Giant Match Fixing Scandal Brewing in Europe (Again)

Here we go again. 40 teams are implicated in a match fixing scandal in Europe. The games cover Champions League, UEFA Cup and Europa Cup fixtures. Of course the sophisticated Europeans are blaming it on a few bad seeds from Eastern Europe (gee, it's not like AC Milan or FC Porto would get caught up in match-fixing now would they?)

Saragosa Suspended Two Games for Montero Facial

Here's some more soccer violence for ya!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52t5ifcmoxM&NR=1&feature=fvwp

MLS Set to Recognize FIFA World Cup

For all of its existence, MLS has stood fast in its belief that the World Cup does not warrant a pause in league play. The joke was always that there wouldn't be any MLS players in the World Cup so what's the big deal? Well, it appears that someone at MLS HQ has convinced the bigwigs that the World Cup is, indeed, a legitimate soccer tournament worthy of league stoppage. This represents an enormous sea change in MLS ideology and may signal that the people running MLS have actually started watching soccer.

And You Thought Josh Wicks Was Nuts...

Check out what Adebayor does to Van Persie at 11 seconds...

Dallas destroys LA Galaxy 6-3 at LA

LA played the worst half of soccer I've seen since Montreal's Epic Fail against Santos Laguna in last year's Champions League. Dallas absolutely owned the midfield and the offensive zone. It was really embarrasing to watch LA revert back to it's unbalanced crappy self after the nice little run it had put together.

And Up the Table They Go!

Sounders beat DC United 2-1 tonight, earning 3 points and pushing them up the league table, at least until the rest of the weekend games are decided. The Ravers almost blew it by giving up a 1-0 lead in the second half, but Fredy Montero put them back ahead late in the game. Ljungberg was absent due to yellow cards but that didn't seem to matter at all to the Sounders since their passes and crosses were crisp and their defending stout. Sounders now have 37 points. Figure they need 40 to 43 total points to make it to the playoffs and they're looking pretty good going into the rest of the regular season.

Anyone else notice that the Sounders score lots of goals when Levesque subs in? Add all those created opportunities with two US Open Cup and you come to the inevitable conclusion that he's a screaming deal at $40,000 per year.

We Aren't Crying for You, Argentina!

Argentina loses 1-0 to mighty Paraguay. They are now in a desperate race to claim the fifth non-guaranteed World Cup entry spot in CONMEBOL. Another nail in Maradona's coaching coffin:



Maradona is now 1-4 in World Cup Qualifying matches as a manager. His team can't stand him.

Imagine a World Cup without Lionel Messi? It might happen...

Sounders Salaries Released

MLS has released the Sounders salaries and it makes for very interesting reading, particularly since you, dear reader, probably make more than many of them. Leonardo Gonzalez is not on the list. Freddie Ljungberg is our top paid player by a mile at $1.3M. Kasey Keller is next at $300,000, and then the salaries drop all the way down to $20,000. Here is our opinion on the wages of each player:

Player Salary Judgement
Freddie Ljungberg $1,314,000 - Overpaid: lack of leadership / screams at refs
Kasey Keller $300,000 - No amount is too much for KaKe.
Nate Jaqua $208,121 - Fair deal, but Montero should be up here
Steve Zakuani $163,000 - Needs to start scoring at that pay level
Tyrone Marshall $161,250 - Must have a good agent
Peter Vagenas $158,400 - Fair deal: why doesn't he start more Sigi?
Fredy Montero $155,000 - Should be higher than Jaqua but he's younger
Nathan Sturgis $133,000 - 5 starts at that salary? Trade bait.
Sebastien Le Toux $112,000 - Underpaid: Huge heart and a better free kicker than Ljungberg (hell, Vagenas is a better corner kicker than Ljungberg)
James Riley $72,625 - Underpaid: Rock solid at right defence
Patrick Ianni $72,000 - Underpaid: Goal of the week / adds depth on D
Osvaldo Alonso $65,000 - Are you freaking serious? Way underpaid
Taylor Graham $55,000 - Stanford grads are always overpaid.
Chris Eylander $45,500 - Underpaid: Keller backup
Brad Evans $44,550 - MASSIVELY UNDERPAID - National Team Player
Roger Levesque $40,008 - MASSIVELY UNDERPAID - 2 US Open Cup Game Winners
Zach Scott $40,008 - Trade bait
Jhon Kennedy Hurtado $37,000 - MASSIVELY UNDERPAID - As good as Marshall
Tyson Wahl $34,650 - On his way out with arrival of Gonzalez
Ben Dragavon $34,000 - No opinion, but also a cool name
Stephen King $34,000 - Underpaid: Adds depth at midfield + cool name
Sanna Nyassi $20,100 - And the award for most underpaid Sounders goes to...Sanna Nyassi! The guy comes in late in most games and is solid at midfield, has more appearances and shots than Vagenas, and adds attacking depth at midfield.

Observations: The Sounders are following the MLS rule where you pay all your money to attackers and goalies and throw in some cheap defenders. Hopefully the signing of Gonzalez is evidence that the Sounders understand that you actually need quality defenders on a professional soccer team.

Financial Analysis:The Sounders are selling 33,000 tickets per game at about $25 per ticket. This works out to $825000 per game in gate receipts alone, or over $16M for the season. Typically, you'd expect salaries to equal 40% - 60% of a team's gate receipts, but the Sounders are paying out about 25%. Of course, with the salary cap they are restricted on what they can spend. The question is: what are they going to do with all that money?

Conclusion: You could sign ten Latin American stars for the price of Freddie Ljungberg, all of who would run circles around most MLS defenders. Houston understands this and have signed young Latin American star Lundin as their designated player.

The future of MLS lies in Latin America, not Europe.

DC United beats KC

DC United beat KC at RFK stadium tonight. DC continues to climb the table in the east. The one good thing for the Sounders out of the game is that DC only has 3 days to prepare for the Sounders-United matchup on Saturday.

We still hate DC.

USMNT Watch: US squeaks by Trinidad

Team USA beat Trinidad 1-0 in Trinidad this evening. Bob Bradley started Ricardo Clark in place of Benny Feilhaber and the move paid off when Clark scored the game's only goal at 65 minutes. Landon Donovan had a nice assist on the goal. Trinidad came out firing and dominated the first half of play, but ran out of steam late in the first half and never recovered their mojo. No yellows were handed out to the US side this game, so we're in good shape heading into the Honduras matchup on October 10th. The US is now, at least temporarily, at the top of the CONCACAF World Cup qualifying group.

ESPN Highlights are here

US MNT: Next World Cup Qualifier Wednesday at 4pm

The US Men's team is playing their next World Cup qualifier in Trinidad on Wednesday. Game time is 4pm Pacific, and the game will be broadcast on ESPN Classic and Telefutura. The boys should be looking sharp playing so soon after the El Salvador game in Salt Lake City. Trinidad is on the verge of elimination, so they'll be bringing everything they have to the match.

Card Situation / Roster:
Jay Demerit won't make the trip because he is not in game shape after his groin injury. Conor Casey also isn't making the trip. Gooch Onyewu is back from a yellow card suspension, so the defense should be better this game (not that it wasn't very strong against El Salvador). Landon Donovan, Jozy Altidore, Carlos Bocanegra, Ricardo Clark, Clint Dempsey, Benny Feilhaber and Steve Cherundolo are all carrying cards into the game. None of them can afford a yellow or they will have to sit out the critical Honduras qualifier on October 10th. This should make for a disciplined game like we saw against El Salvador when no yellow cards were handed out to the US side.

Maradona Just About Finished in Argentina

Argentina's chances of qualifying for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa dropped a little more last night after a 3-1 lost to Brazil. Columbia did Argentina favor by beating Ecuador, but Argentina now has to fight with Columbia and Ecuador for the final qualifying spot in the South American region. A recent poll estimated that 65% of Argentinians don't think that their side will qualify.

US MNT Watch: US 2:1 El Salvador

The national team came from behind to beat El Salvador 2-1 last night in Salt Lake City last night. The goal scorers were Clint Dempsey and Jozy Altidore. Charlie Davies had a goal called back on a terrible offside call. Landon Donovan continued his superb national team playing, and Tim Howard looked sharp despite his recent weak Premier League playing. Mexico beat up former group leader Costa Rica 3-0 and Honduras beat Trinidad 4-1. The results leave the US in second place in CONCACAF group behind Honduras on goal differential. Mexico moves into the third and final spot that guarantees a rip to South Africa next year, just ahead of Costa Rica on goal differential.:

MLS Results: Good For The Sounders

Going into today, the Sounders were in fifth place overall in the MLS with 34 points. Six teams in playoff contention faced off today, with the overall results being pretty good for the Sounders. The Revolution (33 points, tied for sixth overall with Colorado, Salt Lake, and Chivas)got spanked by Kansas City (out of the race at 21 points). DC United (32 points, 10th overall) tied FC Dallas to move up to the sixth-place 5-way at 33 points. The one variable result as far as the Sounders are concerned was Colorado's defeat of Toronto. This moved Colorado up to 36 points, taking the fifth place spot and dropping Seattle down to sixth place.

So the table looks like this:

Houston - 40 points
Columbus - 39 points
LA Galaxy - 38 points
Chicago - 38 points
Colorado - 36 points
Seattle - 34 points
NE Revolution - 33 points
DC United - 33 points
Chivas - 33 points
Real Salt Lake - 33 points

RSL, Chivas, and the Revolution have all been looking strong, so it is still a hard fight for the Sounders to make the playoffs, but at least today's results tilted in our benefit!

If Hitler Ran Chelsea...

From soccerblog.com:

MLS Playoff Picture

MLSNet has a good overview of the playoff picture as it now stands (click image for video):

US Open Cup Highlights

Game highlights here

Award ceremony

We Just Won the US Open Cup

We Just Won the US Open Cup!
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We Just Won the US Open Cup!
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Montero got the first go-o-o-al
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Wicks got kicked out for stomping Fre-e-dy!
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USL connection got us a second goal!
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Le Toux to Levesque then it was in the net!
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Ljungberg didn't yell at the re-e-ef!
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He just laughed and kept on play-a-ing
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DC made it close with a late go-o-al
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But they couldn't get a second sco-o-re!
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DC wins trophies but not this ti-i-ime!
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We Just Won the US Open Cup!

Second MLSNet Writeup on the US Open Cup FInal

SEATTLE -- As D.C. United and Seattle Sounders FC set to face off for the 2009 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, an off-field war of words between the two clubs has grabbed headlines for the past month. Seattle Sounders FC general manager Adrian Hanauer and D.C. United president Kevin Payne have been lobbing verbal grenades at one another since late July, when it was announced that the final match would be played in the nation's capital.
The U.S. Open Cup allows participating teams to bid for the right to host matches. Both clubs submitted bids to host the 2009 championship game, with 2008 Open Cup holders D.C. United winning the right to play host to Wednesday's match at RFK Stadium.

Hanauer expressed incredulity that United outbid Sounders FC. With an average attendance better than 30,000 fans for MLS games, Hanauer wanted to know why the game wouldn't be held at Seattle's raucous Qwest Field.

"I'd be lying if I didn't say I was frustrated and somewhat skeptical of the process," Hanauer said to the Tacoma News Tribune. I don't think D.C. has played a game in the Open Cup on the road in two years. They had a road through all lower-division teams to get to the Open Cup Final. I'm not in the know ... enough to be able to raise any real issues, but I'm frustrated and I wish U.S. Soccer would explain why one bid wins over another."

In response, Payne said to The Washington Post that it was "really unseemly for Seattle to suddenly show up in MLS and everything should be handed to them." He also expressed discontent in Hanauer's implication that D.C. United has somehow received an easier path to the final.

Payne also followed through on his pledge to promote the game aggressively. He called upon fans to come out for the Wednesday night match with full-page advertisements in all of the city's major newspapers. The ad copy included a slight towards the Sounders FC organization and its fans:

"The Sounders, and its fans, have said that Washington, D.C., and its fans do not deserve to host the match at RFK. They insisted the match should be played in Seattle."

This isn't the first verbal skirmish Sounders FC have been involved in with regards to the U.S. Open Cup. Other organizations have been frustrated with Seattle's approach to the competition, which runs in conjunction with the Major League Soccer schedule.

In the 2009 season, Seattle played four Open Cup games at the Starfire Sports Complex -- the club's training grounds in the nearby city of Tukwila. Starfire's layout puts fans just meters away from sidelines, while an overhanging roof on one side of the stadium amplifies crowd noise.

Opposing coaches praised the atmosphere but criticized the playing surface, while the shortened size of the pitch led to extremely physical contests. In the contentious Open Cup semifinal with the Houston Dynamo, several players were injured -- including a bloody head wound for Seattle's Nate Jaqua and an ankle injury to Brian Mullan that Houston's coach Dominic Kinnear blamed on the artificial surface.

In Seattle's defense, the club said it prefers to play in a packed stadium with a fantastic atmosphere as opposed to a partly-full Qwest Field. Since many Open Cup games fall in the middle of the week with little time for promotion, Sounders FC chose Tukwila.

In addition to rubbing other MLS clubs the wrong way -- Real Salt Lake, Colorado, Kansas City and Houston all played Open Cup matches at Starfire -- the decision to play at Starfire also angered some Seattle fans who couldn't get a ticket. The club boasts more than 20,000 season ticket holders, but since Open Cup games aren't included in the season ticket package, many fans who wanted to attend Open Cup games were unable.

It is unclear whether these factors played a part in the decision to award D.C. the Open Cup final. Another possible factor involves the proposed match time in the respective bids. Since the Seattle Mariners are playing an afternoon game across the street in Safeco Field, Sounders FC proposed a day game, while D.C. United proposed a standard 7:30 p.m. start.

Sounders FC goalkeeper Kasey Keller is aware of the battle being waged in the press, but is more concerned with turning in a good match on the field.

"I know there has been a lot of interesting talk in the press from what's gone on with Adrian to what's gone on with their ownership group," Keller said. "I just hope that it is a great atmosphere and there is a good crowd there and we perform the way we are capable of performing. We will see what happens from there."

US Open Cup or Why We Hate DC United

Okay, we don't actually hate DC United. No, hate isn't a strong enough word for how we feel about them. Individually we hate the players, the coaches, that awful stadium they play in, the abominable city of Washington DC, and of course those smarmy bearded fans. Put it all together and you get something much more noxious than mere hate. It's as though someone dipped our souls in pure wretched loathing. And that "We Win Trophies" campaign. Ugh. I've seen better marketing in a Craigslist ad for used carpeting. Now it turns out that they've only been able to move 11,000 ticket for tomorrow's game, 3,000 of which were given away. Perhaps a bailout is in order?

Here's the writeup from MLS News:

WASHINGTON -- It would seem that an expansion team barely midway through its first year of MLS existence might have a hard time striking up a rivalry with a 14-year-old club situated more than 2,000 miles away.
But put a 96-year-old tournament up for grabs, add a hotly-contested venue bidding process for the cup final, stir in a few sharp, defiant remarks from both sides -- and suddenly, D.C. United and Seattle Sounders FC find themselves contending one of the most intriguing U.S. Open Cup finals in recent memory.

With large, lively crowds packing Qwest Field to cheer on Sigi Schmid's frenetic, attack-minded squad, Seattle's inaugural season in Major League Soccer has been a startling success on several levels and the Sounders FC front office was eager to play host to the Open Cup final in those home environs when the opportunity presented itself.

But Sounders FC lost out to an aggressive bid from United, the tourney's defending champions, sparking a bout of verbal sparring between Seattle general manager Adrian Hanauer and D.C. president Kevin Payne in the leadup to Wednesday night's title bout at RFK Stadium. Hanauer admitted to being "frustrated and somewhat skeptical" about the bidding process, prompting a full-blooded riposte from Payne, who condemned Hanauer's "outrageous implication" regarding the U.S. Soccer Federation's choice and soon launched a promotional campaign for the final called "We Win Trophies," underscoring the capital club's rich history of excellence.

United were already keen to keep possession of the Dewar Trophy, which they secured with a 2-1 victory against the USL's Charleston Battery at RFK a year ago, but the prematch sniping has only fueled the fire for some members of the squad.

"They can complain all they want. It doesn't really bother me," said D.C. goalkeeper Josh Wicks, who once played for the Portland Timbers, Seattle's most bitter rival during their USL days.

"They have a good fan base in Seattle and it's their first year in the league -- I'm not taking anything away from them but at the same time, D.C. is defending champions of the cup so in my book, let them come earn [the right] to hold it up there next year."

Off-field drama aside, both teams will be motivated by the ever-present lust for hardware and a late-summer confidence boost could also prove useful as the MLS regular season ticks down to the wire. United snapped an extended winless streak with last Saturday's league victory in Chicago and with his team still stuck on the outside of the playoff picture, veteran Ben Olsen believes that a victory on Wednesday would offer priceless momentum for the demanding days ahead.

"We're not caught up in that stuff. That's not our world," said Olsen in regards to the executives' wrangle. "Our world is to go out and win a trophy. And I think it's an important step for us, to continue to get better and put a series of wins together, which has been an issue of ours this summer."

D.C. and Seattle battled to a 3-3 draw in their first-ever meeting on June 17, a topsy-turvy match at Qwest Field that featured end-to-end play and plenty of defensive breakdowns on both sides. Having racked up hard-won clean sheets in their last two league matches, the Black-and-Red are eager to keep Wednesday's clash from being anywhere near as open as that occasion in Seattle -- no simple task given the movement and trickery that defines Fredy Montero, Freddie Ljungberg and the rest of the Sounders FC attack.

"There's not just one area where they can beat you -- they can beat you from all angles with their forwards, and they've got a strong midfield. You see goals coming in from everywhere," said United right back Bryan Namoff. "So we have to just make sure that our concentration was the same as it was in this previous match against Chicago. We know what to expect."

After using a 3-5-2 shape for most of the campaign, D.C. coach Tom Soehn has been experimenting with a 4-4-2 approach in recent weeks and a back four of Namoff, Julius James, Dejan Jakovic and Marc Burch performed well against the Fire. But James is cup-tied due to his participation in previous rounds with the Houston Dynamo, so United might turn to a five-man midfield to seize the initiative on their home turf.

Given the stakes and setting, however, tactics are apt to take a back seat to effort and raw intensity.

"I expect it to be a dogfight," said Wicks.