We’re constantly hammered with one side of the coin, including Sunday at the conclusion of the US-Netherlands match on NBC by Marcelo Balboa, that Major League Soccer is responsible for the US being more competitive in major international tournaments.

This theory is so often repeated it has become gospel for many fans of the beautiful game in this country. But is this theory in fact accurate or does there exist another, perhaps less pleasant, reality? Today I am going to present the other side of this debate, the one which never gets aired in the United States.

Watching Stuart Holden’s repeated mistakes at the end of the US-Netherlands match reminded me how poorly MLS prepares players for major international matches.

The giveaways by an otherwise brilliant Sacha Kljestan and the lack of clock management by the US side in general against both Japan and Holland to me showed that unlike the young players in the J-League and the Erevidese, players in MLS never face the kind of intensity and urgency that you face in big international matches.

Even the best MLS coaches like Dom Kinnear and Steve Nicol cannot simulate situations for their players like the end of both games because they do not exist in Major League Soccer.

On one hand, Major League Soccer is very underrated. From a standpoint of individual players who make up the squads, MLS is under-appreciated on the world stage. MLS has several sides that could, based on their players, compete in top leagues in Europe. They may not compete to win the league but could certainly compete to avoid relegation. Contrary to what is bandied about on some other websites, MLS has a few teams that I certainly believe would avoid relegation in the English Premier League.

But on another hand, MLS is overrated. I watch a lot of football, including during the summer matches from various leagues in Latin America. In every single league I watch, the game is played with more passion and urgency than MLS. This includes so-called inferior leagues from the CONCACAF region. In addition, in MLS I see far more bad giveaways late in matches than in any other league I watch. MLS managers do not emphasize possession and ball control as much as they should, and when those players form the core of your national team, you end up with disasters like Sunday’s match. MLS teams and matches do feature more individual flair and skill than just about every Latin American league save Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil.

We must also look at the US program historically to properly debate this subject. A revisionism has developed that the United States was not successful before the advent of MLS. This is patently false. The best result, arguably ever, for a US squad in a major competition was the semifinal run at Copa America 1995, when none of the US players were in MLS (which began play the following year) and all of them were fighting for playing time in Europe or Mexico.

The United States continued to compete well on the international stage, but as the players who made the core of that 1995 Copa team drifted back home to MLS, their competitiveness was robbed and we were rewarded with the infamous 1998 World Cup in France.

Fast forward to 2002. Half the core of the US National Team has left MLS and headed to destinations such as Germany and Holland to pursue their club careers. US Soccer has founded a national academy in Bradenton, Florida, whose first graduating class helped take the United States to the semifinals of the 1999 U-17 World Cup. The best player from that inaugural class, Landon Donovan, helped lead the US to the semifinals of the 2000 Olympic Football tournament in Sydney and then became the best young player at World Cup 2002. In that World Cup, the United States made the quarterfinals. MLS got much of the credit – as it always does when the US plays well – but what followed the next few years demonstrates why MLS perhaps cannot be trusted with America’s best young talents.

One by one top talents emerged from the Bradenton Academy and signed with MLS: Santino Quaranta, Eddie Johnson, Justin Mapp, Freddy Adu, Danny Szetela, Eddie Gaven, Mike Magee, Chad Marshall, Tim Ward and Quavas Kirk among others. Of the above list, none – and I repeat none – have reached their full potential sitting in MLS.

The cases of Gaven, Quaranta, Marshall and Mapp are particularly frustrating. Each of these players seemed to posses so much talent playing for US U-17 teams, only to develop bad tendencies and have their game essentially neutered once arriving in MLS. For instance, Gaven went from being a dangerous attacking midfielder whose on the ball skill was outstanding for a 17-year old to being hardly serviceable by the time he was 20. He’s bounced back this season, but it appears the damage has been done to his game. Chances are, Gaven will never be the player we expected him to be.

Quaratana, as has been well documented, has had other off-the-pitch problems, but no question exists that his potential was largely unrealized in MLS, except for a brief stint when Peter Nowak coached DC United. Chad Marshall entered MLS in 2004 as a lock for the US National Team and helped lead Columbus to a great year. He displayed the same tendencies in MLS that he did with the US U-17 and U-20 teams, for which he excelled. Yet much like Gaven and Quaranta, as time went on his skills seemed untapped, and his game grew unfocused and stale. Now he is simply an average and injury-prone MLS player.

Justin Mapp is also a serviceable MLS left-sided player. But at the U-17 level and coming out of Bradenton, he appeared to be on a level higher than DaMarcus Beasley or Bobby Convey was at the same age. Mapp has developed, but not as quickly as many hoped or into the player most hoped, and he is now on the fringes of the US player pool.

The cases of players like Danny Szetela, who had played only 18 minutes in MLS during the 2007 season before impressing foreign scouts at the 2007 U-20 World Cup, and Freddy Adu, whose game never really improved in his three-plus MLS seasons, have also been well documented.

The fact that Adu rapidly improved as a player while playing sparingly for less than a season in Portugal – after failing to develop at all in MLS while playing regularly – speaks volumes as to MLS’ ineffectiveness in developing certain star players. The 2006 World Cup debacle for the US with arguably the most talented side the US had ever taken to a major competition spoke volumes as to how the lack of intensity and player development in MLS had undermined the competitiveness of the US program.

While we keep patting ourselves on the back for the perceived good work of Major League Soccer, nobody seems to want to explain why the United States gets progressively less competitive at every age level of FIFA competitions. Why is the US usually among the best teams in the world at the U-17 and U-20 levels going back to the mid 1990s, yet less competitive at the U-23 level and hardly competitive on the world stage at the full international level?

What is the solution to this malaise? MLS isn’t going to become more competitive overnight, since the passion of the fans and the intensity of rivalries doesn’t exist in this league on the level it does in leagues with admittedly inferior talent.

Unlike those leagues, MLS can never simulate the passion nor the intensity of international football at the highest level. It’s frustrating because the current group of American players competing in the Olympics could be the third most talented squad in the competition behind Brazil and Argentina. But they have the negative tendencies that they learn at the club level drilled into them, which is why they are notoriously slow starters and haven’t played a complete match yet in the tournament.

The performances are getting better because the more time they spend with Peter Nowak and Lubos Kubik – two accomplished internationals who know what these sorts of competitions are about – the more their individual brilliance and confidence begins to emerge. But weening international talents completely off of bad habits and negative tendencies learned in MLS is almost impossible.

Until MLS becomes more committed to the American player and puts more faith in the American player rather than importing washed-up foreign players to replace young American ones, the United States will never reach its full potential as a football-playing nation.

At a time when the talent level in the United States is reaching its highest level ever, Major League Soccer has a role to play in this growth. But MLS seems committed to a different course entirely, so do not be surprised if the frustrating results for the United States continue.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

The North London derby will have some new fans this upcoming season as many football fans in North America will be engaged in one of the world’s great derbies for the first time.

That’s because perhaps the two best young players in the region, Giovanni Dos Santos (Gio) and Carlos Vela will now be part of the setup of Spurs and Arsenal respectively. The pair will also be the key frontline players along with Andres Guardado for Mexico, CONCACAF’s dominant national team in the near future.

Juande Ramos coveted Gio this transfer season and secured his purchase from Barcelona. At 19, Dos Santos could be an amazing long term bet for Spurs as they chase a Champions League berth in the near future: a young core of players like Gio and Bentley with Spurs is what the North London club needs to get over the hump which they have been unable to climb for the past several years.

Vela, also 19, was signed by Arsenal years ago but had to be loaned out until he secured his work permit, which happened this summer. He is the long term heir apparent to Eduardo in Arsene Wenger’s setup.

Carlos Vela and Gio Dos Santos led Mexico (El Tri) to the U-17 World Cup title in 2005, the first world championship for a CONCACAF nation. Now both feature in the full national team setup and have helped Mexico turn the tables on the United States who this decade had dominated Mexico, despite the US having far inferior talent.

With Gio and Vela in the lineup this past February, El Tri got their first result on US soil against the hated Americans in nine years and doubled the cumulative Mexican scoring output in its last eight games against the US on American soil. It was a shot across the bow to all in the region that the dynamic duo had arrived on the senior level.

Factor in the hiring of Sven Goran Eriksson as Mexico’s new national team manager and it’s no wonder Mexican fans are more excited than ever. However, the hiring of Eriksson could be a fatal mistake as well since El Tri are in the toughest CONCACAF World Cup qualifying group, and Eriksson’s tenure as England manager did little to inspire confidence in his ability to manage a talented squad full of world class players.

The fact that two young Mexican superstars are playing the Barclay’s Premier League is a proof positive as to emergence of English football on the world scene. Until recently, Mexican players seldom ventured out of their comfort zone which was the domestic FMF (arguably the best league in the Americas) and the Spanish leagues. Now with Mexican football once again taking off and its players becoming more marketable commodities on the international transfer market, England is becoming more and more of a potential destination for Mexican players.

This will also grow the popularity of the world’s most popular sports league in the nation with the richest football league outside Europe. The duo’s presence in North London is a win for Arsenal, a win for Spurs and a win for the BPL.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

The Women’s Professional Soccer league kicks off its inaugural season in April 2009. WPS teams will be based in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New Jersey/New York, St. Louis, and Washington, D.C. The league will expand to eight teams by 2010 with the inclusion of Philadelphia. Currently, the WPS teams are working on building their rosters through an allocation of U.S. Women’s National Team stars, a draft of international players, combines, additional League drafts and local team tryouts.

Soccerlens got the opportunity to talk to Tonya Antonucci, the CEO of Women’s Professional Soccer, about the new WPS league and the work that’s going on behind the scenes to get everything ready for April 2009.

Among the topics discussed with Tonya Antonucci were:

• How WPS is structured as compared with the now defunct WUSA
• The involvement of US Women’s National Team stars in the development of the new league
• How Mia Hamm’s silhouette was selected to be part of the WPS logo
• The level of cooperation between WPS and MLS
• The development of grassroots efforts to support woman’s soccer in the USA
• Much much more as well!

Interview Audio:

Interview Transcript:

Kartik Krishnaiyer: Tonya Antonucci joins us, and my first question to you about Women’s Professional Soccer is, we hear a lot of concerns about the new professional league because of the failure of the WUSA a few years back. How exactly is Women’s Professional Soccer going to be structured differently than the WUSA?

Tonya Antonucci: Well, first we’ve heard the fans loud and clear on their concerns and we had a lot of questions and concerns ourselves as we started the process a few years back to rebuild the league. There were many lessons to be learned that we felt needed a course correction, most of which were on the business side.

I think all fans who are familiar with WUSA as a brand recognize that clearly it had most of the best female soccer players in the world playing here on American turf and through the great soccer product. When we look at that we felt like, you know, gee, we want to replicate that in WPS and we want to make sure that we build a model that allows us to attract the top talent pick; to entertain the fans and to develop the game here in the States on the women’s side. So, most of our focus was really on the business side and the main lessons learned were around cost containment.

Previously the WUSA had an exuberance about how quickly the league could grow and how much support it could gain in the first couple years. And it took those, sort of, all the revenue projections that would go along with exuberance and spent to match, really just sort of spent in the line with the support that…. And when it didn’t happen, then, didn’t come through in the early years, the lesson was learned that we have to have a more conservative, cost-contained approach that allows us to grow over time and not to just burn through cash.

The exuberance was understandable, right, ’99 Women’s World Cup, 14.3 rating on ABC, the US women’s team was the darling of America and casual sports fans and they were all in the red white and blue. Translating that into a league that’s in its infancy where the US team is dispersed over multiple cities and teams and they’re not wearing the red white and blue and you’ve got to build individual team brands and you’ve got to work to create relationships with fans one team at a time – it’s understandable that there was a disconnect there.

We’re taking the approach of, whether it’s an Olympics year or World Cup year, or whether those events are not even happening, we’re going to develop the game and create a strong offering for fans at the professional level for a league and teams that fans can get passionate about. Really start more conservatively and more grassroots to achieve that goal.

KK: To what extent have you learned lessons from Major League Soccer? They’ve had some of the same frustrations coming off the ’94 World Cup just like WUSA came off the ’99 World Cup triumph of the women’s national team. To kind of learn a grassroots approach and building team brand names, which I think was frustrating in a long term project for MLS, but it seems now, in year 13 of that league, to have really paid dividends.

TA: Yeah, and I think we’re benefiting from the hard work of MLS and the dividends that they’re now in a position to enjoy. And of course, a lot of that is in relation to the authentic soccer stadiums that have been built and continue to be built around the country for fans.

For the ownership groups to control their costs and own their revenues, it just makes for a better business model which we are finding. MLS is a partner of ours and we have people who are vested in our success and MLS is one of them. So, at the league level, MLS and WPS are partners in selling corporate sponsorships to corporate America for our league, WPS. And then team by team and city by city, in a number of our WPS cities, we are either playing at a soccer-specific stadium built through MLS ownership or we have an MLS owner who owns our team or there’s some sort of strategic partnership around the stadium, whether that be operational partnership in staffing and resources and gameday operations. The things of that nature would just help us manage our costs, be a little more efficient and a little craftier in how we keep the costs contained and managed in this business so we can make sure, and this is most important to the fans — and us as well — that this league is around for the future, that it’s sustainable and that fans can count on it for years to come.

We know that we get, really, one more shot at this in this country in terms of women’s professional soccer, and we have to get it right. We feel enormous pressure to get it right because people have the memory of WUSA and it leaving so we want to make sure we create as many partnerships as we can to ensure our success.

KK: To what extent does the success of a generation of footballers – young women that were inspired by the ’99 World Cup triumph and again the 2003 Women’s World Cup – to what extent does that build into building your brand? Because maybe it was too soon for the WUSA, and as you said, they were exuberant in some of their cost projections and revenue projections and I think in hindsight we all realize that. But, it seems that the timing for your new league is perfect if you think about the momentum among the young people that was captured in ’99 and those people coming to fruition as real football/soccer fans now in this country.

TA: Yeah, I have two answers there. First, I think you’re absolutely right that, when you study the research about growth from participation in women’s football, women’s soccer, girls soccer, since the time of WUSA and the years since, it’s only grown year over year. More and more girls, more and more women and adults are all playing the game and are passionate about it and there’s a whole new generation of players who are fantastically talented, who are just itching at a chance to play pro ball, and we’re going to be able to build those brands.

You think of the stars of WUSA and stars of national teams, whether those go back all the way to Michelle Akers and Shannon Higgins and Laurie Henrys and the Amy Allmans and the names could go on and on to the Mias and the Julies and the Brandis etc., into this next generation, there’s a whole new crop of players and the level of play is outstanding. So people in the soccer community know that there are some exciting new personalities and new soccer talent to honor. But I will say I think that if WUSA had had a more realistic business plan, I think it was a great opportunity to showcase the stars that were coming out of that ’99 World Cup and I think it was just unfortunate. They had a chance and it’s unfortunate that it didn’t work out. I think we’re all saddened by that.

You look at names like Mia, who is the Jerry West of our logo for the WPS – that is Mia in our logo – that is a way for her to honor and continue the legacy and stay involved in the sport at the professional level and you’re going to see, whether it’s Mia or Julie or Brandi – who has intentions to continue playing, bless her heart, and play in a pro league — Kristine Lilly intends to come back. I think you’re going to see a spectrum of those great athletes either endorsing our league, working for its success, or being a part of it directly. That’s an important thing too, for the legacy of the game.

KK: You brought it up before I was able to, but I wanted to ask you about the logo with Mia Hamm’s silhouette on the logo just like Jerry West is for the NBA. What was the decision making process to settle on that as your logo? And, in addition, you mentioned Kristine Lilly and Brandi Chastain potentially coming back and playing in this league. How much ownership do you think members of not only the ’99 Women’s World Cup Championship winning team, but other former US internationals feel towards this new professional league?

TA: Yeah, well, I’ll take your first question. We were kind of playing around with logos and looking at designs, we had multiple committees and stakeholders and fans who were involved, we had some focus groups and surveys. As we went through the process, we really just realized, you know, who would best epitomize this brand? And if you remember from the WUSA days, it was a sort of nondescript, maybe 13 year old girl with ponytail, who was very young and very aspirational and she was participating. We said we want this brand to stand for the best in the game, the best in the world and strong, accomplished, competitive women. Who better to be our icon of that than Mia? And once we came to that realization, we called her, she was thrilled, loved the idea, and she got right on board. So that was a lot of fun.

Some of the major well-known household names, stars of past US National teams, are really invested in this. We get calls from, let me give you some examples, people like Danielle Fotopolous, Cindy Parlow, Danielle Slaton, and other names where they aren’t necessarily in a position to play again when the league comes back but they want to be involved, they want to help, they have ideas. Then you have direct participation coming from Mia. Julie Foudy was instrumental in helping us get started and finding investors for the new league. Kristine and Brandi want to step back out on the field, and there are others who want to step back on the field as well. We’ve heard from Tiffany Milbrett that she’s interested and I think you’ll see more and more people, as they realize that this is real.

You go from the talking about it stage — we’ve tried to manage expectations because we know how sensitive the fans are to what happened before so we’ve tried to stay quiet, which is hard, but again, managing expectations until we really have concrete evidence that we’re real. That time is now. We’re preparing to put players on teams and allocation and drafts and we have our ownership in place, we’re working on it so we’re fully capitalized now, the money’s in and it’s been in for a while, so I think now the fans can really start to get excited about who’s going to come back, who’s going to give it a try? Kristine is just a wonderful example of someone who obviously moved on in her life. She’s having a family, and she’s had to take a break from the national team, but it’s important enough to her, to her legacy and to the future girls who will play the sport that she wants to come back, and it’s great.

KK: So you’ll begin with 7 teams or 8 teams next year? I know Philadelphia is going to come into the league when that stadium’s done, which should be the year after, but are you….

TA: Yes, Philly will come in in 2010 and they’re working through… the discussions are just going great with the MLS Philly ownership group. That new stadium to your point, that’s where they’ll play in 1010. Again, a partnership around other aspects of operational efficiencies and sharing costs with that MLS team. It’s really shaping up to be a model partnership, which we really love. They’ll come on board in 2010.

We’ll launch in 2009 with 7 teams. We are giving ourselves another month or so, we’re trying to sneak in maybe one more team as a team for 2009. We’re really focusing on the West Coast, particularly San Diego and the Bay area. It adds a national footprint balance for us, it helps reduce travel costs, and there’s this big gaping hole on the West Coast right now with LA out on its own. So we’re really trying to see if we can… we’re talking to a lot of potential investors and a number of people have made verbal commitments to us, so we’re just trying to get the rest of the way there. We hope, and if it won’t be 2009, then we’ll get it done for 2010.

KK: Great. And the final question I have for you is, your website, I’ve found to be much more informative in the months leading up to the launch of the league, and even leading up to the Olympic team selection and Women’s World Cup last year than the WUSA’s website had been in the period of time that the league existed. Is there some sort of web-based program your league is trying in order to attract fans, or is that just a coincidence that your website is that much more informative?

TA: Well, I appreciate the compliment, and we know it can be a heck of a lot better. We actually don’t feel that we’re meeting our own goals and expectations with the website, so I think fans should expect a heck of a lot more out of us. We’re planning a relaunch of the site this fall, adding a lot more functionality and features and again, the real big launch of the site will be when the games begin in April next year.

Just a quick second on my background, I was at Yahoo for 7.5 years before I started this project, relaunching or launching WPS. So my background is in the internet, and it’s a passion area for me just with Yahoo sports and Yahoo fantasy sports areas where I focused when I was at Yahoo and properties that I was involved in building.

I think to me, the internet is absolutely home-based, where our fans are interacting, where they will follow our league to your point, a great source of information and just exciting experience, an extension of the game on the field. I think we’ve got a real focus within our organization to really harness and maximize what that can be for fans. I think fans should keep tuning in because we plan to bring more and more interesting things out to them as we approach launch in April.

KK: Fabulous. Tonya Antonucci, the CEO of Women’s Professional Soccer, our new women’s professional league here in the United States, it’s a sanctioned first division, it’s the top of the women’s professional soccer pyramid. Thank you so much for joining us.

TA: Thank you for the time, I appreciate it.

The WPS kicks off in April 2009 – to learn more, please visit their website.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

At the conclusion of a successful 2007 season, which saw MLS’ attendance at it highest level since the inaugural season of 1996 and media coverage beyond once imaginable levels, the league opted to increase the number of international squad spots to eight from the previous four senior and three youth internationals.

This new rule has created a situation where clubs no longer have to consider waiving a foreign player to sign another (since few clubs are at their limit, considering green card holders are exempted from the eight player limit), as was the case for much of MLS’ existence. Eight internationals is four more than were allowed throughout most of MLS’ existence – a period of time when the league helped the growth of the US National Team as well as the CONCACAF region in general.

MLS teams rushed to fill their new-found foreign player slots. Some sides like D.C. United unveiled four foreign signings in a single press event and other clubs talked up the signing of foreign players, most of whom had limited or no national team experience and weren’t the types of players who could transform MLS and grow the club game in North America.

For every Luciano Emilio and Christian Gomez, there seem to be as many, if not more, Mathias Cordoba’s or Franco Neil’s. This situation mirrors that of 1998 when, using the addition of the Chicago Fire and Miami Fusion as a justification, the league added a fifth foreign player spot for each MLS side. This led to signings of the likes of Marquinho, Roger Thomas, Gilmar, and the unforgettable Jerry Tamishiro. The next year the foreign player limit was dropped back down to four.

Much like ten years earlier, MLS clubs now seem to rely on reputation or nationality to sign foreign players rather than their actual value in enhancing the product on the field. In other words, if players have not been regulars on their national teams, in most cases they will not contribute positively to MLS. Franco Niell, Franco Carracio, Jose Carvallo, Mathias Cordoba and others are evidence of the problems MLS faces in simply signing random foreign players with no international pedigree. Even those players who have escaped being waived by their clubs in the league, like Ivan Trujillo, seem to be delivering less on the pitch than was advertised, while Americans who come back home from Europe this season, like Nat Borchers, Ramiro Corrales and Josh Wolff, have paid instant dividends for their MLS clubs.

The situation as it currently stands is not conducive to the goal to build soccer in this region and produce a respectable product while helping the development of homegrown players. For example, just last week, Toronto FC waived Andrea Lombardo, a Canadian forward with some promise, to sign yet another foreign player. This leaves TFC with only four Canadian field players on its squad, and as Canada’s lone FIFA-sanctioned first division professional side this is appalling and totally unacceptable.

I propose significant changes to MLS’ squad structure assuming the salary cap and current roster limits remain in place:

• All players from the CONCACAF region are exempted from foreign player limits.
• Players under 21 may be signed with no restrictions.
• Each MLS team is allowed three non-CONCACAF nationality players over the age of 23, and only two of these players may not have been called into their respective national team squad (not played, a key distinction between my proposal and the work permit rules in England) at least 50% of the time in the last three years.

  In other words, at least one of the three players must be a current national team player. In addition, all three players will be up to review at the end of each season. If they do not feature in at least 50% of the matches they were healthy enough to play in while under contract in MLS, they will be released from their contract at year’s end. These spots are not transferable between clubs.

• Designated Players are exempted from all above criteria. Each squad may have one non CONCACAF nation designated player and one DP from the CONCACAF region for a total of two DPs. These spots are no longer transferable between clubs.
• Toronto FC must maintain a squad with at least ten Canadian players.

With these simple changes to MLS, squads will be more competitive and also deliver more quality in the terms of football. In addition, the continued development of players from the CONCACAF region will be stressed over the continued signing of mediocre talent from outside the region. In the long term, MLS will be a better product, and the national teams of the CONCACAF region – and ultimately the region’s competitiveness on the world stage – will be beneficiaries of the new MLS.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

As we enter the knockout stages of SuperLiga 2008, let me state that while the intensity level was as high for these matches last year, the football has been much better this year.

No offense to anybody, but an L.A. Galaxy side featuring Alan Gordon and Edson Buddle as starting forwards and an injured David Beckham would not have advanced to the knockout stages of this year’s tournament. That having been said, MLS has a lot to live up to thanks to the performance of the Galaxy in last year’s knockout stages. David Beckham’s free kick to sink D.C. United was a thing of beauty, and Chris Klein’s stoppage time bicycle kick was the type of magic that MLS sides have rarely, if ever, produced in a critical moment of a match of international significance.

Had the Galaxy won the penalty shootout, that moment would have been etched in stone as one of the greatest in the history of Major League Soccer. A year later I still feel a tinge of sadness that the Galaxy did not win that match. That night they were a credit to MLS and to the game of football, even if too often last year they were simply a traveling circus without an effective ring leader. Alas, the Galaxy did not win the tournament the year FMF sides used the competition as a pre-season warm-up.

Now the event is being taken seriously, and every participating side came to play, and came to win. Atlante were humbled 4-0 by the Houston Dynamo in the first match, but manager Guadalupe Cruz told Telefutura after the match that his side psychologically had been beaten down and he wouldn’t let that happen again. The match, which was the first decided by more than one goal in SuperLiga history, actually provided the impetus for the Cancun-based side to play some of the best football of the tournament in their next two matches, sweeping away DC United and Guadalajara.

For the second consecutive year, CD Guadalajara (Chivas) needed only a draw against a fellow FMF side in the final group match to advance to the knockout stage of the SuperLiga, and for the second consecutive year Chivas saw defeat and saw their opponent celebrate advancement. But this year Chivas looked more willing to take chances against Atlante than they did last year against Pachuca. But the reality was Atlante was just too good, and Chivas’ backline suspect.

When you consider that Guadalajara got some great breaks, like facing Houston with Franco Carracio as the main scoring threat two days before he was waived while Dwayne DeRosario served a suspension, and having three DC United shots hit the post in their victory at RFK Stadium, any whining about not going through to the semifinals despite having a superior goal difference over Atlante should be spared here. Atlante showed the character that allowed them to win the Mexican Apertura in their first competition since picking up and leaving Mexico City for Cancun by crushing Chivas in the winner-take-all match.

In addition, Johnny Magallon, Mexico’s starting central defender, surely did not impress Sven Goran Eriksson with his poor display of positioning and defending. However, Eriksson, who has taken in many SuperLiga matches thus far, had to be impressed with Edgar Castillio and Fernando Arce of Santos Laguna, who could feel hard done-by only achieving a draw in a tournament where they seemed to lack the type of luck that Guadalajara received.

But when it comes down to it, Pachuca is still the team to beat in these competitions. An indifferent Clausura season in Mexico has not prevented the defending champions of this event from coming to the USA and playing some outstanding football. Despite my pre-tournament concerns about the age of Pachuca’s midfield, they have not only held up thus far but essentially controlled the bulk of the two of the team’s three SuperLiga matches. They next face a familiar foe: Houston.

We’ve seen Pachuca take care of Houston on two previous occasions at this stage of a tournament, including last year’s SuperLiga. While Houston will have revenge on their mind and will no doubt play lights out in the semifinals, would it be smart to actually pick against Pachuca at this stage against an opponent who completely lacks confidence when facing the likes of Christian Gimenez, Gabriel Caballero and others? Not having Stuart Holden, who’s currently with the U.S. Olympic team, is not going to help the Dynamo’s cause.

New England has been outstanding in this tournament. Mexican teams are getting a dose of what it’s like to face a disciplined, tactical European side when facing Steve Nicol’s team, which boasts the talents of Steve Ralston and Shalrie Joseph in midfield. In addition, the speed of Nyassi, Mansallay and Dube gave both Santos Laguna and Pachuca fits. The Revs use patient buildup instead of the frantic going forward without rhyme or reason style many Mexican sides use to achieve results. Atlante have been outstanding in their last two matches, but having watched New England in this tournament, who’d bet against them?

Chivas USA’s performance was a credit to their manager Preki and to the determination of Ante Razov, who, even at 34, is probably the best striking option for the US National Team. Razov scored in all three SuperLiga matches and has in fact scored a goal in six consecutive competitive matches for the Goats. However, no other Chivas player has scored during that stretch, and in this tournament Sacha Kljestan, another US Olympian, was frustrating. He mixed moments of absolute brilliance with moments of stupidity, while the normally steady Pablo Nagamura seemed reckless in this tournament. Chivas was good, but not good enough in a tough group.

That leads us to the one team that hasn’t been discussed in this article to this point, the one team that doesn’t deserve to be discussed, DC United. The performance of United, who entered the tournament never having once lost a match to an FMF side at RFK Stadium and three days later had two losses to FMF sides defies all explanation and logic. Sure, Marcello Gallardo and Gonzalo Peralta were hurt, and Tom Soehn seemed to aggravate Santino Quaranta’s injury by playing him when the team was desperate for a result against Atlante. But, the red and black have always had a standard in these competitions you could count on regardless of who donned the jersey. However, this week was certainly forgettable in the proud history of D.C. United, and was culminated by a smashing defeat at the hands of Houston in front of one of the smallest weekend RFK Stadium crowds I can recall, going back to 1996. D.C. was, in a word, embarrassing, and whether or not you take SuperLiga seriously, their effort didn’t bring any credit to themselves or to MLS.

The TV coverage for these matches on Telefutura has been outstanding. Like last year, the network is utilizing a two-man booth and sideline reporter at the matches, as well as a studio host. This pales in comparison to the typical Telefutura MLS broadcast, which is done at the low end with commentators calling the matches off of a TV monitor, and not providing much in the way of pre-game or post-game analysis.

SuperLiga is a big event when you base it on how Telefutura covers it compared to its weekly MLS or FMF matches. Only in the Mexican playoffs does their production quality or overall game packaging approach that of SuperLiga. Add to it the HD component which Telefutura has offered for these matches in selected metropolitan areas (including Miami, where I reside) and SuperLiga 2008 has been a slam-dunk event for the viewer. Let’s hope this continues in the knockout stages.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News