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Footyball

Filed under: Imported

I know the legions of footy fans who visit this site regularly have been desperately waiting for my insights on the MLS playoffs. Fear not. I managed to watch at least part of all four games last weekend--even missing most of the opening game of the World Series so that I could bring you authoritative coverage.

What did I learn?

(Warning: the following will probably read like complete gibberish to non-footy geeks. I apologize in advance for making these thoughts available for public consumption.)

1. As I suspected, D.C. United looks like the squad to beat. Playing in New York, they knocked off the Metrostars 2-0. D.C.'s flying monkey of a goalkeeper Nick Rimando made a couple of highlight reel saves (and a couple of completely boneheaded decisions that he was lucky not to pay for), but D.C. largely coasted. Alecko Eskandarian has become one of the most dangerous forwards in the league, capable of cracking in a left-footed bomb from any spot in the box. When D.C.'s clicking--with Jamie Moreno, Earnie Stewart and (renowned sociopath) Dema Kovalenko knocking the ball about the field--they're the most dangerous club in the league.

2. San Jose has been hiding in the weeds. The defending MLS champs stumbled into the playoffs, compiling a foul record of 9-10-11. But a completely different squad showed up for Sunday's 2-0 dismantling of Kansas City. Even playing without key midfielders Ronnie Ekelund and Richard Mulrooney, the Earthquakes dominated the game. Landon Donovan (who I think it's now fair to say is the best soccer player in the country) always elevates his game for key matches. You see it during the World Cup qualifiers and during the MLS playoffs. Sunday was no exception. He terrorized the Kansas City defenders, streaking through the middle of the field at alarming speeds and constantly creating dangerous opportunities. This is why he needs to take another stab at Europe. It's too easy for him to coast in MLS.

3. Colorado is a very boring team. You probably couldn't come up with 10 decent minutes of offensive highlights from their entire season. They scored less than a goal per game. That said, nobody wants to play Tim Hankinson's squad. They played a near flawless game against Los Angeles last Friday, winning 1-0 with tenacious defense and a dangerous counter-attack. Colorado goalkeeper Joe Cannon was forced to make maybe one decent save all night. I was highly impressed with Haitian forward Jean Philipe Peguero. For some reason, after very limited exposure, I was under the impression that he was a one-dimensional forward, capable of knocking the ball into the net when the opportunity presented itself but not much else. He showed otherwise against L.A., creating at least two golden scoring opportunities with lovely through balls. It was also a joy to watch Mark Chung and Pablo Mastroeni. The former knocked in perfect cross after perfect cross all game long (even though he's at least 67 years old), while the latter put on his usual display of fearless, tenacious tackling.

4. Doug Hamilton, general manager of the Los Angeles Galaxy, is an idiot. Here's what he had to say in the L.A. Times last week.

"One of the objectives with this club at the beginning of the year is that I wanted us to have a brand or a style of play that our fans could count on home or away, week in and week out," Hamilton said as the team prepared for tonight's first-round playoff game against the Colorado Rapids.

Hamilton pointed to the NBA to make his point.

"The Lakers have a style," he said, "whether that's run-and-gun, fastbreak, Showtime. The Detroit Pistons had an approach to basketball this year. For Detroit, that worked for them. They were going to pound it into the paint and they were going to muscle people.... They got players who bought into that approach, they coached that way and they played that way. That's their philosophical position.

"I'd like us to be attractive, but more important I'd like us to be consistent. I'd like us to take responsibility for the game, sending numbers forward, being the more aggressive team on the field, creating chances.

You know what I bet your fans would like Doug? I bet they'd like it if your team won some goddamn games.You know, like they used to do when Sigi Schmid was the coach. Before you fired him!

Posted by Paul Demko at October 29, 2004 7:20 PM

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