Avoiding the Drop

Our boy Mags is on vacation this week, terrorizing all of New England with his new shiny vuvuzela.  I can just picture him and the wife, trolling around Western Massachusetts, waking up the locals with horn blasts and verses from “You’ll Never Walk Alone”.  He’s quite a character, that one.

So this is new, me posting on a Monday, but after yesterday’s action in fabulous East Rutherford, I thought I’d add in a few thoughts.  Let’s think about this logically and go with what we know to be true.

• The US roster is not the one that will be traveling to Mexico City on August 12.  If this had been a “Confederations Cup” Gold Cup, I’m assuming Bob would have made different roster choices.
• The Mexico roster was dotted with players who are considered their first-teamers.  If Gio Dos Santos and Carlos Vela are not their first teamers, they should be in the mix, by the way.
• The psychological advantage gained from that defeat is tangible, but not overwhelming.  Enough time will pass and enough different faces will have the shirts on in August that this defeat will have lessened in the mind of many.
• The US has never won in Azteca.  You cannot make this any clearer, the first teamers have never taken a victory in that stadium.  What does that mean?  Well, it means that if they were watching yesterday or see “highlights” today, they better be good and pissed off.  It will take an effort to go down there and win, regardless of yesterday.
• Christopher Sullivan and Max Bretos are only average announcers, are clearly homers for the US, and really did a poor job in the second half trying to explain it away.  Pathetic, really.  I shudder to think what’s going to happen with Champions League coverage.
• It was a snowballing defeat, to be sure, but let’s be honest here.  Getting to the finals with that squad make up, beating Honduras and Panama after the Group Stages, it’s a good effort by that group of players.  You never want to get roasted, but it was what it was and let’s move on.  The home stretch of WCQ is coming up, and we need all hands on deck for Azteca.  A point there would be a good result, but let’s hope that someone in that group of so-called first-teamers has some bollocks and lights a fire under their asses.

Okay, MLS Pick’em Results:

League results were as follows:

RSL 4 – 2 FC Dallas

Seattle 0 – 0 Chicago

Columbus 3 – 2 Toronto

Houston 0 – 1 New England

Kansas City 1 – 1 Los Angeles

Colorado 4 – 0 New York

San Jose 2 – 2 DC United

Now, let’s see how we did as a group:

jjf3: 5
Magnakai Haaskivi: 2
thefuseproject: 4
Andrew Bucholtz: N/A
Green Eggs and Fulham: 3
Two Yellows: 6
Ken: 4
Adam: 2
Kevin: 3
Sculptor: 4
Bluesfan: 3
jhawk90: 3

Cumulative results:

Two Yellows: 64
jjf3: 59
Magnakai Haaskivi: 52
Adam: 51
thefuseproject: 49
jhawk90: 47
Bluesfan: 47
Andrew Buchholz: 42
Kevin: 37
James Brown: 11
geovanny: 4
Sculptor: 9
Ken: 7

Right, then.  You have the MLS All-Star match-up Wednesday night as Everton descend on the Rio Tinto to have at it with the All-Stars, and your league slate for this weekend looks thusly:

New England – Toronto

Houston – DC United

FC Dallas – Kansas City

Chicago – RSL

Colorado – Columbus

Los Angeles – Barcelona (I don’t know, do we pick this friendly or what?  Should we make a decision?)

Cheers, enjoy your Mondays.