Here's what I'm thinking about today:
1. MLS All-Star lineup. A quick look at the
MLS All-Star XI that was officially revealed July 10 shows a healthy and surprising prevalence of U.S. talent (eight of the 11 named). It's no surprise that
David Beckham was named to the team, but there's some deserving talent out there that has yet to receive the recognition.
With coach Steve Nicol set to name five more players July 15, and commissioner Don Garber to add two more, here's who I would choose: Jon Busch (Chicago), Gonzalo Segares (Chicago), Dwayne De Rosario (Houston), Guillermo Barros Schelotto (Columbus), Javier Morales (RSL), Edson Buddle (L.A.) and Steve Ralston (New England). It's too bad the Crew's Adam Moffet got injured, he was playing extremely well and was a possible all-star candidate in my eyes.
As for the opponents, West Ham, as much as I like the Hammers (former winger Alan Devonshire is my all-time favorite English player), I'm still on the record as being unenthused about their participation. No, I'm not asking or expecting that MLS lands a Chelsea, Man U, Barcelona or AC Milan-level team every year, but surely one of South America's top teams or even a top French/German or Dutch team would have been obtainable enough and would have been preferable to a lower-tier English side.
2. Should Cuauhtemoc Blanco be suspended? This one is a no-brainer, especially if you've seen the footage (sadly no longer available on YouTube) of the Fire's temperamental star trying to put the beatdown on D.C.'s Clyde Simms after the two teams met in the U.S. Open Cup earlier this week. Of course, this is just the latest in a long series of incidents throughout his career involving Blanco going postal. In his stint with MLS so far, he's been relatively well behaved, but with the Fire going through a poor stretch, it was almost inevitable that he'd regress at some point.
The question now is what does MLS do if it's true that he tried to punch Simms, poke him in the eye and headbutted a D.C. official after the game as the allegations suggest (denied by Blanco and the Fire). If the video evidence proves confirmation, MLS needs to take the hard line and lay down a heavy punishment (something akin to Ricardo Clark's nine-game suspension last season would be equitable). Then again, MLS could wimp out and give Blanco a $250 fine due to the fact that it wasn't technically a MLS game. We shall see.
3. Free Kick Masters Redux. As I stated in my last blog entry, the Free Kick Masters tournament held in Houston last week has a fair amount of promise, but at the same time it needs some work to reach its potential. I spoke again with the organizers of the event, Camelot Island Entertainment, earlier this week on those aspects.
Camelot's been stung by some of the criticism it has received, but did confirm that the event was a commercial success. At the same time, the management team recognizes that there were various issues that need to be resolved before next year's event (another Free Kick Masters is planned for 2009).
Fans of the tournament will be pleased to know that Camelot has pledged a willingness to address those issues comprehensively and also to re-examine and assess the scoring system used for both players and goalkeepers. From my perspective, I still believe the event has huge potential to draw both casual and hardcore soccer fans alike and I think it's commendable that Camelot has adopted an open-minded approach to rethinking its structure.
4. Neven Subotic update. To all the Subotic fans out there, rest assured, this feature is still in the works. Jeff Carlisle has been doing the legwork on this and getting closer to completion on the piece. The delay has been the fact that Subotic has been on extended vacation and his agent has yet to nail down a time for them to speak, but hopefully it will happen soon.
Player Pimping
I've been of the
opinion for several years now that Nigerian midfielder
Jay-Jay Okocha needs to be signed by MLS. He has exactly the right type of flair and ball skills that will entertain and unlike, say, a Denilson, actually add value to his team. (For further evidence of the impact of his game, look at Bolton post-Okocha, and Hull this past season getting promoted to the EPL with Okocha's help). For some reason, Hull inexplicably released Okocha after the season, so he's now a free agent. I'm hoping someone in MLS makes the call.
Jen Chang
