Image via Wikipedia
No surprise as they loved him on his first time around, but Everton wants to bring Landon Donovan back into the fold with another loan move. Apparently Moyes is counting on Timmy Howard helping out a bit in bringing him back to the club. Also maybe the two of them would be able to influence Brek Shea another possible addition to the team.
The other reports seeping out of LA as Houston makes their way in to face off for the MLS Cup is about a possible incoming deal. Apparently the Galaxy are in talks with Chelsea to bring in Frank Lampard, current England captain who is currently 33, two years older than Beckham was when he joined the club. Beckham has been offered chances to go back to Europe and is apparently seriously considering them.
Lampard could only come if Beckham leaves as MLS teams are only allowed 3 DPs and it would be unimaginable for Lampard to not come in as a Designated Player.
So two years in and we got eliminated in the second rounds of the playoffs. With a bye to get past the first round the Union managed to slip into the second round of the playoffs. Despite losing to Houston in a series that was not particularly well played their performance this year was extremely impressive. We were expected to be improved, but did anyone expect us to be in contention for first in the east on the final day of the season? Or to lead the East for a large portion of the season? What impresses me most about this team is this.
MacMath-20
Williams-21 Valdes-26 Tait-21 G. Farfan -23
Okugo-20
M. Farfan-23 Adu-22 Torres-20 Daniel-24
Mwanga-20 McInerney-19
Subs:Pfeffer-16, Nakazawa-23 Richter/Langley/Houapeu-22
If the Union had to start a game tomorrow with players who were at or under the league average age this is what it would look like. There are three players on here who absolutely should be starting. If we add Le Toux, Carroll and Califf into this lineup for McInerney, Okugo and Tait we have a lineup that I might even have preferred to the teams Nowak put out for the playoff games. I was much more upset to see Miglioranzi on the field than I would have been to see MacMath.
MacMath-20
Williams-21 Valdes-26 Califf-31 G. Farfan -23
Carroll-30
M. Farfan-23 Adu-22 Torres-20 Daniel-24
Mwanga-20 Le Toux-27
Subs:Okugo-20 McInerney-19 Nakazawa-23
Obviously my point doesn’t heal the wounds of a poorly played and poorly managed playoff exit, but it shows that the majority of our starters are (well) below the league average age. This team is extremely young and will only get better. Next year they will bring back Keon Daniel, bring back a healthy Freddy Adu who seemed to carry an injury through much of the season, along with just about every other player improving purely by getting a year older and wiser. If they can keep this team together, not the easiest thing in MLS, they will surely be competing at a higher and higher level for the next few years.
So playoffs are here lets play an entirely different formation than we’ve played all year! I like the idea behind playing this 32-3-2 formation with both Marfan and the Sheannomenon playing as wingers and Migz moving back into the hole to play as the third defender. It’s a very cool idea but there’s a few obvious reasons its not working well so far.
1. Brian Carroll isn’t sure where to play. He hasn’t had much of the ball and is usually one of the most important ball controllers for the team.
2. Sheannon hasn’t gotten enough action going forward. He started off attacking a good amount, but he’s been pulled back by some strong wing play from the Dynamo.
3. Gabe Farfan looks totally lost. He just looks flustered and uncomfortable.
Positioning has been very confused, the Dynamo have dominated possession and they looked as good as we were afraid they would on set-pieces. If Migz stays in, the game will be won or lost by that position and the mess it creates for everyone.
The strike force of Le Toux and Mwanga has looked good, but I expect to see someone come in to start the half who will drive possession and make the possession more effective. I can’t see Miglioranzi staying in the game much longer, he doesn’t look bad, but his position is causing problems. They have to figure out that first and foremost before this game gets out of hand. I expect Torres to come in for Migz although I could see it being Adu, or even Okugo playing a more natural DM position than the hybrid sweeper spot Migz is playing. The Union are only down 1, but they are being outplayed by Houston and need to change something to get to the end of this game safely. They can absolutely mount the comeback; there’s tons of time left, but they do have to make a change. Nowak’s got his hands full here; I’m very curious as to what changes he makes.
Freddy Adu wants to win according to MLSsoccer.com and he thinks the team can do it. There’s no reason to believe they can’t get past this weekends matchup against the Dynamo, not that it’ll be easy but it should be an extremely even tie. There are no teams above us who we absolutely couldn’t compete with. The Union have pulled out 13 points in 12 matches against the remaining playoff teams which is a little bit better than averaging a tie. No team remaining has beaten them twice, although they have tied just about everyone. The Union may not be favorites but they’re not long shots either.
The Dynamo are the first match of course so all attention is on the game tomorrow. The Dynamo have many points of scoring with four players all tied for the lead in scoring whereas the Dynamo will most likely be able to keep the Union from scoring if they key in on Seba Le Toux who has taken twice as many shots and score twice as many goals as any other Union player. Of course that’s easier said than done. Of Houston’s scoring leaders, Brian Ching and Will Bruin are the leaders in Goals per 90min, which may make them seem like the biggest threats, but their attack is also led by Geoff Cameron Brian Boswell and Carlo Costly who are all sure to feature and threaten at some point during the series.
Brad Davis is the most important player to the Houston attack, garnering MVP consideration. He leads the team in assists and is only one behind the leaders in goals scored.
Tally Hall will also be absolutely integral to Houston’s success whenever they play. He’s been one of the best goalkeepers in the league this year and could single-handedly stop the Union from scoring.
The Houston attack is on average four inches taller than the Union defense which could factor in quite a bit on set pieces. Of course Valdes and Calliff both have more success on set-pieces than their respective heights would lead you to believe. For the Union, the whole series will probably be won or lost on whether or not they can keep Houston from scoring on set pieces and whether or not Tally Hall makes enough mistakes to let us slide something through.
Houston has been the hotter team recently, but the Union definitely have a shot if they show up and play their best game. Houston will have to do the same.
The remaining possibilities for the playoffs. The Fire managed to keep the Union out of the Wild Card spot, but there are still a few possible circumstances remaining. They all come down to the Dynamo-Galaxy game this weekend, unless the Dynamo manage to pull out a win (very possible considering they are facing a Galaxy team that will most likely be taking the game off to rest up for the playoffs, the Union will have second place in the Eastern conference in their second year of existence. Either way we have a few extra days off for the Wild Card round but the Dynamo game does still matter. If the Dynamo don’t pull off a win PPL will host the second leg of the teams first ever playoff series against the 3rd seed Columbus Crew. If the Dynamo do win though, they would get the second seed in the East, and the Union’s 2011 post-season would start against Houston, just like the regular season did. The higher seed gets to host the second leg of a two game set.
Union Loss 48 SKC Win 51 Dynamo Win 49 Crew Loss 47 1. SKC 2. Dynamo 3. Union
Union Loss 48 SKC Win 51 Dynamo Tie 47 Crew Loss 47 1. SKC 2. Union 3. Crew (H2H)
Union Loss 48 SKC Win 51 Dynamo Loss 46 Crew Loss 47 1. SKC 2. Union 3. Crew
The Union beat Houston on the road in that first game (1-0) and tied them at PPL (1-1), pulling out 4 pts against the Dynamo. They split the series against Columbus; both teams won their home games (2-1 at Crew Stadium and 1-0 at PPL) so each team came out with 3 pts.
ASN Philly put up a bunch of pictures from last years home-opener against DC United. First it’s crazy to think that we’ve only had this team for a year and that it has built up such an intense following (of course a bit of the following came before the team). Pictures of Joe Biden, Mayor Nutter are over there. Moreover guys like Moreno, Seitz and Fred are naturally all over those pictures but its still surprising to see exactly how much the team has turned over since last year. We keep hearing that the team should be better because they know each other better since they’ve got a year under their belts together, but really a lot of these players have still never played a league game together, Valdes, Ruiz, Mondragon and Caroll are all expected to contribute significantly to the team, but none of them were a part of last years team. It’ll be interesting to see if it still takes some time for the Union to gel together this year.
Of course after looking at last years home-opener, we can start to look forward to this years season opener. The Sons of Ben will be hosting a match-watching event at PJ Whelihan’s Cherry Hill on March 19th so prepare yourselves.
In another step for a series of announcements about one game, it seems we have finally put all the pieces together (except the exact location, it seems DC may not want to have the match at RFK and may look into a smaller location, along with the time of the match of course UPDATE: nevermind match time is 7:30.UPDATE 2:thanks to reader DiscoStu we have found out that the match will be held at the Soccerplex in Germantown, MD.) The Union’s first US Open Cup qualifier game will be against DC United and will take place in the DC area on April 6. This will make for a pretty exciting start to the season. After starting the season against Houston, and facing newcomers Vancouver in the home opener, we will be treated to a seven day span where the U will take on the Galaxy in LA, DC United in DC and the Red Bull at PPL Park. This week is followed by facing Seattle Sounders at home and going away to 2009 MLS Champions Real Salt Lake. It might be a rough start to the season for such a young team, but it should also be a very exciting one.
bpmangan
mattsant16
Pat
