Caught in Possession

Avert your eyes, if need be...

2008-10-05T03:02:00.002-04:00

DC United, as of the fifth day of the tenth month, 2008 AD:

Pick your metaphor.

Does this sum it up?

Or perhaps you prefer these.

Hard to watch? Or must-see TV? It's a bit of a rorschach test, isn't it?

United's last stand

2008-10-01T16:25:00.002-04:00

Fall is here, and even I can no longer avoid or deny it.

It's been raining more or less all day here in the District of Columbia, and in a few hours DC United will send a second-choice squad out into this damp mist over at RFK Stadium to face Club Deportivo Social y Cultural Cruz Azul. Don't believe me? Then read this guy, or this guy, or this guy, or that guy saying the same thing again, albeit in a more edgy, internet-y kind of way.

Call it Tom Soehn's Davy Crockett Moment. Or perhaps William Travis?

Cruz Azul are a good side from Mexico and a likely candidate to advance out of CONCACAF Champions League Group A, even after their slow start to the competition. Depending on how many veterans and skill players are sprinkled into the mix, United's kids are either going to lose by a little, or lose by a lot to Los Cementeros. Even with my strongest instincts towards evenhandedness on full alert, I am unable to seriously consider the possibility of a positive result for the home team tonight. A mere draw with Cruz Azul -- perhaps paced by a once-in-a-blue-moon, virtuouso individual performance from someone like Quavas Kirk or helped by the leveling influence of a wet, sloppy field -- would easily qualify as United's biggest triumph of the 2008 season.

It's shaping up as another depressing night for United fans, in a campaign which has featured plenty of them already. Certainly the team itself is mired in a silent, suffocating funk characterized by sulking frustration and utter lack of collective confidence -- which will require a sudden, nimble about-face of stunning proportions if the postseason is to be reached.

Looks like BLCKDGRD was ahead of the curve when he spake thusly a little more than a week ago:

Cooked, baked, broiled, toasted, BBQed, burnt.

We all have our first draft of this season's obituary written in our heads, yes?

Columbus calling

2008-09-23T15:59:00.005-04:00

Attention MLS fans (ESPECIALLY those in the Washington, DC area still clinging to any residual smugness towards the "Yellow Football Team"): Columbus Crew jokes are officially off the kosher list.

That's a good squad playing over there at the Ohio Fairgrounds and regardless of how "small," "boring," or "middle-America" the city may or may not be, its soccer club has finally assembled a talented, successful team that's also fun to watch. Covering the SuperDraft in B-more early this year, I found head coach Sigi Schmid's honesty refreshing: he was drafting players that could help the Crew win now, because if the team kept losing he wasn't going to be around to see the kids develop down the line. And sure enough, his rookies have chipped in a bit while several trades have paid big-time dividends.

As Ives discussed in his recent ESPN piece, Argentinean maestro Guillermo Barros Schelotto is obviously the one who makes the Crew tick, but I'd give local boy Brian Carroll (Springfield, Va.) plenty of credit as well.

"BC" had an off-color year with DC United last season and duly lost his starting spot to Clyde Simms, but he's returned to form and has resumed his iron-man act in C-bus. Carroll leads the team in minutes played and is one of only two players to have started every single league match. I'd rank him as a top contender for Comeback Player of the Year, were it not for the fact that United prodigal son Tino Quaranta has surely locked down that honor. Right?

And oh yeah, United has another international match this week, and let's face it, Tom Soehn and his threadbare squad are going to have to park the team bus in front of goal to have any chance of getting a positive result off of the Big Green Honduran T-Rex. Dark days on East Capitol Street...

How do you bring it...

2008-09-17T02:17:00.002-04:00

...day in, day out, month after month, for years in succession? Your brain and heart making your body perform consistently, sustainably, and at a high level for months on end, powered by the inexorable daily grind: training, conditioning, production, recovery (and repeat X times).

How does the mind of the professional athlete take that on?

That's why Jaime Moreno is a specimen, a museum piece. Maybe a freak of nature, even.

DC United is gassed. And there's really no end or break in sight for the players. Though it might offend some peoples' media ethics for me to say it...I feel bad for these guys. Yes, they get paid to do something that many of us love to do, even pay to do. But they have to negotiate mind-numbing routines and grind on relentlessly at times when most of us would crash into the proverbial mountain.

For me, watching this gassed, shorthanded and generally bummed-out team play Deportivo Saprissa in front of ~~600~~ 6,000-some people at RFK is just a bit depressing. And it makes me angry at league suits who treat the first touches, challenges, hard running etc. of these living, breathing human bodies like just another digit in an equation, a vector on a spreadsheet alongside capital investment, tax incremental financing, advertising revenue and the like.

All MLS teams probably play too many games. Consistently successful MLS teams DEFINITELY play too many games. And meanwhile we're told that the idea of NOT playing MLS matches on international fixture dates is asking just a bit too much of the league office.

The Deportivo Saprissa game was United's 36th competitive match of 2008. There are 11 more ahead, plus (for a moment being charitable enough to imply that DC might actually get to the MLS Cup final this season) as many as four postseason matches. By comparison:

*As of September 17, 1996, DC United's inaugural team had played 31 matches, and only had one more to go, plus six playoff games.
*As of September 17, 2002, DC United's 2002 squad had played 27 matches.
*As of September 17, 2008, the expansion San Jose Earthquakes have played 25 matches.

It's late, so don't quote me in concrete on these. But it's clear that at some point in this kind of marathon, there is the proverbial 'erosion of skills,' and results suffer duly. DC United has hit that wall, and hard. I'll let others play the blame game, for now at least.

Rising temps at RFK

2008-09-13T19:20:00.003-04:00

Good g*d, it is hot.

Lately I feel like I am reminded of summer's slow fade nearly every moment of the day, with days getting shorter and nights growing cooler. As a devoted warm-weather junkie, this pains me.

But here in the RFK press box it's utterly still (for some incomprehensible reason, all the wall fans were removed when the Nationals moved into the building, even as the baseball press box got A/C, comfy chairs and various other perks), and with all the heat in the stadium's lower bowl percolating up towards the rafters this rickety box clings to, the air is every bit as stifling as you could imagine. There's one portable fan on match nights, but somehow it always winds up being trained right at the DC United PR department.

It's mid-September, and thus it is supposed to be getting cooler around here. United is supposed to be easing into the stretch run with MLS playoffs barely a month off. United is also supposed to be eagerly diving into CONCACAF Champions League right now, with their bevy of slick South Americans leading a squad built for international success. The front office probably also reckoned that yet another Supporters' Shield would be within reach at this point.

But Sunday's forecast calls for a high of 98 degrees, and United is limping their way into a murderous month of constant matches and long-distance travel, ravaged by a destabilizing injury bug that simply won't go away (and those slick South Americans are the most painful casualties), and the team is clinging to fifth place in the Eastern Conference, treading water on the very edge of the playoff picture, and...and...

Why not blow a lead at home and drop two priceless points while you're at it?

It IS getting hot in here.

The Stranger...

2008-09-09T12:59:00.005-04:00

...to his own blog?

I've been living in the DC area for nearly five years now. Yet I continue to be annually amused by one of the city's biggest quirks: the sluggish emptiness that drapes itself over the metropolis during the month of August, when muggy heat combines with Capitol Hill's typically light legislative schedule to push thousands into a languid semi-tropical lifestyle, or just drive them out of town althogether.

For a Texan nurtured in triple-digit temps, it all seems pretty silly. And yet there must be something to it, because here I stand before you (metaphorically speaking) on 09 September, a so-called writer who hasn't written on this blog in almost a month.

Was it the frantic pace at my other workplace, where there is no slow season? Or perhaps the lingering influence of a five-day trip to California's Central Valley, where I helped a friend with his family's almond harvest and raked the groves all day in blistering sun but, blessedly, did not once touch a computer? Or, more prosaically, did things just fall apart? Submit answers in the comments section, please.

In any case...forward ever, backwards never, as the Roots Radics (and other roots radicals) would urge. I am excited to catch you up on the latest ins and outs of the DC-area soccer scene, including the mobile MASH unit that DC United has become, and maybe weigh in on a few notable happenings elsewhere in our beautiful world of footie. Starting with...

*When I finished up my two-part PSW profile of local starlet Chris Agorsor, I really had no idea where the kid's career would take him in the coming months.

For many, his choice to attend UVa reignited the old "NCAA ball is a waste of time and talent" debate, a topic adeptly encapsulated by the hard-working Andrea Canales a while back. But so far Chris is lighting it up with the Cavs, and continuing to attract nationwide attention in the process. Here's hoping he keeps it going.

*I go to great lengths to avoid the stereotypical "nattering nabob of negativity" role so many of my colleagues feel compelled to play in order to be heard or even noticed in the deafening din of modern sports media, so I extend sincere gratitude and congratulations to Bob Bradley and the US National team for starting the present round of CONCACAF World Cup qualifying with two victories in two potentially tricky away matches.

But Mike Woitalla is right. The Nats are flirting with crappiness right now. The optimist in me is happy to recognize U.S. soccer's tremendous progress over the past two decades, therefore the realist in me must correspondingly adjust goals -- and raise expectations. We can no longer pretend to be gutsy underdogs (with the exception of actual World Cup play) or proud pioneers: we are the shark in the CONCACAF bathtub and should demand more than mere qualification.

Coach Bob: can you show us the foundations of a bright, beautiful future where we contend for real honors worldwide? That is where we wish to go, yes? To get there, we're going to need crisp passing, fluid possession and menace in the final third, aren't we?

That's what I will be watching for when Los Gringos host the Trinis in Bridgeview tomorrow night. It's not too much to ask.

On Throwdowns

2008-08-10T01:43:00.003-04:00

Former DC United boss Peter/Piotr Nowak, presently leading the US footie delegation in China, had a number of important phrases he would use as touchstones/talking points when talking to media during his time in DC. One of his favorites ran something along the lines of, "always ve haff to do tree tings: run, fight ant play good zoccer," essentially emphasizing a sort of holy trinity of fitness, spirit and technical/tactical quality as central tenets of his team's style.

All three were/are important to Nowak-led teams, but the first two were the most important because they were the easiest to control and produce. In many ways his current and former teams -- Chicago, D.C., the U.S. U23 National team and probably going all the way back to his Bundesliga playing days, too -- reflect differing variations on that philosophy...but I digress. The point is that even on a day when your touch is off or you're a step slow or the rhythm just isn't quite clicking, you can still dig in and get something out of a game with the proverbial p*ss and vinegar.

Rivalry games are usually decided on this aspect, too. When DC United heads up to the Meadowlands tomb of turf on Sunday to try and nab some league points from Red Bull while still keeping one eye on Tuesday's USOC visit from the Revs, is there going to be enough cussedness on the (plastic) field to do the dirt, as they say? Or does a fired-up Red Bull side get it just by wanting it more, having little else to think about?

I think it's safe to say that the Olympic Nats' best hopes for the big clash with Clockwork Oranje lie in turning that match into a bit of a streetfight, too. Who wants it more?

(But maybe some people just want to be loved, and get tired of conflict and enmity, especially when it mysteriously follows them everywhere they go. It's important to keep scoring goals or whatever else it is you're good at, though.)

The rivalry factor sometimes brings out the best in the press box, too.

If there's one thing to be thankful for when it comes to the explosion of the U.S. footie media blogosphere, it's potshots du snark like the ones that occasionally fly back and forth between foes like TOR and MLSR, and oh, let's say...a major-daily pack leader and the tenacious commuter daily dog snapping at his heels!

Goff gets scooped on the VW announcement and doesn't like it...now Craig throws some ever-so-subtle 'bows...y me encanta! I work alongside both of these guys and find them to be smart, decent, hard-working gentlemen -- but so competitive, eh?

MARKETING. JUGGERNAUT.

2008-08-07T16:22:00.002-04:00

Workmanlike workmanship @ RFK

2008-08-03T00:39:00.003-04:00

When I visited RFK on Wednesday to chat with some DC United players in advance of Saturday night's home match against the K.C. Wizards, I was fortunate to get a little time with Ben Olsen. Olsen is usually -- and understandably -- reluctant to talk to media too much these days, since with his ankle troubles he's spent virtually no time on the field this season and would prefer to direct attention to the guys who have.

But Benny is obviously one of the most engaging personalities on the team and his insights on the game remain as sharp as ever. We talked briefly about United's recent struggles and he offered the following observations.

"The obvious part of it is, we got some big guns out. We need those back. I think this team believes in the reserves and players that haven’t gotten much time, but with that comes a loss of cohesiveness...

But saying that, I think we need to start gutting out some wins. If it isn’t working soccer-wise, we can still kind of get the other stuff right, the marking and the fighting and the things like that. I’ve seen a lot of teams go through injury stretches and gut out wins, gut out results until the guys that have gotten us those eight wins in a row get back."

After a gritty but effective display like this, I think it's safe to say, "mission accomplished," for now.

Agorsor addendum

2008-07-25T19:56:00.002-04:00

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.

Trapped at RFK

2008-07-24T01:55:00.002-04:00

...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.

UNREAL: RFK Stadium hosts biblical happenings

2008-07-23T22:00:00.006-04:00

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'll never win anything with kids"

2008-07-20T02:16:00.001-04:00

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?

Scenes (and bonus quotes) from a beating...

2008-07-16T01:35:00.002-04:00

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

Time in pieces

2008-07-14T00:26:00.004-04:00

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?

Strange nights

2008-07-13T02:18:00.003-04:00

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.

The Worm is...

2008-07-11T23:43:00.009-04:00

...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?

Mas Blanco

2008-07-09T17:32:00.004-04:00

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.

The late show, featuring Jaime Moreno...

2008-07-09T01:29:00.005-04:00

...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.

Fire in the hole

2008-07-07T00:20:00.004-04:00

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.

A Fly July

2008-07-05T11:24:00.003-04:00

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.

GoldenBalls approaches...and other notes...

2008-06-27T16:43:00.005-04:00

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

Atencion - yo soy Martinez

2008-06-25T11:51:00.004-04:00

Just like Craig Stouffer predicted, here's my look at Gonzalo Martinez, DC United's Steady Eddie for 2008.

This Colombian is cool as the proverbial cucumbers, polar bear keratin or pillow undersides -- take your pick. His speed and athleticism make it hard to believe he's almost 33 years old, but then again, heaps of poise and confidence make clear his age and experience.

Looking ahead to Sunday's United-Galaxy clash on national TV, I think Martinez may play a central role in DC's tactical approach to the league's highest-scoring attack.

Assuming Tom Soehn likes him out wide on the left right now and has enough faith in his central defenders to keep the status quo, Martinez is going to face off against the Galaxy's David Beckham throughout Sunday's match. And considering the kind of lockdown defending he's capable of, Martinez looks likely to be Soehn's pick as the blunt instrument with which to stifle Becks' creative threat.

In fact, we might even get to watch the muscular Colombian chase GoldenBalls all over the field, assuming Becks floats in from the right wing in search of the ball, as he's prone to do. And that might even pull Martinez forward enough to allow more looks at goal...and that's certainly not a bad thing for the Black-and-Red now, is it?

Right, said Fred

2008-06-20T13:57:00.004-04:00

Here's my MLSnet piece on the hot commodity that is Luciano Emilio...and I just wrapped up a look at United's Sunday throwdown with San Jose, which should be posting soon.

Plus...on Thursday I got to speak to Fred, DC United's crafty Brazilian midfielder, about his team's recent resurgence and his household's newest member, daughter Eduarda. Though the newborn has made sure he hasn't been getting too much sleep lately, Fred produced a lively performance against New York -- one that saw him excel across the midfield, playing left, right and center with similar aplomb.

I think the confidence is up, definitely, and once you get one, everyone is so much happier and feeling so much better on the field, that we get more positive results.
-on United's four-game unbeaten streak and the renewed confidence it has inspired.

Yeah, I definitely like it, but that’s definitely Marcelo’s position. If he ever needs me to fill in, I will!...That’s my natural position, I always played there.
-on his rare, but clearly liberating, stint in the the central attacking midfielder role. United's regular #10 Marcelo Gallardo was suspended against the Red Bulls.

Yeah, I really like that, because sometimes it’s hard for me to play on the left – I always try to go towards the middle, and playing on the right it’s easier for me to do that. And Tino can play on both sides, so that’s a good change.
-on United's recent tactic of switching wingers during games, to find space and exploit defensive matchups.

Yeah, I don't sleep anymore. Last night I sleep four hours...I try to help out and let [Debora] sleep as much as she can, changing diapers and all that.
-discussing the travails of parenthood, and how he's helping his wife cope.

Euro 08: do or die stages are here

2008-06-19T20:46:00.003-04:00

Wow. Just finished watching the first half of the Germany-Portugal Euro quarterfinal on espn360, and while I expected Portuguese skill to win the day comfortably, I am FEELING the Germans right now. Though I should probably shut up until I see the second 45 minutes.

The buildup leading to Bastian Schweinsteiger's opener was gorgeous, flowing football that few would readily associate with Deutschland, even in the midst of their World Cup 2006 run -- which relied on heart and hustle as much as anything. But it provides a timely reminder that few teams can defend against speed of thought and movement married with sharp passing.

Even the fastest player can be left in the dust if her or his opponent lets the ball do the hard work. It's a lesson that DC United and, to a lesser extent, New England and Houston, have often taught the rest of MLS and it might be the top priority for improvement in U.S. soccer, at both the domestic and international level.

[ADDENDUM] 3-2 Deutschland, and suddenly the Germans look formidable. But I still think this is Spain's tournament to lose.