Soccer in America

On Tuesday evening I watched game 7 of the Caps/Flyers series at the 51st State in Foggy Bottom. Yeah, that's right... I got on the Caps bandwagon hard. And it hurt. It was Chad Barrett scoring at RFK last November, it was the Cavs outpacing the Wiz by 30 on Monday night and then it was an OT goal at the Phone Booth on Tuesday night. And then I went home, turned on the computer and had pocket aces cracked by pocket jacks. Brutal all around. But this isn't the point.

My friend S, who is very smart and observes all, made an interesting comment to me as we made our way through too many pints. He said, "Look at baseball, which is the most popular sport in America, but is, for the most part, a boring game." True. He pointed out that American sports fans seem to have a preoccupation with statistics and that maybe baseball is so popular because there are so many statistics to throw around while you are trying to make your way through three innings of shallow pop flys and slow roller ground outs to the second baseman who has chewing tobacco juice on his shoes. You are always hearing about "on-base percentage after the 7th inning with runners in scoring position by lefties against righties from Spanish-speaking island countries" and "slugging percentage". And all these statistics have fun, convenient abbreviations, like OBP(A7RISPLvRSSIC) and BB and HBP.

So maybe MLS would do well to create (invent?) more statistics for viewers to track with the hope of keeping the American sports fan occupied through 0-0 draws and defensive bunkering. Perhaps teams stats like "most team passbacks from the middle third to the keeper" or individual stats like "percent time of possession spent with back to goal". In fact, in all seriousness, I heard on last Thursday during the CLB @ DCU match that Alejandro Moreno was the most fouled player last year. It wasn't immediately obvious to me what it was about AM's game that would put him in a position to be consistently fouled. I don't know that he is a big flopper.

Do you have ideas for more stats that MLS could track? Is this plenty? Discuss your ideas in the comments and be sure to give some thought to how too many numbers being tossed around may cause Eric Wynalda's head to explode.

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Only tangentially related to this topic: Mike and Mike, on ESPN2, spent a TON of time on their show Tuesday morning talking about how Andrei Kirilenko had flopped (OMG!) and drawn an offensive foul call at the end of the Game 2 of the Jazz/Rockets series. The foul call waved off a made 3 pointer and allowed the Jazz to steal a road win. Golic was absolutely astounded that such an injustice could be allowed to stand. Green was more practical, trying to figure out how to punish a player who flops within the current NBA rules of fouls and technical fouls. It was hilarious to see two grown men so upset at how a blown call or slight embellishment by a player could effect something like 3% of a team's total point instead of, as any soccer fan knows, perhaps 50% or 100%!!

Soccer as a Neutral - Either Fan or Referee

I wish I could say that DC United's exit from the MLS Cup playoffs made me able to appreciate the game last night more. Instead, from the first time we saw that half of the stadium in New England was empty, all I could think is how much more I would enjoy the game if one of the teams was in black.

So instead I began the time-honored tradition of waiting for moments that would delight me as a DC fan. Every time Mr. White went to the turf and Kevin Stott waved play on was a joy. I enjoyed the 60th minute collision between Matt Reis and Paulo Wanchope, and only wished that Paulo had led with his knee -- you know, "to protect himself" from Reis. I enjoyed hearing Eric Wynalds offer a "tut tut" for each Chris Armas or CJ Brown tackle. And I even enjoyed the goal. And, hell, the game calling on ESPN was actually half-way decent.

That being said, there is one thing that Wynalda says that consistently annoys me, and it annoys me because I feel so many of my fellow fans feel the same way. When talking about how many New England players, including Shalrie Joseph had cards coming into this game, Wynalda and company seemed to agree that Kevin Stott had to be careful about giving another card. Similarly, on Twellman's goal, it was a dangerous play. His foot nearly took out Robinson's jaw. Just because it was tremendously athletic (it was) and dramatic (certainly) and fun to watch (of course) doesn't mean it wasn't dangerous. That's the point of having a rule. If a play is dangerous, you don't let it go simply because it makes the game more interesting. They are the laws of the game, not the well-meaning suggestions for the game. From Law 12 (emphasis added):

Playing in a dangerous manner is defined as any action that, while trying
to play the ball, threatens injury to someone (including the player himself). It is committed with an opponent nearby and prevents the opponent from playing the ball for fear of injury. The action becomes an offence only when an opponent is adversely affected.

A scissors or bicycle kick is permissible provided that, in the opinion of the referee, it is not dangerous to an opponent.

Playing in a dangerous manner involves no physical contact between the players.

Given that in real time you could see Robinson pull out of the challenge when he saw a foot flying at his face, I find it hard to believe that this shouldn't have been called.

Which gets to another issue. You will hear commenters and fans in all sports say about referees "you simply can't make a call at that point in the game." There's some belief that the laws and rules of a match should become flexible depending on how important a given moment in time is, and only the most flagrant fouls should be called. That's ridiculous. A referee should always use their best judgement as to whether a foul occurred, no matter at what point the game is at. To change the standards of a foul later in the game is to give an unfair advantage to questionable tactics at the end of the game. As much as the goal called back against Christian Gomez hurt me, it was the correct call according to the rules. The fact that it was a vital moment for DC at the end of the game does not change what the laws are, nor should it affect the referee's judgement. I applaud the referee for making what he knew was a tough call in a hostile atmosphere because he knew it was the right call to make. I wish Kevin Stott had done the same, even though it would have deprived the game of a great highlight.

Reminder

This is a reminder to set your TiVos or, god forbid, your VCRs (how quaint) for tomorrow's UEFA Champions League Highlights show.

UEFA Champions League Highlights
ESPN2, 2pm - 3pm.

The Best Show on TV

Thank you all for the kind welcome to The DCenters.

Last Saturday afternoon (Sept. 22, if you actually care) I was downtown playing pick-up Ultimate Frisbee. One of the other players there was wearing his Michael Ballack GNT jersey, so we got to talking about soccer, futbol, Man U. (his club of choice) and DC United (mine).

Now as an aside, I consider my DC United jersey to be "the best shirt I own" and frequently refer to it as such. I don't even like to wear it when I go to RFK to see a match because I don't want to get it sweaty or have beer spilled on it or even maybe get hit by a Metrobus while wearing it. (Another point: black jerseys in July are no fun.) But there is NO WAY I would wear a soccer jersey (which aren't cheap) to play UF. But I digress.

I recommended a TV show to the Ballack fan that day that I will recommend to you now as well. It is called the UEFA Champions League Highlights Show. The show next airs on Friday, October 5th at 2pm on ESPN2. Set your TiVo.

If you've seen the show before, you will already know that there is a one hour episode of highlights and analysis for each UEFA Champions League Matchday. The analysts are Derrick Rae, Tommy Smyth and in the Matchday 1 episode a guy named Janusz Michallik who I wasn't familiar with prior, but who's first name is coincidentally my mother's maiden name. So, yay Poland!

from wikipedia:

Janusz Michallik (born April 22, 1966 in Chorzów, Poland) is a retired U.S. soccer defender and current soccer coach and television sports commentator.

Michallik moved to the United States with his father, a former Polish national team player, at the age of 16. His father had previously spent time in the U.S. in 1976 when he played for the Hartford Bicentennials of the North American Soccer League. While Michallik played for the junior Polish national team, he never played for the senior team, making him eligible for the U.S. team once he gained his citizenship.

UCL has 8 groups of four teams each - standard format - but with 16 matches each Matchday, that is a lot of highlights to get through in only an hour. But they pull it off and do it superbly. AND they find time for analysis. For example, in the MD1 episode they talked about Mourinho's departure from Chelsea, Henry's move to Barca and the influence of Fenerbahçe's Brazilians (that match against Inter looked like it was awesome!)

It is also interesting that as the tournament progresses to and through the elimination rounds, the show remains an hour long, so the highlights and analysis get even more and more in-depth (with maybe only one or two more Heineken commercials). By the time the finals come, you are getting an entire hour devoted to one match. Fantastic!

Champions League is of the highest quality, so the highlights are superb. That's obviously the biggest attraction for me. But as a relative newbie to international club futbol, this show immerses me in teams that I have (essentially) never heard of and have virtually no access to. (Yes, that's right; I am an Arlington Comcast basic cable subscriber. I've got ComcastSportsNet for MLS and EPL matches, ESPN2 for MLS and national team matches, and the 3 Spanish language stations for MLS, Mexican League and North, central and South American national team matches) But Fenerbahçe? Shakhtar? CSKA Moskva? I love it.

In the comments, sound off if you love this show too and why.

Brave Prediction on Thursday Night Soccer

With all the hype about this game, it is inevitable - Tonight's game will disappoint most neutral viewers. While both teams will have chances, it will mostly be a cagey affair that treads dangerously close to dull. Low scoring affair, think 1-0 or 1-1, maybe 2-1 on the outside. Hopefully the visitors win. But expect to hear a lot of kvetching about the game tomorrow from all of those whose hopes were for some super-classic match.

Monday Morning Coffee

USA v. Mexico Cancelled: Steven Goff reports that US v. Mexico at Azteca is off. It is to be replaced by US v. Brazil at Chicago's Soldier Field. Quite a replacement match.

Boswell Helps ESPN Out Bobby Boswell decided to give some good advice to ESPN at practice on Friday. Some strong stuff there that many fans, myself included think is 100% correct. ESPN's MLS broadcasts are horrible and something needs to be done to fix the problem. Bobby adds to his comments in a similar but slightly less antagonistic manner on his blog.

Ted Takes SportTalk to Task: Ted Leonsis, owner of the Washington Capitals was at the game on Thursday. As he was driving there he was listening to to SportsTalk 980. Apparently, he didn't like what he was hearing. He slams the Sports Reporters for their narrow minded approach to soccer. I couldn't agree more, but I wouldn't have even known about this if he hadn't blogged about it. Because really, who listens to 980?

Opening Weekend for the EPL: I don't know how many of you out there care but there were some nice matches this weekend. It was a good mix of some big upsets and some expected results. As for the Americans playing, the goalkeepers did well, the field players, not so much.

Late Afternoon Coffee

Yeah, this one is a little bit late getting out, for those of you who like your coffee in the afternoon as well.

Diablo Tribute: There is more information on the match planned to honor DC United great, Marco Antonio Etcheverry. Marco will captain the 1997 DC United team while they play a Hollywood United team reinforced with past MLS stars, including Carlos Valderrama, Mauricio Cienfuegos, Tab Ramos, Eric Wynalda and Alex Pineda Chacon. The match will take place on October 20th before United's final match of the regular season.

Nelsen Inks New Contract: Ryan Nelsen signed a new five year deal with Blackburn yesterday. It is good to see DCU alumni doing well, espeically in the EPL. It might have been nicer to have him shoring up the backline on Wednesday, but we got the shutout none the less. Best of luck to Ryan. Is anyone else proud that our former captain is now Blackburn's current captain?

Gomez To Destroy Celtic...Again: DC United's Christian Gomez was named a starter in the All-Star game when MLS faces Celtic. We all remember what happened to Celtic last time they ventured over. Hopefully Christian can help the All-Stars pummel the Bhoys in the first half and get a good view from the bench for the second.

United and the Copa America: Boswell started, Benny did not play last night. Ugly game overall. Bozilla did nothing to stand out, good or bad. Which isn't really a bad thing as a defender, but won't push him up the depth chart either. Moreno had an amazing blast against Peru. By the way, after the group stage only Robinho, Crespo, Cabanas, and Santa Cruz have scored more than Moreno.

DC United in US Development Academy: United, along with Chicago and New York become the first MLS youth teams accepted into the new US Development Academy. The DCenters will have a rather involved look at the DC United Youth teams sometime next week.

ESPN Doesn't Hate Soccer???: For anyone that it interested the United States v. Brazil Under-20 game will be shown on ESPN. Not just ESPNU like announced before, but also ESPN, you know the original. Game starts at 7:30.

The Thursday Night Soccer Reviews

Last night was a night I had anticipated heavily, but by the time it was over I felt annoyed that I ever cared about this game. Why? Well...

USA 2 : 1 CAN: Setting aside Canada's disallowed goal (which I don't understand, and if I were a Canadian fan I would feel completely embittered about the entire thing) the US has some glaring problems. In the opening 20 minutes they showed good skill in carving through the Canadian midfield, but never manufactured a great chance off of it. The half chances were all weakly taken shots whose energy had pretty much expired by the time Pat Onstad took them into his arms. If I had to say one thing, it is that the US misses, and has not replaced, Brian McBride. Eddie Pope was pretty much done in 2006 for international play, Claudio Reyna (Ghana game aside) will be replaced by someone, I have no doubt, but Taylor Twellman and Brian Ching do not seem to provide the same ability to take advantage of small chances that McBride did. For all the other International retirements you can see that in four years we could be okay, but not McBride. That's worrisome.

Oh, and Frankie, um... DID YOU SEE LAST YEAR'S WORLD CUP? When the opposing team's talented midfielder head-butts you, YOU FALL DOWN WITH A COLLAPSED LUNG! You don't slap him in the face. Goodness, have we learned nothing?

Let me be honest. Had Canada's goal (and it was a goal) been allowed to stand, they would have found a way to win that game. The USA does not inspire confidence. But... (see part 3).

HOU 4 : 0 CHV: This is usually a focus on ESPN covering the game, so let's start there. It was a decent job from the crew, whose energy was slightly higher than last week. The down moment came when a "30 at 30" update split the screen for a crucial red card decision (one that looks a bit light, but I can't fault the center ref for making it.) Chivas looked out of sorts, and Houston looked dangerous on set pieces but still didn't overwhelm me, despite the score line. Acceptable match, and perhaps the audience enjoyed all the goals. I dunno.

MEX 1 : 0 GDP: The difference between Mexico and the United States right now is that while both teams have been unconvincing, Mexico at least look to be getting better. Not sure I can say that about the US. That being said, Guadeloupe seemed to play them well. There was a concerted effort to not allow Mexico easy chances, and to play defensively in the opening half. I wonder if Guadeloupe actually feared getting a goal before half time, on the theory that it just might wake El Tri up. Probably not, but it felt that way. Still, once they went down a goal, they managed to actually try and press to equalize the game. And the last half hour was fairly enjoyable considering what I had been seeing most of the night. Yet here we are, with the US and Mexico in the final, and neither team really looking like a powerhouse at any point. There should be insecurity on both sides.

Thursday Night Soccer Thoughts

For a 1-0 game, Thursday Night Soccer was entertaining enough. ESPN's coverage was decent. The digressions for the most part did not interrupt the run of play, except for the obligatory 30 at 30 update during a corner kick and the interview with Don Garber, which was consequential enough that it warranted being shown either at half time or pregame, not during the run of play. The Eddie Pope tributes were decent, though perhaps a little thin given what he gave to this league. Stone, Wynalda, and Smyth were solid and perhaps overly subdued in the booth, but work well together. I say this knowing that Stone gets over excited anytime a player uses his back heel, he still calls a decent game. Wynalda's halftime segment could benefit from perhaps an additional minute, as it never goes beyond "Messi, handball, I don't like it. Don't do that. Yellow card." But hey, at least he didn't red card NASA for the computers failing on the international space station.

As for the game, I will say this. Mehdi Ballouchy should pay half of Freddy Adu's salary. Quite simply, Mehdi was invisible for most of this game, had a number of poor decisions and touches, but since everyone was quick to get their opinions out on Freddy, no one noticed how awful Ballouchy was for most of the game. RSL's back line isn't much better. I admire Kreis for putting out the line-up he did, and the team played well against Dallas. I mean, that defense is going to allow Rimando to get peppered even with six in the back, so why not try and get some goals since Rimando's reactions might be good enough in any given game to keep you in it. Kreis is probably the first coach who has learned how to implement tactical changes with RSL, as they came out much better in the second half than the first. They truly are snakebitten somehow, and things seem worse than they probably are. Kreis may have been ejected, but official Ricardo Salazar seemed to mentally check out of Rice-Eccles Stadium about ten minutes earlier, so perhaps that was the only way Kreis could find a way to talk to him.

Dallas did not look particularly good missing Cooper and Ruiz. Abe Thompson is a nice enough guy and a Maryland product, but simply brought nothing to the table as the loan striker. Toja is a great defensive midfielder, but as a playmaker seemed average at best. That they got three points at the death seems fortunate for that team. Especially considering that if Esky doesn't find Dario Sala's shin, I think RSL could easily have claimed their first win of the season.

Thursday Night Soccer Reviews I I: MLS Game of the Week

Didn't catch as much of this one, since my attention was focused on the National Team, but Houston didn't look bad minus Brian Ching and DeRo, while Colorado looked less dangerous without Terry Cooke out there. Still, this is really a thin veiled attempt to discuss ESPN's production of the game, so let's get into that.

I have no problem with the NBA Finals getting a special preview, since it really didn't interfere with the game. However, taking a ten minute phone call from DeRosario (in which he kept apparently trying to dial in a third party) in the middle of the game was an odd choice, especially since the game was moving at some pace for those minutes.

And let's talk about Red Card/Yellow Card, shall we? When the spot debuted, it seemed like a good spot for Eric Wynalda to let loose and be Eric Wynalda. He could call out the Powers that Be, or other MLS players. Did you hear me object when he took aim at Facundo for a perceived cheap shot? Nope. That's what I want to hear from Eric.

But either he got bored doing such topics, or ESPN felt it as a bit too inside Baseball, because talking about Roger Clemens and Paris Hilton is ridiculous (and judging from an email I got from a reader, some of you feel the same.) I want to hear Eric be a soccer analyst, not a cultural pundit. That's not what he does best. In fact, he doesn't even do it particularly well. Does that mean he should stay on soccer all the time? Nah, if he has strong feelings. But honestly it has the feel that he just wants to check a box and get through it. Sad. Especially when there are so many things worth talking about.