Is It Friday Yet?

“Well, we’re waiting!”

Yeah, there was no MLS last weekend and everyone is just looking forward to Friday’s World Cup draw. It’s just another reason besides happy hour to get the rest of this week over and done with. For those of you not familiar with what’s going on Friday afternoon, the U.S. will be drawn in with three other teams to determine its group for the Cup. Perhaps nothing on the field in South Africa is as important to the American’s chances of success as that fateful hour in two day’s time.

The pots were determined this morning and Goff has a quick roundup. I’m not going to waste your time going through scenarios because that’s as productive as giving a blind man a set of keys. I’ve seen at least one mock draw -- and this was before the pots were officially announced! -- which would be like Mark or I buying some lottery tickets and then pulling numbers out of a hat to see if we’re going to be millionaires. Talk about a waste of time. One thing I will say though, we don’t have to be drawn in with hosts South Africa to get out of our group, but it would certainly help.

But there was some stuff going on last weekend so let’s take a look:

- Good Sunday for futbol. Sure, the NFL dominates and I was checking my fantasy teams during El Clásico, but there was no way I could miss Barça-Real over what I expected to be a blowout in the Skins game. Even with Barcelona down a man, Madrid never took advantage and the home side was still knocking it around the Camp Nou at the end of the game like they were the one with an extra player. Cristiano Ronaldo just didn’t look effective in his return from injury, but I chalk that up to rust, not him sucking in another big game. Zlatan was a beast and made me even happier that Handball Henry was ineffective (nope, that’s not gonna die any time soon).

I’ll be honest in that I thought Ibrahimovic to Barça would be much like Shevchenko going to Chelsea, but he’s fit right in at Barcelona. With Eto’o playing well at Inter and opening up room for Diego Milito to get playing time, this might be one of the most mutually beneficial transfers for both sides I’ve seen in a long time in terms of players. However, I still disagree with the extra €46 million Inter received in the deal.

Prior to that, Chelsea dismantled Arsenal, which wasn’t a surprise. Didier Drogba is a beast and the only question at this point is whether the Blues can amass enough points to build a lead when they lose Drogba, Essien, Mikel, and Kalou for the African Cup of Nations. With a December that features three winnable home games, and only a tough trip to Man City this weekend they won’t lose any ground. Plus, their four January opponents are Hull City (away), Sunderland, Birmingham, and Burnley (away). Not exactly a murderers row there.

- Jeremy Schaap interviewed Charlie Davies this week (will be televised Sunday morning on ESPN). Davies apparently says he might be fit by the time the World Cup starts. Obviously I hope so, not only for the chances of the U.S. in South Africa, but, more importantly, for his sake. However, I have a feeling this could be similar to John O’Brien’s inclusion on the 2006 team when he wasn’t fully fit and it cost Bruce Arena some valuable depth. Should someone like Jeff Cunningham or Robbie Findley start out red hot in MLS next spring, I’d rather have one of those two at 100% than Davies at 60-70% with the chance that he could pull a Michael Owen and injure himself just be stepping on the field.

- Big game this Friday night in Charlottesville as Maryland and Virginia square off for the third time in 35 days. The Terps didn’t score in either game, and UVa hasn’t allowed a goal since mid-October. Of course I’m calling Sasho’s boys to end that and go back to the College Cup, but those are my homer instincts and knowing that Gelnovatch rarely wins big games.

I’m rooting for Akron to go through, just to see what they can do against the ACC’s big boys. They beat three tournament teams from the Big Ten, and Penn State, Ohio State, and Michigan State were all seeded and all upset in their first game. Virginia Tech was their only game against an ACC foe and the Hokies were 8^th of nine teams in the conference. They face Tulsa, a team they already beat in Tulsa. Which brings me to another point about this tournament, the placement in brackets. Seeding teams 1-16 is fine, but why were there three ACC teams in Virginia’s quarter with N.C. State set to face the Cavs in the Round of 16 if they won. While distance did play a role, it’s not the reason if Portland made back-to-back trips east to play those two teams and would have done a third cross-country trip if they had upset the Cavs to play Maryland. Just seems like a bit of conspiracy to help out the Zips.

Oh, and if D.C. United hires Caleb Porter as coach, just go ahead and write off 2010 for the Black-and-Red.

- My boy Jimmy Conrad had an interesting piece over at Soccernet in his semi-annual column for the World Wide Leader. The gist is that MLS should be split in half once they reach twenty teams to make an MLS-1 and MLS-2. The champion would only come from MLS-1 and there would be relegation and promotion between the two. Also, teams from MLS-1 and MLS-2 would not play against each other. I can’t say I’m totally behind this, but it would be the only way MLS would ever do any sort of relegation/promotion.

I do, however, like his idea of MLS buying USL and the MISL to make those minor leagues, but I suppose this was concocted before the new NASL (the NNASL?) debuted throwing pro leagues below MLS into disarray. I’ll let Mark deal with that one, but what a clusterfuck that has turned out to be.

That’s about it for this week. I’m sure Mark and/or I will be back next week with thoughts on Friday’s draw. However, things will probably be slow around here over the winter as not much is going on.

- Pat Walsh