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The Union’s US Open Cup game against DC United will take place in RFK Stadium, although no date has yet been set. DC won the coin toss earlier today and continues its 5 year streak of not playing an away US Open Cup match. Winners of this match will go on to play the New England Revolution, and winners of that match will go on to play either Kansas City or Houston for the last qualifying match for the tournament.
Image by Håkan Dahlström via Flickr
Presumably this only happened after they saw the Union do it. As they said “The Sons of Ben supporters group for the Philadelphia Union tried this a few days ago to great success, so it should be fun.” Apparently a Colorado Rapids supporters group known as the Bulldog Supporters Group (can’t imagine what a Bulldog would be doing in the Rapids) is setting up a group to attend an Avalanche game. Congrat’s SoB’s you started a trend. I wonder how long it is until the Sons Of Ben are given more credited than Bettman’s rule changes for bringing the excitement back to hockey.
http://www.milehighhockey.com/2011/2/28/2019989/interested-in-seeing-some-actual-atmosphere-at-the-pepsi-center-then
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I don’t really have much to say about this, but for those who don’t know the back story, this was the first time the US hosted Mexico in Colombus (which has become a common occurrence ever since. The game couldn’t have gotten above 30 degrees at any point, Brian McBride went out with a black eye, and Josh Wolff and Ernie Stewart were the goal scorers. It was one of the the last World Cup qualifiers if not the last. Here’s the clip.
A sure sign that any professional sports training camp is going on is in the half-baked half-related articles that turn up in the Sports section of newspapers and blogs. Phillies Spring Training is full of stories about Chooch donating ice cream to the local grade-school. Eagles mini-camps are full of tales of how many farm animals Mike Patterson can eat in one sitting. This is that story for the Union. Jeff Gammage at Philly.com wrote an entire article on the marketing strategy behind the word doop, how the song became a part of Union games, how the word became a part of Sons Of Ben culture in a single year, and why it is now the center of the Union marketing strategy. People are excited for this team to get on the field and writers are noticing that.There may not be much of a supply but there is definitely a demand to read something with the Union name on it. That is this article. I’m by no means saying its a bad article; it’s a well-researched, interesting look at something that is barely related to the play on the field. Of course there is a demand for soccer in this city now and thats starting to be filled.
A few interesting things going on this past week that I hadn’t really heard all that much about anywhere else. Of course as usual theres a billion pounds of Cosmos news that I tried to cut down. I also tried very hard to stay away from posting 8 more Charlie Davies stories seeing as little to no new information has come out of DC. Anyway here are some of the most interesting articles I read over the past week.
The primary reason New York doesn’t deserve a second team: Cruyffbots and the Syndicate
http://www.runofplay.com/2011/02/22/the-future-history-of-the-cosmos/
And of course, for equal time purposes, an interview with Eric Cantona playing trumpet
http://goal.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/21/q-a-with-eric-cantona/
PPL Park has received the William H. Bates award. “The award, named in honor of the late Chairman of Commission, is given annually to publically acknowledge outstanding land development projects in Delaware County.”
http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/sports/pro/soccer&id=7980641
A map of the recent highs and lows of Jonathan Spector
http://goal.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/21/the-rise-and-fall-and-rise-of-jonathan-spector/
MLS and FSC don’t get along all that well, but hopefully they can sort things out
http://www.goal.com/en-us/news/1110/major-league-soccer/2011/02/25/2368964/media-microscope-major-league-soccer-and-fox-soccer-channel
The MLS Don (Garber) has a convo with Fanhouse
http://soccer.fanhouse.com/2011/02/25/mls-commissioner-don-garber-american-soccers-steward-sits-down/
Apparently Zach Pfeffer is expected to actually get some significant playing time this year
http://www.philadelphiaunion.com/news/2011/02/union-expect-pfeffer-compete-time
Justin Mapp, along with the rest of the world, thinks that the Union will be better this year
http://www.philadelphiaunion.com/news/2011/02/mapp-confident-roster-changes-will-benefit-union
Apparently Sepp Blatter is working on concocting a new way to resolve ties, not involving PK’s.
http://news.myjoyonline.com/sports/201102/61812.asp
Pre-Algarve Cup reading for the USWNT
http://www.soccernation.com/u-s-wnt-soccer-cms-977
Also FIFA says no to the current goal-line technology
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/feb/23/fifa-goalline-technology
FIFA will announce how many spots each Federation gets in the 2014 WC next week sometime.
http://ca.reuters.com/article/sportsNews/idCATRE71L54320110222
Why the DP Salary concept leads to bad team chemistry and psychology
http://soccerbythenumbers.blogspot.com/2011/02/princes-and-paupers-how-pay-inequality.html
Apparently Roger Torres put out a few tweets today, the loose translation is below from the Brotherly Game
“The first tweet says: “It is sad to what happened to our teammate Michael.” Second tweets reads: “I hope G-d blesses you always and brings you to a very good team, you deserve it.”
So as there are only two Michaels currently on the team (Farfan and Orozsco-Fiscal) it seems pretty clear that one of them is gone. It would be odd for Torres to be so deeply connected with Farfan so quickly although it’s far from out of the question. Also it was presumed that Orozsco Fiscal was going to get a contract, but as there has been no real contract laid down as of yet at all it is quite possible that they simply couldn’t find a place to meet in between. It is also worth noting that cutting Farfan would mean that the drafter Farfan brother goes while the trialist Farfan stays, again not wholesale unbelievable, but a bit odd. Hopefully this’ll get cleared up, maybe it’s not even from the Union at all but one of Torres’ former teams. We have no idea but I’ll try to update you if I find any more information.
Maurice Edu scored again for Rangers to help them to defeat Sporting Lisbon by tying the game and winning the round on away goals.
This US midfield is getting to a point where calling for something along the lines of a 4-6-0 isn’t half as ridiculous as it might seem. It has worked (for Roma) before, although we don’t exactly have anyone near the level of Francesco Totti. I’d guess that someone like Dempsey or Holden would have to end up in that false 9 hole, although neither of them exactly has much experience doing so. Maybe this could be a place to finally fit Jose Torres in? Of course the last time an American outfit ran a six man midfield was the 1998 World Cup where Steve Samson fell in love with the 3-6-1 and brought the team home after 3 straight loses.
I’ve done a small bit of reading on the prospects of a 4-6-0 and the USMNT may not be the right team to squeeze into the formation, but I have always believed that before America finds its first great player they will find their first top level tactician; someone who will find a way to turn a group of overachieving players into a great team using a bit of creative strategy. Of course creative soccer strategy isn’t exactly something that US teams have been known for. We’ve mostly been known for some good moments of kick and run, and pretty ugly soccer, but I still believe that the biggest improvements the US can make is on the chalkboard even more than on the field. I’m not so much calling for a 4-6-0 as I am calling for Bob Bradley to take up the American spirit of creativity and try something absolutely. I’ll throw out an imaginary lineup, simply because it’s what the people want.
Onyewu Goodson
Bocanegra Cherundolo
Jones Bradley Edu
Donovan Holden Dempsey
Empty space for not Jozy Altidore, Robbie Findley, Juan Agudelo, or Teal Bunbury
I can’t say Stuart Holden is exactly the optimal character for this kind of thing (really I don’t think any one on the team is, I just saw someone mention it in concept and wanted to see how it might work) but I think he’s the closest we’ve got. Maybe someone like Mixx, although I haven’t seen him play nearly enough to know how he might fit in this kind of position. A few other players come to mind as potentials for the spot, in particular this might be a way to find a spot for Jose Torres. Of course as I’ve said before Jozy is a good young player, he hasn’t been getting the playing team he needs to show it, but there is not an absolute need to get him off the field. The kid can play, the only question is if it is more valuable to put another midfielder in to fill his spot on the field.
Of course this is the absolute definition of a pipe-dream, but these are the kinds of things that keep me up at night writing 3am USMNT blog posts. Obviously the odds of Bob Bradley signing off on a 4-6-0 are quite low, and the odds of a 4-6-0 being a good idea are almost even lower. All I’m really trying to say is that these kinds of discussions should be had. We should not be set in a 4-4-2, as we had been for quite some time before Bob’s recent change to a version of a 4-5-1. Tactical innovation is something that can be done much faster than talent growth, although they are both equally important. The USMNT and Bob Bradley have never been known as one to mess around with formations all that much, but nothing should be taken for granted. We’ve got four years to find the best team we can. Four years ago 4-4-2 was the formation du jour but now barely anyone who wants to be taken seriously uses the formation. Putting the team into a 4-5-1 still leaves us 4 years behind Spain, and behind many of the other footballing nations. Playing a 4-6-0 (or something else that hasn’t even been thought of yet) could put us 4 years ahead of everyone else in the world.
No date. No time. No place. But it has officially been decided that the Union will face DC United in the first round of US Open Cup qualifiers. A coin toss, scheduled for Monday will decide the location of the match. Of course the scheduling becomes interesting and presumably will take place some time around April as it did last year. Although the schedule last year created a very interesting effect. Due to the oddity of the scheduling of these qualifiers the Union faced the Red Bull, and lost 3-1, twice within a three day span. Hopefully the scheduling doesn’t allow for something like that to happen again. DC United has not played a road match in the US Open Cup since 2007, although with hosting rights being decided by coin toss that means absolutely nothing. To reach the actual US Open Cup, the Union will need to win three matches.
Ok so now that they announced the MLS Schedule we were free to wonder when the playoff format would be announced. Now that the schedule and playoff format have both been announced I’m not sure what to wait for except kickoff.
I could post an explanation of this, but the picture’s still probably simpler.
The three leaders from each conference automatically qualify for what I guess is the first round of the playoffs. Out of all of the remaining teams, the best four records move on without the conference mattering. They face each other in a play in game to face either the Eastern or Western Conference 1 seeds.
The play in games will be one game only, and the higher seed will host. The Conference Semifinals will consist of a two-game, aggregate-goal series, a structure unchanged from previous postseasons. I believe after that it will again be only one game and they will take place at designated hosting sites.
The benefits of this system are that two out of conference teams can not play in the other conference championship (ie.San Jose Earthquakes and Colorado Rapids playing in the 2010 Eastern Conference finals). Also the Supporters Shield winner will definitely be playing the advancing team with the worst record.
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