San Jose Earthquakes

Llegamos al punto medio del año, un momento en la temporada regular donde los clubes de la MLS empiezan a mover sus fichas para buscar llegar a los playoffs. Estos equipos usan este momento para deshacerse de aquellos fichajes que no respondieron a los chances dados en la primera mitad del año.

Desafortunadamente muchos de estos son de los nuestros y eso me tiene decepcionado. Mi frustración más grande es que yo esperaba – como muchos que conocen su talento – que estos jugadores latinos mostraran la casta que los llevó a ser de interés para la MLS… por una razón u otra, ahora se van sin pena ni gloria.

Estos son los que llegaron al inicio de la campaña y se despiden por ahora…

Rafael Robayo (Chicago Fire)

El volante colombiano es una leyenda en el Millonarios de su país y por consiguiente llegó al Fire con grandes expectativas. Sin embargo, nunca fue fundamental en el equipo de Frank Klopas. Robayo no registró goles o asistencias y jugó apenas 439 minutos en 16 partidos donde salió principalmente de suplente. ¿Cómo darle la titularidad cuando solo cinco tiros al arco en ese tiempo?

La continuidad influye y Robayo tiene talento. El problema pudo ser de adaptación y el Fire aun tiene confianza en él, por lo que fue cedido de vuelta a Millos a modos de préstamo.

Federico Puppo (Chicago Fire)

El otro fichaje latino del Fire considerado de alto calibre al inicio de la temporada tampoco sirvió y se va de préstamo de vuelta a Defensor Sporting club de Uruguay, de donde fue fichado originalmente. El delantero no anotó en 11 partidos y salió de titular tan solo una vez. Aunque registró una asistencia, no fue suficiente.  

Muchos se preguntarán si es que al Fire no le gustan los jugadores de estilo latino, pero si es el caso ¿Cómo explicar el éxito de Marco Pappa o Pavel Pardo? Hasta el mismo Sebastián Grazzini, quien esta inactivo por problemas familiares, brilló para los Hombres de Rojo.

Tressor Moreno (San Jose Earthquakes)

Lejos del nivel que solía tener, el mediocampista colombiano no pudo ganarles un espacio en el centro del campo a jugadores jóvenes como Rafael Baca y Simon Dawkins. Aunque los Quakes ganaron mucho en términos de posesión de balón con Moreno en la cancha, perdieron mucho en definición y velocidad, lo cual afectó la titularidad del experimentado cafetero.

Tressor jugó 12 partidos, seis de titular y sumó tres asistencias antes de terminar su contrato con los Quakes.  

Miguel Aceval (Toronto FC)

Lo primero que se notó de este defensa chileno al inicio de la temporada fue su lentitud en comparación a otros defensas, lo cual es algo letal para cualquier zaguero que quiera triunfar en la rápida y física liga norteamericana. Aceval solo jugó cinco partidos y a pesar de darse a conocer por sus excelentes cobros de tiro libre, no pudo ganarse un espacio en la defensa de un equipo de Toronto que está de último lugar en las tablas de la MLS. Un acto de indisciplina en Houston también empeoró su situación en el equipo canadiense que lo dejó ir esta semana.

There's like a 99 percent chance that, if you're reading this blog post, you also watched the 2012 European Championship final between Spain and Italy.

It was awesome. Even if you had no rooting interest (full disclosure: I'm a quarter Italian, but was pulling for Spain), it's hard not to get caught up when the stakes are that high and the quality of soccer on display matches it.

And it just kills me that CONCACAF and CONMEBOL can't figure out a way to get a "Copa Américas" up and running every four years, starting immediately after the Euros. What an incredible opportunity the two confederations are missing.

Hopefully someday, they'll figure it out.

Anyway, only one real observation this week...

Scoring keeps going up and up and up

You should be reading Andrew Wiebe's Opta Spotlight every week. This past week's edition was especially good. Click me!

OK, now that you've read it, you know that teams are passing more, passing more accurately, passing more aggressively, and as a result (we assume), scoring more. Before this week scoring was already up 12 percent over last season's pace. That will have gone up some more, since in Week 17's 10-game slate there were 34 total goals.

And it's not just a blip. Since the end of the international break, MLS clubs have produced 100 goals in 33 games (thanks to Greg Lalas for that little tidbit).

It's the reversal of a 10-year trend. Back in 2001 MLS averaged 3.28 goals per game; by 2010, that was down to 2.46. Here's the whole table:

2011 -- 2.58
2010 -- 2.46
2009 -- 2.54
2008 -- 2.81
2007 -- 2.66
2006 -- 2.62
2005 -- 2.87
2004 -- 2.61
2003 -- 2.89
2002 -- 3.01
2001 -- 3.28
2000 -- 3.19
1999 -- 2.86
1998 -- 3.57*
1997 -- 3.26
1996 -- 3.37

The key thing here isn't just that MLS have imported guys like Thierry Henry (one of the league's elite finishers) and David Beckham (one of the league's elite chance creators). The league's also kept guys like Dwayne De Rosario and Brad Davis, who've both had overseas interest; they've developed highly rated talents like Chris Pontius and Will Bruin, who've both been given plenty of time to figure out where the net is; and, of course, used the Reserve League to help build Chris Wondolowski, who's turning into one of MLS' all-time greats.

It's a multi-faceted approach to finding and cultivating talent, and the numbers say it's working.

* For those of you who don't remember 1998 for one reason or another ... yes, that season was as crazy as the numbers indicate. Go find some YouTube clips of that year's Galaxy squad — it'll be worth your time.

Follow@MLS_Analyst

Comme chaque mardi, Coup Franc passe de l’écrit à l’oral. Notre émission hebdomadaire est disponible ici. Au menu :
- Le match au sommet entre New York et DC United (résumé vidéo ; le 2-1 par Barklage). Quelles sont les forces et les faiblesses de ces équipes, leur bon classement actuel reflète-t-il leur réelle valeur ?
- La découverte de la semaine, Antoine Hoppenot, est notre invité. Voyez ici son but, le penalty qu’il a provoqué et sa première grosse occasion. Nous faisons sa connaissance, il nous parle de la cinglante victoire de Philadelphie contre Kansas City (résumé complet) et des changements apportés par John Hackworth.
- Nos choix pour le Match des étoiles (All-Star Game). N’oubliez pas de voter !
- Le tifo de Portland contre Seattle.
- Hassoun Camara, qui en est à sa deuxième saison à Montréal, connaît-il bien le Québec ?

L'émission Coup Franc est désormais aussi disponible sur iTunes.

Suivre @CoupFrancMLS

I just went 2/9 on my weekend picks. This was after going 2/6 midweek.

It’s not because I’m bad at picking games (though lord knows, I’m not good), but it’s because the parity in MLS is just that hard to get a handle on these days. This is a league where players like Branko Boskovic and Chris Rolfe come off the bench, where Danny Koevermans goes from misfiring back to deadeye, and where a nine-point week is enough to vault you back into the playoff race.

Turns out the Galaxy aren’t dead yet

Sorry, I know this is going to annoy a lot of you. It’s always fun to try to shovel dirt on the champs – doubly so when it’s a high-profile team.

But it turns out that was premature. LA just rattled off three straight wins, including two by shutout. It’s too early to say they’ve returned to their 2011 form, but it’s also clearly too late to take back all the nasty stuff we’ve said about them over the past couple of months.

One thing to bear in mind: David Beckham said it came down to being happy and loose in the locker room, and that it’s cleared up only in the past couple of weeks. So whatever it was that was eating away at LA’s commitment went away when Robbie Keane did. Will it return now that he has?

“Emergency Defender” proving a rock in Philly

Last week John Hackworth said that youngster Amobi Okugo would be playing in central defense for the time being as an emergency measure. If his first two games there are any indication, he may never get a chance to move back to the midfield.

Okugo is simply excellent when the game is being played in front of him, showing good anticipation and understanding of both when and how to play outlets to the midfield. He’s also big and strong enough (6-foot, 170 pounds) to bully around in the box when it comes down to that.

Most importantly, though, he’s just a better player when he doesn’t have to have 360 degree awareness. This isn’t unusual – d-mids tend to mature later than other players precisely because it’s such a complex position.

But Philly already have two veterans (Brian Carroll and Gabriel Gomez) for that spot, and are paper-thin in defense. And the US… well, we know all about the plethora of defensive-minded central midfielders available to Jurgen Klinsmann.

There are, however, precious few young central defenders who’ve impressed on a game-to-game basis. Okugo’s off to a good start in that regard. Let’s hope he stays there, and we see a bit of him in the red, white and blue this January.

Why not build more Gordons?

Alan Gordon didn’t just become a good soccer player overnight. He’s always had a great passing eye, a good understanding of where to be in build-up play and a willingness to stick his nose in. Even if he’s not a 90-minute player, he’s still valuable. The past two months – and past two games especially – have been proof enough of that.

The thing is, though, that Gordon (and his teammate Steven Lenhart) were built by years of practice and occasional game time. Each of them took several years to get up to speed, and now the Quakes are reaping the rewards of both LA’s and Columbus’ hard work.

Which begs the question: Why don’t more teams take on young guys like Gordon and Lenhart then groom them for that specific role? While combing through MLS rosters, the only ones I’ve seen who are really, truly doing that are Columbus (with Tom Heinemann and Aaron Schoenfeld), Houston (Cam Weaver and Colin Rolfe) and New England (Blake Brettschneider).

None of these guys are truly ready right now – though Brettschneider is close, and Heinemann would have gotten there this season if not for his injury – but in two years, all of these guys can be looked at as Gordon or Lenhart-types.

Or, if you want to go with the original model: Brian Ching-types.

So yeah, putting a guy like that – a true center forward – out there may not be what Vicente del Bosque would do. But no MLS team is going to have Xavi, Iniesta, Silva, Fabregas and Busquets to call on. If you’re not Spain, chances are you’ll need a target.

I’d want my team already hard at work making one.