You are manager of a young but struggling football franchise. You have a strong fanbase which identifies strongly with the team's slogan "all for one".

After farting around for an entire off-season, you suddenly realise your team is so crap that ther is a possibility you may not win a game all season.

Despite the fact that team solidarity and unity is one of the few things you have going for you, you sign L. Robert and E. Guevara.

How long until you lose your job?

The 2-1 result was a bit flattering to DC as they really played pretty shit for all but the final 15 minutes. Some random thoughts:

-Pachuca should have been up 1-0 way before they were (some terrible finishing in good situations).
-The first 45 minutes was actually some of the worst professional soccer I've seen in person. Mis-hit passes, crosses that never made it past the first defender, headers that went nowhere.
-Luciano Emilio had a good chance in the 1st half that he touched wide which might have changed the game.
-Gallardo looked decent - comfortable on the ball, good instincts & vision - but is just not in sync with anybody else on DC. He got careless as DC got more desperate.
-The starting left-back (didn't catch the line-ups and can't be bothered now) for DC had an atrocious match. He should have been sent off pretty early for some horribly timed tackles from behind.
-The ref was a just so-so. Nothing dramatic missed (except at least one possible Pachuca penalty) but nothing stellar either.
-Moreno is past it. Let him have his glory moments this season, but he's not going to help the club much.
-Fred is quite possibly the most infuriating player I have ever seen.
-The first decent cross I saw by DC was put in by the substitute Burch. I think that was about the 65th minute.

Simply put, DC would have a hard time beating Pachuca when they were playing well. And they definitely did not play well.

QUOTE:
You are manager of a young but struggling football franchise. You have a strong fanbase which identifies strongly with the team's slogan "all for one".

After farting around for an entire off-season, you suddenly realise your team is so crap that ther is a possibility you may not win a game all season.

Despite the fact that team solidarity and unity is one of the few things you have going for you, you sign L. Robert and E. Guevara.

How long until you lose your job?

Never, because your boss knows half as much about soccer as I do about hockey?

As for DC, I actually would disagree somewhat and say they played well in the first half. They created quite a few good chances and had some nice passing moves. But Emilio does not look like the Emilio of 2007; he seems to have gained a few pounds, too.

But if MLS teams can't put away their chances at home, they won't win these two-legged ties against good teams. The same thing happened to Houston, who should have gone to Costa Rica with a lead but missed several sitters last week, leaving them too much to do last night.

It's getting a bit embarrassing that it's been, what, since 2000 an MLS team won the CONCACAF tournament?

On a similar bent, it is always a bit disappointing that home matches versus Mexican clubs really aren't. At least it felt that way yesterday. (And last year vs Chivas.)

In order to make sure SocCrim can feel outraged again. The Revs won 3-1 in Kansas last night. No Twellman, no Ralston, no Larentowicz, 2 debutants and three 19 yr olds in the starting line-up. And again, the speed of our attack scared the pants off the Wizards.
Don't know if Kansas were as bad as they seemed or we were as good as it looked. Either way, Nicol has this team focused on pressure attack from the off. Three games in and it's shaping up to be an exciting line-up we have out there.

The two MLS victories in this competition (LA and DC) are tainted by the fact the teams got to play all their games at home or in the US, back when the championship was more of a tournament.

I left after the Pachuca goal, bored to distraction - the best part of my evening was reading my book at half-time. Pachuca had already had a perfectly good goal disallowed for offside. Matej is right about the first half, especially with respect to DC. As usual, MLS teams are technically undone by Mexican teams when it comes to keeping possession, and creating genuine chances.

Game lost in Pachuca, and it will only change when MLS gives its teams a week in advance to leave early and prepare for altitude. DC coach Soehn was right to bitch about Garber, he just chose the wrong thing to bitch about.

Did you enjoy it as much as the second game, vernons?

Not sure if they did it already, but a neat article for WSC would be on Pachuca University. All over Latin America, pro teams form out of universities (UNAM Pumas, Universidad Catolica, Universidad de Chile, etc.) Pachuca may be the first football club to do it in reverse.

Imp: Assuming we are talking about the same Pachuca goal, it was disallowed because of a handball, not because of offside (at least according to something I read)

Vernons: nah, I am not outraged. I only get outraged after you beat DCU.

goldstone97 wrote:

QUOTE:
Did you enjoy it as much as the second game, vernons?

I refer the honorable gentleman to my reply of 6 days ago. (page 7)

Vernons Pools wrote:

QUOTE:
absolutely fcuking ridiculous decision

And I turn in offer the honourable gentleman the following evidence:

For TFC fans, there is an interview with Danny "24 minutes" Dichio on the BBC's World Football Phone in podcast, along with some Wheelock and Hislop action.

I wanted to ask how many Canadian players, Toronto regularly fielded, and whether they were required to field any at all?

I've just been reading a few reaction articles to the naming of the Sounders.

Apart from the numerous articles that seem to not grasp that FC is 'normal' I came accross this line:

QUOTE:
The announcement came a week or so after a decree that no other MLS team could carry any reference to "United"

in this article.

Is that true? Do DC United have some sort of exclusivity on 'United'?

jamzinho, Toronto are required to have a certain number of domestic players (ie, Canadians) on their roster, just as American teams are. They are given some extra leeway on these requirements if I remember rightly, hopefully Gramsci knows the specifics.

As for DC, they don't technically have any kind of exclusivity over "United", but MLS headquarters have said they want each team's identity to be distinct so they've basically said they won't allow another team to be called United. St Louis' expansion effort is called St Louis Soccer United, but they won't be allowed to use United if they join MLS.

What's going on with Psounder's name? I see there's a second member with the name--did he lose his login info?

Has Garber ever explained why MLS is encouraging teams to adopt "traditional" names with things like "FC" in them when "FC" stands for "Football Club," and...erm...the league has "soccer" in it's own name? And the league structure and playoff system is anything *but* "traditional"?

Mind you, I don't have a problem with the league structure, but as long as we're being "American" in how the league is set up, why not also be "American" in how we name the clubs, as long as they aren't completely lame?