October 2006

« July 2006 | Main | November 2006 »

The other day I received a copy of the new Jerry Lee Lewis album in the mail. Yep, the killer is still alive. Barely though. He sounds terrible. Somebody should have stopped this travesty from reaching store shelves in order to protect the man's dignity.

When you spend as much time watching and thinking about soccer as I do your mind becomes horribly warped. You can't believe that the overwhelming majority of people you meet have no idea who Jeff Cunningham is, let alone that he became the first player in MLS history to lead the league in scoring despite playing for a team that did not make the playoffs.

So it was this psychological dislocation--coupled with the knowledge that the Bears were on a bye week--that led me to believe that the Chicago Fire would pack Toyota Park for Sunday's playoff opener against New England. After all I (and three of my similarly afflicted compatriots) was willing to spend 15 hours cramped in a car over two days simply to take in this grand spectacle. And the team's last two regular season home games had attracted upwards of 38,000 fans. Surely the Fire faithful would be out in force.

How wrong I was. A piddly 10,217 was the announced attendance, but I'm guessing the actual count was closer to 8,000. Whole swaths of the beautiful new stadium went untainted by butt prints. Of course it didn't help that it was a bone-chilling 39 degrees at kickoff, with a stiff wind making it feel much colder.

But after checking out the attendance statistics at the other three playoff venues this weekend, it seems that weather isn't the primary issue. In fact, Chicago had the second best attendance of the four games. Chivas (sunny and 85 degrees) drew a lackluster 15,110, while New York (sunny and 57 degrees) attracted a paltry 8,630 (half of them undoubtedly D.C. fans), and Colorado (cloudy and 35 degrees) sold a monumentally pathetic 4,176 tickets.

What's completely bewildering about this paucity of tickets sales is that MLS had ended the season on a high note attendance-wise. The last two weeks of the season saw an average of roughly 20,000 tickets sold per game--or 5,000 more than the average for the entire season. Perhaps wrongly, I attributed this uptick to late-season drama. After all, with just two games left in the season only one team (Columbus) had been eliminated from the playoffs.

But why would casual fans show up to see if their local squad makes the playoffs, but not for the post-season games themselves? It makes no sense.

Posted by Paul Demko at October 23, 2006 2:35 PM

 

Right now a three liter box of Hardy's Shiraz is on sale for $12.99 at Surdyk's

MLS began announcing its season-end awards today. Troy Perkins won goalkeeper of the year. Much deserved I say.

But much more importantly, the Kansas City Wizards have been awarded the "Kraft Global Team Fair Play" award. Now this news will come as no surprise to dedicated MLS watchers. Since the award's inception the Wizards have dominated the competition, winning the coveted fair play trophy an unparalleled four times in a decade.

So how have the Wiz faired in the years that they were deemed the fairest of MLS teams? In 1998, their innaugural fair play title campaign, they finished 12-20, sufficient for last place in the Western Conference. Then in 2002 they compiled a 9-10-9 record, again good enough for last place in the West. Three years later K.C. put together a blistering 11-9-12 record, missing the playoffs. Finally this year the team gutted out a 10-14-8 campaign, once again failing to qualify for the post season.

Perhaps they should rename it the "Kraft Sucks Major Ass" award.

Posted by Paul Demko at October 19, 2006 3:59 PM

 

Does anyone have a lawnmower I can borrow?

On Sunday I will be in Chicago for the Fire-Revolution playoff match. Here are a few questions that I have heading into the playoffs:

1. Can D.C. United become the Detroit Tigers of MLS? Can they magically turn it on after a season ending malaise? Alecko Eskandarian will be the key. Is he in sufficient form, having not scored since August 10 (against Real Madrid), to put the ball in the net?

2. Can D.C. survive Facundo Erpen? The defender is talented and can uncork a mean shot, but he's also prone to making horrendous errors. Last week against Chicago he was simply terrible. No team playing a three-man backline can afford mistakes.

3. Why is Colorado in the playoffs? How can a team field Thiago Martins and Jacob Peterson as their forwards and expect to score goals? This is why MLS should switch to a six-team playoff format, a la the 1st Division. There are only a half dozen contenders in the mix.

4. Has New England finally got its shit together? All season long I've been expecting them to be the best team in the league and they've sputtered and flailed. But they finished the season unbeaten in their final seven games. Have they simply been lying in wait, knowing that the playoffs is the time to peak?

5. Will Clint Dempsey finish his MLS career with a title? I'd bet on it. Since returning from the World Cup Dempsey has been dominating games in a manner that only Landon Donovan has proven capable of in recent memory. The ferocity and ingenuity of his play has been exhilarating to watch. Where will he end up in January?

6. Why is Jeff Cunningham a finalist for MVP? Personally I don't think a player on a team that fails to make the playoffs and finishes with the worst record in the Western Conference deserves consideration. I know he's got the stats (16 goals, 11 assists), but soccer is not a game that can be deconstructed by numbers. My finalists: Christian Gomez, DeWayne DeRosario, and Chris Armas. The latter was the glue that enabled a Chicago team that doesn't look like much on paper to be tops in the league during the second half of the year.

7. What the fuck is up with Matt Pickens hair? Somebody buy that guy a bottle of shampoo.

8. Does Bob Bradley deserve all the kudos he's getting? The guy's got more financial resources at his disposal than any other team in the league. I'd like to see an actual comparison between the payrolls of Columbus and Chivas. The notion that MLS teams are on a level financial playing field is a joke. I'm more impressed with the job fat Sigi did cobbling together a not-completely-embarrassing Crew team from a roster thin on talent and decimated by injuries. My choice for coach of the year? Dave Sarachan.

9. Who will play New England in the final? Houston. DeRosario is playing the best football of his career. He thrives on big games. And (like Dempsey) is looking to head off to Europe.

Posted by Paul Demko at October 18, 2006 4:39 PM

 

« July 2006 | Main | November 2006 »