Slow Days for American Soccer....

Sadly enough, there's not a whole lot to report in the eyes of American Soccer fans. But for what it's worth, here's a couple views on some things:

• The New England Revolution completed the sweep of the Mexicans in the Semi-finals of Superliga. The final, a non-story game between New England and Houston. These two teams are slowly turning into the big brother-little brother combination of MLS. Obviously we know which one is which....
• After making the previous post, we learned that Kenny Cooper is staying with his hometown club, F.C. Dallas, at least until the end of the season. We'll see what happens after MLS Cup, if Kenny has a good second half, we can only assume a European club having scoring troubles would look at Mr. Cooper to fill the void.

MLS Action this weekend and we have some great match ups to say the least, be back Saturday for re-caps.

Until then

Trades, Transfers, and More

Well to say it's been an interesting week in MLS is an understatement. Trades everywhere, ongoing negotiations for some, done deals for others, add that to the fact that we've had some extremely quality league play and I'd say MLS has had a pretty good week.

The busiest club during this week long period: FC Dallas. Let's analyze:

Should I Stay or Should I Go?
The two most dynamic players arguably on the roster have both been rumored to be out of the Big D, and more than likely, both deals will be completed within the next week or so. Kenny receiving offers from Rosenburg of Norway, Cardiff City of the English Championship. It's hard to debate which would be a better fit, because frankly we don't know. English Premiership Ambition, or Champions League play? Only a higher power knows....

The Juan Toja situations is a bit more tricky. Stay in Dallas, improve as a player each year and try and get a better offer, or move to Steaua Bucharest, a Romanian powerhouse. Personally I would love to see Toja wait a few years and see if he could get a better offer, but we all know he's making next to nothing compared to other quality players



Other news and notes:

• San Jose adds to the roster with the likes of Fransisco Lima, and surprisingly enough, an FC Dallas player, Arturo Alvarez. In my honest opinion, the most frustrating player in the entire league. He has more upside than most, but more often than not just doesn't show up. We'll see if the return back to where his career started, with the Manager that signed him will make a difference.

• The Brian McBride saga is done. It appears that Toronto will receive allocation money and possibly Chad Barrett (lol) Glad to see a great American player come home and play for the hometown club. Couldn't be happier that Brian is back.

Superliga Action tonight...

MLS Re-Cap

Kansas City Wizards 3 - 3 Columbus Crew

Arguably the best game of the week. The return of the most talented, what happened to this guy, Josh Wolff. Goals galore, if you turned you're head in the first half, you probably missed something. The result didn't change much in the eyes of both teams. Kansas City still can't get out of the bottom part of the table, and the Crew remains a consistant, point-getting team.

PLAYER OF THE GAME: Guillermo Barros Schelotto


Real Salt Lake 0 - 0 Chicago Fire

I could be extremely lazy here and say no post is needed, but there were some things noticeable from the match. First of all, the Chicago Fire fans are great, Section 8 is underrated as a Supporters Group. Second of all, Justin Mapp is fun to watch, the guy is all over the field, and if he can get back the confidence he had 2 years ago while getting national team call-ups, he can be a good replacement for the injury prone Damarcus Beasley

PLAYER OF THE GAME: The goalposts at both ends
PLAYER WHO NEEDS TO BE IN THE USL: Chad Barrett


Colorado Rapids 2 - 2 F.C. Dallas

A small rivalry based on playoff appearances in the past, this game always seems to be an interesting one. Face it, when a goalie punches a guy in the face after a heated post-season match-up, there tends to be some fireworks after that. No fireworks here, just goals. Kenny Cooper with another performance to be noted (goal and an brilliant assist) Juan Toja looked dangerous, and Conor Casey continues to be relatively quiet, but dangerous. Dallas is going to struggle to make the playoffs if they continue to get draws at home.

PLAYER OF THE GAME: Kenny Cooper


San Jose Earthquakes - Toronto F.C.

Another snooze fest of a match, as both offenses look like they have never played on turf before. Can we please get grass on these pitches please? The new Earthquake pick-ups looked quite dangerous. Huckerby has more pace than people realized, and Lima (while older than my grandmother) looked ok. And seriously, Glenn Davis, we know that Toronto has a good fanbase, let's sound a little less surprised.

PLAYER OF THE GAME: Carl Robinson


New York Red Bulls 2-2 Los Angeles Galaxy

Best game of the weekend in my opinion. Up and down play the entire match with stars all over the field. Beckham looked lost most of the game, hanging out by the sidelines talking to the 14 year old girls, Donovan was dangerous, Carlos Ruiz looked, well, like Carlos Ruiz. Carlos should have his own adjective. Dave van den Burgh is an underrated talent, and I really liked Dane Richards, until he got hurt. New York is having trouble winning games, and Los Angeles keeps plugging along, we'll see where each team goes from here.

PLAYER OF THE GAME: Jorge Rojas
PLAYER WHO NEEDS TO BE IN THE USL: Gregg Vanney

Superliga 7/16 Re-Cap

New England Revolution - Pachuca
Has anybody else woken up from the deep sleep that this game put you in? What a howler this match was. A couple of points to make from this one and I'll move on:


1) Khano Smith is a dangerous winger. He's big, strong, quick, and has learned to use his right foot at times. He used to be fairly one dimensional, now a very dynamic player on a dynamic team.
2) As much as I hate to agree with the Mexicans, that was clearly not a penalty, although I thoroughly enjoyed the Spanish call "Penal, penal, penal, penal...penalty!"

3) Pachuca fans whistling at Pat Phelan while he layed motionless on the ground was absolutely ridiculous. Honestly, he had a neck brace on and wasn't moving...


Chivas USA - Santos

Best game of the night by a wide margin. Up and down the entire game. Santos should have scored early, but the goalie's best friend, the cross-bar was there to save the day. Couple quick points from this one:

1) Sacha Kljestan is an absolute stud. Best player on the field, was dangerous the entire game. You never see him make a bad pass. He looks more comfortable on the field than he ever has. He'll be a great talent in the future.

2) Oswaldo Sanchez is still the most annoying keeper on the planet. Who runs the length of the field to argue with a linesman?

3) To be fair to Where's Waldo, the linesman did have one of the worst games I've ever seen from a linesman. The goal that would have tied the game was more onside than Carlos Ruiz has ever been in his entire playing career.

Ohh well, better luck next time around FMF

Superliga 7/15 Re-Cap

A disappointing day for the MLS clubs in the illustrious Superliga tournament.


D.C. United essentially gets knocked out of the competition fairly easily. Unless D.C. wins by 3 or more goals against Houston, and Chivas wins, Unted are done.

Traditional United play, lots of buildup, get the ball wide, try and play it back through the middle, and nothing is there because it's closed down by then. The defense was piss poor, you could tell by the end of the second half that most of the players weren't intersted anymore. Fred looked like he wanted to be back in Australia frolicking with some kangaroos. I'm beginning to think D.C. United is becoming more and more like the Arsenal of MLS, plays good attacking soccer, but wins absolutely nothing when it matters.

Houston was the better MLS team by far on the night. Still in the hunt for getting a place in the semifinals, the mighty orange played well for the most part but gave up a fairly easy goal, with Omar Arellano dribbling through a number of Dynamo defenders without much harm.




How Ricardo Clark was not sent off is beyond me.







More to come tomorrow, New England and Chivas USA playing tomorrow, with Chivas USA needing to win.

Trade / Transfer Rumors of the Day

Some interesting trades and transfer talks have surfaced from the day, here's my reaction to what's gone on:

TRADES and Signings

• Scott Sealy, Dan Huckerby to San Jose

Much needed moves for the offensively hibernating Earthquakes. In a season where it was well known that San Jose would have its struggles, we did not however know they would score a measly 11 goals in 16 games. Reinforcements are on the way however, Huckerby is a talented front man, and we've seen Sealy score some really good goals. Sealy has better than average speed and should be a good fit for the 'Quakes.

Rumors

• Victor Sikora to FC Dallas

Not very well known to the American public, we'll see what comes of this signing if in case it happens. The Dutch winger is currently training with Dallas, and we all know that training with the team does not neccessarily mean anything. Recent teams include Dutch giant Ajax, NAC Breda (US Soccer fans will remember that former legend Earnie Stewart is currently employed by Breda), SC Heerenveen, and my favorite, Go Ahead Eagles. And yes that's spelled correctly.

• Hakan Sukur to Toronto FC

A talent to say the least in his day. But today certainly isn't Hakan's day. The 37 year old Turkish Star become well known with the Turkish team that finished 3rd in the 2002 World Cup, scoring 6 goals in qualifying, and an extremely important goal against the hosts South Korea. This isn't the first time a well-known, over the hill striker has been rumored to Toronto (see Nuno Gomes) so we'll see what happens.

Superliga 2008

This year's edition of the "MLS v. FMF" tournament, otherwise known as "Superliga" is off and running. An interesting tournament in it's second year of existence has something that last year's version did not have. Teams that deserve to be there. Rather than the four teams from each league being chosen by the hierarchies of MLS and FMF, this years wonderfully glorious Superliga trophy is being fought for by teams that have earned the right to be there.

What's at stake? Well the intangible reward is what we as American Soccer fans want more than anything...Supremacy over everything Mexican. Mexican clubs or the Mexican National Team. Which I agree is a high reward. As a new age American fan, what we want more than anything is respect, by the rest of the "footballing" world, which we are increasingly becoming more deserving of.

The tangible reward is what needs to be debated. What Soccer United Marketing officials have told us is that the winner of the tournament receives a $1 million dollar prize. What we have recently found out though is that not all of that prize money is going to the MLS clubs. It's a topic that is repeatedly being brought up, the lack of respect and money that MLS players earn.

Superliga is something that we as American soccer fans can look forward to, we'll see if the on the field product is as good as last year's version, which we have no reason to believe will not happen.