Soccer News & Notes: 7/19/2007

Heinze remaining with United
Sir Alex Ferguson announced that Gabriel Heinze will not be moving to Liverpool this summer. Manchester United rejected a £6 million offer for the Argentine defender.

This is a smart move in my opinion. Not only has Gabby shown through his work in the Copa America that he is still a world class defender, but he also came through in several clutch situations for United at the end of the EPL season last year. There was a spell where Heinze was just about the only fit defender SAF had in the squad. If United is truly going to make a run at the UEFA Champions League, the FA Cup as they also defend their EPL Championship, they are going to need as many versatile players as possible. Keeping Heinze gives them a lot more depth in the defense.

Justin Moose goes under the knife.
DC United midfielder Justin Moose is recovering from Hernia surgery in Germany. He will be sidelined for about three weeks.

Hopefully this doesn't lead to more problems with the DC United bench. Yes Moose isn't one of the main players in the squad, but considering the number of matches that DC United will be playing over the next few weeks and our lack of depth, having a guy who would provide extra support out of action could be a problem. I hope he has a speedy recovery.

Chivas USA out of USOC
Chivas USA were bounced from the US Open Cup last night, 3-1 by the Seattle Sounders. The Sounders will face the Colorado Rapids in the next round of the tournament.

Are we seeing the first true signs of how MLS clubs just don't care about the USOC? According to the USOC website, out of a total 12* MLS clubs (yes I know that only eight took part in the fourth round) only three are left. If this type of result was seen in England, with only three EPL clubs remaining going into the Quarter Finals of the FA Cup, the press would be murdering the EPL and the clubs. I would say that we have pretty good odds that we will see a non-MLS club win the USOC for only the second time since MLS has been formed. Somebody explain to both Gulati and Garber that having the MLS clubs piss this tournament away is actually a bad thing.

* Edit - I changed this to say 12 as Toronto FC does not take part.

DC United out of USOC

DC United were dumped from the USOC last night by the Harrisburg City Islanders 1-0. I was constantly checking BigSoccer.com for updates on DC United's USOC match. As the match was not on TV and the radio feeds weren't the greatest, this was my only real way of following the match. United fell short of advancing in the tournament and I am a little bitter about this.

Yes I understand that considering the schedule that United is facing in the next month or two, having one less tournament to play in while we have league matches, SuperLiga matches and Copa Sudamericana matches might be a good thing, but there is still a part of me that says that we should have sent a better squad for this match. However, I truly think that this result brings up several other problems that are larger than DC United.

Sending a reserve squad to the USOC match should not have been a problem, as an MLS reserve squad should not have had any problem with a third division side. If the reserves aren't good enough to step in and show why they are in the United uniform and the City Islanders aren't, why even have them in the club? Common sense says that the first division side should have better players from top to bottom; but we found out last night that maybe common sense isn't always right.

I think that the biggest problem with this entire tournament is that we don't have the different groups all getting on the same page with the scheduling. USSF, MLS, USL, USL2, PDL and whomever else takes part in the tournament should, IMHO, be able to get together far in advance and schedule these matches out to ensure that each side gets the best chance at the match. If you look at other leagues around the world, the EPL being one of them, the FA and the EPL work together to ensure that the scheduling for the FA Cup matches do not fall at awkward times in the clubs schedules.

You don't have situations where Chelsea play a league match on a Thursday night, then another league match Sunday night, then an FA Cup match Tuesday night; just as the Houston Dynamo did this last week. The end result was the Thursday night match was the best of the three performances, the Sunday night match was a rather boring affair, and the Tuesday match had reserves. Why can't this be done here?

Is it too hard to schedule the USOC matches for the weekends? Before MLS even sits down and sets their schedule, they should be able to get the USOC schedule from the USSF and build the match days into the MLS schedule, so that USOC matches are not crammed inside of weeks where the clubs are resorting to sending nothing but reserves. Doing so would not only allow the MLS clubs to send their best sides, but they would still have the opportunity to get new guys into the matches, without having to use an entire B team.

One of the problems with the USOC is that really, nobody cares about it. It is a less than meaningful tournament that awards the winner a $100,000 cash prize. Well, the SuperLiga is going to award a $1,000,000 prize to the winner, so which tournament would you rather win if you were a club?

When I mean nobody cares about the USOC, I really mean that MLS doesn't care. The clubs really have no incentive to win the tournament until they reach the later stages. If the USSF actually gave their own tournament some other form of meaning, like maybe a higher cash purse or negotiated a spot in the InterLiga for the USOC champion, maybe the MLS clubs, the ones that the USSF needs to cater too, might care about the tournament.

Give the USOC some weight, something other than a trophy and a relatively small check. If the USSF does that, than the tournament could really be something and in turn, have some really good matches.

My Trip to Mexico.

I ended up having to spend the last week in Mexico City for work and while I was there, I was able to enjoy the World's game from a different point of view.

I spent part of Wednesday watching the UEFA Champions League Final with several Mexico's and other Latin Americans and I have to say, that wasn't that great a match. Liverpool looked the better of the two sides, but Milan was able to play a better second half than their first and that was all that mattered.

Later that night I sat in Papa Bill's Saloon drinking Sol and Dos Equies while watching America play on a very wet field against Santos in the Copa Libertadores. America sent it's Second team to Brasil because their First team are playing against Pachuca in the Apertura Finals tonight and Sunday. While I was still a little unsure why a club would send two separate teams to play in two separate tournaments, I watched America take a 1-0 lead into half time against Santos. That lead would soon evaporate as Santos came out firing on all cylinders and won the match 2-1 behind two great second half goals. I understand that winning the Apertura championship is the highest importance in America's plans, but I did not agree with sending what in all cases, was their second string side to play in a Quarter Finals of an international tournament.

The whole two teams issue got me thinking about MLS and how much of a chance it might be for MLS clubs to adopt that philosophy. While I was in Mexico City, it was announced that DC United will again take part in the Copa Sudamericana and again face off against Chivas de Guadalajara, the same club that knocked United out of the CONCACAF Champions Cup. With the Sudamericana taking place in September, right after the SuperLiga, and possibly during the US Open Cup run and the tail end of the MLS regular season, DC United will have several choices to make concerning player personnel. Considering that the MLS regular season and playoffs should be the club's primary focus, should United send an all reserve side into the US Open Cup? I say yes, and send the reserves into the first match.

The bigger question I saw was that as MLS grows and possibly gets involved in more and more international tournaments, will we see the type of two team commitment that I saw with America? I know that right now, several MLS clubs sort of do this when it comes to the US Open Cup, but will we see this with the SuperLiga? Sudamericana? I hope not. I honestly see no reason why a club would send a second side to take part in an international tournament. To me, it doesn't make sense. Sure, I understand sending some of the reserves, but an entirely different team? America didn't even send it's first team goalkeeper. I really hope that this practice is not adopted by MLS sides. Use reserves in the US Open Cup, but when MLS clubs take part in international tournaments, I want to see their best team sent out there.

All in all, being in Mexico with so much Soccer going on was really cool. Every TV channel pretty much had coverage of both the Champions League final and the upcoming Apertura championship with America and Pachuca. ESPN SportCenter lead off their show Wednesday night with the Champions League final, then had an update on the Apertura championship, then the Copa Libertadores match in Brasil, then the International friendly between Ecuador and Ireland, then they finally had coverage on the NBA playoffs. I couldn't understand a word of Spanish during the broadcast, but seeing so much soccer on ESPN, and leading off SportsCenter was great to see. I doubt that we will ever see that type of coverage in the State's, but a guy can dream, can't he?

US Open Cup: LA Galaxy to face Red Bull New York

The LA Galaxy knocked off the Columbus Crew 1-0 last night at Crew Stadium. Nate Jaqua had the only goal for LA.

The Galaxy will now host Red Bull New York in the second of the two final play in matches to get into the main tournament, date and time announced today. The other play in match will take place at Dick's Sporting Goods Park in Colorado as the Rapids host Real Salt Lake on May 23rd.

This is the first year that the USSF has had a qualifying round for MLS clubs, which I honestly think is a good thing for the tournament. Yes it is an "Open" tournament, but as most MLS clubs pass the USOC off until about the final match, adding the need to qualify might make it more of an interesting tournament.