Caught in Possession

OK people, let's do this quick.

Biggest soccer weekend of the summer? Maybe...though Barcelona is coming to New York in a few weeks.

With the top two attacks in the league meeting at RFK Stadium, DC United vs LA Galaxy could be a genuine cracker of a match. But MLS games have a way of surprising -- Santino Quaranta noted this after DC's practice on Thursday, saying, "Games are so unpredictable, from game to game you don’t know what’s going to happen" -- and perhaps the midday heat will slow what could be a breakneck pace down to a crawl.

But defenders can find themselves leaden-legged at the worst time in these situations, and I keep having these visions of Abel Xavier getting his ankles broken by Jaime Moreno and/or Marcelo Gallardo in/around the Galaxy box...and for that matter, a tomato-faced, heatstroke-stricken Bryan Namoff having to leg-whip that pesky little bugger Landon Donovan in front of the DC goal in the 70th minute or so...

So how about it? I'll call a 2-2 draw, with goals clustered at the match's beginning and end.

As for Spain v Germany, well...how can any sane soccer observer bet against the Germans in clutch situations? Sometimes pedestrian, often plodding...but usually effective: Exhibit A for the value of fitness and "fighting spirit."

But these Spaniards seem to be a spirited lot themselves, and boasting no end of "calidad" throughout the side. I've enjoyed watching La Furia Roja this year and even my German ancestry can't prevent me from supporting them in the final. No David Villa, no matter...

3-1 Espana.

To close, here's a few extra quotes from my trip out to United training on Thursday...

"I think that we’re humans before we’re soccer players, and all of us make mistakes. If I have to mark Beckham on Sunday, it’s going to be just like me marking any other player, whether it be someone like Juan Pablo Angel or Etcheverry. If he’s on that side then it will be my duty that particular day. Every player has positives and negatives. "
-Gonzalo Martinez, who's clearly sanguine about the prospect of shadowing David Beckham on Sunday

"I think defensively as a unit, our entire team defense starting with our forwards and through our midfield and defense, has been really sound, and we’re getting better and better . I think that attests to us getting to know one another on the field and off the field. That chemistry is tending to build there."
-Bryan Namoff on United's defensive improvement

"If there was a place you were going to try to break them down, it’s at the back. It’s not like they’re that vulnerable at the back, they’re smart, they’ve got some good veteran players and I’m sure they’ll try to be compact here at the back, hopefully. That’s what they’ll try to do and we just have to figure out a way to break them down, through the wide play and changing the point of attack – that’s what Tommy [Soehn] says and I think that’s when we’re most successful."
-Santino Quaranta, on how United's front line will attack the Galaxy defense

"You could see that we were flat, and we kind of went out on the field like we just expected to win in the first half and it was going to be an easy game for us...We were fortunate to win that game – if that happens [on Sunday] the game will be over by halftime, if we come out like that. The guys know that and Tommy knows that. So we changed some things and it’ll be different from the start."
-Quaranta comparing last week's San Jose match with Sunday's Galaxy clash

"As a defender I try to communicate with Zach -- sometimes there are different times in the game where you have to know how to manage the game, and if we’re winning, we should try to kill time. Those are gamesmanship tactics that you need to do to take advantage of the opponent. So I always try to communicate with him and try to tell him different things about how the game is evolving. But overall obviously all of us support him and we’ll do whatever we can to support him. But we believe in him, because he’s a good goalkeeper."
-Martinez again, discussing his relationship with troubled goalkeeper Zach Wells

"I like Germany, because I like watching Ballack, he’s a good player."
-Fred talks Euro 2008