After a rousing group stage and round of 16, the quarters and semis have been less satisfying. Not much on my mind in advance of Sunday's final.
I keep waiting to hear about a fight in the Brazilian lockerroom before the Germany match. Something like one player found out another player was sleeping with his wife/girlfriend/mother. They were a team only in that they had the same color jerseys. Lest we forget, Brazil put a lot of pressure on Germany, with an aggressive attack in the first 20 minutes of that match. Except in retrospect, it was reckless and undisciplined, not aggressive. Just after the second goal, ESPN's Steve McManaman said Brazil were "going to go down by a lot more if they continue like this." But they did, so they did.
Netherlands did an excellent job containing Messi in the second semi. But they generated nothing themselves. And the Dutch were out of subs before the shoot out so Tim Krul could not save them this time. Aston Villa's Ron "Ikea Bookcase" Vlaar had an excellent tournament so it was a little sad to see him miss the first PK in the shoot out. Dennis, I worry that the Villans will be able to keep him long-term. One of those nasty top tier EPL squads is going to snatch him away.
Interesting segment on last week's Men in Blazers podcast asking what would you say to Chris Wondolowski if you ran into him on the street. Rog and Davo didn't say it exactly this way but I took the gist of the discussion to be that we'll know soccer has come of age in the US when a play like that missed shot generates the same level of notoriety as say, Bill Buckner's error in game six of the 1986 World Series.
Not Cabaye, not Remy, but Remy Cabella
Newcastle seem to have finally acquired key transfer target Remy Cabella. This would complete a long and circuitous journey that began back in January shortly after the departure of Yohan Cabaye. Along with the addition of Siem De Jong, the Magpies have made significant strides to improve the team. But, Debuchy is probably lost to Arsenal so the right back spot will need to be filled and we still need a quality striker.
...plus c'est la même chose
The Union under interim manager Jim Curtin have had some successes but ultimately the team hasn't really changed. Take tonight's 3-3 draw with Colorado. At 77 minutes, they were sitting on a 3-1 lead. Two of the Union goals were high quality. On one, Casey switched the field with a pass out to Gaddis on the right, then continued his run into the box in time to receive a perfect return cross from Gaddis; the second was a beautiful corner from Maidana that Williams had time to run onto and head into the far corner. But alas, a defensive mistake by Fabinho allowed one back, Lahoud's rash challenge in the box yielded a PK and a red card and with the man advantage Colorado got the equalizer (Mackenzie's least favorite word) in the 86th minute. Two more points lost from a winning position at home. The Union are interesting to watch partly because they are capable of attractive attacking play and partly out of morbid curiousity as toSpeaking of MLS, here's a reminder for when the World Cup is over. MLS is not the same as World Cup soccer. It's not going to, ever, have the same level of quality or intensity. If you turn on MLS expecting to have the same product as the World Cup, you're going to be disappointed, big time. I suspect it partially explains the graph below from Doghouse Diaries:
I would have a slight quibble that the non-World Cup year levels have crept up slightly each year but the basic point is correct. The same thing happens to Olympic sports like track and field or gymnastics. I would suggest in Europe there is a drop off too but probably not anywhere near to the same extent. Not sure what my point is here - I guess it's partly managing expectations. You can't expect the MLS to simply capture many fans off of the World Cup. You have to build the fan base from the ground up.
Hoping it is an interesting WC Final.
Wondo...tough miss, but as Landon Donovan says "I hope this miss doesn't define him for the rest of his career." The chance wasn't as easy as it appeared. Easy to say he should have finished when you are sitting on the sidelines. Like always, the game isn't won or lost on one play.
ReplyDeleteMLS definitely with some exciting (although as you said, not always beautiful) action in recent days. I agree, it is not simple to just convert WC fans into MLS fans all of a sudden, but slow sustained growth is continuing and the WC certainly doesn't hurt.
Part of the Men in Blazer's point about knowing when soccer has arrived in this country was not just that a miss like Wondolowski's is well-known, but also that we don't let the players off easy. In the past, the tendency has been to say something along the lines of "I'ts ok, soccer isn't really our game, so we did just fine when you consider the circumstances". Their point is that in the future, we will expect more from the players, the reaction will be more along lines of "You suck, my grandma could have scored that goal", and the miss is replayed on ESPN classic for decades.
ReplyDeleteI'm not familiar with Men In Blazers or exactly what they said, but I think if you are going to hold Wondo to a "higher standard" then the same standard should be applied equally to the rest of the team. For example, the defense should be ridiculed for forcing Howard into a record number of saves and all of Zusi's errant crosses and set pieces should be held against him. You can't hate the player for being exactly what they are and trying their best. If they are on the field but don't meet our expectations, it is either a bad decision by the coach or a systematic failure by American soccer as a whole (because they are the best option we have).
ReplyDeleteIf Wondo had scored and we somehow advanced, I would think it would simply "hide" the fact that we were outplayed and cause people to overlook our deficiencies.
I would argue that "soccer has arrived" when the average fan from the general public is able to recognize that we did not lose the game on one missed shot, but rather that we were systematically, technically, and tactically outperformed. This recognition should not be embodied by replaying one player's failure time and time again, in my opinion.
Perhaps I should reach out to the Men In Blazers to offer counterpoints for them to discuss haha.
I didn't mean to imply that their point referred only to Wondo - they just used him as an example since his miss happened to be very high profile. Their intention was that anybody/anything - player, coach, whole team, American soccer system - be called out when they do poorly, as with other major American sports. I completely agree that the whole team and the system in general has to be included when passing around both praise and criticism.
ReplyDeleteSounds good to me. And I think it is a good thing that expectations are exceeding our current level. Hopefully that helps in accelerating improvement.
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