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Some news from Spain relevant to CONCACAF in general and MLS in particular:
Congratulations to Edson Buddle for netting a perfect hat trick (left foot, right foot, header) in the LA Galaxy-FC Dallas match today. Anyone know the last time a perfect hat trick was achieved in MLS?
I was not aware that Jack Warner was in Chengdu on the day of that massive earthquake a few days ago. I'm happy to find out that he escaped harm. Prayers for those who did not.
Slowly, CONCACAF's new Champions League is starting to take shape. Today the confederation announced the qualification criteria for the competition. Here's a summary:
USA:
Canada:
Mexico:
Belize:
Costa Rica:
El Salvador:
Guatemala:
Honduras:
Panama:
Nicaragua:
Caribbean:
Group Stage slots: USA1, USA2, MEX1, MEX2, CRC1, GUA1, HON1, SLV1
Qualifying Round slots: USA3, USA4, MEX3, MEX4, CRC2, GUA2, HON2, SLV2, PAN1, PAN2, CAN1, NCA1, BLZ1, CFU1, CFU2, CFU3
So the official qualifying criteria for the Champions League didn't exactly match the Wikipedia entry for the tournament. (It's corrected now.) Perhaps some educated conjectures were made to arrive at the 24 teams. The qualifying slots do make sense for the most part. Nevertheless, there are a couple of anomalies.
It's interesting that the US Open Cup winner gets to enter the Champions League. Is that still true if a second-division club wins the trophy? (It's already happened once before, and the lower-division clubs are always more motivated.) Nonetheless, the Cup has greater motivation to everyone in US soccer now. I'm also surprised that CFU1 wasn't an automatic entry into the group stage. Considering that this is a Warner administration that has supposedly done so much to raise the profile of Caribbean soccer, the lack of a direct entry into a big payday has to be a shock to many in the Caribbean. Then again, maybe they know that a Caribbean side in the group stage is almost certain to finish bottom, so it might be best to go through a playoff first.
So now we have some official confirmation on who gets to participate in the Champions League. Lots of other information needs to be passed along soon, so let's have more of it very soon, please!
Last weekend I was back in the Bay Area to meet with some friends from
my alma mater, and I decided to go see the San Jose Earthquakes play
the Columbus Crew on Saturday night. The last time I saw the Quakes
play the mood was a mixture of glumness and uncertainty, because of the
team's elimination from the playoffs and the almost certain departure
of the organization. This time the mood was much happier. I saw a lot
of Quakes fans wearing hats saying "Back in 2008". And the fan groups
were as festive as I had remembered (the Ultras group make more of a
visual show).
I had not been to Buck Shaw Stadium before, but I had known that it was used mostly for soccer by Santa Clara and baseball before that. The Quakes have done a very good job of renovating and expanding the stadium, and the result is well worth the money they spent. In my opinion, Buck Shaw is the best of the interim stadiums in MLS -- it's the best size for the fan base, the sightlines are good, the surrounding scenery is beautiful, and best of all, there are no gridiron lines. I don't feel the same way about the Network Associates Coliseum in Oakland, but with Wolff's ownership of the A's and the Quakes playing there for big matches makes sense.
As for the game, the Quakes play like an expansion team. It seemed that they had given up on playing the ball through midfield and decided to pump long balls from the goalkeeper or the back line to the strikers. It would have been nice if the strikers were able to create a scoring opportunity, but that task seemed to be beyond them. In the end, a set piece was the only way that San Jose was going to score. Toronto FC last season showed how difficult it is for a new side without effective scorers, and San Jose is finding this out as well.
The Crew started slowly but took over the game once they were able to successfully link their midfield to their forward line. Guillermo Barros Schelotto was drifting from one side of the field to another and made life difficult for the Quakes back line. His corner kicks were also a threat with Ezra Hendrickson hitting the crossbar on one occasion (he was also a handful for the defense with his deep overlapping runs). But the goals that Columbus scored occurred in the run of play. Two well-weighted diagonal passes from Ekpo and Moreno found Robbie Rogers alone against Joe Cannon, and he finished clinically both times. Schelotto sent through Brad Evans a couple of minutes later, and he finished high into the net. San Jose got a goal back to make stoppage time interesting, but in the end the Crew had obtained a very good road win.
I left Buck Shaw very impressed by the Crew's play. If they can stay
consistent (easier said than done in MLS), they have an excellent
chance of being title contenders. Robbie Rogers is a young striking
talent the USA needs, and Guillermo Barros Schelotto is a player who
can lead the side and demand consistent play. I haven't seen Schelotto
play in person since I went to a Boca Juniors game seven years ago, and
I was able to get a smile out of him after the game when I chanted "Guille! Guille!" as he was leaving the field.
Sorry I wasn't able to see my Quakes friends in the Casbah or Club Quake, but I had fun nonetheless.
...I thought they'd like to know that I like the look of their new website. It's one that's worthy of a continental confederation.
Now, where's that Champions League website? And if it's a new competition, why was the Caribbean qualification result found on the old Champions' Cup page?
Congratulations to Fulham for staying up in the Premier League. To win four of their final five games, including three consecutive away wins, in the face of certain relegation is an impressive escape act. And it would not have been good for American soccer's image to have a club with five American players demoted from the top flight.
In the end, however, two of the three relegated clubs have Americans playing on them: Reading (Hahnemann and Convey) and Derby (Feilhaber and Lewis).
ESPN Deportes is reporting that the Mexican football federation has talked to Sven-Goran Eriksson about the vacancy in the national team position. An excerpt of a radio interview with the secretary general of the FMF was played, and he didn't deny it, but said that they were looking were looking at several coaches, including Javier Aguirre.
So is this for real, or manufactured by the media? I guess we'll find out soon. What's clear is that Chucho Ramírez won't be the permanent coach, which is too bad.
