Here are a few. As with first impressions on a date, they may be right or wrong. 1. If the new ball is designed for greater distance on keeper clearances (note the ad with Zach Thornton), why isn't it showing up in the games? In LA/Col last week they couldn't get it past midfield, and other than Meola it was much the same yesterday. Not to mention more shanks than I've seen in awhile. 2. Did someone say the Quakes would be in trouble with Brian Ching? His performance yesterday was incredible. For those of you who watch the Mexican League, he looks like a budding "Pepe" Cardoso. Not fast, but always moving off the ball, unhesitating in front of net and learning the subtle art of the glancing header. 3. Something is horribly wrong with Nick Rimando. If he turns in even a mediocre performance, DC wins the match. 4. The Dallas front line of Kreis/Rhine is utterly useless (other than for wall passes). Did they even have a shot on goal between them? If the Burn rely entirely on their midfield to score goals, it'll be a long season at the Dragon. And then, when they need a goal, Jeffries takes off their biggest threat (Ronnie O'Brien) and puts on D-mid Jordan Stone. Huh? 5. The bite has gone out of the vaunted LA defense. Did Lalas, Marshall or Califf even pick up a card yesterday? They were squeaky clean compared to what I remember. And not as effective. 6. Brian Dunivant of SJ deserves an adjective rarely given to defenders--smooth. I can't believe how smooth and composed he was playing out of the back in his first pro game. Channeling Laurent Blanc or something. And also very effective getting into attack. 7. I seem to recall Colorado playing about 40 mins of the second half last night with the following players on the field and still being unable to equalize at home against an unfancied SJ side: Spencer, Carrieri, Zizi Roberts, Casey Schmidt, Chung, Henderson, Hart. That looks to me like four strikers, two attacking midfielders and an attack-minded wing defender, and they barely troubled Onstad's net after minute 46. And the Quakes were even without Donovan in the second half. 8. How can anyone say that fake turf doesn't change the game when the players are so hesitant to slide tackle? That totally changes the game--it looks like basketball out there with so much posting up and hand-checking. 9. Etcheverry is back. At least for now. 10. Jon Busch is very, very good. 11. Fox Sports Espanol has got to talk to these guys about knocking the American game all the time. I was curious to hear what they'd be like, and it was more of the Norberto Longo crap on the KC/DC match. "Small crowd", "little by little they're learning from Europe and Latin America", etc. So I switched over to the Shootout broadcast with Rongen and Sham. Amazing that KC/DC was available on THREE channels at once with three different broadcast teams--FSW, FSE, Shootout. That has to be some sort of record, and a positive sign about soccer in America.
Concur. Ching was outstanding yesterday, causing all sorts of trouble for the Rapids back line. He's a lot bigger than I remember him. Might make a great pairing with Donovan before all is said and done. Only saw the one mistake by Rimando, but it cost them the game in OT. A huge gaffe. I know they put up "Brian Dunivant" for MOTM at the end of the telecast, but it's "Todd" Dunivant. And yes, he WAS smooth yesterday. First I've seen of him. He surprised me, especially given what I'd heard on the boards beforehand. I guess the Rapids may miss Carlos more than some people thought, at least initially. Don't get FSWE but sorry to hear this. It always depresses me when the Spanish announcers are exceedingly negative about our little MLS. Hopefully the audience has brains for themselves and can figure out on their own what's up and what's down.
2) Not quite Man of the Match material, but more solid than I expected. However, that could be related to your point #7: The Rapids were way flat for much of the game. 3) I'm not sure what was worse, that first goal where it looked like he was starting to go to the sidelines for a drink of water, only to be interrupted by that shot, or the third, which I thought he could've punched away. 6) Great first match. Looked like he'd been doing this professionally for years. 8) Good point. 10) I first realized that when I saw him play for Hershey in the A-League. I thought he'd never make it any higher because of his height. I was wrong. I would just add that I liked watching the Metrostars/Crew match because of the announcers. They were obvious homers for the Crew (which is fine, since they work out of Columbus), but I liked how they were getting into the match. Just before the winner was scored, the Crew were getting too cute in the box, and the PBP guy yelled out, "WILL SOMEONE SHOOT!" I'd rather have a fan who plays favorites in the booth than someone who doesn't care about the game any day.
Yes, you're right--it's Todd Dunivant. That's what I thought, but when they posted it as "Brian", I began to question my recall. Now to see what the Revs and Fire have in store for us. Up here in Little Rhody, FSNE is delaying the game till 830, but on good ol' Shootout, it'll be live.
Let me just say that for anyone who thought D.C. United would be this year's cellar dweller team, you are wrong. They will struggle early, no doubt. But once all the pieces get healthy and off suspension United will start to roll. This is a team that almost beat KC at Arrowhead Stadium without Reyes, Stoitchkov, Ivanov just to name a few. United will not suck this year.
The turf ,the team colors and the new box goals in Giant stadium looked good. Other NFL stadiums should use the same goals. KC DC game on FSW was zoomed out too far. The play did not look good for some teams. especially after the big loses with Mexican teams last week. I hope it gets better.
Ching looked good, but he was helped by Hankinson's bizzare decision to start Herdsman and Crawford on the right side. Considering Crawford spent next to no time in defense in preseason, it's no wonder he was lost. As to the second half, you must have missed the save at the right post off of Henderson, the miss by Roberts that just barely ended up in the side netting, and the blindingly obvious PK call that the ref missed when Waibel took down Roberts in the box. We still didn't deserve to draw or win that game though. Oh and Hart didn't appear to have the skills to be an offensive-minded defender. And Carrieri went off midway through the second.
I was actually considering breaking out the binoculars on that one. Say, am I remembering the third KC goal correctly? What did Rimando do on that one?
Cross by Wolff. Rimando flailed at it with an open hand rather than punching it with a closed fist. It was something from Goalkeeping 101. It smacked his hand, and the ball was deadened--falling at the feet of Brown a couple steps away, who knocked it in. Rimando easily reached the ball, but then simply used poor technique once he got there. I think the announcers said something like, "Why was he trying to make a one-handed catch?" That, added to his horrible screw-up on the first Preki goal, made for a rough and atypical night. Someone said he was coming off injury, but he had no trouble reacting to or reaching either shot. The first one (Preki) he read totally wrong, moving out of the way when it was hit right at him (trying to be supportive, Rongen said there might've been a deflection--there wasn't one that I could see). On the second, he decided to play volleyball. I think there were some other instances when he looked uncomfortable in goal, unsure of himself, which is not the Nick Rimando we've grown accustomed to.
Thanks. I remember it now. I was closer than I thought. When I typed my initial comment, I was thinking of the Columbus knee-ball that beat the Metrostars, which Howard might've been able to cut out. One of the nice problems of having Shootout: you see so many games, parts of them blur together... Rongen said there was a deflection? That was nice of him.
Since I really don't care who wins MLS, and watch really to see the development of the US player my key themes for every season is: 1- Level of Play= for now the games have been entertaining w/ good level of play. Not great, but not horrible either... for the 2 games i've seen this season, the MLS level of play is way up since the last two seasons where the games were just a bore.... The indivdual teams from what I've seen move the ball really well. The Crew, LA, and The Burn, have nice ball movement and set up really nice plays.. The Metro"stars" off the bat I can tell you got NOTHING this season.. As individuals, Howard, Magee, maybe Mathis, got some power but as an overall team... nothing, I was kinda drunk at a friends house watching their opener, but still this team STILL 8 yrs later can't put 4 passes together!!!! 2- New players= In the games I've seen a couple of new kids are standing out.. Buddle and the metro"stars" Magee... Both got the makings of really being good players.... 2 kids 18 or so, playing very good at the same time is a nice sign.. Hopefully these kids won't be ignored, because everyone wants to see what Landon Donovan dose. 3- Fans= There turning out in big numbers... Hopefully the intrest stays the rest of the season... If The Crew, LA, DC and NE do well this season MLS should have big numbers.. NY/ NJ need to get on the ball fast, New Logo, new field, same results.... NOT HELPING! Overall not a bad start for MLS... Am intrested in what happens this season.. Better than 2001 0r 2002 where I couldn't watch a game.... This season has the makings of a good one!
I actually liked that wider camera angle. It was much easier to see plays developing and follow what was happening off the ball. Much better than that really close-up camera work in the espn2 broadcasts that always results in an annoying herky-jerky picture, especially on shots on goal. There's certainly a middle ground - as we can tell by watching most of the foreign-produced feeds on FSW or FSE (or even the CL on espn2). But if we have to choose between too far and too close, I definitely prefer too far. ... I also disagree about the FSE announcers. They were indeed critical about several matters, but it was nothing even remotely approaching Norberto's interminable whining. They were particularly critical of the ref, Kevin Terry, but I think he was really awful. If anything, the way that they criticized Terry was a refreshing change. We're usually left with either no criticism of terrible officiating (e.g., Ty's silence) or preposterous wholesale condemnations of American soccer (e.g., Norberto's screeds). They also spent what I thought was way too much time discussing how much success the US nat'l team has had recently, recounting the success of DC United early in MLS, praising Bruce Arena, etc. Most people watching FSE in the US probably already know all that, but maybe it's useful if Fox is going to show this game in some other Latin American markets. All in all, I thought they were very balanced and treated this game much as they would had it been from any other league on FSE.
I thought Bretos and Hopkins (FSW) were outstanding together and it was a treat listening to an MLS game with them at the helm. They had a really good time doing the game (Hopkins: It looks like long hair is back in sttle in MLS., Bretos: I do the games from Argnetina every week, this is nothing.), and knew what they were talking about. It's also nice that thye somewhat ditched the traditional play by play/color-man setup for a more dynamic setup where when one of them had something to say, they took over the play by play at the same time. The effect led to a more streamlined call of the action. In general however, it did seem the default setup was Bretos = play by play, Hopkins = Color commentary. I'm looking forward to hearing more MLS games called by them. The Quakes broadcasting crew however...
Oh yeah, the Quakes broadcasting crew needs to go back to the library and do some research before they call another game. Mistake on top of mistake in their "facts" last night. Tow that I can remember off the top of my head: At kickoff: "And the last two teams to get their season started get the ball moving." Umm, Chicago? New England? Talking about Carrieri: "The team doesn't have a hat trick in their history, they trade for Carrieri, and boom, he gets one on the 4th of July" How about 4th of July 2001? Spencer puts in 3 against DC United?
As a Burn and a National team fan, I thought the 3 Burn substitutes were very indicative of a bright future. All three substitutes were young Americans. Considering the game was tied, I could never imagine bringing in so many young Americans. Not only did E. Johnson, Jordan Stone and Brad Davis play competently, but in the case of Stone I saw some real talent. In the last few years the league has focused on signing young talent, I think that strategy is starting to bear some real quality.
Loved the zoomed out camera for FSW. Gives the feel of their Euro games, and actually makes the play look better because you can actually view intent of the play and development. KC/DC game was very good. Lot of good attacking and speed of play was very high.
on the other hand, i saw some miserable soccer. the Metros, as another poster said, were downright ugly, except for Mathis' blast which Busch made a great save on. Bradley has a lot of work to do. and while Magee showed flashes, he made some truly simple-minded decisions. he's still quite raw. also, and of course this doesn't really need to be said, the sooner we lose those two high school/community college stadiums, the better. the game tonight between the Fire and Revs was pretty bad, despite a nice 20 minute burst of action in the 1st half. the players look miserable trying to play on not only a small field, but with turf taken from someone's toupee.
Re: Re: First Impressions of MLS '03 (R) Hmmmm...I thought I heard them say they said that the Quakes have never had a player with a hat trick, and thus it was a tad frustrating for them to trade away Carrieri, only to have him get hat trick for the Rapids relatively soon thereafter.
"We're usually left with either no criticism of terrible officiating (e.g., Ty's silence) or preposterous wholesale condemnations of American soccer (e.g., Norberto's screeds)." oh please! You are making Norberto Longo seem like a u.s soccer hater. He has only criticised the refs, and sometimes the quality of the mls. most soccer newbies think he is out of line but if you listen to him he will explain the rules, and explain the mistakes that refs do in games. Ty and others don't do that so americans get the sense that american refs are great and when someone exposes deficiency (Longo) they call him a u.s soccer hater.
Except that for much of the first half, it looked like someone had soaped up the camera lens. Bretos and Hopkins were having a heck of a time identifying *anybody*. Later, COZ
Re: Re: Re: First Impressions of MLS '03 (R) Ah, that would make more sense. If that was what was said I apologize for critizing them on that point.
I couldn't even watch FSW as it was too fuzzy. It was like watching colored sticks running around- I couldn't tell the players apart. I got the exact same camera feed from from the DC Comcast Sports Net broadcast and it was SO much clearer. Hopefully it gets better- I was hoping to avoid buying the shootout, but if FSW looks like this all season, I might have to buy it.