1. The debate on style points revisited – looking at you USWNT
A few giggles and memes went careening through the social media pipelines on Monday night as the United States women advanced in the Women’s World Cup, although somewhat unimpressively: The best: “The United States was too direct and is now missing penalties. … Egad! They’ve turned into England!”
That one did make me snicker.
But I had another thought. Similar, but different. They’ve turned into Brazil’s men’s team of another day. Or perhaps more accurately, we have all turned into Brazil of another day.
World Cup USA 1994 was my first World Cup to cover as a professional writer. As the tournament moved into the later stages, I marveled at how Brazilian press treated the Brazilian team. I vividly remember sitting in a large-but-cramped classroom, one that doubled that day as a press conference venue that day, as members of Brazil’s chattering class (i.e., the press) ate away like Amazon piranhas at manager Carlos Alberto Parreira.
And Brazil was on its way to winning the doggone thing!
Apparently, that team led by Romario, Dunga, Taffarel and others wasn’t winning with enough high style. I was shocked; I was there to cover a United States side that was darn lucky to escape the first round, but for Brazilians fans and journos winning somehow wasn’t enough? What’s in the water down there?
But now I’m older – and I do kind of get it. After all, we are living it right now with the U.S. women.
Some of the criticism directed toward manager Jill Ellis’ side seems warranted. The tactics are rudimentary, at best. There’s too much reliance on a 35-year-old striker who just doesn’t look up to it (Abby Wambach). Too many of the substitutions are head-scratchers.
Everyone sees that the U.S. defense is good enough to win a World Cup, and then some. Center back Julie Johnston and left back Meghan Klingenberg continue to be breakout stars.
Meanwhile, big names like Michelle Akers, who was dominant on that 1999 World Cup winning U.S. team, are killing Ellis for the lack of solutions in a stale attack. Listen to Fox analyst and former U.S. international Eric Wynalda, who has rightly lamented the strangely defensive tactics and mindset:
“This was embarrassing. To watch this team … Michelle Akers basically said it, you can’t be proud of that. I’m embarrassed,” he said after Monday’s 2-0 win over 10-man Colombia. “The performance was pathetic. It’s not the players’ fault. We have plenty of players who can go at teams, plenty of players who can score goals. But I just feel like the reigns have been pulled on them. They’ve been told to play defense. She’s married to the 4-4-2; she doesn’t even know what a 4-3-3 is.
“It’s not a U.S. team we can be proud of right now. They are better than that … and you gotta let them play.”
2. A long season in MLS comes with plenty of zigs and zags
Some lessons in life need to be learned and re-learned … and then re-learned all over again. Some of them just never “take.”
Every MLS fan should go write 100 times on the nearest chalkboard, “I will write my thoughts on who is great and who stinks in MLS in pencil, not in pen.” Because I am here to tell you, fortunes swing wildly in MLS, from month to month and sometimes from week to week.
A month ago there were serious concerns that Jason Kreis might be in trouble at NYC FC. (Silly … but serious according to some reports and podcasts.) The boys in blue from Yankee Stadium were bottom of the MLS Eastern Conference then. Well, look at them now; Kreis’ team has won three in a row, and significant reinforcements are on the way.
(FYI, Brian Lewis from the New York Post reports that aside from Frank Lampard and another DP, the club would have around $250,000 for one more non-DP signing. In MLS, that buys you pretty good international center back, which the club desperately needs.)
The L.A. Galaxy is OK, after all, so Galaxy faithful may remove their hands from the panic button. Those early weeks without Robbie Keane, and while still adjusting to life after Landon Donovan, were certainly rough. But now they look merely “transitional,” and that doesn’t sound better?
After a 5-1 walloping of Philadelphia (which could have been worse), Bruce Arena’s team seems to be hitting full gallop. The Galaxy counter-attack was at its brutally efficient best, and Gyasi Zardes is reaching beast mode.
There are other examples … but you get the idea.
The fact is, 11 teams are sitting on either 5 or 6 wins as we reach the halfway turn of 2015 in MLS. Five other teams are right below with four wins. So that’s 15 or 20 teams that are within touching distance of one another. That’s MLS. That’s parity.
An emerging player here, a hot scorer there, a returning defender … any of it could be enough to make the difference. Of course, it also works the other way around. Somebody’s in-form playmaker has a falling-out with his girlfriend and can’t get his head right, or maybe collects a lingering injury, and it turns a good team into one approaching unwatchable.
It’s all so close. What’s hot in June and July could easily be garbage by August. So remember to make your sweeping pronouncements with care.
3. We do know this about Jurgen Klinsmann, for sure
Four years of Jurgen Klinsmann have taught us that nothing is ever assured or predictable when it comes to the U.S. national team manager’s quirky selections and some philosophies that could best be described as “fluid.”
But on some things he’s been quite consistent. For instance: his stated desire to conquer the upcoming CONCACAF Gold Cup.
The Gold Cup, if we’re honest, still doesn’t ring the bell of “very important” with American soccer fans. And it doesn’t resonate at all with general sports fans. Consider that TV ratings for the ongoing Women’s World Cup are likely to crush the Gold Cup ratings. (Fox has the TV rights to both tournaments, so the ratings comparison will be apples-to-apples in that way, even if one tournament is global while the other is a regional event.)
There are plenty of soccer fans who still see the Gold Cup as a rinky-dink event, loosely organized and barely visible on national TV, the way it was in the 1990s.
But increased awareness generally, plus that Confederations Cup spot that potentially dangles for the winner adds value. As such, Klinsmann has said for more than a year that badly wants to win the tournament. Don’t forget, a Gold Cup downer was the proverbial last straw for former U.S. manager Bob Bradley, whose team was taken apart by Mexico in the 2011 tournament final. So, yeah, Klinsmann wants to win.
That’s why youngsters like Julian Green and Bobby Wood – who scored the recent game-winners against the Netherlands and Germany – aren’t on the final 23-man roster released Tuesday. Jordan Morris, Joe Corona, Perry Kitchen and other potential next-generation types will also stay on the sidelines (at least for the first round, as changes can be made later in the tournament). Kyle Beckerman, Brad Davis and Chris Wondolowski, none of whom are likely candidates for the next World Cup roster due to their ages, did find themselves named.
Overall, Klinsmann included 17 players from his 2014 World Cup team, well above past the number for previous Gold Cups rosters in years after a World Cup.
4. When rivalries are really rivalries
It really is so awesome that we have moved into an MLS era where rivalries actually are, well, rivalries. We have moved past the day when “rivalries” were the concoction of marketing and PR departments.
This is rivalry week in MLS, and it is an appreciably better time than “rivalry week” of 5-6 years back. I won’t call out any particular teams here, but some of the ostensible “contempt” between teams was nothing more than garden variety professional competition.
Rivalries are born one of two ways: It’s either about geographic proximity or about actual history, as some notorious event launches some actual, elevated-level acrimony. That’s it! The trouble came when not enough actual rivalries existed, so the league and its member clubs attempted to gin up alleged levels of animosity – and it sometimes wasn’t a good look.
Well, them days are over. FC Dallas-Houston is up first this weekend … that’s an example of a real one that was always real. It checked the boxes on both criteria listed above.
Ditto for Toronto FC-Montreal, who will always share a sort of Canadian sibling rivalry inside and out of sports. The Red Bulls and NYC FC don’t have stacks of history for brewing up a boiling rivalry – but they will soon enough. Just the presence of two clubs in the nation’s largest and most influential media market makes this one an automatic winner.
5. The Little Five
5a. Geoff Cameron’s club, Stoke City, asked that he not participate in the Gold Cup. That kind of request always puts a player in an extremely tough spot. Cameron talked about that on this week’s ESPN Soccer Today show.
5b. The Andrea Pirlo watch continues. The longtime Italian international may or may not have already agreed to terms to join NYCFC, depending on which report you believe. But we know for sure he has been in New York; plenty of sightings are out there, and he even Tweeted out a photo of himself at Yankee Stadium. So there’s that. Of course, that alone doesn’t mean he’s joining up with Frank Lampard and David Villa. Maybe the man just likes visiting New York!
5c. Some fans got themselves in a twist last week about U.S. Open Cup referee assignments, about younger referees being used. But it’s strategic that way; up-and-coming refs are assigned Open Cup matches as prep for bigger things ahead (read: MLS). No, having a less experienced ref for Seattle-Portland probably wasn’t the best choice ever made. But generally, a young referee’s push into big-time soccer has to start somewhere. You want that to be in a relatively low-profile 4th Round Open Cup contest, or an MLS match in front of 20,000 screaming fans with playoff-implication intensity?
5d. This deserves to be said, especially by me and those like me, who predicted bad things when controversial goalkeeper Hope Solo was added back into the mix: she has certainly behaved herself so far during the ongoing Women’s World Cup in Canada.
5e. Gold Cup teams are already gathering in the United States. Most prominent among them (well, aside from the home team) is Mexico, which is already in Florida. El Tri meets Costa Rica this weekend at Orlando’s Citrus Bowl. It’s a fascinating time for Miguel Herrera’s crew; he’s been on a long honeymoon, but one that now seems over. His team’s poor performance at Copa America – granted it was the B-team, but Herrera himself set expectations high – has put him on that hot seat, the tenuous place on which every Mexican national team manager eventually lands.
