Avoiding the Drop

Ross County F.C. v. Kilmarnock F.C. (Saturday)

The undefeated Staggies’ final preseason match will be the only one in which they will face an opponent who are as good or better than they are, Scottish Premier League side Kilmarnock F.C.. This match should tell the County players and staff two things: How much they have improved as a result of the numerous off-season signings and if this is a club that can play the kind of open, attacking game that Kilmarnock received so much well-deserved praise for last year. I suspect the match will be a close run thing. Fun Fact: Meaningful matches begin for County next Saturday when they face Elgin City F.C. in the opening round of the Challenge Cup. County are, of course, defending champions! Fun Fact 2: Kilmarnock are the oldest professional club in Scotland, having been founded in 1869.

Houston Dynamo v. Sporting K.C. (Saturday)

Hey look! It’s a domestic match that’s not a friendly and has actual “playoff implications!” At present both of these clubs are out of the playoff picture in the Eastern Conference and a lot depends on what the three clubs above them do, but winning this match will go a long way towards keeping one of these clubs in the hunt. Things are especially good for Sporting as their two matches in hand over leaders New York mean that if they could turn those two matches into six points they’d be right in the thick of things. Houston have only one match in hand, but it is still important for them to take three points from this match in order to remain in contention. Fun Fact: Is it crazy to suggest that when Bob Bradley finally leaves the USMNT it might be time to give Dominic Kinnear a shot at leading the team?

Real Madrid v. L.A. Galaxy (Saturday)

Golden Balls, Chrissie-Pants, The Special One, and Bruce Arena. “One of these things isn’t like the others, one of these things looks like he should be selling programs in the parking lot…” I can’t imagine this is going to be much of match- L.A. are arguably the best team in the league, but their opponents are arguably one of the five best clubs in the world. Still, this match will do exactly what everyone involved wants it to- it will generate publicity, it will produce plenty of photos of Beckham glad-handing his former teammates, it will fill the Home Depot Center, it will sell plenty of merch, and it will make money- everybody wins. Fun Fact: Allowing David Beckham to have his “own” franchise would be one of the more wrong-headed things that this league could ever do. Just don’t.

Argentina v. Uruguay (Saturday)

I don’t know what to expect in this match. Don’t let the win over Costa Rica fool you, Argentina’s performance has been abysmal. They have all the talent in the world, they are playing at home, and the best they could manage was to squeak into the knockout stage by beating a team that was brought into the tournament for the sole purpose of being beaten? World Cup darlings Uruguay have been slightly better and I have to give them credit for beating Mexico, one of the hottest national teams of the current moment. When it comes right down to it I think I’d like to see Argentina lose just to show them that they may have the talent, but they also need to make an effort. However, I doubt they would learn from a loss- they’d just fire Sergio Batista and keep not winning major tournaments like they have for the last 20-25 years.

Odense Boldklub v. Football Club Nordsjaelland (Saturday)

This is the season opening match in the tenth year of the Danish Superliga. OB, who finished in (distant) second place to Copenhagen last year will be competing in the Champions League this year while Nordsjaelland, though they finished in sixth place, will play in the in the Europa League as last year’s winners of the Danish Cup. Fun Fact: Attention Bob Bradley: Michael Parkhurst will be in Nordsjaelland’s starting 11 again this season, all season. You’ve given him 9 caps since you took over the USMNT. Jonathan Bornstein has 37 during that same time. You’ve given Heath Pearce almost as many caps as Bornstein. Guess who the worst USMNT defenders are match-in and match-out? That’s right, those two guys- oh, and Gooch. You know Parkhurst could have played for Ireland, right?

Brazil v. Paraguay (Sunday)

I’m tempted to just cut-and-paste my Argentina-Uruguay preview here and change the names. Brazil did a nice sleep-walking job in their first two draws then woke up to beat the worst team in their group (Ecuador) to move out of the group stage. Again, don’t be fooled by this, they are half-assing this tournament just as much as Argentina are. Paraguay are another matter entirely. They may have drawn all three of their matches, but in their match with Brazil, it took a 90^th minute strike from Brazil’s Fred to earn a point for the two-time defending champions. There is no reason why Paraguay can’t pull of the upset in this match and if there’s an upset in the Argentina-Uruguay match we might get to see a very entertaining and historic match in the final- Paraguay haven’t won the title since 1979.

New England Revolution v. Philadelphia Union (Sunday)

There were no surprises in the midweek match against Manchester United- adrenalin and pride kept the Revs in the match in the first half, but once both sides had to go to their benches in the second half, United’s depth and quality won out- no shock there. It won’t be quite as bad this week, but if the Union can get an early goal and force the Revs to chase the game it could get ugly. Fun Fact: Hey, Revs, lots of other clubs have begun to sign new designated players- where’s that “high profile” attacking player we’ve been hearing so much about? Yeah, I didn’t think so. Fun Fact 2: What did I ever do to ESPN that they gave me Rob Stone and John Harkes for the friendly on Thursday? “My hair looks great?! No, your hair looks great!!”

USA v. Japan (Sunday)

I would have preferred a couple of nice, calm wins in the quarter and semi-finals, but I can’t complain- the USWNT’s last two matches have been two of the most exciting matches I’ve ever seen. Japan have always been a tricky- though beatable opponent- for the USA, but if the USA starts this match with the same eleven players that finished the last one I think things will go well. Why leave Alex Morgan on the bench for most of the match when she might score a quick goal, take the starch out of the Japanese side, and propel the USA forward into the match? As for me, I’m going to stick with what I said in this week’s MLS Pick ‘Em, the US wins 2-0 and takes home its third Women’s World Cup. Get in there!!