Weekly Wrap: Week 1 of 31.

Well, the first of 31 straight weeks of domestic US soccer (35 if you want to throw in the playoffs) is behind us. I personally was losing my mind waiting for last saturday, especially with college basketball being dead to me since December (damn Illini, although the Rose Bowl kept me occupied until New Year's Day).

That aside, soccer is back... my token annual "I'll try and watch a bit of baseball" foray should be over with by the time New England and Chicago square off this Thursday night. Let's face it... from whenever Illinois basketball is overwith until football (or is it throwball?) season kicks off, I'm in full fledged soccer mode.

That rant aside, opening day for me consisted of a 7.5 hour long soccer binge, at one point I rolled a second TV into the living room (putting my old 17" TV on a wheeled cart with an extra long cable was the best idea I ever had) and watched two games at once.

To me, the most surprising result was KC over DC. For some reason I thought losing Eddie Johnson would signal a downward spiral for KC. and I'm wondering to myself why I was thinking that (even though he's a headcase and shouldn't be wearing a USA uniform, Eddie Johnson had a hell of a season last year). I was pretty impressed with Ivan Trujillo and Claudio Lopez, and KC fans should be too. Sure, for the next two (at least) years Kansas City is relegated to playing in a tiny minor league ballpark with limited sideline seats, awkward sightlines, and in a couple weeks a baseball infield to deal with... but you know what, it kinda works. Sold out stadium, over 10,000 in attendance, good atmosphere, intimate environment... hopefully Wizards soccer becomes a somewhat hot ticket over the next two years, so when they do finally kick the door open on an ~18-20,000 seat stadium in a couple years, they will have some dedicated fans eager to eat up tickets.

The least surprising result was Columbus over TFC... Moreno and Schelotto are a great combination, and Columbus, while not an overly powerful team (if there are any in MLS), is a pretty decent ballclub, and will be in the mix for the playoffs. TFC, on the other hand, isn't. They lack a star player, although they do have guys in Edu and Wynne who I think will pan out to be solid players to build a team around, if they can keep them for a couple years... but they will be brutal again this year.

As for the other games:

• Chicago/Salt Lake - I felt like I was watching Sarachan-ball for most of the game from Chicago... (damn you Juan Carlos Osorio!)... but I will, for now at least, chalk that up to the horrible surface in Salt Lake City. I don't really mind artificial turf and football lines (although I'll be glad to see both gone), what I do mind is short pavement like artificial turf that turns the playing surface into an ice rink and causes every through-ball to skid out to touch. *shudder*... good showing by salt lake fans, they deserve to watch better soccer... they will get it soon, but not *quite* soon enough.
• Los Angeles/Colorado - LA might be the most entertaining team in the history of soccer. From that amazingly epic game at Giants Stadium last year, to the sideshow of Alexi Lalas, to the blowout/fisticufs on Friday... they are pure entertainment, and I'm soaking it up. It could be a rough year for them though, Carlos Ruiz was a good signing, but on Saturday someone ACTUALLY fouled him, and hard. Initial reports seem to say he could be gone for a while. Furthermore, Abel Xavier is going to be given a vacation of at least a week, possibly longer, after he went off on referee Abiodun Okulaja (which was probably justified, but the league front office probably doesn't like its incompetant refs being screamed at). All in all, entertaining game, I thought it was fairly close until the PK in the second half broke LA's back. The next chapter in the saga that is the LA Galaxy will be to see how they, as a team, react...
  
• Goats/Dallas - I have no issue with Spanish language broadcasts (I don't speak spanish, and I barely understand it, but I'll still watch games), but does anyone in this f*$king country actually get Telefutura? The Telefutura deal, along with HDNet, piss me off to no end... especially since it appears the usual method of watching Telefutura games online has evaporated. I don't have anything to say about the game, because it was completely impossible for me to watch it. ugh. As a slight sidenote... if KC can broadcast spanish language audio with their telecasts, if there anyway telefutura could broadcast english play-by-play with their telecasts, or would that somehow be "offensive"... I guess if practically nobody can watch it, it doesn't really matter..
  

Those Magical Teenage years

MLS Turned 13 years old yesterday...

our little league has done a lot of growing up these past 13 laps around the sun.

On opening day, 6 games were played. 3 games were played in soccer-specific stadiums that didn't exist in 1996 (Colorado, Dallas, and Columbus), 1 game was played in an NFL stadium (New England), 1 game was played in a stadium in a city that didn't have a team 13 years ago (Salt Lake), and 1 game was played in a minor league ballpark by a team searching for a more permanent home.

Of the 14 teams contesting the MLS Cup and Supporter's Shield this year, 8 are original MLS franchises (I'll let you decide if Houston or the reincarnated San Jose counts as #8).

Four MLS teams more or less have their original nickname, logo, and colors

• D.C. United
• New England Revolution
• Columbus Crew
• Kansas City Wizards (depend if you think "Wiz" counts as a separate nickname or just a dumb idea that was sorta fixed)

Two MLS teams have their original nickname, but have rebranded their colors and logo recently:

• Colorado Rapids
• Los Angeles Galaxy

And three of the Original MLS franchises have changed their nickname

• FC Dallas (nee Burn)
• New York Red Bulls (nee NY/NJ Metrostars and then Metrostars)
  
• San Jose Earthquakes (nee Clash)

Of the ten original MLS stadiums, only DC United and the Red Bulls are playing in the same location they started at in the spring of '96.... and the Red Bulls will be leaving the Meadowlands next year (we hope). Three of the original MLS stadiums don't even exist anymore (Houlihan Stadium in Tampa, Foxboro Stadium in New England, and Mile High Stadium in Denver). At the end of this season, over half the league will be playing in stadiums they own, with revenue they control (I'll be nice and lump the Goats into this category).

Home Sweet Home
In the first 6 games of the MLS season, the road team has scored a grand total of 2 goals... Cuauhtemoc Blanco's stoppage time rocket to force a draw in Salt Lake City, and Maykel Galindo's leveler in the 84 minute in Dallas yesterday.




The Numbers:

in the first weekend of MLS:

• 16 Yellow Cards (2.67 per game)
• 2 Red Cards (0.33 per game)... both in the Colorado/LA game
• 15 Goals Scored (2.5 per game)... 1 own goal, and 1 from a penalty kick
• 91,869 fans in the stands (average of 15,312 per game)
• 2 PK's awarded... both of them fairly tacky, 1 converted (Christian Gomez, which probably broke LA's back), 1 saved (Will Hesmer's sprawling save to deny Collin Samuel and TFC an equalizer before halftime)

Player of the Week:

Terry Cooke - Colorado Rapids
1 Goal (Game Winning Goal) and 2 Assists in opener vs. Los Angeles Galaxy.

The Goals:
created by the folks who run Climbing the Ladder (good blog, check it out)