Rapids - Galaxy Tie

Last night the Colorado Rapids played, well, a rather poor game against the Los Angeles Cosmos Galaxy. The Rapids took the lead in the 60th minute though a goal by Colin Clark. Colin had drifted over the right side of the field, got a nice pass from Omar Cummings, and found himself with some time and space in the box to slot the ball past the Galaxy's keeper Rohan Ricketts. But as the game was winding down the Rapids defense, which had already been saved once by the crossbar, pulled a bit of keystone cops and allowed Landon Donovan to put the ball in the back of the net off a rebound.

Colorado Soccer Now (ColoradoSoccerNow.com) has a good look at the game, especially the controversial 74th minute which saw referee Alex Prus first issue a red card and then rescind it. Was it the right call? More details here.

Examiner.com's Deron White has up player ratings for the game. Was Deron right to give Pablo a 4 but a 5's for the backline?

For myself, Blogs By Dave has the best look at the game in calling out the Rapids for the performance they gave and how the team has changed but it still seems to be the same ol' Rapids.

Just Say No To Ping Pong, Landon

Chris Courtney over at Letters From Vagabondia takes a quick look at Landon Donovan's overtures of making a move away from the MLS. He points out something that I don't hear enough these days, that the English Premiership plays a style that would be best called "ping pong". Alright, Chris is much more diplomatic about it. He eludes to how the style of play doesn't lend itself well to players like Michael Ballack and Andrei Shevchenko. I would add to that list players like Hernan Crespo, Juan Sebastian Veron, and others. It's a style that emphasizes closing down on the player with the ball at the expense of time on the ball and positioning. There are nice one touch passes out there but too often you'll find players scrambling to get a foot or head on the ball only for it to go to an opposing player scrambling to get a foot or head on the ball and then yet again an player on the other team scrambling to get a foot..... get the picture? Ping pong. Let's hope Landon lands someplace where they're more concerned about the beauty part of the game.

What's You Brazil Name?

Ever wonder what your name would be if you grew up in Brazil and played soccer? BrazilName has a fun little name generator [link] that will give you yours. Mine was Graiano da Costa.

Some MLS players if they were Brazilian :
Brian Ching == "Briildo"
Bouna Coundoul == "Coundoisco"
Bobby Boswell == "Beca"
David Beckham == "Claudio Beckhson"
Taylor Twellman == "Taylinhosa"
Dema Kovalenko == "Demisco"
Lanny Cakes == "Lildo"
Eddie Pope == "Eddiildo Pau"

LA, Lalas, & LannyCakes

SF over at he The Offisde Rules has fun today mocking the Los Angeles Galaxy for strutting their stuff as though they were some super club. I love it. It's as though Lalas and the rest of the folks at AEG think they've turned the Los Angeles Galaxy into the new New York Cosmos. They got Beckahm and now Ruud Gullit so.....just a few more years of this and they'll be a mega club like Manchester United or AC Milan, right?

Bah! They'd be lucky if they're rivaling Padova in stature right now. I hope their 2008 season is as uninspiring as they were in 2007.

No DP???

There will no be DP slots for Eddie Johnson, Landon Donovan and Carlos Ruiz next year. Despite originally declaring that the grandfathering in of these players would only occur for one year, the MLS has gone back on it's word. Those 3 players won't count as designated players in 2008 despite making more than $400,000 for the year.

If you're thinking that's good news for all 3 teams, it really benefits Los Angeles the most. Kansas City did not have not used their DP slot. There could be several reasons for it but it's likely they didn't want to make a move for a DP that was beyond a 1 year commitment knowing in 2008 if Eddie Johnson was still around that they would need a 2nd slot for him.

FC Dallas brought in Denilson half-way through the 2007 season. But his contract was only guaranteed for 2007. Even if Denilson had performed wonderfully on the pitch, which he has not, FC Dallas wouldn't be committed to bringing him back in 2008. They wouldn't have had to give away an arm in the leg to keep Carlos Ruiz (well, assuming they'd actually want to do that).

The Los Angeles Galaxy were the only team of those 3 facing a situation where they would have had to secure a 2nd DP slot to keep their grandfathered player, Landon Donovan. It was highly unlikely that the Galaxy would trade away David Beckham. For 2008 they were, as the original DP rule stated, going to need a 2nd DP slot since Landon Donovan is making a something a bit short of a million a year. The problem is every team knows that to be the case. There was no poker to be played; no picking up a 2nd DP slot on the cheap like New York did last year. Worse, Los Angeles didn't have much to offer other teams. And what little they had to offer would also mean giving away what talent they did have on rather mediocre 2007 roster.

I'd love to know why they did this. As the season wound down there was a lot of chatter about the MLS adding a 2nd DP slot for 2008. That seemed odd since they hadn't made the 1st one permanent. It was a limited time deal (3 years, IIRC) that was to be reviewed in the future. More so most teams did not have a designated player, let alone were looking for one. The big three - LA, Chicago and NY - had all used theirs. FC Dallas was the only other team to do the same. And New York had already secured a 2nd DP slot from Chivas USA before the season started. Why would most MLS owner / investors be in favor of opening to a second one? Having a home game or two with a larger crowd would be nice but they're already losing the arms race; why did a bigger hole for themselves?

My two-bits worth on it is that Los Angles was the largest source of that push. Chicago may have played along seeing the attendance boot Blanco gave them. It seems unlikely that many owners were taking the idea of a 2nd DP slot seriously. They may have even recognized that LA was pushing it. And if they thought the league was taking it seriously, they may have felt it had a chance despite a lack of strong support by most ownership groups. So permanently grandfathering in Landon, Eddie and Ruiz may have seemed like a good way to dodge the bullet of having pressure to fill not only one but a 2nd designated player spot. If that's the case, chalk one up for LA in the sly politics column.

The remaining question is how this will be treated for the salary cap. I would assume that they'll be treated as a 2nd DP which means only $350,000 of their salary goes toward to the team's cap. The question is, what will that cap be? It'll be tough to put together a complete roster with $750,000 of cap space tied up in just 2 players when the cap is unlikely to be much beyond $2 million.

SI's article on this one is here.

Landon DonovanTo San Jose?

"As a person, I'm glad [FrankYallop] got away from this" Landon Donovan

Previously I didn't think much of the rumors of Yallop and / or Landon to the San Jose Earthquakes. There wasn't much behind them. But Yallop's left LA and joined San Jose. And now Lannycakes is publicly saying things like this. Will he be leaving Los Angeles soon, too?

Lannycakes Heads Across The Pond?

Sky Sports has an article with Landon Donovan mentioning that he is thinking about heading to England to play. "The older I get and the more I play, the more I'm yearning for that highest level I can play ...". It's good to see Landon talking about wanting to play at the highest level. The last few years in the MLS he's been the big fish in the small pond. He needs more of a challenge.

Normally I would write off this sort of article as idle Beckham talk. That is, part of the slew of press that England is giving the MLS with Beckham now in the league. There's even a weekly MLS TV show in England. But long before Beckham's arrival this year, rumors have been circulating that Landon's agent has been shopping him around clubs in England. And unless the Los Angeles Galaxy needing a 2nd designated player slot for the 2008 season if they are to hold on to both Beckham and Landon, this winter would be a good time for him to make that move back across the pond.

What do you think? Will Landon do it? If he does, what club would be a good fit for him?

Props to Because I Think Way Too Much About Soccer for bringing this one to our attention.

Step Stool For Landon?

Landon Donovan will be in downtown Denver today at 2pm signing autographs. Should I bring him a step stool to autograph? Would he get it?

All-Gold Cup Team

As noted by FC Rockey, Pablo Mastroeni (Colorado Rapids) and Frankie Hejduk (Columbus Crew) were the only 2 Americans to make the all-tournament team. Damarcus Beasley (PSV) and Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy) got honorable mentions. Jocelyn Angloma of Guadeloupe also made the 2nd team list. It's good to see the 41 year-old got some props. Too bad that there isn't some sort of "little engine that could" award but little Guadeloupe deserved it. Not only to they punch above their weight but they did it playing some attractive soccer.

Landycakes - Love Him or Hate Him...

I don't care if you love Landycakes or you hate him, you have to give him credit for best attacking player to put on the US jersey.

You can't argue with the facts: 92 USMNT Caps - 13th all time 32 USMNT Goals - 2nd all time (With three more goals he'll pass all time leading goal scorer Eric Wynalda...thankfully) 25 USMNT Assists - 1st all time 89 USMNT Points - 1st all time

Those are the stats of someone finishing his career, right? After all, he just passed John Harks on the all time Caps list. The people below him are some of my favorite all time US Players (Eddie Pope, Brad Friedel, Tab Ramos and Chris Henderson). However, Landon is only 25 years old.

Yes, he was born March 4, 1982. It is hard to believe it has been 8 years since we started reading about this young phenom moving to Germany to play for a Bundesliga side, Bayer Leverkusen. It is hard to believe he made his debut in MLS 6 years ago. But here we are in the midst of the 2007 Gold Cup with Landon Donovan leading the charge against the rest of CONCACAF...and doing quite well. For my money he hasn't been the most exciting player on the field, I'd give that award to Clint Dempsey. He has been consistent and he has his team winning. Donovan showed his maturity, class and leadership by passing to Eddie Johnson instead of shooting against Trinidad and Tobago.

Let's look a little further back against Ecuador in March. True, it was a friendly but Ecuador was a good team in last year's World Cup...and Donovan scorched them for a hat trick. And not a 3 goal from the penalty spot hat trick, a highlight reel hat trick.

Landycakes is the real deal and he is just hitting his prime. Sure, you can debate his quality as a club player since he didn't last long in Europe...but that has not kept him from producing for the US Men's National Team. At 25 years old he has plenty of time to rewrite the history books with his name on top of every category. Heck, he'll do that this year for all of the points categories. He'll get the all-time Caps title as well, it might just take another 7 years to pass Cobi Jones' 164 Caps.

Hola, soy Bonji - Hey folks. You may know my first blog, From College to the Pros. Well, the Black Panther and I have been friends for awhile now and I've decided to start writing some of my other musings over here. I hope you enjoy.

USA - Ecuador Commentary

It's too bad that Mostly Blue and White World doesn't blog more on soccer. Some interesting comments by Appoo on the match. As for me I'd sum it up in that once again Lannycakes steps it up a notch but not in a key match.