Caught in Possession

Here's part II of my look at local teen phenom Chris Agorsor. Regardless of whether the finished product matches up to the hype, I'm as interested as anyone in seeing where Chris' path takes him.

And there's something else I wanted to share...After part I was published last week, I got a short but highly entertaining email from a friend and former colleague in the soccer journo world. Turns out, my friend once coached Agorsor when he was much younger, and even at that early stage his abilities were clearly exceptional. A brief excerpt from the email:

...F*ck, that kid is sick, dude. He could have started on my college soccer team as a 7th grader...

I think that about sums it up. Enjoy your weekend.

...Sounds like a pretty scary concept for a horror movie, yes? After tonight, consider my blood duly chilled.

And speaking of horror shows...ugh. Somebody shoot me. No wait, shoot me with a heavily-dosed tranquilizer dart, the kind that will make me sleep for 36-48 hours.

To paraphrase Hunter, strange weirdness and bad craziness is in the air.

This...is...ridiculous.

RFK Stadium is a lake. Again.

DC United are getting owned by Houston Dynamo. Again.

We're all sitting around in the press box like a-holes as a weather delay stretches out interminably...again.

And as we wait for various officials to evaluate the soggy pitch while the field crews do their best to squeegee-roll the standing water towards the sidelines...I am expecting locusts, fire and/or brimstone to rain down when and if the players try to re-take the field...The creator, whichever one you may believe in, apparently does not wish to see this match completed.

"It's better to be a dog in a peaceful time than be a man in a chaotic period."
-Chinese proverb



* Image taken from behindthebadge.com (gracias al jefe: Kylinho Sheldon)

You're into US soccer, right? So you've heard about Chris Agorsor, then?

You should know.

Knowledgeable types around, let's say, RFK Stadium might tell you he's a bit raw, not refined tactically, a bit skinny, even. So he's got a long ways to go, but sooner or later he might be spectacular. Do stay tuned...and check out Tuesday's wire.

Based on current form, DC United has a long ways to go, too, to get back to their June form...injuries left and right, a shallowness of playmaking skill on the roster and the occasional recurrence of some nameless funk that helps keep this team planted in the "underachiever" category.

United has worked hard to develop a reputation as the best-run organization in MLS. But for months now, the most common and, I think, valid rag on Dave Kasper and Tom Soehn among the local media contingent has centered on the inattention and even in some cases, disdain for the MLS SuperDraft held by some at RFK. It's not seen as a worthwhile conduit of top-drawer talent.

July and August are when the marathon MLS schedule rewards teams whose youngsters step up and help win matches. Who is going to win those types of matches for DC United?

Ouch, that was bad. And by that, I mean this, too. Soehn was pretty fired up, and not in a good way. Oh, and he was hoarse, too -- just like on Saturday. When you've given up five goals and been opened up at will over the course of two consecutive matches, and your coach barely has a voice from all the yelling he's been doing on the sidelines, something is amiss, no? Maybe something more than just an injury bug.

Bonus quotes from what we'll just call "the Atlante incident" from now on:

"We weren’t good enough. We came pretty flat and we just played like we didn’t know how to play. I don’t know if it was tiredness or what it was, but there’s no excuse. They did their job and they deserved to win."
-Jaime Moreno

"I think the fatigue is getting to players. First half, we dug ourselves a hole, and it’s hard to get out of it. We tried but they started sitting back in the second half, and they had a couple counters on us, so it was tough. But I think the most important factor was the fatigue."
-Rod Dyachenko

"I’m not sure where the problem was. They were keeping three guys high and – I don’t know. I’ll have to go back and look at it, but they were causing chaos up there and they opened us up."
-Devon McTavish, offering (somewhat of) a defensive postmortem

"We’ve got a couple guys injured and that are coming back from injury, and this might have been a good thing for us, to get a couple bad results and realize that we can’t ever get too comfortable. And now we have the Open Cup and the league to focus on. Chicago just hopped us in the standings, so we have some ground to make up there as well. So we’ll put all of our energy towards that, and make sure we’re involved in this tournament again next year."
-Zach Wells, looking on the bright side, sort of

"There were four forwards on their lineup sheet. I thought they were underestimating us a little bit, considering that we had come off a 4-0 loss. Whenever there’s a wounded team like we were, I think that you have to be careful about a team that’s down and out after their first game. So I think that they were excessively confident."
-Atlante honcho José Guadalupe Cruz

I had an interesting conversation with Dave Lifton after Saturday's DC-Chivas game. Talking MLS, the topic of perspective came up -- specifically, the viewpoint of a club's dedicated fan versus that of a journalist, or the proverbial "neutral," and the like.

I am probably oversimplifying here, but in the interests of brevity, Dave described how the instability and uncertainty that loomed over MLS in the years following 9/11/01 contraction helped inspire him to take more of a documentarian's approach to the small, brave, weird happening that was/is the latest stab at a successful soccer league in the United States of America. If we don't think about it, talk about it, write about it and remember it...eventually, someday, it won't have happened, right?

So then I finally got to read the full text of the interview Adam Spangler (who is the brains behind TIAS) recently conducted with Frank dell Appa, the longtime soccer writer who has lately been reassigned from the Revolution/soccer beat to the NBA/Celtics beat by his Boston Globe paycheck-writers. Great stuff, hinting at powerful emotions:

"We need people to write about it, that know the game, that played it when they were kids, or play it now. And they can see the world game which is what we need. That all helps the sophistication level that is the one thing we don’t have. We haven’t observed or coached in a sophisticated manner and that’s gonna take some time. Hopefully that is going to happen, but the media is just as guilty as everybody else of not being there at the level we need to be at."

And for something completely different (or maybe not?)...who knew Brent Musburger was such an *sshole?

A weird one. Seriously.

What to do when the stars are stacked against you? No easy answers there, besides just "get better."

Take your chances. Be slick and smart and ruthless and confident and lucky, just like Chivas was. It was enough, even though they weren't fit. The plan was conceived and executed, and all United could do was react.

But hey, don't listen to me. Listen to Devon McTavish:

"Technically, they’re a phenomenal team and they came out and showed that right off the bat. I think they went after the early goal and were fortunate enough to get it, and kind of just – you could see towards the end of the game, they weren’t in midseason fitness, but they did enough to get the job done."

Just for clarity: USA has owned Mexico in contemporary head-to-head international competition. But the average Mexican player is much better than the average Gringo player. More comfortable on the ball, more alert, more intuitive, and blessed with a more aggressive mentality whenever on the field.

So there's much work to be done.

...Sooooooooo out of here. And loving it.

As Ives Galarcep noted, Brad "El Guzano" Guzan, who is more down with la gente del sol than any other midwestern Caucasian dude you know of, is off to the Prem to join Aston Villa, after getting the Heisman on his first try due to work permit issues a few months ago. Here's what he said in a post-game interview on Thursday's ESPN broadcast of Chivas USA vs LA Galaxy:

"I hope for the best result for everybody involved....[My MLS career] has been absolutely unbelievable...Obviously being able to stay at a club for three and a half years, learning and growing as a player, as a person, I've been very thankful for Chivas USA and everything they've done for me....And obviously the league has made tremendous strides and hopefully it'll keep going in the right direction."

Dude, he is SO over this MLS thing.

I remember interviewing Guzan after he was selected by Chivas USA in the 2005 SuperDraft, with the second overall pick that year, in Baltimore. Just as a reminder -- hee hee, this is funny -- Real Salt Lake went first that year, picking...Nikolas Besagno. Enough said.

Anyway, Guzan was a big, gangly, almost-dopey kid from Illinois who didn't speak a word of Spanish, but as fate would have it, he would go on to become the most recognizable face of the deeply-Mexican expansion franchise that selected him as of their originals. And man, did he pay his dues. See here for an example of the regular beatings -- mentally, physically, you name it -- that he endured as a rook.

(Just admit it -- how many of you even remembered that Thomas Rongen had anything to do with Chivas USA? My my, where have the years gone. Sigh.)

I'd like to point out that this long-desired move abroad could never have happened without Bob Bradley's knowledge and support. Witness the following from the soccernet.com article linked above:

Guzan had a transfer move to Villa blocked after failing to secure a British work permit in January, but it is believed that Guzan will secure his work permit now after playing in five of the U.S. national team's eight matches this year.

Oh, and this is also going on this weekend. What are you up to?

Well, well, well. Tuesday's little goatrope might have a few more intriguing developments ahead.

I won't waste time repeating what Messrs. Tenorio and Stouffer have explained about what is happening now. And it's a shame that Comcast SportsNet's highlight segment has been taken off youtube by MLS...because 'insider blogs' are all well and good but there's just no substitute for primary source material, is there?

(Before I forget, it's worth noting that DC United officials, starting with Tom Soehn, seem just as aggrieved about John Thorrington's, shall we say, agricultural tackle on Jaime Moreno just a few minutes before the Blanco incident as they are about the Blanco incident itself.)

But make no mistake: the video footage United is submitting to Major League Soccer contains solid evidence of three separate acts by Cuauhtemoc Blanco:

1) a swipe/punch at Clyde Simms in an angry attempt to take the ball out of the D.C. midfielder's hands
2) a subsequent jab of his fingers into Simms' face, specifically his eye
3) a clear head butt to the cheekbone of a prominent member of United's gameday field staff, who was attempting to guide Blanco towards the locker rooms, per the laws of the game.

All the other talk/accusations/gossip blazing its way around the internet -- some are saying Blanco grappled with the Montgomery County law enforcement officers present, to name just one rumor -- is hearsay at best, and should be taken with substantial chunks of sodium chloride.

So there is a body of evidence available to MLS and the US Soccer Federation. But beyond that, we're in uncharted territory -- and it's a good time to step back and once again, marvel for a moment at the inherently convoluted structure of the game here in the United States. If this incident had taken place in the FA Cup in England, it would still fall well within the Football Association's umbrella even if it involved two Premier League teams. But not here...

As has been noted already, Tuesday's match was not an MLS competition, so the league's standard disciplinary procedures do not apply. The US Open Cup is a USSF event, but its mechanisms are particularly toothless in this case b/c Blanco and the Fire will have a nice chuckle at the idea of a suspension -- even a lengthy one -- for him in the 2009 USOC. That would probably just make coach Denis Hamlett's task of resting and rotating his players even easier next summer.

So what happens? What can MLS really do here?

In two words or less...Who knows? The league is renowned for making things up as it goes along, which has many times been somewhat unavoidable b/c it has so often wandered into unforeseen and unprecedented situations over the past twelve years. If Don Garber and co. feel particularly embarrassed or aggrieved by Blanco's behavior, they'll find a way to punish him, and in doing so will set a precedent, whether they like it or not. And if they do nothing, they'll be judged to have decided the opposite, whether that's how they really feel or not.

...with a special late cameo from Cuauhtemoc Blanco!

Yes, it certainly did make for compelling theater at the MD Soccerplex on Tuesday night, with twists, turns and thrills galore. Three goals, six yellow cards, two reds, and 120 minutes of end-to-end soccer, played with urgency and intensity that outshined the long stretches when real quality was lacking.

You had the home team's captain coming off the bench just long enough to play the hero, starkly contrasted by the entrance of Blanco, the Heel -- perhaps the ultimate heel in world footie, even, though Italian defender and Zidane headbuttee Marco Materazzi might argue otherwise.

Moreno's arrival had a milk-of-magnesia effect on United's jittery psyche, soothing nerves and unclogging the attack -- though shouldn't everyone in the D.C. front office edge a few steps closer to panic mode every time their talented squad has to be bailed out by his aging legs? Why is he such a psychological crutch and where is his replacement? Moreno might not retire anytime soon, but he's 34 and ain't getting any younger...and few among the Black-and-Red seem inclined to comprehend life without him.

Conversely, Blanco came in just long enough to lift his team's hopes, then make a premature exit, red-carded when his fiery temperament flared out of control. The departure of "La Mochilita" (the little backpack, and if you don't make that connection then go google a Blanco pic, for cripesake) didn't end Chicago's hopes, but it certainly made DC's job easier.

As supremely aggravating as he can be with his elbows, his diving, his disrespecting of referees, his instigating, his victimization complex...I like Blanco, I really do. He's a working-class hero, and both MLS and the sport in general can use more of those. The adulation he inspires in millions of fans is no coincidence -- Chivas fans aside, he understands and proudly represents the Mexican mindset like few others can. One passage from this Martin Rogers piece, written last September, is particularly illuminating:

...His most interesting comment is not even about soccer. It is a response to being asked for his perception of his fellow countrymen and their role in life in the United States.

"People are here not to steal, but to be able to work hard for a better life and send money to their families," he says. "Even if they put up a wall, we will find a way to get over it or under it. We Mexicans are very smart."

Even the whitest gringo should give Blanco respect for standing up for, and connecting with, the Mexican-American working class, the modern-day untouchables of our society. But like Wayne Rooney, Paul Gascoigne, Eric Cantona and so many other stormy, creative stars of the beautiful game, he plays on the knife-edge of his emotions and seems unable to rein them in when challenged or goaded.

So on Tuesday, the Heel played his role, and a hero named Moreno was there to play the foil, and everyone went home happy.

The Chicago Fire are a good soccer team.

I can say this, with full confidence, in reference to both the club's general state of success in recent seasons and their present form as of July 2008. I have seen them efficiently dispatch favored DC United sides in two of the last three MLS Cup playoffs and on several regular-season occasions in recent years as well. I have also seen them be a general pain in the *ss to most of their MLS counterparts, even when losing, thanks to a uniquely creative sort of destructiveness professionally administered, each in their own special way, by Cuauhtemoc Blanco, Chris Rolfe, Wilman Conde, (former coach) Juan Carlos Osorio and the like.

This weekend I got to hijack the tivo at my girlfriend's house long enough to watch the Fire play the Columbus Crew on Saturday. Playing pacey, fluid soccer, the Fire largely bossed the match -- and did enough to feel underwhelmed by a 2-2 road draw thanks to a dodgy late Steven Lenhart goal for the Yellow Football Team.

"Football is time and space, time and space," as my coach in Grenada liked to say -- the outstandingly named Dick Furlonge, a crusty old Trini who'd played for the NASL, Dutch Eredivisie and Trinidadian national team before a blown knee brought on his premature start to a coaching career. And I can't help noticing that Chicago are masters at the second half of that prosaic equation.

The Fire are able to consistently compete against and beat good teams, especially those that are more talented than they are, by manipulating the space in which a game's immediate action takes place.

Defensively, Chicago are a perceptive, well-drilled group able to move collectively and maintain shape. Opposing teams find their space on the ball limited at inopportune moments, whether it be in tight spaces near sidelines or anywhere else that a turnover can be created and exploited, or in their attacking third as they try to create shots on the Chicago goal. What starts off looking like a decent enough string of passes through the Fire midfield is often directed down a blind alley as red jerseys fly to the ball and force quick, difficult decisions. The field shrinks, leading to turnovers. Which lead to...

In the attack, the Fire revolve around Cuauhtemoc Blanco and his adept leadership of the staff of worker bees assembled for his convenience. These are smart, fit, well-coached worker bees, however, who can pass and move crisply and are aware of their teammates' strengths, and try to play to them.

So when Chicago dispossesses their opposition, a quick pass or smart turn swings play in the other direction, changing the point of attack at speed and exposing overcommitment or poor positional awareness somewhere along enemy lines. So often, Blanco or one of his midfield mates finds himself turning towards goal with the ball at his feet, looking at a backtracking defense and multiple teammates to combine with -- and the field suddenly becomes a massive parade ground of space for passers and runners to weave combinations in, as defenders scramble.

In short, a lot of hard work gets prettied up by a sprinkling of inspiration and opportunism, and you have a team that can be very difficult to play against.

A couple examples:

You could contend that this style dates all the way back to the Bob Bradley/Peter Nowak era in the franchise's early days, or try to give Dave Sarachan a bit of credit by pegging it to that since-deposed Fire boss. Or just tell current boss Dennis Hamlett -- who remains, depressingly, the only African-American head coach in the history of Major League Soccer -- to take a bow.

Regardless, it's damn effective and even inspiring, at times like Saturday, to watch. And it has been an absolute bear for DC United in knockout competitions like the US Open Cup, where the teams will meet again on Tuesday. Chicago has had DC's number in do-or-die situations and I think it's telling that Clyde Simms referred to the Fire as "our biggest rival" when we talked last Thursday. Whether it's the reserves or first-teamers or a more likely combination of the two that takes the field at the MD Soccerplex, United must unlock the Fire code.

Hope everyone is well on their way to a memorable holiday weekend. If you are kicking back at the beach, in the backyard or somewhere out of town, you're not alone. July has its share of compelling soccer moments ahead, with US Open Cup competition providing a nice, down-home contrast to the international vibe and SUM-generated hype of SuperLiga's second annual installment. You can bet good money that the tourney opener, Chivas Guadalajara's visit to RFK Stadium next Saturday, is eagerly anticipated in DC.

And it's worth noting that this is now less than a month away.

I am off to rural Virginia for a wedding -- hope to see you out at the Maryland Soccerplex on Tuesday, when DC United gets another chance to break the Chicago Fire's hex over them in knockout competitions.