Soccer thread

RobVarak · Post by **RobVarak** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 3:40 am

Zeppo wrote:Of course you are all aware, I'm sure, that the US plays Denmark today at 5pEST. It will be Bob Bradley's first game in charge, and though it is more like a 'domestic league selects' group for both squads (we have two players who play in Denmark with us), it should be interesting to see some of the fresh blood that might make an impact over the course of qualifying in the coming years. It will also be the first game for the Nats since the loss to Ghana in Nuremberg, so many months ago.

A lot of new faces will get their first cap, and many others their second or third. For some reason, I am convinced Kenny Cooper is going to become a super-hero when all is said and done many years from now. This will be his first game for the Nats. More interesting than this game, surely, will be the friendly v. Mexico (it's never a friendly) in February in Phoenix, which falls on a FIFA date so Bradley will have the chance to bring in at least a few European-based players, but after more than 6 months, even this dreary matchup has the ability to get me excited.

A few nice things in that game. I (heart) Justin Mapp, so I was pleased to see him undress those young Danish defenders to set up the second goal. Cooper showed savvy, if not flair, with his finish.

Eddie Johnson was abominable though, and that left winger for Denmark made several meals out of Chris Albright. Overall a good performance for a very young squad.

I think Wynalda and Arena were actually fairly entertaining as well. Neither pulled many punches about the ridiculous coaching situation, and Wynalda (for all his faults) was right when he responded to a shot of Gulati in the crowd by mentioning that Gulati needs to s*** or get off the pot

And congrats to Dave O'Brien for making Rob Stone sound like a God LOL

Naples39 · Post by **Naples39** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 12:46 pm

I watched the US game yesterday, and IMO the 3-1 scoreline really flatters the american performance. Few players impressed, as the US forwards were particularly bad (outside of Cooper's well taken breakaway of course). Mapp is the only guy who really raised his stock. I'd like to see him get some more chances out wide, though I'm not sure he distributes well enough to play in the middle.

Dempsey also made his Fulham debut, which I also managed to catch live. He only played about 10 minutes, and looked utterly terrified when Coleman was giving him some last instructions on the sideline. "Fine" would be a fitting word for how he performed, and a good tackle by Dempsey actually created the counter which led to Fulham's go-ahead goal. It's a shame Fulham could only walk away with another draw as Tottenham equalized late on a play which the goal scorer was a good 3 yards offsides. Highlights for those interested: http://www.footytube.com/2007/01/20/ful ... tottenham/

RobVarak · Post by **RobVarak** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 3:31 pm

Dazzling match between ManU and Arsenal. Inspired play down the stretch and really entertaining football throughout (with the exception of the hideous time wasting by ManU).

pk500 · Post by **pk500** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 9:14 pm

Both the West Ham-Newcastle draw Saturday and the Arsenal victory over Man U today were top-shelf sports entertainment. In fact, by far the two most entertaining sporting events among the NFL, college hoop, World Rally, Premiership and NHL action I watched this weekend.

Passion, commitment, drama -- everything you could want. Great sports theater.

Both teams were guilty of time wasting. While van der Saar dicked around after he got booted in the face, Lehmann's fake ankle injury in the 95th minute to try and salt away the game was a joke.

Otherwise, a great game.

Newcastle had a hell of a comeback from 2-0 down to West Ham to tie 2-2. Yeah, Parker was a mile offsides on the first goal, but oh, well! Tons of commitment, passion and pace in this match, too. Really fun to watch.

Take care,
PK

RobVarak · Post by **RobVarak** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 9:16 pm

pk500 wrote:
Both teams were guilty of time wasting. While van der Saar dicked around after he got booted in the face, Lehmann's fake ankle injury in the 95th minute to try and salt away the game was a joke.

I'm quite certain the former begat the latter, though. Lehmann's a dick, don't get me wrong. But that was quite clearly mockery rather than a meaningful attempt to waste time IMO.

Zeppo · Post by **Zeppo** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 9:56 pm

As to the US game, I was pretty bummed in that first half, and felt very embarrassed for the team and Bradley. But Justiin Mapp single-handedly changed that with his amazing run, where he beat 5 players on the dribble, and Bornstein impresse when he came out of nowhere to smack the pass home.

It was great to have Arena in the booth, I thought. He was pretty much the best analyst I've ever heard in any booth in any sport. He pulled no punches (I was tremendously delighted to hear him repeatedly hammer US Socccer for the cloud over Bradley's head), and was very insightful on all areas. His disappointment in Donovan's play was interesting to hear, and even better was the way he sneakily decried Bradley's box midfield by consistently saying that Landycakes needs to be closer to the strikers and in the middle of the field.

Mapps performance, and that of Bornstein, Rico Clark, and few others bodes well for the program as a whole, I think. It's interesting that Bornstein is one of those guys completely missed and unidentified by the 'system' (much like Jimmy Conrad), and it's nice that we have a league where these guys can blossom in their adult years into the players no one seemed to see them becoming when they were young.

Good result for USA, great result for Bradley and his staff to get that first one out of the way and get started preparing for Mexico. It will be interesting to see who Bradley pulls over from Europe for that game (it being on the West Cost is not going to help), and who he will want but won't be able to get. I was pretty disappointed with the crowd at the HDC (not to mention the pitch, which was a little better than usual but still unacceptably poor, and it was great to hear Arena mention that issue right off the bat), and it will be a madhouse in AZ, but most of those seats will be filled with folks wearing green. I wonder how many will sport both colors; it seems a lot more are doing that these days.

pk500 · Post by **pk500** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 9:56 pm

Rob:

If it was anyone but Lehmann, I'd agree. But that guy, as you said, is one of the biggest tools in the Prem. No chicanery or whining is beyond him.

Take care,
PK

pk500 · Post by **pk500** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 12:02 am

OK, I wrote my above post about the Premiership games being the most entertaining sporting events of the weekend BEFORE I finished watching the Colts-Pats' game.

I rescind the statement! The AFC Championship game was a HELL of a game. Superb entertainment.

Still, the footie was mucho enjoyable.

Take care,
PK

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 10:24 am

pk500 wrote:Rob:

If it was anyone but Lehmann, I'd agree. But that guy, as you said, is one of the biggest tools in the Prem. No chicanery or whining is beyond him.

Take care,
PK

He certainly is no Oliver Kahn.

pk500 · Post by **pk500** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 11:04 am

fsquid wrote:
pk500 wrote:Rob:

If it was anyone but Lehmann, I'd agree. But that guy, as you said, is one of the biggest tools in the Prem. No chicanery or whining is beyond him.

Take care,
PK
He certainly is no Oliver Kahn.

Kahn is no angel, either. Must be something in Kahn and Lehmann's shared German DNA to have these three characteristics:

1. Whiner
2. Asshole
3. Very talented

Take care,
PK

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 11:38 am

Whiner? Mr. Kahn is certainly no whiner. Possibly an asshat, but I call it being assertive. Kahn also doesn't feign injury, usually because he's busy dishing out cheap shots to guys in the box.

jimd · Post by **jimd** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 11:59 am

fsquid wrote:Whiner? Mr. Kahn is certainly no whiner. Possibly an asshat, but I call it being assertive. Kahn also doesn't feign injury, usually because he's busy dishing out cheap shots to guys in the box.

Agreed. Kahn is just a nasty SOB. Lehman, on the other hand, has moments when he becomes mentally ill. Both fun to watch and great GKs.

pk500 · Post by **pk500** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 12:20 pm

fsquid wrote:Whiner? Mr. Kahn is certainly no whiner. Possibly an asshat, but I call it being assertive. Kahn also doesn't feign injury, usually because he's busy dishing out cheap shots to guys in the box.

Take care,
PK

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 12:59 pm

pk500 wrote:
fsquid wrote:Whiner? Mr. Kahn is certainly no whiner. Possibly an asshat, but I call it being assertive. Kahn also doesn't feign injury, usually because he's busy dishing out cheap shots to guys in the box.

Take care,
PK

no rebuttal? Where has Paul Kelly gone? Also, you don't see Kahn running at the ref like Lehmann does. I just hate the fecking guy. Bring on Hildebrand!

pk500 · Post by **pk500** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 1:11 pm

Squid:

No reply needed. Your reply was funny as hell. Well done.

Take care,
PK

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 5:44 pm

T. Henry is money in the bank, great win for Arsenal. Too bad Chelsea did't take advantage of their situation. They miss J. Terry dearly and some players have not adjusted to their new positions. They need a central defender and another forward, but IMO despite MU losing, they are done.

I am switching my attention to the Spanish Liga as an exciting finish will crown one of the 4 teams that are in the hunt.

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 2:26 pm

Sheva showed signs of his old self scoring twice in the Cup and now they await for the other semi between Tottenham-Arsenal. Big loss for the gunners as Van Persie has a fratured bone from the weekend game vs MU.

Macca00 · Post by **Macca00** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 2:30 pm

If only Shevchenko could play against mighty Wycombe Wanderers every week.......

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 2:47 pm

I was about to say the same thing....

Zeppo · Post by **Zeppo** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 2:58 pm

It's official: Claudio Reyna is coming home to play for RBNY. He is taking one of the team's DP slots, which is a bit of a bummer to me, but on the other hand may have been the only way to guarantee that if he came to MLS RBNY would get him rather than some other team higher on the allocation pecking order.

Essentially it plays out like a straight trade for Amado Guevara; we traded Guevara to Chivas USA for their DP slot.

Personally I am very happy to see him in MLS a little sooner than I had expected. If he can hold up, I expect him to be able to shine in this league and provide an immense amount of stability on the field, and a great degree of positive influence in the locker room as well.

The worry is, of course, that he turns into Tab Ramos II; plenty of talent for this league, too many injuries. I doubt he will ever be quite as frustrated as Ramos, what with Arena in charge and RB instead of the monkey-run circus we've been used to pulling the strings, but if he's not healthy and the Giants Stadium field turf treats him poorly, then many fans' fears of a wasted DP slot will be fulfilled.

Now the question is who will they get to fill the 2nd DP slot? Probably no one until the summer. The rumors have been all over the map, and I don't believe any of them. Since RB took over, there have been no loose lips on that ship. And I am still waiting to see what if any other teams will use their slots at all. If no one steps up to the plate, this little experiment could backfire pretty badly. I was excited about Davids to Dallas, as I thought it would help catalyze the DP concept for the league. But the Davids talk seems to have all but vanished since the first, seemingly valid rumors. Oh well. Somehow I just don't see teams like KC or Salt Lake using thier DP slots right away, so it could well be the weak situation of having Beckham and Reyna the great vanguard of this new DP program. 'Beckham rule' indeed.

Naples39 · Post by **Naples39** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 3:44 pm

I figured NY fans would have mixed feelings about Reyna. Would suck to use a 'treasured' DP slot on someone who misses a large number of games. I for one intend to give Reyna a nice ovation the first time he comes to DC to recognize his contribution to US soccer over the years.

I say 'treasured' though, because I agree with Zep--many teams won't use it at all this season. Sure there are rumors out there of Nedved or Ronaldo or whatever, but I really wonder how many teams will just sit on theirs. I can only hope that we see at least 2 or 3 more prominent signings.

Also, has anyone seen the fine print on the rule? I just wonder if there is anything to prevent a team from signing a DP to say, a 3-year contract, where he would get a ton of money the first year, then get paid below the league max the following years, thus taking up a DP slot for only the first season. Seems like such a basic maneuver that I can only assume MLS planned for this.

pk500 · Post by **pk500** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 4:23 pm

The DP creates a dilemma that is perfectly illustrated by the Reyna and Beckham signings.

Do teams use them more to strengthen their squads or to capture media and non-soccer fan attention?

A healthy Claudio Reyna arguably is a more complete and valuable midfielder on the pitch than David Beckham. But no one outside of the soccer cognoscenti knows who the hell Reyna is.

The average Joe has heard of Beckham, and his arrival created big headlines. Reyna's arrival creates headlines in U.S. soccer circles only.

So which is more valuable for MLS and soccer in America, in general, in the short and long term?

Take care,
PK

Naples39 · Post by **Naples39** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 5:43 pm

That's a tough question PK, but as long as teams keep bringing midfielders (or maybe forwards) than can create/distribute, I'll be happy.

(yeah, that's a cop out answer

)

Jimmydeicide · Post by **Jimmydeicide** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 6:21 pm

Beckham is a bit better than that PK come on. If the Galaxy were smart they would plop him right in the middle of mid field even defensive midfield, he could ping long balls around all day for you.

Just think ,hes been playing out of position all these years.

Naples39 · Post by **Naples39** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 6:26 pm

Jimmydeicide wrote:Beckham is a bit better than that PK come on. If the Galaxy were smart they would plop him right in the middle of mid field even defensive midfield, he could ping long balls around all day for you.

Just think ,hes been playing out of position all these years.

The Galaxy coach has already confirmed that Beckham will play centrally;

"I'm not giving too much away, but I would think he'll play centrally for us," Yallop said. "We need him on the ball as much as possible, and that's the best place to play him I would think."

http://sports.yahoo.com/mls/news?slug=g ... &type=lgns