Brian Ching *did* score goals

So, for people not in the "know", today's headline is a reference to one of the greatest stories I have from our trip to the World Cup in 2006 in Germany. It goes like this:

We had just walked out of the disappointing US loss to the Czech Republic in Gelsenkirchen. To be fair, they were ranked #2 in the world at the time, but that's no excuse, we played like crap... but I digress. My good friend Andrew was wearing his San Jose Earthquakes Brian Ching jersey, and this large, drunk, Czech man comes up to him, puts his arm around him, and just says "Brian Ching will score goals.", then walks away. It was awesome. To this day, every time I see Ching play, I can't help but think of that day.

Which brings us to yesterday (June 15th, 2008). Brian Ching did in fact score goals. And wow. Just. Wow. It was a massacre. As we were walking from the parking lot to the Home Depot center (or the HDC as it's sometimes called), I jokingly said "So, we're going to win 8-zip right?". Little did I know, that apparently I'm clairvoyant.

I won't bore you with the details of who scored when, but at the end of the game 5 US players were on the scoresheet with a total of 8 goals. We outshot them 22 to 2, with 14 of our shots being on goal to their zero. US records were set for the fastest goal ever scored (53 seconds into the game), the largest margin of victory (8 goals), and tied for the highest score ever put up by the US national team. All in all, a great way to start our 2010 World Cup campaign.

By the end, I actually felt kind of bad for the Babados players. This is only the first leg in a 2 game series, where goals will be aggregated to determine the final score. As you can see from the picture below, we were right by their bench, close enough to see the looks of despair on their faces as the US scored goal after goal after goal.



In the end, I think Clint Dempsey said it best: "We're not going to say we're going to go out and win the World Cup after playing Barbados," Dempsey said. "Nothing against them. They came out and tried hard, but we're supposed to win these types of games decisively."

And win decisively we did.

*Finally* Galaxy!

So, I know my rants have been less ranty lately.  I assure you, that is likely to change as I have to work every night this week (in addition to my normal daily schedule).  But, I feel it is only fair that when I bash my soccer team of choice (which truth be told, is more abou geographic convenience than anything else... but I do love Landon Donovan, so that helps), for sucking donkey butt, that I also acknowledge their accomplishments.  This weekend was such an accomplishment.

To begin with, I have a cascade of background information, to get you caught up on why this weekend especially was a big deal.  The people in charge of marketing MLS have decided that the best way to get people to come out to see games is to come up with as many rivalries as possible.  If one team's colors are primary, and another is secondary, you've got a rivalry.  One team is from The East coast and one the west, another rivalry!  Here in LA we have two teams, the Galaxy, and Chivas USA, and you guessed it, a rivalry.  Both teams share the same stadium, so when they play each other, while one team is technically home, and the other away, for all intents and purposes, its a double home game.  This clash is called the "Honda Superclasico" (how's *that* for marketing gone awry?), and it happens a couple times per year.

Secondly, I should take a moment to explain why I do not like Chivas.  It's not that they are a bad team (quite the opposite in fact, despite having a girls name, Sacha Kljestan is really good, and Ante Razov is a staple of my MLS fantasy team's strikers), its not that they're the "bad guys" or even "the other guys" in a local rivalry.  It is plain and simply, Chivas fans.  Or more accurately, the way *some* Chivas fans behave during the game.  I'm all for getting rowdy, celebrating, booing, telling the ref where he can or cannot stick his whistle/card/flag.  What I am not about, is physically interfering with the game.  I have seen countless Chivas games where stuff is thrown at the opposing team's players during the game, especially the goalkeeper.  Bottles, cans, streamers... just about anything they can get their hands on, they'll happily toss on out there.  As such, I do not like it when these people's actions are rewarded.

So, now that you have some background on the derby, (spoiler alert), the Galaxy soundly demolished Chivas this weekend.  As I have mentioned before, scoring one or two goals per game is quite a feat in soccer.  The galaxy managed to score five.  Thats right, cinco.  Chivas mustered 2 (once of which was actually really nice, way to go Sacha).  At one point, when it was 4:2, the announcer makes a comment about how the "Galaxy have strapped Chivas to the whipping post, and they're going to town.  As you can see in the highlights, my boy Landon gets a hat trick.

I won't continue to bore you with any more in depth analysis of what should or shouldn't have happened, I'll just leave it at this: way to go Galaxy, you're winning back my faith in your ability to compete, and my faith in the staying power of MLS and soccer in America and that makes me a happy footy fan.

Freaking Galaxy! Take 2

OH. MY. GOODNESS.

That is all I could mutter as I sat and stared in disbelief at the TV screen. Somehow LA managed to lose 3-2 to Toronto FC, arguably the worst team in MLS. This game should have ended 3-0, 4-0, or at worst 4-1 in favor of LA.

Unfortunately, the galaxy have a couple of major problems on their hands. They come crashing out of the gate and dominate for the first 20 minutes, but then somewhere around the 21st minute, everyone except for Donovan and (it pains me to say it) Beckham, seem to just stop playing. The more I think about it, its no wonder we keep losing. We're essentially playing 2 on 11, with 9 muppets setup as all but stationary roadblacks for the last 70ish minutes. The kind of pressure these guys are putting on Lando and Becks takes it toll for sure. As you watch the highlights you'll see that Donovan misses 2 total gimme goals. Donovan *never* misses those things.

In the end, I don't even mind that they lost. I mean, of course I want them to win, but that's water under the bridge at this point. My main concern is much further reaching: I fear for the future of professional soccer in the US. As I have mentioned before, this is the team who spent more than the GDP of most countries getting one of the most recognized soccer names in the world to play for them. They now charge twice as much as every other team in the league for the privilege of coming to see them, presumably in order to pay that huge salary. But they still can't win, even against one of the worst teams in the league. If they don't get it together, this could be the start of a snowball effect that causes the death of this renaissance of American soccer.

Don't believe me? Lets go on a journey to the hypothetical future. Beckham will continue to get paid his $160,000 per game (no joke, that's what he makes just for showing up. Don't even get me started on endorsements, profit sharing, and so on). AEG (the evil Germany company who own's the galaxy) will be smarting from all the money they are losing because no one wants to pay 80$ per ticket (plus another 20 for parking) to see the Beckham and Donovan not able to do anything because their team sucks. No one else will be willing to risk bringing in big name players, or we'll end up with second rate has-bins like Blanco, because obviously, 1 or 2 good players is not enough to carry an entire team. And finally, soccer will be relegated back to the minor leagues of US sports, and all the naysayers will gloat "We told you so". Then, just to show just how far the ripple effect goes, American players will not be developing as well, catching the eyes of foreign clubs, and getting the experience necessary to continue the US National team's dominance of the CONCACAF region.

For better or worse, because of Beckham, the Galaxy are under tremendous pressure to perform. Everyone is watching them, and they will be the yardstick by which professional soccer in America is measured. If they succeed, the league should succeed with them, but if they fail (which they seem all to good at) they could take the joy of watching and participating in professional soccer away from millions of people.

Come on Galaxy, I know you have it in you. You won 2 MLS cups without Beckham! No one likes sequels, especially me, so I assure you the last thing I want is to have to write a "Freaking Galaxy! Take 3: The suck rolls on".

Freaking Galaxy!

So for those of you who know me, football is my favorite sport. I am not talking about the game where they use their hands, put pads all over their bodies, and don't really use their feet for anything that most people seem to think of when I say I love football... but thats another topic for another day.

So I was watching the LA Galaxy vs the Colorado Rapids on Saturday, and words cannot even describe the horrible horrible game the galaxy played. It's a stretch to even call it a game, or to say they "played" for that matter. Now, let me give you a little history. This is the team that paid like, eleventy sixty three nine twelve bajillion dollars for David Beckham, this is the team that charges 80$ per ticket to see them play, this is the team, who until 2006 was a powerhouse and had never failed to make the playoffs.... so I would expect at least a little bit of a show from them. What did we get instead? A little diddly and a lot of squat. For shame LA, you're better than that, or at least you should be! They managed to lose 4 to nothing... which if you've ever seen a soccer match, is a terrible terrible loss. I've seen under 6 teams play more coherently.

If you're interested in seeing the highlights for yourself, they can be found here: http://web.mlsnet.com/sights/, but if you're going there expecting to see anyone but Colorado do anything at all, you're going to be disappointed. All in all, this was a shameful sad day for football in Los Angeles.

Good grief Galaxy, what the heck?!