Bonus Friday Blog

Should the "Kyle y Javi Show" go National?

After last night’s pair of games I had some thoughts that needed to be shared. And this way you still get your standard two blogs per week from My 2 Cents, even if Bushman sucks.

On a scheduling note, expect to see some NHL playoff stuff coming up soon from our part-time blogger Scott Morath. Personally, I think it’s just Bushman trying to be even lazier and have another excuse not to blog, but that’s just me.

So, about last night…

- I never thought I’d type this with a straight face, but could we see Edson Buddle in South Africa? Last night was a perfect storm of sorts for the man named after Pelé. Brian Ching went down with a hamstring injury that will likely have him out for at least a month, if not longer. Robbie Findley didn’t start for RSL. Buddle then finished a beautiful goal from Sean Franklin in the MLS nightcap and showed some nice moves throughout. In the big picture, he also has the bonus of playing club ball with Landon Donovan, something that helped Ching get into the national team when he was younger. He didn’t help himself by picking up a dumb yellow for getting in Sacha Kljestan’s face, but I did like the intensity. Now, having said all of that, the U.S. is in trouble if it has to rely on Edson Buddle. We need Jozy and Charlie Davies to be healthy, or Stu Holden to come back to push Clint Dempsey up front where he’s more effective. But, considering the other options (Eddie Johnson, Jeff Cunningham, and Conor Casey) right now I’d rather see the upside of Buddle than the other three. If I had to put money on it, though, it’d be on Casey who just doesn’t work enough for me up front in Bradley’s system.

- Sent a text last night to a couple of friends (who probably comprise half of our readers) wondering if the U.S. could get Javier Morales a green card by June 1 when rosters are due for the World Cup. Mark replied that we are deep at midfield, which is true. But I’d counter and say none of the central midfielders -- assuming Donovan’s out on the left -- are as creative as Javi. As far as I can tell he never played for Argentina and as friend of the blog Kevin chimed in, “it worked for David Regis.” I’d wager Morales would be more effective and probably never go with silver hair, which I think is a positive. It won’t happen, but naturalizing players is something that’s rarely touched on anymore in the U.S. aside from dual citizen Mexican-American kids and one Italian-American. If you think its immoral, look at how many Brazilians played in the ’08 Euros, specifically how important Marcos Senna was to Spain’s winning side. Hell, even Mexico is doing it these days.

- Unlucky for Real not to walk away with at least a point last night in Houston. Jamison Olave can’t be dumb to give away points by conceding two PKs like that. However, I was a bit surprised to not see one called on Houston late when Andrew Hainult -- pretty sure it was him -- leaned in with a shoulder to undercut Espindola on a cross. You can say the cross was too high for Espindola to get, but I’d counter by saying that Cameron wasn’t getting to the ball on the first penalty kick and remind you of the penalty kick given in the U.S. v. Honduras game when Jimmy Conrad grabbed a guy from behind when the ball was nearly out of play and well over the goal.

Oh, and Real should’ve won 3-2 when Espindola go two points for the takedown on Bobby Boswell in the dying minutes. He probably deserved to be sent off, but now he can’t be suspended as the ref dealt with the issue on the field.

One last RSL note, if they come out of April with five or more points, eight total, it will be a successful month. Tough to say considering they’re an MLS Cup quality team, but MLS schedulers did them no favors with this set of four games: @ Houston, v. Seattle, @ Los Angeles, @ Columbus (who will be rested with a bye the week before). After that, though, let’s just say you might want to load up on the Royals in MFLS.

- Not only did the crash and burn at startup for MLSSoccer.com make a lot of fans mad on the weekend, but also it delayed MFLS scoring for a few days. That’s when you know you really have a problem. Scores have finally been updated for the first week, but there are no links to recaps or box scores of any kind so all you know is the final score. The stats still have Jeff Cunningham as the league leader in goals with an impressive 17 in just one game, which is amazing considering Dallas scored just once last week. I could go on, but it would be nothing compared to a very long, but very good read, over at Fake Sigi.

- Lastly, I want to send out congratulations to Greivis Vasquez and Eric Hayes. Vasquez won the Bob Cousy award yesterday given to the best point guard in the NCAA. You can argue whether he’s the best -- personally, I’m not sure he is -- but it says something of his national recognition when he beats out guys like John Wall, Evan Turner, Sherron Collins, John Scheyer, and Scottie Reynolds, who somehow beat Vasquez out for first team All-American honors. Following that up, Eric Hayes torched the field at the college 3-point shooting contest. I hope he pulled a Larry Bird and walked into the locker room and asked, “who’s coming in second?” It was a great day for both to officially end their careers at Maryland.

Have a great Friday and good Easter weekend.

- Pat Walsh