Who’s Got Superliga Fever?
by tedski
Tonight is Revs v Camoteros and Houston takes on Monarcas tomorrow. So, where are we on your predictions? Let’s see:
Group 1
| Results | Me | Malena | David | Sam | Brissia | Deya |
| Dynamo | Pachuca | Pachuca | Pachuca | Dynamo | Pachuca | Puebla |
| Puebla | Dynamo | CUSA | CUSA | CUSA | CUSA | Dynamo |
| CUSA | Puebla | Puebla | Dynamo | Puebla | Puebla | Pachuca |
| Pachuca | CUSA | Dynamo | Puebla | Pachuca | Dynamo | CUSA |
Group 2
| Results | Me | Malena | David | Sam | Brissia | Deya |
| Revs | Revs | Pumas | Fire | Pumas | Fire | Revs |
| Monarcas | Pumas | Revs | Monarcas | Revs | Pumas | Pumas |
| Fire | Monarcas | Monarcas | Pumas | Fire | Revs | Fire |
| Pumas | Fire | Fire | Revs | Monarcas | Monarcas | Monarcas |
Bold – Correctly predicted finishing place.
Italics – Correctly predicted semi-finalist.
We’ll give 2 points for a correct place, 1 for not getting the place right but picking a semi-finalist. From that we get:
| Sam | 7 |
| Deya | 6 |
| Me | 3 |
| David | 2 |
| Malena | 1 |
| Brissia | 0 |
New standings will be posted after the semi-finals are complete.
He Disguises His Dislike So Well…
by tedski
From Kei Kamara’s Twitter feed:
“#4,” who he doesn’t name in this tweet or in others, is likely Nick Garcia, Kamara’s teammate back when they both played for San Jose.
Here’s a happier tweet from Kei.
Your Obscure CONCACAF Highlights, Presented Free of Charge
by tedski
in the first leg of the preliminary round in the CONCACAF Champions League, two of the best named teams in North America, Brujas FC and Joe Public FC, play to a 2 – 2 draw.
Bonus for Revs fans: the manager of Brujas FC is Mauricio Wright.
Best. Friendly. Ever.
by tedski
Years ago, the Arizona Wildcats basketball team, then near its zenith, had an exhibition scheduled with a Russian Team, Dynamo Moscow. Dynamo had flight delays and only landed hours before they were scheduled to play one of the best teams in the country.
Needless to say, tovarich, it did not go well for the white and blue.
U of A fans, like fans in a lot of places, have a tradition (habit? I dunno) of standing at the begining of the game and remaining standing until the other team scores. Being basketball, this usually means at most, two minutes. Fans remained standing for nearly ten minutes before most of them sat down despite the fact that Dynamo still hadn’t managed to keep possession long enough to score.
After the game, Dynamo coaching staff asked if there was another team they could scrimage in town. Catalina High School was suggested. After this performance, Lute Olson vowed never to schedule a game with Dynamo again.
In case you don’t know why I would be talking about a basketball game that happened over a decade ago, you obviously didn’t hear about DC United’s game with probably-about-to-go-into-recievership Portsmouth FC. Four Four Two had the best warts and all account of the match. At least Dynamo brought their jerseys.
Hey! David Villa,
by MalenaBear
Do me a favor, will ya? Shut up!
Villa: I will do the maximum to get Cesc here
Rallie, Rallie, Rallie, or, Donkey Has Reason to be Cranky
by tedski
The Twitterverse, or at least the portion that is used by Revs fans, was consumed yesterday by outrage that Steve Ralston was going to be ineligible to play in New England’s SuperLiga tilt against Atlético Morelia. This was touted as Ralston’s final game.
Who’s at fault for this? Well, seeing as I live a couple of thousand miles from the people making these decisions, I can’t say definitively. But given comments that I’ve read by Steve Nicol, and comments from players and team officials that have gotten back to fans, this seems a screw-up by the league.
It’s a damn shame, really. Ralston was not a star that the league pushed on fans (think Alexi Lalas, David Beckham, Carlos Hermosillo, the list goes on). Instead, he was someone who developed his skills in the league, and made both of the teams he played with better squads for it. He became a fan favorite not because he was glamorous, but because he was a great player. Here was a guy who not only honed his skills as an MLS player and stuck around, but who in a small way improved the quality of the league. You’d think they’d be better at recognizing that.
The fans, both in and out of the Fort, gave Ralston the tribute he deserved. You gotta wonder why the experts in suits couldn’t see what they saw.
Time And Thierry
by Jimmy Stagger
Here’s the theme song for our European “friends” in the media regarding Thierry Henry’s signing with New York (from henceforth to be known as “The Worst Kept MLS Secret Since Ever”). The usual half-witted, poorly-researched, blatantly anti-American “pieces” having been making the rounds despite all evidence to prove them wrong. The usual point-and-laugh line is “Oh LOL MLS is teh retirement league, m8, Yanks don’t kno footie!”
That was as painful for me to type as it was for you to read. And I mean the article as well. Is Henry past his prime? Of course he is. He was when he left North London for Barcelona in 2007 as a replacement, more or less, for Henrik Larsson who had left the Nou Camp at the end of 2006 to return home to play for Helsingborg. Oh my Lord, you know when you read that…La Liga is a retirement league! You heard it here first kids. They replaced one striker with his best days behind him with another one. But of course seeing as this all happened amongst the biggest clubs in Europe, everything is OK. Just another day on the Continent.
Somehow though when these movements involve an Atlantic crossing our league is suddenly neighbors with the Running Back Rest Home Emmitt Smith lives in on those Just For Men ads. Nonsense of course. If we’re on the same level as the famous (and undisputed) retirement leagues of Saudi Arabia and the UAE, how is it that there’s a decent amount of MLS-trained Americans plying their trade in the vaunted Barclay’s English Premier League? Haven’t really seen much movement from Dubai Club or Al-Ittihad to Jolly Old England, have you?
At 32 Henry is 2 years younger than Roy Keane was when he left Manchester United for an obvious final paycheck and farewell tour on the Irish Nationalist side of Glasgow. If you’d like to say the Scottish Premier League is a retirement league please join me on Saturday mornings at The Banshee in Dorchester, MA. First make sure your insurance covers dental work. Henry is only slightly older (3 years) than Jaap Stam was when he left Manchester United for Lazio and younger than Jaap was when he wrapped up his career with a final cash-in with AC Milan and a final homestand with Ajax. Juan Sebastián Verón wasn’t exactly his old self when left his loan at Inter to go home and play for Estudiantes de La Plata in 2006. How much hate mail (in 2, if not 3, languages) do you think I’d get if I wrote a mocking post here about how the Argentinian Primera División is just a rest home for washed-up old players with their Euro glory days behind them?
While we’re down in the Southern Hempishere let’s look at a situation the BBC’s Tim Vickery describes in his South American soccer blog. Seems like the Brazilian league isn’t precisely up to snuff anymore and the main playmaker is 38 year old Dejan Petkovic. Promising home-grown star Robinho has gone to Europe and failed, returning home with his tail between his legs. Oh my. Shades of Landon Donovan post-Leverkusen anybody?
I shouldn’t say that too loud for fear of being branded a know-nothing Yank by the European & Latin American Real Football/Futbol Writers Association (Luis Bueno, North American representative)…but you see what I’m saying. Yeah, Thierry’s past it. So what. He’s got plenty left in the tank and tickets are going fast which might the first time in the sad history of the New York MLS franchise you can say something like that. MLS is a young, growing league that needs some help at this stage in its development from established stars in the second half of their careers. It isn’t a sin. If you think it is, take off that Beckham AC Milan shirt.
P.S. I actually like Luis Bueno’s work.
SuperLiga Predictions
by tedski
There is still one game left, but as things currently stand:
Group 1
| Team | Pts | GD |
| Puebla FC | 6 | 3 |
| Houston Dynamo | 4 | 1 |
| CD Chivas USA | 1 | -1 |
| CF Pachuca | 0 | -3 |
Group 2
| Team | Pts | GD |
| New England Revolution | 6 | 2 |
| CA Monarcas Morelia | 4 | 4 |
| UNAM Pumas | 1 | -1 |
| Chicago Fire | 0 | -5 |
The first round predictions are here. Most of the predictors got the four projected semi-finalists, except for Brissia who got none. The standings could be shuffled tomorrow, with the only two no hopers being Chicago and Pachuca.
Henry’s Induction
by tedski
I suppose here we have two models for DP: Beckham and Blanco.
(I would bring up crash outs like Denilson or even Matthäus, but I think we are all smarter than that now and it ruins the alliteration.)
The line in 2007 before either of them had actually kicked a ball in an MLS game was that Beckham was going to be a strong leader that would improve the Galaxy and be great for the game and that Blanco, well, his personality was going to ruin the Fire and he would phone it in.
We all know how that turned out.
Henry doesn’t have the entourage, or demands, that Beckham came with and is expected to be, you know, a soccer player. No one is talking movie deals, reality television or who he’s married to. The Red Bulls are a much better team (both on the field and front office) than the Galaxy was in 2007, heck, they are having their best season ever (and that isn’t the faint praise it sounds like). I don’t expect the chaos that Becks brought.
Now, if Henry brings in his own coach and management company, I’ll change my opinion.
SuperLiga Prediction Fun
by tedski
So, I got the usual suspects together to do their own SuperLiga predictions. Most of them don’t know anything past the names of the teams, which is what makes it so much fun.
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