As Real As It Gets

"Now When I Bend Ovah..."

Wow! Not the greatest MLS Cup that I've seen, but some good storylines, decent goals, injuries to key players, shocking misses, a great atmosphere, and high drama gave ESPN pretty much all they were looking for in a broadcast. Lots of observations as we come to a close of the 2009 MLS season:



1. Real Salt Lake - Got better as the game progressed, even though they lost playmaker Javier Morales early in the game due to a Beckham foul and lost Will Johnson at the half due to food poisoning. Kudos to Jason Kreis for making good tactical subs that didn't really affect his gameplan. The team could have come unglued after going down a goal near the end of the first half, but they kept attacking and seemed to wear the Galaxy down over the next 75 minutes of regulation and overtime. Their midfield consistently won the 50/50 balls, and spread the ball from side to side to stretch the L.A. defense. Robbie Findley's equalizer and pretty consistent play might have earned him a call into Bob Bradley's January U.S. camp. With his speed and tenacity, could Findley make a case to replace Charlie Davies on the South Africa final roster? One last thing; don't ever bet against Nick Rimando in a penalty kick tiebreaker...



2. Los Angeles - I expected more. Classic goal late in the first half on the Beckham to Donovan to Magee sequence, but other than that, I never felt that they posed that much of a threat. Beckham looked ordinary and gave the ball away too much. Perhaps that was due to the foot injury ESPN reminded us of about 100 times during the broadcast. Donovan had a couple of moments where he looked good, particularly on the assist to Magee, but Real did a good job of not giving him much space to work with. Josh Saunders did well in coming on for the injured Ricketts, and Omar Gonzalez proved several times why he was MLS' Rookie of the Year. I definitely see him getting called into the U.S. camp sooner rather than later. Jovan Kirovski added nothing, and other than Donovan's cross to Magee for the goal, the Galaxy's service, particularly Beckham's, was atrocious. They wilted in the 2nd under Real's pressure, which I found interesting as Bruce Arena's teams are usually the ones who are more fit.



3. Donovan's Penalty Miss - Yep, it was big (no s*it!), but he didn't LOSE the game, as some are saying. I read one column this morning that said the miss proves that Donovan isn't ready to take his game to the next level in Europe as he can't handle the pressure. What a completely asinine statement! He missed a friggin' penalty! He makes that kick 19 times out 20, which is a 95% conversion ratio. I'll take that any day of the week. He's made some HUGE penalties in crucial International games for the U.S., where the pressure is significantly higher than in an MLS game (yes, even the league championship). His cross to Magee for L.A.'s only goal was as good as you'll see from anyone. Let's give him one last chance to go to Europe before we bury him again. Plus, if anything, watching the U.S. labor fruitlessly last week against 2 very average European squads proves how invaluable Donovan is to the attack for the U.S. I say he goes overseas and does just fine. Not a superstar, but a regular starter and contributor for a team.



4. ESPN's Coverage - Pregame wasn't bad. I think Lalas is a bit too loose and Foudy is a bit too tight. Hope they can work on that before we have to deal with them every day during ESPN's World Cup coverage. I agree that Harkes was a little too complimentary to L.A. during the game. The Galaxy were outplayed for large stretches and I don't think he acknowledged that. Plus, every time he mentioned that he spoke with a player, he prefaced it by saying "you know, I was talking to [insert players' name] earlier, and he said "Harkesey..." Dude, we know that's your nickname, but do you have to make sure we know the players call you that? (side note: I saw him several years ago and said "Hey Harkesey!" He looked at me like I had 2 heads...guess I hadn't earned the right to call him by that nickname...) One last thing; I love that the game was in primetime, but they should consider doing the pregame at 8 w/ an 8:30 kickoff. I'm pretty sure they lost a good chunk of the east coast last night as the game wore on and didn't end until close to midnight. I barely made it, got 4 hours, of sleep, and am now writing this recap...gonna be a tough day.



Overall, a great way to end the season. MLS should be proud of their accomplishments in 2009, and hopefully they take more steps to improve as new teams enter the league over the next couple of years. Now to some other items of note:



5. College Football - TCU might not beat the big three (Florida, Alabama, or Texas), but I'm pretty sure they'd have no trouble covering the spread (and with that offense, definitely take the "over"). They're a really good team with a couple of pro prospects on it. Of the mid-major teams still undefeated, they're easily the best. Oh, yeah, Oregon looks like they're going to the Rose Bowl, which means they're pretty good, right? Can someone remind of the score when they played Boise State earlier in the year? Yeah, I thought so...



6. NFL - My Colts are really cutting it close these past few weeks, but I'll take the wins as they inch closer to home-field advantage through the playoffs. They've got a 3 game lead on that with 6 left to go. Might have to take another look at Cincinnati and Pittsburgh after both lost games to pretty bad teams yesterday. Minnesota and New Orleans look they're heading for an NFC title matchup in January. I don't see another team in that conference that can match personnel with either of them. Is San Diego playing that well or is Denver playing that poorly? Sorry, Phil Simms, your kid sucks. And how insane is it that if the playoffs started today, Jacksonville would be a wildcard team? They've already got more wins this year than last, and other than Maurice Jones-Drew, don't have any real superstars on that team. He won't get it, but Jack Del Rio should at least be in the discussion for Coach of the Year.



Okay, that's all for this week. That 4 hours of sleep is catching up to me. Probably gonna be quiet for a few days with the holiday this week, plus the fact that Pat has carried the site the past few weeks. I'll give him a rest this week.



As always, thanks for reading and have a Happy Thanksgiving!