Thoughts while wondering how much money it'll cost the bigwigs at Major League Soccer to get Diddy to emcee the 2005 MLS Gala ...
D.C. United was 6-8-9 on this date a year ago. Chivas USA is nearly mathematically eliminated from the playoff race altogether, but this might give some hope to Real Salt Lake, Columbus, Colorado and the MetroStars. If one of these teams is going to pull a "D.C. United" and rise up out of sub-.500 land to rain on everyone else's parade, it'll be: well, no one. I've heard too many people mention Colorado as a club that's likeliest to do this, but I can't get by the fact that their combined record against San Jose and FC Dallas is a whopping 0-5-2. Outside of Chivas USA, I haven't seen anyone sign a Christian Gomez-like player, either ...
If Eric Wynalda isn't allowed to say "we" when referring to the U.S. national team on ESPN telecasts, then why should local announcers be doing it ad nauseam when calling MLS matches? ...
I'm hardly a cynic, yet I'm guessing the job description under these new "Soccer Ambassador" positions is similar to the ones that high-rolling alumni used to give college football players for monitoring sprinkler systems during their offseason ...
You gotta wonder where Real Salt Lake would be in the standings right now had they not selected Nikolas Besagno with the first pick in the January's SuperDraft. No one's questioning the kid's talent or future impact in the league, but it's becoming clearer by the second that RSL could have snagged both Besagno and a more MLS-ready collegiate player like, say, Scott Sealy, had they traded out of the top spot ...
In a year that has seen players like Landon Donovan, Brad Davis, Todd Dunivant and Jason Kreis thrive in their new environments, it's worth noting that one of the best pickups of the year has been Jamil Walker for D.C. United. Here's a kid that probably felt like completely quitting the sport when he was dropped by Chivas USA in February, but was given new life later on in the preseason when D.C. United secured his rights in a very minor deal. Even though he's still making peanuts as a developmental player despite this being his third year in the league, Walker has made quite an impact as a second-half substitute by Peter Nowak. To look only at his one goal and three assists in 14 appearances hardly tells the story, as the 24-year-old striker's speed and energy has put the fear of God into opposing defenses on several occasions, which has often opened up the field for his teammates. Last I checked, Chivas USA could use a guy like that ...
What's worse: the green jacket you get for winning the Masters, the yellow blazer you get for working at Century 21 or the red jacket you get for being inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame? The only person who'll ever be able to pull that look off is Alexi Lalas, when he get gets his key to the club next summer ...
It'd surely make the race for the playoffs in the Eastern Conference a lot more exciting if Columbus continued its winning ways. I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for Robert Warzycha's side to catch D.C. United, though. They play six of their last nine matches on the road, while the defending champs have a schedule that has them playing against only one team (FC Dallas) that currently sits in third place or better in their conference over their last eight matches ...
From the warrants mentioning department: The MetroStars are 30-29-25 during the Bob Bradley era. Take it for what you will, but I'll admit that it's a statistic that surprised me ...
Back in March, I picked Taylor Twellman to lead the league in scoring. And I'm sticking with it ...
Is anyone else as shocked with all the negative attention the MLS Select vs. Real Madrid match received last week? Yeah, it was hardly an ideal situation. We all know that. The players said it, the coaches said it, and the fans said it. But, come on, it's Real Madrid. If they ask you to come over and play for the Trofeo Santiago Bernabeu, you go. I don't care what team or, in this case, league you are. If Major League Baseball summons the best players from Japan to take on their all-stars, they had better fly over here as well. Until you're the top dog, you have to take advantage of any type of worldwide publicity you can get ...
For what it's worth, I wouldn't release my roster before a big qualifier if I wasn't forced to, either. Bruce Arena definitely gets a bit of a kick out of watching us media types scramble when he does this, but what does he get out of releasing it? ...
Greg Andrulis's George Mason side pulled off a 0-0 tie against Rutgers on the road last week. Not a bad way to start out his tenure with the Patriots ...
Speaking of college soccer, look no further than Virginia Commonwealth's Dominic Oduro when looking for a player who could go No. 1 in the 2006 MLS SuperDraft. The senior striker from Ghana might be faster than DaMarcus Beasley, and is not shy about taking on one, two or three defenders when running to goal. Another one of his selling points is that he just turned 20 years old earlier this month ...
Forget anything that happened on the "Real World: Austin", "Hogan Knows Best" or any of the other reality shows this summer, the best footage out there is Bruce Arena's celebration after Gooch's goal against Honduras that was caught on tape by ussoccer.com ...
Dupe the goalkeeper by rolling the ball one revolution forward to one side while a teammate storms into the penalty box and slams it home into the opposite corner. That's the penalty kick play my old club team used to call "Viking." We worked on it in training every now and then for a two-year span before finally pulling it out in a State Cup match as under-17s. It worked with ease. Of course, the best part was watching the players and coaching staff from the opposing team scream at the head referee as though he was Landon Donovan at Spartan Stadium ...
Remember, this was the early '90s, which meant that the goalkeeper couldn't move until the ball was played. So there was a lot more full-on guessing done back then by goalkeepers, making the play even more effective than it would be with the current FIFA laws. Even so, it was fun to see Marcelo Balboa and Fernando Clavijo pull that play out of their bag of tricks in Monday's Hall of Fame Game, and even more amusing to listen to the Fox Soccer Channel boys wonder aloud of it was legal or not. I know of at least 17 other guys who knew it was legal ...
Marc Connolly writes for ESPN.com and several other publications. This column runs each Wednesday on MLSnet.com and Marc can be reached at marc@oakwoodsoccer.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
