Urawa Reds 2, Nagoya Grampus 1 at Nagoya. I knew you all were waiting with bated breath for those J-League results.
Yeah, that 0-1 to Shimizu hurts. It wasn't broadcast and there was no stream so I'll have to watch the highlights at 9:00.
Yeah - at first I thought it was a clear PK, but after watching it again a couple of times, I think Donovan definitely embellished and perhaps even initiated a lot of the contact. But still, Benitez went in with his shoulder in Donovan's back and I think a PK was the right call. I loved that Keane took the PK and missed it! Too bad that RSL managed a stoppage time win tonight, and that Seattle managed to win. It would have been nice to put some distance between the Quakes and those two teams. Hopefully the LA/Dallas match ends in a draw, or an LA loss (I know a draw is better in general when two teams from the West play, but I have to say the longer LA stays on the bottom half of the table, the happier I'll be.)
And LA gets the draw with a stoppage time goal. Good for the Quakes, as neither Dallas or LA get 3 points.
I believe ya. It's really weird how some things get on and others don't. Next time, clue me in to the stream carrying FC Tokyo. This is their area.
Hmm sounds familiar.. If anyone has noticed, we have two games in hand on RSL which is great, but Seattle has two games in hand on us. They are off of people's radar right now because they've only played six games, but they are nipping at our heels ( or insert your favorite metaphor). We have to keep grabbing points!
Yeah - Seattle has had an interesting schedule so far, playing only 6 games and only 2 road games. It's been very beneficial to them as they had a number of guys injured who are now getting healthy. They were pretty lucky to get the win yesterday - they needed an own goal to do so. The game was pretty sloppy with the weather, and so it was hard to tell how well Seattle is playing at this point. We'll learn a lot about them in the next 4 weeks, when they play 7 games, including games against RSL, Vancouver and LA. Colorado saw the return of Conor Casey, although only for a couple of minutes. More interesting, it looks like they changed to a 4-4-2 formation this past game, according to an article on the MLS site. It will be interesting to see if Pareja is already giving up on them playing the 4-3-3 formation that he wanted to change them to. The Quakes just need to keep playing hard and getting as many points from every game as they can. I like that they are not settling for draws, either on the road or at home.
I am still hoping for a top 4 finish in the West. Seattle and RSL will probably be there, and either LA or Dallas. We need to keep firing on all cylinders to stay with the pack.
I think we are better than both LA and Dallas. RSL will be there. I also think Vancouver will be. Seattle I'm not so sure.
When the quakes played Seattle, they were poor. SJ dominated the first half and then let Seattle have all the ball they wanted in the second. In those two halves, Seattle showed that their soccer is inferior to the Quakes and also that they are as capable of digging out a result when given the chance. Maybe they are a different animal when at full strength, but they don't inspire much confidence. Barring an injury crisis, I think the Quakes are on course for a playoff spot with RSL. Outside of Portland and Chivas, I'd be hard pressed to guess who shouldn't be in the running come the tail end of the season. Rapids and Vancouver haven't looked any worse than LA.
Seattle has been playing without Rosales for most of their games so far, and Fernandez has been in and out. That definitely hurts their offense, but it's still surprising how poor they have looked offensively. Montero is in one of his periodic ruts where he just doesn't look very good, and while Eddie Johnson scored basically a tap-in goal yesterday, he has a long way to go to show that he'll really help them. Seattle is kind of like LA in that, ON PAPER, they have pretty much everyone back from last year and they hope to be adding in Zakuani at some point, and also hope that Eddie Johnson might be an improvement over what they had last year. They didn't lose any key players (unless you consider James Riley key), so people expected them to pick up where they left off last year. But sometimes it's hard for the same team to repeat at the same level, even without changes. It will be interesting to see if Seattle or LA get back to their form of last year. As for RSL, while they have a good record, they haven't been dominating teams like they did in the past. They barely beat Montreal and Toronto in Salt Lake, and lucked out in their win over Portland as well. They've had some injuries as well, but they don't look like the same team from the past either. Maybe guys being one year older and/or complacent is starting to take its toll on some of these teams. Vancouver is the interesting one, they're playing so much better than they did last year and getting results that it's tempting to think they'll keep it going. But I remain skeptical - their 4 wins are against 3 poor teams (Chivas, Montreal, and Columbus) and one team playing pretty poorly right now (Dallas). They did mange to tie DC United and Philly, but DC United didn't have Chris Pontius playing at that time and was not playing very well. In the two games against good teams (KC and SJ) Vancouver lost. It's hard to think of them as a top 4-5 team until they start beating or getting draws against the stronger teams in the West. Having said that, they should get better in the midfield in the summer when Barry Robson joins them. So they could end up being one of the top teams in the West. Right now Portland is playing poorly, but they have some good players and might turn things around. To me the only team in the West that just doesn't look very good or have potential is Chivas. Having said that, if Angel goes on a scoring tear for them now that he's back, it could help Chivas get into the mix as well.
Check the Sounders/Scum score from tonight's match... All kinds of glitches and crap going on with this new look. Not liking not having a My Bigsoccer tab to go to.
Seattle has been getting results so far this year without looking very good. But last night it sounds like they played well - I haven't watched their match, but it sounds like they created a lot of scoring chances. Of course, they were playing against half of LA's second team, and LA's defense has been poor even with all of their starters on the field, so it's hard to judge. Even though it doesn't seem like his goals have been great strikes, Eddie Johnson now has two goals for them and Montero finally scored, and they have Rosales back, so their offense is going to be gaining confidence. And while they've had a big portion of home games and also played several of the weaker offensive teams, they have only given up 3 goals in 7 games, which is impressive.