Not better than Reliant.

Jose de Jesus Ortiz has given us some bad sports analysis over the past couple of years. His beat reporting is typically not much better, gushing, overly positive, un-objective you name it.

Today's piece on the new Dynamo soccer stadium continues that trend....

(Soccer notebook: Stadium should earn city matches. Jose De Jesus Ortiz, Chron.com)

The Dynamo is building a beautiful soccer stadium on the East End. Sure, it would be silly for the federation to bring a qualifier against Mexico to Reliant Stadium. It would make tons of money, but there wouldn't be much of an advantage because of the massive Mexican fan base around here.
A large portion of that soccer-loving Mexican and Mexican-American fan base would readily pack the Dynamo's new stadium to support the U.S. against any other CONCACAF team, such as Jamaica, Costa Rica, Panama or Canada. We couldn't guarantee pro-U.S. crowds against El Salvador or Honduras because those communities are quite large here.

The idea that the new Dynamo Stadium, at less than half the capacity of Reliant, is MORE attractive to US Soccer is ridiculous. Sure, it's probably the line that's being pushed forward by the team, but it's not something that has a place in any serious analysis of the game.

Reliant Stadium is the big soccer draw in Houston, a nice little stadium in Downtown's East End isn't going to change that, no matter what the Dynamo's mouthpiece embedded at Chron.com says.

The only thing more ridiculous....

...than fans of the US Men's National Team thinking they had a chance at going far in this year's World Cup are the idiotic comments of people cracking on the World's game out of ignorance.

Football will never be real popular in America because too many Americans view the rest of the World's citizens as somehow inferior. Hell, there are people out there (especially in the South) that denigrate the NBA because it's not.....American Football. What really cracks me up is the inability of most people just to STFU about it all. So you don't like footy. Cool. I don't like the Texas Longhorns. I just shut up about it because who cares right?


The fact is that America's football program has a LONG way to go to be competitive with the elite teams of the world. We've gone just about as far as we can under the current system, a system that's designed with the wealthy, young footballer in mind. What the US needs to do is remember that the game is best grown when grown organically. Put the kids out there, and tell them to score.

Simple.

I'm only going to say this once.....

Despite breathless predictions of greatness by Johnny-come-lately Americans to the game of football....


Minor League Soccer is nowhere NEAR the same level of soccer at the National Level. What you see on the field, in terms of quality, at Robertson (soon to by Dynamo) stadium is much slower, much less skilled, and far more pedestrian a bring of football than what you're seeing on television this month.

Every four years the US has a brief infatuation with the beautiful game and then proceeds to ignore it while the rest of the world remains football mad. As American football ramps up memories of Landon Donovan's brilliant game-ending goal will fade and MLS will once again find itself wallowing in the second tier of professional sports in America.

Not that the second-tier is a bad place to be. It sure as hell beats the "no-tier" status of 30 years ago. Consider this: 30 years prior every American player on the National team roster played overseas. Now roughly 40% of players invited to camp are MLS players. That's not too bad. Donovan, America's best player, is an MLS star that should take advantage of this opportunity and cash in at the Premiership or Serie A. He's not going to get too many more opportunities.


Oh, and Dear Arsenal,

Please talk to Everton about acquiring Tim Howard.

That is all.

Handicapping the World Cup

It's World Cup time which means that most US news organizations are getting it wrong...again.

From shoddy game analysis to poor field analysis these are the things that the United States soccer fan has to deal with. (My favorite gaffe is "American" soccer. Which "America" do you mean?)

As a fan of football without a strong rooting interest (you don't REALLY think the CONCACAF teams are going to make an impact do you?) all that's mandatory to know is....

1. Who's going to win.
2. The World Cup Ball controversy is not that important.
3. How to spot Carla Bruni in the crowd if she attends one of France's games.
4. Dutch fans are best.
5. The Ivory Coast (Cote d'Ivoire) has a dangerous, quick-scoring team that no one wants any part of in the knockout round.

Numbers 2-5 are pretty self explanatory, just follow the links and do a little studying. As for who's going to win?

Here are my odds and quick thoughts: (And yes, I'm going with co-favorites)


Argentina 4/1 - One word: Messi. There's historical precedent in football in support of the 'great man' theory for picking winners provided the supporting cast isn't dog food. Team Argentina is not dog food.


Spain 4/1 - Possibly the best overall team in the tournament. A team that used to suffer from constriction of the larynx during big tournaments. That perception changed after their Euro 2010 win, but they still have yet to win on the big stage.

Brazil 5/1 - The most famous team in the US mainly because most people's football knowledge begins and ends with Pele. They have a ton of talent, a bunch of guys with one name, and terrible defense and goal-minding. That being said they'll make it through to, at least, the Semis.

Italy 10/1 - You can never count out the defending champions, despite the fact that ChronBlog's truly awful football reporter declared their defense to be slow based on a friendly...against Mexico. If you don't understand why that's a bad guager then you need to stop writing about sports and just walk away. If you don't think the Azzurri will be on top form.......

England 12/1 - Personally, I'm not sold on the Three Lions chances, given their run of injuries (despite the fact he's over the hill, they're going to miss the set-piece ability of Beckham, and losing team captain Ferdinand is going to be huge) despite this they still have a good offense and an attacking style. Look for a result against the US team which should propel them to the knockout rounds as a #1 seed coming out of the group.

Netherlands 14/1 - Know this: The Oranje fans are going to be loud. Wesley Sneidjer is the best player you haven't heard of. Sadly Yolanthe Sneidjer will not be at the tournament according to official reports.

Germany 20/1 - Germany can still play, they drew a relatively easy group so that gives their offense (missing of late) time to get before they presumably get an easy opponent in the first knockout round. It's conceivable that Germany won't have to face serious opposition this World Cup until the Semis. At that point they'll be exposed.

Ivory Coast 25/1 - I said it earlier, this team is dangerous. Easily the best team on the African continent.

France 30/1 - The French are old, slow and lucky to be here. If not for a bogus hand-ball goal by Henry I'd be discussing Scotland's prospects right now. They won't win, I'm not even convinced they're going to make it to the knockout round.


Slim Chance 100/1 - USA, Mexico, Denmark, Greece, Ghana, Paraguay, Portugual & Serbia It ain't gonna happen.


No Chance 500/1 - Everyone else. North Korea, New Zealand & South Africa are the three worst teams here with Honduras running close to them. Fodder.


And that's pretty much it. Everything else, players,

Nothing wrong with pulling for the home team.

El Tri are coming to Houston, and ChronBlog sends out its beat writer to gush....

(Mexico is the star of this big show, Jose de Jesus Ortiz, ChronBlog)

Reliant Stadium will be packed and rocking tonight, with people from 32 different states and four countries on hand for an exhibition of epic proportions.

And no, the drawing card isn't a twin bill featuring power couple Beyoncé and Jay-Z. Or teen idols Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber or Taylor Swift. Rather, it's El Tri — as the Mexican national soccer team is known — that should raise the roof, and don't doubt that the players have rock-star status here.

Ignoring the brutal prose and grammar errors above, get ready for the "send ICE to do a round-up" blather coming from the nativists. These things tend to happen whenever el Tri hits Houston. It's a way of life.

That many of these complaints come from people waving a Confederate battle flag (A separate country that lost a war to the US lest some forget) or that wrap themselves in the Irish flag come St. Paddy's Day. (before throwing up all over it) sometimes gets lost in all of the hue and cry surrounding the game*.

A game that's being touted as "a glimpse of what the World Cup is like" FWIW. Never mind that it's not. It's nothing near like what the World Cup atmosphere is going to be like.

For starters, look at the teams that are going to be playing. You have Angloa, which won't be in the tournament and, Mexico. The second best team in CONCACAF, arguably the second worst region in FIFA. (behind Africa) Plus, it's a friendly, and friendlies never inspire the same type of reaction as matches with meaning. I'm sorry, that's just the way it is.

Unfortunately what you read in the Ortiz piece is normal for Houston soccer coverage. This city has a blind spot when it comes to the beautiful game. (As a matter of fact, they have a blind spot when covering most sports.) Part of the reason is senseless cheer leading for the Houston Dynamo who, since their championship run, have been a good team in decline with serious issues in the midfield and forward positions, an ailing goalie, and a general manager who's not much more than a figurehead.

The Dynamo do have a good coach however, which is something Mexico is lacking. Mexico does have a decent front-line however, a dodgy midfield and a suspect goalie. All that being said they should beat an out-gunned Angola team somewhere in the 3-0 range.


Hopefully there's not a post-game shooting this time. The Mexican soccer fans deserve better.








*As for me, go Scotland! (wrongly excluded from this year's festivities due to blind, dumb FIFA game officials.)

Not this World Cup

Nike sure can pick 'em can't they?

And, by this blog post, I mean no disrespect to Freddy Adu. As a youth he had flashes of "Oh my God" brilliance inter-spread between long stretches of snooze inducing football.

2010 was supposed to be the year of Adu.




Instead, the US will spend another year wondering why the hell they can't score at the World Cup.The lack of creativity in the US offense is shocking. A fully developed Adu could have been the answer, but he was rushed along and not allowed to mature properly.


Sad.

Boy did I get that one wrong.

First off, congratulations to the US Soccer team for their improbable run in the FIFA Confederations Cup. Not only did the U.S. Men's National Soccer Team trounce out-manned Egypt 3-0, but they also took advantage of the Brazilians' 3-0 statement defeat of the Arruzzi to vault themselves into the Semi-finals of the Tournament.

It was there, despite the on-going run of luck, that I assumed the ride was over. The opponent was #1 ranked Spain* who was unbeaten since 2006 against Non-European competition, who was the winner of Euro 2008 and who was enjoying a renaissance of late as a World Top Team.

Wrong. The U.S. Men dominated Spain 2-0 for a half, and then rode the stand-on-your-head brilliance of Tim Howard to preserve the shut-out and the win.

The Finals presented a familiar challenge. Brazil, the team that beat the U.S. 3-0 and led to my posting that the US team was done, thanks for playing, take your parting gifts and South African Sun-tans head back to your minor league soccer franchises and prepare for our quadrennial drubbing in 2010.

But the US team surprised me, playing spirited offensive football and, for a half, beating the Brazilians at their own game. Yes, in the second half the sheer talent and offensive brilliance of Samba Soccer proved too much to overcome. Eventually even the best of goalies wither under an onslaught of shots. That being said, the US has a lot to be proud of today, our National soccer team stood up to the World's elite, and they held their own.**


Congratulations to them.



*Proving, once and for all, that FIFA world rankings are bunk.

**There should be some debate, going forward, as to the reasoning behind the US' recent ascension. I'll weigh in on that soon. (Hint: It isn't Minor League Soccer) Ironically the very same establishment that's stifling creativity could be in-part responsible for helping the US to improve.

Brazil 3 US 0 (UPDATED)

It wasn't even that close.

There's no reason beating a dead horse, the US Men's Soccer team is a deeply flawed unit with a sub-par midfield and poor offensive play.

The end result is a 3-0 scuttling by Brazil that could have been a lot worse. There was once a faint hope that the establishment of a professional minor league would stimulate the "growth" of the game. What it's done is reveal to the rest of the world just how sub-par soccer in CONCACAF has become in relation to the rest of the World.

Pre-MLS most American National team players went across the pond and frittered about the Minors, where at least they were exposed to modern defensive schemes and midfield organization strategies. During the MLS era the US Midfield organization has gotten markedly worse, as has the defense, and we're still hopeless as a Country on offense.

Plus, now, when faced with an International, major-league, pace, the US can't keep up.

Brazil 3 US 0


Can't wait for the World Cup.


UPDATE: The Chron's story is here (linke from the AP).

Predictably, the commenters feel that firing the coach (Bradley) is the answer. I say predictably because the typical American soccer fan thinks much more highly of the US position in the world soccer firmament than reality would dictate. Anyone remember WC 2006? Because one commenter obviously doesn't. The US was terrible then and is just as bad now. The problem isn't coaching, it's talent and a system that's miles behind the rest of the world in both approach and theory.

United States 1 - Italy Much, much better

In the end, the sending off of Ricardo Clark didn't matter much. The US International Soccer team was out-manned, out-gunned, and out-talented when they step out of the friendly confines of CONCACAF and into the harsh glare of the European spotlight of soccer.

For those concerned about such things, the final score was Italy 3, US 1. Guisseppe Rossi, born in New Jersey but of Italian heritage, scored two goals (one spectacular) as the Italians illuminated the US team's two biggest flaws.....

1. Lack of creativity in the scoring zone - To be blunt, the US has no creativity in the scoring zone. This is evidenced by the paucity of US goals scored during the run of play. The lone US goal in this game was scored by Landon Donovan, the leading US scorer in International play, on a penalty kick. Unfortunately the US scoring attack is more about PK's and set plays than it is spectacular, creative play in the midfield. That Donovan, who's real talent lies in ball distribution rather than scoring, is the US' leading scorer speaks volumes about the paucity of American talent on offense.

2. Lack of organization in the midfield. - Too many Italian mid-fielders and strikers had wide-open shots, with no pressure applied to try and blunt the attack. The US has a great goal-minder in Tim Howard (continuing a string of quality goal-keeping) but he was helpless against the barrage of scorching shots from the Italians, and (on the last goal) weak marking by a tired defense.


After all was said and done, the final result was a lot better than it should have been. Tim Howard saved the day with several outstanding saves, and Donovan and Co. displayed the ability to control the ball somewhat against the physically dominant Italians. The Azzurri could have named their score, had the Americans not been scrappy. That's a credit to the coach, the players and the team as a whole, with the faults lying almost exclusively with an over-regimented US soccer system that encourages by the book training, and eschews the free-flowing, quality play that's embraced by the rest of the world.

Samba soccer anyone? It'd be nice.