The Harfang's Perch

MLS World Cup qualifying update

2005-03-31T07:44:00.000-08:00

The tally after the first sets of qualifiers in 2005:

* 55 goals by 22 current or former MLS players (yes, I'm counting former Crew draft pick and current Toronto Lynx striker John Barry Nusum in that total, and adding in goals from now-current MLS players from prior in qualifying) representing 14 countries OTHER than the United States in 4 confederations.

Carlos Ruiz (Guatemala) 8
Stern John (Trinidad/Tobago) 6
Dipsy Selolwane (Botswana) 5
Andy Herron (Costa Rica) 2
Guillermo "El Pando" Ramirez (Guatemala) 2
Zizi Roberts (Liberia) 1
Shaun Bartlett (South Africa) 1
Cornell Glen (Trinidad/Tobago) 1
William Sunsing (Costa Rica) 1
Joselito Vaca (Bolivia) 1
Scott Sealy (Trinidad/Tobago) 1
Douglas Sequiera (Costa Rica) 1

This above list no longer includes players whose countries were eliminated from qualifying in 2004 (25 goals from 10 players representing 7 countries in 2 confederations).

What a Mess....

2005-02-17T04:04:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday, April Heinrichs resigned as manager of the United States Women's National Team, ending a five-year run where the US finished second in the 2000 Olympics, third in the 2003 Women's World Cup, and first at the 2004 Olympics. Moreover, her attempt to pacify the veterans while bleeding new talent harmed the program and her standing both within Soccer House and in the media. The search is on for a replacement and all I can say is GOOD LUCK!

Despite having what is considered the best national team program on the planet in terms of player talent and success rate, there is not a pool of talented persons available to lead it. I never did like April and thought the Fed could have made a better choice in 1999 when Tony DiCicco "retired". The best candidate then, and the one who would be the best candidate now had he not been taken from us by cancer in the interim, was Clive Charles. He had solid credentials in the women's game, had been an assistant for BOTH National Teams, had coached at least two present members of the WNT pool (Tiffeny Milbrett and Shannon MacMillan), and was not part of the UNC establishment that held (and still holds) a lion's share of spots in the player pool. With the best candidate (in my opinion) no longer with us, we are left with few options, none of which are pretty. They break down (with one exception) into the following categories: retreads, WUSA, aisle-crossers, imports, and projects.

Retreads: Anson Dorrance and Tony DiCicco. Both former managers of the WNT, this pair of experienced coaches have to be considered on the short list for the vacancy. Dorrance's recent legal troubles at UNC make him a questionable candidate and I'm not sure he wants to get back into the NT game. The latter is also probably true for DiCicco, I would believe. If either man came forth and said he was interested, I am quite sure he would have serious backing for the post.

WUSA: The pool of former WUSA coaches, unlike that of MLS managers, is not teeming with possible options for this post. The top coaches in the league all have baggage. Be it Jim Gabarra or Tom Stone with little or no international experience, Pia Sundhage and her import status (she managed the Swedish YNTs prior to coming to WUSA), or Ian Sawyers and the perception of riding his wife's coattails (he's married to Julie Foudy), the nascent professional league did not spring up any one person who could be considered fully qualified for the opening the way MLS did with Bruce Arena.

Aisle-Crossers: This piece of the pool includes those whose primary coaching experience comes from the men's game but who MIGHT be interested in the position. At the top of this list would be Glenn "Mooch" Myernick. A former player in the NASL and coach in MLS, he is currently the top assistant on the Men's National Team and was the architect of the shocking win over Portugal in the 2002 World Cup. He has international experience, managing the U-23 National Team in Olympic qualifying, and would bring a sense of professionalism to the WNT program. The issue here, for Mooch or any other coach from outside the WNT pipeline, would be the ensuing firestorm from those who resent the notion that there is not a qualified candidate in the women's game (akin to the argument that there isn't a qualified American option for the men's team after Bruce hangs up the clipboard).

Imports: As the title implies, those in this category have coached or currently coach other national teams. The three names that come to mind are Evan Pellerud (current Canada and former Norway mgr.), Sundhage, and Rene Simoes (current Brazil manager and former head of the Jamaican Men's National Team, leading them to the 1998 World Cup). As with the aisle-crossers, the idea of going outside the borders for a new coach opens a can of worms for a lot of people involved with soccer in this country.

Projects: Heinrichs came from this part of the pool herself on taking the NT job. Her main accomplishment was captaining the WNT to the 1991 World Cup title and her coaching experience consisted of a handful of seasons at the University of Virginia. The fact that she was a she ultimately secured her hiring (IMO) and my gut tells me the Fed wants to stay the course on promoting women in high-profile coaching positions in this country (nevermind that the gender gap hasn't been closed yet as is the case in other sports). Any candidate in this part of the pool, no matter how knowledgeable of the international game, the player pool, and the politics of Soccer House, will have to learn on-the-job to an extent. Former players that are now coaches at the college level include Shannon Higgins-Cirovski (Maryland) and Carin Gabarra (Navy). Top college coaches such as Jillian Ellis (UCLA) and Becky Burleigh (Florida) come to mind as well. Recently-retired players such as Michelle Akers, Joy Fawcett, Carla Overbeck, and the like might be considered in order to keep the publicity machine rolling and preclude a rebuilding process that will not be pretty.

With all of that said, one candidate DOES exist in this country to lead the Women's National Team. He has been a college coach for a number of years, led the U-21 National Team in the DiCicco administration, and has enormous credibility in the women's game. That candidate is Jerry Smith from Santa Clara. No one I believe questions his commitment to women's soccer or his success rate at any stop to date. The only possible drawback is that he is married to Brandi Chastain and some (those less-educated in women's soccer and its history) might see this as a patronage move and thus no better than that for an aisle-crosser, an import, or a project. Unlike Sawyers, Smith's success/promotion in the game has never been because of Brandi, but on his own merit. In my opinion, unless Dorrance or DiCicco come out of international retirement, Smith needs to be the one hired.

Matchday One: Get Off The Mark

2005-02-06T18:09:00.000-08:00

The United States National Team kicks off the final round of World Cup Qualifying on Wednesday in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad against the Soca Warriors. The roster is attached at the bottom, but before that, keys to the Hex and this opening match:

Hexagonal points:

* IT'S A MARATHON, not a sprint! For all the high-pressure ties in the Hex (US/Mexico and US/Costa Rica to name a couple) which seem to project a life-or-death nature, the amount of error available to a team is much more in this round than it was in the semifinal round. A team that hit a hot stretch over Matches 1-3 might fall back to the pack by the time matches 7-10 are played in September/October (e.g. the US in 2001), whereas a team can struggle out of the gate and still find its way to Germany by the time all is said and done (e.g. Mexico in 2001 and the US in 1997).

* A team MUST take advantage of road points when and where they make themselves available (any trip to T&T or a midweek tilt at either CR or Mexico to state a couple of examples), because getting a draw from the host is in effect stealing two points from them.

* The home team MUST dictate play or else fall victim to being steamrolled on their home soil. Anyone who was at the US/Honduras match in DC in 2001 can attest to the fact that the opponent took it to us from the get-go. If the host lets its visitor bring the pace, they are likely to be trying to stave off a stealing of all the points rather than a splitting of the spoils.

* As in the semifinal round, group play can be broken down into a series of home-and-away battles, so that if you win more of those battles than you lose, you will advance. The United States went 2-0-3 in the series in the 2001 Hex (split with Mexico, Honduras, and Costa Rica while beating Jamaica and Trinidad/Tobago). We should win the series over T&T and Panama, thus making the Costa Rica/Mexico/Guatemala series a battle to avoid the playoff spot against the team from Asia.

US/T&T points:

* A tie is a good result considering the labor impasse which stole valuable training time from the team, but three points can be gotten. Port-of-Spain is the tamest road venue in the Hex and its occupant is perceived once again as the weak sister in the group. Every team in the Hex will be looking for points at T&T and we can set the standard by getting three on Matchday One.

* The US will be aggressive but not reckless. The goal of this game is to get points in whatever variety they come. The US has been known to get out early on the Soca Warriors and a quick pair of strikes will lock up the result (akin to their visit to Foxboro in 2001, where we scored twice in the first 22 minutes).

* The tactic will be to flood the box with crosses against a weak backline. Expect Beasley and Lewis to start on the flanks supported by Cherundolo and Bocanegra and Donovan to work as almost a third forward behind McBride and either Wolff or Johnson.

* This is the first match of the round and as such a less-than-stellar result will not doom the US. The roster combining players from Major League Soccer who are just starting spring training and in-season European-based players could make for a performance that is played at the level of our opponent.

Unofficial roster: Joe Cannon, Marcus Hahnemann, Kasey Keller; Chris Albright, Gregg Berhalter, Carlos Bocanegra, Steve Cherundolo, Jimmy Conrad, Cory Gibbs, Frankie Hejduk, Eddie Pope; DaMarcus Beasley, Clint Dempsey, Landon Donovan, Eddie Lewis, Pablo Mastroeni, Clint Mathis, Ben Olsen; Brian Ching, Eddie Johnson, Brian McBride, Taylor Twellman, Josh Wolff.

Prediction: United States 2, Trinidad/Tobago 0

Just get it done!

2005-01-10T07:52:00.000-08:00

The labor impasse between the United States Soccer Federation and the United States National Team Players Association continues along with no movement seen from either side. With a month to go until the USNT opens the Hex in Trinidad, and 22 days until the Feb. 1 date the USSF set as a deadline for an agreement without them using replacement players (non-union members who have not participated in a national team camp in the past four years), it is time for fans to begin actively voicing their displeasure over this. The following is based on an IM conversation with the legendary Dr. Chuck, administrator of the blog at Matchnight.com, and sorts out my thoughts on the issues and how I think the sides need to proceed to get to an agreement.

The USNTPA have been working without a contract since December 31, 2002 and are seeking a greater portion of the profits which they bring in for the USSF through friendlies and World Cup qualifiers. The USSF is in a tough position here as their concern is with the entire spectrum of soccer in the United States, which includes the Women's National Team, Youth National Teams and amateur/youth soccer. The players refused to participate in a training camp in December, which the Fed took as being notice of a strike. At that point, the Fed locked the union out of this month's scheduled camp and cancelled two high-profile tune-ups, against South Korea and Sweden, in preparation for the beginning of the Hex. With the facts out of the way, let's move on to each side and how they are perceiving this battle.

USNTPA: They feel as though they give up a lot in terms of time and money lost from their club sides to play for the US and thus want their work to be compensated fairly. The fact that they have worked without a new contract since the last one expired at the end of 2002 is quite admirable and therefore they are hoping to get some retroactive pay from the Fed for that. Their concern is with being fairly treated by the USSF and that the Fed bargains in good faith rather than give them a deal and say "take it or leave it".

USSF: The Fed has a $30 million surplus on-hand and could very easily meet the players' demands without hurting the bottom line. Their investment in new soccer-specific stadia is in the best interest of the professional game in this country and is a justifiable expense on their part. The biggest issue for the Fed right now is that they also have to re-negotiate their contract with the Women's National Team union, and that is causing the impasse with the men to spin out of control. The current contract with the WNT calls for them to be paid the same as the men and to be financially supported until a women's professional league proves solvent in this country. With the "Golden Girls" retiring, the Fed wants to make cuts in that contract, but cannot do so if they finish the agreement with the men first.

How to Make a Deal: The best move for both sides here is to get an interim agreement signed, once that would last until after the 2006 World Cup, with promises of retroactive pay over the life of this agreement based on the figures in the new one, and meeting the players somewhere in the middle of what they are requesting. This way, the players get a fair shake and return to camp to prepare for qualifying and the Fed gets something done that will not necessarily impact their negotiations with the WNT. After the 2006 Cup, the USSF can negotiate a four-year contract with the USNTPA that deals with the entire gamut of issues that are on the table now, but outside of the dual negotiations with the WNT and hopefully with the ability to make differential contracts with the two.

In conclusion, the WNT is indirectly to blame for the USSF/USNTPA impasse, although all sides carry some burden for letting things get to this point. I honestly hope that an agreement can be arrived at shortly and that we will have our full complement of players in Port-of-Spain on February 9th for that first match of the round.

Hex schedule and takes

2004-12-01T08:35:00.000-08:00

The Hex draw was done yesterday in Zurich, with the United States getting the #6 ball. Therefore, the schedule is as follows:

February 9 @ Trinidad/Tobago
March 26 or 27 @ Mexico
March 30 vs. Guatelmala
June 4 or 5 vs. Costa Rica
June 8 @ Panama
August 17 vs. Trinidad/Tobago
September 3 or 4 vs. Mexico
September 7 @ Guatemala
October 8 or 9 @ Costa Rica
October 12 vs. Panama

On the surface, the schedule is workable. We get the easiest road venue first, followed by the most difficult, with four of the following five matches on home soil and the Gold Cup scheduled between Matchdays 5 and 6 also in the US. The pain-in-the-rear of the schedule comes in the second half, with Mexico here on Labor Day weekend and a Matchday 9 encounter with Costa Rica. Oddly enough, our weekend dates are with Mexico and Costa Rica, teams that I would prefer to be playing mid-week when crowds on both sides would be lessened and we would have a better chance of getting road points and guaranteeing a pro-US crowd at home.

As for venues, I would choose to play Mexico behind doors if at ALL possible because of the date issue, but would then choose Blackbaud Stadium in Charleston, SC to host the tilt if a closed-doors match were unfeasible. I'd play Costa Rica in Kansas City again, play Guatemala in the elevation of Denver (I was won over to this choice), Panama at the new house in Frisco, and Trinidad/Tobago in Columbus as part of a doubleheader. In reality, I expect Mexico to be in Columbus, Foxboro to get a date, Seattle or Portland to get the Guatemala match, with the other two dates involving Columbus, Frisco, Kansas City, and Victoria Street.

Best-case scenario: We get four points from the first two matches and clinch a spot to Germany before the trip to Saprissa.

MLS World Cup Qualifying update

2004-12-01T08:25:00.000-08:00

The tally heading into 2005:

* 48 goals by 18 current or former MLS players (yes, I'm counting former Crew draft pick and current Toronto Lynx striker John Barry Nusum in that total, and adding in goals from now-current MLS players from prior in qualifying) representing 13 countries OTHER than the United States in 3 confederations. (# = country is eliminated from qualifying)

#John Barry Nusum (Bermuda) 7
Carlos Ruiz (Guatemala) 6
Stern John (Trinidad/Tobago) 6
Dipsy Selolwane (Botswana) 5
#Amado Guevara (Honduras) 4
#Dwayne DeRosario (Canada) 4
#Duncan Oughton (New Zealand) 2
Andy Herron (Costa Rica) 2
#Ryan Nelsen (New Zealand) 2
#Jean-Philippe Peguero (Haiti) 2
Zizi Roberts (Liberia) 1
Shaun Bartlett (South Africa) 1
#Saul Martinez (Honduras) 1
#Damani Ralph (Jamaica) 1
#Jorge "Zarco" Rodriguez (El Salvador) 1
Cornell Glen (Trinidad/Tobago) 1
William Sunsing (Costa Rica) 1
#Andy Williams (Jamaica) 1

I will re-format this list for the start of qualifying in February with just those on nations still in the hunt listed.

Matchday Six: In Search of Motivation

2004-11-17T09:00:00.000-08:00

The US National Team will take the pitch this evening in its final match of CONCACAF World Cup qualifying for 2004 with advancement to the final stage secure. Jamaica needs a win in order to punch its ticket to the Hex without outside help and should plan to bring the house at the US to that end. The motivation for the home side is an amalgam of different emotions. For some players, tonight is an opportunity to show Bruce Arena that he should keep them in mind when qualifying starts again in February. For others, the opportunity is there to move up the food chain in the pool with a good showing (Eddie Johnson, Oguchi Onyewu, Pablo Mastroeni). For some of the Europe-based players in camp, tonight presents a chance to play a full 90-minute match against a decent opponent. The most complex sort of motivation tonight will be that of the team in general.

Since the US has already clinched a place in the Hex, the result of tonight's match is meaningless in the eyes of some, nothing more than a glorified friendly. Those of us who follow soccer (and write on it from the fan's perspective), however, see a myriad of motivations for the team. Some of us think the US should play all-out, both to eliminate Jamaica and make the road to Germany less stressful while at the same time proving our dominance in the region. Others think we need to blood talent for next year and that it doesn't matter who comes with us from the group to the Hex. I take a slightly-different approach and think of the long-term implications of tonight's match.

What we need to do tonight comes down to one key question: Will the US qualify for Germany NO MATTER WHO is in the Hex or not? If one says no, then by all means we need to pave the easiest road possible and should shell the Reggae Boyz. If yes, then the bigger question of "what is in the best long-term interests of the US National Team?" shoud be asked. For the momentum of the quarterfinal finish in Korea/Japan to be sustained, we need to keep our world ranking up. Playing Panama or El Salvador twice next year would not be helpful in that regard, especially if we drew a match with one of them. A road draw against Jamaica, however, wouldn't hurt as much. Given the gap in standing between Jamaica and the other two teams in our group, having Jamaica in the Hex would help us in the efforts to qualify for a seed in 2006 or 2010 (or help Mexico as well). Getting a seed almost ensures advancement to the knock-out stages, since one would avoid Brazil, Argentina, and a number of very good European sides. The points separating the teams between 6 and 12 are so few that getting good results against slightly-better opposition might make a difference between a group of Argentina/Sweden/Portugal/USA and USA/Denmark/Ireland/Ecuador, and if it doesn't do so for 2006 it might for 2010 or 2014. In the grand scheme of things, the US is better-served by having Jamaica in the Hex because the higher the ranking of the team you beat, the more points you can secure, and in a game of inches, a couple extra points on a sheet of paper can go a long way.

Prediction: In a match that will be heavily-influenced by scoreboard-watching, the US and Jamaica will play to a somewhat-entertaining 1-1 draw. Jamaica advances with this result amid cries of collusion from the Panamanian federation and is rewarded with a February 9th date on the road at The United States of America.

US vs. Jamaica roster pool and considerations (update)

2004-11-09T05:27:00.000-08:00

I said I would update the list for the Jamaica match as teams went out of the MLS playoffs, but just got side-tracked. Here is my 18-man roster (looks like a short camp, so the Wizards and United players will get calls and "experience" will win the roster day):

Chris Armas, Chicago Fire (MLS) M
Joe Cannon, Colorado Rapids (MLS) G
Conor Casey, FC Mainz (Germany) F
Bobby Convey, Reading (England) D
Landon Donovan, San Jose Earthquakes (MLS) M
Eddie Gaven, Metrostars (MLS) M
Cory Gibbs, FC Dallas (MLS) D
Frankie Hejduk, Columbus Crew (MLS) D
Eddie Johnson, FC Dallas (MLS) F
Cobi Jones, Los Angeles Galaxy (MLS) M
Pablo Mastroeni, Colorado Rapids (MLS) M
Oguchi Onyewu, Standard Liege (Belgium) D
Eddie Pope, Metrostars (MLS) D
Tony Sanneh, Columbus Crew (MLS) D
Taylor Twellman, New England Revolution (MLS) F
Jonny Walker, Metrostars (MLS) G
Josh Wolff, Kansas City Wizards (MLS) F
Kerry Zavagnin, Kansas City Wizards (MLS) M

Coming Home

2004-10-24T06:51:00.000-07:00

A four-game road trip that started with a win and a pair of ties to end the regular season ended with a 1-0 loss at the hands of the Revolution in the first leg of the Eastern Conference semifinal. Second leg is next Sunday back at the friendly confines of Estadio Crew with only one goal to make up in the aggregate. The recap:

* No danger! We were not dangerous in the attack. Buddle and Martino were coming back too deep to get the ball in the first half, and the offensive subs in the second (Cunningham for Buddle and Washington for Elliott) did not add significantly to our attempts on net.

* Tactics were awry. We tried to be cute in our forays towards the offensive third, which plays right into the plodding "grinta" style of the Revs. We didn't run at them with the ball, we didn't pelt their net enough, and we didn't seem to have any ideas on changing our attack when it became apparent that we weren't having any success. Still, this game had 0-0 written all over it and that would have been a good result if not for one error in the 25th minute, leaving me to ask...

* Who had John?!?! WHY was Avery John allowed to just hold the ball about 30 yards from net, with no one coming to close him down, only to dribble in a bit and drive a laser into the upper corner, with which Buschie had NO chance. That strike has us behind in the series and in need of a multiple-goal win next week to advance in regulation time.

US vs. Jamaica roster pool and considerations

2004-10-18T16:04:00.000-07:00

With the United States National Team through to the Hex with a game to spare, much has been mentioned about who to call into camp for the final qualifier of the semifinal round, November 17th against Jamaica in Columbus, OH. Hence, here are some things to consider and a running tally of who should be in camp for this match:

* We can field an all-MLS side and contend quite well against the Reggae Boyz, which would allow for our Europe-based players to remain with their clubs even though November 17th is an international matchdate in the FIFA calendar.

* MLS Cup will be played in Los Angeles on November 14th, making it somewhat unlikely that any players from either finalist would be brought to camp, especially considering that 80% of the league's teams will have completed play for the season by November 7th and a competitive side could be fielded from whatever eight teams are not in the final.

* Bruce Arena, therefore, could conceivably open camp for this match on November 8th, allowing for a number of new guys to get long looks from Bruce and bolster their case for inclusion when the Hex starts in February.

Oguchi Onyewu and Conor Casey should be the only two Europe-based players called to camp, provided that their inclusion for all of camp can be arranged. The rest of the camp roster will come from MLS, with names added as the playoffs progress and teams are eliminated.

US roster for 11/17 Jamaica match

Chris Armas, Chicago Fire (MLS)
Conor Casey, FC Mainz (Germany)
Cory Gibbs, FC Dallas (MLS)
Eddie Johnson, FC Dallas (MLS)
Oguchi Onyewu, Standard Liege (Belgium)

MLS World Cup Qualifying update

2004-10-14T08:18:00.000-07:00

The tally after CONCACAF semifinal matchdays four and five:

* 46 goals by 17 current or former MLS players (yes, I'm counting former Crew draft pick and current Toronto Lynx striker John Barry Nusum in that total, and adding in goals from now-current MLS players from prior in qualifying) representing 13 countries OTHER than the United States in 3 confederations. (# = country is eliminated from qualifying)

#John Barry Nusum (Bermuda) 7
Carlos Ruiz (Guatemala) 6
Stern John (Trinidad/Tobago) 6
Dipsy Selolwane (Botswana) 5
Amado Guevara (Honduras) 4
Dwayne DeRosario (Canada) 3
#Duncan Oughton (New Zealand) 2
Andy Herron (Costa Rica) 2
#Ryan Nelsen (New Zealand) 2
#Jean-Philippe Peguero (Haiti) 2
Zizi Roberts (Liberia) 1
Shaun Bartlett (South Africa) 1
Saul Martinez (Honduras) 1
Damani Ralph (Jamaica) 1
Jorge "Zarco" Rodriguez (El Salvador) 1
Cornell Glen (Trinidad/Tobago) 1
William Sunsing (Costa Rica) 1

A Hollow Point

2004-10-04T11:47:00.000-07:00

In front of its second consecutive sellout crowd, the Crew was in prime position to clinch home-field advantage for the Eastern Conference playoffs and their first conference title. A victory over the Fire combined with a DC win at the Metrostars would put Columbus seven points up on the Meadowlands side with just six points available. Despite Damani Ralph’s penalty kick strike on 14 minutes, momentum was with the Crew all evening. Nate Jaqua’s dismissal and Kyle Martino’s answer from the spot on the halftime whistle put the Crew back in the driver’s seat. Despite two leads in the second half, the Hunt Park outfit could not close out the match, ending up with a 3-3 draw that moves the team five clear of the Metrostars and extending its unbeaten run to a league-record-tying 15 straight matches. The recap:

* Downside of 11 v. 10 was evident. For the second straight match, the Crew had a man advantage for the entire second half and, for the second match in a row, they had problems cashing in on their wealth of numbers. DC United did not score in part because of a spectacular match from Jon Busch and in part because their personnel options were severely limited after the Nelsen ejection, having used one sub to replace an injured Jaime Moreno and a second to restore a third player to the backline. Chicago, on the other hand, lost a midfielder/forward and still had a four-person backline in place that was less-than-fully challenged by the Crew in the latter 45 minutes. That, along with effective substitutions by Dave Sarachan and a lack of straight-up marking or a tactical adjustment to emphasize their numerical advantage, is what doomed the Crew.

* Same old story in Cowtown. Greg Andrulis gets top kudos for making proper adjustments to his normal first XI due to the absence of Edson Buddle and Ross Paule. Yet again, his inability to make changes WITHIN the match is what probably cost us two points. Not changing his allocation of players to take advantage of Jaqua’s early exit, pulling off Szetela for Lagos (a lateral move at best) late in a one-goal match, and not using the third sub once the Fire tied the match were errors on his part. Despite that, three points could have been gotten and were not because………

* WE LAID BACK! We got the lead at 2-1 and sat back, leaving opportunity for Andy Herron’s first goal. We get a 3-2 lead and then shell up instead of going after a fourth goal. Tired legs on our part, fresh legs on theirs, and a zone in back to manage Ralph (plus not following Herron when he drifted back into the midfield) left the Fire chance upon chance to grab a point and keep their own playoffs dreams alive.

Matchdays Four and Five: Shut The Door!

2004-10-02T05:41:00.000-07:00

It's qualifying time again, as the United States National Team heads into another twinbill of action starting next Saturday in San Salvador, followed up by a match on the 13th in Washington, DC against Panama. Bruce Arena has made a couple of changes to the roster for these two matches from the one for the last pair of fixtures, with World Cup veterans Pablo Mastroeni, Tony Sanneh, and Josh Wolff returning to the fold. Absences of note include Chris Armas, Brian Ching, Steve Cherundolo, and Claudio Reyna. The roster:

Tim Howard, Kasey Keller, Jonny Walker; Gregg Berhalter, Carlos Bocanegra, Bobby Convey, Cory Gibbs, Frankie Hejduk, Oguchi Onyewu, Eddie Pope, Tony Sanneh (Columbus Crew); DaMarcus Beasley, Landon Donovan, Eddie Gaven, Cobi Jones, Eddie Lewis, Pablo Mastroeni, Clint Mathis, Kerry Zavagnin; Conor Casey, Eddie Johnson, Brian McBride, Josh Wolff.

The United States MUST get six points out of these matches in order to effectively shut the door on the rest of the group and secure its spot in the final round of World Cup qualifying. HOW we do it, however, differs from game-to-game.

El Salvador game notes:

* Jump them early! We have normally had our way with El Salvador in most matches against them. We need to get out and take an early lead rather than leaving it for someone to rescue us on the death of time like the first two road qualifiers.

* Mix it up. No Reyna, no Armas, and a return to the fold of Wolff and Sanneh tells me we should try to play the diamond in this match. Lineup:

Keller
Sanneh-Pope-Bocanegra-Convey
Beasley-Mastroeni-Donovan-Lewis
Wolff-McBride

* Get the lead, then blood guys. Players such as Eddie Johnson and Eddie Gaven have yet to find the pitch in qualifying for the US but seem to be in the plans of the Bruce. Thus, we need to blood them if we have a chance (two-goal lead at the half should allow for it, I would guess).

Panama game notes:

* THE match of the group. This is the match that pretty much the whole group will hinge upon. If the US can take care of business here and move to 11 points, they will be through and put the rest of the group on-edge for advancement. If we're not in that great of a position, then the whole list of theories come out for how someone COULD keep us home.

* Make Panama play. The Panamanians might come into DC and take the road-team approach (sit on it, bunker, try to get out with a point) if they are in good enough position to be able to advance with a win on Matchday Six. We must force them to bring some action to the table by getting out in front on them (notice the theme of the past few sets?). Early goals force your opponent to play your game and are more conducive to getting results than hanging back and trying to snag something late.

* Saturday's results will determine the lineup. How Panama does against Jamaica I think will contribute to who is used to start this match. I have to think that BA would like to give Howard another qualifying start or else he wouldn't have brought him in, but if the US canont ensure its passage regardless of the result of this match (win or draw), Keller HAS to start. I won't guess at a lineup for this one, but I do think you could design two different approaches to this match, one in which we go for the juggular because we can and one where we make sure we have control of the match and keep our advancement fate in our own hands. Getting to the next round matters more than who of Jamaica/Panama/El Salvador goes there with us, so don't be TOO surprised if we play to secure the one before going for three in this match should it be necessary.

Big Cat's revenge

2004-09-27T08:53:00.000-07:00

In his first match against the club which brought him to MLS and a place on the US National Team, Tony Sanneh said "thank you" by burying a header off a Simon Elliot free kick past Nick Rimando on the ten minute mark. That goal would stand up as the Crew defeated Adunited 1-0 and stayed four points ahead of the Metrostars with just three weeks remaining in the regular season. The win also secured home-field advantage for the first round of the playoffs and kept the Crew one point behind Kansas City in the fight for the Supporters' Shield. The recap, based upon my observations from the upper deck of Estadio Crew (thanks again for the tickets, Chelsey):

* The scoreline was proper. This match was definitely a one-goal win for the Crew. For all the opportunities that existed for Columbus to make it 2-0 or 3-0, there was about as many for DC to level the match and deny us two points. DC gets credit for being both aggressive and resilient after losing Jaime Moreno to injury in the 25th minute and Ryan Nelsen to a second yellow at the end of the first half, but Columbus did not press enough coming out of the locker room to get a second goal and salt away the match before Big Greg was forced to fiddle with the mix due to Frankie Hejduk's mishap of the schnozz.

* Selfishness, thy name is Jeffro. Last week against the Metro, Jeff Cunningham was the epitome of a key player, making creative runs and then putting the ball into scoring position for Edson Buddle. On Saturday, the real Jeffro returned to Crew Stadium. In his half-hour on the pitch, I counted four or five clear opportunites that he just blew by trying to be the hero instead of being "one of the guys". From shooting from terrible angles instead of putting the ball into the mix to trying to take on Rimando when a square pass would have brought the insurance marker, Cunningham's tendency to need attention and prove his usefulness bore its ugly head in a game that could have easily been drawn.

* Substitutions were less-than-stellar. Jeffro found the pitch around the hour mark for Hejduk, which brought the KMart-Jeff-Buddle threesome together again, a combination that has not worked much at all this season. The final two subs were made very late in the match, with Akwari spelling Oughton and Testo replacing Martino. The final 30 minutes or so were played at break-neck speed, with both teams alternating chances, some dangerous and some not so.

In the end, we Crewfans were treated to a win over the only team in our division we had not beaten (0-1-2 against DC heading into the match) and another step closer to home field for the Eastern Conference final and the Shield with a game in hand on our nearest challengers for both (Metro and KC).

Playoff bound!

2004-09-20T11:34:00.000-07:00

Edson Buddle scored four goals in providing all the offense for the Crew in a 4-2 victory over the Metrostars. With the win, Columbus takes a four-point lead on the Meadowlands outfit and clinch a spot in the MLS playoffs.

Now that the perfunctory "five W's" are out of the way, onto the wrap-up. This week's installment is not going to be normal, because the Crew that has taken the pitch this season has been anything BUT that. Instead, I will put up a list of things which are true about this team but which no one in their right mind would believe. The result of the match and heroes/zeroes are on the front page, if you are interested in that sort of thing.

* 1st place in the Eastern Conference. Who would have believed this with the Crew starting off the campaign 0-3 and looking quite bad in doing so? Even during the roller-coaster of the the first-half of the season (which ended 5-5-5), there was no sound reason to think this team could be a force in the league and just one point off the Supporters' Shield with a game in hand.

* 1st team to clinch a playoff spot. Another oddity, especially when it looked like Andrulis was trying to save his job by massaging this team to a playoff berth through draws and "sticking around the pack" to the detriment of getting full points on a few occasions.

* Owners of the longest in-season unbeaten streak in league history. SAY WHAT?!?!?!?! You HAVE to be kidding, because this team does not seem to scare ANYONE in the league and has a coach who couldn't find his way out of Crew Cat's costume. The truth, however, is that the Crew has not lost since June 26th, a span of 13 matches, which tops the Galaxy's twelve-game run to open the 1996 season.

* Club of CHOICE for two national-team defenders. The "normal" world of MLS grants Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago unlimited license when it comes to new talent, while shafting Columbus time-and-again. So to believe that we would have on our roster two-thirds of the United States National Team's backline from the last World Cup is a downright alien concept. But it's true, as Frankie Hejduk and Tony Sanneh are members of the Black-and-Gold and came to Soccer Mecca despite opportunities to go elsewhere.

* Only MLS team with multiple hat-tricks. Another mind-stumper, from a team that until this past weekend sat second-from-last in goals scored. Ross Paule's triple against LA on September 4th and Edson Buddle's four-spot on the Metro on Saturday put the Crew in that elite class of teams with just four weeks remaining in the season (the league has had six tricks TOTAL this year).

Amazing, isn't it, that a team which most of us would say is fair-to-middlin' is actually odds-on to take the Shield when the regular season ends on October 16th and could very well lift the Alan I. Rothenberg trophy on November 14th at the Home Depot Center. Talk about a crazy season!

MLS World Cup Qualifying Update

2004-09-10T05:13:00.000-07:00

The tally after CONCACAF semifinal matchdays two and three:

* 37 goals by 14 current or former MLS players (yes, I'm counting former Crew draft pick and current Toronto Lynx striker John Barry Nusum in that total) representing 12 countries OTHER than the United States in 3 confederations. (# = country is eliminated from qualifying)

#John Barry Nusum (Bermuda) 7
Carlos Ruiz (Guatemala) 5
Amado Guevara (Honduras) 4
Stern John (Trinidad/Tobago) 4
Dipsy Selolwane (Botswana) 4
Dwayne DeRosario (Canada) 2
#Duncan Oughton (New Zealand) 2
#Ryan Nelsen (New Zealand) 2
#Jean-Philippe Peguero (Haiti) 2
Zizi Roberts (Liberia) 1
Shaun Bartlett (South Africa) 1
Saul Martinez (Honduras) 1
Damani Ralph (Jamaica) 1
Jorge "Zarco" Rodriguez (El Salvador) 1

Beast of the East

2004-09-06T04:49:00.000-07:00

The Crew FINALLY climb the last rung on the mountain and take over possession of the top spot in the East with a 3-1 victory over a Galaxy side that has clearly hit the wall in the league schedule. Columbus has now moved its unbeaten streak to 11 games and head out to San Jose for a mid-week tilt against an Earthquakes side missing its top three strikers (Landon Donovan, Brian Ching, and Dwayne DeRosario) and backstop (Pat Onstad) to national team duty. The recap:

* Textbook work by Paule. Ross Paule's three-goal outburst came as a result of playing his position to perfection and padding the total from the spot (hey, if Guevara and Ruiz can boast of their strike rate through PKs, so can Paule). Both goals from the run of play came with Paule trailing the strikers and cleaning up deflections or poor clearances. This is what has been lacking out of Kyle Martino in his three years with the Crew, the tenacity and ambition to get in the box and score the easy goals that come when the ball doesn't get to McBride or Buddle or Cunningham. Donovan can get away with running at people and scoring with his shooting because he has that talent. Guevara can score via the free kick, the PK, and the bomb and brings a different dimension to the position. Paule has been rejuvenated with the addition of playmaking responsibilities and set-piece opportunities. KMart should watch the tape of this game and focus on Ross' workrate and his ability to be unobtrusive yet deadly.

* We are gelling. Our team has become a very powerful force in the league by sticking to a system that all have bought into and and by being a set of replaceable parts. The defense was set early in the season. The midfield came around about the middle of July, when Martino was moved up top to partner with Buddle. The forwards are still a work-in-progress, but...

* Fozzie is working on it! The substitutions last night show me that Andrulis now believes enough in his back nine to begin work on developing a strike pair that will be dangerous as the playoffs begin, for we will NOT win the Cup without getting some contribution out of our forwards. With a 2-1 lead, Greg brought on Cunningham for Martino and later Ritch for Buddle in an effort to get a third goal and to see what combinations might work to perk up a sluggish frontline. I wouldn't be surprised to see another forward pairing on Wednesday in San Jose, where the narrow field benefit strikers who can attack with the ball.

So the monkey is off our back and we at last control our playoff destiny. Three points on Wednesday will give us a LITTLE breathing room heading in to the final month (a four-point lead as opposed to one or two) and would bring Supporters' Shield talk to Crew Stadium. But for now, let's enjoy this one, for we have come a LONG way since our first game against LA (a 2-0 thrashing that wasn't even THAT close and sent us to 0-3 to start the season) and are on the upswing while the glamour clubs (the Metrostars and Galaxy) are sliding away from the top of the table.

Matchdays Two and Three: End the Insanity!

2004-08-31T10:47:00.000-07:00

By the close of business next Wednesday night, CONCACAF will have completed the first half of its semifinal round of World Cup Qualifying. For the United States, games two and three in the six-game round are a home tilt against El Salvador on Saturday in Foxboro, MA and a road match in Panama City next Wednesday. Each match is unique and thus requires a different mindset and parameters of an acceptable outcome.

Roster (wth clubs listed for newcomers to the pool): Tim Howard, Kasey Keller, Jonny Walker; Carlos Bocanegra, Steve Cherundolo, Bobby Convey, Cory Gibbs, Frankie Hejduk, Oguchi Onyewu (Standard Liege, Belgium), Eddie Pope, Greg Vanney; DaMarcus Beasley, Landon Donovan, Eddie Gaven (Metrostars, MLS), Cobi Jones, Eddie Lewis, Clint Mathis, Claudio Reyna, Kerry Zavagnin (Kansas City, MLS); Conor Casey (Mainz, Germany), Brian Ching (San Jose, MLS), Eddie Johnson (Dallas, MLS), Brian McBride.

Overall objectives:

* Put to bed ANY questions of not advancing to the Hex. The US can and should take six points off the next two opponents, moving to seven through three matches and securing at worst a three-point gap on the third-place team in the group with the two home matches to go along with a trip to San Salvador.

* Integrate new pieces as possible. We need to give significant time to players such as Eddie Gaven, Eddie Johnson, and Brian Ching SO LONG as we have the ability to do so while still getting the desired result.

El Salvador objectives:

* LAY THE WOOD! There is always one match in the group phase where the perceived dominant team in the group needs to show such and build a sizable goal differential in case weird things happen down the road and they were to end up tied with another team in the group for advancement. This is the match which the US needs to do so. Waiting until Matchday Five against Panama is too late to have it take effect, and since the goal of these two games combine is to distance ourselves from the rest of the field, we need to do it against the Sallies.

* Start strong. With Chris Armas absent from the side due to injury and there being a lack of defensive midfielders in camp, I am quite unsure how Bruce will line the boys up for this match. Based on the roster, I would reckon that we might see a skinny diamond in the midfield. This will allow the wingbacks to push up, gives Landon Donovan appropriate freedom to pinch in from the right side, and starts our most-offensive XI possible. My first XI: Keller; Cherundolo, Pope, Bocanegra, Vanney; Donovan, Reyna, Mathis, Beasley; McBride, Casey.

Panama objectives:

* 1-0 is enough. In this match, getting full points is MUCH more important to meeting our overall objective than racking up a huge scoreline. We will see a US team that will want to dictate possession while attempting to take opportunities as they are presented.

* End it early. The one thing the US has not done in this region in all of my time watching them has been getting an early goal on the road in an important match. With Panama being considerably lesser in quality than the US, we need to score in the first ten minutes and then eat up the clock (a little Catenaccio, if you will). If we do that, we win this game and win it without a lot of sweat.

Ten-spot

2004-08-31T10:30:00.000-07:00

The Crew extended its unbeaten streak to a club-record ten straight games with a 1-1 draw in the Swamp against the Metrostars. Despite another tie, Andrulis did almost everything possible to put his team in position to get full points, but alas it easn't meant to be. The recap:

* Good gameplan. The starting XI was the same as the past few matches and seems to be gelling as a unit. Greg's subs were all offensive in nature and the team attempted to get the full result.

* Set-pieces are lethal. For the second straight game, all the goals for both sides came on set pieces or their derivatives. It is becoming a slight problem for the defense, but it is more convicting of the offense, whose last goal from the run of play came on August 7th against New England (two PKs, a pair of free-kick conversions or clean-ups, and a counterattack goal coming in the past four matches).

* We are in the driver's seat! We remained two points back of Metro with a game in hand and two more matches head-to-head with the Giants Stadium side. We CAN win the conference. We CAN play for MLS Cup on November 14th at the Home Depot Center. Now let's GET AT IT!

Nails on a Chalkboard

2004-08-22T05:31:00.000-07:00

The Crew once again wasted an opportunity to climb into the driver's seat in the Eastern Conference, giving up a late penalty and accepting a 2-2 draw versus DC United. The tie brings the Crew's unbeaten streak to a record-tying nine games and moves us two points back of the Metrostars heading into their showdown next Sunday in the Swamp, but reminded all who follow this club just how blah this season has been. The recap:

* Everything old is new again. We got a very good performance out of the starting lineup, but bad decisions took a relatively easy win and gave DC a point that was not indicative of the play on the field. Eskandarian's goal was a blinder and Busch could do nothing with it, but the foul which set up the free kick was just DUMB. Then, late in the game and with DC attacking yet getting nowhere, we give up a penalty kick on a handball in the box. Again, avoidable. So both of DC's goals came from set pieces and instead of trotting out with a win, we get one point for our effort.

* Danger, Will Robinson. The late-game collapses which were such a large part of our collapse in 2003 are starting to show their ugly head again. After going almost four months without giving up a goal after the 75th minute, we have surrended game-tying goals after that mark in consecutive games (we did pull back one in the KC game to get out with full points, though). We were outplayed late in both games and were fortunate to get four points out of the week rather than two.

* Where were the SUBS?!?! Andrulis has once AGAIN frustrated this writer with his inability to sub strategically on a consistent basis. We used just two of our three switches, bringing on Cunningham for Buddle in the 81st minute and Szetela for Akwari in the 88th, both after the tying marker and much too late for either to have an impact on getting a win. This keep-your-job-at-all-costs mentality has turned this mild affliction of bad in-game management into an outright epidemic. I honestly think Greg just doesn't know HOW to effectively sub at the professional level with a limited number of chances and no re-entry (as opposed to the rules for substitutions in college, which allow for a little more tinkering and opportunity to correct in-match mistakes) and holds onto his subs too long because of that.

The Crew has slowly but surely made its way past the two-thirds pole with a seven-point gap on last place in the East (which to me seems to be the ultimate goal this season rather than winning the conference or playing in MLS Cup) and barring a late-season collapse, post-season soccer should be visiting Crew Stadium this year. But is it too much to ask that our goals be JUST a little higher than this, especially when the top of the league mountain is SO CLOSE (five points back from the Galaxy and Wizards for the supporters' shield with a game in hand on KC and two on LA) and this team is capable of getting there? Oh well, let's see if this team has the intestinal fortitude to take the conference lead next Sunday or whether they will be content with riding home in second.

MLS World Cup Qualifying update

2004-08-19T13:53:00.000-07:00

The tally after CONCACAF semifinal matchday one:

* 31 goals by 13 current or former MLS players (yes, I'm counting former Crew draft pick and current Toronto Lynx striker John Barry Nusum in that total) representing 11 countries OTHER than the United States in 3 confederations.

John Barry Nusum (Bermuda) 7
Carlos Ruiz (Guatemala) 4
Dipsy Selolwane (Botswana) 4
Dwayne DeRosario (Canada) 2
Amado Guevara (Honduras) 2
Duncan Oughton (New Zealand) 2
Ryan Nelsen (New Zealand) 2
Jean-Philippe Peguero (Haiti) 2
Stern John (Trinidad/Tobago) 2
Zizi Roberts (Liberia) 1
Shaun Bartlett (South Africa) 1
Saul Martinez (Honduras) 1
Jorge "Zarco" Rodriguez (El Salvador) 1

Seven!

2004-08-15T05:35:00.000-07:00

The Crew ran out a 0-0 draw in Los Angeles last night, making it seven straight league matches without a loss and retaining their hold on second place in the Eastern Conference. While no one should see a point gotten from the Galaxy as being a bad thing, the fact is we dominated the match and should have been able to get all three. The recap:

* BAD management all the way around! Andrulis must be given a S (for spineless) in how he managed this match. He started with ALL five midfielders being of a defensive nature (Paule being forced in this case to bring some creative spark to the center of the field), then subs too late while never changing the posture of the match (Cunningham for Buddle in the 78th, all while Martino is still on the field and these two are like oil-and-water; Den-TON for Wingert in the 90th in what looked like a sub based on ANOTHER twinge in the upper legs of the rookie; and Barclay for Martino IN THE 94TH MINUTE to make any different in the match). Apparently Big Greg feels getting SOMETHING out of every match is more important than trying to WIN games and develop positive momentum in a conference that can won but for one good run of wins.

* First XI still stud! I have said after previous matches that Andrulis' best work comes in crafting the starting lineup and we definitely had the better of play on the night deslpite not getting a goal nor looking particularly threatening to do so for most of the night. If we could have SOMEONE ELSE manage the match AFTER kickoff, then perhaps the Crew could put together the kind of run necessary to challenge LA, Kansas City, and the Metrostars for league supremacy this year.

* No spark. The past two matches with Sampson's revenge, we have had offensive forays of the sort unseen in Soccer Mecca since the days of Bake-and-Stern. Last night, it didn't happen for the same reason I harp on continually: we didn't start enough offense to do it. That would have been fine if we would have then been able to change that up in the second half, but again our gaffer is too worried about keeping his job to risk a loss for the sake of getting a win. The Galaxy kept pushing for the win and was slightly taking hold when Greg swapped man-for-man and tried to maintain the draw. That shows me a manager running scared.

A loss last night would not have been the end of the world, considering the other Eastern teams were not able to jump past us (DC/New England drew and Chicago lost to Colorado) even after their collective chase on Wednesday (all three won). But the boost a win would have given this team heading home for the Buck-a-Brat Hunt Derby against the Wizards on Wednesday would have been SO MUCH BETTER than treading water in the standings. Being 6-5-8 (26 points) with two games in hand at this point is a fine accomplishment after starting the season 0-3, but the constant strive for points-over-momentum and a philosophy built solely on getting a playoff spot is becoming unacceptable in a conference where any team can run away and hide (as Metro is close to doing). Greg, SAQ UP!

Matchday One: Destination Kingston

2004-08-09T15:12:00.000-07:00

The United States National Team kicks off the semifinal round of World Cup Qualifying next Wednesday against Jamaica. I will add the roster once it is announced, but for now, keys to the semi round and the Jamaica match:

Semifinal Group points:

* It is INTENSE! For all the glamour ties that happen in the Hex (US/Mexico and US/Costa Rica to name a couple), it is the semifinal round that is the most intense and dangerous for its twelve combatants. With six matches in the span of ninety days (the first half of those over just 21 days), a team must find its form right away and ride a good run for all it's worth. The semifinals are also the stage where teams that could very well make it to the World Cup get eliminated because of a tough group. Group B this time invovles four sides that ALL have legitimate claims for Germany (Canada, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Honduras), but only two will make it out of that group to the Hex.

* If you are home to open the round, YOU MUST WIN! There is no room in the round for dropping points at home, especially right off the bat.

* That said, the home team must also SHUT OUT the opposition. Those of you who follow club competitions with aggregate scoring know the value of away goals. It is the same in group play (though not a tiebreaker in advancement). Every match in qualifying is played on a 1-0 edge for the home side and giving up a goal might cost you two points that cannot be made up.

* Group play can be broken down into a series of home-and-away battles, so that if you win more of those battles than you lose, you will advance. The United States won two of the three series in their semifinal group in 2000 (losing the one to Costa Rica while beating both Guatemala and Barbados) and went 2-0-3 in the series in the 2001 Hex (split with Mexico, Honduras, and Costa Rica while beating Jamaica and Trinidad/Tobago). We should win the series over El Salvador and Panama, thus making the Jamaica one all about working out game plans for the two matches against them in the Hex.

US/Jamaica points:

* A tie is a good result from this point, but three points can be had. Kingston is the tamest road venue in the semifinal round for the US and they have never lost to the Reggae Boyz. In addition, a win on Matchday One would in theory secure their advancement to the Hex (Panama and El Salvador will NOT win in the States).

* The US will be aggressive but focused. The goal of this game is to secure the draw and then attempt to get out with three points. The US has been known to take early leads in qualifiers, and an early tally here will surely help in pulling off a result.

* The tactic will be possession-oriented combined with interplay amongst Donovan/Beasley/Reyna to wreak havoc against Jamaica's lack of a defensive midfielder (Whitmore and Williams are both attack-minded central midfielders and will be the middle pair for this match in all likelihood).

* This is the toughest match of the round for the United States. Our other two opponents are at least one step below Jamaica in quality despite being tougher road venues for us. Jamaica NEEDS the win in this match and will play with high intensity to secure it. The merged roster of in-form players from Major League Soccer and our European-based players who are just starting their season could make for a messy match on our part.

Unofficial roster: Kasey Keller, Jonny Walker; Carlos Bocanegra, Steve Cherundolo, Cory Gibbs, Frankie Hejduk, Eddie Pope, Greg Vanney; Chris Armas, DaMarcus Beasley, Cobi Jones, Eddie Lewis, Claudio Reyna, Earnie Stewart, Kerry Zavagnin; Brian Ching, Landon Donovan, Eddie Gaven, Ed Johnson, Brian McBride.

Prediction: United States 2, Jamaica 1

Sampson's revenge!

2004-07-29T10:04:00.000-07:00

The Crew snapped their four-game winless streak with a 2-1 victory over the Burn by using the most maligned formation in all of soccer, the 3-6-1. For those who aren't formation wonks, this system of play involves 3 defenders, 6 midfielders, and a lone target striker. The purpose of this scheme is to flood the midfield with players and stretch the field to its maximum width through the use of its numerical advantage by breaking down the defense and scoring goals through the creation of mismatches and confusion about marking assignments for the defense. The reason this scheme has gotten so much bad ink in the past is because Steve Sampson wedded our National Team to it in preparation for the 1998 World Cup without knowing exactly HOW his six-man midfield needed to be staffed. Fortunately for us, Greg Andrulis did a slightly better job of addressing the various needs and as a result we were able to bring home the three points to keep pace with the Metrostars in the East. My review:

*Tactics were better. Fozzie finally put Manny Lagos and Kyle Martino together in attacking midfield, but left Jeff Cunningham out of the first XI to do so. Their ability to run into the corners and play like additional forwards opened up the field for Simon Elliot to do more playmaking and allowed Chris Wingert to get into more-attacking positions in the first half. The first goal came as a result of a pair of Dallas defenders BOTH not marking Buddle, with the second coming on a quick counter created by KMart stripping a player, dumping the ball back to Simon and then sprinting for the corner all while Buddle ran to a specific spot to which Elliot's pass was excellently stroked. The only criticism I have to the set-up is that we were unable to adequately mark out O'Brien and Davis on the flanks because Wingert and Hejduk had to provide more offensive support than normal.

*KNEE-JERK substitutions. Andrulis replaced players after Dallas trimmed the lead to 2-1 as though his life was on the line. He inserted Maissoneuve for Lagos and thus cut off the tap of offensive pressure on the Burn. Wingert's knock brought Den-TON onto the field, another scared move. No criticism on the third sub except that I would have left Buddle on and brought on Testo for Martino in order to add back a bit of striking bite to secure the win.

*First 60, PRETTY GOOD. Last 30, BAD! The whole gameflow went south once we brought Mais onto the field. Five more minutes at 2-0 and I have a feeling Sutton or Barclay might have found the pitch and the score could have finished 3-0 or 3-1. When Greg gets the first XI mix right, this team can play with anyone in the league, but once he tinkers with that good mix the game goes nowhere but downhill and we are in a fight to keep the three points earned by the collection of starters.

This scheme might have been a one-off, but if we see it again, this would be my preference for the first XI:

Busch

Oughton-Fraser-Marshall

Hejduk----------------------------------Wingert

Elliot-Lagos

Martino--------------------------------------Cunningham

Buddle

This way, we play our flanks the same as in the 3-5-2 and get two additional attackers pushing up on the sides with decent playmaking in support. Usually this scheme is built with the midfield in reverse (AMs and DMs playing centrally and flashing to the outsides with the wide midfielders being the middle pair and going endline to endline), but I think this could work for us for the time being. If we were able to get a reasonable complement for Hejduk on the opposite flank and work Szetela into the first XI, then we could invert this midfield back to its original design.

Take Three!

2004-07-25T10:53:00.000-07:00

As if the Crew hadn't gotten their "go for one" philosophy perfected the past two weeks, the Hunt Park outfit put together a third straight draw, this time 0-0 against the Colorado Rapids. Despite a more offensive starting line-up than past weeks (Manny Lagos manning the left flank in place of Chris Wingert), the Black-and-Gold were unable to put the ball past Joe Cannon. The final of my nerves for the lack of heart on this team came with ten minutes remaining when once-stellar-and-now-useless Brian Maisonneuve was brought on in place of Kyle Martino and was told "send it to the corners and kill off the game" by Mr. Wakka-Wakka-Wakka himself. The recap:

*NO BALLS! This team lacks a saq. Colorado made two subs at the half in search of offensive firepower and had to spend their third midway into the second half due to an injury to Joey DiGiamarino, so naturally we should have been able to add attacking players in order to take over the game. WRONG! The bench yesterday consisted of David Testo, Eric Denton, Maisonneuve, and Chris Wingert. ONE offensive-minded player out of four substitutes available, with Testo replacing an ineffective Edson Buddle around the hour mark. Thus, with a 0-0 game and a Rapids side out of subs, we literally CANNOT push the attack in any meaningful way due to not having the players available to get it done. THAT decision rests at the top, which means....

*Fozzie must GO! No more chances to mess this team up! We jumped to second place in the Eastern Conference as a result of the single point (moreso because DC got manhandled by Dallas and the Metro decided to take advantage of our contentedness with draws to deliver a win against Chicago and move five points out in the East), but that does NOT get this bum off the hook for his lack of knowledge, lack of tactics, and lack to juevos. He has consistently played defense-first this season, has continued to play Buddle despite his lackadasical attitude towards fitness and play, and will NOT take chances when three points seem to be available for the taking. A winning attitude starts in the locker room and MUST be exhibited by the manager in who he plays, who he has on the bench, and how he wants his team to play. Sadly, that attitude has been non-existent for the past two years and it's high time a change be made lest we miss the playoffs again.

That's it. Nothing more to say about the match or this team. If you're thinking about going to Wednesday's game against Dallas, take my advice and save your money (unless you're one of those who just HAS to see Danny Szetela's debut) because you can probably have more enjoyment for your dollar than the two hours you spend being put to sleep by this squad.

Oh Danny Boy.....

2004-07-24T04:55:00.000-07:00

The Crew has picked up Danny Szetela in the weighted lottery and seem willing to hold on to him until and unless an acceptable offer is made by the Metrostars comes to the table. Bully to them! There is NO reason the Crew should bend over backwards (or frontwards) just to get this player into a "more comfortable" environment and to appease The Powers That Be in New York. Less-fashionable teams (Dallas, Kansas City, Columbus, Colorado) get repeatedly ripped-off in the name of getting publicity-laden players onto teams in major television markets with little in the way of appropriate compensation. IF a trade must be made, then this is what the Crew should be asking for: two starters of reputable quality (Joselito Vaca and Mike Magee, for example). If the Metro is serious about wanting him, if Danny is serious about wanting to play in the Swamp, and if MLS is serious about being Major League and not roto-league, this is what it will take for the Crew to part with their newest acquisition. The league has gotten better in terms of allowing the luck of the bouncing balls (or draft order, Freddy Adu notwithstanding) to determine the fate of players, with the in-season player movement precedent being the player dump required of the Galaxy when they wished to sign Luis Hernandez (three starters [Steve Jolley, Joe Franchino, and Clint Mathis], all of whom have gone on to have more productive if not better careers in their future venues). If Columbus is made to cough up Danny Szetela for players on the order of Kenny Arena and Mark Lisi, color this fan GONE!

Same Old Story

2004-07-18T07:20:00.000-07:00

The Crew delivered another dose of Mochaberry Latte Soccer (trademarked to Scott Tann) in a depressing, walk-in-the-park 1-1 draw against New England. The frustration from this writer's perch just below that of telling your five-year-old over-and-over to pick up their toys and wash their hands and look both ways before crossing the street. Despite one great move, the Crew got whooped and reneged on a chance to move forward in the Eastern Conference race (thankfully, the rest of the East is playing crap football at the moment). The recap:

*Denton got pulled! Fozzie finally made a good decision by getting Eric Denton out of the game in favor of Chris Wingert once it became apparent that Baker and to a greater extent Ralston were kicking his backside all over the pitch in the first 25 minutes. Nevermind that it is after the substitution that those two hooked up on a play to set Dempsey free for the opening score (due primarily to Jeffro's lack of desire to forecheck Ralston once the ball got back to him), but this move has been long overdue. But Andrulis still has...

*NO CLUE! The subs at the end of the game were highly-questionable. Lagos for Cunningham followed by Ritch for Buddle might look OK on the surface if we had another player on the field who could be pushed up to the striker position, but together this was dumb. Either straight-up subbing if Jeffro/Edson were gassed (Scott or Testo instead of Lagos) or pull one of the central midfielders at the end and leave Buddle on the field. This requires the coach to have his team with...

*Attitude! And sadly, the Hunt Park side has none. Ties at home are an acceptable result?!?! As the illustrous Doctor Chuck stated, the value of 3 points over that of one is immense enough that a team in this league SHOULD be trying to win a lot more often than they do because the pay-off of 1-1-0 is better than that of 0-0-2 in the table.

*MEDIOCRE! At the end of the day, the Crew are just that, mediocre. At the halfway point, we stand on 5 wins, 5 losses, and 5 ties. Bland, unimaginative, head-above-water-but-not-swimming. But hey, at least Big Greg can say his team is in a playoff position with two games in hand on the rest of the conference and have results from 2/3 of their matches. And that is what we are left with, a team that desires nothing more than a playoff appearance. PLAIN SAD!

Singed, but not Burnt

2004-07-11T06:46:00.000-07:00

The Crew battled out an eventuful 0-0 draw with the Dallas Burn and AGAIN failed to keep pace with the conference leader. Even though we have games in hand on the Metro, points are the ultimate measure of value in the league, and we sit on 19 at the moment, three back of the leaders. The recap:

* The result flattered both sides. This game could have been 2-0 either way based on the chances generated by both sides and would have been a fair result.

* Edson and Jeffro are the stud! The last two games have produced the best attacking in the final third of any matches this season, and it is all due to having this pair on the pitch. Granted, we weren't able to cash in a goal last night, but that is more due to the fact that...

* Fozzie STILL doesn't get it! I have spoken time and again in this column about how the Crew SHOULD be playing in this three-back scheme, yet somehow no one has clued in Greg as to this. With defensive-minded wingers, ALL of the central midfielders need to be attack-minded (simple math...five offensive players, five defensive players to start the game). With Elliot taking up one of the central midfield positions, that leaves us starting on a regular basis six (or 6 1/2 if Paule also starts) defensive players and requires some luck to score at all (we're keeping clean sheets doing this, but that guarantees you only one point a game). As a result, Martino is LOST on the pitch as the only player besides the strikers who will go all-out at the other team's net, and frankly he isn't good enough to be the only offensive support player in the midfield. Someone in the organization with soccer knowledge needs to sit Andrulis down and spell out the simple math of the formation and why it is not working as well as it could be. Thus, to paraphrase James Carville, if you want to pin our lack of wins on one thing...

* IT'S THE MIDFIELD, STUPID! We are not getting proper midfield play to sufficiently support either the strikers or the defenders. Thus, we face more shots per night than necessary and do not generate nearly enough offensive chances to make the opposition fear us. Now, I do not have a preferred means of play, but if we are wedded to the 3-5-2, the five needs to be either:

Elliot--Paule
Hejduk----Martino----Lagos

Hejduk-----------------Wingert
Paule-Martino-Lagos

The only reason Hejduk plays either way is because we have few options to get more offensive on the roster (no attack-minded right midfielder, and no one else on the left so that Manny can be moved to the right). For all of the changes made in the off-season the two players this team misses most right now are........Brian West and Freddy Garcia. Surprising? Despite their foibles, these guys attacked at will from the flanks and gave us width in the offensive third. At the moment, the only width we generate is if Buddle, Cunningham, or Martino push out of the center to get the ball.

Next week the Revolution visit Estadio Crew and perhaps we can heal what ails us by winning. Then again, the Rev has gotten results despite losing more man-games to injury thus far than Arsenal PLAYED the entire 2003/2004 season (including cup competitions) and we still have Fozzie trotting out his best example of "let 'em play" soccer. No thought, no match-ups, no fitting-the-scheme-to-your-strengths. Just simple, honest, throw-out-11-and-hope-they-win. But we're on a streak (unbeaten in two) and that will quiet down some of the faithful, but is it enough, or should I stock up on Lithium for Saturday?

Black, Gold, and Boom!

2004-07-04T08:07:00.000-07:00

The Columbus Crew finally put together a solid showing in delivering a clinical 2-0 victory over the Chicago Fire. I don’t know whether to give this team a standing ovation for what was a rare performance or a year’s supply of Prozac to deal with its mood swings. With two games in hand and only two points back of DC United, the push to the front of the conference could not have come sooner (heck, in this conference, ANY push is enough to get you near the top). Onto the recap:

* It’s amazing what a healthy striker can do! For one of the first times this season, Edson Buddle and Jeff Cunningham started up top for Columbus and it showed. The attack had much more bite with this pair that it has had with varying striker combinations and they forced the Chicago backline to stay at home or get bitten by them.

* The midfield WORKED! Despite my pleadings to attack into the gaps behind the wingers, it wasn’t until last night that Andrulis got the message. Ross Paule and Kyle Martino took advantage of the aggressive play of Beasley and Mapp to get balls into dangerous positions and play onto the skillful frontrunners. The long ball into space for Edson and Jeffro also brought some scares to the Fire defense.

* Fozzie’s twin is lost. Despite a better-than-normal showing last night, Eric Denton still doesn’t prove he has the wherewithal to compete at this level. The Crew has several other options at his position (Wingert looked good in his first MLS start even though he was playing out of position, Lagos or Testo can provide better attacking, even Hejduk can be moved to the left in a pinch) and thus Denton should be resigned to picking some splinters out of his backside based on form (nevermind his flipping-off a portion of the home crowd on Wednesday night). If either Sanneh or Charles make their way onto the Columbus roster, Denton’s days in Cowtown could be numbered.

The pattern of the season for the Crew has been pretty well set. Win one, and they will run off a few. Get beat (or even manage to squeak out an unflattering draw) and they will hit the skids for several matches. This form of schizophrenia is not a problem in MLS, because only one team in each conference misses the playoffs, and the Eastern conference is so tightly packed (DC on 20, Metro on 19, Columbus at 18, and the Fire at 17) that a couple of wins in a row can move you from the bottom to the top (or a short run of bad results can do the opposite). Let’s hope the Crew takes its new-found form into Dallas next weekend against a less-than-full-force Burn side and can return back to Soccer Mecca with three more points in the bag.

The Pink Slip Derby

2004-06-25T12:33:00.000-07:00

The Columbus Crew returns home this weekend for a match against the Colorado Rapids. Both coaches (Greg Andrulis for the Crew and Tim Hankinson) are on the hot seat as the season moves towards the mid-season point and a win here would do much to relieve one of some pressure while pushing the other further toward an inevitable sacking. The one area where the Rapids exceed the Crew is in the front office, where former Hermann Award winner (given to the best player in college soccer) Dan Counce (1973) steers the ship of the Mile High side, but all of his soccer know-how has not been able to make up for bad decisions by the manager. Anyways, onto the gameplan:

* Puncture the center! The Rapids enter this match missing three guys who can play in the center of midfield due to suspension (Daryl Powell, Kyle Beckerman, and John Spencer) and therefore can be exploited down the middle of the pitch.

* Leave Simon out. Because of the suspensions and a weakened Colorado side (they will be arriving with just 12 field players and the two goalkeepers), the Crew should attack this team in droves, and that means playing three offense-minded players in the center of the formation. The Rapids frontline, consisting of Jean-Philippe Peguero and Jordan Cila, are less-threatening on the whole and can be defended adequately by our three-man backline. Holding Frankie Hejduk and Eric Denton back a little to contend with their flank players (Chris Henderson and Joey DiGiamarino) will open up space behind them for the outer attacking midfielders (Devin Barclay and Manny Lagos) to make diagonal runs into and take on players.

* Use your bench! This side is weakened (have I said that enough already?) and thus we need to make intelligent decisions with the roster to best win this game. That means having Jamal Sutton and David Testo available as substitutions (and USING THEM) if we need more attack out of the wide positions on the field.

The First XI

Busch
Akwari--Fraser--Marshall
Hejduk----------------------------Denton
Barclay----Martino----Lagos
Scott--Cunningham

Prediction: Crew 3, (c)Rapids 1.

Next stop: Kingston

2004-06-21T10:04:00.000-07:00

The United States National Team sloghed their way into the semifinal round of World Cup qualifying with a 3-2 victory over Grenada in St. George's to win the series 6-2 on aggregate. It was not pretty at ALL, but the job was completed and now Bruce Arena and the boys can begin focusing on their next opponent, the Reggae Boyz of Jamaica. Their opening tilt on August 18th will set the tone for the group, from which both sides are expected to advance. Some thoughts from yesterday's game and on the adventure ahead in CONCACAF:

* VERY typical road qualifier. The pitch was lousy, the reffing was haphazard at best and corruptible at worst. We played sluggish and the weather made it difficult to play our style of game. That said, we got the job done! We overcame the penalty kick and the cards and the weather to get a result. Granted, this was Grenada and not a team like Costa Rica or Mexico, but the match was very good education for some of our neophytes (Gibbs, Mastroeni, Convey, Donovan, Beasley). We will move forward form this match having learned a few things that can be used in the match in Kingston in two months and the dens of Panama City and San Salvador later on in this round.

* Good peformances from Armas (this was his type of game), Wolff, Donovan, and Beasley. Thought Reyna was out of his element due to the weather. The defense in general bit badly (ESPECIALLY Mastroeni, who was to blame for both goals), but this game was more about learning how to play on the road in CONCACAF than about keeping a clean sheet. Gibbs stepped up when he took over marking Roberts (Mastro got thumped worse yesterday than Pope did last week by the England-based striker). Convey showed yesterday that he is not yet at the level needed to play left back on the international level (got beat down the side on the second goal), which means we will need to use a more-defensive option on that side to contend with the speed of our opponents (but we have always played an unbalanced style under Bruce).

* Group A (USA, Jamaica, El Salvador, Panama) should run pretty true-to-form. The US SHOULD have somewhat smooth sailing after their opener against Jamaica and will probably win the group. The Reggae Boyz need to win that first game and then find points at El Salvador and/or Panama to be in position to advance before the final qualifier against the Americans in November. El Salvador and Panama are pretty much in the same boat in that they need to defend their home turf and try to outright steal their road match against the other to put any pressure on the giants of the group.

* Group B (Canada, Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala) is an absolute mess waiting to happen. The quintessential group of death in this region without a doubt. All four of these teams could with the right set of results find their way to Germany in that they CAN win the playoff series against whoever their opponent from Asia would be. Costa Rica and Canada are probably the most-stable sides in this group heading into the round and would advance if this were a round-robin at a neutral site, but it's not. Canada needs to take advantage of being home for the first two matches and get all six points from them heading into the Matchday 3 tilt against Costa Rica. With Saprissa out of the rotation for qualifers due to having FieldTurf, Les Rouges could very well get a point or three from the Ticos in Alajuela because they are, pound-for-pound, one of only three teams in the region with enough talent to beat Costa Rica when the crowd is not a factor (the others being the US and Mexico). Costa Rica's way of advancing is by getting a result at Honduras and staving off the scare they WILL get from Canada at home. Guatemala needs to play the classic style for qualfying (win at home, draw on the road) and hope for some help along the way. The Catrachos will have to be the most aggressive road side in this group, because they WILL drop points at home.

* Group C (Mexico, Trinidad/Tobago, St. Kitts/Nevis, St. Vincent/Grenadines) will be a walk in the park for El Tri. Trinidad and Tobago are the only team that could conceivably take points from Mexico, and that would be if our friends to the south decide to laze their way through that Matchday 3 fixture in Port-of-Spain. The Soca Warriors will be the second team through in this group with the other two sides playing for the third spot and whatever advantage that might bring for 2010 qualifying.

* The obligatory slam on USSF for its placement of qualifiers. Yes, I understand we need to have consideration for the European-based players in the pool and that is why most of the home qualifiers are on the East coast. And yes, I know that the luck of the draw didn't provide us with a one-off match against either of the lesser teams in our group, where perhaps we could have placed the match in a less-convenient locale for the opposition and gone with a domestic-based roster. But WHY must we hand over home-field advantage to our opponents? Placing the El Salvador match in Foxboro on a holiday weekend is just STUPID! And Panama in RFK, which has proven itself INCAPABLE of providing our team a pro-US environment in which to play? At least Frank Yallop has the right idea with his matches, playing Guatemala in Vancouver and Honduras in Edmonton, far away from their natural fan bases in the United States. Their match in Montreal, versus Costa Rica, is significantly away from its base of support and is placed there due to consideration for their European-based players (it's the second match of the October pair and would allow his playes to be available for Satuday tilts across the pond). The RFK disaster in 2001 nearly cost us a trip to Korea/Japan, and some day we WILL miss the World Cup because of bad site management on the part of the USSF.

Going back to a pet peeve

2004-06-20T06:40:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in my entry on the proper use of force in World Cup qualifying, I would be interested in seeing what the CONCACAF giants did with their opponents. It took until last night for someone to step over the line (and that even forgives Bermuda's 20-0 aggregate on last-in-the-world Montserrat from the earlier playoff round). Mexico laid the wood to Dominica in a most unpleasant way, winning their first-leg encounter 10-0 when it was not needed. El Cribabies were up 5-0 at the half and had for all intents and purposes secured its advancement considering this was the AWAY leg and Dominica was showing no bite in the attack to be capable of reversing the result. When the score reached 8-0 with more than 20 minutes remaining, I thought enough would be enough. Then came the ninth and what followed was an all-out attack to hang the double-digit scoreline on their opponent.

Frank Farina would have been proud of the heartless display these bums showed the paying fans in San Antonio and those watching across the US on Telemundo. Their need to pile it on was in my opinion classless, but then again we've never known our neighbors to the south to be at the head of the regional pecking order in that category, now have we?

MLS' impact on World Cup qualifying

2004-06-20T04:53:00.001-07:00

MLS has been a fertile training ground for the US National Team, and as DrChuck said sometime ago , it has the potential of providing playing opportunities for talented players on other national teams in the region. But have you thought about how much impact this league has had so far in this cycle of World Cup qualifying? Some numbers for consideration:

* 26 goals by 11 current or former MLS players (yes, I'm counting former Crew draft pick and current Toronto Lynx striker John Barry Nusum in that total) representing 10 countries OTHER than the United States in 3 confederations.

John Barry Nusum (Bermuda) 7
Dipsy Selolwane (Botswana) 4
Dwayne DeRosario (Canada) 2
Duncan Oughton (New Zealand) 2
Ryan Nelsen (New Zealand) 2
Jean-Philippe Peguero (Haiti) 2
Stern John (Trinidad/Tobago) 2
Carlos Ruiz (Guatemala) 2
Zizi Roberts (Liberia) 1
Amado Guevara (Honduras) 1
Shaun Bartlett (South Africa)1

* SEVEN of the 11 teams in CONCACAF's semifinal round of qualifying (not including the US) will have players from MLS on their rosters (Jamaica, Canada, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Honduras, St. Vincent/Grenadines, and Trinidad/Tobago), including such studs as DeRosario, Guevara, and Carlos Ruiz. Moreover, EVERY TEAM in Group B has an attacking player based in MLS (DeRosario; Guevara; Ruiz; and Erick Scott, Columbus/Costa Rica)

* Three of the twelve teams in the semifinal round will be managed by guys who used to troll MLS sidelines (Bruce Arena, DC United/USA; Frank Yallop, San Jose/Canada; Bora Milutinovic, Metrostars/Honduras), with a fourth former MLS gaffer heading up Brazil's qualifying campaign (Carlos Alberto Parreira, Metrostars) and a former MLS player (Lothar Matthaus, Metrostars) leading Hungary into qualifying in August.

This will be a feature throughout the campaign as information is available.

Laying an egg

2004-06-20T04:15:00.000-07:00

The Crew saw its seven-game unbeaten streak brought to an unceremonious end by way of a 3-1 loss to DC United that was not as close as the scoreline indicates. There are few words to describe the horrendous display which took place on behalf of our beloved side, so here goes with the backseat gaffering:

* Fozzie got outmanaged. Nowak made mincemeat of Andrulis by playing with three forwards (Cerritos, Eskandarian, and Moreno) to cover up for the lack of midfield depth in his side, to which Big Greg was unable to counter. The interchanging midfield also was allowed to roam and create mischief on the flanks.

* Oughton, BE GONE! Duncan is vasty incapable of playing the two-way position on the right flank inthe absence of Frankie Hejduk and it showed in spades last night. He allowed the first two goals to occur by simply not playing defense on whoever came into his space (usually a combination of Eskandarian, Moreno, Cerritos, and Kovalenko), thus pulling Akwari out of the center to pick up the mark and leaving gaps to be exploited. Frankie, how we missed ye!

* Manny is the man. He was one of the few bright spots on this team (again) because he makes things happen when he has the ball or is played into dangerous positions on the field. Sadly, there were few chances for him to use his talent because the players behind him seemed content to play away from him to either Denton or Oughton when the open space in the middle was available for the taking. (yes, it seems I am becoming the official Lagos apologist around here)

* The scheme is off its wheels. With Hejduk missing, I am now convinced there is no way we can play a sound defensive strategy along the flanks. Once it became apparent that Duncan was not up to the task of playing the two-way position on the right, Andrulis should have juggled his midfield to create a more natural 3-5-2 (Elliot and Oughton at d-mid, Denton and Paule on the flanks with Lagos pressed up behind Jeffro and Testo). This is a recurring theme with Fozzie, in that he does not seem capable of making in-game adjustments once the first XI proves not up to the job as they are currently situated.

* The youngins are coming along. Marshall put in another good performance aside from being nosed-out for the ball on the first goal. He is bound to put away one of those set pieces in the near future. Testo showed some talent and skills, but is a bundle of nerves out there. He will get it together once he realizes he CAN play at this level and gets more playing time.

* ALL THE KEYS WERE MISSED! We did NOT use the space on the flanks (rather, we had it used against us), we did not move the ball out of the back quickly through the midfield, and we did not mark up on the set pieces (and if anyone didn't think Eskandarian would not be thinking goal on the free kick, get a tape of the Olympic qualifier against Honduras...the shot was almost a carbon copy of his from that match). Jeff was invisible for most of the match because we were not making good decisions with the ball to utilize him properly.

*sigh* onto the less-than-stellar (c)Rapids on Saturday. Maybe having Frankie back will get us on track, or maybe the gloss of the streak made all the bad football of this season seem palatable and we're no better now than we were when we went winless in the first five. *shrug*

We Hate DC!

2004-06-18T11:20:00.000-07:00

Our beloved Crew's unbeaten streak, now at seven games, gets tested at our venerable House of Horrors, RFK Stadium, in tomorrow's fixture against DC United. Both teams will be missing players due to World Cup qualifying and injury, so it very well could be a battle of attrition. Game plan for the night:

* Play into space. The United midfield is a mess at the moment, and will be more so tomorrow due to the absences of Earnie Stewart and Bobby Convey for the United States' second-leg match against Grenada. In addition, Piotr Nowak's side plays a similar scheme to that of Columbus, but he attacks off the flanks and overlaps his insider midfielders, leaving plenty of space behind them and in front of the back three and defensive midfielder. This is another game where Manny Lagos teaming with Kyle Martino and Jeff Cunningham can wreak havoc on DC.

* Take advantage of transition play. Because of the lack of bodies available for DC and a four-headed monster on the front line (Moreno, Eskandarian, Cerritos, and Adu), they are not very adept at scoring. The Crew needs to move quickly out of the back through Paule to either Denton or Oughton and then onto KMart, Manny, or Jeffro into the flank space to then take on the cobbled-together defense of United with the dribble and additional runners.

* MARK UP ON SET PIECES! Despite DC being less of an aerial threat than Kansas City was last week, there are a number of dangerous players on this side. Moreno. Kovalenko. Nelsen. Olsen. Adu. Cerritos. Any or all of them can get to a free ball and put it past Busch. United scored its lone goal in the first match off a cross to an unmarked Kovalenko by Olsen, and we gave up TWO corner kick redirects last week.

Starting XI
Busch
Akwari-Fraser-Marshall
Oughton-Paule-Martino-Denton
Lagos
Barclay-Cunningham

Home field advantage

2004-06-16T18:36:00.000-07:00

One of the toughest things for the United States to secure in World Cup qualifying is a bonafide home-field advantage. The team regularly plays in this country in front of crowds which have very sizable contingents of support for that day's opposition. Despite the supposed "best efforts" of the USSF and the host facility, various means of trying to ensure a pro-US crowd have not helped. Below are several ways the USSF and host facilities can "help the cause", if you will, so a repeat of September 1, 2001 can NEVER happen.

* A LIMITED number of tickets are given to the away federation, with any requests made to the host facility for those seats (split up to ensure no central source of support in the stadium) channeled to the federation. When they're gone, THEY'RE GONE! If there are unsold tickets within that allotment, the visiting federation is to absorb the cost of said seats.

* NO sales by means of Ticketmaster nor point-of-sale tickets in advance of the event. All ticket requests are made by mail, automated telephone system, or the Internet to either the USSF or the host facility's ticket office, with priority ticketing for those with a proven record of prior purchases (it works for the NCAA with respect to the Final Four and Frozen Four, and the USSF should have this information available somewhere at Soccer House). There is NO guarantee of receiving tickets and the USSF and/or the host facility reserve the right to deny ticket requests which might enhance the potential of an adverse game-day experience outcome.

* Group sales are made only to registered USSF organizations (Sam's Army, youth soccer organizations, supporters' clubs of MLS/USL teams, etc.), with a specific member of the host facility's ticket office placed in charge of handling group ticket orders.

* Place opponents strategically. Utilize stadiums which are "out of the way" against opponents who have the potential to bring large traveling parties. Columbus and Kansas City are two good locations for the United States because the local demographics help ensure pro-US support and because they are not easily accessible by air. Foxboro is a great facility because it is in the middle of nowhere between Boston and Providence. Now, if the Revs ticket office would NOT intentionally market matches to fans of the opposition, it would be a perfect facility for qualifiers.

I am looking for feedback, so fire away! Got other ideas? Think mine are dead-wrong? Have at it!

Three up heading to the Spice Islands

2004-06-13T18:50:00.000-07:00

United States 3, Grenada 0. Not the prettiest way to open qualifying for the Americans, but a win's a win. The second leg in St. George's should be eventful for no reason other than to see if Lewis or Pope pick up that second card which would keep them out of the opening semifinal match against the winner of Haiti/Jamaica and to see if we can correct some of the missteps from today's match, since rumors indicate that the same players will be on the roster for that match, with only Pablo Mastroeni and Josh Wolff added to camp. Anyways, onto the review:

* First things first, WE WON! We have a workable margin heading into the second leg of the tie. We nearly lost our best defender on a red card. We lost half our strike force midway through the first half, and nearly lost the other half on a possible concussion or neck contusion. We broke their backs at the ends of both halves, and settled the tie on a well-struck goal by Vanney. We CAN play better than today and we will.

* We REALLY missed Josh Wolff today. With McBride and Casey up top, the entire game plan was to play the cross or have Donovan and Beasley dribble into the box. We needed a speedster up top to play onto who could make something happen with his feet instead of his head to open up the game early.

* Give credit to Grenada. They played the type of match necessary to hold the goal margin down so that they could POSSIBLY snag the tie in the home leg. Unfortunately, they were beaten BADLY on the second and third goals (the first by having NO ONE come back to pick up the dashing DMB, the second by giving Vanney space to tee up shots over-and-over on the left side…he was bound to cash in on one of those attempts).

* Thought the Lewis-for-Armas substitution was interesting in that it didn't seem to mesh with either the diamond or the box. I’m not sure I have an opinion on the gift cap for Earnie at the moment (it puts him on 99 for his career). Bad luck having to bring Kirovski on for Casey, and I don’t think he found his place in the match AT ALL. Felt Pope played with fire too often in dealing with Jason Roberts and could have easily been sent off on more than one occasion in the second half for shirt-tugs when Roberts had him beat and was alone on goal.

* Was thinking Beasley would be pulled at the half for Lewis not 60 seconds before he scored the first goal. His off-the-ball run to pick up the brace reminded me of Landon’s streak through the center for the insurance tally against Mexico in Jeonju.

* Thumbs up: Beasley, Cherundolo, McBride (was forced to play out-of-position because of Jovan’s ineptness), Donovan, Reyna, Vanney. So-So: Keller (not much work, so a definite up/down cannot be reached), Bocanegra, Armas, Stewart (no time on the field), Lewis (be decisive with the shot!), Casey (injury happened too early to know how he’d fare on the day). Thumbs down: Pope (trust your teammates), Kirovski (be gone, ManU reject!).

A shot at the top

2004-06-11T15:05:00.000-07:00

Columbus heads into tomorrow night's match with Kansas City just two points out of first place in the Eastern Conference. With the Fire playing the afternoon match at LA, the Crew will know before they take the field for warm-ups whether they can jump Chicago in the standings and take hold of the top spot 10 games into the MLS season. So, Greg, if the opportunity to get out front is there, do you trot out the safe XI that will try to gut out a result and keep the streak and run of good form alive or do you take a risk and attempt to seize control of the Eastern Conference race heading into the middle-third of the schedule?

The game plan against the Wizards:

* Use your home-field advantage. Being at home is an advantage in MLS, and not because of the crowd. A manager has at his disposal his entire roster (excluding those out due to injuries, cards, or call-ups) whereas the road team only travels 16 (2 of which are goalkeepers). With a short bench, Gansler has limited options for countering what Andrulis might do, either in the starting line-up or with situational substitutions, and the run of games (five in 14 days, including the last three on the road) is bound to take a toll on the "freshness" of the side.

* Man-and-sweep Wolff. No member of the Crew defense can effectively man-mark El Lobo Rabido, so he needs to be doubled. Marshall matches up with him and Fraser plays deeper to pick him up when he DOES get loose. Arnaud can be handled by Akwari sufficiently.

* Get Lagos involved. Denton's only job tomorrow night should be to keep track of Chris Klein and NOT get stuck upfield. When Klein presses his advantage against Denton, Manny needs to exploit the space behind him and receive the early ball so he can run at the backline (sort of like how Landon always get played into large areas of space to wreak havoc on the defense).

* Attack! Kansas City's major threat is Klein playing the early cross to Wolff so he can use his speed against the backline. Their central midfield is less-than-stunning (Walsh or Gomez paired with Zavagnin) and Gutierrez is a two-way winger (like Hejduk and Denton), so we can take control of the match by utilizing our talent in the midfield to create chances. Playing KMart out wide would allow him to pinch into the middle when we attack while providing enough defensive cover to keep Gutierrez from taking advantage of the gap on the flank when he does so. As I mentioned in my opinions on the Revolution match, Lagos is just more capable of going AT people and making use of his teammates than Martino at this point and thus should be slotted behind the strikers.

My First XI:
Busch
Akwari-Fraser-Marshall
Martino-Elliott-Paule-Denton
Lagos
Ritch-Cunningham

Prediction: Crew 2 Wizards 0

Soccer Woodstock

2004-06-10T12:16:00.000-07:00

Now that you know a little about what our team will go through to make the World Cup and have some helpful hints to follow the action, I want to take you inside the crucible that is a qualifier as an attendee.

A World Cup qualifier can be construed to being the closest one might come to war in the sporting realm. It is your nation - your way of life, your history - placed smack-dab up against another nation - its history, its way of life. In the United States, this passion spills over to the fans because in nearly every match we play, there is a sizable contingent of support for the opposition. In many parts of the world, the home side goes to extreme measures to maintain home-field advantage, such as allowing only a limited number of tickets for fans of the away team, placing matches in venues which are advantageous based on geography and climate, and making mischief during the opponents’ stay in the country. In previous qualifying rounds, we have had to deal with all-night block parties, misdirected busses that send the team to the wrong stadium, matches moved at the behest of the home federation only days ahead of time, and that’s just BEFORE the match. Once the match starts, the incessant noise made by the crowd can cause confusion on the part of the away side. In addition, at times objects find their way onto the field and in some venues, racially insensitive language is directed at specific players of the opposition. A qualifier is NOTHING like your run-of-the-mill league match, not even heated rivalries like Dallas-Chicago, San Jose-Los Angeles, or DC United-Metrostars. The only league match-up in Europe I can compare a World Cup qualifier to is Celtic-Rangers in Scotland, where religion and allegiance to the Crown add to the fuel between these top-level sides in the Premiership.

However, there are positives in attending a qualifier in the States. For one, tens of thousands of fans from all over the country congregate upon the host city and plan weeks if not months ahead for those few times when their country defends its colors on the qualifying trail. There are multiple gatherings scheduled for the match weekend, from pub confabs to kickarounds to the pre-game tailgate. It is like a mini-Woodstock for soccer fans.

If you are heading to Columbus for Sunday’s match, know that you will be taking your place alongside tested veterans of the qualifying trail and fellow rookies to the trials and tribulations of supporting the Red, White, and Blue. Gates open at 10am, and stop by the tailgate on the south side of the stadium at the west end of the paved parking. Introduce yourselves. Get some eats. March in with the crowd at 11:30. More than anything, ENJOY YOURSELF! Once you’ve experienced a qualifier live, you will want to attend another…and another…and another.

Arena 2, Hankinson 1 (AET)

2004-06-09T06:36:00.000-07:00

The row between US National Team manager Bruce Arena and Colorado Rapids gaffer Tim Hankinson has taken some attention away form the upcoming qualifier against Grenada. However, this issue was bound to come up at some point on the road to Leipzig. Just never thought it would be on THIS side of the Atlantic.

Hankinson requested that his player, defender Pablo Mastroeni, be allowed to play in the Rapids' Wednesday night match against Kansas City before joining the US camp for Sunday's tilt with the Spice Boys. Upon this request, Arena chose not to call Mastroeni into camp, believing that players needed to be in Columbus for the entire week prior to the fixture. On top of that, he also chose not to call in three players from the Wizards (goalkeeper Tony Meola, striker Josh Wolff, and midfielder Kerry Zavagnin) so that the Rapids would not gain an advantage by hanging onto its player. Much has been written about who's right and who's wrong in this situation, and thus here is my take:

* Both sides dropped the ball here, for different reasons. On Hankinson's part, he chose to use the bully pulpit when it wasn't necessary. As for Arena, he did not make an effort to contact Hankinson after receiving word that the FIFA rule concerning call-ups would be invoked.

* A REASONABLE compromise could have been reached, whereby Pablo and the KC guys would be in camp for Monday and Tuesday, head out to play the Wednesday match, then return to Columbus either that night or early on Thursday. Had the two men talked, this could have been accomplished.

* What this set-to has done has been to draw a line in the sand for Arena concerning camp and the expectation placed on those called-in. HE will make decisions as to who is in camp or not, NOT the club manager, and if a player cannot be made available for a length of time satisfactory to Bruce, he will not call the player in.

* On a side note, isn't it nice to have this flexibility within the player pool, to be able to stick to an up-front position because there are enough decent players that a moderately-strong roster can be brought together even with absences due to injuries, personal requests, and club managers' tantrums.

At this point, I expect all four players to be brought into camp for the second leg unless there is an injury to one of them tonight in Denver. I also expect Bruce to call in some additional players and allow those who are "needed" by their club sides to rejoin them since we will have a healthy margin in the aggregate heading down to St. George's.

Four in a row!

2004-06-06T19:42:00.000-07:00

The Crew cobbled together another less-than-stellar performance today against New England. Yet when the dust settled, our boys in Black-and-Gold brought home three points from the east coast and now sit in second place in the Eastern Conference on 14 points (4-3-2), just two behind Chicago with a game in hand. My thoughts on the match:

* Greg seems to have found a "better" scheme for the five-man midfield in the absence of Simon Elliott through the use of two-way midfielders in the center behind Kyle Martino (Ross Paule and Brian Maissoneuve against San Jose last week; Paule and Manny Lagos today). With the Crew playing with defensive-minded wingers in Eric Denton and Frankie Hejduk, the offense must come through the center of the field, and while today's adventure at Estadio Gillette didn't look a WHOLE lot better than previous matches, the flow of the game is starting to move away from the long-ball over-the-top and speed moves of Surfer Dude to a possession game with reasonable passing across and down the field. It reminds me of how the 2003 Crew play in Championship Manager (3-4-3, with Martino/Maissoneuve in the center of midfield and Denton/Hejduk on the flanks). Now if we can just get a more offensive option at attacking mid than KMart has shown himself to be lately (Lagos, maybe?), we could make the 3 goal/game offense flow at the House that Lamar Built.

* The two penalty kicks conceded by the Crew in the match has to be cause for concern for Andrulis. For a team that gets results ugly, giving away prime scoring opportunities to the opposition via the spot-kick will eventually cost the team points as the season progresses.

* Manny Lagos continues to prove why he is such a valuable player to every team he has played for in the league (and I'm not saying that because he happens to be a fellow UW-Milwaukee alum). He works hard, can run off the ball AND with the ball, and gets himself into positions where his teammates can use him. Of the Crew's trades in the off-season, this was the best one.

About the streak: it doesn't have to end. The next three matches are Kansas City, DC Scum, and the (c)Rapids, so it's possible we could be unbeaten in nine games (ten if you include the US Open Cup match on June 30th) heading into the July 3rd match against the bums from the Windy City. Who could have said that on May 15th when we were 0-3-2 and staring at a fifth-anniversary celebration in a projected half-empty Crew Stadium against the Revolution? Surely not I!

Bring on the Lollipop Guild!

World Cup Qualifying for Dummies

2004-06-06T11:27:00.000-07:00

World Cup Qualifying. The mere mention of it brings chills to the spines of football fans from Auckland to Ottawa, from Lusaka to Tashkent, from Quito to Belfast. For our beloved Red, White, and Blue, it involves 18 games over 16 months in 3 separate and distinct stages. It’s not for the weak of heart, and it definitely is not a slam-dunk ANYWHERE in the world. For the United States, the preceding is the path it must travel to reach the ultimate goal of this journey: one of 3 guaranteed places from CONCACAF in the 2006 World Cup Finals in Germany and the opportunity to compete with 31 other nations for the greatest prize in all of sport. The following is a list of key things to remember during qualifying that will make the experience more pleasant and less stressful for you, the fan.

1) It’s a LONG road to travel from the beginning of qualifying (June 13th, 2004) to its conclusion (October 12th, 2005), and things will happen along the way. Injuries will come into play, club managers will be less-than-cordial about releasing players, and team form will go up-and-down (and up-and-down and up-and-down). Trinidad and Tobago went 5-1-0 in its 2000 semifinal group, but 1-7-2 in the final group in 2001, getting four of their five points in its final two matches. Costa Rica went from needing to win a neutral-site playoff over Guatemala at the end of 2000 to qualify for the Hexagonal to clinching qualification for the World Cup with two matches to spare in September of 2001 and giving Mexico its first-ever qualifying loss as home. The US started qualifying with one point from two matches, ran off nine matches without a loss over the following 10 months, then dropped three straight before a combination of results (a win against Jamaica and help from other lands) put them into the World Cup one match early in October of 2001.

2) We will lose matches. There is no denying this fact, other than to live in an antiseptic dream world. Getting points on the road in CONCACAF is a very difficult task, so coming away from anywhere with a point or three should NOT be taken for granted. Over the past two qualifying cycles, the US was 4-5-7 on foreign soil, which included going 0-4-0 in Costa Rica, 0-1-1 in Mexico, 0-0-2 in Guatemala, and 0-0-2 in Jamaica. On home soil, we managed to go 12-1-3 over that time span, with two “good” draws (Mexico in 1997 and Costa Rica in 2000), one “bad” draw (Jamaica in 1997), and a horrendous loss on Labor Day Weekend 2001 to Honduras. Just as getting points away from home is hard, so is running the table at home. If you glean nothing else from my words, remember this mantra: Win at home, tie on the road.

3) Surprises happen. As I am typing this, the Solomon Islands pulled off the biggest result in its international football history with a 2-2 draw against a ten-man Australia side that advanced them to the final stage of Oceania World Cup qualifying ahead of defending Oceania Nations Cup champion New Zealand, a team who defeated the Solomons earlier in the round. The Kiwis, however, did one better a few days earlier when they lost 4-2 to Vanuatu (a result that ultimately cost them advancement). Costa Rica opened qualifying in 2000 by losing to Barbados, a result that almost came back to bite them at the end of the round. Trinidad and Tobago, a team on a tragically-bad run of form (1 point from 8 matches), shocked Honduras IN HONDURAS on Matchday 9 of the 2001 Hex to set the stage for the Catrachos’ elimination from qualifying on the final day at the hands of Mexico (and coincidentally clinched a berth in Korea/Japan for the United States).

4) The factors that affect national team call-ups are numerous, and change from match to match. At times, a solid member of the first XI will not be called in for a match. There are questionable call-ups for EVERY national team camp. Opponents change from match to match, and the proper personnel needed to get the result needs to change as well. Playing a team at home might necessitate different players than playing the same opponent on the road. Club matches and priorities affect at times the ability of a manager to call in certain players (e.g. John O’Brien not being available for the match at Mexico in 2001, the four players dismissed from camp just a couple days ago), and the schedule will at times affect the feasibility of calling up players stationed in Europe. The team’s formation, the personnel available, and “chemistry” all play a key role in determining whom to bring to camp. The camp roster for a one-off match will probably be different than that for a Saturday/Wednesday set of fixtures (the US will play two of these in its six-match semifinal group should it advance past Grenada). Another important thing to remember: EVERY player on the roster for a qualifier is there for a specific reason (some more obvious than others).

5) No two results are exactly the same. Hearing that the US won a qualifier 1-0 only tells part of the story. Who was the opponent? Where? How did they set up? How did WE set up? Who was/wasn’t available? The 1-0 win over Costa Rica in 2001 was MUCH different than the 1-0 win over them in 1997. Same for the 0-0 draws against Jamaica (1997 and 2001). Context means so much on the qualification road, and a result that might make one jump for joy at one time in the journey will make the same person curse the ancestors of the starting XI at another time. It comes with the territory.

6) Winning at home is CRUCIAL to advancing. The mantra I mentioned above holds true, as does the following axiom: If you take more road points than you surrender home points, you will advance. The US has gotten to the World Cup each of the past two times because they have defended home court well (no fewer than 11 points in either Hex) and gotten key road points along the way (the series of road draws in the 1997 Hex, a 30-match competition that saw only TWO road victories; the win at Honduras on Matchday 2 of the 2001 Hex). Honduras missed out on the 2002 World Cup because they lost THREE home matches (to the US, Costa Rica, and Trinidad/Tobago) out of five, not because Mexico got hot over the final five matches. You cannot make up ground on the road fast enough to negate dropped points at home. Below is a simple computation to keep in mind over the qualifying season:

--Every team starts with 0 points.
--As the group phase progresses, assign points based on the results according to this scale:

0 points for a home win
–2 for a home draw
–3 points for a home loss
0 for a road loss
1 point for a road draw
3 points for a road win

--If your team is above 0, you’re in good shape; if below 0, you should worry.

7) Just as the home crowd influences teams for good or bad, so they can influence the officials. The referee and linesmen are not immune to home-crowd pressure, especially in many of the locales in CONCACAF. Phantom penalties are called, legitimate fouls are not called, cards are/are not given on a seemingly random basis, and any or all of these can contribute to what might seem an unjust result. Having said that, the odd thing is that good teams tend to get breaks down the road that counteract the bad things that happen. No-calls on possible handballs against John O’Brien, Clint Mathis, and Jeff Agoos in the last qualifying cycle and World Cup are karmic counters to the phantom handball against Gregg Berhalter in Costa Rica in 2000 and the no-call on Thorsten Frings’ handball on the goal line in the World Cup quarterfinal against us.

8) At least one member of the starting XI in the first qualifier will be out of the player pool by the time the final qualifier is played, and several players off the radar today will make the final 23 for the World Cup should we qualify. Players that are in hot demand today might fall out of favor as the level of competition, the style of play, and the rise of players out of the pool changes. As a result of this, the manager might perceivably shaft your pet player. Deal with it!

9) Trust in our manager to get us to Germany. Sometimes he will look like he has no clue. Sometimes he will seem out-of-touch with the soccer-loving public. We must believe that Bruce will put us in position to qualify until such time as he has proven himself unable to do so.

10) WEAR RED on every matchday, attend every game you possible can (home and away), and support the boys in every way you can. We are ALL in this together, and the final destination is Leipzig in December of 2005 to find out who we will play in the group phase of the World Cup Finals the following June.

11) ENJOY THE RIDE!

The Proper Use of Force

2004-06-04T06:07:00.000-07:00

New Zealand 10, Tahiti 0. After my entry yesterday, you would think that I’d be outraged by the scoreline. I’m not, because I understand the reason behind it. The Kiwis were tied for third place in the Oceania World Cup qualifying table heading into the match (their next-to-last of the campaign, and the first one of the matchday in Adelaide) and need to finish second in order to advance to a two-leg playoff with Australia for the confederation’s place in a tie against CONMEBOL’s fifth-place team for the right to play in the 2006 World Cup Finals (try saying that quickly a few times). Because they will be tied with the Solomon Islands for second place at nine points (the Solomons have nine heading into their final group match against Australia), goal differential (goals scored minus goals allowed) will be used to determine the qualifier. The ten-spot hung by the All Whites on the Tahitians has settled that argument (supposing 1-0 results for New Zealand and Australia, the Kiwis will advance with a GD of +11 with the Solomons’ GD being +2), which is why I believe it was a proper use of force.

I return to the United States’ 7-0 win over Barbados in 2000 as a prime example of being forceful with purpose. The Yanks were sitting on one point and in last place of their semifinal group after their first two qualifiers. From that position, the likelihood of finishing tied for second was substantial. Therefore, putting up a big number on the group’s perceived minnow when no one in the group had done so (the Ticos LOST 2-1 to the Bajans on Matchday 1 and the Guatemalans beat them 2-0 on Matchday 2) would give them the key tiebreaker should it be needed.

When groups are used in qualifying, sometimes a team has to put up a lopsided scoreline to take control of the goal differential tiebreaker. Even in those cases, it usually takes only one such score to accomplish the mission (now if all sides are racking up the goals against a weak sister, such as a three-legged playoff involving the US, Mexico, and Belize, then it’s another story). What Frank Farina did in Oceania qualifying the last go-around was downright despicable and unsporting. What Mick Waitt did today, and what Bruce did in 2000, was necessary and proper. In two-leg qualifying playoffs, there is absolutely NO reason to pile it on once the overall result has been determined. As such, there should NEVER be a run-up in the second leg of a tie and only enough of one in the first leg to make the second leg moot. I will interested in seeing what the behemoths of CONCACAF do in their qualifying playoffs, for there is such a thing as winning big with honor and grace.

Columbus and St. George's

2004-06-03T18:50:00.000-07:00

Well, now that Arena the Bruce has set the 22 for the two-leg playoff against Grenada, we can critique it and see where his mind is with respect to advancing from this round. The boy is NOT playing around, bringing almost every big dog on the block (there are a couple about which I have questions). The squad he has brought in is capable of going Farina on the Spice Boyz in the aggregate. Is that what we want to have happen, to run out a 15-0 or more two-game total by using the absolute best we have, or should we look at this as two separate games, with personnel and outcomes different for each? If the result is decided after the first leg, should we re-consider our objective for the second match and further deepen our pool of talent, or is it more important to get this top XI on the same page for the later rounds?

From my perspective, BA should have two scenarios in mind for the second match’s roster, based on the result of the first leg. If we do not have a sizable margin after the first match, then we bring the big dogs to St. George's and lay the wood a second time. If we do have such a margin after the home leg (6-0 or 7-0, minimum), then Bruce should use the second match to get some guys who could play significant roles later on in qualifying (because players can and do get injured; because European club managers can be snippy about releasing players for single matches on this side of the Atlantic, even if it IS an international matchdate; and because different opponents require different personnel) some valuable experience in a road qualifier. Therefore, he should have a sizeable list of alternates for the match on the 20th that he can bring to camp and give minutes to in St. George’s if the result is not in question. No, I am NOT calling for Freddy to get his maiden senior cap in the second leg of the Grenada playoff, because that would be an inane suggestion. What I am advocating, however, is that Bruce have a list of goals for the second match that are NOT tied AT ALL to those for the first leg. Because I am pimping this idea, here is a short list of goals and ideas surrounding that match:

1) The match MUST be won! That said, 1-0 is as acceptable a result as 12-0 for the second leg, assuming the first leg theoretically settles the tie. Therefore, call in a team that can get a minimalist result while providing experience to players capable of a Beasley-like jump between now and the Hex.

2) The US style of play must continue to be applied with these new players so that they are able to step in should an opening in the line-up come available in later rounds. We do NOT change formations from match one to match two, nor do we change the mentality of the scheme either. The preferred scheme now seems to be a box midfield with width provided by the wingbacks. We need to get more players acclimated to this in game competition, especially in positions where we do not currently have ample depth.

3) Certain players need to be included in the first XI so that this “education” can take place. Having a solid central defense that has played together in several matches (even if none have been of this magnitude) along with a tested international between the pipes is critical to that.

4) Matches such as this second leg tend to be both good and bad. Good in the sense that you get to see how neophytes do when thrown into the fire of qualifying, but bad because you are bound to a maximum of fourteen players participating (starting XI and three subs).

5) As for lineup, I am unsure exactly who should be in it, but here are some ideas. I see Bocanegra and Gibbs playing the central defense core with Meola backing them up in net. Convey starts on the left with Cherundolo on the right. Reyna plays one defensive midfield position with Mastroeni playing the other. The attacking midfielders should be guys not named Landon and DeMarcus, but I’m lost as to who goes here. Casey starts up top, but I can’t pick out a partner at the moment. In short, tons of guys playing different places and guys playing who are a step or two down the depth chart.

First leg: 8-0 at least. Second leg: depends on BA’s mood and motives.

On to Soccer Mecca in ten days to begin the eighteen-month trek that will hopefully end in Leipzig in early December 2005 when our country’s name is pulled from one of the pots and placed in its fifth consecutive World Cup Finals. Save me a seat at the tailgate!