Payne In His Own Ass

I am the most interesting man in RFK

So now that the season is officially over for D.C. United, it’s not only time to figure out what went wrong (I don’t have that much time) and where to go from here (down? as in Richie Williams for coach?), but to point fingers. At least it’s that time if you’re the team President.

In case you didn’t see Kevin Payne’s quotes on Monday -- read them in full here -- I’ll sum his words up by saying that United plays attractive soccer and he would rather have the team play that way and miss the playoffs than play unattractive soccer like New England and Colorado. He went on to say that more people need to watch the league, which is true, but inferred that the only way to make that happen is putting a good product on the field.

Overall Payne had some good points. But as Steve Davis points out, when he pointed a finger at the Revs and Rapids, he came off as a jilted bridesmaid.

Defensive soccer has a place in the beautiful game. No one is ever happy about it, unless it’s your team and you win championships. Ask Greek fans about Euro ’04 or Chelsea fans when Jose “1-0” Mourinho was at Stamford Bridge.

The problem is United tried to play attacking soccer and didn’t shore up their defense. As a result, they were more like the’08 Galaxy than this year’s Los Angeles team that won the West with a solid defense and good offense led by Landon Donovan and David Beckham. Sure D.C. scored the second most goals in the league this year and no one in the playoffs scored more than them, but they allowed one more goal than they scored. As we all know, defense wins championships. Unless Jason Campbell is your QB that is.

The league Payne seems to envision is more akin to the NHL which revamped it’s rules -- where are you Scott Morath? -- to increase scoring after the lockout and were successful in drawing fans back into the game. Well, they’ve been successful in D.C., not sure about elsewhere. However, that type of overhaul ain’t gonna happen in soccer.

As Mike Wilbon talked about today, the Skins suck and their fans are looking elsewhere for entertainment. The Caps are flying high and the Wizards started out the NBA season strong with an upset of the Mavs and Dirk Nowitzki’s hair in Dallas. Wouldn’t it be great right now to be able to appeal to those fans with a home playoff date against Columbus or Chicago? Especially with the Redskins on a bye this weekend even more media coverage could have been devoted to that. Instead, United will be playing attractively on the golf courses.

One last thing in a “those who live in glass houses” mind frame: what else do New England and Colorado (and Real Salt Lake who was also criticized) have in common? Their owners own the stadium they play in and, from what I’ve seen, those are pretty attractive. Where’s your fancy new digs, President Payne?

Other thoughts:

- United awards were handed out last night with Clyde Simms taking home a deserved MVP. No surprise as Bryan Namoff won defender of the year, but the shocker was that those of you that put money down on 500-1 odds that Namoff would take home goal of the year cashed in. Oh, and Luciano Emilio won the Golden Boot, perhaps the last thing he does in conjunction with United?

- Both Ben Olsen and Jaime Moreno want to play next year. Moreno sounds more likely to stay if Soehn is gone, adding another negative in bringing Tommy back for a fourth year. Olsen is from Harrisburg, but told our buddy Craig Stouffer that he prefers United to the Philly expansion team. I’d expect to see both players back under a new coach.

- Playoff picks:

Real Salt Lake over Columbus

Just a gut feeling and I like the pace of Findley over a not fully fit Chad Marshall.

Los Angeles over Chivas

Kansas City is hoping for a blowout resulting in Chivas firing Preki and the left-footer return to his old digs.

Seattle over Houston

Home field gives them the first leg and I don’t trust an aging Dynamo side. Plus, MLS is praying for the Sounders to be in MLS Cup (though they won’t beat LA).

Chicago over New England

I doubt I’ll watch more than 5 seconds of this one.

- One last thing: if you need something long to read at lunch -- or print out for use in the can -- check out this excellent piece by Jonathan Wilson on “false nines” and why teams are successful with them, but then move away from the system.

- Pat Walsh

Monday Musings

"Would Somebody Please Throw Me a Lifeline?"

Big weekend of sports. I'll dispense with the formalities and get to the most interesting stuff. This is a blog originally intended for soccer, so let's get started there:



1. DC United - Tom Soehn, we hardly knew ye.' Of course, that's because the guy was pretty much a jerk to any and all media, and didn't seem to care too much what anybody else thought either. No, he hasn't been fired yet, but 2 straight years without the playoffs for the most successful team in the history of the league? It's gotta happen. In fact, Kevin Payne and Dave Kaspar might not want to answer their phones either. Hats off to Ben Olsen for stating that the players bear a brunt of the responsibility, but if you don't actually HAVE the talent to get to the next level (i.e. Redskins), then Management needs to shoulder much of the blame. Other than Chris Pontius and Rodney Wallace, who are primarily going to be solid role players with this team, do you see anyone in the future who will scare the opposition? Yeah, me neither. Gomez, Emilio, and Moreno are clearly on the downside of their careers, Olsen is beat up, and Simms and Namoff aren't getting younger. I wonder how long before the fanbase starts to get disgusted (again, like the Redskins dwindling faithful)? Time for some wholesale changes, Mr. Chang. How about a phone call to a guy who was dismissed from his MLS club maybe a bit too early and has had some success down in Puerto Rico? You might know him as Colin Clarke...



2. MLS Playoffs - The league got their dream matchup of the L.A. clubs going at it in Galaxy vs. Chivas, but the format still makes no sense to me. The Galaxy finish with the 2nd seed overall, but instead of playing the 7th seed Revolution, they play the 6th seed...something to do w/ the Conference. Ridiculous if you ask me (although nobody asked). The format is still weird, but I guess MLS has their reasons for doing things...whatever. So here are my predictions for the 1st round:



Columbus over Real Salt Lake

Galaxy over Chivas (Best 1st round matchup)

Seattle over Houston

Chicago over New England



3. Liverpool over Manchester United - As my buddy Andy said yesterday, "Liverpool wins their Super Bowl." Good point, as I think it'll be the only thing they win this year. That being said, great performance yesterday as the result was never really in doubt. Plus, they did this without Steven Gerrard, as Jamie Carragher stepped up big time and was the best player on the pitch (although he pretty much fouled everything on 2 feet). On a final note, is it just me or do Berbatov and Rooney seem to be on different pages this year? Just asking...



Other sports:



4. Alabama over Tennessee - The best team in the country was taken down to the wire and were 2 blocked field goals away from being upset. Now they have a bye week to get ready for a hungry LSU squad, with the winner more than likely facing Florida in the SEC Title Game December 5th. I've got a guy on my commuter bus who is a 'Bama alumni and has been giving me grief about Florida's close games...well, it's called the SEC, pal...every game is about surviving and advancing to the next week.



5. Undefeated Teams in College - You COULD (but won't) have as many as 5 unbeaten teams when all is said and done in the regular season. I would love to see this happen just to give a big fat middle finger to the BCS. However, the only time a tournament will happen is when a big time school goes undefeated, is left out of the BCS title Game, and the Conference decides to withdraw from the group (I'm sure there's a legal loophole somewhere they can use). Until then , we're stuck w/ this convoluted mess...



6. Jekyll and Hyde - I have no earthly idea what to expect on a weekly basis from the following NFL teams: Cincinnati, Chicago, NY Jets, and San Francisco.



7. Dependable - However, you know exactly what you're going to get on weekly basis from Indianapolis, New Orleans (although yesterday was a rough start), Denver, and now New England.



8. Dependable part deux - You also know what you're going to get from Kansas City, Oakland, Cleveland, and now Washington.



9. Scheduling - The Redskins play Oakland on December 13th. First team to 6 points gets the win. Also, how many Eagles jerseys will you see at Fed Ex field tonight for the game? Will Dan Snyder even care, or is he just as happy to take Philly fans' money?



10. NFL MVP - SI's Peter King has a hard-on for QB's, who are usually up for this award, but isn't it time Cedric Benson at least entered the conversation? I mean, who had the Bengals being this competitive? At this rate, Marvin Lewis might actually get to keep his job.



That's all for this week. Oh, one final thing; Pat's picture of drunken Homer Simpson and comparing that to me after the KISS concert last week? Pretty much spot on...

Thursday Thoughts

This may or may not have been Mark on after Kiss.

It’s been a slow week. And by slow I mean there was no World Cup qualification going on. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t stuff to talk about, so let’s get to it.

- There was an interesting post over at Hexagonal Blog -- a great site for CONCACAF news -- last week concerning our qualification. If you look at the chart that showed where all six teams stood after each of the ten match days, you see that the U.S. was never lower than tied for second. Granted, things were still up in the air until the penultimate game. But things could have been worse, just look at where Mexico and Honduras were after match day 4.

- As our buddy Craig Stouffer blogged yesterday, can you really get a handle on this D.C. United side? I almost could see them pulling a New York Red Bulls of last year and making MLS Cup. I see that just as easily as them losing to a Kansas City side that has nothing to play for -- much like the Columbus finale last year, but the Wizards aren’t as good -- as pulling of a deep run. In other words, I have no idea what to think going into this weekend. (Hey, it’s better than me BSing like Mark and I normally do about what we think might happen!) No matter what, kudos to United for earning just the second ever draw by an MLS side in Mexico with their 1-1 result in Toluca. Lawson Vaughn shouldn’t have been in a position to concede the penalty, but you kind of felt like Toluca was going to score at some point. They’ll need help tonight as Marathon heads to Trinidad to face San Juan Jabloteh and if you think that result is a foregone conclusion, just look back to last week when T&T hosted Mexico and pulled off a shock result. Granted, that was a (mostly) meaningless game, but strange things do happen in this beautiful game.

- Going back to what I posted last week about the Charlie Davies incident, Bruce over at his realm DuNord posted some good questions as a lead into his daily must-read yesterday. He points out we never heard what happened after Michael Bradley’s red card in South Africa and even the lack of explanation over the Jurgen Klinsmann hiring fiasco. Does that put Sunil Gulati on Dick Cheney’s level of keeping secrets? If so, don’t go hunting with the USSF Prez. Also, another friend of M2C, Brian Strauss talked to Robbie Rogers in a good interview and the subject of Davies being out late was brought up, but you have to feel that will be the most its ever discussed.

- To continue with a link-based blog, Steve Davis at his blog wrote about how Michel Platini may have gotten it right with the Champions League and uses FC Rubin Kazan’s upset of Barcelona -- at Camp Nou! -- as his defense. This to me is a mid-major versus BCS conference debate for the NCAA hoops tournament. Probably because of my being an alum of Maryland and all I’ve tended to side with the BCS teams and feel the same about this argument. After all, isn’t the Europa League/NIT Tourney for the little guys? (Yes, I realize MD hoops have been in the NIT too often recently.) At the mid-point of the group stage, four teams (half of the groups) have the maximum nine points. Only two groups -- Group C with Madrid, Milan, Marseille, and Zurich and Group F with the aforementioned Barça and Rubin Kazan along with Dynamo Kiev and Inter -- seem to be balanced from top to bottom and only Rubin Kazan are Champions League newcomers. Obviously there are going to be minnows every year in the group stage, I’m just not sure that we should pat Platini on the back.

- I’m not going to bother with an analysis of the most pitiful weekend of football I can remember. Suffice it to say this guy couldn’t do any worse than Jim Zorn or Ralph Friedgen at this point. And for those of you who defend Fridge out there, explain to me why he should stay after reading this. At least Terps hoops is back. And yes, I’m expecting a big year -- at least the Sweet Sixteen and wouldn’t be shocked if Vasquez wins ACC POTY.

- Pat Walsh

Carini Almost Got Me

Much love.

Since Bushman pretty much covered the amazing game from Wednesday night, I’ll just give you some random thoughts about what I saw from our third row seats.

- Benny Feilhaber is small. I had an idea from TV, but when you see him on the field he’s certainly closer in stature to J.F. Torres than Michael Bradley. Feilhaber didn’t have the best of matches, and I’m looking forward to seeing what the midfield will be like with the bigger, and more athletic, Maurice Edu. We’ll see if Jermaine Jones ever pans out or if he’s just the latest version of John O’Brien injury wise.

- Conor Casey could have made the night even more memorable had he not shanked a shot in the ninth minute. He’s easily forgiven having scored two huge goals last Saturday in Honduras. But considering the timing, a goal there might’ve been an unintended wrecking ball for the decrepit RFK, a stadium I still love but know has to go.

- Why stand in a 15-person-deep line for $10 Guinness/Corona when there’s no one in line for $7 Sam Adams Octoberfest? These are things I’ll never understand.

- As much as I love RFK, the security there sucks (though not as diligent as Pete Carini). I had a guard try to fight me after the game because my toe was on the wrong color of concrete. I was yelling at the team as they exited, trying to get the attention of Jimmy Conrad, when I was told to back away from a section that had yellow caution tape across it. I explained to the guard what I was doing when I was told that my toe was over the line, despite being four feet from the caution tape. I laughed, which caused a fellow who was about 5’6” and 150 pounds come over to me, start taking off his weightlifting gloves and asked me if I “wanted to go.” Again I laughed, pulled my toe off of the line, and resumed yelling at the team when I was told it was time for me to leave. Gotta love security ruining the end of an otherwise lovely evening. Or, as lovely an evening can be when it’s in the 40’s and raining.

- Looking ahead, this U.S. team isn’t the same without Charlie Davies and the pace he brings. Jozy may be more athletic than the Conor Casey/Brian Ching duo, but they’re all essentially the same player. The same more or less goes for Kenny Cooper. Jeff Cunningham and his 18 goals would be an interesting, albeit old, replacement. Clint Dempsey has looked more comfortable up front for the Nats and if he’s going to be on the field I suppose that’s where I’d like him, which would allow Stu Holden to lock down the right side of midfield. A dark horse might be Freddy Adu who would bring more creativity than Davies has offered, but obviously lacks the physicality the BC product brought. However, Adu would add another option on set pieces and has more pace than any of the other power forwards.

- One last thing and I feel like this is the 500 lb. gorilla in the corner no one wants to talk about: the fact that Davies was out well after curfew two nights before a qualifier. Obviously I wish the guy the speediest of recoveries and would LOVE to see him in South Africa next June (and preferably July too). However, I wonder if this had been Brian Ching, a guy not so beloved by U.S. fans, if that question would have been raised more often and more forceful. Granted I gave up Big Soccer a long time ago so there could be detractors over there mentioning it, but it’s not really been brought up by the big time reporters. Just saying.

Other thoughts on worldwide qualifying:

- I thought we were happy in our row when Jonny B leveled the game, but apparently that was nothing compared to how it went down in Honduras. I wonder if that’s the Honduran version of Gus Johnson?

- The immediate thought between a few friends and myself was that Costa Rica has a great home field advantage in their match against Uruguay. Playing at Saprissa, on that turf especially, will be tough for a team who has never played there. Unlike some of the other South American cities the Ticos could have gone to, Montevideo is at sea level negating any altitude advantage for the Uruguayans. I’ll be rooting for our CONCACAF brethren, but wouldn’t be upset to see both of the “Guays” from South America in the big dance.

- Monday is the draw for the European playoffs. In one pot is France, Russia, Greece, and Portugal while the other has Ireland, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Slovenia, and the Ukraine. My Irish-American heritage is hoping to see The Boys in Green draw Greece, but after going unbeaten in qualifying it’d be amazing to see them knock out Les Blues.

- To not overlook MLS play, which is in the penultimate weekend, the playoff race should be a lot more clear come Sunday morning. Unfortunately for local fans, it will likely be the last competitive MLS game for D.C. United. With as many injuries and Columbus looking to lock up the Supporters’ Shield, I can’t see any more than a draw. With a high of 43° and chance of rain at 70%, I’m fairly happy I’ll be watching from my living room rather than freezing my ass off at RFK for the second time this week.

Back next week and, if you’re lucky, Bushman will review the Kiss show, as long as he doesn’t catch on fire of course.

- Pat Walsh

A Night of Celebration and Sadness

Watching the U.S. Soccer team this past year and a half has included as much drama as you see on any daytime soap opera, minus the sex scandals (well, at least none that we've heard of).

Game-tying goals, come from behind wins, a loss here and there, and you've got to think that if U.S. Coach Bob Bradley had any hair at all, it would certainly be gray by now.

Last night's game against Costa Rica was about as an emotional contest as the U.S. has ever played. First and foremost, they were obviously playing for teammate Charlie Davies, injured seriously in a car accident Monday night. Sometimes those emotional lifts work out, and other times it's too much of a distraction. Once the motivation wears off after the first several minutes, the team loses it's focus. It seemed to happen last night as Bryan Ruiz scored twice in 3 minutes for Costa Rica after several wasted U.S. chances in the early stages of the match.

That brought up the next stretch of adversity; coming back from a 2-goal deficit. Yes, the team had already qualified for South Africa, but the fact that they didn't panic, pack up, and go home in front of 26,000 raucous fans at RFK shows the grit of this team. This game marked the 5th time in the 10-game hexagonal that the U.S. came from behind to tie or win the game. What's the big deal about that? Well, it means that even if they play poorly, which unfortunately has too often been the case in the past 2 years, there's still a grit and determination that this team will find a way to scratch and claw their way back into it. That'll help them immensely next summer when they no doubt find themselves down a goal at some point in the tournament. Depending on the draw on December 4th, that time might come in the 1st game.

Lastly, they overcame the loss of starting defender Oguchi Onyewu to get that tying goal. Gooch's knee injury made everyone's heart stop, especially when the rival Ticos even waved for the medical staff to come onto the pitch. Although he hasn't played particularly well recently, and can't crack the starting lineup at AC Milan, Gooch is arguably our most valuable defender. His touch is off, but his physical presence and aggressive play does put a certain amount of apprehension in opposing players when they encounter him. He'll be out 3-4 months, which still gives him plenty of time to rehab and be ready for the opening round of the tournament, which starts June 11th.

Don't get me wrong; there are still a lot of questions about this U.S. going into next summer. Can the team STOP getting behind in games? Will Jozy Altidore take the next step and become a dominant forward that opposing teams have to gameplan against? Can Donovan continue his world-class form (and yes, he is playing at a world class level, folks)? Is Bob Bradley the guy who can mold this team into a unit that can get out of the 1st round? If the answer to at least 3 of those questions is "yes," then I'll be able to sleep soundly next June.

FYI...I'm not going to mention anything about the Charlie Davies accident, other than to say our thoughts and prayers are with him and that he is able to recover and have a full and healthy life, even if that life no longer involves professional soccer.

Other Thoughts:

1. Costa Rica didn't necessarily play themselves out of a spot in the Cup. They are traditionally a force at home, and if they can get a 2 goal advantage in the 1st leg at Saprissa, that trip down to Montevideo might not be such a daunting task.

2. I think this was definitely a stronger CONCACAF group than any we've seen in a long time. The top 4 teams all have legitimate stars and the potential to create havoc in South Africa. I also think that in almost any other cycle, El Salvador would have gone through. They lost or tied several games where they could have/should have gotten a better result, and with the exception of Saturday's game in Mexico, were highly competitive.

3. Think FIFA breathed a sigh of relief when Argentina got the spot-clinching win at Uruguay last night? They would have lost a HUGE amount of marketing and advertising power if Lionel Messi wasn't going to the tournament, and Cristiano Ronaldo's Portugal squad still has a playoff series to determine their fate..

4. Sweden, Croatia, Ecuador, and the Czech Republic can go ahead and make vacation plans next summer. Some very good players from these teams won't be getting their close-ups next year.

5. Can we put the final day of World Cup Qualifying up there as one of the more dramatic days in sports? How many country's dreams were realized or shattered in just the span of a few hours? No other sport on the planet effects as many people at one time.

See you next week!

Kicking and Screening

As most of you know, there’s never been an interview that didn’t look good to the My 2 Cents duo. Sure, it was mostly symbiotic, but Munk and the Mick didn’t have standards for who was on the show. Hence why Steffi Jones found herself telling us why she wanted to look like J-Lo. But I digress.

Similarly, we rarely turn down an opportunity to pimp something for one of our friends. In this case it’s Greg Lalas, a guy who wears more hats than Sam Jackson, but in this case is one of the organizers of Kicking and Screening.

As you (should) remember from last week, I pointed you in the direction of K&S, a film festival in D.C. next week. It follows possibly the biggest game on U.S. soil since ’97 when Tab Ramos scored to beat the same (in name at least) Costa Rican side and qualify the Yanks for France ’98. So why not continue what should be a great week of soccer with four diverse films about the beautiful game?

And since it’s the beautiful game, that means Ladybugs didn’t make the cut, as it was apparently narrowly edged out by The Big Green, a Sunday afternoon matinee.

The highlight is a midnight screening of Victory at E Street Cinema with Werner Roth, who played the German captain, in attendance. I’m assuming Sly was busy working on Rocky 18 or Rambo 12.

As we work backwards, Friday showcases a reading by M2C friend Grant Wahl, which is always a good time, as well as John Harkes -- probably not in his Scottish brogue -- and The Guardian columnist Richard Adams. The film that night is Sons of Sakhnin United.

Thursday kicks off the event with a bang and will be the one event I’ll be checking out. Having seen Zidane, apparently I have a penchant for documentaries about French players as Les Yeux dans les Bleus follows the French team through their winning campaign in France ’98. I’m betting Steve Sampson won’t appear in this one.

Proceeds will benefit a couple of local charities, D.C. Scores and United for D.C., but this is a great chance to show off the popularity of soccer in the nation’s capital.

If you’re still not sure, perhaps this Victory inspired promo will get you energized to go see a movie:

Some other quick thoughts heading into the weekend:

- Some D.C. United players were shown in their birthday suits for ESPN The Mag. With that hardware keeping the pic from being NSFW, it’s a good thing they didn’t ask New York’s players to pose.

- Jeff Cunningham scored #17 on Wednesday to keep FC Dallas on fire. He’ll certainly have plans this January with the national team, though I doubt he makes it to South Africa. If he does, or wins the Golden Boot (which looks likely at this point), FCD needs to put out a bobble head next year. Maybe that will get attendance into the five figures. And it would certainly be better than using the opposition’s owner as your promotion.

- Is this the worst weekend of NFL matchups in the history of the league? Cincinnati at Baltimore is the only decent game during the 1 o’clocks while Denver hosting New England is the best game by far of the day. When there’s a possibility of seven games with one team laying double-digit points, expect quite a few snoozers. At least there’s always fantasy.

- We’ll be back next week with a look back at the U.S. loss to Honduras. My prediction is 2-1 for Los Catrachos. My cynical side again wonders if Bradley employs a 4-3-3 without Dempsey as the penned in option, justifiable or not, on the right to prove that it won’t work as it didn’t in Costa Rica in June. I’d prefer us going for the win, as a tie is relatively meaningless assuming the Ticos handle T&T at home. Here’s hoping Tim Howard can stand on his head and make Wednesday meaningless with a Landon Donovan penalty, because that’s how he rolls.

- Pat Walsh

Sqeaky Bum Time

SAF may have coined the phrase, but it's Bob Bradley's mantra right now.

Eight days from now we’ll know pretty much everyone going to the World Cup. The U.S. should have one of those spots, leaving Costa Rica or Honduras the dirty deed of facing the fifth placed team from South America in a two-legged playoff.

Mexico, despite all their early struggles, are going to finish atop the group. They host El Salvador on Saturday, and then go away to Trinidad & Tobago next week. That gives them at least 19 points, but more likely 21. I’m sure Sven feels a bit screwed over in Notts County, and not just because he’s in Notts friggin County. But it’s not like he was a good match from the get go.

The Yanks will lose on Saturday in Honduras. It’s kind of why I don’t want to bother finding a place to watch on Saturday, unless there’s a streaming feed somewhere. Honduras, despite their problems with their government, are too strong on the field for an American side that has been extremely tentative on the road this qualifying phase. That will leave a do or die game against Costa Rica next week at RFK. Not something anyone in USSF wants, especially with a Mexican referee working the whistle.

For the record, here are the referee assignments for the last two rounds:

Matchday 9
Costa Rica : Trinidad & Tobago - MARRUFO (USA)
Honduras : USA - QUESADA (CRC)
Mexico : El Salvador - BATRES (GUA)

Matchday 10
Trinidad & Tobago : Mexico - MORENO (PAN)
USA : Costa Rica - ARCHUNDIA (MEX)
El Salvador : Honduras – SALAZAR (USA)

Two things of note: Yes that is Jair Marrufo, who can’t referee an MLS game at this point, on the Costa Rica T&T game -- no word on if he’ll ask Kenwyne Jones for his jersey afterwards. Also, I’m not as upset with Archundia, but would have preferred Moreno from Panama (the guy that sent Aguirre to the showers in the Gold Cup). Interesting that Courtney Campbell, who seemingly did every Gold Cup game and had both USA-Honduras matches in that tournament, isn’t included in either round.

UPDATE: According to SBI, Moreno is reffing the USA-Honduras match. Those pairings were a few weeks old from my source, and considering Marrufo is on there I wouldn't be surprised that they changed.

Back to the task at hand, the Yanks should beat Costa Rica at home. However, assuming the Ticos beat T&T and we lose in Honduras, Bob Bradley’s bunch will be tied on 16 points with Honduras (though behind on goal differential) and a single point ahead of Costa Rica. That would mean a tie at home clinches things, but it never works to play for a tie in that situation. Quite a bit different from the last round when we qualified with two matches to go.

Clint Dempsey being sidelined is almost addition by subtraction. Sure, as Steve Davis pointed out, he’s capable of the game changing play. But, especially in Honduras, we don’t need that as much as solid defensive play on that wing. I’m expecting Benny Feilhaber to take that spot on the right for just that reason, though I’d be more excited about Stuart Holden from an offensive standpoint. For my money, either are an upgrade over Dempsey.

As a result, Frankie Hejduk was called in as his replacement. I like the move. Hejduk will certainly add a veteran quality to the locker room even if he winds up not suiting up for either match. I’d rather see him out on the right over Cherundolo at this point, but Spector is my preferred choice. That is, unless Spector gets the nod on the left instead of Jonny Bornstein with Bocanegra and Onyewu manning the center. If they had more time together, I wouldn’t be opposed to Boca on the left, Spector on the right, and Onyewu in the center with Jimmy Conrad. But I’m obviously biased towards that call.

One last note: Landon Donovan CANNOT pick up a yellow in Hondruas. That would make the title even more appropriate.

- Baltimore has tossed their hat into the ring to potentially build a stadium for D.C. United near Camden Yards (btw, not sure where TOW got that image because it looks nothing like the Baltimore waterfront). Personally I’m all for that as I could then walk to the games. However, the move would be a bad thing overall for a team that has connected with a large portion of the D.C. community. Also, getting 70k people for a one-match affair is one thing, consistently selling out a 20k stadium is another. It can be done, but it won’t be a walk in the park to do so.

- Taylor Twellman was named the Cosmo Bachelor for Massachusetts. I wonder what his ex-wife thinks of that.

- Though the U.S. U-20s crashed out of the U-20 World Cup, apparently Brek Shea is being looked at by a couple of teams in England. He was actually my favorite part of the tournament, narrowly edging Dilly Duka’s name, as his hair was referred to as a “cockatoo” by one of the announcers.

Back next week with reaction to the Honduras loss (come on reverse jinx!) and a look at Costa Rica. And who knows, maybe Bushman will grace us with his presence once he’s back from California.

- Pat Walsh

Even Better Than The Real Thing

Yeah, it's a cheesy title, but it's true...

Let me kick things off by saying if you have a chance to catch U2 -- and there are tickets available for tonight in Charlottesville, VA -- do it! It was an amazing show, the first time I’d seen the Irish quartet since PopMart in ’97 and this stage is worth the price of admission (as you can see above from my seats on Tuesday at FedEx Field). Fortunately my trip to Snyder Castle wasn’t as bad as the one Mark talked about on Monday, but that may be my least favorite stadium I’ve ever been to.

Onto the futbol…

- So United won their third in a row in Champions League. But, in the 20 minutes I saw at the end of the first half last night, it’s sad that San Juan Jabloteh is in the tournament. Two of those three United wins are against the T&T side and the third was home to Marathon, who were exhausted from extensive travel in getting to RFK. In a nutshell, these results nothing to write home about.

- In league play, United followed the Skins by losing to a team with an extensive losing streak going. New England losing to Dallas helped their cause to make the playoffs last night, but can you really say that D.C. deserves to be in the postseason at this point? If they do somehow make it, they’ll wind up playing Columbus or Houston and be out just two games later. I’m not so sure missing the postseason and losing in Toluca to let Marathon into the knockout stage isn’t the worst thing for D.C. in the long run. I’d say blow up the team and build around a core group of younger guys with a new coach and front office, but I’ve heard that Gomez and Emilio have contracts running through next year. So that plan doesn’t work so well unless they can fleece someone for Christian again and/or pay Luciano more money since that’s when it seems he scores.

- One last bit of United news, I heard that Josh Wicks had his disciplinary hearing yesterday. With all of the video evidence Wicks might need to summon Johnnie Cochran from the dead and either use the Chewbacca defense or claim “if the boots don’t fit, you must acquit” while showing Wicks trying on an old pair of Nick Rimando’s cleats.

- Elsewhere in MLS stuff, I was just talking to my boy Kevin about Jeff Cunningham. He makes a good point that, with more consistent playing time, he should be well past Jaime Moreno for the all time lead in goals scored. He’s certainly one of the streakiest players in the league’s history in addition to having some great hair. However, he also can be a bit of a cancer from what I’ve heard and has bounced around since Columbus got rid of him after 2004 (when they won the Supporters’ Shield, and also the only time Cunningham has played in 30 games in the same season). He scored the only goal last night in FCD’s win to give him 16 on the year to go with seven assists on a team that has three winnable games left. With nine more points, they would finish with 42 and be on the bubble of the playoffs, though probably on the wrong side looking in. Shalrie Joseph and Landon Donovan would be 1-2 in my MVP vote this year, but shouldn’t Cunningham be in the discussion?

- Thus far Man U aren’t missing Cristiano Ronaldo in terms of results. But you have to assume the will the more Champions League goes on. Real Madrid are certainly happy to have CR9 though. Two goals in 69 minutes -- where are you Esten Perez, huh? -- isn’t too shabby and that gives him eight in his last six games, though with subs his playing time equals out to less than five full games. Chelsea also showing a chink in the armor with a loss away to Wigan and beating a team I’ve never heard of before just 1-0 away in Champions League; not that they should win every game or blow everyone out, but just goes to show they won’t be running away with the Prem even if they have the deepest midfield ever.

- I’d talk about some football, but as far as I’m concerned Maryland and the Redskins are dead to me this year. I think Mark covered the Redskins and at this point they’re kinda like the Orioles for me in that I’ll root for them, but it’s tough to put my heart into it when the team’s owner sucks the life out of the fanbase. I’m fully expecting Mike Shanahan to be hired this offseason, but I’m holding out hope for Mike Holmgren who I think still has some good things in the tank. As for Team Fridge, you can say Terps football is better this decade than it has been since Bobby Ross left in the post-Len Bias cleaning house. Ralph is a good coach, but has suffered in recruiting and has never developed a QB like he was expected to. Being mediocre is fine (read: going to bowls and making millions), and it would be nice to contend for a title every few years, so financially I don’t see both Fridge and coach in waiting James Franklin being canned. But that’s still not going to fill Byrd except for when teams like VaTech come to town.

- One last bit. My friend slash old boss from Goal.com Greg Lalas is one of the people putting on a film festival coming to D.C. in mid-October. There's four films, including a midnight showing of Victory! Check out their website creatively named after the festival: Kicking and Screening.

- Pat Walsh