soccer

Does the USA need a “No. 10”?

Posted on by Beau Dure

David Hirshey critiques the U.S. MNT with a lament for the bygone days, which never really existed in the USA’s case, of a “No. 10” playmaker directing the team.

From Ives Galarcep, we get a very different reading — the USA fared well in the 4-2-3-1 set-up that seems so common worldwide these days.

The 4-2-3-1 doesn’t rule out a “No. 10” — the midfielder at the center of the “3” line could be that guy. But all three of those midfielders are likely to see a fair amount of the ball, and the best playmaker need not be in the center. Landon Donovan, the MLS assist leader, is listed as a forward on Galaxy previews and is, as Hirshey notes, more commonly found on the flanks.

Bob Bradley was long criticized for playing an “empty bucket” midfield, with two central midfielders who leaned more toward the defensive end. Yet that system simply demanded that everyone share the load. It’s not inherently inferior to a diamond midfield with an attacking No. 10 and a defensive midfielder behind him. Some of the better midfields in MLS — Ronnie Ekelund and Richard Mulrooney spring to mind — were more fluid than the traditional attacking/defending split.

We’d all like to see skillful players, of course, and the buzzword in youth development these days is to encourage players to experiment and play a game more freely than the regimented days of the past. Freddy Adu in particular may have suffered from an insistence that he play more defense than a typical No. 10 or withdrawn forward would play.

But it’s tough to blame senior-level coaches for not having a Messi on hand. Hirshey curiously lumps Bruce Arena in the “hustle first, skill second” mindset of college coaches, even though Arena built fluid teams at Virginia and based D.C. United’s attack on a traditional No. 10 in Marco Etcheverry.

To show off a No. 10 in that mold, you need a player who’s head and shoulders above the rest. (Well, in the literal sense, he’s usually a head shorter — El Pibe excepted, most No. 10s are on the diminutive side.) Then you need to have a team so dominant and confident that someone else can carry the load if the defense focuses too heavily on one predictable mode of attack. Switch Messi to North Korea’s team, and he might not look like the swaggering No. 10 that Hirshey pictures him to be with Barcelona and Argentina.

So to see a true No. 10, the USA would need more than a change of tactics or one excellent player. We’d need to see a Golden Generation come up through the ranks. A No. 10 may be a symptom of a great team, but not the root of one.

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mma

‘The Ultimate Fighter’: Season 12, Episode 4: Maturity rocks

Posted on by Beau Dure

The questions heading into tonight’s episode:

1. Will the latest Alex “Bruce Leeroy” Caceres housecapades include anything we haven’t already seen in the preview?

2. With Caceres and Michael Johnson winning but not looking dominant, who’s the favorite?

3. Will Josh Koscheck give up on trying to prank Georges St. Pierre by himself and turn to Ashton Kutcher for help?

We start with a fight replay and GSP telling his team, in that wonderful French-Canadian lilt, that his guys are going to make him have a heart attack.

Mike Tyson is still hanging around, and he talks to Team GSP about confidence. He and GSP then resume their campaigns for “Nicest Guy in Combat Sports” with an exchange of compliments. Never thought you’d hear that about Tyson, did you? Not 15-20 years ago, anyway.

Continue reading →

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soccer

WPS Best XI and the evolving U.S. women’s national team

Posted on by Beau Dure

As I puzzled over my ballot for the WPS Best XI, announced today, something strange occurred to me. I couldn’t justify putting many U.S. national team veterans on the team.

It’s not that the team is completely foreign — only Marta, Ali Riley (U.S.-born), Kelly Smith and Christine Sinclair hail from other countries. (Side note: Marta is the only player on the Best XI who didn’t play U.S. college soccer.) We’re simply seeing other players emerge.

Here’s a quick comparison:

PLAYER 2008 Olympics 2010 WPS Best XI Current USWNT camp
Abby Wambach, F injured Yes Yes
Cat Whitehill, D injured
Leslie Osborne, M injured got votes
Hope Solo, GK 6 starts injured
Christie Rampone, D 6 starts (capt) Yes
Heather Mitts, D 6 starts Yes
Shannon Boxx, M 6 starts my ballot Yes
Carli Lloyd, M 6 starts (2 GWG) Yes
Lindsay Tarpley, M 6 starts Yes
Heather O’Reilly, M 6 starts got votes Yes
Angela Hucles, F/M 6 starts (4 G) retired retired
Amy Rodriguez, F 5 starts/1 sub Yes Yes
Kate Markgraf, D 5 starts
Lori Chalupny, M 5 starts injured?
Natasha Kai, F 1 start/5 subs
Stephanie Cox, D 1 start/4 sub Yes
Rachel Buehler, D 1 start/1 sub Yes Yes
Tobin Heath, F/M 3 sub injured Yes
Lauren Cheney, F 2 sub Yes
Aly Wagner, M 1 sub retired retired
Nicole Barnhart, GK Reserve Yes Yes
Amy LePeilbet, D Yes Yes
Whitney Engen, D my ballot Yes
Kristine Lilly, M pregnant got votes Yes
Jill Loyden, GK Yes
Alyssa Naeher, GK Yes
Ali Krieger, D not in WPS Yes
Meghan Schnur, D Yes
Brittany Taylor, D Yes
Yael Averbuch, M Yes
Sarah Huffman, M Yes
Lori Lindsey, M Yes Yes
Joanna Lohman, M Yes
Kelley O’Hara, M Yes
Megan Rapinoe, M Yes
Sydney Leroux, F college Yes
Alex Morgan, F college Yes
Jordan Angeli, M Yes

The only differences between my ballot and the Best XI: I had Boxx and Engen instead of Angeli and Buehler. Close calls in both cases.

We see some natural evolution here, with young players replacing retirees such as Hucles and Wagner. LePeilbet (28 years old) had a long road back from knee injuries. Lindsey (30) had played only 28 minutes for the national team — five years ago — before 2010. But it’s still a surprise to look back at the Olympic team from two years ago — gold medalists — and see only two players on the WPS Best XI.

Some of the movement is easily explained. Wambach would have been a third Olympian on the WPS Best XI if not for the horrific broken leg she suffered before Beijing. O’Reilly and Rampone are still perfectly good players who got mired on a dysfunctional Sky Blue team this season.

Chalupny’s injury situation — cleared to play in WPS but not for the national team — is still puzzling. Kai is always a bit of an enigma, and she has had a few injury problems along the way.

Where we might see the biggest change is at the back. Whitehill and Markgraf aren’t in camp. Mitts made it to camp despite serving as a substitute at the end of Philadelphia’s season.

And the current camp roster may not be the final word on the changes between now and the 2011 World Cup. Angeli, a second-round draft pick who can play almost any position on the field, made the Best XI roster but wasn’t called to camp.

So the good news for the U.S. team is that WPS is accelerating competition for places. That competition might give U.S. coach Pia Sundhage a headache through World Cup qualifying this fall and a World Cup year in 2011, but she surely doesn’t mind.

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mind games, mma, soccer

Are sports monopolies necessary?

Posted on by Beau Dure

The news that a district court judge has allowed a lawsuit to proceed against MLS and U.S. Soccer is worrisome for the league and federation. The details of the ruling (see the PDF) are downright disturbing.

At issue: Is U.S. Soccer a legitimate overseer of professional soccer in the USA? Beyond that: Can any organizing body claim dominion over a sport?

In the legal world, monopoly power is a serious problem. In the sports world, we take it for granted. Men’s tennis = ATP. Women’s tennis = WTA. U.S. college sports = NCAA (NAIA exists but is far smaller). Baseball = antitrust-exempted Major League Baseball.

Sports that don’t have a monopoly in place, such as indoor soccer, are usually seen as weakened. Everyone thinks he has a better business plan than the other guy, and the result is often a mish-mash of leagues that test fans’ patience.

Monopolies and near-monopolies may limit competition on the business front. But on the competitive front, they establish objective criteria for determining who’s the best.

Think of boxing, with its alphabet soup of “world champions.” The world chess championship hasn’t really recovered from a split in the mid-90s in which Garry Kasparov walked away from governing body FIDE, though FIDE has its own issues that linger to this day. (Literally — this week, Anatoly Karpov’s bid for FIDE presidency has been squashed by incumbent Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, who seems more inclined to speak with aliens than listen to Karpov’s supporters.)

In mixed martial arts, fans endlessly debate whether to accept the UFC’s argument that it’s the “major league,” and everyone else is minor league. The UFC is getting closer — with Fedor Emelianenko’s loss in June, the UFC and lighter-weight affiliate WEC claimed the top spot in every weight class of the USA TODAY/SB Nation consensus rankings.

The court ruling — which, to be clear, is hardly the final word on the matter — would open the door for competition unless Congress has explicitly said otherwise. The judge rejected U.S. Soccer’s argument that the Ted Stevens Act, which establishes governing bodies for amateur and Olympic-preparatory sports, gives it dominion over the professional game as well. And in other sports, that’s true — USA Basketball and USA Hockey deal with national teams, not the NBA and NHL.

But the fearful question soccer fans must ask is this: Has the court limited U.S. Soccer’s ability to act for the greater good of the game? Specifically, can it protect the interests of a professional league (MLS) trying to take root where no other league has before?

If you remember ChampionsWorld, you may remember it as anything but benign as far as MLS was concerned. The message was driven home on the broadcasts by VP Giorgio Chinaglia, described by Grant Wahl as “the insufferable former New York Cosmos great” with a revisionist mindset toward NASL history and outright malice toward MLS.

Of course, the league survived, and ChampionsWorld didn’t. U.S. cities have shown they’ll support a few preseason exhibition tours by traveling Euro teams, but everyone has a limit.

From a practical point of view, the ruling might not open a can of worms but may merely provide the can opener. Just as other governing bodies provide the pathway to the Olympics, the pinnacle in most of those sports, U.S. Soccer provides the pathway to the World Cup. In the only part of the ruling that is clearly unsound, the judge seriously underestimates FIFA’s interest in meddling and its power to do so.

The ruling could pose a competitive challenge for SUM, the marketing affiliate for MLS that has figured out how to make money off promoting outsiders’ games in the USA. But some games already are outside SUM’s domain. The promoters in these cases are paying sanctioning fees to U.S. Soccer but not to SUM.

And so the optimists’ view of this case would be this: The suit is simply a deterrent to keep U.S. Soccer from setting its sanctioning fee too high. (And also repaying a few ChampionsWorld creditors.)

If MLS and U.S. Soccer were to lose this case, they might take heart from some U.S. precedent. The NFL once lost an antitrust suit. Even though the NFL paid a few million to the USFL in legal fees in addition to the famous $3 cash award, the NFL seems to have survived.

The NFL also has maintained its dominance as other upstart leagues have arisen. The XFL promised something different, and it turned out to be a little too different. The UFL, still in existence, is operating on a smaller scale.

MLS is already in a competitive environment. Fans can sit at home and watch games from around the world in HD (though it still doesn’t compare to the atmosphere of a good live game). Winning this case won’t make it go away. Losing won’t make it that much worse.

U.S. Soccer, like the UFC, has its critics who say it’s too arrogant in defending its share of the market. Ultimately, the threat of competition could keep it honest.

Congress isn’t going to hand U.S. Soccer, the UFC, the NFL or anyone else (other than baseball, which is another rant) carte blanche to do what it wants. It’s up to the managers and promoters to make sure competition on the business front doesn’t devolve into chaos on the competitive front, no matter what happens in court.

5
mma

‘The Ultimate Fighter’: Season 12, Episode 3: Tyson for tea

Posted on by Beau Dure

Alex “Bruce Leeroy” Caceres is giddy after beating Jeff Lentz. He veers between complimenting Lentz on a good fight and pointing out all the ways he was vastly superior. Among the dubious claims: Lentz’s kicks just grazed his afro.

Spencer Paige, to the camera: “I gotta give props to Jeff for not stabbing Bruce in the eye.”

Then someone tells Caceres: “Are you still talking? I stopped listening 10 minutes ago.” (I thought it was Paige again, but MMA Junkie says this was Kyle Watson, and since he’s blogging for them, I’ll defer.)

GSP brings in former wrestling world champion Gia Sissaouri to work with his guys. It’s humbling for fighters to get taken down over and over, but it seems productive and fun.

Koscheck’s team has considerably less fun, straining to keep up with the pace of the workout and getting a lecture about their attitudes.

The fight announcement comes early. GSP picks Michael Johnson, the coveted top pick, against Aaron Wilkinson, the Englishman who has a better ground game than most Wolfslair products but clearly isn’t one of the highly touted guys. Koscheck says Wilkinson is a “sleeper.” That’s not high praise.

In the first ad break, we get a plug for Spike’s “Brocktoberfest.” No word on whether Lesnar will be digitally inserted into Star Wars films.

After a fairly dull segment in which we learn that Johnson really wants to get into the UFC, Koscheck pulls his first prank on GSP, as he and another coach park their cars right up against his, supposedly making it impossible for him to get in. This is supposed to get under GSP’s skin. GSP, though, manages to squeeze into the car and laugh about it.

Koscheck’s session with Wilkinson, though, seems productive. Wilkinson is supposed to keep his feet moving and circle away from the fence if pressed there. Wilkinson says he’d feel comfortable taking Johnson down against the cage, a message made clearer by the producers’ decision to subtitle Wilkinson’s words. Apparently, we only understand American, not English.

We see both fighters make weight. Then comes a change-up — GSP asks Dana White to bring Mike Tyson to talk to his team. White obliges. GSP and Tyson then try to out-polite each other, passing compliments back and forth like neighbors talking about their gardens.

Wilkinson’s from Manchester, England, so Koscheck counters by bringing Ryan Giggs to chat with his fighter. (No, he didn’t — trust me when I say White would have no idea who Ryan Giggs is.)

The fight starts at 10:35 ET. Three-rounder?

Continue reading →

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mma

‘The Ultimate Fighter’: Season 12, Episode 2: Bruce Decoy

Posted on by Beau Dure

Last time on The Ultimate Fighter, we saw bits of 14 fights and learned that the “characters” on this show will be Alex “Bruce Leeroy” Caceres and Michael “No, Not The Olympic Sprinter” Johnson.

Or maybe not. Jeff Lentz has a nasty smoking habit and a bit of bravado, bragging about not tapping if he’s in a choke or armbar. If the arm’s broken, it’s easier to get out, he says.

Off to the important part of the episode: Team selection. Koscheck says he wants Michael Johnson #1, then Marc Stevens, who briefly wrestled for Koscheck when he was a college coach. GSP figures Koscheck wants to take Stevens, so he’s going to bluff and pretend that he has Stevens ranked #1. (Then Lentz, Sayers, Pham — all a ruse in neat, large handwriting.)

Kos wins the flip. Will he take first fighter in the draft or the rights to set up the first matchup? He opts for first fighter. He jokes that GSP might be bluffing.

But Kos falls for it! He takes Stevens. GSP immediately snags Johnson. “It works,” GSP says with a smile. And Dana White learned about the strategy somehow, congratulating GSP in a confessional.

The rest:

  • Kos: Sevak Magakian, who overwhelmed JJ Ambrose for a decision.
  • GSP: Jonathan Brookins, who has a win in Bellator.
  • Kos: Sako Chivitchian, whose judo national championships are greatly exaggerated but may still be a solid MMA fighter.
  • GSP: Spencer Paige, who won the best of the prelim fights against Steve Magdaleno.
  • Kos: Andy Main, who has a thin resume and barely got a few seconds of screen time in the prelims.
  • GSP: Caceres, who smiles and briefly removes the comb from his hair.
  • Kos: Nam Phan, going surprisingly low for someone with a lot of experience and an impressive prelim win.
  • GSP: Kyle Watson, also going surprisingly low for his experience.
  • Kos: Aaron Wilkinson, the Englishman with a surprising ground game for a Wolfslair product.
  • GSP: Cody McKenzie, another guy who might’ve been expected to go earlier given his uncanny ability to beat everyone by guillotine.
  • Kos: Lentz, who demolished Dan Head in the prelim despite GSP dismissing his chances.
  • GSP: Dane Sayers, who broods over being the last pick.

First training session, and GSP tells us he’s going to be a “training partner” and let his coach do the coaching. His coach is Greg Jackson, one of the most successful in the business.

Koscheck says he has the advantage, and he addresses his “heel” label. “Meet me in person, and you’ll fall in love with me,” he says. I’ve met him, and he is indeed a good guy, but my wife shouldn’t feel threatened.

Fight announcement: GSP picks Caceres, the kid, to go out first against Lentz. GSP says Alex wanted the early fight. Will youthful enthusiasm work against him? Or is the gap in talent between Caceres and Lentz as big as it appears?

Continue reading →

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soccer

World Cup economics and skepticism

Posted on by Beau Dure

Journalists are supposed to be skeptical. Actually, all of us should be skeptical but not cynical. Big difference. A cynic dismisses ideas and arguments as a reflex. A skeptic checks them out.

So when the USA bids to host the World Cup, a bit of skepticism is healthy. It’s just due diligence. People have a right to ask how much the whole thing is going to cost.

University of Maryland-Baltimore County professor Dennis Coates wants to encourage people to ask these questions. He has produced a study claiming that the economic impact of a World Cup is either negligible or negative. Check the full PDF report or his op-eds. He is similarly skeptical of other sports development such as Baltimore ballpark Camden Yards.

Soccer fans may be naturally defensive upon hearing such things. We’re all prepared to spend some money on tickets if the World Cup doesn’t require a passport, long flight and awkward housing searches. So we should admit up front that we’re hardly disinterested parties. (Frankly, though, the BigSoccer discussion has been fairly reasonable.)

That said, from a purely logical perspective, I found myself with a lot of questions after reading the study. I asked Dr. Coates, and he was kind enough to respond.

I have a few comments in response, so what you’ll see here is my question in bold, his response in italic and my comments in plain text. It’s fair to say I find his argument unsatisfactory, but I shouldn’t have the last word — Dr. Coates is invited to leave comments here. And so are you.

On we go …

Continue reading →

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mma

‘The Ultimate Fighter’: Season 12, Episode 1: Fight! (x14)

Posted on by Beau Dure

Time for another season of recapping, deconstructing and dissecting The Ultimate Fighter!

We know the coaches — the venerated Georges St. Pierre and the vilified Josh Koscheck, subject of some guy’s USA TODAY profile today. Now we get to meet 28 prospective cast members in 40-some minutes of TV.

Let’s say this up front: I don’t like the current format of 28 guys trying to fight their way into a 14-man show in which two first-round losers will get another chance. In theory, the idea is that the prelim fights separate those who “want to fight” from those who don’t. In reality, an unlucky draw can eliminate a really good prospect.

What I’d rather see: Have 24 guys fight for 12 spots. THEN pick four “wild cards” to bring the field to 16. The “wild card” concept isn’t needed during the tournament because it forces someone to fight five times in six weeks. If a good fighter loses in the first round, chances are good that an injury will open a slot in the tournament. At the very least, they can bring him back to fight in the finale.

A 12-fight preliminary round would still be chaotic. With 14, it’s a mess. The only way to meet the fighters is to be a geek with misplaced priorities like yours truly, who has been rounding up info from MMA Junkie, the enthusiastic MMA Valor blog and the ever-helpful Sherdog fight finder. And Wikipedia.

Onward …

Continue reading →

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soccer

WPS seasons change: Freedom advance, Scurry says goodbye, Antonucci out?

Posted on by Beau Dure

Updated below with Hope Solo comments, expansion news

The Maryland SoccerPlex is a good bit cooler today that it was this summer. Rather than worrying about heatstroke, those of us in short-sleeve shirts wish we had brought jackets.

As the seasons change, the WPS regular season ended as well, with a thrilling finale, a heartfelt farewell and worrisome news off the field.

With the Washington Freedom possibly needing a win to reach the playoffs, depending on the result in the concurrent Sky Blue FC-Boston game, Becky Sauerbrunn and Abby Wambach found their timing in the 88th minute. Sauerbrunn’s ball put Wambach in space behind the Atlanta back line. Hope Solo, who already had a couple of good saves, came out toward the top of the box. Wambach chipped her national teammate for the goal.

“It’s not really my style of goal, but I’ll take it,” Wambach said.

As it turned out, defending champion Sky Blue never got their goal, and the Freedom didn’t technically need that goal. Wambach says the Freedom players only got a couple of updates while focusing on their own game, but the Freedom were very happy to go through on a high note.

From the pressbox and the Twittersphere, the game was played under a cloud. Anonymous sources told The Washington Post‘s Steven Goff, who was unusually present at the game, that WPS Commissioner Tonya Antonucci would step down. The league office declined comment.

More ominous from Goff’s post: “Current investors, including the Hendricks family, which operates the Washington Freedom, have yet to decide whether to continue funding the league, sources said.”

Players shrugged off the news. Solo was most insistent: “I think you’re going to see a league next season. There are always those rumors. You just go on. I don’t think it’s going anywhere anytime soon.”

Solo and teammate Lori Chalupny started the year in St. Louis before the Athletica folded. Chalupny, icing her shin and saying she’s still awaiting word from the national team that she’s cleared to play for them after a concussion, laughed about all the drama she has endured through the year. She says she isn’t thinking ahead to anything except starting her coaching career with storied St. Louis youth club Scott Gallagher.

Solo said she’s has worse years but this one was up there. “I’ve never been on a losing team. You learn a lot. I don’t regret it. I miss St. Louis, I still have great respect for (former Athletica owner) Jeff Cooper.”

And she insists the Beat will be back stronger. “You can see that we’re going to be contenders next season.”

Meanwhile, Washington prepared a video montage to bid farewell to longtime U.S. national team goalkeeper Briana Scurry. Solo’s thoughts: “I wish her all the best. She’s had an amazing career. Everybody should be applauding.”

The Freedom battled back from a long winless streak this season. One of the changes they made was symbolic: Wambach and Cat Whitehill both wore a captain’s armband, which Whitehill said was designed to make sure everyone kept an eye on the team’s leadership.

Washington had to keep the faith during that drought. Whitehill also talked about keeping faith in WPS while the rumors swirl.

“The confidence comes from the fact that we want it. We believe in each other, we believe in this league, and we’re going to do whatever it takes. We all knew that the first five years were going to be hard. People bought into it, literally and figuratively, and it’s been great.”

Updates: One bit of news in Goff’s post that bears emphasizing is that the league also seems set on expansion to Buffalo/Rochester. Mixed messages, perhaps, or at least a sign of optimism.

Now here’s where it gets curious: A few minutes after Hope Solo told me with a smile that there would be a league next year, she Tweets the following:

Its official, the refs are straight bad. Its clear the league wanted dc in playoffs. I have truly never seen anything like this. Its sad.

A goal taken away with no explanation, one offsides call against dc, many against atlanta. An amazing all ball tackle for a red.

We play with 10, DC with 12. Players punched in the face. Free corners. I am done playing in a league where the game is no longer … In control of the players.

As I Tweeted a few times during the game, the ref had a poor night. But I saw several calls go against the Freedom — two very good shouts for penalties, including one that was as clear as it could be, plus a disallowed goal on what we’re told was an offside call even though a Beat defender joined Solo on the goal line.

Biased? No. But not good. Solo has a right to be frustrated. But is officiating that much better in the Frauenbundesliga? We’ll have to ask Jenna at All White Kit.

Worth noting: The Federation, not leagues, are in charge of refs. Officiating was a particular concern of Antonucci’s.

5
soccer

Player ratings: Chicago-Toronto

Posted on by Beau Dure

Chicago 0, Toronto 0
Sept. 8, 2010

Summary: Toronto came out much more aggressive than Chicago, controlling play but not getting a lot of good chances out of it. TFC had a couple of shouts for a penalty on two close ball-to-arm plays, each of them a 50-50 call. Also, Toronto was whistled for 13 fouls before Chicago picked up its first two calls in first-half stoppage time. But Chicago created the only good scoring chance — only shot on goal, in fact — of the first half.

In the second half, Chicago got an even better chance, but Freddie Ljungberg put a shot wide with only the keeper to beat. The game opened up around the 70th minute, with Toronto putting a couple of good shots on frame. But the game petered out to a dull conclusion.

Side note: Toronto’s commentary crew is excellent. They’re well-prepared with facts on players for both teams, and they work them seamlessly into the commentary. They’re generally relevant facts about the players’ form, not weird personality tidbits on players who have no personality. Terrific stuff.

Conditions: Pleasant, mid-60s.

CHICAGO: Mike Banner replaced the suspended Gonzalo Segares. Collins John got a run in place of Brian McBride. Marco Pappa played for Guatemala on Tuesday and was kept out of action.

6 Sean Johnson (GK): Had some confusion with Robinson in the box that resulted in a rushed clearance that hit Brown in the arm. Little else to do in first half. Big save on White in 74th.

6 Steven Kinney (RB): Little trouble on his side.
5 Dasan Robinson (CB): Some unsteadiness but no harm done. Suffered many fouls, which is odd for a central defender.
5 C.J. Brown (CB): Kicked in the head and bled profusely. Lucky not to concede a penalty when ball hit arm in box.
6 Mike Banner (LB): See Steven Kinney.

6 Patrick Nyarko (RM): Terrific through ball for John. Less of a factor in second half.
6 Logan Pause (CM): Positive play getting ball forward.
5 John Thorrington (CM): Subbed out at half.
4 Freddie Ljungberg (AM): Not much of a factor. Scuffed shot wide on 1-on-1 chance against Frei. Subbed out in 76th.
6 Nery Castillo (LM/F): Set up Ljungberg for golden chance and forced Frei to punch a well-taken free kick over the bar.

6 Collins John (F): Dangerous runs. Made way for McBride in 82nd.

Subs:
6 Wilman Conde (DM): Subbed for Thorrington at half.
NR Calen Carr (F): Subbed for Ljungberg.
NR Brian McBride (F): Subbed for John.

TORONTO: Dwayne De Rosario, Julian de Guzman and Nana Attakora returned from international duty, while Jacob Peterson played out of position up front with Mista nursing an injury. Ty Harden was preferred to Nick Garcia.

7 Stefan Frei (GK): Good 15th-minute save on John. Alert on through balls, cut down angle on Ljungberg breakaway.

4 Maksim Usanov (RB): Comical misplay when trying to move forward into attack. Obvious yellow card puts him over the limit — he’ll be suspended for the next game. Preki didn’t wait that long, taking him out in the 79th.
6 Nana Attakora (CB): Steady enough.
6 Adrian Cann (CB): Timely interventions.
6 Ty Harden (LB): Announcers constantly fretted that he was playing out of position, but he didn’t seem out of place.

6 Nick LaBrocca (RM): Active in attack. Good high shot from distance tested Johnson.
5 Julian de Guzman (CM): Steady if not spectacular.
6 Dwayne De Rosario (AM): Frustrating offensive night by his high standard but worked hard defensively.
6 Dan Gargan (LM): Willing to cover a lot of ground to get involved in attack. Long throw-in nearly put in by White.

5 Jacob Peterson (F): Couldn’t get into flow in unfamiliar role. Subbed out in 57th minute.
5 O’Brian White (F): Crashed into defenders for fouls. Subbed out in 84th.

Subs:
6 Maicon Santos (F): Had been a fitness question mark coming into game but made a positive contribution to the attack.
NR Nick Garcia (RB): Replaced Usanov.
NR Joseph Nane (M): Replaced White.

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