Last night’s playoff match

Say what you want about the playoffs, it’s format and anything else you feel like complaining about.  I’m not buying any of it right now.  From a neutral standpoint, that was a highly entertaining match and well worth the complaining I got from my wife who wanted to watch Survivor.  Gimme DC and Chicago in a playoff second leg any day.  Great DC crowd too.  Love it.  Who needs Beckham to sell tickets?  Games like last nights should be doing the selling.

I just few in from the Windy City…

Actually, it was just a there and back trip, by car,  and I got back last night…but it was windy. 

I currently live an hour or so from Chicago but this was my first time to Toyota Park—heck, it was my first visit to Chicago which didn’t include a trip to O’Hare.  The stadium is quite nice.  It actually feels more like a stadium for sporting events than the HDC.  I have to admit, the stadium is sweet…even if I was stuck in front of the stage and behind the goal (crap view capped off with some Fire fan in front of me who did nothing but go off on Cannon and anyone in Galaxy colors the entire game. 

I’d heard about the “Beckham Bandwangon” but was still surprised at the number of Beckham jersey’s being worn.  I intentionally wore a white road jersey from 5 years ago just to make sure I wasn’t mistaken for a newcomer.  There were still quite a few other Galaxy fans that seemed to be from the pre-Beckham era.  My wife did her part as Beckham warmed up in front of us and took numerous pictures of him.  Still haven’t decided if I should be insulted sitting next to her as she drooled. 

I bumped into some friends of mine from my days in LA.  It’s amusing that after being gone from LA for a couple of years, LARS is still pretty much the same.  

Oh yeah, and there was a match too.  From what I could tell (I’ll know more when I watch the Tivo of the match) it was pretty entertaining.  However, from my vantage point (in front of the stage) it was tough to tell much beyond the near side penalty area.  Heck, when the goal was scored I wasn’t certain it had gone in…well, the roar from the crowd was what did it. 

Blanco is a massive diver and a big crybaby.  I was beginning to think the crew at Toyota Park did a poor job and Blanco kept tripping over blades of grass they’d missed…well, that and the super high line marking the penalty area.  Wow, every time he’d go down his next move was always in the direction of the ref with a pleading look on his face.  I used to think Fish was bad…but Blanco now has him beat.
 
Joe Canon rocks.  Until yesterday I was still grieving for the loss of Kevin Hartman but without Joe yesterday, the game would have been over long before injury time.  Thanks Joe and I look forward to seeing you in the nets next season.  I just home the team comes together in the off-season so you won’t be so busy next Summer.

Truth told, LA had no business winning.  The better team got the 3 points and are heading for a match-up with DC.  Good luck to them. 

As for the rest of my day….does anyone else find it ironic that you can leave a freeway and have the event location clearly marked all the way….but then when  you leave, there are no signs to the freeway?  That happened to us on the way home.  We took a wrong turn (or missed one) or something and ended up in Burbank.  No, not the one north of LA.  I’d have found my way home a lot quicker if it were.  So, there’s my wife and I, worn out looking for a darn freeway and, well, let’s just say that Burbank, IL isn’t exactly the most exclusive part of Chicago.

However, we eventually found our way back to Indiana and home.  It was good to see LA play this season…I just wish the result had been better.

Ok, that’s all I’ve got.

Darn media

I recently lived in Colorado Springs for a year. One of the most frustrating things about living in “The Springs” was that the local paper had next to zero MLS coverage. Yeah, they’d have the occasional AP article about the Rapids (only an hour drive away) when they were at home. That was pretty much it. So, I was amused to read this in the Gazette.

OK, they did have a reporter at most of the local PDL teams home games and they did have someone cover the national team when they had a camp at the Air Force Academy so they weren’t as bad as the paper where I live now. Not a single MLS article (though the World Cup coverage was not bad) that I’ve seen even though I’m only an hour from Bridgeview.

Oh well, at least some progress is being made.

Just a quick ‘hi’

Haven’t posted much lately cuz things have been a bit hectic chez PZ.But what’s there been to post about besides a US game which shouldn’t have been scheduled (I was reminded of non-league teams going for a 0-0 hoping for a replay at home to make a little extra coin….zzzzz)

Anyway, MLS starts next week. I’ve got my Tivo set and I may actually convince my wife to let me get the Direct Kick PPV package this year. However, there may be a few more excited sports fans this summer. That’s a good thing.

How nice of Chicago to give me another reason to hate them. Tickets in LA and Chicago will be tough to find this summer. Maybe I’ll get to watch on TV.

Anyway, that’s it for now.

UPDATE: Ya know. I went to bed last night thinking about Chicago signing Blanco and have had a change of heart. Rather than hate them–I still don’t care for Blanco–I’m now feeling sorry for them. I mean, the guy is 34, he’s slower than just about any MLS defender and MLS refs aren’t going to give him a ton of calls. Is that really the best Chicago could do with their DP slot? My money is on him blowing his top a few times this summer. I’m thinking he’s gonna work out slightly better than Campos on the pitch and (hopefully) better at the ticket gate.

It’s lonely at the top

My Chargers just hired Norv Turner to be head coach??!!!! What’s Spanos thinking???!!! I mean, this has to be….errr…sorry, wrong football.

So, Zidane isn’t greedy. After all, he doesn’t want Backham money. Someone needs to explain to him that Beckham isn’t being paid to play. Perhaps MLS should structure a deal just like the one Becks has. Half of shirt sales etc. Nah, he’s French. It’s not as if the French are arrogant or anything.

Speaking of Becks, does anyone feel sorry for their current house hunting plight? Finding the right home for the right price in LA isn’t easy. Besides, why are they so opposed to remodeling? I’m sure they could have everything done by July.

Now that the US is playing in Copa America, people are still complaining. Ok, so it’s only Jamie Trecker. Problem is, he’s missing the point. First thing, the coaches of the players who are with teams in Europe probably aren’t too excited about them playing in two tournaments this summer. It’s much easier for him to justify playing them in our own competition than in a tournament where we are invited guests. Second, the World Cup is now 3 1/2 years off. Most of the Gold Cup players have played in big events and have that experience. The younger players he’ll be taking South for the most part won’t have that experience. Why not give them a chance to get their feet wet in games which don’t mean anything to teams from our Confederation?

The reason the Gold Cup (and Open Cup) is perceived as meaningless (as Trecker pointed out) is because hacks like him make it out to be that. Well done to Bradley for doing this right.

Could the World Cup be returning to these shores? I’d be willing to bet it will sooner rather than later.

Catching up on some things

I’ve got a little time today so I thought I’d quickly mention some things which has caught my eye lately.

Where the heck is Collinsville? Continuing the trend of putting stadiums well outside the cities the teams are named after, St Louis looks like they are well on the road to getting a stadium for a possible MLS team.

Speaking of stadiums, will RSL ever get theirs?

…And then there’s KC who have had to bring in reinforcements to find somewhere (anywhere) to play. I’m hoping something good happens soon for them.

There’s always Cleveland.

Not one of those stadiums is in the cities they are named after. One of the great things about going to Ipswich games was being able to meet up with friends in a pub near the town center and be able to walk to the stadium from there in 10 minutes. Heck, I used to get stuck in traffic for more than 10 minutes trying to get to the HDC from Pasadena. That leaves less time for pre-game beers.

I meant to post this some time ago…but never got around to it. Soccer Dad did a good job of analyzing what happened with the Klinsmann fiasco. We’ve all had a lot of time to digest what happened and after the match last week I’m sure more of us are now comfortable with Bradley at the helm. But I will still maintain that the news wasn’t the story, the news was how much the media covered the story—and this was before the Beckham media blitz.

You’ve got to love the idea of a soccer made earthquake.

Even six months after the World Cup finished, Dave O’Brian is still catching flack.

It looks like some net geeks are trying to cash in on Beckham’s move to LA.

Speaking of big signings (well, not quite that big)…Reyna has now joined Red Bull. Anyone not think that was going to happen?

Wow, Chicago went after Zidane. Guaranteed every sports hack would be discussing the head butt 24/7 if it did go through.

Getting back to Beckham a bit. As a kid I used to stand on a milk crate in the Churchman’s Stand at Portman Road. Back then Town were managed by Bobby Robson. Now, Sir Bobby’s first management job was with the old NASL Vancouver Royals back in 1967. I’m guessing he hasn’t watched much soccer from over here since then based on these comments.

Now, back then Robson’s top striker was Paul Mariner. MLS fans may know him as the guy with glasses who’s always next to Steve Nichol on the bench. Back the 70’s/80’s, Mariner was one of the top strikers in England and was capped several times. He’s been in the US for a while now and I have to agree his response to Robson’s comments.

It’s an interesting observation. To be perfectly honest, far be it from me to disagree with such a great man, but I think I’ve seen more games and been involved in more games than my ex-boss has seen. I think it just goes to show that the general perception of leagues the world over, we take a look at the A-League in Australia, what level do we think that is, the J-League in Japan, what level do we think that is, I mean, for that matter, what do we think of the Portuguese League? I mean it’s all a debate, that’s why football is such a fantastic sport; everybody can debate until they are blue in the face what (the different) levels are like. For the boss (Robson) to say that we are sort of League One is completely wrong. I think it will be interesting to get David’s quotes at maybe six weeks or three months into the league and find out if he thinks this is League One. I would be absolutely shocked if he would say that it was… Having seen some English games over the Christmas period, from the lower leagues to the Premiership, I think that we are doing very, very well for a relatively young league. I think we are doing great and I think the stuff that most (MLS) teams are delivering and the product that MLS is trying to put together is fantastic for a league that is so young.

Problem is, if Beckham comes over here and does well then it proves their point that MLS isn’t any good. If Beckham comes over here and doesn’t take the league by storm, it proves that Beckham is well past his prime. Ya can’t win either way.

Oh and now all the “interesting” people looking for their 15 minutes of fame are taking advantage of the Beckham move. Can’t say I blame him for trying.

Finally, I’m still trying to decide if change is a good thing here. True, Johansson was a clueless muppet…but Platini…well, he is French.

Ok, that’s enough for now.