Weekend 1 in MLS and other thoughts
Lots of travelling fans do not equal a win, or even a decent performance
So much has been made of the hundreds of Toronto FC fans travelling to watch their club open the 2008 MLS season in Columbus, I love to see fans travel, but in this case one has to ask why. Toronto has made very few off season moves to upgrade their team, sure they got rid of a coach by moving him further up the food chain of the organization, but were the woes of 2007 really Mo’s fault? No it was a typical expansion team, they had some talent, but lacked any depth, they made some roster moves, but they never developed team cohesion. So having the best fans in the league, having a new stadium (why on god’s earth would you build a soccer stadium with fake grass- source of much of their injury issues last year), doesn’t result in a good team. The opening weekend has to be a very ominous sign for the Red Patch Boy’s, getting shelled by the Crew (MLS whipping child for the last decade), has got to have the fans already scratching their head in disbelief at the on field performance. Having their only real chance on goal a PK stopped had to be a dagger to the heart of the many TFC fans that crossed the border only to drag their butts back north with their tails tucked between their legs.
Champions get a wake up call
In a rematch of the MLS cup, the champions looked a lot more human. For the past two MLS cups, DeRo stepped up, put the Dynamo on his back and through guts, talent, and will lead them to two titles, but Saturday afternoon it was the New England Revolution that looked like the far superior team. Even without Taylor Twellman, the Rev’s dominated the match and got a small measure of revenge for their defeat in the MLS cup. Perhaps the Dynamo were looking forward to their midweek CONCACAF Champions Cup match against Deportivo Saprissa, but they looked very flat.
I am fine with Spanish broadcasts but
So the MLS has this agreement to allow some matches to only be broadcast on TeleFutura, which I would not mind but when I attempted to watch the Chivas vs. FC Dallas match on Sunday it was one of the most unwatchable matches I have ever seen. I can handle the matches being in Spanish, but when you can’t even see the score because the picture is so crappy, what is the point. I would blame the issue on the local channel, but no other program on 22 seemed to have this issue on Sunday and none of my other channels English or Spanish had the issues that TeleFutura had during the match. I also believe that MLS should be broadcasting these matches along with the HDNet exclusives on Direct Kick, what is the point of ordering a package to see all the MLS matches, when there are some that are either unavailable or others are unwatchable on the channel they are offered. I know this match ended in a 1-1 draw, but I can’t offer much else since the broadcast was so bad. I did notice that Atiba got a start for Chivas, but again I can’t tell you how effective he was since all the players were a blur of pixels.
Soccer in a baseball stadium
The KC move from Arrowhead to a small minor league baseball stadium, must seem like a brilliant move to their FO. I mean they have a match, the stadium, including the outfield berm appeared to be full and rocking with the KC fans, then add that they outplayed DC United (the pick of many to win it all this year). I watched about 30 minutes of this match, and it looks like KC is not suffering any great harm from the loss of Eddie Johnson to Fullham. DC United appeared to be looking for an on field leader, and lacked the vision and organization that the club is known for. Again, are they paying more attention to their midweek match against Pachuca?
Are they really that bad?
So the biggest question coming out of the first weekends matches has to be, are the LA Galaxy really that bad? They simply got handled by the Rapids, every aspect of the Galaxy play was weak, too few touches by Beckham, an invisible Landycake, in fact the only player that was impressive for the Galaxy was Ruiz. The Rapids on the other hand got great efforts from a number of players that no one had ever heard of before. With the vast majority of their players injured, they started 4 players that I have never seen before. The star of the match for Colorado has to be Terry Cooke, who not only scored the first goal but got assists on two others, also impressive was the play of Christian Gomez. I have to believe that the Rapids put forth a great effort and that should not be diminished by the horrible play of the LA midfield and defense. Before the all star break, the LA Galaxy will be so far behind the rest of the western conference teams that the wholesale changes will start again, the only question is how much further will the league allow them to bend/break the salary cap? Will we see the league grant all the teams a second DP spot, or will they rather allow LA to grandfather more top end players in without them counting against their salary cap?
Putting out the Fire for 90 minutes
So for our home opener we faced the Chicago Fire, and the 7-8,000 Blanco fans that show up to watch the Mexican diving champion, really the guy has more than enough talent left (super vision, and precision passing), it leaves me wondering why does he dive so much? He actually looks like a WWE superstar, when at the slightest touch, he is flopping flat on his back like he was hit by lightning, only to pop back up to his feet seconds later (if he is smiling then he has gotten the foul called, if he is yapping at the official- hard to tell since he never really stops, then most likely he did not get the call he wanted). Honestly, I have never seen a player who dives and then is in the ear of the official every second that play is stopped, and a lot of the time when play is going on, please Blanco just shut up and play, your better than this.
The match was truly dominated by RSL, which struggled again to finish their scoring chances 17 shots with 9 on goal and only 1 in the back of the net and it was a redirected own goal(it Soumare had not tapped it in, Findley was in place to do so), but from the start of the match RSL played attacking and controlling football. Impressive efforts by Nat Borchers, Ian Joy, and Fabian Espindola, and solid efforts by the rest of the line up, there really was not a single RSL player who put in a poor performance. You could tell that Kenny Deuchar was still suffering some jet lag and looked a little confused on the overall gameplan, but he showed some good football skills taking the ball to the corner to slow down the pace late in the match.
Giving credit where it is due, Blanco was in the right place at the right time and a big time player made a big time play and earned his team a point on the road. The effort from RSL was as solid from start to finish and I was impressed that in the 90th minute with a 1-0 lead that the team was still attacking, it shows a very different attitude from the past, where we would have bunkered down and allowed the other team to crank up shots for the last 10-15 minutes. I think both teams have to be a bit upset with the officials who in the first half seemed to let everything go, and in the second half started calling every touch of players. I am not sure how a defender climbing the back of Yura in the box, isn’t called and the Blanco fall down with no one touching him can be, but we know that the big names get the calls, but once again the league showed that solid and consistent officiating is not a strong point of the league.
OFF MY SOAPBOX
This entry was posted on March 31, 2008 at 5:14 pm and is filed under The soapbox. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.