MLS Playoffs – Whoyagot?

Major League Soccer has survived the contraction of the early aughts to emerge as a league with 15 teams.  This goes to 16 teams next year with two more expansion teams waiting in the wings.  In the bad old days, 75% of the teams made the playoffs, but nowadays a playoff berth is actually an achievement so the final 8 are pretty solid teams.  And the fact that going into the last two weekend’s of league play only two teams were eliminated from playoff contention made for a highly competitive and exciting finish.  While the Eurosnobs would like to mimic the Old Country and do away with the playoffs, let me add to the chorus and assure everyone that our way is better.

Can’t Blog Now… FIFA-ing

FIFA 10 dropped earlier this week, which partially explains the extended absence of posts.  That and some minor flu issues… 

Yes, this game is really, really fun.  After (ahem) only a few hours of dedicated play-testing, I can report a number of improvements over last year’s edition.  Team America is tougher for one thing (finally garnering some respect), and the game physics and passing seem more realistic.  Basically, everything mentioned in my demo preview still stands.

Soccer bloggers across the nation are watching their productivity decline.  It’s all reminiscent of the summer several years ago when GTA San Andreas came out, and suddenly a number of popular comic books were inexplicable delayed as the freelance community suddenly had something else to do.

Hit me up on PS3 for a match: MacShark_72.  But don’t bring the weak stuff.  I’m like the Cobra-Kai dojo – No mercy and I will sweep the leg…

The 23 – October Edition

An eventful week for the US Men’s National Team saw qualification for next year’s World Cup overshadowed by the terrible news of a deadly car wreck that left promising forward Charlie Davies severely injured and a young woman dead.  Much has been written about this, so I won’t add to it; suffice to say that our thoughts go out to the affected families.

So Team America battled to a 2-2 tie against Costa Rica in D.C. Wednesday.  It was an emotional and error-plagued performance that really means nothing in the grand scheme other than putting the more-deserving Honduras in the World Cup instead of the Ticos.  The U.S. wins the hexagonal for the second straight cycle, which is the rough equivalent of winning your low-major conference tournament by 20 in March: you still know you’re going to get a crappy seed.  Also the U.S. lost defender Oguchi Onyewu to a knee injury that will keep him out for several months and puts his Milan career in doubt. 

Pentagram: Qualification Complete

Team America is World Cup bound.  All the teeth-gnashing and hand-wringing about the squad’s inconsistent play, their inability to score goals from the run of play, Coach Bob Bradley’s squad selection – it can all go away, at least for a little while. The US beat Honduras 3-2 Saturday night in San Pedro Sula, the only team to win down there during qualification.  And they did it by battling hard, refusing to quit even after going down a goal, and riding the superior skill and tireless efforts of one Landon Donovan.

I ended up watching this game on my computer via alternating webfeeds from Central America and Iraq (of all places).  The quality was bad and the feed lagged at times, but at least I was able to watch.  Five point in your bound-for-South Africa Pentagram…

No Soup for WCQ TV

In a strange and annoying turn reminiscent of the mid-90s, US Soccer has managed to not have the second-to-last World Cup Qualifier broadcast tomorrow.  Oh, the game is available for viewing, via closed-circuit TV in a handful of bars across the country, but no pay-per-view, no web-cast, nada.  For me, this would mean a drive to Chicago if I really wanted to watch this game.  And I really want to watch this game – just not enough to spend six hours in the car.

It’s an important, vital match.  Win or tie and Team America is in the World Cup.  Lose and the last game against Costa Rica in D.C. next Wednesday becomes scary.  Just to review:  tomorrow I can watch Bahrain v. New Zealand or Denmark v. Sweden, or even freaking Liechtenstein v. Azerbaijan.  But no USA v. Honduras.

FIFA 10 – First Shake

The demo for EA Sports’ FIFA Soccer 10 came out last week, so we’re on the spot with some early impressions after a stint of play-testing.  Apparently, the game drops in Europe tomorrow, but on this side of the Atlantic we have to wait until October 20.  That gives all those Euros nearly three weeks to refine their skills before I open up the whip-ass on them.

I’ve played FIFA 09 into oblivion so I definitely have some opinions about the next version.  First off, based on the demo, the  general physics are more lifelike and accurate.  This not only improves player movement and the way the ball flies around, but nuances such as passing, defensive challenges, and shooting position.  Most of the familiar online features will make a return, and you can always count on a few new tweaks.  The graphics have some subtle improvements, the soundtrack will be updated, and most importantly, the rosters will be current and (hopefully) adjusted to reflect the world of football.  For me it will be interesting to see if the USA team has improved in the eyes of the EA Sports developers – particularly in light of the Confederations Cup showing; I thought our players were given short shrift last time, but then again I’m biased.

Enigmatic U20s

The US Under-20 World Cup team looked solid today en route to their 4-1 victory over Cameroon.  Just a few days earlier, they looked extremely shaky losing to Germany 3-0.  With youth teams, you can always cover yourself with the cliche: they’re young and inconsistent, blah-blah-blah.  But Coach Thomas Rongen’s latest squad is even stranger than most.  In the last cycle we had a group of heralded players headlined by Jozy Altidore, Freddy Adu, and Michael Bradley.  This time we have Dilly Duka, Ike Opara, and Brek Shea – a group familiar to only the hardest of the hardcore US Soccer fans.  The team includes a fair amount of college players, some guys from Europe, and some guys playing in PDL and USL-1.  Not many guys from MLS (even fewer who actually play).  It’s a very random-looking team.  What does this say about the state of USA soccer development?  Not much, unfortunately.

It’s a Catch-22 with American players getting lost in the shuffle.  MLS teams would rather pay more for foreigners with pedigrees than develop the home talent, and since the Reserve-lead closed down last year, and with entry-level salaries so ridiculously low, staying in college has seemed reasonable for guys like Duka, and keeper Brian Perk.  The young guys find it difficult to head for Europe unless they can secure a European passport, which eliminates many.  That’s why you have guys like Tony Taylor and Gale Agbossoumonde who play in USL-1 (the USA second division).  It all adds up to us being behind the countries with more established leagues – this despite many promises by US Soccer, MLS, Nike, and now Adidas.  Take, for example, Germany.  Their U20s are mostly signed to Bundesliga clubs.  They train with the senior team and play reserve matches in the German Third Division, or go out on loans to Second Division teams, etc.  This means they’re playing in competitive games.   Unlike the guys warming the bench in MLS or playing NCAA soccer, with all it’s weird rules and questionable coaching.  No wonder we looked disjointed and inept in the opener.

Pentagram: WCQ v. El Salvador

With a 3-1 (oops, I mean 2-1) victory over El Salvador in Utah, Saturday night, Team America remains in the mix to win the hex.  Here are the standings with three more to play – one game on Wednesday and two more in October:  Honduras – 13 pts, USA – 13 – pts, Mexico – 12 pts, Costa Rica – 12 pts.  Trinidad & Tobago and El Salvador are both virtually eliminated with 5 apiece.  The top three teams qualify automatically for South Africa, while 4th place is a play-in with the 5th place team from South America.  As that could be Argentina the way things are rolling, the USA would do well to avoid the drama.

It's a goal for Jozy!

Wednesday we travel to Trinidad in a game we should win and the chance for some breathing room.  As we have two of the more difficult matches next month – at Honduras and home against Costa Rica – you take your three points from the Soca Warrior if at all possible.

Against El Salvador, Coach Bradley trotted out the more attack-oriented lineup many of us we’re hoping to see.  Finally, we saw Altidore and Davies starting up top with Feilhaber, Donovan, and Dempsey in the midfield.  The result was some attractive soccer at points, as well as some defensive lapses.  Five points in the pentagram…

MLS Stretch Run

With the dog days mostly behind us, Major League Soccer looks towards the stretch run and the playoffs.  September and October usually showcase the best of MLS, as teams jockey for position and try to gain post-season momentum.  Ironically, you often see your best soccer this time of the year, the kind a casual fan could enjoy, when most people are occupied elsewhere.

Houston Dynamo (40 points), Columbus Crew (39 points), and Chicago Fire (38 points) are locks for the playoffs.  Of these three, the Dynamo, who just signed Mexican forward Luis Landin and are starting to get healthy again, look the best.  Columbus seems a little shaky, and they have the distraction of the CONCACAF Champions leauge, but they continue to get results.  The Fire have plenty of points but haven’t played particularly well.  Starting defender, Bakary Soumare, seems to be on his way to France, and Coach Hamlett seems to have some issues.  Chicago could still put it together, though.

Pentagram: US @ Azteca

Well, you win some, you lose some.  At Azteca, you mostly lose.  But that doesn’t mean you have to like it.  Sure there are a few positives: the continued ascent of Charlie Davies, who scored the first goal at the Azteca by Team America in many moons, the fact that we’ve been able to take the early lead on Italy, Brazil, Spain, and Mexico in Mexico.  But…  We’ve only managed to hold that lead in one of those games, and let’s face it – luck was with us that day.  A troubling trend.

It’s not the fact that Mexico beat us on their home soil. Again. No, it’s the way the USA played after conceding that first goal, attempting (ineffectively) to bunker 70 minutes on the road, unable to string together passes, and conceding possession at all turns.  You could claim that both of Mexico’s goals were fortunate (and they were) but that’s the beside the point.  El Tri carried the play, dominated possession, and deserved their day.  Now with Honduras’ victory over Costa Rica, we have a logjam at the top the standings for the region.  Costa Rica with 12 points, Hoduras and the USA with 10 points, and Mexico with 9.  Five points in the Pentagram…