Ten things to note from MLS Week 13
Sweeping up after the MLS weekend party, here are a few things I found lying around:
1. Lies, damn lies and statistics. Statistics are frequently used the way a drunk utilizes a lamppost: for support instead of illumination. In other words, numbers are pliable and can often be manipulated to make 'em support whatever you want.
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Chad Barrett continues to frustrate Chicago fans with his poor finishing.
2. Make a deal already! Slumping Chicago is losing leverage weekly with Toronto in the Brian McBride joust. It makes less and less sense for the Fire to cling to its current personnel, seeing as how the Toyota Park gang hasn't won an MLS match yet in June. So if Toronto wants Wilman Conde and maybe some other spare part, perhaps the Fire should just give it to them already.
On the other hand, the Fire would be wise to stubbornly keep Justin Mapp off the table. Assuming McBride arrives in Chicago, remember that his game depends on service. Cuauhtemoc Blanco can deliver good balls into McBride from different angles. But Mapp is the only Fire attacker who can consistently supply service from the flanks.
3. Misfiring Barrett. For the life of me, if I were a bleeding-red Fire supporter, I don't know how I would feel about Chad Barrett. You can't question the man's earnest effort. And truth be told, without Barrett's team-leading five goals, the team wouldn't have two or three of those wins. (Blanco has four goals, but two have come via PK.)
On the other hand, a professional striker simply can't miss golden opportunities such as the pair he squandered Thursday in a 2-0 loss at Chivas USA. One, maybe. But two of them? Surely there were Fire fans who slumped into the nearest corner to weep quietly.
4. Fashion makeover required. Somehow, Abel Xavier has managed to make himself look even more ridiculous, having added a stark white beard to that stark white explosion of scare-hair. You gotta say this for the mercurial fellow: he's not afraid to express himself.
5. Outside the box. David Beckham won't beat many guys with pure speed. He's not slow, but he's not particularly fast. Nor will Chris Klein win many foot races. But those guys, using shrewd positioning and cagey combination work, consistently get into spots to serve balls from the right. Even when opponents recognize that crosses from Klein and, particularly, Beckham, constitute about 60 percent of the Galaxy offense, defenses still struggle to shut off the spigot.
Beckham also seems to know what so many other MLS types don't: Defending in this league, team and individual, is frequently pedestrian. So, if you keep serving balls into the area, good things will happen. Witness the Galaxy's first goal Saturday, where Crew goalkeeper William Hesmer makes a mess of what should have been a routine catch or punch, leaving Landon Donovan with the easiest of finishes.
Still, there's a serious dearth of players in MLS capable of (or perhaps willing to) consistently shaping good crosses from the wings.
6. Buddle for the U.S.? If you look at the pool of U.S.-eligible forwards in MLS, none of the usual suspects (Kenny Cooper, Brian Ching, Taylor Twellman) can create his own shot the way Edson Buddle can.
7. Toja on the wane. Good MLS fans remember a year ago when Dallas had an influential young South American midfielder who made an imprint on every match with midfield industry and dynamic attacking. His name was Juan Toja.
Well, Dallas still has an influential young linkman from South America. But now his name is Andre Rocha. He's having far more impact on matches currently that Toja, who needs to get back to being that dynamo.
8. Under the radar. You've got to wonder where Red Bull New York would be this year without Dave van den Bergh, one of the unsung heroes around Giants Stadium. While a frustrated Claudio Reyna has been chained to the trainer's table and Juan Pablo Angel, also nicked by injury, has struggled to nail down his form, the versatile Dutchman has bravely soldiered on.
He's been effective at several spots. Saturday he was left back, quite effective at getting forward in the win over Dallas. His set-piece delivery is sharp. He holds ball as well as anybody in Saturday's lineup (which was without Angel and Reyna). And the durable van den Bergh set up Seth Stammler's goal in the mid-week draw at New England.
(Props also to Red Bull's Sinisa Ubiparipovic, as the six-syllable man had perhaps his two best matches as a Red Bull last week.)
9. Schedule clashes. I understand why the MLS-Telefutura contract is important. In the bigger picture, MLS needs desperately to engage the nation's Latino (and especially the Mexican) soccer fans. The league is better if U.S.-based supporters of Pumas, Club America, Chivas, Santos, etc., adopt an MLS team, too, and Spanish-language broadcasts are a major piece of that important initiative.
Still, it really stinks for fans in D.C. and San Jose -- and throughout the TV-watching land, too -- to be forced to choose among the Sunday afternoon MLS offer, the U.S. World Cup qualifier and a Euro 2008 clash of global giants (Spain-Italy).
10. Ups and downs. What should have made you stand up and cheer from Round 13: David Beckham's sophisticated first touch that forced a foul and created a late Galaxy penalty kick; D.C. United's 15 passes (although San Jose did stick in a foot a couple of times) before Gonzalo Martinez's big individual effort and strike for the home team; another "red out," standing-room only crowd at BMO; the late energy that rookie Steven Lenhart supplied critically to Columbus; Stammler's sweet one-timer against New England; Another nice evening from the fearless Robbie Rogers.
What should have made you wince: Zach Wells' howler in the D.C. United goal, a gift for visiting San Jose; those two pitiful misses by Barrett for Chicago; Ruud Gullit's Galaxy scores three at home against Columbus but somehow comes away with a just a draw; Paulo Nagamura's two cautions in 13 minutes, leaving Chivas USA short-handed for an entire half; a lighting malfunction and 17-minute delay at DSG Park outside Denver; Red Bull New York's Kevin Goldthwaite, implausibly, straining both hamstring muscles Saturday; three matches in a busy Round 13 (nine games) finishing with the dreaded scoreless draw.
Steve Davis is a Dallas-based freelance writer who covers MLS for ESPNsoccernet. He can be reached at BigTexSoccer@yahoo.com.
