the same way shots from the old Highbury, Arsenal's former ground, looked narrow due to a lower-than-usual camera position. CAB's field width is 70 yards, just a touch wider than the Wizards' former grounds at Arrowhead. Also, the Wizards grounds crew now has control over the quality of the pitch, which wasn't the case at Arrowhead.
Finally, on the subject of broadcasts, Sean Wheelock will have a pretty big soccer brain sitting next to him on two broadcasts coming up this week from CAB. Bruce Arena will act as analyst. Wizards manager Curt Onalfo was Arena's assistant at the last World Cup, so the former U.S. boss was happy to help.
"Knee-jerk response?" "Over-reaction?": Let's talk for a minute about knee-jerk over-reactions based on season openers.
Up in New England, Steve Nicol's boys peppered the Houston Dynamo goal last Saturday, always looking a step faster than the hapless visitors. To his credit, Nicol advised all to be careful about anointing his side the "just add water," instant favorites to storm through MLS 2008 and win everything. Still, glowing reports ensued while a few naysayers wondered aloud along the lines of "wither the league champs," etc.
But, c'mon! Who couldn't see that one coming? In an early rematch of teams that met in the previous MLS Cup, all the motivation is on one side -- and it's not with the league champs. And that's not just some announcers' worn-out cliché. It's a fact.
You have to go all the way back to 1999 to find an instance when the champions prevailed in a season's initial rematch of MLS Cup sides.
Since then, New England has beaten Los Angeles once and Houston twice in those high-profile dust-ups. Going a little further back, New England beat Los Angeles in 2003, after losing to the Galaxy a few months before in the big finale. A year before that, the boot-to-the-butt was on the other foot; the 2001 champion San Jose Earthquakes got cracked by the Galaxy in the initial 2002 California derby.
There were a couple of scoreless draws in there. But you must go back to the 1999 season to find a champion that claimed one of these. The Fire won in 1998, knocking off United in the final. On May 1, 1999, before 20,000-plus at Soldier Field, Chris Armas, Josh Wolff and Jerzy Podbrozny scored for Bob Bradley's Fire in a 3-2 win against United.
So, always remember as you assess MLS teams and such in April, it's a marathon, not a sprint.
Crystal ball gazing in Chicago: Reading the tea leaves isn't always so easy in Chicago -- mostly because they may be blowing around in that tough Second City wind.
But other times, it's pretty easy, like when it comes to Wilman Conde.
Conde made it clear earlier this year that he preferred to play for Red Bulls manager Juan Carlos Osorio. But Fire manager Denis Hamlett said just before the season that he thought all parties were clear on matters. He said Conde had developed a clearer picture of the business and understood that the Fire couldn't part with him "just because." He explained that any trade had to include value for the Fire.
Well, two games in and we still haven't seen the versatile Colombian, who was quite the unsung hero in last year's Fire revival, his story buried beneath the (deserved) press clippings heralding Cuauhtemoc Blanco and Osorio.
Conde has a bit of an ankle injury, but it seems evident that more is afoot. He didn't travel to Salt Lake City for the Fire opener. Nor did he play in the Fire's home debut, Thursday's 4-0 ambush of the Revs, although Conde started the next morning as the Revs and Fire reserves met.
Besides all that, the Fire defense hasn't looked bad, with Bakary Soumare and Diego Gutierrez ably holding down the middle of the Fire defense. Plus, C.J. Brown has yet to make his 2008 debut. So, Conde's value around Toyota Park could be declining rapidly.
More Revs in rehab?: Speaking of that Friday morning reserve match: it's looking like a very bad week for Jeff Larentowicz. Not only did he get kicked out of Thursday's ESPN2 match during pre-match introductions (OK, not really, but it wasn't long afterward), he got hurt early in the reserve contest and had to leave the match. Revs officials knew only that it was an ankle injury and said they wouldn't know until later in the day about the extent of the injury.
The Revs can scarcely afford another injury setback to a valuable starter. Steve Ralston and Taylor Twellman are already on the shelf through about mid-May, possibly a little longer in Twellman's case.
Larentowicz was already set to miss New England's next match, Wednesday in Kansas City, due to the automatic one-game suspension.
A different Donovan: The Landon Donovan we saw Thursday at The Home Depot Center was an outrageously different Donovan than we saw a few nights earlier, as he looked unsure and inaccurate in the Galaxy's bad stumble through Commerce City.
The easy excuse was that he was tired, having played in the U.S. national team's midweek friendly in Poland a few days earlier. But Donovan said two days later that he wasn't feeling physically tired. "I'm not sure why, I just couldn't get going in that game," he said by phone from Los Angeles.
Maybe it was his assignment. Galaxy manager Ruud Gullit has, at least for now, abandoned plans to use a stylish 4-3-3. Back in vogue at The Home Depot Center is the old tried and true 4-4-2, and his men seemed far more comfortable. Donovan played as a second forward, tucked behind Alan Gordon. The results were obvious, as he matched David Beckham's goal and assist in the 2-0 victory.
Donovan always looks more comfortable playing in the middle of field.
Could it also be that Donovan just likes playing near the comforts of home? Well, the data doesn't say so, although it might have been true at one point for a younger Donovan. In 2005, eight of his 12 strikes for the Galaxy did come at home.
But over the last two years, his 20 goals in regular season matches have been neatly distributed, half at home and half away.
Steve Davis is a freelance writer who has covered Major League Soccer since its inception. Steve can be reached at BigTexSoccer@yahoo.com. The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author's, and not necessarily those of Major League Soccer or MLSnet.com.
