USSoccerPlayers

Wednesday's Daily: SuperLiga Semis

With J Hutcherson -- SuperLiga semifinal Wednesday. SuperLiga semifinal Wednesday? SUPERLIGA SEMINFAL WEDNESDAY! Or something like that. I'll leave it up to you to determine your own relative level of excitement. After all, it is the summer of soccer and there are ever so many options.

Tonight, it's the tournament that got New England a shiny trophy last season. They've got the experience, home field advantage,and are undefeated in '09 SuperLiga play. They've also got the same tendency as Chicago to cough it up in games they should win.

Tuesday's Daily: Expectations

With J Hutcherson -- There's a billboard heading out of Waldorf, Maryland advertising "International soccer." Last night, what they meant was on display at Regency Furniture Stadium. Crystal Palace Baltimore in the away whites versus what was helpfully referred to as Crystal Palace United Kingdom, in the home red and blue.

Quick differences between Palace's home in Croydon, South London and an Atlantic League ballpark in Charles County, Maryland? No bumper boat pool, no rock climbing tower, and no lawn seating behind one of the goals. For whatever reason, on a July night it worked.

Monday's Daily: Any Indication

With J Hutcherson -- Can you feel the excitement as the Los Angeles Galaxy once again have a mid-season debut for David Beckham? Rather than focusing on things that have already happened for a team that couldn't make the playoffs, what can we realistically expect from the reloaded version of our Classico winners?

Easy answer: a lot. This is a squad with a good goalkeeper and the addition of someone who should be able to turn a few more chances into goals. Spread those out over a few games, and the Galaxy's record improves dramatically. If this hadn't been a Confederations Cup summer, LA might already be in second or third.

Friday's Daily: Group C

With J Hutcherson -- Yesterday, it was the latest chapter in Santo Quaranta's reclamation. Today, it's Mexico coach Javier Aguirre acting out in last night's Gold Cup game against Panama. In case you missed the live show and the multiple people getting an early start on telling you all about it, he impedes the progress of Panama's Ricardo Phillips.

Hey, we're all adults here and this isn't a comedy site. Coach of a National Team ends up with his foot making contact with a players' groin during the run of play. Yes, we're going directly to the quote sheet.

"My conduct was not justifiable," Aguirre said. "I tried to stop the ball after the ref signaled a throw in and when the Panamanian player continued to play the ball, I tried to stop it and I made inevitable contact with the player because of the inertia he had. I lifted my foot more than I should have. I am completely regretful for doing so. I shouldn't come out of my area."

Thursday's Daily: Separating Group B

With J Hutcherson -- No hard feelings for anyone otherwise occupied for last night's early game in the CONCACAF Gold Cup. Self-assigned scouting missions for what the United States might see on Saturday night in Foxborough might have lost out for those that don't savor the prospect of midweek doubleheaders. Fair enough, perfectly understandable.

Here's a one-sentence summary of what you missed. Haiti is not very good. That point was amplified by the second game. Haiti looked strong against Honduras, and the United States showed what this version of Los Catrachos looks like when pushed.

Tuesday's Daily: Cups

With J Hutcherson -- Big game Wednesday Gold Cup style, and rather than attempting some wonders of prognostication, let's look at USA - Honduras for what it is. The game that decides who wins Group B. Going through the rosters and trying to predict match-ups is right up there with trying to scout US Open Cup games. Instead, let's focus on the big picture for this group.

Quick integration of new players is at a premium. The United States brought in Benny Feilhaber, and more changes should be expected with a roster that isn't tournament stable. Do we really need a sentence stressing the importance of players showing they can perform in a variety of situations? Probably not, but that's still the goal. Impress upon the guy making the squad selections that you can do the job regardless of circumstances.

Tuesday's Daily: Money

With J Hutcherson -- Good for Toronto if they want to make the bold move and try outbidding Europe for the services of a player who is open about wanting to stay in Europe. That would be Julian De Guzman, who is leaving Deportivo La Coruna for somewhere after finishing the Gold Cup with Canada.

That the player himself has pushed down expectations that he'll take Toronto's money isn't as important as the idea that the money is on the table. Sure, there's no transfer fee involved, but Toronto is actively bidding for a player with options. There's no stake in the running of the team, no long-term plans for propping up Canadian soccer. Just a player they want at a price they're willing to pay.

Monday's Daily: All The Best

With J Hutcherson -- What raises the entertainment value of yet another reference to the possibility of a European Super League is how our English friends immediately start penciling in multiple British clubs. The current big four of course. Manchester City could be the next Chelsea. Wouldn't leave out the Old Firm. Maybe even a couple of extras like Birmingham's biggest club. Second largest city in the country you know.

In a 16-team league, all of a sudden half are from Britain. All have very good reasons for inclusion. You can repeat this for Italy and Spain.

Meanwhile, the reality of a true European Super League is basic empire building deciding on a design. The super model would suggest setting a number and working through the obvious candidates. That's not the only way.

Friday's Daily: The Merits Of Mediocrity

With J Hutcherson -- Another chance for Major League Soccer to work on the idea that Friday just might be the night for work week soccer. Real Salt Lake hosting San Jose tonight (10pm - DirectKick) in a battle to tease out what bad really means in the Western Conference.

Yes, RSL has gotten a few results and currently is a point up on Los Angeles for fifth. They also should be looking at an easy night's work courtesy of a San Jose team that has an entire point from their road schedule this season. Ten games for one point, and no good excuses for RSL doing anything other than making that eleven.

It's an intriguing problem for MLS Season XIV, trying to distinguish between good, mediocre, and bad. Salt Lake would probably prefer we go ahead and edge them towards the good category. What about average? Right now that's just not happening.

Thursday's Daily: Open And Indoor

With J Hutcherson -- I doubt too many people are keeping late hours trying to figure out how to make every US Open Cup game follow the Portland - Seattle template. Largest crowd for a single game that wasn't a final last night at PGE Park, clocking in at a little over 16,000. It's not the first example of a small part of the tournament deciding to take it very seriously.

The '98 Chicago Fire spent to get the final at Soldier Field and the crowd turned out accordingly. It was misty, that game introduced thundersticks to American soccer, and the Fire got the result. Within a couple of years, they too were playing their Open Cup games in alternative venues with makeshift starting elevens.

Wednesday's Daily: Moving Money

With J Hutcherson -- Here's why FIFA president Sepp Blatter is concerned about the English Premier League and the transfer market. There are few things like the interest from an English club to inflate the value of a player.

Feel free to make up your own international All-Star squad, but for every Ronaldo or Eto'o, there are names associated with surprisingly large transfer figures that are just that... surprising. More often than not, one of the eager bidders is from the English Premier League.

The result is exactly what you would think. Regardless of whether the player ends up in England, it's the English clubs pushing the fee. Running along with every example of quality scouting, there's the feeling that the English clubs are playing a version of the money game.

Tuesday's Daily: Round Three

With J Hutcherson -- Nothing should warm the hearts of US Open Cup fans more than hearing a Major League Soccer coach talking about testing the depth of his squad and getting people minutes as MLS enters the tournament in force in the Third Round. That's especially true if you like your soccer upsetting - at least in theory.

There's an advantage with going to the bench and the reserve list along with enough regulars to keep shape. It makes that version of the team hard to scout. Minus the reserve division, there are going to be even more MLS players that get one other game to go along with appearances in friendlies. That would be tonight and tomorrow in the Open Cup Third Round.

Monday's Daily: Things Change

With J Hutcherson -- The revival effort in Los Angeles got a lot more legit last night when they knocked off the team with the best record in Major League Soccer. Houston falls, and LA does it without Landon Donovan or the boost they should get when David Beckham shows up.

Bruce Arena has taken a substantial amount of criticism and provided a substantial amount of fightback relative to his club's run of draws earlier in the season. Fortunately, the rest of the Western Conference has obliged his thinking.

Currently sixth, LA still trails Houston by ten points even on games played. One would expect that making up that gap will require more than draws. At the same time, LA has lost the same number of games as Houston. Turning draws into wins, and LA's record could even out over the next few weeks.

Friday's Daily: Play To Both

With J Hutcherson -- After yesterday's tepid display courtesy of the team that many have already gone ahead and penciled in as the new World #1, the United States' chances on Sunday begin to shift somewhat closer to even. It took me awhile to settle on 'tepid,' considering how sorry the Brazil - South Africa semifinal played out.

What Brazil didn't do in that game was improve. If anything, it was a slight twist on their opener with Egypt. Instead of goals, we got half chances from both teams. South Africa should rightly feel hard done by that they at least didn't force overtime. The regulation result wasn't necessarily fair.

Wednesday's Daily: Making It Interesting

With J Hutcherson -- Given the standard response to the FIFA Rankings, here's an idea likely to gain about as much traction as you'd expect. Allow teams to bet a portion of their rankings points on games. If you think you've got another team's number, prove it the old fashioned way.

Throw in a few controls so you don't have small countries gladly handing over tons of points for the privilege of losing to the World's elite or other attempts to game the system. Sound ridiculous? Well, since none of us have actually been allowed to use the FIFA calculator that determines the current rankings, maybe not so much.

FIFA could still do this within the current system, since they're by default already in the business of handicapping to determine the World standings. Let us know before a game kicks off how many rankings points are on offer win, lose, or draw.

Tuesday's Daily: Extra Time

With J Hutcherson -- SuperLiga Tuesday, with Chicago - Chivas USA giving us our first look at the MLS-specific part of the schedule. For both, it's a run through of what might have been had they managed to stay top of their respective conferences. 

With all respect to the Houston Dynamo, Chivas USA should have started the SuperLiga portion of their schedule a couple of games up. SuperLiga should have given the West a breather, with the expectation that their return would mean a quick run right back to the top of the table.

Instead, Chivas USA has one win in their last six MLS games and has already dropped their Liga opener against Tigres. Considering Tigres is showing their respect for SuperLiga by rolling with the reserves, that's as much as you need to know about the current state of Chivas USA.

Monday's Daily: Write Your Own Story

With J Hutcherson -- I'm going to start with a short sentence. I believe the United States will beat Spain on Wednesday. Here's another one. We've had enough lectures on tempering expectations. Why not throw it all behind the idea that no team in this tournament has shown they're absolute world beaters?

Brazil looked vulnerable against Egypt. They turned over Italy, making the US loss to the Group B winners seem a little understandable by comparison. Italy coach Marcello Lippi's response? He asked the media "to be calm" and not make it worse for a group of players who just had their confidence rocked.

Spain waltzed through a soft group and barely beat Iraq. They might have yet to be scored on, but their differential benefited greatly from putting five goals past New Zealand. There's a pretty good argument that they've been somewhat of a disappointment.

Friday's Daily: By Way Of A Preview

With J Hutcherson -- Look at it this way. Only some odd combination of seven goals scored while Brazil beats Italy and Egypt falls in the second game separates the United States from the knockout stage of the Confederations Cup. If Toronto's rampant run over Montreal when they needed to win by four but ended up with five has taught us anything, it's that goal are there to be scored. Or something.

Meanwhile, there's the business with Egypt. For US coach Bob Bradley, this one becomes as troublesome as any game in the group. Roll out a new look lineup that beats Egypt, and everyone wonders what those players were doing on the bench earlier in the group. Stick with something similar to games one and two, and Bradley sets himself and the players on the field up for additional criticism regardless of the result.

Think about it. A similar lineup loses, and it's more of the same. A similar lineup wins, and it's why didn't they get it together sooner. Either way, it's the coach who takes the brunt. Well, at least in theory.

Thursday's Daily: Cometh The Hour

With J Hutcherson -- And so the day arrives. Well, at least the next day for a United States squad that needs to take something from Brazil at Loftus Versfeld. A point will do, so let's look at the likeliest route to get there.

No, let's talk about how the US of A wins this thing.

There was some twitter chatter late yesterday from Freddy Adu letting us know he's legit on defensive assignments and Jozy Altidore raising the hype. Both are spot on, and both should be in the eleven that tries to make three points.

Wednesday's Daily: Cups And Ligas

With J Hutcherson -- One has to wonder that if papering the house is the early response to lack of interest on the part of the citizens of our 2010 World Cup hosts, how difficult could it actually get for FIFA? In fairness to South Africa, they have plenty of time to turn the lack of sellouts for the '09 Confederations Cup into a celebration of all that's right with the World's game a year from now.

In fairness to the rest of us, the influx of away support was never likely to happen for yet another secondary FIFA competition. Set it up so there's significant travel involved, and all that gets is compounded.