Armchair Analyst
The transfer window may be closed, but that doesn't apply to players who are out of contract.
One such player is someone most MLS fans will recognize. And he wants back in:
Very hopeful that my deal back to @MLS will happen in the next few days!! My times at @LAGalaxy were the best but time for a new challenge!!
— Chris Birchall (@chrisbirchall7) April 27, 2012
Know anyone with a need for midfield depth and an available international slot? Hello, New York?
Like most of you, I've spent my fair share of time roaming around the intertubes posting on various message boards, commenting on stories, looking for an insight or a laugh.
As the game in North America has grown over the past five years and media coverage has gotten better, I've spent less and less time doing so. But I'd still find myself occasionally making a pit stop on BigSoccer - sometime the on-topic boards, sometimes off-topic - and one of the commenters I'd always go out of my way to look for was CHICO13.
I didn't know him personally - didn't even know his name - but I liked that he was an original '96 fan. I liked what he had to say about the game (and a lot of other things), I liked that he treated other posters with respect but not deference, I liked that he liked Frank Zappa. And most of all I liked that he was intellectually honest about his beliefs and biases, and was happy to discuss them as a human being. That's all too rare anywhere, but especially on the internet.
It turns out that I won't be reading anymore posts by CHICO13 in the future. His non-internet name was Chico Solares, and he passed suddenly and - from what I gather - somewhat unexpectedly on Tuesday evening.
D.C. United, both the club and the fans, will be holding a 12th-minute tribute to him tonight.
I'll be holding my own tribute as well, listening to "Hot Rats," watching the team he loved and enjoying the game that he - and so many like him who've put their heart and soul into MLS - helped make so special.
Rest in peace.
WATCH: D.C. fans pay tribute to Solares
Looks like the injury bug in Real Salt Lake has — temproarily anyway — tied the hands of US Under-20 head coach Tab Ramos.
Ramos will be without his most experienced player, midfielder Luis Gil, who's been recalled by Jason Kreis in the wake of injuries to Javier Morales and Ned Grabavoy.
Good luck to the U20 @ussoccer_ynt out in Portland. Sorry I couldn't make it with you guys #UntilNextTime
— Luis Gil (@luisitogil21) April 9, 2012
Also missing the trip is Birmingham City-based defender Will Packwood. Javan Torre (LA Galaxy Academy) and Matt Wiesenfarth (California Davis) have been added as replacements.
The camp, which runs from April 9-16 in Portland, Ore., will feature an intrasquad scrimmage on April 12 and a friendly against the University of Washington on April 15.
Full roster and details at USsoccer.com.
The nice thing about age-group soccer is that another chance to make good is always right around the corner.
For the US, that means shifting focus from the failure of the U-23s to the next crop of U-20s. Or as I'll be referring to them in my head, "Luis Gil's Group."
The Real Salt Lake youngster is by far the most experienced player in Tab Ramos' squad, announced by US Soccer on Monday, which also includes three other MLSers: Jack McBean of the LA Galaxy; Jonathan Top of FC Dallas; and Victor Pineda of the Chicago Fire.
Here's the whole squad, courtesy of US soccer:
GOALKEEPERS (2): Tomas Gomez (Georgetown; Webster Groves, Mo.), Jake McGuire (Chivas USA Academy; Pomona, Calif.)
DEFENDERS (9): Christian Dean (California; East Palo Alto, Calif.), Bryan Gallego (Akron; Kinnelon, N.J.), Jordan McCrary (North Carolina; Marietta, Ga.), Eric Miller (Creighton; Woodbury, Minn.), Juan Pablo Ocegueda (Tigres UANL; Riverside, Calif.), Boyd Okwuonu (North Carolina; Edmund, Okla.), William Packwood (Birmingham City; Concord, Mass.), Jeffrey Payeras (LA Galaxy Academy; Hawthorne, Calif.), Derek Vogel (Pateadores; Long Beach, Calif.)
MIDFIELDERS (7): Seth Casiple (California; Rocklin, Calif.), Luis Gil (Real Salt Lake; Garden Grove, Calif.), Benji Joya (Santos Laguna; San Jose, Calif.), Mikey Lopez (North Carolina; Mission, Texas), Collin Martin (D.C. United Academy; Chevy Chase, Md.), Victor Pineda (Chicago Fire; Bolingbrook, Ill.), Wil Trapp (Akron; Gahanna, Ohio)
FORWARDS (6): Daniel Cuevas (Santos Laguna; Sacramento, Calif.), Ethan Decker (New York Red Bulls Academy; Manahawkin, N.J.), Daniel Garcia (FC Dallas Academy; Dallas), Jack McBean (LA Galaxy; Newport Beach, Calif.), James Rogers (New Mexico; Salt Lake City), Jonathan Top (FC Dallas; Fort Worth, Texas)
One player not on the list? Charles Renken. The 18-year-old midfielder is still settling in with the Portland Timbers, seeing action in reserve games and regular run in practice. But apparently he's not ready for the U-20s quite yet.
Thierry Henry can be a bit moody and machiavellian on the field, but off the field he's proven time and again to be a man of charity, conscience and kindness.
So it was no surprise that the New York Red Bulls striker hopped on a plane to visit Fabrice Muamba, the 23-year-old English midfielder who's made a stunning recovery after suffering from cardiac arrest in Bolton's abandoned match against Tottenham on Saturday.
Henry was the brightest light in North London when Muamba was just another kid in the Arsenal academy. But the Gunners legend didn't forget.
Doctor: Muamba 'in effect' dead for 78 minutes
US soccer announced on Wednesday that John "Clarkie" Souza had passed away over the weekend. The 91-year-old National Soccer Hall of Famer was a starter for the squad that famously beat England 1-0 at Belo Horizonte in the 1950 FIFA World Cup.
Souza is the second member of that famous team to pass away in recent months, as standout defender Harry Keough was laid to rest on Feb. 7.
Follow the US MNT Blog for confirmed funeral arrangements.
Last year, before the season started, I very cleverly predicted that LA would win the West, the Shield and the Cup. I predicted that Houston would win the East. And I came up with a few other good ones that panned out.
Unfortunately I made these predictions on Twitter, and 4000 posts later, I was no longer able to have my moment of glory. Not gonna make the same mistake this year.
Western Conference
Real Salt Lake
Eastern Conference
Houston Dynamo
Supporters' Shield
RSL
MLS Cup
Seattle Sounders
US Open Cup
Chicago Fire
MVP
Fredy Montero
Golden Boot
Chris Wondolowski
Defender of the Year
Geoff Cameron
Rookie of the Year
Luis Silva
Coach of the Year
Martin Rennie
And the most important question... will another forward come out of the blue and rack up double-digit goals? Wondolowski and Dom Oduro have done so in the last two seasons. This year's version will be... Tommy "Disco" Heinemann.
Feel free to bookmark this and throw it in my face 9 months from now.
Cheers, and enjoy the soccer.
I've always been of the opinion that the argument is "Pele vs. Maradona" instead of "Pele vs. Maradona vs. Di Stefano" simply because the Blond Arrow never won a World Cup.
Fifty years later, we may be in the midst of Di Stefano Part II.
What if that's Lionel Messi's destiny? What if his next seven years are as great as his past four, but Argentina comes up short in both 2014 and 2018? Will he truly be in the argument with Pele and Maradona? Or will he languish with Di Stefano, Cruyff and Puskas in the ranks of those who never got it done on the world's greatest stage?
Where do you stand?
Not much to add to this one.
Here in the US we're fed a steady diet of "don't get too worked up about friendly wins." And it's sound advice that goes all the way back to the 3-6-1 thrashing of Austria in the lead-up to the 1998 World Cup.
In Italy, though, they are a bit more... passionate. Or uncompromising. Or irrational.
However you want to put it, the Italian press is, in the wake of the US' 1-0 win over the Azzuri on Wednesday, showing the fight and engagement that both the players and fans in Genoa clearly lacked (the crowd, I think we can all agree, was terrible).
La Gazzetta dello Sport, the Italian soccer bible, called the US win "A fiasco." And it gets more colorful from there.
Happy reading, folks.
