"Slow" MLS, Poor Scotland, Lucky England, and other thoughts from the weekend

On Sunday I found myself wanting for Footie on the tele, while the NFL has lost its appeal to me...even though I live in Boston I am not a fan of the Patriots so watching their march towards a coronation does not appeal to me and with all the important internationals having been played in Saturday there was little footie to be had on tv...except for the MLS finals. So I decided to give it a shot, plus it was in HD....and of course, I was a little disappointed. The "Orange" of Houston defeated the New England Revolution for the second straight year. While the game, could have and should have been exciting - ending in dramatic 2-1 loss for the Revs - it was rather pedestrian footie.

Here is how I look at it, these are suppose to be the 2 best teams in the MLS...yet they both looked extremely ordinary. I was expected some good passing, interplay, runs off the play, solid team defending and team attacking. What I got was fumbling runs, poor passes, terrible finishing....case in point - with the game 1-1 I was seeing Rev players receiving the ball on the Houston 18 yard box, calmly control the pass, make and EAT a sandwich, think about whether to turn or pass off, and then finally (after much though) turn to goal....okay maybe this is a bit of an exaggeration....but I feel even when I watch lower level teams playing in FA cup games or even teams in France's Ligue 2 you NEVER see anyone have that much time any where on the pitch let alone in the scoring zone. The commentators appeared to state the players were fatigued...please...these are professional athletes, you are supposedly playing in your league's most prestigious cup final, you do not let strikers camp out on your 18...and when they get the ball you do not give them time to make a decision!

My other observation was the two best players for each team - Rosario for Houston and Joseph for Houston - I could not see them "staring" for an Athletico Madrid, Portsmouth, Sampdoria, or PSG (well maybe not PSG)...that is to say mid tier European clubs. Rosario is decent, but he kind of reminds me of a very poor man's version of McBride. Not a ton of natural talent, not very fast, no booming shot, but gets the job done. And Joseph could be a decent holding midfielder, if he bulks up, but he does not have the size or mean streak needed (such as a Gattuso, Vieira or Keane). What this game really demonstrated was that the comments that come out of Alexi Lalas' pie hole are absolutely absurd....primarily the ones about the MLS being a "premier league" and that you could take MLS teams/players and drop them off into the Prem and they would not miss a beat. Lalas needs to shut his yapper and accept that the MLS is a nice league, but need not compare itself to anyone in Europe, I am not sure any MLS team could "shine" playing in the Argentinian domestic league or Brazilian....Not sure how this turned into an anti-Lalas blurb....but it made sense to me.

Some thoughts on the other bigger matches over the weekend.

Poor Scotland - Okay I say that "tongue firmly in cheek." With Italy winning in Scotland, both France and the Italians are in for the Euros next year without having to worry about the final games for both nations. But stepping away from my unabashed Frenchness for a second...I think Scotland were hard luck losers on Saturday. Italy did what they needed to, getting an early goal off a poor defensive shape from the Scotish defenders...off a throw in three scotish defenders went to the ball leaving Toni the space to sneak in and poke in the opening goal. This took out the Hampden Park crowd, but to the Scots credit they battled back. Almost getting an equalizer only to see Pirlo clear the ball off his line after Buffon was beat. Scotland finally did get the magical goal after Buffon botched the handling of the ball right into the path of Ferguson who cooly tapped in to equalize the game with 25 minutes to go. Scotland had the 2-1 goal at their feet only to see McFadden steer the ball wide of a wide open Italian goal. And as is prone to happen, the Azzurri found a way to win the game in the dying moments. After a very questionable foul granted to Italy, not sure how the shoulder charge from the Italian was seen as a foul from the Scotish defender - mind you the Scotish player, Hutton, had control of the ball and was bringing it out of the touch line, only to have the Italian player plow him over and get the call....again not sure how that was a Scotish foul.

Scotland have a right to complain about the refs, but they were also given a gift (actually twice), Italy had a second goal called back due to an offside...which was not there. And Scotland's goal could have been called off side but was not...In the end it was hard luck for the Scots, they played well this qualifying season but dropped key points away to Ukraine and inexplicably away to Georgia. Had they come back from each of these with at least a draw they would never have been in this situation. It will be interesting to see how Scotland are seeded for the next World Cup qualifiers. However it is good to see "regular service" back...at least if you are Italian or French!

Lucky England - The three lions were fortunate, and they did not even play this weekend! After watching Israel come back and defeat the Russians, the English are still very much alive for qualification after appeared DOA after the disaster in Moscow. The Russian team dominated in Israel but due to poor finishing and lax defending at the end of the match, gifted the Israelis a victory. Now all England have to do is draw at home against Croatia....with the former Yugoslavian nation already through I see a ho-hum "walk in the park" match, and a 0-0 or 1-1 draw at the end. I think the only way you might get an exciting match is if Croatia score early and decide to defend the lead, forcing the 1-striker English team to attack. Otherwise, it will be a bore.

Some other random thoughts, it is good too see Spain qualify after early on it appeared they were in trouble. They have so much talent they need to be present, however it pains me to see Aragones still in power. He is a racist old man (remember the comments he made to Reyes about Henry) and does not deserve to be at the helm of the squad. Spain has too much talent not to do well in a tournament, but somehow I am certain he will underachieve next year.

Ruud Gullit to the LA Galaxy...hmmm not sure what this all about....I give him half a season before he wakes up and realizes he has more of a future taking on a second tier team in Holland.