The idea is to cut the clutter. I’m not going to give you every shot, foul, etc. I’m going to give you the score, a sense of who has the better of the run of play (the more arrows, the more dominant the team is right now), and the key plays.
Enjoy.
Final score: 1-0 Galaxy.
Most Americans love England in some respect. They might be Monty Python or Doctor Who fans. They might think London is lovely. They might admire the country’s love affair with a sport that spreads to four professional leagues and scores of semipro and amateur leagues all wrapped up in a neatly organized pyramid. They might think the English are generally better educated and more reasonable, though that could be a stereotype that fails to account for, say, booing an opponent’s national anthem.
What we don’t like the English insistence that, as great-great-grandchildren of the people who wrote soccer’s rules and successfully exported them to the world, they must know better than we do. About everything.
That insistence has faded. The Premier League is built on foreign talent and, in many cases, foreign coaches. American players in particular are much better respected today than they were 15 years ago.
Yet we see vestiges of it on the Web, along with vestiges of all other prejudices. Just check the comments on Paul Gardner’s Soccer America piece quite rightly questioning why David Beckham wants to drag his long-battered body over for a couple of months of being knocked around in the Premier League.
The commenters — clearly unaware that Gardner is himself English and was writing eloquent pieces about FA Cup finals before they were born — don’t address Gardner’s points. They simply refuse to believe that “someone in America” would dare to criticize anyone as brilliant as Beckham.
One doesn’t have to have been raised on Match of the Day and disgusting meat pies to understand the following:
1. A minor point: Beckham would actually be a good candidate for an Olympic overage spot, just as Brian McBride (a player the English might recall) lent his experience to the 2008 USA squad.
2. For those who clearly didn’t read the piece before commenting: The issue is not that Beckham has been limited by playing in a low-quality side. The issue is that Beckham takes off on these loans and comes back injured from playing too many games. He’s not young. He needs to give his body a break. And regardless of what you folks think about MLS, Beckham thought enough of it to sign a contract and pledge himself to playing here, and it’s high time he lived up to his words.
3. For Patrick Cormac — this may seem petty, but if you’re going to complain about education, you should consider spelling “nouveau” correctly. And you should realize that whatever complaints people have about Gardner, he’s not exactly “nouveau.” One of his most brilliant pieces is an account of the 1953 “Matthews final.” A first-hand account.
4. For Jeff Jefferson — Americans did not invent the word “soccer.” The English invented that word to distinguish the game from other codes of football. Americans aren’t alone in calling it “soccer.” Say “footy” in Australia, and you’ll be greeted by a gaggle of men chasing after an oblong ball and trying to maneuver it through three giant posts at either end of a massive oval.
Frankly, it appears that these folks could use an education not just about the realities of the game in the USA but the history of the sport as a whole. Perhaps they should start with Gardner’s book The Simplest Game.
Gardner, in his decades in this hemisphere, has come to the position that the USA should take more inspiration from the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries in the Americas than from Europe, particularly as the USA becomes more Hispanic through immigration. His critics would say he belabors the point. But if you’re going to base your entire response on an appeal to authority, you’re going to lose.
Anyone made that pun yet? I think we’re all racing now to make the last possible pun on Freddy Adu’s name.
The young American’s status is up in the air again after a trial with Switzerland’s FC Sion didn’t pan out. (Aside to headline writers: “Not signing” and “failed to impress” or not the same thing.)
Now we have a report that Adu is “close to signing” with the Los Angeles Galaxy. My background doesn’t give me much faith in anonymous reports — which works out well, because no one ever tells me anything — but World Soccer Reader has shown itself to be more sincere and reliable in its reporting than most. And it’s interesting that the mainstreamers who could easily throw cold water on such reports have not done so.
“Close to signing,” of course, is a nebulous term, and many things can derail a deal that seems close to happening. This isn’t the NBA, where teams are basically bidding against each other for free agents, and players are weighing only a couple of factors. This is international soccer and MLS, where the multiple parties must agree on transfer terms, contract terms, compensation for the team holding allocation rights, salary cap impact, etc., etc.
So while we wait to see if this deal comes to fruition, we can ask: Should Freddy Adu come back to MLS?
I say no. Here’s why:
Adu is the classic example of how the old media “build up, tear down” celebrity cycle has been accelerated and magnified in the Internet Age. Some people thought he was never that good. Some people legitimately bought the “new Pele” line, though no one in a position of authority was actually calling him that. Some people thought he was several years older than he said.
Let’s destroy all three of those arguments, in reverse order:
Funny how the buzz over the Kansas City Wizards beating Manchester United can be killed so quickly.
The Los Angeles Galaxy, several bajillion points ahead of the Wizards in the MLS table, played a more meaningful game last night in the CONCACAF Champions League against the Puerto Rico Islanders.
And lost.
At home.
4-1.
This is a tournament that hasn’t been kind to MLS teams over the past decade. The competition actually went better for MLS in the old days, with the Galaxy reaching the 1997 finals (MLS’ second year) and D.C. United winning it in 1998. Then the Galaxy won it in 2000. Since then, no MLS teams have reached the finals. Since moving to a “League” format rather than a simple eight-team Cup, the carnage has been worse.
It’s not just a case of losing to the better-established and better-financed Mexican league. Puerto Rico knocked out Toronto last year. Trinidad and Tobago’s W Connection FC knocked out New York, one year after countrymates Joe Public routed New England on 6-1 aggregate. Houston failed to advance from its group last year, finishing behind Panama’s Arabe Unido.
Granted, the tournament as a whole has some strange results. Puerto Rico, which plays in the USA’s second tier but qualifies through the Caribbean club championship, makes this competition its highest priority and reached the 2009 semifinals before losing on penalty kicks to Mexico’s Cruz Azul. Mexican teams often look disinterested, particularly if those teams are also involved in the more prestigious Copa Libertadores.
But the top team in MLS losing 4-1 at home to a team featuring a couple of players waived from MLS clubs?
Galaxy coach Bruce Arena put it succinctly: “Their effort was excellent and ours wasn’t good enough.”
From what I saw yesterday, Landon Donovan was at least putting in the effort. But Puerto Rico clearly brings a bit more motivation.
It’s not talent. Players from clubs that pull CONCACAF upsets sometimes sign with MLS, and they rarely have an impact. Perhaps the reserves that play in these games can’t cut it, which raises questions about the players MLS is signing for the 12th-20th spots on the rosters.
Whether it’s extra motivation or a deeper bench, MLS has to address this problem. The league knows full well that it’s battling to capture the fan base in the wake of the World Cup, the quadrennial revival tent for soccer fans. Beating Manchester United is nice, but these games are mere tune-ups for the English visitors. The real report card for the league’s quality of play is in meaningful games.
The saving grace for MLS is that no one’s paying attention other than us soccer nerds. The crowd in Kansas City was nearly 10 times the crowd in Los Angeles last night. But the league can’t rely on obscurity forever.
Seattle fans stuck with their team after losing 4-0 to Los Angeles. The result wasn’t that much of a surprise after Kasey Keller, of all people, gifted the Galaxy an early goal.
The Sounders’ management, though, is making a bold statement. It’s not technically a refund, but it’s close — season-ticket holders will get a one-game credit toward next year’s tickets.
Classy move? Overreaction? Both.
J Hutcherson makes the case that coach Sigi Schmid, once fired from a first-place team, is once again in a place of unreasonable expectations. Schmid, for his part, is threatening to bench some people.
The rest of the week: The Galaxy rolled on, the Red Bulls hit a big bump in the road, Kevin Hartman helped Dallas crawl out of the West cellar, the Revolution hit rock-bottom.
STANDINGS/LINEUPS
1. Los Angeles Galaxy (22 pts/8 games played)
– Wednesday: Won 1-0 at Colorado. Big one-on-one stop by Ricketts against Omar Cummings; goal from Alan Gordon.
– Wednesday lineup (4-4-2): Donovan Ricketts; A.J. DeLaGarza RB, Gregg Berhalter CB, Omar Gonzalez CB, Todd Dunivant LB; Charlie Birchall DM, Michael Stephens RM, Juninho AM, Landon Donovan LM; Alan Gordon F, Edson Buddle F. No changes.
– Saturday: Won 4-0 at Seattle.
– Saturday lineup (4-4-1-1): Donovan Ricketts; Bryan Jordan RB, Gregg Berhalter CB, Omar Gonzalez CB, Todd Dunivant LB; Charlie Birchall DM, Michael Stephens RM, Jovan Kirovski AM; Landon Donovan WF, Edson Buddle F. Jordan for DeLaGarza, Kirovski for Juninho, Klein pushes Donovan up front and Alan Gordon out.
Did MLS suddenly adopt the Scottish system of splitting the top half of the table from the bottom? That would explain why the bottom four teams in the MLS East all faced off this week in a macabre mini-tournament of sorts. Meanwhile, Los Angeles and Salt Lake played a terrific rematch of last fall’s MLS Cup final.
One of the bottom four matchups, Thursday’s Toronto-Philadelphia game, was already covered. On to the weekend (lineups are estimated from Match Tracker and from what was visible on the highlights; if you see someone who wound up playing elsewhere on the field, please pass it along):
Los Angeles 2, Salt Lake 1
– LA (4-4-2): Donovan Ricketts; Sean Franklin RB (Bryan Jordan 44), A.J. DeLaGarza CB, Omar Gonzalez CB, Todd Dunivant LB; Charlie Birchall DM, Michael Stephens RM, Juninho CM (Alan Gordon 81), Mike Magee LM (Alex Cazumba 69); Landon Donovan F, Edson Buddle F
– RSL (4-4-2): Nick Rimando; Tony Beltran RB, Jamison Olave CB, Nat Borchers CB, Robbie Russell LB; Kyle Beckerman DM, Will Johnson RM, Andy Williams CM, Nelson Gonzalez LM (Collen Warner 64); Alvaro Saborio F (Pablo Campos 81), Fabian Espindola F (Robbie Findley 59)
– The Galaxy loses their shutout streak on a fluky goal, with Kyle Beckerman’s shot taking a wild skip off the Home Depot Center non-FieldTurf.
– Edson Buddle has scored all seven of the Galaxy’s goals this year. Freaky. Landon Donovan has four assists.
– RSL’s 1-2-1 record is deceiving; the defending champs have had only one home game and a pair of difficult away games, and they haven’t been outclassed at all. Robbie Findley’s shot off the post would’ve been a tough one for the Galaxy to overcome had it been a few inches to the left.
Seattle 1, Kansas City 0 (highlights)
– Seattle (4-4-2): Kasey Keller; James Riley RB, Tyrone Marshall CB, Jhon Kennedy Hurtado CB, Leonardo Gonzalez LB; Osvaldo Alonso DM, Freddie Ljungberg RM (Patrick Ianni 90), Peter Vagenas CM, Steve Zakuani LM (Michael Fucito 85); Fredy Montero F, Pat Noonan (Brad Evans 70).
– KC (4-5-1, two defensive mids): Jimmy Nielsen; Michael Harrington RB, Pablo Escobar CB, Jimmy Conrad CB (Matt Besler 32), Roger Espinoza LB, Jack Jewsbury DM, Stephane Auvray DM, Josh Wolff RM (Teal Bunbury 82), Davy Arnaud CM, Ryan Smith LM, Kei Kamara F (Chance Myers 90).
– Bad miss for Pat Noonan in the 10th minute as Seattle pressed early.
– Both defenses lapsed in stoppage time. Jimmy Nielsen, who had a strong save earlier, couldn’t make the last save. Kasey Keller did, bailing out Michael Fucito, who Sigi Schmid said was still in a state of euphoria from scoring.
– Not shown in the highlights but mentioned in the recap: Zakuani made contact with referee Jair Marrufo but only saw yellow.
– Jimmy Conrad left in the first half with a calf injury. Think that might have affected the outcome?
Houston 3, Chivas USA 0 (highlights)
– Did you see the Lovel Palmer goal?
– CUSA (4-4-2): Zach Thornton; Mariano Trujillo RB, Dario Delgado CB, Michael Umana CB, Jonathan Bornstein LB; Jesus Padilla RM, Sacha Kljestan CM, Jorge Flores CM (Justin Braun 46), Blair Gavin LM; Maicon Santos F (Ben Zemanski 46), Chukwudi Chijindu F (Gerson Mayen 78)
– Houston (4-4-2): Pat Onstad; Andrew Hainault RB; Bobby Boswell CB, Eddie Robinson CB, Mike Chabala LB; Corey Ashe RM, Lovel Palmer CM, Geoff Cameron CM (Francisco Navas Cobo 93), Brad Davis LM (Adrian Serioux 86); Brian Mullan F (Danny Cruz 83), Dominic Oduro F
– Not sure why Oduro felt the need to do the “hot boot” celebration after his goal. He could’ve tapped that in with his knee, his backside or just about any other part of his body.
San Jose 2, New England 0 (highlights)
– NE (4-5-1 or 4-2-2-1-1): Preston Burpo; Kevin Alston RB, Cory Gibbs CB, Darrius Barnes CB, Seth Sinovic LB (Zak “No, not Wade” Boggs 82); Pat Phelan DM, Joseph Niouky DM, Sainey Nyassi RM (Kheli Dube 67), Chris Tierney LM; Marko Perovic AM, Zach Schilawski F (Kenny Mansally 85)
– SJ (4-4-2): Joe Cannon; Steve Beitashour RB, Ike Opara CB, Jason Hernandez CB, Ramiro Corrales LB; Joey Gjertsen RM, Brandon McDonald CM, Andre Luiz CM, Bobby Convey LM; Ryan Johnson F (Ramon Sanchez 92), Chris Wondolowski F
– Darrius Barnes, ever-present as a rookie last year, returned from injury. But the Revs were still without Shalrie Joseph.
– San Jose standouts: Terrific work by Ryan Johnson on the first goal, then a late series of saves from Joe Cannon.
New York 2, Dallas 1 (highlights)
– NY (4-4-2): Bouna Coundoul; Jeremy Hall RB, Mike Petke CB, Tim Ream CB, Roy Miller LB; Dane Richards RM (Sinisa Ubiparipovic 81), Seth Stammler CM (Carl Robinson 58), Joel Lindpere CM, Mac Kandji LM; Juan Pablo Angel F, Salou Ibrahim F (Danleigh Borman 71)
– Dal (4-1-4-1): Dario Sala; Zach Loyd RB, George John CB, Ugo Ihemelu CB, Heath Pearce LB (Eric Avila 69); Daniel Hernandez DM; Atiba Harris RM, David Ferreira CM, Dax McCarty CM (Eric Alexander 81), Jair Benitez LM; Jeff Cunningham F
– OK, New York — where’s the crowd? You don’t have Giants Stadium and its cavernous atmosphere, controversial security and lack of mass transit to blame any more.
– MLSSoccer’s anonymous recapper did not enjoy the game. And yet the highlights are 9 minutes long. Especially cruel in the editing — a Mike Petke blunder is immediately followed by a scene in which the electronic dasher boards read “Follow Mike Petke on Twitter.”
– Comeback player of the week is Bouna Coundoul, who shook off a blunder last week to snap right back into his terrific early-season form. (HT: Bill Archer)
D.C. United 0, Chicago 2 (highlights)
– Chicago (4-2-3-1): Andrew Dykstra; Dasan Robinson RB, C.J. Brown CB, Wilman Conde CB, Krzysztof Krol LB; Peter Lowry DM, Baggio Husidic DM, Patrick Nyarko RM, Marco Pappa AM, Justin Mapp LM; Collins John F
– D.C. (4-4-2): Troy Perkins; Carey Talley RB, Devon McTavish CB, Julius James CB, Rodney Wallace LB; Kurt Morsink DM, Santino Quaranta RM, Jaime Moreno AM, Andy Najar LM; Chris Pontius F, Danny Allsopp F
– Already went in-depth on the clinching goal and got some comments from Santino Quaranta (not the ones you’ve seen elsewhere).
And from Sunday …
Colorado 3, Toronto 1 (recap/goal highlights)
– Colo: Matt Pickens; Kosuke Kimura RB, Marvell Wynne CB, Drew Moor CB, Danny Earls LB (Scott Palguta 83); Jamie Smith RM (Wells Thompson 59), Pablo Mastroeni CM, Jeff Larentowicz CM, Colin Clark LM (Quincy Amarikwa 68); Omar Cummings F, Conor Casey F
– TFC: Stefan Frei; Maksim Usanov RB, Nana Attakora CB, Adrian Cann CB, Ty Harden LB; Sam Cronin RM, Julian de Guzman CM, Martin Saric CM (Dan Gargan 80), Nick LaBrocca LM (Jacob Peterson 60); Dwayne De Rosario F, Chad Barrett F (O’Brian White 66)
– Three PKs in this one. The first was, well, wrong. Adrian Cann, who played briefly for Colorado before a long trip through the USL and Scandinavia before TFC signed him a few days ago, was judged to have … handled the ball? Failed to slide safely into second base? Conor Casey then went for the smart-ass chip over the sprawling keeper, and he got a little lucky with the timing. The other calls and shots were much better.
– The non-PK was a Colorado free kick in which Jeff Larentowicz drilled the ball through a hole in the wall vacated by the sideways-jumping Julian de Guzman.
– Match Tracker isn’t showing a single TFC shot from inside the 18-yard box. Stats show six saves for Frei, zero for Pickens. The broadcast crew chose a highlight of Pickens tipping a cross away as the “Save of the Game.”
So if we look at the bottom eight teams in the league, we can give half of those teams a break. Salt Lake is playing pretty well against good teams. Columbus has only played two games. Chicago just has one bad loss at home. Dallas has played a couple of thrillers.
That leaves the following teams making a collective argument — with the usual “Yes, it’s only Week 4” disclaimer — that MLS isn’t really a league of parity:
– Philadelphia: Not easy to build an expansion team, though you have to wonder when they’ll lose the “physical” side of the game and just play.
– Chivas USA: A couple of injuries have made it tougher to replace the lost veteran leadership of Jesse Marsch et al.
– D.C. United: Three years of poor player acquisitions will take a toll on the roster. To be fair, the injury bug hasn’t helped — Bryan Namoff and Clyde Simms alone would make this team more solid, though it’s hard to see where the goals will come from.
– Toronto: Maybe they should get some players who weren’t cast aside by Skonto Riga.
Quick programming note: I’m not likely to post daily news wraps every day during the week, especially on a week with little midweek action and a free-lancing deadline. But you’ll still get the Weekend Watch on Friday, Weekend Wrap on Monday, TUF recaps each Wednesday night in season and a wide variety of other stuff. I’m working mostly on original content, which takes a while to develop.
I also share a lot of links on Twitter — keep your eye out for two good ones today.
On to Week 3, where a couple of East teams remained pointless and the Galaxy remained perfect …
Game of the week (in terms of impact): Houston 0, Los Angeles 2 (highlights)
– Edson Buddle must have had some crooked teeth, because he’s collecting braces. Yes, that’s awful, but I’ve never really liked the term “brace” for some reason.
– Luis Angel Landin remains in the running for “worst designated player signing ever” by seeing red for Houston in the first half. LA’s Donovan and Donovan kept calm after the incident.
– That’s three straight wins and three straight shutouts for Los Angeles.
– Postgame records (US-style win-loss-tie): Houston 1-1-1, LA 3-0-0
Game of the week (in terms of highlights): Chicago 1, San Jose 2 (highlights)
– Least expected result of the week. Sold-out crowd in Chicago, Earthquakes seemed to be in shambles early this season.
– Rookies are breaking out all over. Ike Opara gets the winner here on a superb cross from Bobby Convey, who bounced back after fretting over a halftime substitution in the Quakes’ first game.
– Dreadful errors for the Fire. Collins John had an atrocious miss, and the first San Jose goal was a calamity of miscommunication between veteran defender CJ Brown and first-year starting keeper Andrew Dykstra.
– Save of the week goes to Jason Hernandez. No, he’s not a goalkeeper. Fantastic play for the Quakes defender.
– Chicago 0-2-1, San Jose 1-1-0
Salt Lake 2, Seattle 2 (highlights)
– Statistical domination for the defending champs, but they were asleep early to let Steve Zakuani race in alone. The second Seattle goal was an own goal off Nat Borchers (erroneously credited to Tyrone Marshall in the credits).
– More greatness from Kasey Keller.
– Salt Lake 1-1-1, Seattle 1-1-1
Chivas USA 2, New York 0 (highlights)
– Chivas lineup changes: Zach Thornton replaces Dan Kennedy in goal. Jonathan Bornstein up to midfield. Chukwudi Chijindu and Maicon Santos up front.
– Red Bulls keeper Bouna Coundoul has been terrific so far, aside from one play that’ll make blooper reels for years to come. That was the first Chivas USA goal.
– Player to watch: Jesus Padilla, born in the USA to Mexican parents, on loan from the original Chivas after going through their youth system.
– Chivas USA 1-2-0, New York 2-1-0
Philadelphia 3, D.C. United 2 (highlights)
– Sebastien Le Toux gets the first goal in Union history. And the second. And the third.
– Jaime Moreno’s equalizer shouldn’t have counted. He interfered with Philly keeper Chris Seitz on the play. So says U.S. Soccer director of referee development Paul Tamberino.
– Philly home opener draws 34,870 to Lincoln Financial Field. Nearly half that crowd would’ve needed to stay home if the game had been in Philly’s almost-complete soccer stadium in Chester.
– Philadelphia 1-1-0, D.C. 0-3-0
New England 4, Toronto 1 (highlights)
– Rookie forward Zack Schilawski earned my Player of the Week vote with the hat trick. Great set-up work from Sainey Nyassi and Kheli Dube.
– Toronto signed two defenders after this one.
– Anyone reminded of De Ro’s MLS Cup headed goal? He pops up and snaps like a salmon.
– New England 2-1-0, Toronto 0-2-0
Kansas City 1, Colorado 0 (highlights)
– KC newcomer Ryan Smith has a terrific opportunistic streak. He almost caught Matt Pickens off his line, and he made a nice aggressive move to regain the ball (whistled, unfortunately — his reaction earned a yellow card) after a free kick. He also set up the goal.
– KC keeper Jimmy Nielsen, known as “Casino Jimmy,” wasn’t feeling very lucky after making a save with his face. Ouch.
– Colorado managed only five shots in this game, though two were saved in spectacular fashion (one without Nielsen’s face taking damage). KC’s defense is looking sharp, with no goals conceded in two games.
– KC 2-0-0, Colorado 1-1-1
Dallas 2, Columbus 2 (highlights)
– Dallas coach Schellas Hyndman tinkered with the lineup, though the switch in goal of Kevin Hartman for Dario Sala was necessitated by Sala’s hamstring injury.
– Hartman is one of the best and unluckiest keepers in league history. He made a terrific stop of Guillermo Barros Schelotto’s PK, but it rebounded straight to the wonderfully skilled Argentine, who put it home.
– Dallas’ Jeff Cunningham got his first of the season. Time for another streak?
– One of two last-minute equalizers of the week.
– Dallas 0-0-2, Columbus 1-0-1
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