Caught in Possession

As renowned motivational speaker/infamous charlatan (depending on your perspective) Zig Ziglar might say, tomorrow is today when it comes to the soccer on offer this week.

While most MLS clubs are counting down the days until First Kick 2009, one proud bunch of Yanks are about to dive back into CONCACAF Champions League, as the fledgling tourney resumes with Houston Dynamo and Montreal Impact representing gringo interests...have you SEEN how many tickets have sold up in Montreal? Stade Olympique might just be Canada's answer to RFK Stadium: old, decrepit, falling apart in places, former home to a certain dodgy baseball team...but irrepessibly charming nonetheless. And you can bet that it will be a challenging venue for Mexican visitors Santos Laguna.

DC United's meaningless scrimmage against UMd on Sunday will nonetheless be about as compelling and interesting as meaningless scrimmages can get. I plan to be there -- how about you?

And I haven't even mentioned the feast of Eurofooty on the telly! Highlighted by...

Arsenal vs Roma...will Mirko "The Snake" Vucinic produce more magic of this sort?

Inter Milan vs Manchester Utd...It's Zlatan vs CR, but for real this time. I'd put my money on The Special One, though.

Lyon vs Barcelona...My Barca boys, undefeated since August, had a tremendous hiccup against crosstown rivals Espanyol over the weekend, and now they have to visit France's top side. I'll be watching that one with keen interest...and jittery nerves. Let's be havin' ya, Leo.

Yes, I was there yesterday, spending several hours of my President's Day watching the DC United brass and Prince George's County muckety-mucks grip and grin, visions of dead presidents dancing in their heads...with the rest of us wondering if it's really, actually, truly going to happen this time. We've been here before, after all.

So DC United is moving on out, to the east side, to a dee-luxe arena for this guy.

At least that's the plan. There's work yet to be done, of course; as Kevin Payne said yesterday, "most really good things aren’t easy."

Speaking of which, here's some bonus stuff from the PG press conference...

We are fortunate that Maryland has a very effective and professional process for assessing stadiums. The Maryland Stadium Authority is a great asset for the state of Maryland.

-Victor MacFarlane claimed that there's no hard feelings towards DC government after his long quest for a stadium in the District went begging -- but the pointed praise for Maryland in his opening remarks suggests otherwise. More on that further down.

Look, RFK is a great old building in many ways, but it’s falling apart. There doesn’t seem to be ability to spend significant capital dollars on it. It also isn’t modern in a lot of important revenue-generating ways for us. The concourses are very small, the food service facilities are very poor…So we just can’t exist. We can’t compete, we can’t exist if we don’t have a modern stadium.

-Kevin Payne, explaining for the umpteenth time why United can't get into their new home soon enough.

There will certainly be some differences [from the previous Poplar Point renderings]…We’re actually hoping to have a naming rights partner before we fully design the stadium, and we hope they’ll be involved too…there’s certain things that we want to have for sure. We want to have a roof that covers all of the seats. We want a stadium that borrows from the traditions of the game in other parts of the world, but is still modern, and iconic in look and feel...We will have a permanent stage, a large-scale stage, like in Dallas.

-Payne, discussing the future stadium's features.

It’s hard to make training facilities work on urban land, so we will hope that there’s some land that’s proximate, not too far away but not really on the same site...Between the training facility…since we’re not doing a suburban type of stadium – what would be office building land, you can’t say that’s going to be a training field. That’s too expensive.

-MacFarlane, offering up a few details on where United's practice facility will fit into the stadium plans. Sounds like it won't exactly be a stone's throw away, huh?

There’s always frustration when a business transaction doesn’t get done the way you would like it to get done. But I’m a business guy – we all move on.

-MacFarlane again, on his attitude towards Mayor Adrian Fenty and the rest of the dithering DC politicians who prompted him to turn his attention north and east, to PG County.

Quick Friday morning post before I pedal south to RFK to catch the first media glimpse of La Vuelta del Christian...(When it comes to star playmakers and other old flames, some say 'you can't go back'...guess DC United will find out soon enough)...

All coaches and parents -- especially those whose kids have spent any time in Super Y-League -- please read this and share your thoughts, whether it's in the PSW forums or in the comments section of this blog. Parents are one group I'd like to hear from on this topic, especially since the small percentage of overbearing, loudmouth types so often tarnish the reputation of their fellow soccer moms and dads.

I've linked to one or two of these pieces before, but it's worth pointing out again: the talented Jeff Carlisle has also done some great work on the topic of national youth development lately, and I'm looking forward to the rest of his multi-part series in the days ahead.

Speaking of US Soccer...2-0. (Dos a cero, en Espanol, gracias). Does it ever get old?

And Frankie Hejduk -- does he ever get old? Whenever we watch or talk about the US National team, a couple of my old college teammates and I usually go back and forth about the strange Nats tradition of always having one old defender around in nearly every big game or tourney, someone who's too slow for the international game but is kept around for 'leadership,' 'experience,' etc...and how it always leads to an ongoing heart attack as fans watch and pray that the other team doesn't find him and exploit him. In World Cup 1998 it was Alexi Lalas. In 2002 it was Jeff Agoos. You could argue that it was Eddie Pope in 2006, but that's not the point here.

Nowadays, my friends insist that it's Frankie Hejduk. Fit, eager, passionate, but chronically limited in technical ability: the kind of player US Soccer should have outgrown by now. But I always disagree, pointing out that coaches like players whose tools and mentality are predictable and consistent, especially those who can offer veteran savvy and locker room karma...and what defender in this hemisphere is fitter and more enthusiastic than Hejduk (or executes the two-footed tackle more cleanly and regularly)? And there's this, too.

Wednesday night in Columbus, the caffeine addict known as 'Heydude' put on a clinic of all that is Frankie, and it set the tone for a US romp. Even a petulant postgame slap couldn't crash his buzz. The guy is an inspiration, and I look forward to cringing/laughing as I watch him in South Africa next year, a 35-year-old surfer dude/dad once again enjoying every second of the world's biggest party.

I'm sure we're all glad to see that the Ticos are coming. And with this news, all local soccer fans had better make the most of every big moment in old RFK this year, because as much as you like to gripe about that concrete bowl now, like so many of the aforementioned old flames, you're probably going to miss it when it's gone.

Hope this guy gets invited back -- he seems to have a good time at his old stomping grounds, regardless of the nature of his exit from United. And I'm not the only one who feels that way.