Category: MLS

Watching Paint Dry

By Bladd Drwg

I have no real love for MLS soccer – the play reminds me of schoolyard basketball, the skill level is marginal compared to watching any European team play and the officiating is downright atrocious. I did recently go see the US Open Cup final between Seattle and Kansas City and was treated to everything I hate about watching an MLS game.

Both teams looked flat and the Sounders looked like they were playing not to lose the game. KC was not much better and the bulk of regulation time was spent with both teams middling around in the middle of the field making bad passes and not really pushing any attacks. It was frankly as exciting as watching paint dry. Both teams had a few scoring chances, but in those cases they were generally created by defensive mistakes rather than offensive skill.

The Sounders managed to get flagged for 4 yellow cards in regulation – and in each of those cases, the card should have been awarded. The Sounders should have only had 3 cards – Alonso was going to be warned early on for an aggressive play but he kept walking away from the ref, and eventually pushed the official away drawing the yellow. There was only one play that I thought KC made that might have warranted a yellow, but the ref did not call it. There were a number of questionable calls on both sides of the ball but I don’t believe the handball that lead to a KC goal was a bad call (unfortunately GolTV refused to show replays on just about every play).

After going 90 all tied, we were treated to another 30 minutes of incipit soccer as KC practically dominated the overtime but could not mount much of an attack. For all you Sounders fans – yes, Ianni deserved his yellow in the 119th minute – he pulled down a guy that had no defenders between him and the goal; that is an automatic yellow.

After watching 120 minutes of uninspired play, we got to witness the soccer equivalent of kissing your sister – penalty kicks. For the sake of the setup – a goalie is supposed to start on the goal line and is not supposed to move until the player taking the kick strikes the ball; a rule that is rarely enforced except on the last kick. If the goalie moves before the ball is struck or does not start out touching the goal line and touches the ball preventing a goal, it is a rekick. If he does not touch the ball, there is no rekick, even if the player kicking the ball does not score. That is exactly what happened at the end of the game, leading to a 3-2 advantage for KC and the win. (Yes – the replay does show that the Sounders goalie did not start out on the line).

If you read Jerry Brewer’s account in the Seattle Times, you will get a very different perception of the game. Some of the “highlights”:

…after a grueling 120 minutes of tense competition, after drama, frustration and five decisive penalty kicks from each team, history succumbed to anger, confusion and allegations of biased officiating.
—
It was a spirited contest, as competitive as you want a title game to be. But when it was over, the Sounders were left miffed and unsatisfied.

If Brewer thought the game was competitive and spirited, I suggest he watch a Champions League final or a Euro tournament.

A slightly less biased article (and a much more realistic view of the game) was written by Jeff Carlisle on espn.com. It’s title? “Hard to watch, easy to love.” I think that just about summed up the game.

Bench Him Like Beckham?

By Blaidd Drwg

How did this action by David Beckham only land him a yellow card (other than it was David Beckham, the only real marketable player in MLS) and a one game suspension that is only the result of multiple yellows this season? This should have been a red and a couple of games banned – there is no question it was intentional.
http://player.espn.com/player.js?&playerBrandingId=4ef8000cbaf34c1687a7d9a26fe0e89e&pcode=1kNG061cgaoolOncv54OAO1ceO-I&width=576&height=324&externalId=espn:8119152&thruParam_espn-ui%5BautoPlay%5D=false&thruParam_espn-ui%5BplayRelatedExternally%5D=true

On the plus side, his aim from 30 yards out was impeccable.

The Stupidity of the NFL Playoff System

By Drwg Blaidd

The NFL really needs to change the way that the playoffs are seeded. We have had 2 consecutive seasons where a team that was .500 or worse got to host a team that was at least 4 wins better than them in the opening round of the playoffs.

I think that the NFL needs to go to an NBA style playoff system – you give the division winners with the 2 best records the 1 & 2 seeds (and the bye) and then you rank the remaining teams based on records. It pisses me off that my team, who was tied with the second best record in the conference, has to play on the road the entire playoffs (unless the unlikely scenario of Steelers – Bengals occurs for the AFC championship game – which is moot), just because they happened to be in the same division as a team they tied with, who also held the tie breaker over them. The Steelers probably would have ended up 14-2 if they played in the West and the point would be moot. If you want to keep the division structure, fine. It happens too often that a team won’t make the playoffs as a wild card while a team with a worse record wins their division and gets in.

The list just over the last 5 seasons:

2011 – The Broncos (8-8) make it while the Titans (9-7) do not.
2010 – The 7-9 Sea Chicks make it over the 10-6 Giants and the 10-6 Bucs.
2008 – The 8-8 Chargers make it over the 11-5 Patriots and the 9-7 Jets.

That 2008 Pats team is the only 11 win team that did not make the playoffs that I could find in the 2 wild card era.

My other problem with the playoff seeding is that in the NFL, since it is a single game, home field means a ton more (it is something like a 65-35 advantage in the playoffs) than the other sports where the multi-game series reduces it to something like 55-45 advantage.

The one thing that I am holding out hope for is the Broncos really aren’t that good and they really haven’t been great at home this year. That being said, the Steelers have a banged up O-line, banged up QB, lost their starting RB, have some injuries on defense and are without their starting safety, who can’t play because the altitude might literally kill him.

While we are at it, could someone please let the MLS know that their playoff system really doesn’t work either…

 

Note: this was written BEFORE the weekend playoff games were played.

Assorted Sports Thoughts

by A.J. Coltrane

Mike Leach to the Cougars: 

To quote Leach – “You can win here and win big, I believe.”

Washington State football just got a lot more entertaining — I may actually make a point to watch a game or two next year. WSU will throw the ball all over the place, and historically that’s what they’ve done when they’ve been good. At the very least they’ll be fun to watch.

The Sounders get a new keeper:

The Sounders signed 6’5″ Austrian keeper Michael Gspurning. From the Seattle Times: “Gspurning’s size lends to a more aggressive approach in coming out to defend crosses, and he is also more comfortable having balls played back to him and using his feet”

The News Tribune has more information about Gspurning, including this YouTube clip of five of his saves:

I’m predisposed to like tall keepers — Kasey Keller would have had a hard time getting to Save #3 on the video, though Keller likely would have been playing another step or two to his left to cover that angle and would have stopped it anyway.

Gspuring is a 30 year-old veteran keeper. I have high hopes the Sounders won’t miss a beat.

Finally, the NBA is dead to me, but:

The Miami Heat signed Shane Battier. I think this is about as important as any signing in the league this year — Battier is absolutely the perfect fit to go with Wade and Lebron. Battier doesn’t need the ball in his hands to be productive, he’s a very good perimeter defender, he’s a good rebounder, a good passer, and he’s a good 3-point shooter. He may wind up being more valuable to the Heat than Chris Bosh. Really, the Heat are the “Big 2 +1” anyway, not a “Big 3”. As Battier approaches the late phase of his career he could basically be Robert Horry all over again. Mike Bibby just signed somewhere else, and if the Heat can get anything besides a corpse to play the point then they have to be heavy favorites to win it all this year. They don’t even need a traditional point guard, it could be a Steve Kerr equivalent and they’d be fine. (Any of the triangle offense non-traditional point guards would work — Kerr, Paxson, Harper, or Fisher. They just need long-range shooting and (ideally) someone to get in the way of quick little guards.)

Bleh.

Manchester United and Their US Tour

By Blaidd Drwg

Wayne Rooney - the man who scored more goals against the MLS in 22 minutes than the MLS scored against ManU in 360 minutes.

Manchester United recently wrapped up their MLS exhibition tour with a 4 – 0 crushing of the MLS All-Stars in New York. In the 4 game series, the Reds outscored their opponents 18 –2, but they still have one game left before they cross the pond – they are playing a competitor that should prove to be slightly more challenging than the MLS teams. They get to play the team that crushed them in the Champions League finals – FC Barcelona. THAT should be a good game.

I watched some of the Sounders-ManU match and, while US soccer has come a long way, it still has a longer way to go. The Sounders held their own in the first half of the game, but I think that had to do more with adrenalin and playing in front of 65,000 people than level competition. They got absolutely crushed in the second half when both teams essentially played their second strings and it became obvious that ManU was easily the better team. Wayne Rooney also reminded everyone that he can still play the game by putting on a clinic, netting a hat trick in 22 minutes and looking like he was Michael Jordan in a pickup game against a bunch of high school kids.

Until US Soccer switches to a system like the Europeans with a feeder program that stresses fundamentals rather than winning, changes the league structure to allow for relegations and promotions, and allows teams to be competitive and sign European and Latin American players in their prime (as opposed to washed up “stars” like Beckham and Henry), we will never be able to compete consistently on either a club level or international level with the rest of the world.

The Patrick Ianni

by A.J. Coltrane

THE Patrick Ianni

The Sounders scored four goals last Thursday. This was a good thing for me, as 3 or more goals means everybody gets a free haircut, and I was due.

When my haircut was about done a woman came into the shop with two kids, about ages 8 and 9.

The 9 year-old asked her if could have his hair cut “Like Patrick Ianni on the posters!”

It’s another example of the revolution not being televised.