Is This Rock Bottom?

Is Will Chang not smiling because he knows something the other three didn't?

This is a season that I’m pretty happy I’m not covering D.C. United. Having been there early last decade, I know how difficult and uncomfortable it is asking questions after multiple losses. It’s those times that I don’t envy the Craig Stouffers, Steve Goffs, and Brian Strausses of the world.

Not only do these guys have to go into locker rooms after these games, but also they have to watch the full 90 minutes. The game this past weekend, a 1-0 loss to Colorado, was dreadful. I enjoyed hearing Maryland head coach Sasho Cirovski fill in for Thomas Rongen, but that was about it for the 90 minutes. How they managed to pull nearly six minutes of “highlights” for MLSsoccer.com is beyond me.

Even that brief glimpse of the game shows how little D.C. pressured Matt Pickens. After watching the game, the thought that popped back into my head summoned the days of the early 2000’s when Ray Hudson was at the helm of United. One night in his post-game presser he spouted a typical Hudson quote that rang true at RFK on Saturday night: “Without penetration, it’s just masturbation, and tonight we were just playing with ourselves.” United were able to string together some passes in the middle third, but once they got to the final third it all came apart prematurely.

(As a quick aside, is it just me or is it odd that United has been on national TV twice and scored two goals in both of those games, but has been shutout in every other league game? I suppose Galavision counts for this weekend, but if not United won’t score again until June 10 when they travel to Seattle should that trend continue.)

Danny Allsopp and Adam Cristman are not a pair of forwards who are going to lead a team into the playoffs. They’re too similar of a player and unfortunately for United it’s not a pair of Lionel Messis. But it’s not their fault they rarely see the ball in dangerous areas. The midfield is appalling. Sure, injuries have hurt (pun intended), but again the international player brought in (Christian Castillo) is showing signs of being a bust and the club still lacks a playmaker. Of course that’s been true since United shipped Christian Gomez to Colorado.

At the time, trading away Gomez was a bold move, one that I wrote for Goal.com in early 2008 I agreed with as it showed boldness by United. Here’s part of that column:

Respect must be paid to United’s offseason moves. Instead of being content with winning back-to-back Supporters’ Shields, the front office gutted the spine of the team to challenge for MLS Cup and, more importantly, international trophies like the Champions’ Cup and SuperLiga.

However, the crop that was brought in that year -- Marcelo Gallardo, Gonzalo Martinez, Gonzalo Peralta, Franco Niell, and Jose Carvallo -- were all gone within a year, two not even making it to the summer heat. The bold move was a complete failure. But who paid the price for that failure? In terms of firing, no one ever did.

With that in mind, the focus of why the club is on track to miss the playoffs for the third straight year has to shift upstairs. This downward spiral started well before Curt Onalfo took over as head coach and while he might not have been the best hire -- Richie Williams was my first (realistic) choice -- the poor start to the season shouldn’t rest only on his shoulders. Onalfo is the second new coach since the last MLS Cup was won by United while Kevin Payne and Dave Kasper still oversee the club.

The front office made a great pickup with the aforementioned Gomez who helped lead them to MLS Cup 2004, but since then the signings haven’t fared quite so well. Brazilian attackers Luciano Emilio and Fred had several good years, as did Argentine defender Facundo Erpen even if he was prone to frequent brain farts. However, only one of those guys is still on the team and Emilio couldn’t score against the Northern Virginia Royals in a reserve match on Monday. Quite a fall for the 2007 MLS MVP.

The flops in recent years of international signings leave them at a success rate of three for fourteen, or just above the Mendoza Line. For the failures, they had the quintet from 2008, Lucio Filomeno, Matias Donnet, Steve Guppy, Eliseo Quintanilla, and Louis Crayton, none of whom lived up to their billing. You could even toss in the reacquisition of Gomez prior to 2009. This year Juan Manuel Pena is still up in the air -- as is Castillo, to be fair -- but things are not looking good for the aging defender who was beaten by Mehdi Ballouchy for Colorado’s lone goal and has already missed several games due to injury. Should Pena and Castillo continue at their current rate, that drops the success rate to three for seventeen (including Gomez last year).

Drafting has had an upward tick in the past couple of years to bolster D.C.’s lineup in a relatively unconventional way for the side. The stretch from 2005-08 had 14 draft picks, but none are still on United’s roster; two are overseas -- Brian Arguez and Louis Robles -- and Andrew Jacobson is with Philly, but no one else is in MLS. However, the past two drafts have produced Chris Pontius, Rodney Wallace, Brandon Barklage, and this year’s diamond in the rough Jordan Graye. A solid base of players to go with veterans like Santino Quaranta, Clyde Simms, and Bryan Namoff, but not one that translates into a playoff team. Of course they didn’t have a first round pick this year because that was part of the package -- along with Fred and allocation money -- to reacquire Troy Perkins, a move that may force Perkins back into the mortgage loan business a bit earlier than he anticipated.

The best news for the team has come from their youth academy. Goalkeeper Bill Hamid has been solid -- he made a big save on Omar Cummings to balance out being caught by Ballouchy to the near post -- and midfielder Andy Najar has show signs that he could develop into a good player. But again, both of those players aren’t going to boost the team into the playoffs this year. (Perhaps the luster off the youth academy is about to come off, though, as John Maessner just resigned. Could the best talent evaluator in the front office have just left?)

As an aside and I think an interesting look at the league, check out this stat from the Columbus Dispatch’s blog showing the amount of substitution minutes by team since 2009. United has used the most by a full eight minutes per game over second placed Chivas and more than double Columbus, the side that has used the fewest minutes.

As the article that the blog links to points out, “Columbus, Seattle, Chicago and Houston have averaged the fewest minutes from subs the past two seasons. All four were playoff qualifiers and in the top five in points last season.” Certainly that’s not a sole indicator of how a team will fare as Real Salt Lake averaged the third most minutes used, but are the defending MLS Cup Champions.

However, I would argue that having a core eleven players as the Crew, Sounders, Fire, and Dynamo have is a better blueprint for success. Using subs is going to disrupt a team’s flow for several minutes, or it means that the players you rely upon aren’t good (or young) enough to play 90 minutes on a consistent basis. While RSL did this successfully with Clint Mathis and Andy Williams, Jaime Moreno and Christian Gomez weren’t at that level last year and Moreno has dropped off even more this season.

So where does the team go from here?

Though it’s not completely his fault, I don’t see United winning with Onalfo. However, that choice would have to be made his boss or bosses. And that decision should not include Dave Kasper or Kevin Payne.

United owner Will Chang has to follow what Dave Checketts did in Salt Lake. Maybe not to the extent of pulling the MLS all-time leading goal scorer off the field and installing him as head coach, but he does need to clean house. The balance of the first season under Kreis wasn’t the best, but he followed that up with the club’s first playoff appearance, and then MLS Cup last season.

Similarly, New York seems to have finally gotten their act together in the offseason, making United’s struggles an even tougher pill to swallow. Los Angeles showed that the right coach can turn things around; obviously having Landon Donovan greatly benefits Bruce Arena’s cause, but the former U.S. boss has rebuilt a Swiss cheese defense into the league’s best as they’ve allowed just two goals in nine games.

If United wants to restore their Tradition, the club needs to break with some old ties. All three of those teams underwent a major overhaul and are currently defending MLS Cup champs (RSL), first place in the Eastern Conference (NYRB), and first place in the Western Conference (LA). All did so relatively quickly.

D.C. may have to write off the 2010 season. But with the right moves, there will be hope for 2011 and beyond. That is as long as Will Chang can bring in better people than those signed by Dave Kasper and Kevin Payne.

- Pat Walsh

Off The Schnide

Any doubt that's a goal with Perkins playing?

(Photo courtesy Washington Post's Toni Sandys)

A funny thing happened on the way to writing a blog this week: D.C. United actually won! I’ll be honest, I had a free ticket to the game and passed it up to watch at home. The decision was based largely on the fact that United had one legit goal in five games this season and the Wizards hadn’t scored in three straight, but the parking situation and the ability to drink more and not have to drive an hour home after also played into my decision.

It certainly wasn’t a vintage United performance. For them to earn points this year, though, that’s how they’ll have to get them as this side isn’t going to have the glitz and glamour of seeing a Christian Gomez run at defenses or a Marco Etcheverry hitting pin point passes to a youthful Jaime Moreno. This team doesn’t have a true #10, though Andy Najar could eventually be the next maestro for United’s midfield. But that’s some time off.

The big positive of course was the play of Bill Hamid in nets. Well, a positive to everyone except Troy Perkins who looked sullen on the bench Wednesday night. Maybe someone should’ve slipped a $5 margarita in his Gatorade bottle. Hamid still has work to do, obviously, but at a youthful 19 time is certainly on his side. The physical attributes are there as well with his 6’3”, 225 lb frame that still is agile enough to make reaction saves like we saw the other night.

As far as the offense, well the most important player for United on both goals was Kansas City’s Pablo Escobar. First, it’s such unfortunate name for a Colombian defender, though mildly better than Andres. However, it wasn’t like he was named Michael Bolton and all of a sudden that no talent ass clown came along -- this Escobar isn’t very good to begin with.

Escobar didn’t do well in allowing Danny Allsopp to run through him, and then take advantage of some lax defending by Jimmy Conrad before using Conrad’s leg to deflect in his shot on the first goal. The second was even worse as Escobar tapped a pass that Adam Cristman intercepted, allowing him to find Allsopp running free between Escobar and Conrad for a well-placed finish to double the lead. As my buddy Chris asked me via text “so he pulled a Mike Green?” Harsh, but accurate.

So now that United has those first points on the board -- hello tied for 7^th in the East!!! -- where do they go from here? Bushman told me yesterday he thinks at least a point at Pizza Hut Park on Saturday night is a must to have a chance at salvaging the season. I’m inclined to agree, but I just can’t be a half-cup-full kinda guy after that win considering the opponent. That Dallas just beat a scrappy Houston team doesn’t bode well for D.C. either.

Much like their stadium situation, I don’t see things getting better in the near future for United. With Hamid as their keeper, they shouldn’t gift goals to the opposition like they did with Perkins. However, the creative ability from the midfield just isn’t there. Clyde Simms does help tremendously in negating the other team’s possession, and the pairing of Cristman and Allsopp up front are hard working and might continue to grind and produce goals like they did against Kansas City. However, that’s not the D.C. United “tradition” and even if the season is turned around I can’t see the front office being particularly pleased in winning in that fashion.

Other stuff…

- Sad to see Chelsea win the title, though I’d have to say they are the best team thanks mainly to their depth. I can’t imagine Wayne Bridge will be buying any papers on Monday with John Terry lifting the trophy. Manchester United actually have the tougher test on Sunday morning against Stoke as Wigan have lost 13 of their 18 road games this year with a -29 goal differential. It is nice though that the game does mean something as Chelsea have to get the win, rather than the typical walk in the park it has been in years past.

- Gotta love the controversy coming out of Serie A again as Lazio rolled over to let Inter win, helping them maintain their league lead over Lazio’s hated rivals (as co-tenants at Stadio Olimpico) Roma. Not match fixing as much as just screwing over a rival. Of course, if I was in a similar situation and say UNC was playing at Comcast and a Terp team not caring about the result just let the Heels win so Duke wouldn’t win the title I’d be all for that.

- As I was writing this, Montreal became the 19^th team in MLS. No real shock there, but I still wonder how three Canadian teams will do given their limited player pool. It’s not like TFC has lit things up as the only MLS Canadian side. Granted, both Vancouver and Montreal will bring up some of their players currently with the team, but will any be competing for an MLS Cup in five years? I think not.

It also brings up the question of where the 20^th, and presumably final MLS team, will be. St. Louis was always an option, but with AC St. Louis I don’t know that they are the best now. A second New York team to me would be the most desirable for a second official derby in the league, but we need to see fans consistently going to Red Bull games for that to be a viable option. Other than that, the Florida locales make sense until you realize they still wouldn’t support a team, Phoenix is too hot, Vegas would be awesome but it’s out, and the Atlanta/Nashville ideas just don’t work. I’m sure The Don has an idea, but they need to get that 20^th team for 2012 as well to avoid more byes every week. Don’t mess with MFLS like that Garber!

- Pat Walsh

Looking At The Davies Comeback

So you're saying there's a chance

If you’re reading this blog, you know what happened to Charlie Davies last October. And probably know that he’s in the midst of a miraculous comeback that should, at the least, put his name on Bob Bradley’s provisional 30-man roster for the World Cup.

This week, after his club president said he wouldn’t play this season as our buddy Craig Stouffer first reported over at The Examiner, Davies returned to full training with the team. On Wednesday Davies tweeted that he scored his first goal and received his first tackle.

Those are two good hurdles to be over in getting back to match fitness. The latter part, taking his first challenge, is an ingredient of his recovery that I think is in his favor. That Davies is returning to soccer from a near fatal car crash may actually be easier for him mentally than for someone like Eduardo da Silva, the Arsenal player who suffered a severely broken leg on a horrific challenge on the field (video is here, but not for the faint of heart much like the Joe Theisman injury). I’m sure there had to be something in the back of Davies’s mind as he went through that first challenge in training wondering if his leg could withstand the tackle. And that will happen again in his first game. But he shouldn’t shy away from contact as much as he would have if his injuries had occurred on the field with the thought being “is this tackle going to knock me out of action for the next six months again.” That mental recovery can be just as difficult as the physical in some cases. Not saying Davies won’t be thinking along those lines, but those thoughts should be assuaged somewhat.

Also in his favor is the fact that, due to playing forward, he can be an impact player in just 15 or 20 minutes. I wrote last week that Herculez Gomez could be a super sub type of guy for Bob Bradley in South Africa given his propensity to come off the bench and score for Puebla. However, Davies would be a better option having already proven his skill at the international level.

Unlike Oguchi Onyewu, also returning from an injury suffered just days after Davies, CD9 doesn’t have to be fully match fit. Bradley says he does, and it would be great if he was, but he doesn’t have to be ready to play all 90 minutes on June 12. Onyewu, as a defender, needs to be fully match fit, both mentally and physically. I’m not sure he’ll be 100%, but even at 80-90% he’s our best option as a center back. I hope he’s that far along and that Onyewu is fully participating in Milan’s training now bodes well for his chances. As for comparison, Onyewu can’t be John O’Brien in ’06 while Davies can be Willis Reed for the Knicks in ’70 or even Kirk Gibson for the Dodgers in ‘88.

Lastly, aside from Davies himself, it seems that the person most affected in the accident was Jozy Altidore. Granted, Davies and Altiore were penciled in to be the starters, but with Davies out of action Altidore has seemingly been written into the lineup in pen by most observers and likely Bradley as well. However, had Davies stayed healthy and scored say 10-12 goals for Sochaux while Altidore toiled at Hull (1 goal, 3 assists in 28 appearances), would pressure have mounted to find a more suitable -- read: someone who is scoring -- partner for Davies? It’s obviously a hypothetical, but maybe that pressure would have pushed Jozy to perform at a higher level, not just being the guy drawing a few penalties here and there for Hull, but actually burying his chances. Yes, I understand that Jozy did a lot of the dirty work for Hull and the USMNT needs that as well, but the USA also needs someone to score and during the first half they’ll be looking to Altidore to do just that.

Since I wrote most of this on Wednesday and Thursday, Bob Bradley has come out and said (paraphrasing here) “Charlie has to be where we need him to be to be invited to the pre-World Cup camp.” You can read a full wrap up of it over at SI thanks to Grant Wahl’s reporting. (Even the WaPo’s Steve Goff chimed in on Davies this morning -- I really should have posted this yesterday. Damn you Champions League and Capitals!)

To me, Bradley is posturing and saying to Davies “don’t rest on your laurels, there’s still a lot of work to do.” Again, Davies able to give 15-20 minutes a game is worth a roster spot. Even if it’s at the cost of someone like Jose Francisco Torres, a guy we’d all like to see play, but doesn’t really fit into Bradley’s system and rarely sees the field.

In the end, Davies has until May 11 to show to Bradley he’s worthy of one of the 30 provisional spots. Unless something happens between now and then injury-wise, I can’t see Davies being left off that list. That alone would be remarkable. Bradley also talked of the proverbial dangling carrot the World Cup has been to Davies making his recovery but that he has to do what’s best for the team.

Even if he doesn’t play in any of the games in South Africa, taking Davies for locker room morale might just be what’s best for the team anyway.

- Pat Walsh

Stone The Red?

Losing after being up 3-1? So easy a Caveman could do it.

So what’s tougher these days: being a fan of the Caps or D.C. United? The Caps of course had an amazing season, only to make history by becoming the first #1 seed to lose to an 8 seed after being up 3-1. At least it wasn’t to the Penguins. Meanwhile, United just plain suck.

I’d have to go with the Caps. Getting your hopes up only to have the rug pulled out is much, much worse than knowing your team is more than likely going to lose going in to 75% of its games. This series was like watching the Terps lose in the 2001 Final Four to Duke after being up 22 points. Only this was over the course of six nights. Fortunately it wasn’t to Pittsburgh.

Of course much of the credit to the Caps being knocked out has to go to Jaroslav Halak, who stopped 131 of the last 134 shots he faced in the series and made me think of this. But even more credit has to go to the defense of the Canadiens who didn’t give up as many good looks as the Caps blue liners conceded. That, to me, is where Washington needs to improve the most.

They surely missed Tom Poti in that game 7. But their “star” defensemen, Mike Green, is a liability defensively, especially if he’s not scoring. The Norris Trophy nominee averaged just over a point per game in the regular season, but could only manage three assists in the seven game series and was directly to blame for both Montreal goals in game 7. To win the Norris Trophy you have to be able to play a modicum of defense and that should knock Green out. Also, you’d think a Norris Trophy winner would be a shoe-in for his national team, not sitting at home during the Olympics.

So that ends another forgettable spring for the Capitals. Morath might be back in a few days with a more in depth look at what went wrong. I’m just wondering what curse the Caps have.

- On the flip side, D.C. United won their first game of the 2010 campaign. I think it was because Steve Goff wasn’t there. Neither United nor Dallas were at full strength in the U.S. Open Cup play-in game, but it was a positive result nonetheless. I will say I’m surprised that FCD kept David Ferreira and Jeff Cunningham on the bench when making their final two subs and being down three. You’d have to guess Curt Onalfo would give Adam Cristman, the UVa product, a look this weekend against New York following his two goal, one assist performance.

Speaking of United strikers, another familiar face might be on the field this Saturday afternoon. Luciano Emilio is back with United until at least July and, frankly, it’s a move that speaks of desperation while making total sense. Chris Pontius and Danny Allsopp have hamstring issues and the latter hasn’t impressed in his brief run. Our buddy Craig Stouffer asked if this signing is akin to United bringing back Christian Gomez last season and I’d say no. First, Emilio is three years younger right now than Gomez was last year. Last year Emilio had what was considered a poor year and still managed 10 goals and 2 assists. Gomez, who was a bust in Colorado, had only 3 goals and 6 assists in his year for the Rapids. Plus, Emilio is set to earn a lot less money according to results so on this signing I give United’s front office the thumbs up. Until Emilio starts missing sitters like Troy Perkins fans at crosses, that is.

- Amazing game at the Camp Nou yesterday between Barcelona and Inter. Tactical in every sense of the word from Inter as they mostly shut down Xavi and didn’t allow Messi to be his dangerous self. Even down a man, they bunkered and only let in one on a beautiful Gerard Pique goal (more on that in a second). As for Jose Mourinho, hate him if you want, but he is the best coach in the world right now at the club level; it’ll be interesting to see where he is next fall. Now Inter play Bayern in the finals in what should be a fascinating game when it comes to the tactics between Mourinho and the guy he learned from, Louis van Gaal. By the way, anyone else find it amusing that two guys Real Madrid sold off last summer to bring in Cristiano Ronaldo will be facing off at the Bernabeu as the two Dutch #10s -- Inter’s Wesley Sneijder and Bayern’s Arjen Robben -- face off. Do they fly directly to the Dutch World Cup camp together after that game?

Two thoughts on the officiating. First, it wasn’t a straight red to me for Thiago Motta, but he was on a yellow and that’s surely a second so whether it was straight or not becomes a moot point. Second, Barça had a goal waved off for a questionable handball late in the game, but Pique -- before he hit the circle button for the spin move -- was offsides and that goal should have been disallowed so the calls evened out.

Lastly, let’s see how that big transfer last summer worked out. Barcelona got Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Inter got Samuel Eto’o, €45 million, and a spot in the Champions League final. I’d say Inter won.

- Sad times for Shalrie Joseph who recently entered the Major League Soccer substance abuse and behavioral health program just days after the Revolution announced he would be taking an indefinite leave of absence. Similarly, Craig Stouffer had an exclusive report about the recent problems of Josh Wicks. Best wishes to both of them in dealing with whatever it is they are dealing with.

Back tomorrow with a look at Charlie Davies.

- Pat Walsh

Who’s Your Pappa?

If I keep doing this all summer, at least the mosquitos won't get me!

Three teams in Washington, D.C. played on Saturday night. All three drew just over 18k fans. One game saw a thrilling, come-from-behind win just seconds into OT to save a season. One game saw a dominant performance in shutting down the opposing team’s offense. One game saw a listless performance by the home side, a game changing substitution from the opponents, and the only loss by a team from the nation’s capital.

Guess which game I attended.

Kudos to the Caps for coming back and not completely ruining my night. I was getting texts as the game unfolded and walked into a bar on Capitol Hill just seconds after Backstrom won the game. Would’ve been nice to catch that one live.

The Nats won behind a Livan Hernandez shutout. Aaaaaand moving on.

Ahh, D.C. United. At least my tickets were free.

Seriously though, what happened to that Tradition? I’m guessing the WeWinTrophies.com won’t be brought up much around RFK this year because with this group they won’t be adding to their league-leading total.

Troy Perkins is a complete disaster. In addition to the two given up late against the Fire, he tried to gift them two more in the first half, but Chicago didn’t take the bait. I don’t know if it’s a confidence issue or trying to compensate for a weak back line, but at this point he might need to sit for a game or two. Not that Curt Onalfo has a better option, but Perkins -- and the full team, really -- can greatly use this bye week.

Going back and watching replays of the 11 goals conceded, the most allowed in MLS, I’d say almost half of them -- two in the Kansas City game in which Perkins made and initial save, the first and last against Philly, and Brian McBride’s on Saturday -- were savable. Now, that’s not the only reason why United has no points thus far, but certainly you need a ‘keeper who was on the radar as the third choice for the World Cup roster just months ago to stand up and make those saves. Especially when you’re paying him as one of the top goalies in the league and gave up a boatload -- a first rounder, allocation money, and the guy who was a better fit as a #10 than Santino Quaranta -- to get him back.

You can also look at United and say that they’ve never needed a stud netminder to win. Just like Joe Gibbs with QBs for the Redskins. I’d say they’re a bit more important today than 10 years ago in MLS, but it’s been since Pat Onstad in 2003 that the MLS Goalkeeper of the Year has won MLS Cup.

Again, this isn’t to say that United’s miserable start can be blamed solely on Perkins. There’s more than enough blame to go from top to bottom in the organization. However, in this case some of it has to be shouldered by the guy wearing a color that might make some fans think he got a wee bit nervous and pissed himself.

Looking ahead, D.C. really needs to rebound in May. Looking at their schedule, they could get points out of the NY and KC games, but I doubt both. Away to Dallas, home against Colorado, and away to Houston might bring another point or two. Hosting Chivas to end the month is the best shot at a win. If not, it’s going to be a long, long summer for the Black-and-Red with no points from June (v. RSL, @ Seattle, @ Columbus) and at least three losses in July (@ SJ, @ NY, v. Seattle, v. LA, @ RSL).

The question becomes what excuse is viable for the organization. Injuries are playing a role, but I’m not sure a Juan Manuel Pena adds that much. Bryan Namoff and Clyde Simms do, and Marc Burch would allow Rodney Wallace to push up into the midfield, but even with those guys healthy all year this still isn’t a playoff team. For a team that prides itself on Tradition and Winning Trophies, a 15-point year is completely unacceptable and would necessitate major changes in the offseason, not just shuffling in a new guy on the bench.

Other thoughts…

- At this point, if Eddie Johnson goes to South Africa over Edson Buddle then Bob Bradley should be fired while the plane is taxing for takeoff. I don’t care that he has just one cap, a substitutes one at that, for the USA. He’s scoring in bunches and four of his seven of them have been set up by the same guy who will be pulling the strings for the Yanks. Plus, you can’t tell me that Super League Greece is much better, if at all, than MLS. According to Wikipedia -- the easiest place for me to do research and, as you know, here at My 2 Cents you get what you pay for -- EJ has two goals in 10 appearances. Soccernet (ok, I dug a bit deeper) only has game logs from last year when he was with Cardiff City in the Coca Cola Championship in England, a league slightly above MLS in quality. There he scored twice in 30 appearances, starting just two of Cardiff’s final 28 games. Form certainly has to play into Bradley’s selection and in this case merits at least a call into the pre-WC camp. Detractors will say that Jeff Cunningham and Robbie Findley were in great form last season and didn’t turn it into meaningful time with the Nats in January. But with the current dearth of solid options and Buddle making history by scoring his team’s first seven goals, let’s hope he can make that jump from MLS to the national team and stay as hot as Leah Francis.

Oh, and Herculez Gomez is in the same boat as Buddle. He’s tied for the league lead in goals in the Mexican Primera and half of his 10 goals have come as a substitute. That’s a role that Bradley could greatly use as he doesn’t have a game changer that he can bring in off the bench to turn a game. Of course that means changing strategy during the game, which isn’t exactly Bob’s strong suit.

- Things got a lot more interesting in England. Man U did what they always do and scored in the dying seconds to pull within one of Chelsea, who were thumped by a very good Tottenham side. It’s a shame Spurs couldn’t put away a few more of their chances to bring down Chelsea’s goal differential over Man U, which currently sits at +3 and effectively gives Chelsea an extra point as that’s the first tie breaker. Definitely looking forward to Man U’s last test of the season this weekend at home against Spurs. Chelsea have a relatively easy road, especially with Fernando Torres out for the season for Liverpool and now has to be considered questionable for the group stage of the Cup. The Blues have to be considered the favorite, but I’m rooting against them mainly to see what Roman would do this summer if they blow this lead.

- Pat Walsh

Messi: Argentinean For God?

You can't stop him, you can only hope to contain him.

Have to start with the hot topic of the week: Lionel Messi. If you haven’t heard of him -- and even my mom was asking about him so I assume you have as well -- he’s good. It was almost like the Arsenal defense was Billy Madison “playing” the clarinet after Eric just ripped off a violin solo. There’s nothing you can do, so you might as well just admit it.

The four-goal eruption this week was just the latest example of why he’s the best in the world. I never thought Cristiano Ronaldo was better than him; the only thing CRon has an advantage in is free kicks and looking like an Oompa Loompa. Earlier this week I tossed out the idea to a friend or two that Messi is better, but Wayne Rooney was more important to his team because of all the help Messi has at Barcelona. Then I find out -- because I rarely get a chance to watch Spanish games -- that Thierry Henry only has three goals in La Liga, probably because those refs don’t let you use your hands in the box. Zlatan Ibrahimovic has 15, but Dimitar Berbatov has 12 (really?!?!) to give Wayne a similar foil.

So at this point, Messi is just the best. Period.

Diego Maradona said earlier this week that Messi is “playing a kick-about with Jesus.” Pretty sure he had to go pee in a cup after that comment, but I’m feeling what Diego is saying. There’s no one on his level and Messi is now must see TV. What ABC really needs is for the U.S.A. to get out of the group, beat either Germany or Ghana (this is assuming the U.S. finishes in second, and I hope I don’t have to root against our long shot in Ghana) and then play Argentina on July 3 (assuming Argentina win their group). I still don’t trust the Albicelestes to win the World Cup because of Maradona on the bench, but we’ve seen players win titles in spite of their coaches (see L.A. Galaxy in the Steve Sampson era).

This week’s thrashing of the Gunners leads in to El Clasico tomorrow at 4 pm. I was hoping ESPN would pony up and take the game away from GolTV for HD purposes, but they are showing the North Carolina spring football game (ESPN) and poker (ESPN2) so it’s understandable why they wouldn’t want to bump those. Plus, having Ray Hudson call the game is sufficient consolation.

So be sure to at least DVR the Barcelona - Real Madrid game tomorrow. It’ll be worth 90 minutes of your time.

Of course that’s not all that’s going on…

- Following El Clasico is the inaugural game of MLS’s newest rivalry: Philly v. D.C. Apparently United are taking at least 1,000 supporters, or an equivalent of a FC Dallas home game, to The Linc which should add to the atmosphere in the NFL stadium. With these two teams, I think the atmosphere is going to need all the help it can get. The Union are talking about adding Carlos Ruiz or Luciano Emilio, but they won’t have that offensive help this week. They will see Fred’s debut against his old club, but again I don’t see any goals coming without some help from Troy Perkins. Conversely, though I haven’t seen United, my guess is they’ll score, but only from the penalty spot thanks to Philly’s thuggish defense. After watching Barça-Real, this is going to be a tough one to stomach.

VP Joe Biden will be at the game for a ceremonial first kick. It’s a shame the Union didn’t open with New England so Biden and Steve Nicol could exchange F-bombs.

- So Tiger started out pretty good yesterday. Hope he didn’t blow his load early. I was shocked slash disappointed that he wasn’t the “featured group” on the Masters.com broadcast. But our boy Kevin pointed out they didn’t have a “featured groupies” channel. Should be interesting to see how the weekend plays out. CBS of course is hoping for a final pairing of Tom Watson -- how is he still getting it done? Viagra? -- and Tiger for a ratings bonanza. For my money, though, El Clasico is a tradition just like this.

- Speaking of CBS ratings, that was a hell of a game on Monday night. It was good enough that my girlfriend was even into it and complaining about calls Duke was getting. I don’t think the second half officiating was as bad as the first and a great example is Zoubek’s fouls: first half 0 fouls, second half 4 fouls. Having said that, you aren’t going to win a title shooting 32.8% from the field. Howard missed too many easy chances early on when they could’ve put some pressure on Duke. It was great resiliency from Butler, though, and a great tournament for them. However, as a Terp fan the tourney was all down hill after an amazing first day. At least I’m not a Georgetown fan.

Also, let me add my voice to the droves against expanding the tournament. Yes, I completely understand Gary Williams being in favor for job security. He wouldn’t have been under fire for missing the NCAA’s those few years as a bubble team much the same that Fridge hasn’t been because he can go to a crap bowl in San Francisco that, aside from alumni or gamblers, only has ten people watch. But the point is, it’s great to root for a George Mason or a Northern Iowa, but only when they’re playing the Dukes or Villanovas, not when they play each other. If they think that’s going to be a ratings boom, they need to look at the ratings for Bracket Buster Saturday and see how many people tune in to that. My guess is similar to those that watched the past few Maryland bowl games.

Back next week for probably a blog a trois. EDIT: As my buddy Chris said, it would be nice to see the Caps get to 120 points, but somehow we have to root for Pittsburgh to overtake New Jersey this weekend. I just threw up a little in my mouth typing that. It’s either that or rooting against Buffalo in the first round so the Caps don’t see the Pens until the Conference Finals. Scott should have a preview sometime next week and Bushman is claiming to have some good info for his stuff next week. That is, if he finds the time while not earning our tax dollars being hard at work. Yeah, I’m not taking the high road.

Have a great weekend and, as always, thanks for reading.

- Pat Walsh

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

About Last Week

United we stand, together we fall...hard

I can say that Bushman’s been working hard and that’s why he’s not been around. It has nothing to do with the two of us wanting to take a huge mulligan for putting D.C. United so high in our preseason predictions.

Man, what a disaster that game was.

Yes, it was just one game and there are 29 more. But it was against a side many thought would be well out of the playoff race. Granted, with Ryan Smith spicing up the attack and Jimmy Nielsen holding down things in the back, we may well be wrong about that. However, the 4-0 result looks to be an ominous beginning to the Curt Onalfo era.

I didn’t get to see the game, which is probably fortunate, but the most troubling aspect of the highlights were that two of the four goals were off rebounds from Troy Perkins. It didn’t look like he was getting much help from the back line and it was raining, but making those kind of saves is why United sent a big package to Philly for his rights. Josh Wicks can give up those kind of goals even with one shoulder out of commission.

According to Soccernet -- have to go there because the new MLSsoccer.com doesn’t have anything updated from last week -- United managed just one shot on goal. For an allegedly revamped attack, that’s unacceptable. But the reason I’m kicking myself is going off preseason results, which you should never take much stock of, and the fact that I knew Onalfo’s teams in Kansas City struggled offensively and this makeshift back line isn’t going to win many games.

Suffice it to say, it appears it will be a long season at RFK. It might be too much of a knee jerk reaction, but the fact is now with 16 teams in the league you can’t start slow. On the bright side, even though the stadium is falling apart they will now serve Ledo’s Pizza and Ben’s Chili Bowl. So they’ve got that going for them.

Other stuff going on…

- Couple of great games in Champions League action this week with Bayern this time coming back against Manchester United and a thrilling 2-2 draw at the Emirates. Bigger than the games, though, were the injuries to Wayne Rooney and Cesc Fabregas. Kind of takes the luster off of the return legs and really opens the door for Barcelona to repeat as CL champs. Arsenal’s only hope lies in that Barça’s first choice center backs will be out of the return leg and Rafa Marquez is always susceptible to being sent off; however, I don’t see that happening (Arsenal advancing, not Marquez being Marquez). ManU can get a 1-0 result, but they’ll need a great performance out of Ryan Giggs and have Dimitar Berbatov show up in a big game. Not sure they can get past Lyon without Rooney, though.

- Injuries are mounting for World Cup players, as noted above. Rooney seems like he’ll be back in plenty of time, though with ligament damage that’s no sure thing. Fabregas though apparently broke his leg while taking a penalty kick -- we’ll find out for sure this afternoon. How the hell does that happen? The only positive, as an American fan, is for once the injuries weren’t to one of our players.

- The other big winners? Chelsea. By not playing midweek, and therefore not having anyone injured, once again they seem to be in the driver’s seat for the Prem. A win at Old Trafford this weekend would be huge for the home side, but I’m not sure ManU have the horses with Rooney on the sidelines. A draw wouldn’t be disastrous, as they’d maintain their one point advantage. Arsenal aren’t out of it, but it would be nearly miraculous for them to win any silverware this year.

- Switching gears to hoops, gotta pull for Butler this weekend as a Terps fan. Obviously Duke isn’t getting any support and West Virginia isn’t much better, even if they do have Billy Hahn on the bench. (Btw, Hahn hasn’t lost any intensity, has he?) I still don’t even want to talk about Michigan State other than to say doesn’t this disprove the theory you have to have great guards to win in March? So in the end, I have nothing against Butler, so that’s who I’m rooting for. The lesser of all evils wins on this one.

- Finally, in somewhat breaking news (as I was about to post this, at least), MLS has officially added a second DP slot and will allow teams to buy a third. My initial thought is this gives an inherent edge to NY and LA with Seattle and D.C. maybe being other teams that would buy the third slot. It will be interesting to see how a second DP is used as teams have shown that just one doesn’t work, but perhaps having three stars on a team might tip the balance in the favor of the DP. Beckham and Donovan showed last year two big guns can do some heavy lifting and if they had a third musketeer, maybe Bruce Arena wins his third MLS Cup.

It also belies the notion over the winter that the owners were complaining about losing money. If they were that concerned this wouldn’t have passed. Of course, they couldn’t admit to that until after negotiations with the union were done.

Also interesting to me is that DP’s now only count for $335k against the cap. The salary cap this year was raised by $235k, so teams only have to cut $100k of other salaries to add a DP.

But, hey, kudos to MLSsoccer.com for getting the scoop from down the hall. Now get functioning scoreboards!

- Pat Walsh

How Predictable

So you’re sayin’ we have a chance…

Tonight yet another MLS season kicks off. ESPN won’t be pulling in the casual fans -- or even all of the hard core ones -- going up against the Sweet 16 over on CBS. I’ll probably be flipping between Philly-Seattle and the Kentucky-Cornell game. At least the latter doesn’t tip until 9:30 so Andy Bernard can catch it after his show is done.

Since Mark put me on the spot, here are my predictions for how the MLS standings will play out (listed in order of finish).

Real quick: don’t forget to join our Fantasy MLS league. You have less than 12 hours.

Eastern Conference

Columbus Crew

It’s not that I’m a huge fan of the Men in Yellow, there just isn’t much else in the East. Robert Warzycha is going to have to find ways to give GBSchelotto games off here and there to rest his aging legs. The team also needs someone to fill Alejandro Moreno’s hard working boots.

Chicago Fire

I’d probably have the Fire first if they hadn’t just changed goalkeepers this past weekend. Feel bad for Jon Busch, but Andrew Dykstra does give Chicago an extra six inches. There are some questions on the back line, but the offense should be just fine with former Fulham mates (Tom) Collins John and Brian McBride reuiniting.

D.C. United

You can argue that Mark and I are homers, but again, this comes back to the East being fairly weak. Troy Perkins gives United a huge boost in goal, though he’ll have to work to organize the guys in front of him. Offense, which was an Achilles heel for Curt Onalfo in K.C., won’t be as much of a problem here with Jaime Moreno having a spectacular preseason and good depth.

Toronto FC

This is purely because of Preki on the bench. They’ll be tough at home, as always, but I don’t see them doing enough on the road to make the playoffs for the first time because I think the West is getting five teams in again. The “de’s” -- Julian de Guzman and Dwayne De Rosario -- will determine how far this side goes.

New York Red Bull

A lot of this comes down to Juan Pablo Angel’s health. If he’s healthy, Hans Backe will fashion together the back line to keep them in games. I don’t trust Bouna Coundoul in goal, and therefore I have a feeling we’ll see quite a few 4-3 and 3-2 games from Red Bull. They would get a boost if they sign a second DP this summer.

Kansas City Wizards

This might be a little hopeful for the ‘Zards, but I have a gut feeling that Davy Arnaud is going to have a career year. Jimmy Nielsen might actually be an upgrade over Kevin Hartman who last year didn’t give K.C. many points by himself, something every keeper needs to do for a successful side.

New England Revolution

I think this is the year the wheels finally fall off for Steve Nicol. With Taylor Twellman’s future up in the air and Steve Ralston gone, I don’t see where the offense comes from. Shalrie Joseph might finally earn the MVP he’s up for every year if the Revs make the playoffs, but it’s not going to be a pretty team to watch.

Philadelphia Union
Like the Revs, the Union are probably going to play a lot of 1-0 games. I just don’t trust their defense or Chris Seitz in goal as much as I trust New England’s back line and keepers. This is a long-term plan, though, and Peter Nowak will be successful in Philly.

Western Conference

Seattle Sounders

The top three in the West are pretty tight, but I like Seattle by a smidge. As long as Kasey Keller stays healthy, they should win the Supporters’ Shield. The offense can be inconsistent, but they won’t have to score more than one or two goals on most nights. It helps having the best coach in MLS history on the bench.

Real Salt Lake

It’s not that I’m rooting for the two former Dukies in charge of this team, but I like RSL a lot. Kyle Beckerman may never really crack into the National team, but he is one of the best holding midfielders in MLS at this point. They still can’t win much on the road and they don’t have a second scoring option aside from Findley so I can’t see them finishing first.

Los Angeles Galaxy

Landon Donovan will miss enough games (assuming he isn’t sold this summer, which I don’t think he will be) to knock them down to third. The back line is a mix of real young and real old. Aside from LD, I’m not sure that Edson Buddle can carry the scoring load without much help from the midfield.

Houston Dynamo

Dom Kinnear may well pass Sigi when all is said and done (and to me is the best domestic coach USSF could hire if they go that route after Bob Bradley). However, the midfield will struggle without Stu Holden and Rico Clark. Scoring will be an issue when Brian Ching is in South Africa, but Pat Onstad and the defense will keep them in most games.

Colorado Rapids

Unlike Mark, I think the CRapids have talent to support the best forward tandem in the league. As long as they don’t blow out their knees again. It’s certainly an English style team following in their manager’s lead. I do like the addition of Jeff Larentowicz in the midfield to help the aging Pablo Mastroeni.

FC Dallas

I think Dallas will be a good side this year, but without Jeff Cunningham going off like he did in the second half last year I don’t see them climbing the table. They have two above average keepers, but I wouldn’t feel too safe with either if I was a Dallas fan.

Chivas USA

I’m not expecting much out of the Goats this year. I’ve never been a Sacha Kljestan fan and Chivas is in a quandary. They need him to be one of the best midfielders in the league, but if he actually played up to his potential they would lose him for over a month for the World Cup. The only reason I don’t have them lower is because San Jose is that bad.

San Jose Earthquakes

The only saving grace for this club is having Joe Cannon in goal. Frank Yallop’s fall from grace ends in a mid-season firing.

MLS Cup

Skipping through the playoffs -- take the top five from the West and top three from the East -- I’m going with Seattle over Chicago. The sad bit is that the best two teams actually play the week before in the Western Conference final.

- Pat Walsh

Pure Fantasy

Not quite this type of "fantasy soccer"

It’s still too soon to talk about what happened in Spokane, WA yesterday and I don’t feel like delving into the CBA, other than to say it’s for everyone’s best interest for MLS to start on time. And here we didn’t think compromise was possible in Washington, DC.

Anyway, I’ve long felt that MLS needed to do more with fantasy. It was the subject of first columns at Goal.com and I was in the running to write about fantasy for MLSnet.com prior to that until they decided to be cheap and stay in house.

If you think about the NFL, their explosion has come about in large part due to fantasy football. As a Redskins fan, there’s little chance I would’ve known who would start once Larry Johnson was essentially cut from the Chiefs if it wasn’t for the potential fantasy of Jamaal Charles. But thanks to fantasy, I did.

Friend of the Blog Kevin knows people in Seattle who were have always been fans of the English game, and now are supporters of the Sounders. Hold season tickets and all that. But they couldn’t care less about the result of a New York-D.C. United game, let alone bring themselves to watch because it doesn’t involve their beloved Sounders. However, toss in fantasy and the league is going to, at the least, drive more traffic to its scoreboard to see who had goals/assists/cards.

The one thing missing in soccer fantasy is head-to-head matchups. Now with 16 teams in the league, you could surely do a 10-team league. Sure, not everyone would have two ‘keepers to cover for bye weeks. But with situations like Preston Burpo starting for the spring in New England and the Kevin Hartman/Dario Sala situation in Dallas -- or the breaking news of Jon Busch being let go by Chicago -- it would sort itself out. The newly formed, and as our boy Craig Stouffer pointed out on Twitter grammatically horrifying, MLSSoccer.com should be on this. But you know they won’t.

As a result, we’re left with the next best thing: Major Fantasy League Soccer, or MFLS.com. And I don’t mean to downplay MFLS.com at all because it’s my favorite fantasy soccer.

I’m starting a league for the season called “Beckham’s Achilles Last Stand” and the password (case sensitive) is “Olsen.” You have until an hour before the Union make their debut in Seattle, so Thursday at 8:30 pm ET. Until then you have unlimited moves; after that you’ll lose transfers.

So join up. It’s a good way to follow the league for free. There are plenty of team previews -- Soccer By Ives, Soccernet (if you can find them), Steve Davis at SI.com has Conference Previews -- around so use them to find out the comings and goings and I know Ives has probable starting lineups.

Bushman should be in tomorrow and I’ll be back probably Thursday with predictions that will turn out better than my Oklahoma State one last week.

- Pat Walsh

The Madness

It'd be nice to get a chance to do this one more time...

The big news on the weekend of course was David Beckham’s Achilles Last Stand. Like Bushman I question if he’ll be back, but I feel he has the drive to do more than simply come back. As we’ve seen before, almost enjoys having people count him out. However, I have a feeling he’s going to move at about the same rate as Carlos Valderrama did in his final years in MLS.

But that’s not all that’s going on, so here are some thoughts on other news:

- It seems as though MLS players are about to strike on Monday. My question, which I haven’t seen raised elsewhere, is when will those potentially postponed games be played? The simple answer is that the brief period MLS was going to go dark during the group stage of the World Cup will go away and teams will try to squeeze in the games then. Fortunately, with most teams having control over the facilities they play in -- only Kansas City should really have a problem with open dates in June at their shared stadium -- scheduling will not be as big of a headache as it would have been four or eight years ago. But that also means teams like the Galaxy would miss their star player for those games. And, honestly, I’m not to want to go from watching England-USA or Brazil-Portugal to an MLS Game (I think Mark and I have some more in depth thoughts on this coming up). Ideally, everything will be sorted out before Monday, but my gut says it won’t.

- Just watched Barcelona thrash Stuttgart. Umm, that Lionel Messi kid ain’t too shabby. The positive is Bob Bradley and company won’t be facing the best player in the world because Messi is definitely better than Wayne Rooney. But that’s little consolation with the way Roonaldo is knocking in goals these days. I’m starting to wonder if it would be worth putting money down on Argentina; I just don’t trust Diego Maradona.

The Inter-Chelsea game was by far the best one this week and Inter was the better team on the day. Chelsea probably had a claim on a penalty call in the first half, but it’s hard to feel sorry for them when Didier Drogba stomps on an Inter defender after he was dragged down. In fairness to him, he had been manhandled all day, but you can’t react like that. Then John Terry was seen complaining to the referees after the game including saying “fucking shit” to the fourth on his way down the tunnel. Remind me, how did that complaining to the refs go last year after you were bounced in the semi-finals? Yeah, that’s what I thought. You stay classy Chelsea.

Also, give Columbus props for a valiant effort in the CCL. Team Zinha topped Team GBSchelotto (both scored a pair of goals), and we still don’t know why Steven Lenhart was sent off. Gotta be smart in those situations -- on a yellow in hostile territory -- as Jimmy Conrad knows. But to those of you who think that the MLS Players Union should use this as a testament to needing more resources to build MLS, you’re flat wrong. The Union has said time and again this fight isn’t about the money, but the rights.

- The best two days in sports start today. Though the World Cup remains the best tournament, it doesn’t have a pair of days like the first two of the NCAA tourney.

I thought the Terps would get a 5 seed, but now that everyone has them as the most overrated 4 seed I’m better with them there. Gary will use that for motivation in addition to Prez Obama saying that “the Terps have a great player, but MSU has a great coach.” Just more kindling to add to the fire. Granted, I wish we had a cupcake road like Duke -- how Kansas, the #1 #1 seed got that region is beyond me -- Gary will have Greivis and the boys ready and make it to the second weekend. Si, se puede!

I can’t see anyone hanging with Kansas. They have the depth, the star in Sharron Collins, and the best coach in the country right now in Bill Self. My other final four teams are Kansas State, Baylor, and Kentucky with the Jayhawks downing the Wildcats in the final.

Some upsets I have: Siena over Purdue (not sure if that’s an upset with how the Boilermakers are playing right now), St. Mary’s and Mizzou as 10 seeds to win and I wouldn’t be shocked if the Gaels make it to the second weekend, OK St taking out Ohio State in the second round because Thad Matta doesn’t realize he has more than six players, and finally, for my biggest reach, we won’t get to see the Gary Williams-Tom Izzo matchup because MSU is going down Friday night. We’ll see how poorly I do next week.

- Tiger’s back for the Masters. How much money did PGA head honcho Tim Finchem pay him to do that? The only other thing I’ll say is check out Tiger’s smile in this picture (thanks to Bill Simmons for pointing this out) with the Orlando Magic dancers in ‘07. What’s the over/under on how many he banged? Is five too low?

- Lastly, Trey Anastasio inducted Genesis into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Tuesday night. Phish played Watcher of the Skies and No Reply At All pretty well and it’s definitely got me back on a Genesis kick. As much of a hard time as I’ve given the U.S. Soccer HoF, how the hell is KISS not in the RnR HoF? I’m not saying that for Bushman’s benefit, but even if you haven’t bought one of the 100 million + albums they’ve sold, their influence on stadium shows alone seems like it should be enough to get them in.

Back next week to hopefully look at the start of MLS and the Terps in the Sweet Sixteen.

- Pat Walsh

Not The “We’re Really Expensive” League

Get off your knees, you just blew it!

Champions League -- the UEFA variety, that is -- saw four more teams knocked out this week. Normally it’d be eight, but thanks to the almighty dollar UEFA spread the round of 16 over two weeks to maximize TV income. Honestly, it’s a decision I support as everyone gets to see more games.

Of the four eliminated, two giants in AC Milan and Real Madrid were sent packing on Wednesday. That Milan are out is not a shock. The Rossoneri have been solid, but Italian teams have struggled in CL action in recent years and, frankly, not many teams have an answer for Wayne Rooney these days. The American’s best answer would be either an injury or to get John Terry to bang his wife.

However, Real spent $250M last summer, much of it on Cristiano Ronaldo (who scored their lone goal in the two legs), to be knocked out in the Sweet 16 for the sixth straight year. Just an unbelievable stat, really. Granted they’ve played good teams in Juventus (twice), Arsenal, Bayern, Roma, Liverpool, and now Lyon. Of course that means Manuel Pellegrini will be on the hot seat, especially since the Champions League final will be at the Bernabeu this year. But until they figure out a way to build team chemistry and not stay as the Galacticos, this side just seems destined to fail.

On the flip side, congrats to Lyon for a well deserved draw resulting in their advancing to the quarterfinals. The French side, as I’m reading in Soccernomics (a great book if you can get through some of the cumbersome mathematical explanations), is the “Moneyball” of soccer. They buy young, cheap players and sell them for huge profits to larger clubs like, oh I don’t know, the Real Madrids of the world. A couple of the recent world-beaters they helped develop include Karim Benzema (now with Real), Juninho, and a couple of Chelsea guys in Florent Malouda and Michael Essien. Not too shabby.

Manchester United, much to Mark’s delight, dispatched Milan like Mike Tyson used to destroy other heavyweight “contenders.” Wayne Rooney got things going with another header, doubled the lead (in the game, tripled on the aggregate) before Milan had their laces tied for the second half and the game was over. You can say all you want that Beckham and Seedorf should’ve started, but it wouldn’t have mattered. Milan weren’t going through. Period.

I’d be remiss to not mention the explosion by Arsenal at The Emirates on Tuesday as the Gunners came from behind on aggregate to thrash Porto. Nicklas Bendtner had a hat trick to lead the way and well done by him to not miss balls Bobby Convey -- or Bendtner, I suppose -- finds a way to shank. Arshavin filled in well as the playmaker with Cesc Fabregas on the sidelines and you can’t see Arsenal dropping much if Fab4 finally makes a long rumored move to Spain.

By the way, Nasri’s “wonder goal” wasn’t a wonder goal. It was crap defense. I don’t care that he was in the box, as a defender you don’t let a guy dance through three of you without touching him. This was a wonder goal.

Back here in the States, Columbus played the first competitive match -- as long as ping-pong doesn’t count -- by an MLS team in 2010. Steven Lenhart brought back a side that was without GBSchelotto, Frankie Hejduk, and Chad Marshall to earn a draw. But you have to think the Crew are done, needing a win in Toluca to advance. Sorry boys. Just don’t embarrass yourselves like neighbors Ohio State in a BCS game.

Lastly, let me touch on Landon Donovan and his future with Everton. As Mark wrote on Tuesday, it was an amazing performance on Sunday morning for El Dee. The goal was as well struck as any other shot scored on the weekend and the pass that set up Rodwell’s goal was hit with a bit of backspin to have it sit perfectly for the youngster to bury (how far over the goal would Edson Buddle have hit that one?).

However, now people are claiming Donovan is a hypocrite for wanting to extend his stay with Everton after criticizing David Beckham for wanting to do the same with Milan last year.

Three points on this:

First, as the author states, Donovan “admit[ed] he was ‘unfair’” to Beckham’s situation last year. So basically, he took back the statement that now makes him appear hypocritical. Of course the cynic could say he was looking ahead to this spring by doing so, but I’m not so sure that’s the case for Donovan.

Second, and more importantly to me, is how Donovan went about this loan spell. He signed an extension with MLS in the offseason that allowed him to pursue loans in Europe. That’s completely different than how Beckham, or his handlers if you want to believe Becks is a saint and never does wrong, went behind the Galaxy’s/MLS’s back to orchestrate the loan to Milan. Bruce Arena found out by a journalist’s question. Not the way to impress a new boss or endear yourself to teammates with whom you already have a tenuous relationship. Granted Donovan probably learned from Beckham’s mistakes, as Beckham himself did this past offseason, but he’s handled his situation with a lot more class than Beckham.

Lastly, Donovan only wants to extend the loan until April 15, not through the end of the season as Beckham did. That means he misses just three games for the Gals, though one is a SuperClasico. I’m not sure the impetus for just the extra month, though my two guesses are that he thinks there is going to be a delay to the start of the season and/or Everton are still banged up with Fellaini done for the year and Saha and Cahill on the mend.

Throughout all of this, and of course there’s surely some bias from me because Donovan is American and Becks is, well, Becks, I don’t think it was Donovan’s intention to stay beyond the initial loan spell. That was never the case with Beckham.

- Pat Walsh

End of The Week Thoughts

Can I never ever ever be assigned #13 again?

With the amazing appearance from Morath yesterday you’ve been treated -- or maybe subjected depending on your viewpoint -- to all three of us in our return from the dead. It also added a buffer day to looking back at both Jonathan Borntein’s the USMNT’s loss to the Netherlands and the Terps scorching Duke. So instead of doing a breakdown or a winners and losers, I’m just tossing up some random thoughts about those two games and other things as well.

So here goes:

- Heitinga might be the ugliest defender I've ever seen. That said, you know Timmy Howard would have rather been playing with Everton so Heitinga was in front of him than for the USA against Holland where he was on the other team. He adds a quality no American defender has.

- It’s one of those “things that will never happen but fun to dream about” thoughts, but if international players could be traded would the U.S. send Brad Guzan to England for Wayne Bridge? Figure that Bridge isn’t playing for the Brits and Guzan may never really have an international career with Howard sure to be our starter for the next two Cups and then El Guzano would be 38 in 2022. England could surely use a ‘keeper and after Jonny Bornstein’s howler and knowing Bocanegra's lack of pace, Bob Bradley would immediately start Bridge. How about that for drama on June 12? (PS The best shirt I’ve seen about the Terry scandal said: Terry Always Scores At The Bridge.)

- Sad to see Stu Holden broke his leg. Fortunately it wasn’t as bad as Allan Ramsey’s, but it puts a serious crimp in his World Cup hopes. I say he still goes, but it’s another potential starter who won’t be fully match fit/ready come June 12. I was looking forward to seeing he and Donovan on the wings with Dempsey beneath Jozy, but I’m not sure that will happen now. Would have been nice to have another guy familiar with the English players in the starting lineup.

- Should Bob Bradley go, it will be interesting to see how JF Torres fits into the next coach’s scheme. He clearly doesn’t with Bradley thanks to a lack of playing defense -- a must for Bradley -- but with Donovan being marked out of the game it seemed like he was the most creative option. Granted I had as much of an impact on the game from my couch as Robbie Findley did so Torres didn’t have many options, but with the right boss he can surely help in qualifying for Brazil ’14.

- Both Ghana and the Ivory Coast lost on Wednesday in friendlies. I’m wondering if their odds just got better. We already have money on them of course, but I still like those two as potential Cup winners. Ghana was without several key players and the Ivory Coast should have Guus Hiddink (of South Korea’s improbably semi-final run in ’02 and Russia’s great Euro ’08) managing Didier Drogba again. I’d buy, but that’s just me jinxing them.

- Assuming the Terps win at JPJ tomorrow and win a share of the ACC regular season title, where does Greivis Vasquez wind up in the all-time players at Maryland? He’s likely going to be second in points behind only Juan Dixon, second in assists behind Steve Blake, and will be in the top 10 in ten different statistical categories. For me the top 3 have been Len Bias, Juan Dixon, and Walt Williams (without The Wizard staying Gary wouldn’t have turned the program around as quickly). Then you have guys like Elmore, King, MacMillan, Buck Williams, and John Lucas who I never saw play. I do know this though, like The Wizard in the early ‘90’s Vasquez helped keep Gary’s job in these past few years. As polarizing as he is, there’s no denying that he’s surely a top 10, if not top 5 in Terp history. Oh, and if you mention Steve Francis, please stop reading this blog.

- As great as the Terps win was, storming the court was ridiculous. A buddy of mine from Kansas immediately gave me grief and Bushman did so the following morning. I will say this was the biggest win for this class and Vasquez called them down, but there’s still no excuse for a program that won a title in the last decade. Act like you’ve been there. And the rioting needs to stop. Now. I’m all for a good celebration, even tearing down goalposts, but chanting “Defense” as cops in riot gear are marching towards you isn’t cute or funny. It’s dumb and it reflects poorly on the school. Just go to Frat Row and set some couches on fire and be relatively peaceful. (Yes, I felt old writing that paragraph.)

- Nice to see some fiscal restraint by Washington. Of course I mean the Redskins because politics ain’t gonna be discussed by me in this forum (it’s one of the things I write on my hand to remind me). It will be interesting to see how long Danny Boy keeps this new cheek turned.

On the other hand it looks like the Bears will win the Julius Peppers sweepstakes. Could be a nasty defense if everyone there is healthy. But that won’t stop Jay Cutler from throwing picks meaning Lovie Smith will be out of a job next year.

That’s it for this week. Expect to see a division created sometime next week for fantasy MLS at MFLS. And be sure to enjoy Landon’s last appearance at Goodison for Everton against Jozy Altidore and Hull on Sunday morning (FSC) before he comes back to MLS.

- Pat Walsh

How Does This Work Again?

Anyone else wish the Philadelphia Union would have joined

next year to avoid confusion with the MLS Union?

I’ve been thinking about writing some stuff over the past few weeks, but never really found the time to put pen to paper, or whatever the 21^st century equivalent of that is. (Finger to keyboard? That sounds like something from an old AOL chatroom.) Anyway, now that Mark wrote and broke our nearly three-month silence, I figured I might as well too. We’re not monks after all.

Two of the biggest stories outside of Vancouver since I last wrote both involve Collective Bargaining Agreements in the two professional sports Mark and I follow the most. Not the happiest of things to write about, but hopefully I’ll have something to post tomorrow in a lighter vein should the Yanks win in Amsterdam and the Terps in College Park later today. For the record, I’m not expecting either to happen.

MLS

The lack of an agreement on a new CBA is the biggest story of the offseason in domestic soccer. I still think the best read is from our friend Brian Strauss at Fanhouse. It helped me wrap my head around the free agent issue unlike anything else I’ve read, and I’ve read a lot about this. While the overall content is great, I have a problem with two arguments made by Strauss.

The first comes in this paragraph in relation to what happens after a player’s contract expires or a team decides not to exercise its option:

“If another club is interested and is willing to pay market value, MLS will make that deal. The league assumes that the new team is willing to pay some consideration, in the form of a trade with the original club, for the right to that exclusivity. If the suitor doesn't want to deal, it then risks losing that player on the waiver wire. The old club isn't going to keep the player on the books if he's not part of its plans, and it has no right to any compensation it doesn't make a meaningful effort to negotiate a new contract.”

Looking at this from an NFL perspective, LaDainian Tomlinson was just cut by the Chargers. LDT hasn’t been his Hall of Fame self the past couple of years and is on the wrong side of 30. However, if Tomlinson were an MLS player, the Chargers would likely receive a fifth or sixth round pick if another team were to sign him. It’s the idea of restricted free agency versus unrestricted and the latter just flat out doesn’t exist in MLS.

When you look at Kevin Hartman, who is no longer with the Kansas City Wizards, you can’t tell me that another club in MLS wouldn’t mind looking at him. New York surely can’t be feeling good moving into Red Bull Arena with Bouna Coundoul between the sticks. Colorado and Dallas are two other clubs that immediately come to mind. Or, what happens in Houston if Onstad goes down with an injury or Kasey Keller blows out a knee on Qwest Field’s turf? As Strauss says “[t]he league assumes that the new team is willing to pay some consideration…” meaning that Kansas City, who might not be willing to just throw one of those teams a bone, can dictate Hartman’s future. And on the flip side, how much is RBNY really going to look at him? Even if Hartman agreed to a much-reduced salary, Red Bull would also have to toss in some sort of compensation on top of that. At the least MLS must have a pre-arranged compensation as the NFL has with the tender offers teams are making in these days leading up to free agency.

Like most followers of this league, I just haven’t seen a justification for why that “consideration” is still a part of the way MLS does business. Some sort of restricted/unrestricted determination needs to be made. My thought would be to do something like five years as a professional to reach unrestricted free agency. If you’ve played in another league, like Christian Castillo who signed with D.C. United in the offseason, then you have to stay with that team for three years before you’re unrestricted. Though I doubt free agency is really going to affect these international signings as much as the Hartmans of MLS.

The other bit I disagree with Strauss is in the final paragraph where he basically says Hartman and Dave van den Bergh aren’t the ones who put fans in the seats. I agree with that statement taken at face value. But I wonder, outside of the DPs in MLS, how many players actually brings out the fans.

Come back to United where I would put a lot of money on the fact that very few people came out specifically to see Troy Perkins. However, once he left to go overseas United went from back-to-back Supporters Shields to missing the playoffs in back-to-back years. Slightly different case, of course, but it will be interesting to see how Kansas City -- who admittedly have more problems than just who is playing in goal -- do without the all-time leader in MLS wins and shutouts. Hartman and his bleached locks may not put fans in the seats, but winning does, and you need those veterans to do just that.

Otherwise with the CBA, I don’t understand why guaranteed contracts can’t be agreed upon for a season once the first game is played. Well, I can see why the owners don’t want to do so as they can drastically change a team when the summer transfer window opens, but that seems like an easy concession. On the flip side, I’m with them on not having contracts guaranteed for more than a year. It’s pretty similar to the NFL, just sans multi-million dollar signing bonuses, and a much better situation than you see in the NBA. If it were the NBA, in the near future you’d be hearing a trade involving Bobby Convey’s expiring contract.

My take on the ending? Both players and owners know they have to start the season and get through the World Cup. As I read somewhere -- I apologize to the source for not citing -- the players’ best opportunity will be just before the playoffs and I can’t disagree with that. The playoffs are almost free money in terms of gate revenue for owners and a delay could put off one of the few times the league is showcased on ABC in MLS Cup. Just a hunch though.

NFL

It certainly appears the salary cap is gone in the NFL. And it’s no surprise that, a year after spending $100 million on Albert Haynesworth (in the same way MLS spent $250M on Beckham) the Skins are rumored to be going after Julius Peppers and Darren Sproles. I figure with Peppers and Haynesworth they’ll pay about $20M per season and one of the two will give a full effort on each defensive play. Though that might be generous.

As much as I love the Redskins, and it’s tough living within walking distance of Ravens Stadium, I hate Snyder. The lack of a salary cap is the only way he can win. Period. Even so, they won’t win next year as it would take at least three years to fill all the holes in their offensive line, wide receiver, defensive line, and quarterback.

The biggest surprise though is we haven’t heard any rumors about TO coming to FedEx. I’m sure it’s just a matter of time though.

Like I said, I plan on being back tomorrow -- or Friday depending on work and likely hangover -- with a look at the U.S. probable loss against the Netherlands and Señor Night at the Comcastle.

- Pat Walsh