After the first game of this series I gave the credit to Bruce Arena for his great coaching. That may have been selling the players short, because the whole Galaxy team has played beautiful soccer these past two games.
I wondered if Sigi Schmid would be able to draw up a new plan for his Sounders team to give them a chance at this series, but it just wasn't meant to be. The Galaxy dominated the run of play again, stifling Seattle's attack and scoring two goals off of great set piece deliveries by David Beckham (who seems to be happier than he has been at any other time in his MLS career).
Dare I say that this team looks very similar to the one that began the 2010 MLS season. In the beginning of the year, LA Galaxy appeared to be positioning themselves as a Real Madrid/ManU style team that clearly outclassed their league competition. They put up 32 points in the first 12 games with 22 goals for and 3 goals against.
That run slowed though. In their next 11 games LA only managed 12 points (11 GF, 14 GA) and you could see problems in their play. Landon Donovan was being moved all over the pitch, injuries were hurting them, and Buddle and Donovan each missed games with the USMNT at the World Cup.
Things did appear to turn around at the end of the season, with Galaxy earning 15 points in 7 games (11 GF, 9 GA), but it was still not what we saw from them to start the year. The team was struggling with how to integrate David Beckham to the team and figuring out exactly who to play in the midfield and where.
Like I said last week, Arena figured it out. This team is playing out of their minds right now and looks poised to make a deep run towards their third MLS Cup.
Despite all my proclamations to the contrary, LA Galaxy came out in the first leg of their series against Seattle Sounders and took control of the proceedings. Edson Buddle dropped in a beautiful goal from maybe 30 yards out that provided all the scoring Galaxy needed as the beat Sounders 1-nil in Seattle.
The biggest thing I took away from this meeting was that LA's midfield really seems to be coming together. In the middle of the season Donovan was getting moved around too much, too many people were getting playing time, and it was hard for the midfield to develop a character. Then Beckham came back after missing the first 23 games with injury and added a new wrinkle everyone needed to get used to.
Now, after some more experimentation with Landon up top or Becks in the middle, LA seems to have found a formula that works. Buddle up top with Mike Magee (or occasionally Tristan Bowen if you want speed), Juninho as the attacking mid, Landon on the left, Beckham on the right, and then either Dema Kovalenko or Chris Birchall in the back depending on whether it's more important to disrupt the opponent's attack or provide service forward. It worked extremely well tonight.
Juninho disappeared from time to time in the first half, but is clearly the answer in that slot. Check out this combination play between Landon, Magee and Juninho that really should have doubled LA's lead in the 85th minute.
But that wasn't the only reason LA got the win; they had a great plan for shutting down Seattle's dangerous wing play and played it tremendously. I was worried with Eddie Lewis starting on the left that Zakuani and Nyassi would have a field day using their speed to get past him. But Arena had Donovan tracking back to provide cover against the speed and then Lewis was able to use his experience to close the young guys down once they had to attack him from a stop.
It was amazingly well executed, and only made possible by LA having a player of Landon's caliber. Other teams clearly haven't been able to play the same strategy but Galaxy gave Seattle fits this year, beating them by a combined 7-1 in the regular season.
Maybe I didn't give the past enough credit and chose to ride Seattle's greatly improved play in the second half to make my decision. I'm still not ready to completely write off Seattle's chances, mind you. Sigi Schmid is a great coach and I'm sure he'll have something new ready for the return leg in Los Angeles. Whether or not it's enough to overcome a goal deficit, we'll have to wait and see.
I'm still working on the weekly wrapup, but in the meantime the MLS Cup Playoff field is set. We've known the teams for a while, but not necessarily how it would all shake out.
In the East, conference champion New York Red Bulls will be matched up against San Jose Earthquakes and Columbus Crew will face off with Colorado Rapids.
It the West, Supporters' Shield champions Los Angeles Galaxy will play Seattle Sounders, the hottest team in the league, while Real Salt Lake will match up with FC Dallas in what will probably be the most entertaining first round series.
Prediction: Real Salt Lake repeats as champion, beating Seattle Sounders in the semi-finals and New York Red Bulls in the finals after New York holds off Colorado Rapids.
For those interested in watching the games, every single one will be on national television, starting this coming Thursday with Columbus visiting Colorado on ESPN 2.
The full schedule (in EST). See if you can pick out which matchup ESPN really likes:
There are 4 more matches to be played today and tomorrow, but all of the MLS teams in CONCACAF Champions League now know their respective fates.
In Group A action, a very, VERY reserve-heavy Real Salt Lake squad held court (again) at home beating Cruz Azul 3-1 behind a brace from Paulo and a third from Collen Warner, just for good measure. Cruz Azul notched one late from Cesar Villaluz, but it was nowhere near enough.
Now look, I'm admittedly not very good with Mexican league teams. I'm sure the Cruz Azul was rolling out a b-team as well given they had clinched passage through. What I do know though, is that Real Salt Lake only had two starters (defenders Nat Borchers and Tony Beltran) in this CCL game who also started in their last league game against FC Dallas. In a welcome surprise, 16 year old Arsenal target Luis Gil got the start and 45 minutes of action for RSL.
Toronto FC ended their tournament on a high note, beating poor, defenseless Arabe Unido 1-0. I hesitate to go too far in giving them credit against an over-matched opponent, but TFC played a good game. Hopefully that's high praise coming from me because I have been pretty hard on them lately even when they do manage to get a result. Maybe this and their final game this weekend at DC United can be building blocks for next season.
Finishing only 2 points out of 2nd place though, you know Toronto is kicking itself for a poor showing down in Panama and a draw at home against RSL.
A quick jump to Group C and sees Seattle Sounders lose at home to Saprissa in the team's final CCL game. Seattle had been eliminated a while ago, but continued to fight hard with reserve lineups and almost pulled off a result except for a goal by Josue Martinez in the 89th minute. Seattle does get the pleasure of knowing they will be back next year though, thanks to their second straight US Open Cup championship.
Finally we move to Group B where, even though they didn't play, Columbus Crew are now guaranteed a spot in the knockout stages thanks to Santos Laguna pounding out Municipal 6-1. Columbus will finish their group stage tomorrow against Joe Public in Trinidad, but will probably put out the most reserve-laden squad they can manage. It is impossible for them to improve their position in the group and they are just 1 point back of New York for first place in the East.
Like Toronto, Columbus may end up kicking themselves, however. Had they sent out a real lineup last game against Municipal and won, they would be in position to win their group rather than finish second.
As it stands, two MLS squads, RSL and Crew, will face off in the knockout stages in late February/early March.
Classy JPA has known since MLS ASG in July he would not return to @RBNY. 4 MLS clubs tried & failed to trade for JPA. NOT a big revelation.
Uh, speak for yourself Allen. This is kind've a big revelation to everyone else (unless you're talking about JPA being classy, in which case yeah we got that).
During his appearance on ExtraTime Radio later in the day, Hopkins mentioned that NY basically told Angel "you're welcome to leave now if you can find a team" after the game in Houston. Juan Pablo moving midseason would've been one of the biggest trades in MLS history.
The four teams Hopkins ended up mentioning:
DC United: Not surprising at all. Their attack is anemic and Angel would've been a huge boost. They really don't have any talent to offer back in a trade though.
Colorado Rapids: The shocker of the bunch. NYRB and Colorado did end up doing a trade later in the year, but that was for Ballouchy and Kandji. Not sure what they would've had to give up for Angel, but clearly they weren't interested in dumping Cummings.
Seattle Sounders: This was before they had traded away Ljungberg and brought in Nkufo. This is somewhat surprising to me (not so much to the ETR hosts) but I'm sure they're happy they ended up with Nkufo at 1/4 the cost and nobody lost.
Los Angeles Galaxy: Daaaaaamn. Buddle, Angel, Donovan, Beckham? That's an eff you attack right there. Apparently a potential deal for Angel was a big reason they got rid of Alan Gordon to Chivas USA, to open up a striker spot in case they were able to pull it off.
So we're still not much closer to figuring out where he ends up (although it sounds like he and his family love the NYC area so Philly, New England and DC seem like front-runners) but it will definitely be THE story to watch during the offseason.
So, no disrespect to DC United, but WeWinTrophies.com may need to be handed over at some point if this keeps up. Seattle Sounders beat Columbus Crew 2-1 in front of over 30,000 fans to repeat as US Open Cup champions. They are the first repeat champion since New York PancyprianFreedoms (yeah, that's a team) in 1982 and 83.
I will never be able to do justice to a US Open Cup match report like TheCup.us does, so go check out their coverage of the final or check out the highlight video below.
Some fun facts about the game from the @usopencup twitter account:
There's one more match left for the CONCACAF Champions League competitors, but it's pretty clear what's going to happen. Real Salt Lake is guaranteed to go through and will be playing Cruz Azul at home for the right to see who finishes first in Group A. Columbus Crew would need a TON of bad luck in order to not get through Group B, but will likely finish second. Toronto FC and Seattle Sounders will be playing their last CCL games October 19th as both sides have been eliminated.
Toronto FC 1 - 1 Real Salt Lake
Toronto FC and Real Salt Lake started the week with a contest at BMO Field. Both teams rolled out strong lineups as RSL was fighting to clinch a spot in the knockout stages and TFC was just trying to stay alive. There were a few first teamers missing (Chad Barrett, Javi Morales, Stefan Frei) but you could tell each team was going for it.
TFC actually looked good this game, a big improvement from their first few games under Nick Dasovic, almost (dare I say) dominating the first half. Jacob Peterson scored a goal off a Howard-to-Landon type distribution from Toronto keeper Jon Conway to give the Reds a 1-0 lead at the break.
Javi Morales, who was subbed in at halftime, would get that goal back though with a beautiful free kick. The rest of the game was mostly RSL attacking and TFC defending, but Jon Conway almost gave Salt Lake the win in the 94th minute with what would have been one of the most embarrassing own goals of all time
Municipal 2 - 1 Columbus Crew
I'm not sure I understand Robert Warzycha's strategy here. He had a chance to clinch a spot in the knockout stages with a tie, but left starters William Hesmer, Chad Marshall, Brian Carroll, Guillermo Barros Schelotto, Emmanuel Ekpo, Danny O'Rourke, Frankie Hejduk and Emilio Renteria at home. Municipal took advantage and won the game, moving only 1 point back of Columbus in the standings.
Now yes, Municipal does have to travel to Santos Laguna (the group leader) next while Columbus goes to Joe Public (the bottom of the group), but why even put yourself in that position? Why risk not going through by keeping 8 of your best players out of the lineup? Resting them for a match against a San Jose Earthquakes that also played a midweek game seems like an iffy excuse at best.
Seattle Sounders 2 - 0 Marathon
The Sounders, on the other hand, had all the reason in the world to send out a young lineup and they did. And, for the second straight game, the kids played really well when given the chance.
Seattle started
G: Kevin Boss
D: Taylor Graham, Tyrone Marshall, Tyson Wahl, Zach Scott
M: David Estrada, Alvaro Fernandez, Miguel Montano, Michael Seamon
F: Roger Levesque (ugh), Mike Fucito
and looked like they had always played with them. Fucito scored both goals, giving him 3 in 178 minutes of CCL play. Good work by the Harvard man who was injured all of last season. Seattle can't go through, but they played with pride and may have knocked Marathon out of the quarterfinals.
The only weird part was seeing Qwest Field with only 12,000 fans in it. Hopefully that doesn't become a regular occurrence.
Another pair of CONCACAF Champion League games for MLS teams tonight (and a pair of league games, but we'll get to those in a later post). This time both were on the road as Seattle Sounders went down to play at Monterrey and Real Salt Lake looked to move to the top of group A on their trip down to Arabe Unido.
Seattle showed up to their game as most of us expected; starting players like Miguel Montano, Michael Fucito, Terry Boss, etc. They are focused on their MLS and US Open Cup campaigns, as they should be. The only issue: no one told these subs they weren't supposed to be good enough.
Seattle came out strong, scoring 2 goals in the first half including one by Michael Fucito in the 44th that seemed to really take the spirit out of Monterrey heading in to halftime. However, if we've learned anything about MLS teams in Mexico it's that no 2-0 lead is safe.
The Sounders did well through the first 30 minutes of the second half, playing strong defense and attacking when they got the chance. It was a 4 minute spell of awful that doomed them. When I say awful, I mean AWFUL. Like, Awful Plastic Surgery awful.
If you were flipping back and forth between the game and some other channel it wouldn't have taken more than a commercial break. Seriously, you could've left Modern Family, watched Seattle squander their lead and fall behind, and then get back without missing a second of Sofia Vergara.
The collapse was highlighted by a trio of awful plays. First Zach Scott was about as lazy as possible, standing on the endline 20 yards from the action and allowing Aldo De Nigris to stay onside and tap in a rebound off of Terry Boss for the first goal. Chilean striker Humberto Suazo scored the second goal in what can only be described as "a total defensive breakdown."
Then came the real coup-de-grace. It started with an unbelievably poor decision by a midfielder (David Estrada, I believe) to head the ball 25 yards backwards under no pressure. That godawful "pass" allowed Suazo to run on and take the ball with Tyrone Marshall a step behind. Marshall actually managed to close him down and start pushing him out wide, but then Terry Boss came sliding in out of nowhere and took out Suazo with a stupid and reckless challenge that earned the hosts a penalty.
And that was that. 4 minutes, 3 goals, and 0 points for the Sounders.
Real Salt Lake did better, taking advantage of a weaker opponent and coming out 3-2 victors. With this win they move to first place in Group A and I would consider them the odds-on favorite to win the group. Well done, RSL. Thank you for playing 90 minutes of soccer to win a game.
First, it takes a special kind of person to work dual alliteration into a 5 word title. That's just the kind of quality (read: kitsch) you get out of me.
Columbus Crew and Seattle Sounders each played their third CCL game last night to very different results. Columbus hosted Joe Public and rolled to a 3-0 win, while Seattle went down to the monster's lair to play at Saprissa and came away 2-0 losers. There was one similarlity between these sides though: they both played a lot of reserves.
I've been very critical of MLS teams rolling out poor lineups for CCL games and US Open Cup games in the past but I am 100% behind both of these clubs.
Columbus was coming off a huge game against LA Galaxy last weekend with another tough contest against Seattle this Saturday looming ahead of them. Also, being at home against Joe Public was the easiest chance for Columbus to get 3 points they will see all tournament. If their reserves couldn't earn a win at home against a club that is already 11 points behind TT Pro League leaders Defense Force after only 10 games then they don't deserve to move forward in this competition.
Even as they played stifling defense on the Trinidadian team, the game was a little tense after the first half as Columbus failed to put away any of the chances they had created. You began to wonder how long Robert Warzycha would wait to bring in his offensive stars like Schelotto, Gaven, and Lenhart. Leandre Griffit took care of those worries two minutes into the second half though, and Columbus was able to give their stars a rest and still enjoy a comfortable victory.
Seattle didn't go quite as deep into their bench, mostly because there was still a very small outside chance they could make it through the group. But it was clearly not a first team squad, as you can see by that bum Roger Levesque making an appearance.
My reasoning for liking Seattle's lineup is a bit different than Columbus. Seattle is sitting in the 8th and final playoff spot for MLS Cup with one of the easiest remaining schedules. Given that they had earned 0 points through two CCL games, it would be short-sighted to try and maximize points in a competition you have little-to-no chance of progressing in at the expense of potentially making a deep run in the MLS Cup Playoffs.
New England was outclassed by Morelia and lost 2-1 in the SuperLiga finals. Revolution needed a couple great saves from Matt Reis (and a few from the post) to keep the game that close. Towards the last 25 minutes or so New England looked much better, but it was too little too late as they couldn't find a second goal to match Kevin Alston's in the 79th. I encourage you to check out the highlights though, if only to see Miguel Sabah's wonderstrike on the second goal.
Second, a friendly:
Philadelphia closed out their friendly schedule with a match against Chivas de Guadalajara. The Goats' attack was potent but backup goalie Brad Knighton was up to the task stopping all of Chivas's 8 shots on goal. Meanwhile, all it took was one deft touch from my boy Jack Mack to send the Illadelph to a 1-nil win at home over the Mexican giants. Enjoy these highlights, as they are much easier to watch than the last set.
Finally, 2 US Open Cup games:
First let me congratulate all four teams for rolling out first-team talent for these games. MLS Commission Don Garber stated at the SuperLiga match that he wanted MLS to take the Open Cup more seriously and hopefully this is a sign that other teams are thinking that as well. A chance to qualify for the CONCACAF Champions League and bring home a trophy to your fans should be something worth fighting for.
The Columbus Crew prevailed in the first game with a 2-1 win at DC United, a matchup that will be revisited in 3 days in MLS league play. United looked poised to make another Open Cup final, despite being a down a man after the 59th minute and restore some shine to an extremely disappointing season. However, an own goal off Marc Burch in the 89th minute tied the game at 1. The Crew would hold off a number of spirited counter-attacks by DC United and Guillermo Barros Schelotto's goal from the penalty spot in the 98th minute would be enough to earn them their first trip to the finals since 2002.
Seattle Sounders hosted Chivas USA in the second game, and summarily dispatched the visitors 3-1 off a pair of goals by Nate Jaqua and another by Fredy Montero. Jaqua is now tied for the golden boot of the 2010 US Open Cup with 5 goals scored.
I'm honestly not sure who to make MOTM for Seattle. Steve Zakuani was a monster on the left side, tracking the game endline to endline, wreaking havoc on the defense, and earning a number of the dozen or so corners Seattle enjoyed. But this game was also the prototypical example of "as Alonso goes, so goes Seattle."
I mean this as much more of a compliment than it will sound, but Osvaldo Alonso is a poor man's (ok, maybe a lower-middle-class man's) Rafa Marquez. He offers a ton of support to the defensive line tracking back and they all know they can trust him to distribute the ball and get the attack started after making a stop. It seemed like he was in on every challenge in the midfield tonight, with the best example came late in the game with him tracking down Justin Braun in the center circle and just taking the ball away from out of nowhere.
Things are all set for the final now on October 5th at Qwest Field. Complicating matters a little bit, both teams will have CCL games on September 29th and league games on October 2nd, but I think we can expect to see them roll out the big guns for a chance at some silverware.
First happy birthday to my sister Katie who turned 24 yesterday. You can blame her for the lack of updates. And now, on to the pain.
Week 2 of the CONCACAF Champions League was not nearly as good for the MLS participants. Overall the teams went 0-4, including 2 stoppage time defeats in Mexico. Yikes.
Arabe Unido 1 - 0 Toronto FC
The refs did Toronto no favors in this game. Granted, the goal Arabe Unido scored was very well taken and deserved and Toronto didn't have any valid goals taken away (don't worry, we'll get to some of those later) but Salvadoran referee Marlon Mejia was still terrible. He handed out two awful red cards to Toronto players Nick LaBrocca and Faud Ibrahim that greatly influenced the game.
This is not to absolve Toronto of any blame for this loss. I'm pretty disappointed with the lineup that TFC rolled out down there. I was really hoping that they would take their best chance at road points seriously, but they were obviously playing to win this weekend and get in to the MLS Cup Playoffs. Oh well, to each their own. I can't find reliable number for how much advancing in CCL play is worth to teams, but I'm going to have to assume it's not enough to make Toronto focus on CCL instead of MLS playoffs.
Highlights:
Santos Laguna 1 - 0 Columbus Crew
Columbus Crew left 3 of their best players at home to prepare for a match this weekend against FC Dallas. Santos Laguna rolled out a mostly reserve squad. Really nice to see squads taking it seriously.
Still though, Columbus went ahead in the 22nd minute off a goal by Andy Iro. Or so it seemed. The referee waved off the goal because Edgar Renteria, who delivered the cross in, was wearing a shirt with no number.
Let's go over the series of events leading up to this:
1) Juan Pablo Santiago elbows Renteria in the head, drawing blood
2) Renteria goes over to the sideline, gets stitched and bandaged, changes shirts
3) Renteria is allowed back into the game
4) Renteria points out to the 4th official that he has no number
5) The 4th official tells Renteria it is okay and to go back to playing.
6) Renteria's assist is disallowed and he received a yellow card.
A-plus work CONCACAF referees.
Columbus was trying desperately to hold on in the last 15 minutes of the game but Santos eventually broke through. Watching the game you could see it was only a matter of "when" not "if" given the pressure Santos was able to provide and the trouble Columbus was having marking men in the box.
Highlights:
Cruz Azul 5 - 4 Real Salt Lake
Un. Buh. Leave. Able. As much as it hurts to lose, this was one of the most entertaining games you could ever see. RSL went us 3-1 in the 64th minute on a goal by Fabian Espindola. However, in the 67th minute Espindola was subbed out for Robbie Findley and then in the 74th minute Javi Morales was subbed out for Andy Williams. At that point, the floodgates opened.
RSL gave up 4 goals in the final 15 minutes of the game to give away the best chance any MLS team has had to win in Mexico. Jason Kreis needs to do some serious re-evaluation of which players are capable of contributing in continental play as clearly losing the Latin influence in attack devestated Real. Still though, it took a goal in the final minute of stoppage time to guarantee Cruz Azul 3 points.
Again in this game, there was a legitimate goal for the MLS team pulled back by the referee. Will Johnson clearly ran from an onside position to tap home a rebound in the 1st minute that was disallowed. To worsen matters, the goal Cruz Azul scored in the 5th minute should've been stopped because Cruz Azul never brought the ball to a stop after a foul was called to restart play.
You can see both of these in the first 30 seconds of the highlights below, but remember that RSL has only themselves to blame for what happened last night.
Highlights:
Seattle Sounders 0 - 2 Monterrey
Well, I guess we can go ahead and expect Seattle to pack it in for the rest of CCL. I hope they show up well for the home fans, because those guys are so loyal they don't deserve to be spited for the team's struggles, but they should be focusing on securing a spot in the MLS Cup Playoffs now.
Now, I've been very impressed with Marathon in the past. I would rank them as one of the top 5 clubs in Central America, with Saprissa, Olimpia, Arabe Unido, and Municipal making up the rest. So I don't think Seattle should be killed for this loss, even if it came at the hands of an injury-ravaged starting 11 and a horrible mistake by Tyrone Marshall. Seattle has a big game next week at home against Monterrey. If they get a win there, they're right back in the thick of things.
And now, SBI's list of 5.
1. "[I]f winning on the road is tough in MLS, it's even more daunting of a task in CCL."
So very true. Any points on the road are going to be difficult, which is partly why it hurts that Seattle had such a good opportunity and let it get away. Their other two away games, @Monterrey and @Saprissa, will be harder than this one was.
2. "[T]he Sounders have to overcome officials' calls against them."
I actually thought Seattle did a great job at this. You can argue that the ref wasn't great, but he certainly wasn't terrible and the penalty was clearly deserved. I didn't see the Sounders lose their cool, which is a welcome change from the days of Freddie Ljungberg.
3. "[T]he Sounders have to adjust to playing in cavernous and near-empty stadiums"
This seems kinda silly. Having no atmosphere is supposed to be tougher than a hostile atmosphere? I mean, they've already earned results @ Colorado, @ FC Dallas, and @ Chivas USA, right? (crappy fanbase burn!)
4. "Schmid might have to put aside his fierce loyalty to defender Tyrone Marshall and go with someone who can keep up with fleet attacking players."
Yes, yes, a thousand times yes. Marshall was slow and nonchalant getting back to clear the ball that cost his team a penalty. Sure he didn't mean to kick Diamond, but you can't clear a guy out with a leg sweep in the box and not expect to give up a penalty. The fact that Marshall didn't see him coming is more an indictment on his lazy play than an excuse for his foul.
5. "Five, and lastly, Schmid must keep adjusting for all the travel and busy game schedule."
Seattle does face some schedule congestion in the coming week. I'll be honest though, at this point I would go all out for the 3 points at home against Monterrey. If that doesn't work, I'm using the CCL games as opportunities for experience for the young guys like Montano and Estrada and focusing on the two competitions I have a real chance of winning.
Seattle is in a strong position to repeat as US Open Cup champs and is set up to make a deep run in the MLS Cup playoffs. Having 1 or 0 points after two games in CCL (including a home match) pretty much guarantees you're eliminated.
