I hope some lessons were learned

After Wednesday’s Pan Pacific matches in Hawaii, every report and commentary, weather traditional media or blogger, wrote off LA and were ready to give Houston the title.  I can’t wait to see what they are writing today.

You can’t judge a team my only one match.  Comparing the over all results, LA were the second best team on the islands…they only lost by one goal to Osaka while Houston were stuffed 6-1!!!  Of course, there’s a long way to go this season.  Who knows what the heck is gonna happen.

Bottom line for me is that Becks on the right is head and shoulders better than any other player in the league.  Those kids in the middle spent the two recent matches figuring out how to get on the end of those crosses and put them away.  The one kid (got the second goal) isn’t every going to forget how sweetly that strike came off his foot.

Like I Twitted (I think that’s the correct word…see the widget on the right) the other night, I’m not worried about Wednesdays performance.  It was the first preseason game.  Look how much improvement there was in just a couple of days.

I can’t wait for the season to start…and for LA to be at full strength.  LA will be better this season…I’m just not gonna predict how much better.

Too bad the matches couldn’t attract more fans.

Another new league…sorta

WooHoo!!! The long anticipated CONCACAF Champions League has finally been announced.

I won’t bore  you with the details cuz it’s blogged and published everywhere else.

Honestly, I’m not sure if I’m excited or not about this. Yeah, it’s another opportunity for MLS Clubs to show how competitive they are. Yes, another. Is the SuperLiga still part of the mix? Houston and NE still have the Champions Cup (the old version to play this Spring as well. Another question, which two MLS Clubs get the other two spots? It should be Chivas and DC….but will LA somehow slid into the mix? Will Toronto get a back door in every year?

Why am I so negative? Which Mexican Clubs participate? Will the best two still go to the Copa Libratadoras? Or will this be a second (third?) International Competition for them.

I do like the idea of dumping the rest of the competitions and making this the premier competition for our region, but until my questions are answered, it won’t be. We keep hearing comments about fixture congestion yet we continue to see more matches…though I will say that at least this isn’t some “made to make money” meaningless friendly against some big Euro Club.
Also, what about TV coverage? Will we even get to see the games? I’m thinking this is yet another idea from the CONCACAF Brain-trust which hasn’t been completely thought through.

Oh what fun…

It took 11 years for someone to think of this

We’ve all heard the stories about teams drinking beer out of the Stanley Cup while taking the trophy out on the town…or while hosting a party at their house…well, you can’t do that (no where to hold the beer) with the MLS Cup, but you can have it at your house for a day.

It’s too bad the trophy isn’t designed more for celebrations but what are you going to do. One question though, is there only one actual trophy or does the league make a new one every season? If that’s the case, LA, DC, KC, Chicago and whoever has the Smurfs trophies can still do this as well.

One thing though, $600 is a bit of a joke. C’mon Houston fans, you can do better than that. Get a group of you together, pool your money and have a big Christmas Day bash with the trophy.