America's Football 5.24.08: Issue #18: San Jose Upsets, Morrow Sacked, and Man United
Posted by Sean Garmer on 05.24.2008
San Jose shake up Houston, My Man United Story, and News all inside.
Hello everyone, MLS started their week a day early with Toronto taking on DC United. Their first of two meetings this week, but I'll go ahead and tell you that Toronto won 1-0 on an early squeaker by Danny Dichio. That of course, has caused DC to be 0-5-0 on the road this season, and that's pretty awful. Hey, at least Fred came back. Houston took on San Jose Thursday night, I'll have a breakdown of that, and of course some important league news, and thoughts on the Champions League Final from Wednesday. So again, get ready for more America's Football…
The Streak Ends at 2
The crowd was ready to cheer on their team at Buck Shaw Stadium, unbeknownst to them that San Jose would outperform the defending champions on this night. Most Houston fans that didn't watch this game thinking they should win without a problem were very wrong. San Jose dominated most of the game, with Ryan Johnson being a nuisance up front the entire time. Ned Grabavoy and Ramiro Corrales had their best games of the season (they play as the two holding midfielders) didn't let much by them, Joe Cannon stopped the late flurry near the end of the first half for Houston. The key though was Ronnie O' Brien, the Irishman, was everywhere in this game, sending in the correct passes, crossing the ball in from the right to Johnson. Kei Kamara may have got the nice goal that started with O' Brien's volley, flicked on in the box by Grabavoy, it falls to Kamara for the decent finish, but he was quiet for the most part. Houston had one bright spot in Franco Carracio. The Argentine was able to work in the space given and created some dangerous chances. That's why I was confused when Dominic Kinnear made the change to replace him with Kyle Brown. As they looked void of offense after that, then the goal happened, and Houston still couldn't get through the organized San Jose defense. The 2nd goal came in the 81st minute, when Brian Ching decided to take a throw-in and pass it back to the defense, no one on the Dynamo squad was paying attention. Ivan Guerrero, who constantly was seen getting forward from the left and creating problems for Wade Barrett, took the ball. He passed it to Johnson, Onstad blocks, but Guerrero was there for the rebound. That pretty much summed up the night for Houston, kinda clueless. Kinnear did make a good change after that replacing Stuart Holden for Brad Davis, as he gave them some offensive life, but that's mainly because San Jose started just defending. Houston did pull one back thanks to a nice cross from the aforementioned Davis, and a header by Ching.
San Jose got a deserved win, this is the first time I've seen Ryan Johnson play, maybe this will mean he starts from now on for them. This should teach Kinnear that he needs to stick with players that are making an impact, and Carracio is proving useful for Houston this season. San Jose did a good job in keeping DeRosario out of the game and most of the time it means Houston won't have a good day when that happens. Another nice thing to see, was Buck Shaw Stadium filled with those fans, and students from Santa Clara rocking the house, making noise the whole game. Who said it would be a shame for the Earthquakes to play there? It may be small but it provides a great atmosphere for that team.
One more thing, San Jose made a trade with Colorado this week, giving away backup Keeper Preston Burpo and a draft pick for former LA Galaxy player Kelly Gray and Jovan Kirovski. Gray played well last year for the Galaxy and can play in different positions in the midfield. Kirovski hasn't worked out well in Colorado, but maybe he can get a revival in San Jose where he might get more chances to play.
MLS News
FC Dallas sacks Steve Morrow
Maybe, it was because I was talking to my girlfriend for most of the game because she was having a problem at work. Maybe because I was so disappointed in the players on the field, that it didn't even cross my mind that this could happen. After reading our GM Michael Hitchcock's thoughts on the event, I can understand why he did this. Let's face it, Pizza Hut Park is in a nice place, but it is not in Dallas, it is in a suburb North of Dallas called Frisco, which from Dallas can seem like an eternity to get to. In addition, since it is not in Dallas, the large Mexican contingent probably isn't going to travel a lot to go to the games. The point is that the place doesn't sell out much, and they had a sell out for this game, and to see the squad get destroyed by the Galaxy 5-1 doesn't leave any possible casual fans with a good impression. The team didn't even put up a fight, and I think that's what sold Hitchcock and the Hunt family on sacking him. Steve Morrow's record at home has slipped since he was hired. FC Dallas was 12-3-1 at home in 2006 (before him), and then we slipped to 7-5-3 last year, then this year we are 1-2-1 so far. Dallas is also winless in their last four games. To be fair, I felt he should have been given until the end of the home stand against Houston next Wednesday, but this is the situation as it stands. Marco Ferruzzi takes over as interim manager for the time being until they find a replacement. As I've said many times in the past this team is uber-talented, they should be doing better than they are. Steve Morrow collected the talent but I feel that he never got them to play as a team. Granted there is a big cog that I should throw in there. Juan Toja has been hurt since after the first game this year, and he didn't have Kenny Cooper for most of last year, he also had to adjust to changing his team around after letting go of Carlos Ruiz.
To be fair he hasn't had the whole squad together to allow them to mesh, but they've brought a lot of talent in here (Denilson with the exception) that as individuals play terrific, that have pace, can perform spectacular moves, and do great things on the ball. He also brought in Serioux and Davino to play in defense and those were both really good signings. Some of this I can't really explain, it comes down to the squad needs time to learn how to play together and to not slide defensively. I just hope Ferruzzi can turn the ship around and get the team back on track, because it is sad seeing this group of players go out on the field, only to see them under-perform or be outclassed, when they shouldn't be. Kenny Cooper has been great this season, so has Andre Rocha, Davino is slowly getting used to the league, and Dax McCarty is Juan Toja from last year. Everyone else it just saddens me, I hope that when I see the team tonight against RSL the do better than they have recently.
Ok, I know this is three days removed from the event, but I want to talk about the Champions League Final. Before that, I wanted to tell the story of how I became a Man United fan. So, this concludes my actual MLS part of the column, if you've taken all the Champions League talk you can handle, go ahead and stop reading. However, if there is any bit of intrigue keep reading.
The Beginning of Fandom
I'm going to start out with a little story before I get to the game. I read Wilcox's "One Night in Moscow", and that was just majestic writing. I'm just here to give my take on the game, from a fan's perspective that doesn't live in England (I've been there before,) but loves the team, and at the same time can see both sides of the situation. Here's my story first.
I've been very lucky to see both of the teams (Dallas excluded here) that I supported as a child (just because those were the teams that always seemed to be on TV when I watched, but I wasn't really interested in club football back then, I was pretty much someone that watched national teams) win consecutive Champions League trophies. (Barcelona in 2006 and AC Milan in 2007, sadly Barca couldn't win the World Club Championship that year though, and yes I care about that competition.) Anyway, I went to England on the way back from a trip to Italy in 2005. I was in a hotel, and in that hotel, they had a bar of sorts. I was 18 at the time, so I knew in the US I would have been considered under age, but I went in their intrigued by the game that was going on. There were a bunch of Man United fans there, and I just went up to them and asked them who's playing? One of them said "Well, Manchester United of course" I'd never seen a Champions League game before (because my Dad doesn't understand the sport so pretty much I only watched World Cups and national team games from any team.) Seriously, I think I watched China vs. Albania one night. I knew what the Premier League was, and some of the teams, but I had no idea who played on what team. So, I sat down with the United fans and watched the game. I asked them a bunch of newbie questions about the history of the two teams and things like that. Then I recognized some of the players like Rooney, Ronaldo, Saha, Rio Ferdinand, from all those national team games, and Euro 2004 that I watched. For some reason back then they liked to show a lot of the England games (so that's why I'm kinda partial to England when they play someone that's not the USA or South America) so I'd seen many of the players on Man United, so I found myself cheering for that red team. It didn't help that once those fans knew I didn't have a team to support, they kept telling me I should be a Man United supporter. So I went back into my hotel room and started doing some research (My first inclination was to go with Arsenal because they played pretty football.) I went and looked at the history of a bunch of teams in the Premier League. Then I looked at Man United, saw they were owned by an American (that helped), but I wasn't too sold on the nickname, "Red Devils" (due to me being raised in church) (I actually didn't start going to church again until about a year and a half ago, it was too late by then).
So as I'm heading to the London airport, I made some small talk with our tour guide and asked him if he watched the Prem. I was like I wanna start watching it and I don't know which club to go with? So I asked him where he was from? And he said, "I'm from Manchester." So I said, what do you think of United. "He said, I watch them every week, and I have since I was youngster. For some reason he started singing "Glory Man United, " (I still to this day don't know why, My dad was freaking out cause he thought we were going to die in a car crash). When I got out of the car, he showed me a picture of him at a game, and then a picture he had a friend take of Old Trafford. I couldn't stop staring at the picture. My Dad said to me, "Sean, you just got done seeing the Vatican, Coliseum, and the Pantheon, and you are starting at a picture of a stupid Soccer Stadium harder than you did at any of those sites." I just couldn't get over how I wished I could come back one day and sit in the stands at the stadium. So I told the driver thank you, and that I was now going to be a life long United fan. Yeah, I'm still hoping one day to go to Manchester and be able to watch a game at Old Trafford, but what's more important, is that thanks to watching a bunch of United games, it got me diehard into club football. I pretty much always watched MLS, but that's because I always got to go to FC Dallas (then, Dallas Burn games). But soon I was back feeling like a kid watching Ronaldinho take Barcelona to win La Liga, like I had when I was younger. Hating the sight of Inter Milan, as the Rossoneri took the field, and my favorite player of all-time, Paolo Maldini defended with so much class. I really didn't get to watch the Prem until last season, and I was happy United won the league, but because I didn't get to see a lot of the games, it wasn't the euphoria I felt this season. I watched every Man United game, and most Barca and Milan games this season. I was extremely happy seeing Milan win the CL last season. However, seeing Man United win the league made me even more excited. So since that day, I had been waiting for Wednesday afternoon in so much anticipation.
A Dramatic Evening
It was really a tale of two halves. It started out tight, but United were on the move, and thoughts started to roll in Avram Grant's head. To be fair he had played Michael Essien at right back for most of the season, so why do anything different in this game? Well Ronaldo proved maybe why he should have stuck an actual Right Back on him. Especially considering that Paolo Ferreira plays with him on the Portugal team, he has to know a little bit about defending him. Ronaldo burned Essien quite a few times on the left side. Actually a smart move by Alex Ferguson keeping him away from Ashley Cole (who had a very good game himself), considering that Hargreaves isn't too shabby on that right side. None of that shown more brightly than in the 26th minute when Ronaldo scored that header over a frozen Essien, I was completely ecstatic when that ball went in the net. Tevez would have a few more cracks at goal thanks to passes from Ronaldo and Rooney. The Header by Tevez was a marvelous block by Peter Cech, and then he did a nice job to parry the rebound shot from Carrick too. However, it was the aforementioned Essien that proved maybe why he should have played in another position that day. Essien on one of his trademark runs up the park near the end of the half went darting through the middle, he took a shot it took two deflections, one off the back of Rio Ferdinand, and onto the foot of Frank Lampard who put it in the net. Lampard gets a lot of crap from the English Media, sure that goal was mostly luck, but he still scored a vital goal for his team in the most important game of the season for them.
In the 2nd half, it was pretty much all Chelsea, Essien started making more runs forward. Ashley Cole went forward, John Terry defended balls to the wall, and that header from Terry in Extra Time, that put the ball over the net from that shot by Giggs was nifty. The problem for Chelsea was that the key positions failed them. Malouda was kept in check by a great performance by Wes Brown. Joe Cole was absent, worrying more about missed calls (to be fair the referee did take away two clear corners and possibly a penalty from them) than looking for the ball. Ballack was more interested in shooting from distance for no reason, than passing. Then there's Drogba who except for his one shot that hit the post in the 78th minute, was totally absent from the game. Talk about having someone in your pocket, Rio Ferdinand and Vidic showed what World Class Defenders they really are. Taking away Chelsea's main offensive threat (sure the pitch was bad, and Drogba fell quite a few times but so did many others) Ferdinand and Vidic also had key stops that prevented one on one breaks against Van Der Sar.
So we go to Extra Time and I'm nervous as hell, having thought the whole time before the game it would end up like this, but secretly hoping it wouldn't. It was pretty even between the two teams and I think most knew it would go to penalties, but not without its issues. So after a dispute between Tevez and Terry over putting the ball out, other players get involved and a fracas insues, Didier Drogba shows the same class that he's shown all season since Grant has been in charge, that's none actually. He gives Vidic one of the stupidest slaps you'll ever see, but he does it right in front of the Ref and gets a very deserved red card. He possibly screwed his team, as he would have taken a penalty, but in the end, the players that were left on the field should have gotten the job done.
Before the penalties even started I was hoping Ronaldo would go first so he could miss and then we would have four cracks at stopping one from Chelsea. However, Tevez and Carrick go first, then Ronaldo. Just as I was thinking the whole time he missed it, because he thinks too much, it was so obvious he was going to stop. At this point, I'm a nervous wreck watching Van Der Sar almost block Ashley Cole's attempt. Nani puts his in, though I thought it may have been blocked. Then John Terry steps up, and I'm thinking oh God I can see the headlines now, oh no. I was feeling despair prepared for it to go in the net. I just started praying, and then Terry missed, I was happy, but at the same time I felt gutted for Terry because he probably felt like the momentum was going to shift now, and that it did. Anderson, Kalou, and Giggs all made theirs. Anelka comes up, and I'm thinking the only person that has come up that doesn't really care about this team, what it stands for or anything, I wouldn't be surprised if he missed. Van Der Sar saves, I'm jumping up and down, I can't believe it. I sent texts to all my friends (Most who had no care in the world about the match). The elation was crazy, but as I saw John Terry crying on the pitch, my heart went out to him because that has to be such a shatter to your psyche to know you missed the penalty that would have the team, which you are the captain of, win the Champions League.
I was happy that Giggs and Scholes could now virtually retire if they wanted to, and that Ronaldo's season still meant the same before this game started, and I was happy for Fergie too. All I can say is that it was one hell of a game, the Chelsea fans have nothing to be ashamed of, and yes Essien maybe shouldn't have played at Right Back, but I think Avram Grant should be commended for the job he's done. He should be at least offered a chance at returning next season. I'm sure there will be players that will leave, I don't know if I could think of the team in the same way if Lampard doesn't return, he and Terry are Mr. Chelsea. Drogba needs to go, really he does, I really hope he doesn't go to Milan because that means I have to cheer for the self-centered player. He's a great footballer, just classless. I wouldn't be surprised if Anelka left or Malouda for that matter. However, getting back to the game, it was great, I was very happy with how ESPN treated it as a big deal. They dedicated the first ten minutes of Sportscenter to it, like it was the Superbowl or something. Man United won, that is wonderful, we have another double. The best part of all is, the game was way better than expected.
Bring on the Euro's, they start Saturday, June 7th by the way.
Well, that is all until Tuesday, when I'll be back with more stuff about MLS and national team news. I'm excited about the game at Wembley, so I may have a review for that next week too. Until then, enjoy the games. Later everyone.
