HexagonalBlog

Yet another call for MLS to switch to European calendar

So Joseph Blatter made a slightly less questionable pronouncement last week by repeating his call for Major League Soccer to switch to a European calendar.  I wrote a long piece earlier this year explaining the reasons why MLS won't, and to be honest shouldn't.  I am not sure that a person like Blatter truly appreciates the challenges that a fall-to-spring MLS would face, from weather to pitches to media, and when he says that such a move would improve the popularity of the sport in this country, I find it challenging to believe that he knows what he is talking about.  A fall-to-spring soccer season is even more of a non-starter in USL, NASL, and below as many of these teams share stadia with high schools or colleges, and these clubs would have nowhere to play.  So a switch to such a league schedule would see a lot more teams playing on artificial surface or with ugly gridiron lines.  How exactly that spectacle is supposed to increase the popularity of soccer in the USA is not something that a rocket scientist like me can understand.

And besides, if US Soccer told Blatter to pound sand, what would he do?  Keep the USA from hosting a World Cup?

A roundup of Central American action -- 2011-11-28

A roundup of action from around Central America, as all of the leagues are now in playoff stage.

Top four seeds make college women soccer's Final Four

Stanford, Florida State, Wake Forest, and Duke -- all #1 seeds in the NCAA Division I Women's Soccer championship tournament -- advanced to the Women's College Cup as semifinalists this weekend.  On Friday night Stanford overcame Oklahoma State 2-1 after extra time to complete an unbeaten home record by the graduating seniors and continue a 50-match winning streak in Palo Alto.  Earlier in the day, Duke defeated Long Beach State 2-0, Wake Forest ended the dream of Central Florida with a comfortable 3-0 victory, and Florida State avenged a regular-season loss to Virginia by running out surprising 3-0 winners.  Not only did the Seminoles advance to the College Cup for the first time since 2007, they defeated Virginia for the first time at home and scored against the Cavaliers for the first time in ten years.

The semifinals set up like this: Wake Forest will play Duke, and Stanford will meet Florida State.  (The order of the matches has not been set as of this post.)  Stanford has been the #1-ranked team all season, but one could argue that Florida State is the hottest women's team in the country at the moment.  The other semifinal will also be a high-wattage match between sides that finished first and fourth in the Atlantic Coast Conference this season.  (For the record, Florida State finished fifth, but caught fire in the ACC tournament.)

This year's Women's College Cup will be in Kennesaw, GA, about 30 minutes northwest of Atlanta.  I bought tickets to all of the matches and I hope to see a lot of people there.

A quick run through the Central American playoffs: 2011-11-13

Not much time for lots of prose, since I'm on my way to bed and will be out of town for a few days.  But I did want to put out the results and upcoming schedules for the playoff action throughout Central America.

Godoy to Godoy

Panamanian football players have been able to make inroads in South American clubs in recent years.  Not just Colombia, which has been a natural destination for historical reasons, but also Southern Cone countries such as Argentina or Chile.  Yesterday it was reported that Chepo FC's midfielder Aníbal Godoy will play for Argentina's Godoy Cruz on a loan deal that will run through the rest of the Argentine domestic season.  Godoy, who is 21, made 90 appearances and scored 14 goals for Chepo over his four years at the club.

Chepo finished in fifth position in the recent Apertura tournament, but they are known for being an incubator for young talent.  Mendoza-based Godoy Cruz currently lie in 11th place in the Argentine Primera Apertura tournament, 13 points behind champions-in-waiting Boca Juniors.

One-nil to the Galaxy

I had it all wrong.  There was no way that the Galaxy were going to defeat the Houston Dynamo 3-1.  They always looked like winning Sunday's MLS finale, but it's only fitting that the final scoreline would be the Galaxy's 11th win by the minimum this season.  The loss of Brad Davis, who was the league's best creator alongside David Beckham, crippled the Dynamo's midfield, and the in-match injury to Geoff Cameron weakened their backline severely.  Nevertheless, the Galaxy were translating their territorial dominance into very few chances, and those few chances were being squandered repeatedly, so the Dynamo still had a chance.  One sustained possession, a flick here, a poke there, who knows what could happen?  In the end, that scenario fell to the Galaxy's three Designated Players: a flick-on by Beckham, a lovely through pass by Keane, and a precise poke to the far corner by Donovan.  Houston never looked closer to scoring after that, and the final whistle brought from celebrations from the field and around the Home Depot Center. 

The Galaxy won their third championship, one behind DC United.  Bruce Arena joined Sigi Schmid as the only managers to win MLS titles with two different clubs.  Landon Donovan won his fourth MLS Cup winners' medal and his second MLS Cup Most Valuable Player award.  And David Beckham became the second English footballer to win domestic league titles in three different countries.

The debate is starting on whether this Galaxy team is the best to ever play in Major League Soccer; John Paul Dellacamera gives his reasons why he thinks they are.  I think there is unfinished business in CONCACAF to settle, but consider what this team has achieved, not just this season, but in the last three seasons.  The Galaxy have finished in the top two in the regular season table over the last three seasons, and in the last two have topped the table with a points-per-game average of 1.97.  To the best of my knowledge no other MLS team has ever displayed such a high level of performance over two seasons.  In fact, just three MLS teams have had points-per-game averages exceeding 2.00, and none of them came close to matching that level before or after (the Miami Fusion sadly expired after 2001).  There were other teams with more prolific scoring, and there were others with better defenses -- just look at Real Salt Lake's record-setting defense last season.  But very few of those teams ended up as MLS Cup champions, and none of those sides who scored more than 2.0 points per game won the league.  What the Galaxy have done, what Bruce Arena has done, is that they have formed a team that is capable not just of playing at a high level but also winning the hard matches.  I think their match record over the last two seasons and their record in 1-0 matches indicate that.

So MLS has the ending it wanted.  I don't mean necessarily that they wanted to see the Galaxy win it, but I'm sure they wanted their league finale to be decided before a packed stadium with a partisan crowd, with raucous scenes of celebration as the players took a victory lap with the trophy, fans waving signs saying "Please stay David Beckham!"  Well, the last phrase is definitely the ending David Beckham wanted.    From the accident-filled start to his five-year run, to the non-appearances, to the Beckham Experiment, to the loan moves and injuries, and now this season, the one season where Beckham could devote himself totally to Galaxy turned out to be his best season.  He earned his place in the league Best XI (not so sure about him being named Comeback Player of the Year), and he should have been named MVP of the MLS Cup final.  I think the chances of him joining Paris St.-Germain are greater now that he has won the league, and you have to think that a man who pays as much attention to milestones as David Beckham would relish the chance to be the first Englishman to win domestic titles in four countries.  But whatever he decides, Beckham will view his time with the Galaxy as part of the same grand arc that has characterized his career.

Lots of things to happen in the off season, such as a new MLS team, a couple of stadiums opening, and a revamped regular season and playoff format.  It all begins again in four months, three if you're one of the MLS teams still in the Champions League.

Honduras NT coach, member of the blogosphere

Honduras national team coach Luís Suárez has had a personal blog since June on which he writes about his experiences with the Honduran team and shares his viewpoints on coaching and leadership.  I particularly like his post on the type of football that he likes and doesn't like.  If you understand Spanish, it will be worth your time reading the posts and even if you don't, he uses fairly standard Spanish so a machine translation would be sufficient.  At any rate, a good read.

MLS ends neutral-site MLS Cup, makes conference finals two-leg

Since the league's inception, Major League Soccer has been trying to find the right playoff format, right meaning one that gave some meaning to the regular season while creating increased fan interest during the post-season.  The latest iteration came yesterday, when the MLS Board of Governors approved four major changes in the league playoff format:

• Top five teams in each conference, no wild-card slots.
• Seeds #4 and #5 in each conference in a one-match play-in.
• Conference finals are now a two-leg series.
• MLS Cup final hosted by team with higher regular-season point total.

To me the biggest change to the playoff format is the end of the neutral-site MLS Cup Final.  I always felt that designating the MLS Cup as a neutral-site event was a huge mistake as it removed the opportunity to create a compelling made-for-TV event and ensure full attendance by home town supporters.  I believe I understand the rationale of Doug Logan at the time in that MLS Cup is a showpiece event on par with the Super Bowl, except for the fact that MLS was not, and is not, the NFL.  It was one of several errors of the Logan era.

That said, having a neutral-site MLS Cup Final makes a lot of logistics easier.  It is much easier to plan travel for the event when you know exactly when and where it will be.  End-of-season events like the MLS Supporters' Summit are some of the major events that are planned around the MLS Cup, as well as corporate hospitality events.  Perhaps the way to work around this is to have a MLS awards show and supporters' events in one city a week or two after the Final, which is easier to attend but would involve more travel for finalists' supporters.

As for the rest of the playoff changes, I think the switch of the conference finals to a two-leg format makes sense and is an indication that MLS teams and fans have a greater understanding of how the format works.  Once you view it as a mini-league, the format no longer appears so foreign.  And despite higher-seed teams grumbling about not hosting the first game, the result data show that teams hosting the second leg (i.e. higher seed teams) are 3-2 favorites for winning the series.  The second game also guarantees a home match for the lower seed which means a guaranteed gate for both sides in the playoffs.  MLS still won't embrace the away goals rule or even "sporting advantage", which in the end increases the probability of a series being decided by penalty kicks, which I thought everyone hated.

I do wish that the league would just do away with conferences, have playoffs between the top eight and have two-leg playoffs up to and including the MLS Cup Final.  Or even drop playoffs, which haven't been all that popular if you look at attendance figures.  But I know neither scenario will happen -- MLS is a North American sports league, after all -- so I will applaud MLS' move toward a playoff system that looks more familiar to observers in the rest of the world.

CONCACAF lays out the Third Round roadmap

CONCACAF, with uncharacteristically fast speed, announced the schedule of the Third Round of World Cup qualifying within 24 hours of the conclusion of the last matches in the Second Round.  (CONCACAF's press release announced the schedule up to Round 4; you can find the full calendar at the Wikipedia page.)  The Third Round, which to long-time CONCACAF observers is also called the Semifinal Round, will take place between 8 June and 16 October, which will stretch out the Group Stage schedule in the CONCACAF Champions League.  It is very possible that a MLS team will have to finish its final CCL group matches and play a MLS Cup playoff game in quick succession.

A roundup of Central American action -- 2011-11-13

It's been a very long time since I've done this, so here is a long-overdue look at action around the Central American leagues.  Despite the international calendar, several leagues were in action over the weekend.