Good morning folks. Apologies for the lack of posts this morning. Between finishing my ESPN piece on the Kansas City Wizards and choosing the SBI MLS team correspondents, I won’t be able to give you much this morning.
However, what I can do is give you a sneak peak at what is coming later today:
- You Write the Caption: The best of the Streaker captions
- (More of) Your Questions answered
- A closer look at the Kansas City Wizards
- This weekend’s soccer on TV
- SBI team correspondents announced
For now I want your take on last night’s MLS matches. All I can say is Chad Barrett had a goal and an assist and Alan Gordon had an assist on the same night. No, it’s not still April Fool’s Day. That really happened.
I was impressed with LA, especially how Sean Franklin looked. He stays in the lineup all year. I thought he looked great at the MLS Combine and think he will develop into a rookie of the year candidate. I was disappointing with San Jose. Yes, they’re an expansion franchise but I just expected better.
The New England-Chicago result was a bit shocking, but not when you consider that the Revs lost Jeff Larentowicz to a red card seven minutes into the match. Going a man down is one thing. Having it be the player you were expecting to shadow and frustrate Cuauhtemoc Blanco is another entirely. Chicago still deserves credit for taking full advantage of the red card and for playing quality soccer. The East is loaded.
Share your thoughts on last night’s matches, and anything else mentioned above, in the comments section below.
mcdonald and pires are just terrible in the center of LAs midfield. execrable. shocking. beckham looked great, franklin looked great, randolph was excellent, klein seemed to have drunk from the fountain of youth, vanney didn’t screw anything up.
but the real problems are donovan and gordon. gordon is just totally confidence shy. now, he’s also pace-shy and touch-heavy. that’s a lethal combo.
and donovan. oy. the guy is just so lazy. one thing gordon does extremely well is win goal kicks. he’s borderline berbatov good at winning those. but look at robbie keane. he is in full motion BEFORE berbs heads the ball on. and sure, sometimes it doesn’t work, but when it does…
donovan (and i was watching from my seats) was always static, and wasted chance after chance to run on to a second ball.
My general feeling is that despite alot of inclement weather, the crowds and the watchability of the games so far have been excellent. Even where attendance has been a bit small, the new latin players & the more crowd-appropriate venues (KC stands out) have really helped liven the atmosphere.
I agree that Parkhurst really struggled last night (and I am a fan), while Barrett actually played well (and I’m not a fan). Ya gotta try to stay objective, especially when it goes against what you’ve seen before.
The Fire will push for the Supporter’s Shield if Blanco stays healthy b/c they appear to be the deepest team in MLS. Won 4-0 while not starting CJ Brown, Conde, Herron, Dasan, Nyarko, Carr & Thorrington. As a reference, those seven might all have started for SJ last night.
Lastly, I don’t think Beckham can or will remain wide so long as LA’s center midfield personnell stays the same. I predict he’ll move inside, Klein will move up to right wing, & Franklin will move to right back, once Ruud figures out who his best 11 is. Beckham saw way too few 2nd half touches & his frustration was evident.
MLS officiating is horrible.
Last night alone we saw:
Soft Red on NE
Very soft PK on NE
SJ not offside on their goal
Not to mention last week:
Bad PK call against Xavier
No card for Landon
Trujillo was onside for a goal
and the list goes on and on.
Talking about not good enough – meet Alan Gordon. He was ok with his back to goal…but I think forwards are actually kind of supposed to score and how many good chances does he need.
I thought Barrett was ok and he did get the game winner v the full 11 for Revs BUT he is just not good enough. He was simply out of place with the u-23’s. He stuck out like landon donovan in a plays with passion competition. Just not good enough goal and a few decent touches later.
I can’t believe Alan Gordon was tieing his effin shoe during a great chance. I would have pulled him out right then and put in the rookie Jordan. I like franklin better than xavier!
I am not a Galaxy fan, but I will be watching them very closely this year, as I think we all need to see Donovan have an MVP type year, for the good of the USMNT. Donovan is the leader and captain of the Nats. The team is centered around him. If he can’t have a dominant type of year with a healthy Beckham serving balls to him on a platter, I think we will be able to say that Landycakes has peaked, and maybe his performance in Germany is what we can expect in South Africa. If this is the case, then we should make the switch to Freddy Adu now, so he can get as many games under his belt before South Africa.
Good game from Donovan though. I hope he continues to grow as a player, otherwise I will not be spending the big coin to go to South Africa to see the Nats pull a three an out like they did in Germany. That was a costly tip for me with no results to show for it.