MLS and Real Salt Lake news/blog updates
May 19, 2008 by f4denz.
MLS week 8 in review
Chivas USA Makes The Points ussoccerplayers.typepad.com
DC United once again get to be part of the main story for all the wrong reasons, dropping a 1-0 lead to end up losing against a club that has never - NEVER - come back to win an MLS game.
MLS Weekend Review: The Sack Rack csrnusa.com/ussoccerspot/
Another sign of Major League Soccer’s evolution is the development of a tradition reporters and pundits have in the motherland, the UK. That is the sack race. American soccer reporting and writing is generally not as negative or cynical as our British counterparts. This is largely because we have neither the history, the football infrastructure nor sharp critical historical lens they have en mass. But as MLS gets more attention albeit from non-mainstream sources, coaches face more pressures than in MLS first decade of existence.
SBI MLS Best XI: Week 8 soccerbyives.net
You just never know who you are going to see on the weekly MLS Best XI.
First there was Chad Barrett, then there was Alan Gordon. Now you can add Atiba Harris and Edson Buddle to the list of forwards who have made MLS Best XI this year.Buddle is joined on the squad by fellow attacking players, and MLS Best XI regulars, Landon Donovan and David Beckham, who both played their parts in the Galaxy’s 5-1 distruction of FC Dallas.
The Good, The Bad, The Coyote Ugly (week8) blog.washingtonpost.com/soccerinsider
THE GOOD
*Edson Buddle’s hat trick.
*Marcelo Gallardo’s change of direction and well-placed goal.
*TFC Coach John Carver, on Columbus’s tactics: “They’ve come to spoil the game. They’ve come to take their time. They’ve come to fall over and dive all over the park, and I think that’s what they did. Any team to go six wins out of seven and have a game plan like that surprises me a little bit.”
Other MLS news
Qualifying Format Unveiled for 2008-2009 CONCACAF Champions League™ concacaf.com
The new CONCACAF Champions League™ will be comprised of 24 teams, representing each of CONCACAF’s regions. The CONCACAF Champions League™ will feature four teams from Mexico and USA; two clubs each from Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama; and one representative from Canada, Belize, and Nicaragua and three teams from the Caribbean.
The following is the qualification process, which will be completed by mid-July 2008, in preparation for the start of the Preliminary Round of the 2008-09 CONCACAF Champions League™ this coming August.
ON MY SOAPBOX
So am I the only one who thinks the timing of this tournament will stink for MLS squads? The group stages take place at the same time as the MLS playoffs, and even worse the next phase Quarterfinals and start of the Semifinals take place before the MLS season starts. I like the concept of something better than what current Champions Cup offers but this really seems like a stretch, USL teams from Canada get to try and qualify, but USL teams from the US are shut out (unless they can become the 2nd USL team to win the LHUSOC-Rochester did it in 99-since the MLS started competing in the tournament). Perhaps a better solution would be a smaller tournament, 12 teams instead of 24, or trying to get leagues to adjust their schedules to allow teams to better compete in the tournament? I am not sure, but we will see how this first attempts goes, I am not holding my breath for MLS success in this format.
OFF MY SOAPBOX
Another MLS team in Canada? (Commissioner’s Vancouver Statement) web.mlsnet.com
Following today’s announcement in Vancouver that BC Place will undergo renovations, Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber issued the following statement: “We believe Vancouver is a potential market for a future Major League Soccer expansion team. There is no doubt the market for professional soccer exists in Vancouver, as we saw last November when nearly 50,000 fans attended the exhibition match between the Los Angeles Galaxy and the Whitecaps.
ON MY SOAPBOX
Listen I think that the success of TFC is great, they have a great fan base, and while I am not sure how they are able to get a roster with so many international players (god knows the MLS rules get bent and broken more often than they get followed), but is that enough to bypass major US cities that have been waiting for expansion? St. Louis, Las Vegas, San Diego, Atlanta, Milwaukee, and others have had interest, some cities have funding already in place for stadiums, a few have even offered MLS their expansion fees, but the commish playing politics makes statements like this and leave fans scratching their heads.
Now add in the news that the recent partnership with FC Barcelona includes rights for them to own and control a team (read more here -”If you want to be a global brand, you have to be in the United States,” said FC Barcelona vice chairman Ferran Soriano, the club’s executive responsible for marketing. “We want to have a permanent presence here, and maybe that permanent presence will mean a team here someday.”), and add in the fact that as part of his deal with MLS that David Beckham also can become a franchise owner. Where is the talent going to come from for these teams, this could lead to a 20 team league within the next 4-5 years, and with the current salary cap in place this type of expansion could lead to MLS becoming a weaker league, at least when it comes to on field performance. I would urge Garber to deal with the issues current teams are facing and worry less about expansion beyond Seattle and Philly.
OFF MY SOAPBOX
RSL Updates
ON MY SOAPBOX
I will be doing a full ¼ season review over the next couple days but here are a couple of the things that stick out. Of all the new 2008 players, it is the defense that seems to be the most improved, but at the same time we have given up more goals to this point of the season than in the past, so is the defense really improved? We bring “Dr. Goal” to Salt Lake, and fail to get him the ball MLS has had very few pure strikers, and we get one but have no clue that he is not like most of the forwards in the league who want the ball 20 yards out, he will crash the box looking for either a ball over the top, or a cross into the box that he can use his height and skill to head into goal. We must figure out how to leverage him, before like many other players he gets frustrated and quits trying or leaves. I find that while our numbers look better than last year for overall performance, they still do not measure up to expectations.
OFF MY SOAPBOX
The rest of week 8 in the MLS
May 19, 2008 by f4denz.
A classic battle in New York
While it was not the high scoring match that many consider the best MLS match in history (last years 5-4 Red Bulls victory of the Beckham led Galaxy in front of 65,000 plus fans), this weekends matchup between the Wizards and Red Bulls was one of the most exciting this season. KC started out with great possession and a calm, collected attack and for the first 10-15 minutes it looked like it would be a one sided battle with the home team getting the worse of it. Then all of a sudden the Red Bulls started attacking and forced a couple great saves by Hartman, and poured in several shots (they would have 20 on the night), but it was the Wizards who would strike first and take advantage of a great corner kick by Marinelli that Jimmy Conrad had no trouble finishing off. Once the scoring was started both teams settled down a bit and the next 10 minutes were rather boring, but then a great attack by New York, a shot by Richards, a save by Hartman but he doesn’t control it and Jozy pounds a ball towards the net but Jack Jewsbury clears the ball off the goal line to save the goal. Impressive on both sides and neither team slows down, this is a wide open match with a ton of chances for both teams, the first half would end with each team having 5 shots 2 on goal for KC, with one in, and 4 on goal for the Red bulls, but nothing on the scoreboard The first half ends 1-0 with KC in front of the Red Bulls.
The second half would be just as exciting as the first half, both teams continue to attack but the possession is a bit more limited for KC and New York seem to have started playing better as they control the pace of the match. The more time that NY plays in the final third of KC, the more chances and opportunities they get at the shots continue to rain in, but whenever Hartman makes a mistake someone covers the line and clears the ball for him, and the Red Bulls have to be pulling their hair out, since they are getting so many chances. In the 77th minute after being pushed, pulled, held and fouled by Davy Arnauld, Dave van der Bergh throws a haphazard elbow as he tries to get away, Arnauld goes down on the contact and the official issues a straight red card to Dave and a yellow to Davy. New York is rattled for a few minutes but they continue to attack and in the 81st minute Red Bulls rookie Danliegh Borman finally gets the Bulls on the scoreboard, and we are tied a 1 each. Another player from Africa making a difference on week 8 in the MLS, foreign players have over half the goals this season for the Red Bulls. After a foul on Jozy that was not called, Red Bulls head coach Juan Carlos Osorio is ejected from the match. New York down a man, and their head coach continue to attack and really control the match, a total of 32 shots (20-12 Red Bulls win that battle), and 10 of them on goal (8-2 advantage for the Red Bulls), but in the end the scoreboard shows 1-1 and each team will have to settle for a point in what was one of the most exciting matches of the year so far.
The Big Bang
Well if one believes the rocket scientists and such the Galaxy started with a big bang, all I know is if you ask the players and fans of FC Dallas, they would have to agree after the Galaxy explode at Pizza Hut Park. It started off slow with Dallas controlling the ball for the first 10 minutes or so, but then LA started putting long balls over the top to Landycakes and Buddle and while Dallas would try to counter attack, it was in minute 25 that everything started to go wrong for the Hoops. It was Chris Klein that would strike first on a ball served to his feet from the mid field stripe by Brandon McDonald, and Chris calmly put the ball by Sala going five hole on him. The attack would continue for the Galaxy, and while Dallas tried to counter attack it was clear that on this day the Galaxy would not be denied, six minutes later it was a play that started with a LA goal kick, played by Landon to Buddle who slipped behind the Dallas back line and put it pas Sala for goal number two for LA. But LA was just getting started, a mere three minutes later in the 34th on a long balled played over the top to Landycakes he put a shot of Dallas DP Davino for the third goal for LA, but this one goes in the books as a own goal. Much to the agony of Dallas the half was not over and in minute 39 it was Edson Buddle putting in his second of the match. Dallas tried to continue attacking but when you are down 4-0 at the half only a miracle can save you and on this day there simply were no miracles.
Dallas would have a couple highlights in the second half as Oduro got a goal in the 54th minute on a great cross by Cooper to get Dallas within three, but in the 75th minute any chance for a comeback were ended as Adrian Serioux was shown a straight red card for a hard studs up slide tackle that was late and from behind on Golden Balls, it was a well deserved red card. LA had one more trick in their bag and in the 85th minute they did something that no other team has done this year, yup for the second time this year a Galaxy player got a hat trick as Buddle got his 3rd goal of the match which is also his 3rd of the year on a great headed ball served up by Beckham (his 5th assist so far this year). The last few minutes were ugly as LA played keep away and Dallas ran after the ball with very little in the way of offensive chances. Two things are clear in the 5-1 Galaxy victory, first it should have been more like 8-1, but Landon did not finish a couple of chances that on most days would have found the back of the net, the second thing is that LA is finding out how to take advantage of teams that overplay the superstars. While both Landon and Beck’s were a big part of the effort, it was a guy making $150,000 a year that almost single handed got the win, on most teams Edson would be one of the top paid players, but on LA he is number 5 on the earning list.
RSL travels to Dallas next weekend, can RSL shake their road issues and play up to the quality they have shown at home? Will Morales be healthy enough to play, can RSL finally figure out how to use Kenny Deuchar, can RSL take advantage of Serioux being out on red card suspension? That match preview will be coming up on Thursday evening.
OFF MY SOAPBOX