FC Dallas fires Morrow; Soehn still employed

Steve Morrow was fired today as the FC Dallas Head Coach. FC Dallas currently sit 4th in the MLS Western Conference with a record of 2-3-3 with 9 points.

So Morrow can get fired for only losing three matches.... but Tom Soehn is still managing a DC United side that has lost three in a row, five out of it's last six matches and has been outscored 14 to 6 in those six matches.

Where is the logic?

Weekend Update: DC United Roll with a 6 pack

I had to admit, coming into Saturday nights match, I was a little concerned. United was set to face one of the top clubs in the Western Conference and face them on the road. FC Dallas were coming in with about two weeks worth of rest on their backs and some new Brazilian set to make his debut. It had the makings of the end of a 5 game winning streak.

Instead, it just became a 6 game winning streak.

That was one of the more complete matches I have seen United play in a long time. A quick strike to wrestle control early, a late first half goal to completely deflate the home side, followed up with two early second half goals to essentially put the game out of reach. That all said, with the exception of the fourth goal, this match was shaping up to be identical to the 3-3 draw that we all suffered from at RFK in July. The difference was that our defense looked much stronger and Dallas looked like they didn't have any type of cohesion in their side.

I was happy to see that Soehn is still rotating the starters out of matches, giving Emillio and Benny early exits, giving Boswell a start (which he looked very good in), giving Rod some time on the field "should" help him along as well. I would have liked to see Jamie get pulled during the second half, but considering Emillio and Benny's current injury status, pulling them made more sense. I do hope that if we are leading into the second half on Thursday, Soehn gives Jamie some rest.

Next up is Chivas USA, who had the weekend off and will be at home. Follow that up with a home match against New England and we should see just how far United can take this streak.

Soccer News & Notes: 7/25/2007

LA Galaxy win first SuperLiga Match; FC Dallas Draw
God I love Landon Donovan! This guy has a nack for making people eat the same stuff that they throw at him. After the Beckham circus match Saturday night, pretty much everyone dropped Donovan on his head for missing the open header late in the match and basically being invisible through out the entire match. I even said that the Galaxy would finish dead last in their SuperLiga group.

Well, he proved me wrong and showed the rest of the media that he can still step up in matches. Donovan scored the match winner as the Galaxy, minus Golden Balls, defeated Pachuca 2-1 last night. As FC Dallas drew with Chivas de Guadalajara 1-1, the Galaxy currently sit at the top of the Group A standings.

FC Dallas draw with Chivas.
The other SuperLiga match of the night had FC Dallas draw with Chivas de Guadalajara 1-1, despite an apparent hand ball that lead to the Chivas goal that tied the score at 1-1. FC Dallas played a man short for the end of the match as Drew Moor was sent off for shoving Chivas captain Hector Reynoso.

I watched the first half of this match and I was shocked at how hard these guys were hitting each other. The hitting was fierce and the passing was horrible. FC Dallas had terrible passes through out the entire first half, and it made me wonder if it was only time until Chivas snuck in with a goal. Chivas themselves weren't that much better, but they did have faster build ups in the offense, which I thought would be the difference. I figured teh score would be 1-0 for Chivas.

Freddy off to Benfica?
The AP is reporting that MLS and Benfica have agreed to a $2 million dollar transfer for Freddy Adu, but Freddy and Benfica have yet to agree to personal terms of the contract. Freddy was back in the Real Salt Lake line up as they hosted Boca Juniors in an international friendly last night, which finished 1-1. Negotiations appear to be on going.

I really, really like this move, assuming that Freddy can agree to personal terms with Benfica. Moving to Portugal provides Freddy with the chance to face an entirely different environment and get alot more playing pressure on him, rather than marketing pressure. At Benfica, Freddy will have to fight for playing time in training, something that Peter Nowak was trying to get him to understand and what he said he figured out with his two week training session last year with Manchester United. He won't be the media darling of the entire league, like he head been over here. His game should improve greatly, assuming that he moves. I am just happy that he wants the greater challenge, unlike some other guys.

Eddie Johnson turns Derby down.
Speaking of Americans getting chances to move overseas, Eddie Johnson has reportedly turned down Derby's offer to joining the EPL side this season. Derby has just been promoted to the EPL and were looking to bring EJ in to bolster its offense. In 2005, Benfica offered MLS a reported $6 million for EJ's contract, but the league turned them down.

As I said before, I think that EJ should move, especially with his stock so "high." The guy has been lighting up MLS, 12 goals in 11 games, but his game needs to go higher, especially if he wants to truly be an international goal scoring threat for the USMNT. Playing in the EPL would have forced him to become quicker, not only on his feet, but in his head.

Poor decision EJ, poor decision.

Here it comes…SuperLiga!

Ok, so how long has it been since the inaugural SuperLiga tournament was announced along with the participants and the bitching? After all of the complaining, arguing and debates, we are finally set to see inform MLS clubs go against pre-season Mexican clubs with 1 Million dollars up for the winner.

So what should we expect? Should we see the MLS clubs wipe the field with their Mexican opponents? The Mexican clubs are in preseason form after all, so they should be rusty and ripe for the picking.

I doubt that we will see anything other than some interesting matches. Clubs on both sides of the Rio Grande should do well, but I think we will see something of a Houston vs. Pachuca final. Houston is playing very well right now and Pachuca seem to have everything falling into place for them.

I am worried about two of the MLS clubs, the LA Galaxy and DC United. The Galaxy will be entering their second straight international tournament in pretty much as many weeks. They lost 3-0 to Tigres and 1-0 to Chelsea this last week. Considering that they have already faced a pre-season Mexican club and fared poorly, how are they going to do against two of the better Mexican sides? The Galaxy are still trying to figure out who is playing which position and what formation works the best. Pavon picked up a knock in the Chelsea match and that other guy from England doesn’t seem to be ready to really play until maybe Saturday against Chivas. I was impressed with their defensive form against Chelsea. Xavier played out of his mind in central defense and Cannon saved their bacon 4 or 5 times. That said, I expect the Galaxy to finish last in their group, using the three matches essentially as a pre-season run at the new players and see which formation works the best and to get them back in form for the MLS regular season.

DC United on the other hand really haven’t had that much of a run of good form lately. In their last four matches, they are 0-3-1, having been shut out in the three losses and having blown a 3-0 lead at home n the draw. So now the injury depleted Black & Red have to face two of Mexico’s best then travel to Houston and face the MLS leading Dynamo, one of the clubs that shut them out in those three losses. Considering that Tom Soehn should have both Ben Olsen and Fred available (Olsen had to sit out the RBNY match and Fred gets an MLS sponsored vacation when United face the Revolution on August 5th) I expect them both to be in the lineup for Wednesday nights match against Morelia. If United can get three points against Morelia, a draw against America then hopefully they will not have to worry about their match against Houston. If not, I think based on their current form, United might miss out on playing passed the group phase in this tournament.

Overall, my opinion of this tournament hasn’t really changed. I think that it is a great idea and one that will hopefully grow with each season that we see it. Based on Commissioner Garber’s statements on MLSnet.com, I think that it will:

“Matt from Chapel Hill, N.C.: What are your expectations of SuperLiga this year? Will it ever go to a Home and Away format? Will it expand? Will it be on TV in English?

Don Garber: We're launching SuperLiga in a reduced format this year and still have some work to do to determine the future structure of the tournament. I certainly hope we can achieve a home and away competition with expanded teams but this year have to determine the tournament's success before we move forward.” - MLSnet.com

The biggest thing that will determine its future is if the first run is a success. In order for the tournament to be a success, the current fans need to get behind it. It seems that a lot of MLS fans are shunning this tournament because the teams were selected instead of teams that won some type of qualification to get in.

I think that once the matches get started, there will be plenty of fans in the seats and we will see this tournament become a success. As MLS/SUM/MPD begin planning the next SuperLiga, hopefully they will take any mistakes from this one and eliminate them and expand the tournament to include more clubs. I would ultimately like to see MLS/SUM/MPD begin to invite the top two clubs from Costa Rica as well.

Match Recap: DC United 3 - 3 FC Dallas

I really wish we had lost this match.

I really do. We were up 3-0 at the 47th minute mark. You do not give away a 3-0 lead like we did. Can somebody say focus?

Ok, so my background in soccer, other than being a fan is pretty small and short. I played goalkeeper for three years in high school and never played after my senior year. I graduated from Hampton High School and during my senior year, I would always hear my coach screaming out at us as we we losing, "Your giving it away Hampton!" During tonight's match, I kept looking for Tom Soehn to be screaming pretty much the same thing at his players as they gave away the match to FC Dallas.

The first half and the beginning of the second half we wonderful. We were attacking, got a great early goal and a gift of a goal at the end of the first half. The goal at the start of the second half was a direct result of FC Dallas not being ready to start the second half. After that, the wheels fell off.

Was it Jamie's hammy pull? I doubt it. I did think that Kpene had just about the worst performance in a United jersey that he has ever had, but he wasn't playing defense, so I cannot blame him. I cannot also blame Emilio. Yes, I sad Emilio. The guy had two of the goals, but in the second half, he had a great run on Sala and instead of passing to an open Fred, it looked like he decided to try for the hat trick and take the shot himself. I believe that had he passed the ball, the score would have been 4-1 at that point and the match would have finished much differently. That said, none of these guys played defense.

I blame the four defenders. I really do. All three goals were the result of sloppy play on the side of our defense. Several fans on the Metro tried to convince me that the Ref was horrible and didn't give United one call the entire night. I agree, but when you have a 3-0 lead in the second half, the ref could step off the field and you should still be able to win 3-2 at the very least.

We screwed up and gave away 2 points tonight. I have never been so upset at a draw before in my life. Tonight was harder to accept than the 5-2 drubbing LA gave us last year, or the 4-0 drubbing Chicago gave us in the playoffs two years ago.

I hope that Tom Soehn has his guys re-evaluate things and get their minds focused on their job. We have a trip up to the Swamplands next Sunday, then we return after a short week and start the SuperLiga against Morelia. We started this MLS season with three loses, then a draw, then we rattled off 3 straight wins during a 6 match unbeaten streak. We have just picked up our third draw of the season, after two straight loses; hopefully we will return to our winning ways: starting in New York.