wisely. If you waste it on galacticos, you end up with a team of attacking talents the like of which the world has never before seen, but also with a team that is likely to be exploited at the back or to implode when nerves got frayed or egos bruised. One needs a team with balance. A team that can attack and defend, that has strength in depth all over the pitch, that is organized and mentally strong. Money can buy that. But it isn't easy.

A quick look at the big clubs at the moment shows that all are somehow unbalanced, and that these flaws are the result of either a relative lack of funds or a blatant misuse. In Spain, Barcelona have built an attractive outfit, and a team with a good onfield balance, but they are a bit thin due their inability to spend too lavishly. Real Madrid have spent themselves into a lovely mess. They splash out cash on big name attacking stars without much thought of the consequences to the balance of the team on the pitch. Admittedly there has been some suggestion of late of an attempt to bolster the defence and add younger talent that still has the hunger to compete, but the damage cannot be undone immediately. In England, Arsenal and ManU simply do not have the ready funds to replace key aging elements of their sides and the results are dramatic. Liverpool are a hodgepodge of eclectic talent supposedly focused around Stevie G. Their European triumph last year was more a symptom of the general malaise than a true accomplishment on merit. Milan, Liverpool's opponent's in Istanbul, have spent to bolster their already impressive array of attacking options but have yet to do anything about their aging defense or to steel themselves against the sort of mental and emotional meltdowns that have ruined their past two European campaigns. The list could go on and on.

Balance is hard to find. It takes not only the resources and restraint to purchase the necessary components, but the patience to build those elements into a cohesive unit. Looking around Europe at the moment, only two really well balanced teams stand out from the major leagues: Chelsea and Lyon (one could make a case for Bayern as well, but let's limit ourselves). Lyon are the better example of a traditionally balanced side as are they have been built on a much smaller budget than Chelsea. Though they have few players who could rightly be called superstars beyond the world of French club football, Lyon boast four consecutive French titles, successive runs to the CL quarterfinals, they are perfect in the CL this year (they beat Real 3-0) and lead the French first division. All of this comes despite losing their star player to Chelsea. Chelsea, on the other hand are often held up as the epitome of wealth run amok in football. Yes, Abramovich spends freely, but the spending isn't aimless. Jose Mourinho has carefully identified his team's weaknesses and purchased players to address them. He has now built a team that is simply unparalleled in depth and quality. It could be argued that Chelsea have the EPL's two best goalkeepers, they have an already stingy defense that has been bolstered by the addition of del Horno, who is also an attacking threat. When all are healthy, Chelsea have four quality wingers and three quality defensive midfielders. Frank Lampard is a class to himself. The amply supported strikers have plenty of talent of their own. Early on it could have been said that this unit, though well balanced, was more effective than inspiring. Recently, however, this is a side that has put 4, 5, 4, and 4 goals past oppents. This is a team that can not only defend and hold a tight lead, but can pile on the offensive pressure. There are too few teams nowadays with that ability.

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Of course, having a well balanced team will only take you so far, as the MLS playoffs have already shown. You still need good players. In the talent-thin world of MLS, having a few great talents can still put you over the top. San Jose learned this the hard way against LA. Though they may have given the best team performance throughout the regular season, I just never felt that the 'Quakes were, man-for-man better than a few other teams. Landon Donovan showed them what that can mean for one's title aspirations over the two leg semifinal. His LA teammates had little more to do than to frustrate San Jose and he provided the inspiration. Whatever I might think of his abismal failure in Europe, Landon has shown that, when he raises his game, he can still dominate in MLS.

Maybe MoJo will think a bit harder about taking a tactical approach to a palyoff second leg next time. I certainly hope that he didn't let the first leg result, in the rain, on turf lead him to believe that his MetroStars could run with the Revs on the grass at the Gillette. Because they can't and they didn't. A bad bounce of the ball gave them a fortuitous lead, but that only induced the Revs to work harder. With Pat Noonan looking healthy again, and Cancela trying to state his case to be a starter, the Revs just rushed past the Metros. With the 'Quakes gone, the Revs have to be the favorites. They certainly play the most attractive football of the remaining teams. It would be shame if they couldn't snag their first title. Although I think that however comes out of the West will be bringing a negative defensive gameplan.

I am simply shocked at United's capitulation. Simply shocked. They were attrocious. And I thought they had some pride. Well, they'll have a whole winter to try and find some again.

And finally, does anyone care about the Dallas-Colorado result? I sure don't.

Looking to Save Face

2005-10-19T11:07:00.000-07:00

Well I got pummeled yesterday. 2-6. Simply miserable. More on that later. Time for my predictions for today. I'm not going to give any commentary on these since I'm running it so close to kick-off and I'm really busy at the moment. So here they are. Let's hope I do a bit better with these.

Chelsea over Betis
Liverpool over Anderlecht
Lyon over Olympiakos
Real Madrid over Rosenborg
Milan over PSV
Schalke over Fener
Inter over Porto
Rangers over Artmedia

The Oracle Speaks

2005-10-18T09:56:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I am greatly exagerating my oracular qualities. But, like the ancient mystics, I read the signs and predict the future. Right here. Every European matchday. Like today. So here it goes.

Ajax to draw Thun:

I'll probably get this wrong, but I just can't stop pulling for these smallest of minnows. They had a great result last time out and Ajax are not a team that is playing particularly well.

Arsenal over Sparta:

I know that they lost to the Baggies over the weekend, but I just don't think they're going to repeat that performance against Sparta. Could this be the season when Arsenal final makes a run in Europe but tanks at home?

Bayern over Juve:

I really don't have much confidence in this result either, but I desperately want Bayern to pull this out. Juve are strong, organized and hideously dull. Contrary to popular misconceptions of German football, Bayern's strengths are all at the attacking end of the field. The Germans dropped two 1-0 results to Juve last year. Maybe the added experience will make the difference.

Rapid over Brugge:

The best you can say for these teams is that they are big fish in their own ponds. I know very little about either except that Brugge take what might be called a "vigorous" approach to football and Rapid gave Bayern a good fright earlier in the group. I'm really just picking the home team.

Man U over Lille:

ManU are no great shakes. But they are at home and Lille are soft.

Villareal over Benfica:

Neither team has too much quality. I think Villareal has more. And they're at home. I can see this being a draw, too.

Barca over Pana:

They haven't done much in Spain this year, but Barca have put in some good European performances. That should continue.

Udinese over Werder Bremen:

Udinese have picked themselves off the mat in Italy. They have a one great European result and one that they are going to want to forget. It's looking like Bremen are going to want to want to forget this whole European campaign. Poor Bremen.

Cheap Shots, Fatwas and TnT.

2005-10-16T17:11:00.000-07:00

Well, it has been a long time since I have been able to turn my attention to this blog. But I have few moments now and a few things on my mind.

First, I have to say that I was thrilled that the MLS playoff race came down to the very last game. There is so often so little excitement involved in the hunt for the playoff spots. The Western Conference duly obliged this year by involving both expansion teams. A half decent U-11 recreational league team would have finished above Chivas and RSL. But the Eastern Conference came down to the wire. I want to thank the Kansas City Wizards for just enough Saturday night to put the pressure on the Metros but to still leave the door open. And I want to thank Chivas for making the final game exciting down to the last minute. Most of all, I want to thank the Metros for pulling out the win and grabbing the last playoff spot, because my beloved Revolution have a lot less trouble with you than they do with the Wizards.

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Watching the highlights from the DC-Columbus match, I was reminded of the column that Paul Gardner wrote for the Sept 26 issue of Soccer America (yes I'm going to pick on him again, it's just so much fun). In this column His Fustiness criticizes the aggressive play of MLS goalkeepers. While I have to agree that overly reckless goalkeeper play should be punished, has Mr. Gardner considered that maybe the goalkeepers in this league have adopted an aggressive approach to the game to combat the aggressive play of MLS outfield players? As an example, I would supply Jamal Sutton's assault on Nick Rimando. The announcers for the DC-Columbus match may have taken the interpretation that Mr. Sutton was simply unable to stop his forward momentum. But is he really so uncoordinated that couldn't at least change directions? He is a professional athlete. He had ten yards. Please. If outfield players are going to approach goalkeepers in such a manner, I think it is perfectly reasonable that goalkeepers adopt a shoot-first-ask-questions-later attitude. Really, everyone ought to be a little more circumspect when collsions seem immanent, but I will defend to the death the right of any goalkeeper to level any overly aggressive striker.

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I was thrilled that Taylor Twellman snagged the Golden Boot. And not just because I am a Revolution fan. Could you imagine a world in which we had to live with Jaime Moreno as the Golden Boot winner? I have plenty of respect for Jaime's skills as a footballer, but how can you give the goalscoring title to someone who scored more than half of his goals from the penalty spot? That's just silly. What kind of message does that send? Just practice knocking them in from 12 yards out and you too can be revered as a great striker. Twellman didn't have a single penalty kick goal amongst his tallies. He worked for all of them, often working for the full ninety minutes to get a strike. He scored good goals, great goals, scrappy goals. He showed he that he really is the most dangerous player in the league.

Speaking of Twellman, I don't think I have ever been happier to see someone score a goal as I was when he finally broke his international duck against Panama. Sure it was a bit of a gimme. But that is really no criticism. He was in the right place at the right time and he took full advantage of the opportunity. Of course, like his critics, I would like to see Twellman score a more conventional goal. But up to now, he really has been desperately unlucky. Aside from the shots he's had cleared off the line, he had a perfectly good goal ruled out against T&T. I hope this was the first of many for him, especially since the US is pretty thin at striker if Johnson can't shake his injury problems.

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Apparently there is a fatwa against soccer. First printed in the Saudi paper Al Watan, translated by Mr. Geoff D. Porter and reprinted in the editorial section of the Sunday New York Times was a condemnation of the "evil" Western game and a prescription for repairing it to suit budding jihadists everywhere. You really have to read this for yourself. But there were a few highlights in my mind. I found point 7 rather amusing (Geoff D. Porter, NYT 10/16/05):

Do not set the time of play at 45 minutes, which is the official time of the Jews, Christians and all the heretical and atheist countries. This is the time used by teams that have strayed from the righteous path. You are obliged to distinguish yourself from the heretics and the corrupted and must not resemble them in anything.

Actually, I thought this was the time used by beer-bellied pub teams, teams too stupid to find their way back to the pitch from the locker room after half-time, and AC Milan in Champions League finals.

I thought Sepp Blatter might like to read point 13:

You should spit in the face of whoever puts the ball between the posts or uprights and then runs in order to get his friends to follow him and hug him like players in America or France do, and you should punish and reprimand him, for what is the relationship between celebrating, hugging and kissing and the sports that you are practicing?

This would be a much better deterent to excessive celebration than a mere yellow card (speaking of which, yellow cards are apparently also offensive). These are just snippets, but all in all this is a fascinating read.

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It's another European matchweek, so I will have all of my predictions coming up. I'm 9-7 so far. Not too shabby, I guess, but I think I can do better. We shall see.

2005-10-08T15:58:00.000-07:00

I believe I have to thank Du Nord for pointing out that Paul Gardner had written a column for soccernet.com. This particular column from the most-opinionated-one is worth reading for its style (or lack thereof) alone. But beyond form, this column marks perhaps the only time that I have ever agreed with Gardner on a football related matter. Mr. Gardner has turned his broadside towards US Soccer's Bradenton Academy. What can he find to criticize about an institution that trains our promising youngsters to grow up to be the next generation of American football heroes? The fact that it is not repaying the substantial investment made in it, for one. Yes, the U-17s have reached every FIFA world championship at that level and they have even made it as far as the semi-finals. This year they made it as far as the quarters before bowing out to the Netherlands (who were then spanked 4-0 by Mexico). But is this really the best we should expect? Why are our teams standing still at this point?

Mr. Gardner makes some headway towards an answer by pointing out the relatively low number of Bradenton graduates who go directly into the professional ranks. Most go on to college. Now, there may be many reasons for this, a lot of them cultural or personal and, while the college game is not exactly at a high standard Mr. Gardner is certainly wrong to be so dismissive of those who may see football primarily as a ticket to a college education rather than a potential career. Nevertheless, playing college ball is not the best training for professional success and training players for professional success must certainly be the primary purpose of Bradenton. The fact that the academy does not send most of its players directly into professional ranks must be a failure of its own setup. Either the academy is too limited to identify those players with true professional potential or it needs to rethink its training methods.

No matter what the reason for its failure, I also agree with Gardner's proposal for a solution. It needs to be left to the clubs to identify and train young footballing talent. The greater number of individuals involved in such a scheme would increase the probability of discovering players with real potential. Moreover, being involved in a professional training environment could only be a benefit. Best of all for US Soccer, it wouldn't have to pay a cent. The major drawback that I can see in this proposal at the moment is the likely inability of the MLS clubs to finance such projects. We have a reserve division now, so with a few more years of stability, maybe we will see youth development programs spring up. Until then, Bradenton is the best that football in this country can offer its young players, but a professional youth setup has to be the goal.

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To get back to business as usual, Paul Gardner wrote a column in the October issue of World Soccer that shows him to be a backward thinking technophobe. Here he voices his objections to the Smartball sensor system that was tested at the U-17 world championships in Peru. As far as I can tell these objections amounted to the statement that Mr. Gardner doesn't trust any piece of technology more complicated than a hand crank. Now I think that the reliance on human judgment is one of the things that makes football wonderful, if sometimes maddening. And I believe that, though the game needs to evolve, it should be very careful about introducing the influence of technology. However, if one is going to introduce technology, where better to introduce it than in the determination of whether or not the ball has crossed the line? Gardner offers three reasons: the system may not work, the referee is still permitted to overrule the signal he receives from the system and the system is prohibitively expensive.

The first criticism seems laughable. At least, Mr. Gardner's supporting arguments are laughable. Essentially, we are supposed to doubt the efficacy of the sensor system because it is complicated. In fact, Mr. Gardner was not even able to identify the locations of the sensors in the stadium. If this is a reason to shun technology, then most of us should be very wary every time we get into our cars.

It does seem curious that, assuming the sensor system is effective, the referee should still be allowed to overrule it. I think what is meant by the statement that "obviously, the referee will continue to have the final say in each situtation", though is that simply because the sensors have detected that the ball has crossed the line, it does not mean that a goal has been scored according to the rules of the game. The sensors do not know that the "goal" was scored by an offside player, or that an infringement has already been called. In these situations, the judgment of the referee is necessary. Of course, if the referee decides to overrule a goal that is scored without a prior infringement, the system could provide a valuable record for reviewing the performance of the official and suggesting further investigation.

The cost of the system, reportedly over $450,000, could certainly be a concern. This sensor system could become the plaything of the rich clubs. But, really, how bad can it be if everyone will finally know for certain every time an underdog scores against one of the big clubs? In any case, the system can at least be put to work in the most important matches where certainty matters the most, such as World Cup matches or European Cup finals. If the system became required at World Cups, FIFA might provide some funds for its purchase and instalation and perhaps a grant for its maintenance, bringing the system to stadia that otherwise not afford it. Even with limited use, the sensor system could prove valuable.

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I was reading Frank Dell'Apa's preview of the US-Costa Rica qualifier and I and found myself most interested in his discussion of the politics of World Cup placement. Most particularly, I was drawn to the South Americans' defense of their "five" qualification slots that they had won nine World Cups and since no one could top that everyone should shut up. I found this interesting because I have heard this same type of statement many times in arguments over regional football superiority. What I find most maddening about it is that it is misleading and masks most of the relevant facts. So I am going to take my turn here to weigh in on this issue and explain why South America does not deserve five spots in the World Cup and why they have no argument to regional superiority over Europe.

South American countries have won a total of nine World Cup titles and European countries share eight. This is true and I do not deny it. However, this is sort of like saying that Spanish clubs have won ten European Cups. That is true too, but nine of them were won by one club, Real Madrid. So this says little about the overall historical strength of Spanish football. It turns out that Spanish football is actually historically quite strong. But there are other facts that confirm this. The same cannot be said for South American football.

Brazil alone account for five World Cup title while Argentina and Uruguay have two apiece. Impressive, one might say. But one should note that these are the only South American countries to even have reached the final and Uruguay have not played for the title since 1950. In fact, if one throws in Chile in 1962, one has all of the South American countries that have ever placed in the World Cup competition. On the European side, there may be only eight titles, but they are shared among four countries: Italy, Germany, England and France. In addition to these champions, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Sweden and the Netherlands have all at least contested the final. If that isn't enough, Austria, Poland, Portugal and Croatia have all finished third. So has Turkey, which is part of Europe at very least for footballing purposes. That makes thirteen different countries that have placed in the World Cup, eleven of which have placed from 1962 on. No one is denying the quality of Argentina or the preeminence of Brazil in international football. But anyone who claims that their accomplishments alone earn their continent five places at the World Cup table isn't living in reality.

Angry Babies Everywhere (Brazilian teenagers, MLS refs and 'Pool fans toss the toys out of the pram)

2005-10-04T14:28:00.000-07:00

A bit of breaking news before I start the real update:

Bob Bradley is out as coach of the Metros. I think was only a matter of time after that performance against DC. Seeing his face during the telecast, you could tell that he knew his time was running short. It's unfortunate, though. No one has managed to succeed with NY/NJ and you have to wonder if there are more serious structural problems with the club.

Mo Johnston will be taking over for the time being.

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Liverpool once again demonstrated that they can only be bothered to show up for European matches as they were thumped 1-4 at Anfield by Chelsea, a poor follow up to their 0-0 CL draw against the Blues at the same venue last Wednesday. On the evidence so far, Benitez has not been able to get anything more out of his team this season, Stevie G or no.

Hopefully Didier Drogba's many critics will think a bit harder before opening their mouths as the big Ivorian was involved in all four goals and has had a very respectable start to this season.
Chelsea's display was so dominating, in fact, that even the Chelski nyet-nicks over at football365 had to find a good word to say about them.

Frank Lampard may have gotten himself booked for "silencing" the Liverpool fans just as Jose Maurinho did during last season's Carling Cup final, however it was the Liverpool fans who disgraced themselves, apparently throwing objects onto the field following Lampard's penalty kick goal. The FA is asking Liverpool to conduct an investigation.

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Mexico deservedly thumped Brazil in the U-17 championship on Sunday night. I have to say that I find a certain perverse pleasure in every horrible beating received by any Brazil team. The pleasure is heightened when the always entitled Brazilians express their frustration with petulence as the youth team did. But this got me thinking that there was a lot of that sort of behavior at these championships (at least in the matches I saw) and also at the U-20 championships. I know that the kids are only imitating the behavior they see from the senior professionals, but it is truly sad that it is perpetuated. The game could certainly do without it.

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The big question that was raised in my mind after this past weekend's MLS action was: just how many own goals has Jeff "which way am I going" Agoos scored in his illustrious, sometimes tragi-comic career? If he were knocking them in at the other end, he would be a world class threat from defense.

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Apparently Roy Keane has told MUTV that he sees Alan Smith as his successor at Man U. Well, the blond one-time-diehard-Leeds-fan already knows how to kick people, so he's on the right path.

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Brazil's Superior Tribunal for Sport (why don't we have one of those? It would get rid of all those pointless Congressional hearings.) has ordered the Brazilian league to replay 11 matches that were officiated by Edilson Pereira de Carvalho after the ref admitted he had favored certain teams. I understand the sporting motivation behind the ruling, but you imagine the chaos that will be caused by trying to reschedule 11 games? It's not as though Brazilian football is renowned for its organization or efficiency, anyway. I will be watching this closely.

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Hey. Everyone should check out the newly released group stage draw for the UEFA Cup! Oh, wait. Never mind. It's just silly and pointless anyway.

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And finally, apparently I wasn't the only the who has been critical of the refereeing on Ching's goal for the Quakes against FCD. Either that or the league pays really close attention to my blog (it could happen. Maybe. In my mind.). Regardless, Alfred Kleinaitis, the "manager of referee development and education", has seen the need to provide a "clarification" on mlsnet.com. I think I will let him tell it in his own words:

(quoting Alfred Kleinaitis for mlsnet.com)

San Jose's Ricardo Clark (No. 13) passed the ball from a point just above the Dallas penalty area. At that moment, the Earthquakes' Wade Barrett (No. 24) was clearly in an offside position on the left side of the penalty area, while San Jose's Brian Mullan (No. 9) was in an onside position on the right side. The ball was played forward and deflected by FC Dallas defender Steve Jolley.

Both Barrett and Mullan began moving to the ball, but it was obvious both from their respective distances to the ball and from the path of the ball itself that despite the effort by Barrett, Mullan would clearly arrive at the ball first from his onside position. There was accordingly no offside offense by Barrett.

The only thing that this clarifies for me is the fact that MLS is not above creating ad hoc justifications for its referees' actions. Beyond the fact that I somehow doubt that this is the reasoning followed by the officiating crew at that moment, I just don't believe that the deflected path of the ball is what's important here. If one reviews the clip provided in the article, one clearly sees that the pass was intended for the offside Wade Barrett and FCD's defense reacted accordingly. Thus San Jose gained advantage from Barrett's offside position, which is exactly what is supposed to be prevented by the offside rule. So there! You messed up. Deal with it.

There's Never Anything Good on TV

2005-10-02T06:56:00.000-07:00

I've finally dragged myself out from under the rock under which I was hiding for shame after the beating my CL predictions took such a beating on Wednesday. Some might think that 4-4 was respectable, by I'm a bit delicate about such things. Ok. The real reason I haven't managed to post recently is nothing more romantic than the fact that I have been busy. Apparently, "I couldn't finish because I had to work on my blog" doesn't strike many as a good excuse. In any case, I'm not going to say any more about Wednesday's matches than that I will never pick PSV to win anything outside of the Netherland ever again, Artmedia showed us that it really was the week of the minnow, and though I may have had the result wrong (Note: soccernet's match report briefly listed Shevchenko as having scored a winner for Milan, a fairly common typo for them) did I not tell you that Schalke-Milan was the match to watch?

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I had wanted to write about the only MLS game that mattered this weekend: Quakes-Revs at the Gillette (ok, so Metrostars fans, or, well, the Metrostars' fan may beg to differ about that claim, but the Metros' match against DC stopped mattering after the 55th minute). However, I found it impossible to watch the match. No, it was not because I was so nervous about the fate of my beloved Revolution. I don't get Direct Kick. I can scrape together enough money each month to subscribe to digital cable which brings me Fox Soccer Channel and Fox Sports En Espanol among others. But Direct Kick is just a bit too much. But that shouldn't be a problem in any case. MLSnet.com has been so very kind as to stream all Direct Kick games from their website. A brilliant idea and one that I hope many more people are taking advantage of. Yet, for some reason, though Quakes-Revs was listed as a DK game, the stream for it didn't work for me. Maybe this was simply a problem on my end, but I was stuck watching the vast meaninglessness that was Metros-United (it could have been Chivas-Crew but I do draw the line somewhere).

The point of this isn't to claim that MLSnet is technologically incompetent. It isn't. This situation (actually, the latest in a string of similar frustrating situations) got me thinking again about the pitifully poor media coverage of MLS and soccer in general in ths country. It is well known that ESPN and the networks think that MLS comes in just below snooker on the sporting hierarchy. Why would ESPN ever want to continue offering a weekly MLS game in the Autumn when they could, instead, televise MAC U vs. Directional Michigan. Sports television in the US has such respect for football that it has to scramble around at the last minute to televise the national team's pivotal qualifier against Mexico, eventually sticking the match on ESPNClassic. The print media may even be worse. I was fortunate enough to grow up Boston where the major paper, the Globe, actually provided reasonable coverage of the game thanks to the writing of Frank Dell'Apa (who seems to have finally gotten the wider recognition he deserves and has a column on soccernet). Now that I live in New York, I've noticed that the Times cannot always be bothered to publish the results of the home side's matches (perhaps not surprising for a paper that once thought that Baseball would never overtake Cricket as the sport of choice). When it comes to finding coverage of football, the deck is certainly stacked against the fan.

However, it would be dishonest to suggest that MLS is entirely blameless. I recall reading a relieving column that addressed MLS's culpability in the low profile carried by such events as the All Star Game. The All Star Game is not an important game by any means when considered in the context of the league season. It is a good showpiece, though. The game is often wide open and exciting with a lot of scoring. In short, it could present the best face of the league to people who believe that soccer is all 1-0 scores and prancing playactors. It also presents the top players in the country on one stage. The game provides an opportunity to teach names like Taylor Twellman to people who do not know anything beyond David Beckham. However, as was pointed out, MLS takes so long finalizing plans for the game, i.e the format etc., that ABC is left with little time to hype product or little product to hype. This needs to be rectified.

A much more subtle issue affecting the availibility of top matches, and one that is really to blame in most cases, has to do with the structure of the league itself. I will say right now that this an inherent and probably necessary difficulty for the time being. The league is structured as it is for its own preservation (and partially for cultural reasons) and we should be thankful that it is. Once there is greater stability, this issue should disappear. The combination of single entity management controling the contracts of the players and a reverse order player draft tends to promote parity. Add in a salary cap that makes it difficult to hang onto the rising stars from last year and the league has a recipe for season to season wholesale change. I'm sure that ESPN doesn't set out to select dud games for Soccer Saturday. They tend to pick the champions or "historically strong" teams (or just better supported ones). However, last year's champs are likely to be this year's chumps and vice versa (see Kansas City 2000, San Jose 2001). The relative quality of the teams changes throughout the season, as well, as new groups gel. DC are quite a decent team are playing some attractive football now but that didn't stop them from playing a number of dud matches on national TV earlier in the season. Just look back to season preview issue of Soccer America and you can see how hopeless even their so-called experts are at picking MLS. How can television do better?

There is much more to say on all of these issues. But I had better stop for the moment. In any case, it was thus that FCD-Galaxy wasn't carried by anyone back when those teams were playing some of the best football in the league and I spent last night watching streaming video of the Metros laugher against DC instead of the top of the table Quakes-Revs match.

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So I only saw the highlights of Quakes-Revs. Poor Twellman. Almost 17. It would have been quite a goal. And, though I don't think Danny Hernandez has much to complain about after raising his elbows, but am I the only one who thinks Moreno was faking? I saw the slow motion replay, but I failed to notice the part where Hernandez pulled out the gun and shot Moreno in the face. Unless your cheek has just been shattered, take a page out of the TnT playbook and rub yourself off, get up and keep going. Moreno seemed just fine to me and was obviously capable of simulating significant pain once again after Dorman's non-foul.

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Rumor has it that Ruud Van Nistelroy wants to join Real. I don't think Real nedd him, especially for what he will cost, but this sounds bad for United. Already enjoying an indifferent season, dealing with injuries to important players, facing the retirement of Roy Keane and now the horse in Man U's clothing says he wants to leave. There could be tough times ahead for the Devils. Although, we should all recall that five years after their first European Cup, they went down.

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It's the kids' championship tonight. I'll be cheering for Mexico.

A Look Back at the Day and the Rest of My CL Predictions (plus tidbits and a dark secret revealed)

2005-09-27T15:11:00.000-07:00

The matchday is done and it's time to look back through my predictions and shake my head with shame. Actually, I feel that I did pretty well today. 5 and 3 isn't bad for a start. Without any further ado, let's take a look at what transpired.

Barca over Udinese (4-1) and Juve over Rapid Vienna (3-0) turned out to be the gimmes I though they would. I'm not the biggest fan (or really any fan at all), but it is nice to see Barca producing the offensive fireworks they are capable of. Bayern didn't even allow a shot on goal against Club Brugge (1-0). They still only grabbed the victory by a lone Demichelis strike (it's always good when he puts it into the right net). Just as I predicted, ManU made hard going of it against Benfica (2-1). It was left to Ruud "the horse-faced wonder" to rescue them at the death. And finally, let's have a big round of applause for FC Thun who earned their very first CL victory (1-0) (Of course it was only their second ever CL game and they really weren't bloody likely to beat Arsenal, were they? But still.) That's a great accomplishment for a team that is relatively small even by Swiss standards.

So now it is time to see where it all went wrong for my powers of prognostication. Arsenal pulled out a victory in Amsterdam (2-1). The medioce quality of this year's Ajax aside, I really didn't see Arsenal getting the win. I thought that their injuries and their poor league form would tell here. I mean, Wenger's sides have always been mentally fragile. How could they do this to me? A pox on them! I have to admit that I really was guessing about Pana and Werder (2-1). I know that Werder have a reasonable stable of attacking weapons, but I don't know much about Pana. I just went on the recent poor CL form of Greek clubs. That'll teach me, I suppose. And finally, Villareal and Lille drew (0-0). I knew both sides were relatively lightweight for the CL, but I thought that Riquelme would manage to inspire his side to victory. Apparently no one was doing any inspiring on either side.

And now, my surefire predictions for tomorrow. I've learned my lessons from the matchday past and am ready to apply my now more-finely-honed powers of foretelling to upcoming Champions League clashes.

Real Betis over Anderlecht:

I don't have any real reason for this. But Anderlecht are in the midst of a record CL losing streak. Why should it end now?

Chelsea over Liverpool:

The glamour match of the week. Last season Liverpool won this tournament, eliminating Chelsea in the semis, and still managed to finish about 157 points behind them in the league. This season, after only seven games, Liverpool are already 14 points back. But the 'Pool can still turn it on in Europe. They have dangerous players and desire to prove that last year wasn't a complete fluke. But I think that Chelsea are just bit stronger and have even more motivation in this one.

Porto over Artmedia:

Artmedia are a great story. Just like Thun. Unfortunately, while Porto are not even a shadow of their former CL winning selves, they are also not Sparta Prague. The Bratislava side will have to be happy just to have made it this far.

Real Madrid over Olympiakos:

Two wins this past week are just what Real needed to regain some confidence following three losses in the week prior. Even if they hadn't had such a good week I would be picking Real here.

Lyon over Rosenborg:

Rosenborg are a sentimental favorite of mine (I actually have been to see them play while visiting family in Trondheim. It was freezing and pouring rain.) and the Lerkendal can be a beastly place to visit. However, Rosenborg are a team in decline. While they are fighting to stave off a relegation battle after 13 straight championships, Lyon are looking strong contenders for a fifth consecutive French title. It would be particularly ironic if it were former Rosenborg star John Carew who puts them to the sword.

PSV over Fenerbahce:

They may be trying to overcome a wholesale turnover in the midfield, but I still think that PSV could make it out of the group stage. And, of course I'm going to root for a team that fields Beasley.

Inter over Rangers:

Inter can be finicky, but I don't think this choice needs any explanation.

Milan over Schalke:

Chelsea-Liverpool may be the the high profile match, but this could be the most exciting. If Schalke can put things together, that is. They have all of the capabilities to make this a very exciting game. Unfortunately for them, Milan have more quality at every position. Milan should stay perfect.

Now that I've leapt out on that limb, it's time to see if it holds me.

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Tidbits

Ok. Only one. The U-17s are out, as everyone knows. The wisdom is that it's no shame to go out to the Netherlands, but that doesn't mean it isn't disappointing. Our kids had their chances. At least Mexico are still flying the flag for the region. I much prefer their chances to those of Costa Rica if they had managed the upset. I know their the USA's archrival, but I will be supporting them in the semis.

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A Dark Secret Revealed

Gentle readers (that's right! Plural! I know you're out there!), the time has come for your humble blogger to make a dark, personal confession. I am afflicted by a condition that is considered by many to be... unnatural. An affront to all that is good and true. There are, in fact, those who believe that persons such as myself should rounded up and put into camps or sent to re-education centers. Some feel that our condition is not curable and that we should simply be put out of our misery before we can infect others. I labor under the burden of Chelsea fandom. I know, I know. I can bear your screams of horror. But please. Do not flee. In my defense, my fandom predates the Chelski era. I was first seduced by the promise of an up and coming club featuring such talents as Vialli, Zola, Petrescu and the personalities of Wise and le Saux. They played a slick, continental brand of passing football in a league that was known more for rough and tumble physical play. Sure they had trouble maintaining concentration and struggled against the less talented teams, but they always raised their game against ManU, Arsenal, Liverpool. They were coming off significant European success. They seemed primed to reach the heights. But then they stagnated. Year of underachieving in the league. Embarassing exits in Europe to such powerhouses as Vallerenga and St. Gallen. And then the crippling debt. Who could blame us for welcoming Abrahmovic with open arms? Who wouldn't have? Is my fandom really so different from yours? Look into your hearts. Can you find the strength to accept me as I am, as one of you?

This Week in Europe

2005-09-26T18:11:00.000-07:00

With another European matchday just around the corner, I thought it would be time to offer my predictions on this week's fixtures.

Tuesday:

Ajax and Arsenal to draw.

Not that Ajax have been overly impressive anywhere this season, but neither have Arsenal. And Arsenal tend to make European fixtures harder than they need to be.

Barca over Udinese.

Udinese are off to a terrible start in Italy and Barca have had trouble getting going in Spain. Both won last time out in the Champions League with Barca a little lucky to come away with their final score. I just think that Barca have too much quality to let this match get away.

Bayern over Brugge.

They may have had their Bundesliga record run of victories ended over the weekend in Hamburg and they may make heavy going of it here, too, but Bayern are too good to lose to Club Brugge.

FC Thun over Sparta Prague.

No good reason for thinking this. Neither side is terribly strong. But it was just so heartbreaking for Thun against Arsenal and it would add so much to their story if they managed a win. I'm cheering for them.

Juve over Rapid Vienna.

I'm not a big fan of Juve, but I think this is self explanatory.

Villareal over Lille.

They've just dragged themselves out of the relegation zone in Spain but I think Villareal will win this. Riquelme and Forlan alone are stronger than anything Lille can offer.

Man U over Benfica.

No Keane, no Neville, no Heinze, big problem, as the loss to Blackburn showed. They're rickety at the back and since I hate them so much I would love to call this against them, but ManU tend to gut it out in Europe (until the knockout rounds, at least) and Benfica are not really a top calliber team.

Werder over Pana.

Werder tend to be a bit soft, especially for top European competition. But they do have great attacking options. When they are allowed to be they can be quite attractive. I don't think Pana have the ability to contain them or hit them back. This is not Lyon, after all. So the Germans should get their first win of the competition.

That's it for now. Tomorrow I'll make my predictions for Wednesday. Note that I don't predict scores. I think that since the final score of a match has so much to do with the constantly changing dynamic within the game itself, it's really just guesswork to pick the exact outcome. I'll settle for picking the general result.

Oops!

2005-09-25T16:14:00.000-07:00

There are people out there who get paid to write about the most beautiful of games. As someone who writes about football only because he wants to share the joy that he finds in it (although if you want to send a little something to say 'Thank you', you know, for the joy and such, please feel free), I find it at least mildly amusing when those professionals mess things up. Whether they be factual errors or erroneous captions, I do my best to take note. Now that I have this blog I feel that it is my duty to report here all such mistakes that I find and present them for your edification/amusement (mostly the latter). So... did anyone else notice that according to mlsnet.com, the official site of our beloved MLS, San Jose clinched first place in the West with their 1-1 victory over FCD? I was pretty sure that to win, you needed to score more goals than your opponent. I guess the Quakes are just that good.

Yay! I Have a Soccer Blog!

2005-09-25T14:50:00.000-07:00

Well, I was going to kick off my very own soccer (I know, I know. I said football in the title) blog with a long article about how disappointed and vaguely ashamed I was of DC United for blowing a 2-0 second leg away lead against U. Catolica, but since I'm writing on the unfamiliar keyboard of my financee's laptop and I obviously have clumsy fingers, I kept accidentally deleting large portions of it. So I guess I'll start things off instead by offering my shorter musings on a few things soccer related and leave the long articles for a later time when I've calmed down a bit and can type them very carefully, one word at a time, with one finger.

DC United 3 - 4 U. Catolica: Bah and Eff!

2005-09-25T14:28:00.000-07:00

As I said above I do not agree with Sigi Schmid that United gave a performance of which they could be proud. So they took a 2-0 first half lead. Moreno missed a penalty. He's not supposed to do that. Not in a big game. Olsen and Kovalenko need to learn shoot with the first touch. While I can't fault United for conceding that remarkable free kick goal (although they should never have fouled in that area, shame on you Freddie) the other two goals, including the winner, were the direct results of criminally poor defending. Ok, this was not a 0-5 drubbing like United got from Pumas in Mexico, but it was a game they should have had well in hand and that they simply did not seem to have the composure to kill off.

In fact, it's not so much the second leg result that bothers me. Without having seen the match, anyone might say that DC had done surprisingly well in such a difficult environment. But they shouldn't have been in their position in the first place. They only managed a 1-1 draw at home. This was the second time in international club competion that they could only manage a 1-1 home draw. Pumas, though coming off two consecutive titles, was not exactly setting the Mexican league alight this year. Catolica may be topping the Chilean first division, but it's still the Chilean first division. I don't care if Chile is in the magical football land of South America, if they did once produce a Libertedores champion in Colo Colo, if they did manage a somewhat questionable third place finish in their own World Cup in '62, if they have produced such relatively recent stars as Salas and Zamorano. It's still Chile! We have a better national team than they do. We have for some years now. Our clubs should be beating theirs. Especially at home.

This is important. Silly summertime friendlies aside, these are the games that matter for the league. Sure not many will take notice of the CONCACAF champions. But they at least get to play in the FIFA club championship. The Sudamericana is not the Libertedores. But if United had advanced, they would have gone to either Banfield or Fluminense. Either way, an MLS team would have played a competitve match from one of the two biggest football powers in the hemisphere. Brazilians and Argintines would have had to admit that we do have a league. They would have seen one of our teams play live and would have cared. MLS may have gotten an invitation to qualify for the Libertedores. They still might, but this is way it would have had a little more credibility. These games are how MLS will gain respect, not with international friendlies. I believe that our clubs have the ability to succeed in these situations. We should all be disappointed when they let us down.

The Kids are All Right!

2005-09-25T14:11:00.000-07:00

How about our kids, huh? The U-17s just followed the U-20s in winning their group at their age appropriate FIFA World Championship. In fact, they did so in much more convincing fashion. I only managed to see their match against Italy, but they did deserve to win by even more. It's true that their skills are not fully developed. But their athleticism, movement and ideas were all very impressive and put them head and shoulders above their competition on that day. The one area of concern has to be their goalkeeper. I found it risible when some writers claimed that the U-20s were good enough to win the title, but, given the few necessary breaks, I think this U-17 team actually does have a shot at making the final. Whether or not they do, I'm excited for this next generation to grow up.

It's not just our kids, either. CONCACAF has made quite a good show of it. Three teams in the quarterfinals after such a miserable performance in the U-20 championship. Admittedly, at least one will be eliminated at this stage since Mexico plays Costa Rica, but that also means that the confederation are guarenteed a spot in the semis. A real bright spot for the region since the senior level has been so mediocre, Mexico and the USA aside.

A Weekly Dig at the Refs

2005-09-25T13:55:00.000-07:00

Everyone picks on refs (except, apparently, MLS commentators) so I want to get in on the action. It's not that don't appreciate refs or respect them. I do both of those things. But I do expect them to be generally competent. That is, sadly, not always the case in our beloved MLS. The standard of play improves every year, but sometimes I think the quality of refereeing is not improving at the same rate. Our officiating crews seem to have a particularly large amount of trouble with the offside rule. I'm all for giving the benefit of the doubt to the attacker but I fail to see how there was any doubt on San Jose's equaliser against FCD.

I'm not all negative. To show this, I'd like to give that same officiating crew a big hand for the fortitude they showed in sending off both Robinson and Talley following their fracas. Too many times this season have I seen referees produce yellows where reds would have been more appropriate (unfortunately I have to admit that Matt Reis of my beloved Revolution has benefit more than once) or been duped into producing a red where it was not warranted (I'm thinking of a certain incident involving a couple of Eddies who play for the national team). So, good on you guys, even if you did miss that offside.