Major League Soccer is in trouble … in the sense that Chivas USA might move at some point.
When you’re worrying about individual teams instead of a league, you’re at a stage women’s soccer has yet to reach in this country.
So when Sunil Gulati says they’re looking at 11 possible owners in 10 possible markets, that could mean this league is operating with more margin of error than leagues in the past. (Jeff Kassouf looks at the geography; Jeff DiVeronica confirms Western New York as one of the interested parties.) The WUSA had eight teams. WPS struggled to reach that total and was scraping for owners in its last couple of seasons.
That could be a preliminary number, of course. Perhaps, like so many WPS expansion candidates, some of these owners will be ephemeral. Or maybe the optimists will win out here, and the new business plan is winning over prospective owners.
The business plan is surely as reasonable as it’s going to get, particularly with U.S. Soccer backing this league more explicitly than it has in the past.
Previously on The Ultimate Fighter: Bleeep … Bleeeeppp! …. Bleeeeeeepppp! And Joey Rivera shocked No. 1 pick Alvey.
Several seasons ago, Forrest Griffin flipped a coin to set up the matchups. Now, Roy Nelson has his team drawing straws. Final draft pick Julian Lane gets the short straw, and he’s so pumped that his Mohawk is shaking. He’s leaning toward picking Mike Secor because Secor has been a jerk in the house. But maybe Mike Ricci (can he take a punch?) or Bristol Marunde (reasons unclear).
Dana White takes the guys for a special premiere of Here Comes The Boom. Dana pitches the film as a funny film, not a tough-guy film. (Can’t it be both? I’ve got this screenplay …)
We get to see a few snippets, especially the slow-motion of Kevin James knocking former TUF coach Jason “Mayhem” Miller.
Everyone had fun, but it appears Roy Nelson had an issue with it.
Watching movies with lights on sucked , just like someone using their phone in the theater.
Nelson’s worried that Lane isn’t fully prepared to go three rounds, thinking he gets sloppy when he’s gassed. Nelson tries to keep Lane motivated through some conditioning work: “If my fat butt can do this, I know you can.”
Fight selection time, and Nelson gives the fake-out, hinting that it’s going to be Mike (Secor? Ricci?) but taking Marunde instead. Marunde gives a long staredown, then tells Lane, “Big mistake.” Lane’s response: “Yeah, for you.” Wait … what? Marunde didn’t do anything, mistake or not. It’s like the old Brian Regan bit where the gate attendant says “Have a nice flight,” and Regan reflexively responds, “You too … if you go somewhere … sometime …”
Marunde talks about how awesome everything is with Team Carwin. Then he weighs himself and stares in disbelief … 186 pounds. Let’s get those 15 pounds off.
The weight cut starts in a hot tub. Then Marunde gets in a hoodie and a sleeping bag in the backyard. In Vegas. That’ll do it. We get a montage later that shows considerable amounts of sweat rolling out.
Over to Nelson’s team, and Roy is having a lot of trouble getting Lane to realize he can’t just let Marunde push him to the fence.
Then back to the weight-cut montage, including a nice torrent of sweat.
Weigh-in time, and Marunde makes it. Or does he? A couple of people on Nelson’s team think the beam on the scale was up. As in, “Dude, he’s heavier than that.”
Both Marunde and Lane say they’re fighting for a financial future for their young kids. Anyone else get really uncomfortable when fighters say that? You know, unemployment’s down. You can get steadier jobs. With health insurance, pending Congressional action in 2013.
Marunde seems like the better-grounded guy. He’s down to earth. And yet he comes across like an ’80s movie villain. He does know his ’80s films:
Tale of the tape: Marunde’s taller, older, more experienced … how exactly is Lane going to win this? He starts out swinging wildly and then being taken … you guessed it … up against the cage.
After 90 seconds of nothing, Marunde opens enough distance to land some knees. They break, and we get a view of Lane’s absurdly tight shorts. Why isn’t he wearing TUF standard issue? Can’t we put a black bar over that? And why is he taking so many knees?
Lane does succeed once or twice is turning it into a wild brawl, and that’s where he could succeed. Marunde’s face is somehow turned into a bloody mess. And yet the round ends with Marunde on top of Lane, pounding his ribs.
Between rounds, we see two gashes on Marunde’s face — one on the bridge of the nose, one on his cheek. Lane opens with a solid head kick. Then he slips throwing a wild right hand from about 20 feet away. Marunder responds with a sharp leg kick and combo. To say Marunde is the more fundamentally sound fighter is like saying Neil Peart has better drum technique than Phil Rudd.
A couple of minutes in, Lane again throws long-range bombs. One or two somehow land. Marunde again presses Lane to the cage, but Lane circles. Marunde regains control. Nelson keeps calling for Lane to throw an inside leg kick.
Round 2 ends, and there’s clearly not enough time in the episode for a third. I’d guess Marunde won, but the blood could sway the judges, and each round was close. But it goes to Marunde.
THEN Nelson brings up the weight issue. “Do you want me to make sure the commissioner does HIS job?”
White is stunned. And he tells Nelson he should’ve brought it up at the weigh-in. Which is what Nelson was asking!
Yet White exclaimed, “You can’t fix stupid.” No, but can you fix the scales?
Lane is in tears, dealing with the reckoning of letting down his family. Dude, CareerBuilder. Monster.com.
Next week: Lane seems mad again.
Worth noting: Nelson’s bottom two draft picks have fought. So have Carwin’s top two. So Carwin leads 2-1, but don’t bet on him holding that lead.
Before going to the Champions League roundup for the week, let’s pause to consider how much more difficult it is to plan a Fan Tribute Tour in the United States that it would be in, say, the Netherlands.
So yes, I’d like the team to come close enough to D.C. that I don’t need to pay for airfare and a hotel to see them. But a lot of the country could have that concern.
The one curious thing: They know it’s getting colder, right? See that big empty area below Connecticut? It’s a little warmer there.
Meanwhile, the Women’s Champions League in Europe wrapped up the round of 32, our favorite player/journalist Tiffany Weimer has checked in with her take on what it meant to hear the Champions League theme song and knock out Glasgow City. She even provided a few highlights. Anyone else think the Glasgow captain (20-second mark) looks a little like McKayla Maroney, who’s mentioned in passing in the blog?
Weimer’s team has advanced. Here’s the full rundown.
Turbine Potsdam (Ger) 5-0 Standard Liege (Bel), aggregate 8-1: Alyssa Naeher got the start in goal for Potsdam and actually had a few saves to make — Standard got six shots on target. Keelin Winters played the full 90 for Potsdam after sitting out last week, while Alex Singer wasn’t on the gameday roster after playing last week. For Standard, American Carleta Arbulu once again wasn’t involved. For Anonma fans: She entered the match in the 58th minute and scored in the 87th.
Brondby (Den) 3-3 Stabaek (Nor), aggregate 3-5: The Norwegian side scored two first-half goals to run the aggregate lead to 4-0, then answered a Brondby goal quickly to run it to 5-1. Jasmyne Spencer joined the game in the 67th minute.
Lyon (Fra) 5-0 PK-35 (Fin), aggregate 12-0: PK once again started Americans Liz Bogus, Casey Berrier and Megan Chapin, but Lyon outshot them 32-0. The French juggernaut juggled its roster a bit, but Sonia Bompastor still went the distance and scored. Camille Abily also scored early. Lara Dickenmann and Ami Otaki were second-half subs.
Malmo (Swe) 6-1 MTK (Hun), aggregate 10-1: Malmo gave Ali Riley, Ramona Bachmann and Thora Helgadottir the night off, keeping them on the bench just in case. They weren’t needed.
Goteborg (Swe) 3-0 Spartak Subotica (Srb), aggregate 4-0: Christen Press got the final goal for Goteborg, which also started Yael Averbuch, Ingrid Wells, Camille Levin and Anita Asante.
Neulengbach (Aut) 2-2 Olimpia Cluj (Rou), aggregate 3-3, Cluj win on away goals: Each team scored in extra time — Cluj in the 101st minute, Neulengbach in the 108th. Stats say Neulengbach outshot Cluj 35-17 and had 16 shots on target, 2 off the woodwork.
Torres (Ita) 3-1 Apollon (Cyp), aggregate 6-3: Sinead Farrelly and Michelle Betos played the full 90 for the visitors. Arianna Criscione was on the Torres bench.
Fortuna Hjorring (Den) 0-0 Glasgow City (Sco), aggregate 2-1: Weimer played 75 minutes, Lisa-Marie Woods played 90, and Casey Ramirez was on the bench for Fortuna.
Verona (Ita) 3-0 Birmingham (Eng), after extra time, aggregate 3-2: Cristiana Girelli had the hat trick to stun the English side.
Zorkiy (Rus) 3-1 Stjarnan (Isl), aggregate 3-1: Mexico’s Fatima Leyva played 90 for the winners. Katie Deines and Ashley Bares started for Stjarnan; Veronica Perez replaced Bares in the second half.
Rossiyanka (Rus) 1-2 Den Haag (Ned), aggregate 5-3: Teresa Noyola had a late goal for Den Haag. Brittany Persaud came on as a late sub; Libby Guess wasn’t in the 18. Fabiana played 90 for Rossiyanka.
Arsenal (Eng) 4-0 Barcelona (Esp), aggregate 7-0: Kelly Smith started and was replaced at halftime by Jennifer Beattie, who had a second-half hat trick. Alex Scott played 90; Gemma Davison played 64.
Roa (Nor) 4-0 BIIK (Kaz), aggregate 8-0: Still no Lene Mykjaland for Roa.
Wolfsburg (Ger) 6-1 Unia Raciborz (Pol), aggregate 11-2: Rebecca Smith is out injured. Viola Odebrecht finished the scoring for Wolfsburg.
Juvisy (Fra) 1-0 Zurich (Sui), aggregate 2-1: Sonia Fuss got a yellow card for the visitors. Gaetane Thiney had the decisive goal on a PK in the second half.
Still to play next week: Sparta Praha (Cze)-Sarajevo (Bih). Sparta lead 3-0. Sarajevo has American Jelena Vrcelj.
Next update on a U.S. league: Maybe over the weekend. We’ll see.
Major League Baseball has copied Major League Soccer’s playoff format, and Sports Law Blog’s Howard Wasserman proclaims it to be a good thing:
The difference this year is that both the Rangers and Orioles had a real incentive to catch the team ahead of them on the final day, in order to avoid that one-game playoff. In previous years, by contrast, the Orioles would not have cared about catching the Yankees in the final two days of the season; they only would have worried about staying ahead of the Rangers, then getting to play in the division series. So, credit where credit is due–baseball made changes that create the right incentives.
To relate that to MLS, which has two divisions rather than MLB’s six: The race for third place is important. It’s slightly less important than the race for fifth place (the last playoff spot) and slightly more important than the race for first.
But baseball purists, if any remain, would say 10 teams out of 30 are simply too many to take to the playoffs. In MLS, taking 10 out of 19 is surely too many.
In baseball, the weakest playoff teams have an 88-74 record. That’s not bad. In MLS, the Vancouver Whitecaps are clinging to the last playoff spot with a mediocre record of 11-12-9.
The bloated MLS playoffs are also a scheduling problem. We could be playing another couple of weeks of the regular season this fall, and perhaps that would have left time for a reasonable summer break.
The other issue: Incentives. In each sport, the first-place teams don’t get enough of a reward. If the East ended today, Sporting Kansas City would play the winner of the wild-card game between D.C. United (51 pts.) and Houston (49). For their effort in finishing first, they avoid a matchup with Chicago (53).
If you’ve known me for a while, you know it’s time for my Annual Page Playoff System Push. The incentives for each place would be:
1st seeds (best conference champion): Home games throughout, must lose twice to be eliminated
2nd seeds (other conference champion): Home games unless paired with No. 1, must lose twice to be eliminated
3rd-4th seeds: Home game in second round or semifinal, must lose twice to be eliminated
5th-6th seeds: Home game in first round
7th-8th seeds: You made it. That’s all
So every place has an incentive.
Next, we’ll figure out how to make this work with a split season!
Guess which of the following Floyd Landis is explicitly forbidden to say about the UCI (cycling’s international federation), Pat McQuaid and Hein Verbruggen, according to a Swiss court ruling (pardon the profanity):
They’ve taken bribes.
They delayed publication of a positive test by Alberto Contador.
They burned LiveStrong bracelets at a cocktail party.
They concealed doping cases.
They’re terrorists.
They’re just like Gaddafi.
They’re responsible for the international economy crashing.
They’re bigger than Jesus.
They load the dice.
They stack the deck.
They’re full of shit.
They have no regard for the rules.
Correct answer: All but 3, 7, 8 and 10. See the ruling for yourself.
Now guess where Landis has to publish a retraction of claims against the UCI and others at his own expense — it doesn’t specify standard ad rate or advertorial deal.
The Wall Street Journal
USA TODAY
The Onion
L’Equipe
Le Temps (Switzerland)
NYVelocity.com
Velo News
Cycling News
De Volksrant (Netherlands)
Velonation
Correct answer: All but USA TODAY and The Onion.
We’d need a lawyer to tell us if, say, NYVelocity.com is compelled to take a Landis retraction. That’s not an idle question. NYVelocity is taking up a defense fund for journalist Paul Kimmage, who faces a similar suit in Swiss court.
“But the only cyclist I know is Lance Armstrong,” you say. “What does this mean to him?”
It means that you might want to be careful about accusing the UCI of covering up a positive test for Armstrong. So in a tangential sense, it’s a “win” for Armstrong, but a slight one.
Can any lawyers tell us what Switzerland plans to do if Landis decides paying back the “Floyd Fairness Fund” donations are a higher priority than paying for ads in all these publications?
Three Irishmen competed in a tug of war event in July. In the midst of it, they grabbed something to drink.
Turns out the drink included a supplement that had a banned substance.
“We didn’t know,” the athletes said, “but we won’t challenge this case or demand that our B samples be tested.”
“Thanks for your cooperation,” the Irish Sport Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel said. “Because you didn’t know about the supplement and you did everything you were supposed to do after testing positive, we’ll only suspend you for 18 months.”
Seriously?
If they had clearly gained a competitive advantage and won a million dollars, then by all means, invalidate that result. We have precedent for this: Alain Baxter lost a medal for an accidental doping violation but was only suspended for a couple of events.
The title is “We Have Control,” which brings this to mind (1:45 mark):
The ratings really should be higher for this season. Things we see in this episode that we’ve never seen before:
A mattress floating (on floaties) in the pool.
A witty response to why someone walked at 3 months.
An inset video of a coach giving a full-fledged jiu-jitsu lesson in the middle of a fight.
Some disturbing personal details about pre-fight routines.
Here’s how it goes.
Cameron Diffley apologizes for giving up control with his loss to Neil Magny. Everyone on Team Nelson realizes he could be next.
At the house, we get this exchange between Mike Secor, who is posing as if he’s nude and has a plant blocking his privates, and Colton Smith. “Is it true that you walked at 3 months old?” “Yeah, that’s true.” “I heard he walked at 3 months old because he was so ugly no one wanted to hold him any more.”
That’s one of the most creative dissings in TUF history, and Smith concedes that it’s pretty good. Then Smith lists all the ways he could beat Secor.
Then Secor drops his likability rating right away with a “not here to be butt buddies” comment.
But Nic Herron-Webb immediately races into “guy we’re all going to hate” race. He says he can’t sleep, so he shoots pool. And whistles. And when people don’t immediately respond, he bangs a pool ball on the table. That brings out Mike Ricci, wearing the tightest tighty-whiteys in show history, and Eddy Ellis.
Ricci thinks Herron-Webb is acting out because he has already realized he’s outclassed. Everything points to a Ricci matchup with Herron-Webb.
But Shane Carwin instead chooses ….. zzzzzzzzzzz … what? Oh! I’m awake. No offense to Carwin, who runs an entertaining Twitter feed, but his voice has all the enthusiasm of Ben Stein’s without the ironic inflection.
So Carwin picks Joey Rivera, a late pick on Nelson’s team, to face his top guy, Sam Alvey.
Should be an easy win for Carwin’s team to maintain the “control” we’ve heard so much about. Right? Dana White thinks so.
Rivera relishes the challenge.
But first, back to the house issues. Michael Hill takes on Herron-Webb in a dressing-room discussion over his antics in the house, saying something along the lines of, “Hey, we live in the house, too. When we piss off the other team with a bunch of noise, you piss us off, too.” Julian Lane calls everyone together to do a cheer for Joey.
Meet Joey “Boom Boom” Rivera! He got into fighting by beating up her mom’s lousy boyfriends. That’s a new twist on things.
Nelson wants Joey to put Alvey on his back. In training we see Rivera putting Nelson on his back, which is either impressive or dangerous. That’s a lot of weight hitting the canvas.
Meet Sam Alvey! Grew up in Wisconsin and a hunter, fisher and “band nerd” who met his fiancee at a Renaissance fair. Seems safe to call him a Renaissance man.
His fiancee also won America’s Next Top Model. That would be McKey Sullivan.
First, a pre-fight prank. Smith, Lane and Herron-Webb take Alvey’s mattress. They thought about throwing it in the pool, but they decide to be nice and put some floaties under it so it won’t get soaked.
Alvey keeps up his constant smile. Igor Araujo is more shocked than Alvey:
Araujo: “You know they put your bed in the pool!”
Alvey: “Well, it’s floating on the pool.” He adds a hand gesture to demonstrate.
Araujo doesn’t respect such things and thinks karma will get them back. Alvey just thinks it gives him license to do more in revenge.
Smith is happy Alvey took it well. Alvey decided to sleep on the sofa, apparently not well.
After weigh-ins, we get a quick glimpse of the pool, which no longer has a mattress in it. Then Rivera gives us way too much information about his pre-fight sex habit. His wife obviously isn’t in the house, so he’s going to need to make some changes for this fight.
Alvey has a ton of respect for Rivera’s strength and punching power. The tale of tape shows us Alvey is six years younger but has many more fights.
Arianny is the Octagon Girl, Herb Dean is the ref, and we’re off. And Joey lands two sharp head kicks in the first 10 seconds. Takes Alvey down at 25 seconds. Takes Alvey’s back at 40 seconds as Alvey stands. They stall, but Rivera takes him down again. Alvey stands but is pressed against the cage, and Rivera is trying a standing arm-triangle. Don’t see that every day. They stall again, but Rivera uses a trip takedown to get a grip on a guillotine. They scramble, but Rivera keeps the guillotine and pulls guard with it. With a minute left, Rivera finally releases the choke. Then he sets up a triangle. Alvey gets out and up but doesn’t back away far enough for Rivera to slam. When the 10-second alert sounds, Alvey suddenly flings everything forward to land some big ground-and-pound punches, but it’s far too late to win the round.
Round 2: Rivera’s gasping for air in the corner as Nelson asks him to keep it up for five more minutes. Again, Rivera opens with kicks — one head, one body. Alvey tries to get close and eats an uppercut. Alvey presses Rivera to the cage, and Rivera goes for the guillotine again. But Rivera is unable or unwilling to reposition his hands despite several requests from his corner, and Dean eventually breaks up the stalemate. When they stand, Rivera again lands a couple of kicks. Alvey presses to the cage, and we get the most interesting inset video ever on this show — Roy Nelson calling over one of his assistants to demonstrate proper guillotine technique.
It doesn’t work, and they break, but Rivera again gets the better of a brief exchange. Then he takes Alvey down once again. They stand with a minute left, and nothing’s happening. Alvey gets a takedown with 10 seconds left. Again, too late.
Alvey raises his hands as the horn sounds, but the judges aren’t buying. Well, one of them does — it’s a majority decision for Rivera.
Recap: White says this didn’t go the way he thought it would. That’s an understatement. But White, who didn’t like Rivera’s prelim fight, is impressed with Rivera’s head kicks.
Alvey thought he won. Not when he sees the replay. He pledges to his team that he’ll be there for the next five weeks.
Carwin says he visited wounded troops, where their motto is never to leave anybody behind. And he says that’s the approach they’ll take with Alvey.
Nelson asks his team why Joey won? The answer: He listened. Well, except for the one piece of advice Nelson kept giving on repositioning his hands.
On the next episode: Nelson lets his team draw straws to see who’ll fight next. Then he questions the weigh-in results. This should be fun.
So the Ryder Cup happened. And U.S. fighters posted a 3-5 record on the UFC card in England, with Matt Wiman’s shocking submission win against submission expert Paul Sass being the biggest bright spot.
And perhaps your favorite football teams lost on the gridiron, the pitch and the oval. (Yes, the Australian rules football Grand Final was apparently a classic.)
Here’s the good news for U.S. fans: Out of seven weight classes in the women’s wrestling World Championships, four took medals:
Triathlon: Olympians Sarah Groff and Gwen Jorgensen were in the top 10 of a World Triathlon Series event in Japan.
Figure skating: A couple of promising results for U.S. skaters in smaller events before the Grand Prix season opens.
Cricket: Alas, England only had one day to celebrate the Ryder Cup before a crushing defeat and elimination from the World Twenty20. Sri Lanka and West Indies have made the semifinals.
Journalists (and fans) love to second-guess coaches. Honestly, they’re rarely on solid ground. We don’t see everything in practice and team meetings. Coaching staffs sometimes spend 80 hours a week going over game plans in minute detail, and journalists (and fans) simply can’t match that depth of knowledge.
Asking about a particular decision is one thing. That’s illuminating. We can learn more about the game that way — if the coach’s reasons can be made public. Armchair coaching, on the other hand, is usually ridiculous.
But sometimes, those of us in the pressbox or the stands can see the forest for the trees. Or we can see a blind spot or bias that forces a bad move. One example: In retrospect, D.C. United’s handling of Freddy Adu was far from ideal, particularly when Peter Nowak pulled him out of a playoff game in which he was supplying plenty of creativity that replacement Matias Donnet did not.
And coaches are often playing hunches that just don’t add up. I’m convinced NFL coaches are doing just that when they call time out to “ice” the kicker.
The problems with icing:
A. Without the timeout, kickers may be rushed to get their kicks away. So many things can go wrong with the snap, the hold or the kick. Calling timeout gives everyone a chance to get in place.
B. The timeout sometimes comes so late that the kicker gets a practice kick. Then he has a chance to check the wind, check his footing and make any other correction.
C. That’s one timeout gone. Suppose the kicker puts his team ahead, and you have to come back and drive the length of the field? That timeout would’ve been useful, right?
I’m going to keep an eye out for the rest of the season — I’m sure I’ll find several really bad icing calls. (Yes, I must be overcompensating for the lack of hockey this season.)
Example #1: Giants-Eagles, Sept. 30. New York kicker Lawrence Tynes misses a 54-yard field goal for the win, but Philly coach Andy Reid had called a late timeout. See Problem B above. Tynes corrected the flight of the ball on his second attempt, but he came up a yard short to bail out Reid. Three more feet on that kick, and Reid is being vilified this morning.
After a long day on the field, I came home and found this video on possible 7v7 or 8v8 formations:
So basically, anything other than a 2-3-1.
In the U.S. Soccer curriculum handed down a couple of years ago, the recommended 7v7 formation (see p. 31 of the PDF) is … a 2-3-1.
Uh oh.
When I started with U9s this season, I went with the curriculum. Even showed my team a little photo gallery explaining how to make it work.
The curriculum, on the other hand, does not explain how to make it work.
And that raises the question of whether I can make it work. Or whether I should try to shift gears midseason.
I get Mr. Video’s complaints about the 2-3-1. The defenders and wing midfielders have a lot of space to cover. The center midfielder has a complex role.
On my team, though, coverage isn’t a problem. The center mid is everywhere. I take the players with uncontainable energy and play them there.
The other issue, less specific to my team’s idiosyncrasies: Do we really want to take four players (three defenders and a goalkeeper) and tell them they’re not playing offense?
Yeah, yeah, I know — the outside backs can move up the field. Some kids will get that, some won’t.
So what would you do?
2015 update: This post remains popular to this day. If you enjoyed it, please check out my book, Single-Digit Soccer, which you can get for roughly the price of a latte and a tip. (You DO tip your baristas, right?)
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