Monthly Archives: April 2011

something needs to be done about barcelona

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the first leg of the el clásico champions league semifinal should have been one of the most epic football matches of all time.

barcelona surround the referee to try and sway his decision

this really needs to stop.

in terms of sheer talent on the pitch at one time, the champions league has probably never seen so much: the two best players, (arguably) the two best teams, and the two of the best three managers in the world (can’t ignore fergie). monetarily, only 9 of the 22 players that started the match are not among the 100 highest paid footballers in the world. the match up between madrid and barcelona is one the most heated rivalries in all of sports, between two of the most storied clubs in all of football. a clash of the titans if you will.

unfortunately, we didn’t get what we all had hoped.

everyone will be saying that the biggest problem in the game was with the way real played. “anti-football” they call it. but it wasn’t. if anyone expected to see a free-flowing spectacle of a match with loads of attacking, well, they’re just stupid.

we were already given two sneak peaks as to how these champions league fixtures would play out. the first example came in the relatively calm league encounter, where neither manager wanted to expose their plans for the matches to come. the second and more revealing sign of things to come came in the copa del rey final. with a trophy on the line, we got to see mourinho’s so-called “anti-football” finally neutralize barcelona’s “total football.”

it may just be me, but how could anyone expect a mourinho-lead team to not play a suffocating/stifling defensive strategy against barcelona? he did the exact same thing when facing the the catalonians while at the hemls of chelsea and internazionale.

at the midway point of last night’s match, the commentators during the halftime shows universally complained about how los merengues weren’t “playing the game” and were “raping and murdering football” (i might have made that last one up, but the point was still being made). really?

look, nobody is going to beat barcelona playing their game. you can’t just go out and buy players and get them to play confidence crushing tiki-taka the way barça do, mainly because it takes years of playing together to develop that cohesion and positional awareness within a side. arsenal play the most similar style, yet they couldn’t even hold a candle to the blaugrana in the first knockout round.

mourinho, however, is the only one who has been able to crack the catalonian code. sure it’s ugly, boring, defensive, and anti-footballish at times. but it can work against barcelona, and that’s why madrid hired him. i don’t think you’ll hear any inter fans or board members angry with mourinho for playing ugly soccer; they’re all too busy trying to drink from their champions league trophy.

(and if i’m being completely honest here, barcelona’s tiki-taka system can produce some pretty big snoozers too. they have so much possession of the ball, particularly after they score, that the game often becomes pointless to watch. it’s the same thing as watching a blowout in basketball: after a while, it’s just not that fun to the neutral viewer.)

so to all of the pundits and fans out there decrying mourinho’s tactics, take a hike. what would you rather barça’s opponents do:  roll over and concede the games before their played? get out of here. that would kill the game.

all that said, the media do seem to be ignoring a rather large part of the barça persona, and it is, in my opinion, a hugely troublesome issue.

sergio busquets peeks through his hands, looking to see if he earned inter a card.

hey. busquets. we see what you're up to.

barcelona’s incredible dominance of, brilliance in, and flag bearing for the beautiful game has rightly earned them a massive, worldwide following. the effect of their rise to the appex of the sport will be felt for years to come, as a million future little messis, xavis and piques are being heavily influenced by their style of play and club ethos. unfortunately though, they’re not all learning good habits.

what the media is largely ignoring, and i’m taking such an issue with, is that barça are a completely ethically horrible team. they dive, simulate, bitch, moan and harass more than any other side in the world. instead, they pay loads of attention to how mourinho thinks there’s a referee conspiracy, real madrid play anti-football, or collectively kissing barcelona’s blue and red striped ass.

fifa have made it pretty clear lately that they intend to eliminate diving from the game. yet, the crown jewel in the club game’s stable regularly employs some of the most ridiculous divers out there (ronaldo/nani/ibrahimovic aside). pedro, sergio busquets, dani alves were all at the top of their simulation game during yesterday’s el clásico. and the trio, along with regular offenders like david villa and mascherano, have been using these dirty little tricks for quite some time. especially busquets.

on top of that, anytime there is a decision that could go against one of their opponents, their entire team crowds around the referee. you’ll see them there, pleading with and pressuring the official to give their foes the yellow/red card they so “rightfully” deserve. isn’t this something the governing bodies were trying to rid the game of, as well?

so not only are barcelona’s players actively trying to earn the opposition cards by simulating non-existent fouls, but they follow that up by pressuring the referee to give a card for a foul that never happened.

sergio busquets simulating a foul

not only is this unacceptable, but barcelona don't even need to do it.

why are they doing this?!?!  this is a team that doesn’t need to cheat to win. they’re already good enough to beat everyone fair and square.

and while their style of play does seem to “invite” the other team to foul (either through frustration of never having possession, getting rough with their own tackles, or by releasing the ball just as the other player is about to tackle), it’s not an excuse to fake a foul that they thought would happen.

not that i can prove otherwise, but if this is tactical directive from guardiola, i’ve lost a lot of respect for him. when mourinho says things like the following, it makes you a little more suspect:

let’s hope he gets the chance to win a clean champions league, without scandals.

what fifa, uefa, and the media don’t see is that, by ignoring this issue, they are only undermining their efforts to clean up the game. if a million child/teenage barcelona  fans that were watching the game learned anything from yesterday’s match, it’s that they can earn the other team a card if they only make the effort. try to fake a foul. try to pressure the referee. try to cheat. the effects of these lessons will continue to ripple through the world of soccer just as long as all of the positive things that the blaugrana bring to the game.

you’ll never be able to rid your sport of it’s evils if you allow it’s greatest spokesman to be it’s biggest cheat.

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ten words or less #23

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#MLS4RSL: get behind history

click above to join the movement of american fans supporting real salt lake

while the world’s footballing attention is rightfully focused on the bright lights of the europe’s almost-biggest stage this week, let us not forget that the biggest game in north american soccer takes place this week too (1opm est, fox soccer channel). so as we all try to digest both champions leagues’ actions and results this week, here are some of the best links i’ve found in the last few days.

american fans MUST watch this match tomorrow night. - usdish.com

adidas’ excellent retro-influenced lyon kit. – footballshirtculture.com

i do not make very much money. - theoffside.com

an american training at la masia?! there is a god! - ontd-football.livejournal.com

does neil lennon know this is essentially a death wish? - dirty tackle @ yahoo.com

darron gibson’s twitter massacre. – thejournal.ie

a melting pot of hope for the future. – runofplay.com

champions league knockout rounds visualized. – hyperakt.com

the next ball we’ll complain about (DEBUNKED)

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Two posts in less than 24 hours… you should feel very privileged. Anyway, while browsing the internet during lunch at work today, I happened to stumble upon what is supposedly a leaked image of the ball that will supposedly be used as the official match ball for World Cup 2014 in Brazil.

Hold on to your shorts…

the supposed official ball of world cup 2014

is this funkylooking contraption the official ball of the next world cup? i don't know.

So first things first, let’s cement the fact that I have absolutely no clue if this is legit or not. It’s very possible this could be an artistic rendering, a hypothetical prototype, or a wonderfully done bit of trolling from the underbelly of the internet. Discovered in a Facebook group entitled “WOW!! THIS IS WHAT THE 2014 WORLD CUP BALL LOOKS LIKE!!”, which if you’re like me, definitely threw up a red flag or nine. Either way, I figured it would be worth posting just for joy of speculation.

In my highly un-qualified professional opinion, it looks like some odd combination of K’nex building toys and the Russian satellite Sputnik.

What purpose do those little internal arms serve? Maybe the ball doesn’t require any sort of inflation, or maybe it’s some futuristic solution to the whole goal line technology dilemma. What would it feel like to kick that thing? I think could totally shatter the plastic pieces with a good kick, right?

Secondly, would adidas really go with that similar of an external design to the last two World Cup balls? Maybe I’m nitpicking a bit, but it’s a case that could be made.

Either way, if this is the real Brazil 2014 ball, I’m sure of two things:

  1. adidas and FIFA will charge three arms and a leg for it.
  2. Everyone will hate it.

Please, please, please comment and let me know if you have any more information on what’s pictured above, and i’ll be sure to give you due credit with the “breaking” news. More pictures, technical reports… someone’s got be able to debunk this thing in a heartbeat.

Update: How quickly things can be debunked. Reddit user “JimmySinner” pointed out that this was a prototype ball developed a few years back. Further investigation has revealed that it was used in the 2007 FIFA Club World Cup, and went by the name of “adidas Teamgeist II”. Here’s some video of the technology, which was supposed to be able to assist with goal line technology. No word on how effective the technology was, though I would imagine it will never see the light of day again so long as Blatter is alive. My apologies for my very amateur reporting.

rolfe’s still got it!

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chris rolfe celebrates for AaB

don't worry flyer faithful: rolfey's still got the magic touch.

i have to say that one of the main (and many) reasons  i plan to never live in the outer suburbs of ft. wayne, indiana, is the crummy internet infrastructure. my parent’s live outside the city limits in a tiny, amish-dominated town, and around 75% of the time i spend there their web is either down or running at levels slightly slower than dial-up. having just spent (a lovely and enjoyable) easter weekend at my parent’s house, that drastically reduces my capicity to watch and follow my beloved world of footie.

so it wasn’t until last night, when we got home and finally settled back in, that i rolled across this web gem (skip to about 1:50 in the video):

oh yeah… rolfe’s still got it.

having just come on as a 60th minute substitute, rolfe’s goal was the second between a pair from morten rasmussen in aalborg’s 3-3 tie away at 7th placed fc nordsjælland. a great run from the ohioan, a nice little juke, and a great long distrance strike… it’s like times of old.

just in case you’ve been living under a rock, or at least not the rock that is dayton, ohio, chris’ season in denmark is just getting underway after a long, injury-induced spell on the sidelines. his absence has been undfortunate for AaB, as they’ve been fighting to avoid relegation all season.

the weight of the kettering native’s quick contribution can’t really be underestimated. currently, Aab sit 11th place in the 12 team danish SAS-ligaen, and the bottom two are relegated at the end of each season. the good news is that the tie pulls them even on points (28) with 10th place randers fc, and just two points shy of 6th place.

a tightly packed bottom of the table may help to keep AaB up, assuming they can earn some points in their remaining six fixtures. and a somewhat favorable remaining schedule could help them in their efforts:

date location opponent current position points / goal differential
4/30 home fc midtjylland 2nd 41 pts / +11
5/8 home lyngby 9th 29 pts / -9
5/15 away esjberg 12th 25 pts / -14
5/19 away silkeborg if 5th 35 pts / -4
5/25 home sonderjyske 8th 30 pts / -9
5/29 away fc coppenhagen 1st 67 pts / +41

while it won’t be an easy task for aalborg, it’s definitely one that is more achievable than not. (ignoring coppenhagen, of course, as they have been taking it easy since wrapping up the league title ages ago). and just in case you wanted to watch any of the remaining matches, take a look at the instructions that i posted in one my articles from last season.

here’s hoping that rolfey’s timely return to action may give the danish side the boost they need to acheive survival.

disappearing act

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sympathy is not a feeling that i thought i would ever feel for freddy adu.

however unlikely it is that i’m feeling that way, the fact of the matter is i do. this is despite the fact that i find the ghana-born, america-refined attacker to be a snot.

freddy adu playing for rizespor.

have you seen the man in green in blue? not many have in recent times.

to be fair, he has pretty much experienced the rags-to-riches cycle that every immigrant would define as the “american dream.” freddy ended up here by pure freaking chance, winning a visa lottery (yes, they really have lotteries to dertimine who gets to move to america). it was also around this time that his special talents were recognized. all reports show that despite struggling to keep the adu family’s heads above water, his mother attempted to keep her son grounded by turning down the advances of european giants.

instead she allowed freddy to ink a deal with MLS in 2007, keeping her boy at home with the local club, d.c. united. starting his professional career at the age of 14 brought even more hype, with the american media outlets stopping just short of hailing freddy as the second coming of pelé, and at the very least proclaiming he could walk on water. everyone was talking about him: wilbon and kornheiser argued his merits, 60 minutes did a piece on him, and he was even on letterman.

imagine yourself as a 14-16 year old, hearing all of these “experts” tell you how amazing you are/will be. think how difficult that would be to digest and it not inflate your ego. my head certainly would have grown stratospherically huge if that happened to me. so while the kid wasn’t born with a silver spoon in his mouth, he was certainly getting used to being fed off of one.

but contrary to everyone’s professional predictions, the start of adu’s career in MLS could hardly be considered “flying.” quarreling with coaches and indifferent performances lead to a disappointing tally of just 14 goals in a 103 appearances in four MLS seasons. not exactly the stuff that of legend, but then again, much better than i would have faired in the league during my teenage years.

regardless of whether he impressed me during his stateside spell or not, freddy’s displays somehow earned him a “big money” move to europe at the super mature age of 18. benfica signed up the boy that would be their in to the cash-lined pockets of the american sports market. they had the first true american prodigy (ESPN told us he was next!).

flash forward to 2011… adu who? at this point freddy can, at the very best, be called a flop.

benfica, on the hook for a retardedly-long 5 year contract, saw a return of just 2 goals in 11 games in the 2007-2008 season. since, they’ve loaned him out for four successive seasons. unfortunately for adu, each loan move was to a lower and lower league. even worse for the starlet, each loan proved less and less fruitful. aside from a loan to monaco (ligue 1: 9 games, 0 goals), the rest of his moves were to sides such as belenenses (portuguese second division: 3 games, 0 goals), aris (greek first division: 9 games, 1 goal), and çaykur rizespor (turkish second divisoin: 8 games, 2 goals).

for those of you keeping track at home, that’s a grand total of 5 goals in 40 european matches. with an attacker that lethal, i’ve already put $10,000 down on the USMNT winning the 2014 world cup (odds as of writing… 81-1).

pele kisses freddy adu.

curse of the kiss? perhaps pelé stole all of adus talent and promise.

if you’re like me, you probably thought, “maybe a move back home owuld rejuvinate his flagging career.” you have to think that an MLS side would have jumped at the chance to bring him home on loan. but with no moves ever materializing, perhaps the domestic interest in adu hovers somewhere around zero too.

the youngsters fall from grace, quick and steep, begs to question: how this could happen? perhaps he’s not ever been correctly focused (at least he’s not on twitter constantly anymore). maybe he’s being held out in the cold by coaches who are biased against americans (they do exist).  or perhaps it’s that he’s just not that good (probable).

then again, he does occasionally remind us why we were all hyped about him in the first place. adu starred at the u-20 world cup in 2007, as well as at the 2008 olympic tournament in beijing. you would have to think that a player that was named to both tournaments’ best XI’s would be able to make an impact in one of europe’s first divisions.

sadly, he hasn’t been able to.

so a poor immigrant boy wins a nike contract, makes a dream move to europe and is called up to the USMNT. it should be a feel good story that even disney would murder to get the rights to. it should make you feel warm and fuzzy, want to eat an apple pie and scream from the rooftops about the american dream. but the grandiose sense of entitlement that young mr. adu has acquired during the process is enough is enough to make make most anyone feel disdain for the little bastard.

at this point though, i feel bad for him. as annoying as a bratty little kid is with a huge ego, deep down i always hoped he would prove me wrong in europe. after all, how awful would it really be if he had developed into the player we all thought he was capable of becoming? a superstar in bob’s camp wouldn’t be a bad problem to have.

unfortunately though, all we can really hope for anymore is that freddy adu will some day find his feet again.

in defense of a welshman

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Boy oh boy! How about that Gareth Bale? The new “Welsh Wizard”, PFA Player of the Year!

gareth bale holding his PFA player of the year trophy.

bale proves that even a monkey man can look good in a tux.

I’m obviously elated with my favorite player winning the award. Waking up yesterday morning to see Bale posing with the trophy, looking all spiffy in his tux, was certainly a pleasant surprise. I honestly hadn’t expected him to win the award, but then again, I wasn’t that surprised either.

Bale winning the award was interesting for several reasons. First, it’s shocking to learn that he’s only the fourth Welshmen ever to win the award. That said, he’s certainly joining good company: Ryan Giggs, Mark Hughes and Ian Rush are the only others. Secondly, it’s also surprising to see he’s the fourth Tottenham player to win the award, joining club legends David Ginola, Clive Allen and Pat Jennings. It’s not so much of a surprise that any of them won it (all great and deserving players), so much as it’s a surprise that a club with so few league trophies in their cabinet has had so many Players of the Year on their books.

Of course, this isn’t really defending Bale receiving the award. Like I said earlier, I wasn’t expecting the young winger to take home the prize this season. Just being nominated for the award was had me beaming with pride for the boy. And while I’m tickled pink that Gareth has won the coveted PFA prize, I’m not looking forward to the mountain of criticism he’ll receive for it.

And unfortunately, Gareth’s detractors will have plenty reasons to make noise.

The first and most obvious place to begin debunking Gareth’s win is with statistical comparisons between he and his fellow nominees. I’ve seen these numbers circulating around the tubes already:

Player —- Appearances —- Goals —- Assists
Bale                   26                      7                1
Nani*                28                       9               18
Nasri                 25                      9                 1
Tévez                 27                     19               6

* – Nani wasn’t nominated (but should have been)

Sure, Bale certainly pales in comparison to many of his main competitors. But there are a few problems with using statistics alone to debunk bale taking this year’s spoils.

First, it isn’t just this year that needs to be taken into account. Since PFA voting takes place in early spring of each season, you have to take into account statistics from the end of last year. For simplicity’s sake, we’ll go back to the beginning of April 2010:

Player —– Appearances —- Goals —- Assists
Bale                   34                      10               4
Nani                  35                       13             18
Nasri                 32                       9                 1
Tévez                34                      23               7

Well, looking closer at this further data probably gives further weight to the argument that Nani and Tévez probably should have won the award. But then if we add in…

Vidić                35                      4                  0

There, that makes me feel better. but just as is the case with Vidić being a quality candidate, what isn’t taken into consideration in these arguments is how Bale’s statistical contribution affected his team’s overall performance. Nani’s performances have been great, but he has a team full of amazing offensive players (ex: last year’s PFA Player of the Year, Wayne Rooney) to help carry the load. Nasri’s Arsenal finished in third, but then again, they should with the roster the gunners have. Tévez, despite all of his goals, couldn’t get rich-ass City into the Champions League. Bale’s rise to prominence began in the second half of the last season as he put in some breathtaking performances to help lift Spurs into the Champions League. Not that he did it alone, but it would be easy to think they would have missed out on fourth if it hadn’t been for the “apeman.”

ryan giggs won the pfa player of the year award in 2009

giggs didnt get as much stick when he won in 2009, even though he had worse statistics than bale.

The second reason why we can’t use statistics alone to knock Bale’s selection is precedent. When fellow Welshman Ryan Giggs was voted player of the year in 2009, the Manchester United icon had only 4 goals. Whispers were that Giggs won the award more as a nod to his illustrious career than his performances that season.

Something has to also be said about who chooses the award winners. Unlike most major awards, it’s not the media and pundits that choose this Player of the Year. The PFA is the union representing all of the professional players in the football league, and each union member is allowed to vote. Bale winning the award clearly shows that his peers think very highly of those performances over the least year. If you want to argue whether or not he won the award, take it up with your favorite player.

So statistics aside, why else does Bale get the votes?

  • The competition wasn’t all that stiff: Scott Parker and Charlie Adam, despite their sparkling performances, are playing for sides trying to stave off relegation. Teammate Rafael van der Vaart was red hot at the beginning of the campaign, but has since faded and can’t seem to even put in a full 90. Nasri has also gone cold after coming out of the gates on fire, probably due to being used out of position when Fàbregas returned from injury. Vidić is a defender, and they rarely get the nod despite being my pick as the most deserving. Tévez is generally bemoaned for his personality, attitude and perceived arrogance by opposing players, this despite being the most statistically viable candidate. And even though Nani should have been on this list, he’s so disliked by everyone that he could never get a vote.
  • Bale’s low profile: By all accounts, Gareth Bale is an extremely likable kid. He’s quiet and humble, going home to mom for his holidays. Despite scoring a hat trick in the San Siro and “hailing a taxi for Maicon” at White Hart Lane, he never seemed to let it go to his head. And oh yeah, he’s British; we all know how much that trait is overvalued in the Premier League.
  • Key performances: When Bale stepped up, he stepped up on big occasions. It’s likely that his Champions League showings, which dominated headlines for a good portion of the season, clouded the voters’ judgement. None of the other candidates can really boast a similar characteristic. So while it’s not exactly fair that a competition outside of England affected the voting for an award inside England, you can’t really ignore it either.
Ok, so none of those reasons are exactly rock solid. But they are all probably reasons why Bale received so many votes from his peers.
Listen, I’m not sitting here and saying that Bale undoubtedly had the best season of any of his peers. But he has had a great year, one that Tottenham supporters such as myself will never forget. and though he could very well prove to be a flash in the pan, that prospect shouldn’t minimize his accomplishments either.
Let the boy have his moment. he may never get to enjoy one like it again.

ten words or less #22

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tottenham's gomes fumbles ronaldo's shot into the net.

gomes' butter fingers are no good for his confidence.

sometimes i feel like an irresponsible blogger when i post link-themed articles back-to-back. yes, it’s lazy. but i can’t even begin to tell you, nor do i think i need to, how much easier they are to write. in the case of these “ten words or less” postings, i only have to come up with a maximum of 80 words of soccer content to adequately get the job done. compared to a typical post that ranges between 1100 and 2000, which require far more editing (of which they could definitely use more), i don’t have to stay up past my bed time to get these things finalized.

also, i’m sad about tottenham being knocked out of the champions league.

so quit judging me for taking the easy road out. after all, at least you don’t have to read as much.

spurs are being linked with imaginary players. great. – inbedwithmaradona.com

left out “doesn’t play well with west ham’s frank lampard.” - reddit.com/user/ProseB4Hoes

football jokes visualized. worth a nerd chuckle. - footballvenndiagrams.tumblr.com

if you ask me, villa’s problems run deeper than friedel. – soccernet.com

these will never work. – dirty tackle @yahoo.com

kaka’s undershirt now reads, “i belong to am jesus” – dirty tackle @ yahoo.com

terrifying talk. – guardian.co.uk

must be fake. not even beckham is that good. – soccerlens.com

round up #31

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I have to admit that I’m a little depressed this week. I cancelled a vacation day that I had planned for watching the second leg of the Tottenham-Real Madrid Champions League quarter-final, as it makes no sense to waste such a precious commodity on a tie that will surely see my favorite team exit. I’m not sure whether I’m more sad about Spurs’ eventual exit, or by the fact that I’m giving up a vacation day. Oh well, another 5-day workweek for me.

real salt lake celebrate their win against saprissa

is this the best MLS side we’ve ever seen?

While I’m busy bumbling my way through another rainy monday in Ohio, I thought I could provide you with som interesting links from around the tubes and my tangent thoughts associated with them.

———————————————

Actually, you are quite divisible – fromaleftwing.blogspot.com
Retro jersey design is all the rage these days and I, for one, am a big fan of the movement. Retro inspiration tends to be me minimalist in nature, something I highly value in design both inside and outside of football fashions. with Umbro and parent company Nike leading the retro charge, we’ve recently been given some excellent kits that hearken iconic, cultural symbols of days past.

However, even hip and popular designing trends can produce stinkers. And the new USWNT kits are definitely a big stinker. In a similar move to France’s badass aways inspired by traditional french naval uniforms, the new American women’s kit pays homage to nursing uniforms from the World War II era. Is this jersey supposed to trick Sepp Blatter into thinking that the women’s game is finally taking his advice? Because if so, they’re doing an awful job at sexing the game up with low-cut shirts that still cover them up. Nike blew a massive opportunity to create a super cool and sexy nurse kit.

Why Arsene Wenger’s all-powerful status may come to an end – goal.com
Another week goes by, another opportunity for Wenger to make excuses. There have been growing concerns over the last season or two whether the Gunners are really benefiting from being solely governed by King Arsene, and whether the professor is finally losing the course. However, Arsenal are likely going to finish their sixth consecutive season without a trophy. That’s plenty of time for the fans and media to finally start questioning his methods.

It’s an interesting idea to hypothesize that, with American Stan kroenke set to launch a takeover of Arsenal, this could spell the demise of the Frenchman’s complete control of the club’s sporting initiatives. Purging Arsene of some of or part of the responsibilities that he currently governs with an iron fist may allow him to focus fully on what should be his main priority: the results on the pitch.

Player answers phone during match, takes out opponent – dirty tackle @ yahoo.com
Seriously, who answers their freaking phone during a match? As video below shows, apparently guys who play German amateur football do. Unless it’s a family emergency, your house is burning down, or a call up to the national team, there is no acceptable reason to take a call while playing. And since this dude was willing to interrupt his call to go crack some skull, I’m guessing that it wasn’t such an important call to begin with.

Now dick tackle aside, how about the form on that tackle?! Seemingly out of the action while chatting away like your average teenage girl on their T-Mobile Sidekick, Matthias Hilbrands swoops in and blows up the opposing player on the break for Fortuna Veenhusen. I’d also like to note that it was a clean tackle. so the next question becomes, “Why the yellow?”

RSL reserves topple Revolution – soccerbyives.com
I don’t know that we’ve ever seen an MLS side that’s as good as the current incarnation of Real Salt Lake. Despite the club having to defend its surprise MLS Cup championship last season, the Utahns (ick… wouldn’t Utovian sound cooler?) are steadily becoming a force to be reckoned with in the US. Having become the first MLS club ever to advance to the final of the CONCACAF Champions League last week, manager Jason Kreis decided to give a majority of his first team a much-needed rest against New England. And that was plenty good enough for the rough affair.

The real test, however, still awaits RSL. American sides have a horrendous 1 for 12 record against Mexican sides over two legs, and Salt Lake will be facing one in the final (Monterrey). There is some hope though, as one of only two MLS sides to ever beat a Mexican team is… drumroll please… Real Salt Lake! And if they are able to prevail in the continental championship, I may actually consider forgiving them for the stupid, stupid name.

Respect? I remember that one time at Old Trafford… – guardian.co.uk
According to Premier League chief dick Scudamore, next season everyone will respect the referees or else. Having grown tired of the near-constant bad behavior of the players in his league, he intends to crack down on the worst offence being committed by the ruffians — disrespecting the referees. To quote a tweet by the poorly punctuated Robbie Savage:

To much inconsistency in decisions from authorities elbowing wrong , air rifles wrong , swearing wrong, one only gets punished !

Scudamore’s efforts, while understandable, are way off base. First, there are bigger issues to tackle in his league than swearing at, surrounding,  or post-match calling out of a referee. Secondly, he is completely glossing over the bigger problem all together with respecting referees: his officials have been making a lot of mistakes lately.

How is a player/manager supposed to accept the criticisms of the fans and media, yet not be allowed to vocalize his criticisms of a referee who’s made an obvious mistake that could have had a huge impact on the outcome of the match? If you ask me, it doesn’t seem fair that referees are exempt from public thrashing that players receive when they don’t meet the grade.

wrong side XI: goalkeeper

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this is part II in the “wrong side XI” series, where i’ll be selecting my very own starting eleven, assuming of course that i could choose any player from any team in the world. you can read the rules i’ll be following to make my team selection, and what formation i’ll be squeezing them into, on the first post in the series.

reina, casillas, hart, lloris and howard all make my shortlist.

There was a position that I didn’t address in my first post, but let’s be honest… it’s the only position on the pitch that is never really affected by formation changes. I’m talking about the man at the back guarding the sticks: the goalkeeper.

When I first started the project of picking my first XI, I thought that picking a goalkeeper would be one of the hardest spots in my line up to fill.  It’s not like picking for your marking backs, where if you like two players about the same, you can pretty much start them both. After all, only one keeper plays at a time.

On top of the difficult task of selecting a single man to fill this spot, you also have to be cognizant of the reliability and mental strength of the player you end up selecting. Keepers face monumental amounts of pressure, often facing complete blame for conceded goals that should rightly be blamed on the poor defending in front of them. And while everyone makes mistakes from time to time (england will forgive you, Robert Green), your goalie should be able to bounce back from his mistakes and learn from them.

So who makes the cut? Listed below are the candidates that i considered to fill my number one.

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the inevitable is there

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“they’ve done well, but the inevitable is there,” said ray wilkins during his commentary towards the end of last night’s game. and while the former chelsea first team coach’s words were a generous yet accurate assessment of spurs’ performance, the sting was still there. we all knew it would end this way.

ricardo carvahlo pokes the ball away from gareth bale.

even bale's immense talent isn't enough to ward off the inevitable.

thank god for ray, though: he was a like a machine gun that fired off training ground quips at random intervals. if it hadn’t been for his entertaining commentary, i doubt many tottenham fans would have in any way found the match enjoyable.

either way, let’s just say i’m glad i didn’t make any predictions in yesterday’s column.

in a rare display of common sense, even i knew that i would end up putting my foot in my mouth by making some absurd prediction of a tottenham victory in the bernabéu. the yids had already pulled off a miracle this season at the san siro (an argument could even be made that they pulled off two miracles there), but asking for another magical european night facing another storied opponent? nobody’s luck stays good so long.

besides, redknapp had already been mugged in madrid once this year. would it really be that surprising if it happened again?

even with the man advantage for three-fourths of the match, madrid clearly looked the better side. the interplay at the

di maria celebrating his scorcher against madrid

angel di maria's belter was the nail in tottenham's champions league coffin.

top of the pitch between the two-goal adebayor, ronaldo, ozïl and di maria was, at times, a force of nature. the tandem of xabi alonso and khedira completely neutralized any central threat from modrić and jenas. (tangent warning: is it just me, or is jermaine jenas the worst player ever to play in a champions league quarter-final? he didn’t play one positively directed ball, and when he attempted to, he coughed it up every time. i hate him.)

without crouch up top to divert their attention, the madrid back line did little wrong in handling counter attacks sporadically coming out of the tottenham end. and with less defensive responsibility, it allowed marcelo the freedom to regularly join the madrid attack. judging by his performance both tonight and over recent months, i’m guessing the special one is feeling rather justified with hanging on to the emerging brazilian.

sure, the red card certainly threw tottenham’s match plans out the window. but i would venture to say that even if

crouch sees red against real madrid

crouch's stupidity likely didn't impact the eventual outcome that much.

crouch hadn’t been an idiot, spurs would still have been tactically out matched. massimo allegri and rafa benitez are great managers, but neither prepares their side as well as mourinho. and though harry’s not as big of a tactical moron as some like to claim, there’s no doubting that mourinho is a class above in that department.

but like mr. wilkins noted in the opening quote, tottenham’s performance wasn’t all bad. there were positives to glean from the horrid 0-4 scoreline:

  • bale seems to be getting his mojo back. he was able to really open it up a few times last night, a first since he went out injured. moments that stick out were the near miss in the fist half after beautifully chesting down a long ball at the top of the madrid box, as well as a very accurate long throw to van der vaart. he was dangerous enough to draw a ban-inducing yellow on pepe, and should have earned another from sergio ramos on several occasions.
  • michael dawson is definitely emerging as a premier level center back. despite the score, he handled himself very well when facing up against one of the most gifted attacking groups in the world.
  • sandro’s rise to prominence continued last night, though his decision-making at times made me sweat (quit dribbling out of the back!). regardless, his distribution is light years better than palacios and he may soon find himself ahead of even huddlestone when he returns from injury.
  • spurs defended very well with ten men for stretches, and it’s a bit shocking that they held off until the 57th and 72th minutes before conceding the second and third goals. if they had been at full strength, i think a 1-2 or 1-3 scoreline would have been more likely.

despite these bright spots, and even if there had a been a few more, i still knew this was coming. it was “the inevitable.”

yes, the second leg still remains. but it would be foolish to predict another miracle. beating madrid by five goals, even at home, is pure fantasy. getting knocked out the champions league wouldn’t be the worst of scenarios either, allowing spurs to fully focus their efforts on finishing fourth and qualifying for the champions league again.

but i am hoping tottenham will make it competitive this time around. it’s been a fun ride this year, and i’d love to get to see some of the attacking flair that was deprived us last night. and if we’re so lucky, we can all enjoy just one more european night at white hart lane.