Soccer Buzz

I said I would talk about the Kansas City/New York game over the weekend today. Okay, I lied, but I will talk about it tomorrow when I preview the Kansas City at Columbus midweek match.

I’ve come across a couple of interesting articles that I’d thought I’d share. Last week, a reader (I have readers?) from Manchester in the UK noted that many in Britain and Europe hope that the game succeeds over here. Coincidentally, Steven Wells of the Guardian (a newspaper that absolutely loves to poke fun/insult the United States) had a blog entry about English views towards Americans playing “their game”, and that perhaps we Yanks know a bit more about this game than the rest of the world believes. I can also assure you that despite the stereotype, most American fans of the game don’t want to see radical changes to the rules similar to the NASL (and many of those ideas came from the Brits).  Americans playing association football is really nothing to fear, unless you fear competition.

Slate had an article about the constant change in the US National Team uniform design/color. Sure, every country’s kits change over time, but you know that Italy will be wearing blue, Mexico in green, England and Germany will wear the white, etc. The United States in the last 15 years has featured red, white, blue, stripes, no stripes, and last but not least, this weird design that looked like denim with a bunch of stars all over the place, as seen in the picture of Marcello Balboa in all of his mullet glory.

The issue has affected fans, particularly those in Sam’s Army. In the late 90s through 2001, the United States would wear red, so Sam’s Army (which really doesn’t have any sort of centralized leadership) encouraged fans to wear red if they wished to stand in that section. Then Nike/USSF decides to switch to blue in 2002, thus screwing all of us over although red remained the color of choice for the fans. Still, I’m no longer sure what to wear nowadays.

Well, where to start?

Real Madrid managed to take care of business against Mallorca to win the La Liga championship. Around the second half of the Madrid/Mallorca and the Barca/Gimnastic de Tarragona games, Barcelona supporters must have sensed that their club would take over first place on the final weekend as their team led 4-0 while Madrid was trailing 1-0. However, two goals from Jose Antonio Reyes sandwiched around a Mallorca own goal gave Los Galacticos their first Spanish league title in four years and let David Beckham leave Spain as a champion before joining the LA Galaxy. Also, it is good to see that Barcelona did not become champions after Lionel Messi’s handball goal against Espanyol a week ago (apparently, Messi needed to recreate both of Maradona’s goals against England in 1986.)

The United States managed to beat Panama 2-1 in a game that probably should have been a bigger victory for the US. The Americans once again could not finish some excellent scoring opportunities, including Clint Dempsey missing a chance while trying to showboat late in the game. Dempsey’s antics made the game interesting in the end with Blas Perez grabbing a goal for Panama a few minutes later. To be fair to Panama, Tim Howard had to come up with a big save against Perez early in the second half to keep the score at 0-0.

Of course, Panama should have finished the game with only 8 men on the field when the referee failed to send off Felipe Baloy for intentionally handling a through ball in the first half, and then didn’t send off Carlos Rivera for bringing down Landon Donovan when Donovan was through on goal. Manual Torres did eventually get sent off for dissent. The Panamanians complained about referee Neil Brizan, but he was awful for both teams, which is par for the course in CONCACAF.

And now for the MLS wrap up. I did fairly well on my predictions until Sunday when I completely missed both games.

FC Dallas 1, Real Salt Lake 0 (My prediction: FCD 2 RSL 1)

Nothing much to see in this game. Dominic Oduro scores in the 93rd minute to add some kind of excitement to this one.

Columbus Crew 3, New England Revolution 3 (My prediction: 2-2)

Exciting game with plenty of goals. Columbus coach Sigi Schmid made some changes to shake up the squad and they did produce some goals thanks to another good game from Guillermo Barros Schelotto. Both teams have defensive issues, especially New England without Michael Parkhurst

DC United 3, Chicago Fire 1 (My prediction DC 3-0)

United have started to play like they are capable, but the Fire are in total shambles at every single position. Goalkeeping, defending, midfield, forwards, you name it; Chicago has problems with. The Fire faithful are ready to form a lynch mob against Dave Sarachan and GM John Guppy, and right now, it’s hard to blame them.

New York Red Bulls 3, Kansas City Wizards 3 (My prediction NY 2-1)

It set up as the game of the week, and it delivered. I’ll talk more about this one tomorrow as there is much to discuss, but this game was not only entertaining from a dramatic standpoint, but the level of play was extremely high. It was also good to see a good crowd at the Meadowlands.

Chivas USA 2, Colorado Rapids 0 (My prediction Chivas 2-1)

Chivas continues to play well at home, and they are quietly putting together a decent season. Brad Guzan looked really good in goal for Chivas, and he should have a bright future with the US national team as well. Meanwhile, Colorado continues to struggle away from Dick’s Sporting Goods Park (insert whatever joke you like).

Toronto FC 4, FC Dallas 0 (My prediction 1-1)

Big whiff on my part. Toronto continues to play well north of the border, but unlike their last two games at home, they were able to totally smash their opponent. Two pieces of bad news for Toronto, however. First, Danny Dichio had to leave the game for x-rays, and second, they have to go on the road for six consecutive games. Meanwhile, Dallas has shown that they are capable of some excellent play, but they struggle with inconsistency. I also realize they were injury-riddled and fatigued on Sunday, but I’d still take the East’s top three teams (New York, Kansas City, and New England) over Dallas.

Los Angeles Galaxy 3, Real Salt Lake 2 (My prediction 1-1)

Not a bad effort from the Galaxy, albeit against another cellar dweller. Perhaps the Galaxy can still put together a decent season. They have just signed Honduran forward Carlos Pavon, and he could be the box forward that the Galaxy need. Plus, they are waiting for the return of Landon Donovan (who will also play in Copa America), and they are waiting for some English guy to arrive next month. Salt Lake, on the other hand, continues to look for its first win. What a mess they have on their hands.

This weeks prediction record 4-3.

Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, US Soccer, MLS

Yes, that’s right the wait for the completion of England’s national football stadium is nearly over. Thw keys have been handed over from the builder’s to the FA and it is now up to the authorities to host two ‘ramp up’ events to prove the stadium is worthy of its security certificate. The first of these two events will be an England U21’s match against Italy U21’s. The tickets went on sale and all 60,000 were sold within hours, causing the official FA website to reportedly crash. If the events are a success the FA will be allowed to open the staidum to it’s full capacity of 90,000.

Below is a timeline of the Wembley saga.

The last ever football game to be played at the old Wembley Stadium ends England 0-1 Germany on 7 October 2000

Not until 30 September 2002 does the long-awaited demolition work begin as bulldozers move in on the twin towers

The arch stands serenely above the chaos of ongoing construction work, a full 133m above where the pitch will be.

On 12 June 2006 the first strip of turf is laid, exactly one month after Wembley was meant to host the FA Cup Final.

The new stadium must now host test events on 17 and 24 March to gain necessary licences before it can be used.

But the FA is confident that a new dawn at Wembley will be brought in by the return of the FA Cup final on 19 May, 2007!

Wembley Stadium The FA, Wembley, Construction, Wembley Pictures, England, England U21, Italy, Italy U21