Steve Davis' weekly column, drilling down on five hot topics in American soccer
1. Add this name to you Copa America roster possibilities
The best game going in domestic soccer right now isn’t being played inside those precious white lines. Rather, it’s the selection guessing game. As in, speculating on the United States’ Copa America Centenario roster.
Which defenders? Which midfielders? How many strikers? Go older or younger? On it goes …
When we get to the forwards, the list of choices is mostly the “usual suspects.” U.S. manager Jurgen Klinsmann will need to narrow a rather long list to about four. You’ve got Clint Dempsey and Jozy Altidore, and then some choices to make between Chris Wondolowski, Bobby Wood, Jerome Kiesewetter, Gyasi Zardes, Jordan Morris and Rubio Rubin. You could throw Christian Pulisic in there, too, although the 17-year-old Borussia Dortmund man, a young man who is all the rage right now, is probably more likely to go as a midfielder, if Klinsmann takes him.
Yes, it’s a long list. And you know what? It should be a little longer. Add the name “C.J. Sapong.”
He’s doing it all for Philadelphia right now: scoring goals (4), setting up others, helping his team with solid hold-up play and doing all the little things that makes life hard on defenders. There are plenty of reasons why Philadelphia has this surprising (er, perhaps we should go with “shocking?”) share of theEastern Conference leadership. But if forced to pick out just one, it would probably be Sapong’s rise.
Actually, it should be characterized as Sapong’s “re-birth” as a real difference maker. Don’t forget, he was the 2011 MLS Rookie of the Year at Sporting Kansas City. But by 2013 Claudio Bieler and Dom Dwyer were squeezing the team’s minutes at striker. A trade to Philadelphia didn’t go well initially, and Sapong’s subsequent DUI troubles certainly didn’t help.
But he appeared to get himself together by the end of last season and finished strong. Thing is, that wasn’t noticed because Philadelphia, a complete mess of an organization at the time, had long been irrelevant in the playoff conversation.
Well, it’s still “morning” in the 2016 season, but the Union is certainly in the conversation now. And Sapong is back in the national team conversation. I am saying so. Taylor Twellman said so on Sunday’s ESPN broadcast. Of course, only one “say so” really matters, and that one belongs to Klinsmann.
Meanwhile, here’s what Union manager Jim Curtin said after Sapong scored once in a 2-0 win over New York City FC. "He should aspire to play for the national team because he is that talented. I don't really believe in me talking about what Jurgen Klinsmann should do. So, is C.J. a great striker? Yes, he is. He is a great number nine. He is a good target. The plays he makes to hold the ball up are as good as anyone in our league right now, and he has a knack for getting on the end of crosses."
2. Should Tim Howard go to Copa America?
Excepting that oddball year Tim Howard asked to excluded from national team consideration, trusty “T-Ho” has been an “automatic” U.S. roster choice for more than 10 years.
I wrote at the 442/USA site about Klinsmann’s upcoming roster choices – about how he needs to decide whether the Copa roster will be about success this summer? Or will it be about playing the long game, about going young and sacrificing the best chance for Copa Centenario success by providing big-stage exposure for lesser tested types?
The choice starts right in goal, where we could fairly ask this question: Should Howard still be an automatic roster choice?
Klinsmann has more or less alternated Howard and Brad Guzan lately. But Howard is 37 and those inexorable sands or time are starting to seriously work against him. Neither ‘keeper is having his best moment, if we’re honest, both having suffered fairly miserable EPL campaigns. But at least with Guzan, we could rightly note that things have been an absolute mess around Villa Park, where nobody had a happy time in a dark 2015-16 campaign.
As for Howard losing his long-held place around Goodison Park, well, we’re all thinking the same thing, aren’t we? Yes, Everton’s back line was porous at times, but it’s reasonable to conclude that Howard’s age had some impact on declining performance.
So, Klinsmann must decide whether Howard should even be on the Copa roster. That’s not to say Howard definitely shouldn’t be. Rather, it’s just an indication of the thought exercise Klinsmann must put himself through.
All that, plus Howard could probably use a little time off before his high profile change of address. So an appearance at Copa America in June could delay Howard’s arrival into Dicks Sporting Goods Park and his new life in MLS.
3. The odd condition of MLS
Major League Soccer sometimes inhabits a strange spot on the U.S. sporting map. Here are two examples:
First, the game’s growth makes MLS quite different than NFL, NHL, Major League Baseball, etc. … and not just in the obvious ways. See, as the game grows, a fresh crop of new fans are added every year. Same for MLS, where more supporters climb on board every year, discovering the league’s characters and sometimes peculiar characteristics. Ongoing expansion creates spikes in supporter growth; look at how many new fans were added last year in Orlando, where the fans showed up in stunning numbers.
As such, recurring themes get recycled. They aren’t really “new” narratives so much as they are “new” to the newcomers. The ongoing refereeing conversations are a great example.
Fans who haven’t watched MLS before, or not much of it, might see a match where refereeing is an issue and immediately raise a ruckus. “The refereeing in this league stinks! Something must be done!” This loud ruckus drives the narrative. So, we get another bitter round of “bad refereeing in MLS” discussion.
It happens every year. We’ll have a round of “too many red cards!” (That was two weeks ago.) We’ll have a round of “bad decisions are deciding games!” (That was last week, when decisions from the man in the middle in San Jose and at Red Bull Arena created big talking points.)
Oh, the “too much diving” conversation is coming soon. Believe it.
But there is a bigger context to consider here: the refereeing is better in Major League Soccer now than it was five years ago. It’s certainly better than it was 10 years ago. Believe it.
I write or say that a lot … because it needs to be said, again and again, as new fans are absorbed. The quality of play is better, too. So anyone who says “the quality in this league is terrible,” probably didn’t watch games in 2010 or in 2005, etc.
Always remember, you may be new to MLS – and welcome aboard! But it’s still a relatively young league. It’s getting better in pretty much every way – you just weren’t around to see the lesser version.
Here’s the other odd condition of MLS that is topical once again: it’s about MLS fans’ fascination with expansion.
Teams continue still being added at what is honestly a stunning pace. As such, MLS followers seem habitually more interested in who else will be in the league, more so than who is in the league right now.
It’s great! And yet, a rather odd condition.
Minnesota, Atlanta, Miami and a second team in Los Angeles will soon create a 24-team league. From there, we know it’s going to 28 teams, apparently sooner rather than later. Tuesday came word that Detroit is a player.A serious one.
If you had to guess (and by listening to MLS commissioner Don Garber) you’d like Sacramento, St. Louis, Detroit and then possibly San Antonio, San Diego or Austin as the favorites to become Nos. 25-28.These things change, of course. And as they do, we’ll certainly be watching.
4. That goal. But … that first touch!
So many people are talking about Luciano Acosta’s sublime chip, the second goal in DC United’s take-down of New England in Week 8. It was a fabulous goal, the next in a 2016 collection of delicate, technical chips that seem de rigueur in MLS right now.
But let’s talk quickly about what happens before the young Argentine’s effort at goal. Because there was something important there, too.
Watch the video, and consider Acosta’s first touch. Only Acosta can say if he immediately, instinctively knew a chance to catch Revs ‘keeper Bobby Shuttleworth straying too far off his line. One way or the other, he did know this:
Take the first touch inside! Toward defender Jose Goncalves. Yes, toward him.
So many players would have taken that first touch away from the defender. Generally speaking, that’s the best bet. That’s where all the space is, after all; about an acre of it in this case.
But Acosta’s first touch toward Goncalves was next level thinking. He recognized instinctively that the best way to use all that space to the right was to initially draw Goncalves back inside, to get the Revs’ defender leaning back that direction. Sure enough, Goncalves obliged. And Acosta had him.
From there, just one quick touch to the outside gave United’s first-year playmaker all the time and space he needed to get over the top of Shuttleworth. Yes, it took proficiency in the effort, but do not overlook Acosta’s early read on that important sequence.
It wasn’t just a great goal, it was more or less the clincher as United won for just the second time in 2016. Now, it’s up to United manager Ben Olsen to get the guy on the field a little more. So far in 2016 the club’s top off-season signing has started just three games. He may not be the prototypical “Benny Ball” player – but the balance he provides to a bunch of other “Benny Ball” types could be the key to getting United back into the playoffs this year.
5. The Little Five
5a. I love the American soccer world. A weekend of soccer was also a weekend of Prince-inspired tifo. There’s something good in every sport, in every domestic league. But soccer is the king of tifo, and it’s not even close. Here, from the MLSSoccer.com site, is what tribute to Prince looked like last weekend.
5b. Anyone else surprised by the lack of discussion over Andrea Pirlo being left behind as NYCFC made the short trip to face Philadelphia? He didn’t travel at all; the Italian legend wasn’t even in the 18-man game day squad.
5c. New soccer lingo pet peeve: “deft touch.” Let’s be better, folks! That’s the kind of hack language when used back in 1986, when our little collective soccer vernacular just was big enough, so we had to borrow liberally from other cultures.
5d. Read this great piece of journalism. It’s long. But read it anyway. It’s worth it. If this is all you ever know about the terrible Hillsborough disaster, and about the awful, years-long cover-up that followed, you’ll be fairly well versed.
5e. As you wonder how much progress Chris Wondolowski can make on his climb toward the league’s all-time scoring leadership, consider this: the man has been remarkably durable. He has generally avoided injury; since becoming an MLS starter, his only long-term absence came in 2014 as “Wondo” joined the U.S. effort at World Cup 2014 in Brazil. Oh, and this:Wondolowski’s first 8 years in MLS were as a backup; those years spared some wear and tear. Now, at 33 years old, he might be able to tack a couple of extra seasons onto the back side of his career as a result.
Steve Davis has covered Major League Soccer since is first kick in 1996. He writes on-line for FourFourTwo and co-hosts the weekly radio show/podcast ESPN Soccer Today on 103.3 FM in Dallas. Davis is also the radio play-by-play voice for FC Dallas on 100.7 FM.