Pachuca! Gezunteit!

So DC United went down to Mexico, played at Pachuca and lost 2-0 to Mexico's super club.

The time for talking about moral victories for MLS teams in Mexico is long over. DC may not have even registered a single shot on frame.

With that as a backdrop, how can I have anything positive to say about the game? But actually, there was quite a bit.

1) United didn't panic. I've seen looks of terror in MLS teams' faces in the first 15 minutes, when they realize just how fast, just how controlled and just how... good Mexican club teams really are. United actually held its shape extremely well. They tried to build from the back. United made the Tuzos much less dangerous than their dominating possession deserved. The DC defenders tracked the quick diagonal movements of Pachuca's attackers. In fact, they played better team defense against a Mexican team than I've seen in a while. If there was a major weakness, it was defending runs out to or from the flanks. United protected the box well, but didn't track runners to the flanks and was powerless to stop the Pachuca players from whipping in cross after cross.

2. United didn't lose their cool. There was a time when every MLS club trip to Mexico ended in a least one expulsion. MLS fans typically attributed this to biased refereeing-- and that's probably true to a point. But MLS players didn't do themselves any favors by not realizing that tackles that are "ok" in MLS aren't necessarily ok in international play. You just can't give a CONCACAF ref a reason to call something for the home team.

Now, it seemed like Pachuca got every 50-50 call, including a number of phantom calls in dangerous positions. And the TV replays (obviously off of a Mexican feed) emphasized every challenged by a United player by lingering on the Pachuca players, even as DC was moving the ball upfield in the opposite direction. But we also have to recognize that United's players frequently were just a touch slower. How many times did a DC and Pachuca player tangle for a ball and the Pachuca player, seemingly against longer odds than Ron Paul, came up with the ball? MLS fans just need to admit that Mexican clubs are still significantly better at tight possession.

But that's beside the point here: United players took the calls without too much jawing and generally escaped further sanctions. That's a huge positive.

3. It turns out having experienced international players can help you compete in games internationally. Gallardo is able to distribute the ball in ways that we just don't see much in MLS, redirecting hip level passes to an overlapping runner with an upturned heel. And he did the same trick four or five times, convincing me that, yes, it was on purpose. Fred showed more than good footwork-- he showed an impressive workrate that helped United maintain possession. And Martinez? This is the kind of guy that the team thought they were getting with Facundo Erpen-- a defender with good feet, good instincts and the ability to play the ball forward constructively. In fact, he and Peralta looked very solid and made it more difficult for Pachuca to simply attack through the center with rotating runners (a tactic that MLS teams haven't been able to grasp before). Of course, someone in the middle may have lost their man on the second goal, but I thought it was, overall, a fairly solid performance.

Overall, I think United's got a chance (albeit a small one) to tie this up in the second leg. They were beaten soundly, but not without some constructive play of their own.

I wonder, though, if strangely, United might not be good enough for MLS. Is Gallardo going to see as wide open a field when he plays San Jose in Buckshaw, not to mention the traditional MLS defensive powerhouses?

April's Fool

You can't expect people not to make a joke of it when an interview with Alexi Lalas appeared on espn.com on April Fool's Day.
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=521758&root=mls&cc=5901

The fact is that Lalas appears to have whatever the opposite of the Midas Touch is when it comes to MLS clubs. One club he GM'd was relocated, another went from barely respectable to mediocre and yet another went from simply boring to completely awful. Either that's a run of bad luck to equal Job or Lalas isn't very good at creating the stability needed for competitive teams.

And frankly, that makes me a little sad. Despite his awful record as a GM, Lalas does "get" a lot of things about the sport. I read the interview hoping to find more ridiculous statements, but instead found a lot of things I agree with.

Lalas wants to be a leader and understands that being a leader sometimes means failing: "Yes. While others prefer to wait and see how things play out, we prefer to lead the charge. Of course when you're out front you expose yourself, but that's the difference between leaders and followers."

Or how about the following: "There's nothing wrong with the circus. To be honest, the alternative is a boring situation where nobody cares one way or the other. We will continue to be provocative and progressive. Winning is always the fundamental part of the equation, but I make no apologies for the circus and I'm proud to be the ringmaster."

Indeed, I'd rather have a league that's a circus as opposed to one that no one cares about.

But if I agree completely with what Alexi's saying, I can't say I think he's doing a good job. The difference between leaders and followers may be the willingness to expose yourself, but the difference between wise men and fools is knowing your strengths.

All He Does is Score Goals

Jason Kreis on Cuahtemoc Blanco: "[Besides the goal,] I don't think he did anything else but run around and whine." (after Blanco scored a game-tying goal for the Chicago Fire against Kreis' Real Salt Lake).
http://media.www.dailyutahchronicle.com/media/storage/paper244/news/2008/03/31/Sports/Mls-New.Rules.Allow.For.Rougher.Play-3292094.shtml

Reminds me a little of Buddy Ryan explaining why he cut Cris Carter: "All he does is catch touchdowns."

Yes, Cuah whines a lot. My ex-girlfriend thinks he's a travesty to the game of soccer (but that was not the dealbreaker, for what it's worth-- the dealbreaker was when she questioned whether Michael Bradley deserved a spot on the national team. I mean, really, do you want your children raised by someone who thinks that?)

Me, I'm just glad that the Blanco circus is in MLS. I can't say I always enjoy his antics (especially not against the US national team), but here's a guy that makes you feel passionate about futbol. And once in a while, he scores a goal, just to break up the monotony of running around and whining.

The Road to MLS Cup XIII, Week 1: FCD vs Chivas USA

Early season MLS matches have a bad reputation. And for years, it wasn't just talk: they were low-scoring, scrappy, sloppy affairs. They were tough to watch. And even tougher to care about when you knew that almost all of the teams would be making it to the post-season.

So MLS began doing a few things to improve the season: changing the playoff format, restructuring compensation to reward victories more and, of course, expanding the league, which made playoff spots more valuable. And, oh yes, beginning to spend just a tiny bit more on the players.

Last season, it appeared that the early season quality of play had indeed benefitted from these changes.

After seeing the week one games in the new MLS season, I'm pleased to say it was not all a mirage. There were some real highlights.

1. Great goals. If great goals have a way of redeeming even ugly games, then Cuahtemoc Blanco's late equalizer against Real Salt Lake put the proverbial lipstick on the proverbial pig.

2. The more things change... I didn't expect Houston to go down three goals to the New England Revolution. I didn't get to see that match, but what happened? Weren't the Revs supposed to miss Pat Noonan and Andy Dorman?

3. the more they stay the same.Some players, like Juan Toja, Mikel Galindo and Luciano Emilio (despite not scoring a goal) picked right up where they left off. Toja, who faded briefly from the FCD-Chivas match was everywhere. He made one highlight reel run through half of the Chivas team, reminding everyone that he's got moves to go with his great motor.

And the Galaxy still are struggling. They resemble the Madrid Galacticos of the middle half of the decade in a couple of ways. For one, both teams had David Beckham. For another, both teams were woefully unbalanced. Madrid, because it was foolish enough to let Makalele go off to England. The Galaxy because... well... if you went through a list of good players the Galaxy discarded on their way to becoming Galacticos, I wonder if you wouldn't end up having a decent MLS team? Despite predictions of a high powered attack, the Galaxy may find it's awfully hard to play offense in soccer without the ball.

4. But anyway... back to the quality of play. I really enjoyed the FCD-Chivas match. Dallas looks a little like a work in progress-- and despite the signing of a major international defender, Duilio "Can I Buy a Vowel?" Davino, their defense looked a little lost at times. But what do they do? They quickly realize they can't keep up with Chivas and respond by playing really compactly. They had 10 men behind the ball for much of the match, but guess what? I loved it. MLS teams haven't been great at reading situations and changing in response, but Dallas did just that. Chivas striker Ante Razov was reduced to firing his shots into the shins of FCD players instead of the usual "over the crossbar" as a result.

But I still really how Chivas played the game, especially how they played out of the back. The defenders really tried to build the attack from deep in the field. They weren't reckless-- they were just surprisingly comfortable on the ball. And this is not a particularly talented group of defenders without Claudio Suarez:Shavar Thomas and Jim Curtin are, in their own ways, journeymen: players who have floated around the league despite good potential. Lawson Vaughn, a Chivas lifer, isn't really on the radar of many. But they put a solid, attractive defensive game together. And this, despite the quiet game that Chivas USA's key midfielder, Panchito Mendoza, had.

So kudos to the no-name defenders at Chivas-- they made the game for me.

Only in CONCACAF...

would a team lose three players to red cards... and still win the game.

Powerhouse Antigua and Barbuda took on Aruba in CONCACAF qualifying and lost a man to red cards on each side of half-time. Even two men up, Aruba couldn't find a way through the resolute defense of A&B. And fate, cruel fate doomed Aruba to a loss when Antigua and Barbuda scored a short-handed goal in the 87th minute, only to lose yet another man to a red card two minutes later.

I wonder if A&B will be able to field a full team for the next round of qualifying, or, like Cuba at Olympic qualifying, will it be forced to start the game with ten men? That was another "only in CONCACAF" moment (and the Olympic qualifying tournament was full of them...)

Benny Feilhaber: C'mon Bob, tell us how you really fell.

Benny Feilhaber's mother must have told him there would be seasons like this.

His big move to the Premiership has fizzled, with him failing to find a way even to the bench of the English top flight's worst team, Derby. And then Feilhaber wasn't fit enough to be included on the US Olympic qualifying roster, which had to face fairly low-level CONCACAF opposition on its way to Beijing.

Now, there's no reason to be alarmist about any of this: players go through rough patches. Most of them learn and get on track. But while Bob Bradley called Feilhaber into the national team camp for tomorrow's game against Poland, he also had a stunningly frank assesment of where Feilhaber's gone off track:
"He has to grow up. [...] He has to mature as a player. He has to understand, day in and day out, how to earn the respect of the people he plays with. [...] You never want to take away anything from a player at a moment when he's achieved something or when the team has achieved something, but it is incredibly important that the bigger picture is still there. In that regard, the growing process for Benny needs to include all of this."
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=519558&root=us&cc=5901

So basically, Bob's saying that Feilhaber got too high on himself because of his wondergoal against Mexico to win the Gold Cup and that he then forgot he still had a lot to prove. I don't think you usually hear coaches air their opinions quite so openly. That's not necessarily a criticism of Bradley-- just recognition of the fact that this is a monumental public pimp slap on one of the US's formerly brightest rising stars.

US-Mexico: Efficiency, Effectivity and Pretty Futbol, part II

Wednesday night's US-Mexico was one of the more attractive match-ups-- the game featured plenty of attacking soccer (much of it from Mexico) in a high-speed, back and forth contest. The US extended its unbeaten streak against Mexico on American soil. So why are US fans so upset by it?

Because we saw glimpses of the future of Mexico and it was frighteningly good. Young studs Gio Dos Santos and Carlos Vela completely torched the US defenders. And another pair of young standouts were out for Mexico: Guardado and Nery Castillo. But still, Landon Donovan noted just how much faster the Mexicans were willing to play. They were willing to play a more uptempo brand of football. If Mexico is a team that has relied too much on pretty soccer in the past and not enough on simply being effective, perhaps this brand of soccer marks a change.

That said, the US looked better than it sometimes does against Mexico. Frankly, they usually look awful, but are grimly effective. This time, the Americans carried the play from time to time. Yes, they didn't maintain possession as much as the Mexicans, but it generally wasn't ugly.

As far as individual performances, a couple stood out: first off, Bobby Convey had a rough game. Coach Bob Bradley attributed it to coming off of injuries. I hope so-- Convey really wasn't effective whenever he did have the ball.

While the midfield tandem of Rico Clark and Michael Bradley wasn't a success, they both showed their abilities. In the first half, Bradley really was everywhere and frequently controlled (but did not necessarily contribute to) the play. He slowed down considerably in the second half, but I found it to be an encouraging development. Since Claudio Reyna's retirement, there hasn't been anyone to control play in the middle. Bradley might be the guy. Especially if Benny Feilhaber can't get some minutes with his club...

While outside backs Ramiro Corrales and Drew Moor had especially tough nights, I thought the US generally did a better job of tracking Mexico's runs towards the box. Frequently, when Mexican attackers change the point of attack quickly, US defenders struggle to adjust. I thought Onyewu and Bocanegra did a good job of not biting (at least not as much as in the past).

The result is a disappointment: the US should be favorites on home soil. But I watch the games to be entertained-- and this game fit the bill.