Well another week on MLS action has come and gone. There certainly were quite a number of goals scored, which is always a good thing.
Check out this week’s goals of the week. Let me know your pick for favorite. For me, it’s a toss up between Beckham’s goal and McManus’ strike for Colorado.
Enjoy.
Here’s what I hope will be a treat for everyone! (I actually feel a little like the mainstream press on this one!)
On May 13th the Los Angeles Galaxy played an exhibition match with the Vancouver Whitecaps of the USL-1 (United Soccer Leagues) . It just so happens that I have a link to a player for the Whitecaps, central defender Omar Jarun.
I was able to catch up with Jarun, and this is what he had to say about the game and playing against Beckham:
“Playing against one of the best players in the world is always an experience. He is still a great server of the ball to say the least. At times you can tell he gets frustrated with his teammates for poor passing or not a hard enough work rate, but being the captain David tries to support his teammates.”
Jarun also talked about his role in the game, “I was matched up with their big man up top named Alan Gordon out of Oregon state. big target player with good feet. It was a fun battle considering Becks [Beckham] was serving dime balls into his head and I had to deal with it.”
About the exhibition match, Jarun commented: “The game was a success for both sides because fans got an entertaining game to watch. I’m still glad we came out and brought our style of play to them and got the result.”
There are a lot of sports fans, even those that are die hard soccer fans, that look down upon the USL, and see it as an inferior league to MLS and other leagues around the world. And yes, while the marketing and promotion heavily favors MLS and the higher profile players choose to play in MLS, by no means is the USL an inferior league. The level of play is quite good, and let’s not forget that Vancouver did beat the Galaxy 2-1, and big defender Omar Jarun played a vital role in keeping the most prolific scoring offense in MLS at a minimum.
I’d encourage anyone that has a USL team in their area to check out a game live. I’d love to hear your thoughts about the games, and check Fox Soccer Channel’s TV listings to see when a USL game will be broadcast.
Check out the Vancouver Whitecaps by clicking here.
Check out the USL by clicking here. (And for those of you wondering where some of the top women soccer players and plying their trade nowadays, the USL W-League would be the place!)
I hope to be able to get Omar’s comments and answers to questions on here from time to time, so let me know if you have any questions for the defender and I’ll be sure to get the answers; comment or email me at soccerisfutbol@gmail.com
Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has revealed his intent to retire from the club within 3 years. His reasons: time for himself, and time for his wife.
Ferguson has had 22 majestic years at the legendary club, and while Ferguson leaves the door open to leave before he reaches the 25 year milestone, I fully believe that Ferguson will see his career out with 25 years in charge.
it’s no secret Ferguson wanted another Champions League victory after winning it in 1999. Now he has that victory, and I am sure that he feels as though he can finally consider himself a true success. How can he only now feel that way? 10 premier league titles, 5 FA Cup Titles, 2 League Titles. All those are great, and to anyone other than Alex Ferguson those titles would signify nothing short of greatness. But only 1 Champions League title was a blemish to the great manager. How easy would it be to say Ferguson was a great domestic coach, but not that great in Europe. People would say to that, what about the Champions League title? And the easy answer would be, “oh, that one time he got lucky?” Well, now no one can say he lucked out in 1999 (Of course only habitual nay-sayers and Man United haters would say such a thing). Now, Fergie has 2 Champions League titles, and what else? Fergie knows he can get one more.
3 years. That’s the length of time he has given himself, and this current Man United team he has built can do it, and he knows that. If United can keep the core of the team intact, this team has an excellent shot to repeat. But 3 years into the future? Who is the goalkeeper, surely not aging Edwin Van der sar. Paul Scholes, Gary Neville, or Ryan Giggs? Retired. Reo Ferdinand? Aging, and losing a step on strikers who are getting faster ad faster. Cristiano Ronaldo? I don’t expect he will stay at united for his entire career, but I do believe he will stay until Fergie goes.
So Fergie is giving it 3 years, and if I really was a betting man. I’d bet on Ferguson and United getting another Champions League title (to go along with a couple of EPL titles and an FA Cup or two).
I’m not going to spoil it for anyone who hasn’t seen it yet, but David Beckham scored quite the goal in the LA Galaxy’s 3-1 win over the Kansas City Wizards.
To score a goal like this is very very difficult, yet Beckham makes it look easy. I bet if you took 10 athletes and had each of them try this, only 1 might pull it off. I’d be willing to bet a lot of money that only a couple of Galaxy players other than Beckham could make this shot; and none of them would be able to with as much consistency as Beckham.
So, Enjoy. I definitely want your thoughts!
It’s been a whole 3 days since Chelsea lost the Champions League final to Manchester United, but that’s all the time it took for owner Roman Abramovich to part ways with coach Avram Grant.
In a way, I feel bad for Grant. Ever since he took over the role from the mercurial Jose Mourinho in September, Grant’s days had been numbered. The club parts ways with one of the most well known and respected coaches, the self appointed “special one” (Mourinho) and hires in his place Avram Grant. Avram who? Fans didn’t like this switch one bit, players didn’t like this switch, and throughout the season it seemed as if even Chelsea’s top brass didn’t like this switch.
But Grant didn’t exactly get crushed by the pressure of instantly becoming the most scrutinized coach in the Premier League. The team did falter a bit after the exit of Mourinho, but that’s only to be expected. Grant helped orchestrate a turn around. He led Chelsea to the final of the League Cup, only to lose out to a fiery and well prepared Tottenham. He push Chelsea up the league table, and even after weeks of hearing that Manchester United had already won the league, Grant had Chelsea poised to take over top position on the very last day of the season, but United held on to win the league. Grant even managed to do something his predecessor could not, get Chelsea to the Champions League Final. Unfortunately, he lost that one too.
Maybe Avram Grant just doesn’t have that little extra magic it takes to be a coach that wins the big titles. Then again, maybe any old regular Joe could have done just as good as Grant; considering Chelsea has, by far, the best group of top class soccer players in the world at its disposal.
2nd in the league, 2nd in the league cup tournament, 2nd in Champions League. The message is clear, 2nd is not good enough.
So step up managers of the world, do you have what it takes to coach the mighty Chelsea FC?
Thoughts?
A Game for the Ages!
I figured it was about time that I write about the UEFA Champions League Final. Manchester United vs Chelsea. An all English Final. The Drama. The Pageantry. The Game.
1-1 after 90 minutes. 1-1 after 120 minutes. 6-5 on penalty kicks to Manchester United!
I start by thanking all the players and both managers, for putting on a game worthy of being talking about for generations. United and Chelsea played their guts out, either team could have come away with a victory and it would have been well deserved.
The rain poured down on the players all night, and the field was soggy. For those who watched and saw the stats when Joe Cole came off the field that he had traveled over 13000 meters. Think about this: on a soggy field like the one in Russia on Wednesday, running feels like you are running on sand. The extra effort to move is great, to move with such a speed a precision is near impossible. So 13000 meters, or over 8 miles in just less than 100 minutes (Cole was subbed off in the 99th minute) on such soft ground. For those that have never run on a sandy beach or on a soggy soccer field, I can say with sincerity that it is brutal.
Cristiano Ronaldo put United ahead in the 26th minute with a beautiful header past the out reached hands of Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech. Credit to Wes Brown for delivering a pin point cross to Ronaldo, who did very well to get separation from the defense to get a quality header on goal. Chelsea would equalize in the 45th minute from brilliant build up play followed up by Frank Lampard who calmly slotted it home.
The game would be furious in the second half with Didier Drogba hitting the post with a rifle of a shot from some 20+ yards. Frank Lampard would also be centimeters close to getting a second goal with a shot off the crossbar. Substitute Ryan Giggs nearly sealed the win for United when he hit a shot towards a wide open Chelsea net; only a miraculous stretch of his neck was John Terry – running past the ball – able to bend back just enough to glance the ball off his head and over the goal.
Catastrophe struck for Chelsea in the 116th minute when Drogba, in a complete loss of mental focus, slapped United’s Nemanja Vidic in the face during a scuffle after a hard challenge. The slap was right in front of the referee and the dreaded Red Card was shown, leaving Chelsea to finish the last 4 minutes of overtime with 10 men, and without their best goalscorer for the impending penalty kicks.
Before everyone loses their heads about Drogba’s sending off, let me say this, I do not fully fault Didier Drogba for this. Should he have done it? Absolutely not. Did he deserve the red card? Absolutely. But Drogba was provoked into an attack, this is professional soccer and players will do whatever it takes to get any kind of edge (case in point the infamous Zinedine Zidane headbut in the final of the 2006 World Cup). This incident occurred very late into over time, and I have already stated how difficult it must have been to find energy after running on that soggy field. I can only imagine that Drogba was so fatigued, so tired both physically and mentally, that he let the moment get the best of him. In the end; however, Drogba is a professional and should have been able to control himself despite whatever situation he was in. He committed a monumental error, and hurt his team for it.
In to PK’s we go. Chelsea and United traded goals until up stepped Cristiano Ronaldo. Now, I will be the first to argue that Ronaldo is the best player in the world, and for 120 minutes of soccer, he showed that by being an absolute menace to the Chelsea midfield and defense, especially the world class Michael Essien. But he is arrogance and need for showmanship hurts him. He started about 10 feet behind the ball, ran up to strike it, stopped for a good 2 seconds about 4 feet behind the ball, then struck it – and deservedly, Petr Cech made the save. Why couldn’t he just go to the ball and hit it with the confidence everyone knows he has? Because Cristiano Ronaldo likes the attention and he wants everyone to know that he always has tricks up his sleeve. Well, it cost him. Even if he scored, it would have cost him as stopping the motion to strike a PK is illegal and surely he would have been forced to retake the kick. Regardless of Ronaldo’s antics, it came down to John Terry, if he scores Chelsea wins. Well the field had different ideas for the man who had saved Chelsea time and again during the course of 120 minutes. As Terry planted his foot, the turf slipped out from under him right as he struck the ball. He had United keeper Edwin Van der sar beaten, but not the post. My heart goes out to John Terry on this one. His of the highest class as a player, and from what I hear about him as a person, he is of the highest class in that regard as well.
Fate was not with Chelsea as two kickers later, Nicolas Anelka’s shot was saved by Van der sar and United found themselves victorious.
This was a game for the ages. A Champions League Final worthy of remembrance, and congratulations to the deserving champions Manchester United!!!
Who saw the game? I definitely want your thoughts!
No real surprise here. American international went from starter to captain to on the bench over the course of the 2007-2008 EPL season.
I wouldn’t feel bad about this though. Bocanegra has proven himself to be a solid center back and many teams in Europe know this. I fully expect Bocanegra to get picked up by another team in Europe. England would be the first possibility, but certainly other European leagues will be in the running.
I can’t blame Fulham for this, changes are needed at Craven Cottage, and Bocanegra joins a long list of players who are on their way out. This could be the first of a mass exodus of American players though; Kasey Keller, Brian McBride, and Clint Dempsey could all be on their way out as well. The only player I can see 100% sure of staying is Eddie Johnson.
Any thoughts on this? Where do you think Bocanegra might end up?
Over the past weekend, the Los Angeles Galaxy trounced FC Dallas 5-1 with Edson Buddle getting a hat trick in the win. Surprisingly, neither David Beckham nor Landon Donovan played a vital part in the victory – though each did earn an assist in the victory.
The important thing to note here is that the Galaxy players not named David or Landon are stepping it up big time. Coach Ruud Gullit has the team playing very well and despite defensive woes the team is still quite a force. They were able to move the ball well and consistently were getting into dangerous positions. For lack of a better phrase, LA put on a show in Dallas, and if they continue to play at that high a level then expect to see a lot of high scoring and a very very difficult team to stop. I also see the defense getting better if the level of play stays high, don’t get me wrong, it will still be bad, but I think it will get better.
On a side note from this game, FC Dallas head coach Steve Morrow was fired as a result. I feel bad for the guy, he’s a good coach, but his tactics and decision just weren’t clicking. I expect to see him back in the head coaches position soon, and let’s hope Dallas can bring in the right guy to turn this team around.
This will be my only post about last week’s MLS games as I continue to get caught up on all things soccer!
I may have misspoken in an earlier post about the Bob Bradley selecting a roster for this game. In truth, he selected a pool of players from which to choose from for the next 3 games. May 28th vs England, June 4th vs Spain, and June 8th vs Argentina (more on this string of games to come).
The roster includes:
Goalkeepers: Tim Howard (Everton, England), Brad Guzan (Chivas USA), Dominic Cervi (no club)
Defenders: Carlos Bocanegra (Fulham, England), Dan Califf (Midtjylland, Denmark), Steve Cherundolo (Hannover, Germany), Jay DeMerit (Watford, England), Oguchi Onyewu (Standard Liege, Belgium), Michael Orozco (San Luis, Mexico), Heath Pearce (Hansa Rostock, Germany), Jonathan Spector (West Ham, England)
Midfielders: Freddy Adu (Benfica, Portugal), DaMarcus Beasley (Glasgow Rangers, Scotland), Michael Bradley (Heerenveen, Netherlands), Ricardo Clark (Houston), Maurice Edu (Toronto FC), Eddie Lewis (Derby, England)
Forwards: Clint Dempsey (Fulham, England), Landon Donovan (Los Angeles), Nate Jaqua (Rheindorf Altach, Austria), Eddie Johnson (Fulham, England), Josh Wolff (1860 Munich, Germany)
Thoughts on the roster for the game? Any particular line up you want to see?
Congratulations are in order to Portsmouth for winning the 2008 FA Cup!
I love the FA Cup. I really do. This a tournament for everyone, and I mean everyone. The best part about it is that every team has a shot, and that statement is emphasized with this years final match up between EPL’s Portsmouth and Cardiff City of the Coca Cola Championship.
All sports fans have heard the adage that any team is beatable on any given day. This years FA Cup saw the big 4 of the Premier League get taken down by smaller, less prominent, and certainly less wealthy teams. Without the big 4 in the final some of the luster may have been lost, but I say that the passion and thrill was only emphasized. It is the true spirit of the game. So Congrats to Portsmouth for holding off Cardiff City after Kanu put them ahead in the 37th minute.
Who saw the game? Any thoughts?
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