While that is very true, the whole league is full of flawed teams, our situation may be a little more extreme. On the starting 11, there is probably a bigger skill gap between the three best players and the the three worst players, than on some other clubs. I think we need to accept that ultimately the success of this year's team will largely depend on one or two relative unknowns making a breakthrough, or some marginal player (Alan Gordon, for example) having a career year.
You know how when you see a movie you have an initial opinion about it after it's done and then over the next several days it either gets better or worse in your head as you dwell over it? Well, this game is just getting better and better in my head as I think of it. I think if you add Ruiz to this line up and find the right pair of midfielders (and it could maybe ultimately be Tudela and Randolph) to pair with Pires, that is a pretty effective line up to take into matches on the road. We've been just plain aweful on the road for sometime now and even though we strung some fortunate results together last year on the road at the end, can anyone remember a road game not against Chivas (and even against them it hasn't been great) in which we created so many opportunities? I can't. I'm on board with Ruud now. I like what he's trying to do and I feel like he's got a realistic view of the talent at his disposal and he's willing to work with it. I'm not sure he understands the league yet but that will come with time and I feel he's approaching it well. Really, I'm very excited.
As an african american male, I was not attempting backhanded racism. I was stating a fact that most long time posters know that I have a history of calling good old Abbey out! And as to shipping him back to where he came from, whether it the USL, AYSO or wherever, that is all I was stating, it seems like someone is hypersensitive. As I said years ago, a trained monkey is better in the center than Okalaja. The man has no control or consistency. Go back to our glorious year of our last championship. Back to a May home game against Colorado where this buffoon (notice the spelling) called 3 PKs that weren't there and the game was a travesty. Or shall I go back to Sept 29, 2005 or was it 24, where his imprint on the game cost the Galaxy points and it was such a pitiful game except for my son and his Fire "The Name That Should Never Be Said" confrontation with that former coach leaving HDC in the parking lot. I'll never forget the pride in my then 4 year old son that day. Reality, Okalaja is the worse official in MLS and needs to be made a 4th official, nothing more. Otherwise, ship him back down to the lower depths of USOC soccer for retraining. Now if I were you, I'd stick to newby status and stop reading into people's posts. Maybe I made a bad choice of words in your opinion, but get some thick skin already! Give me a break.
You know, now that I think of it, it really wouldn't take very much for Alan Gordon to have a "career year." And it wouldn't be enough to help us very much either.
My bad. Your use of a couple of phrases I've heard racists use over the years and your vehement dislike of Okalaja threw me off track. Glad to hear I misinterpreted you. And to be clear - I'm not at all a fan of "political correctness." I have little patience with actual racists, but I think people being truthful is much better than hiding what they mean behind politically correct terminology. Just a misread on my part in this case. PS - Not so sure the newbie charge is fair - I was reading and posting on bigsoccer 6 years before your join date!
Does anybody know if this game is going to be rebroadcast anywhere? I totally spaced watching it on the website!
Re: power couple ...and I suspect you've been drinking too much of the first part of your screen name.....Kenny Cooper is the all time leading goalscorer to minutes played in the history of the USA national team....
Re: power couple Talk about a statistic that means nothing. Come on Mike! I like Kenny's game as much as you do and I think he'll be a fine player for his country some day if he can manage to stay healthy but let's be careful how we tout young Coop's true ability here. Using that statistic then KC, EJ and Jovan Kirovski are the best attacking players in the last ten years of US soccer. As far as TequilaJoal goes, you don't need to state the obvious. We try to keep him on his meds as much as possible but by and large he doesn't have anything nice to say about any of our players either. BTW, I saw you play in the old NASL days. It was nice to see you start posting here a few years ago. If you ever make it out to to the Home Depot Center I'd love to say hi and buy you a beer. Let us know if you come west.
Re: power couple I think it was TJ that once said -no matter what happens, I intend to complain about it- or something along those lines. you just gotta keep that in mind with TJ. no matter what happens, he's gonna complain.