Sport Watch

Filed under: Los Angeles Galaxy

Los Angeles Galaxy midfielder David Beckham — yes, he’s still on the team — hopes to make his very belated 2010 MLS debut on Sept. 11 when the Columbus Crew visit Home Depot Center in a match that will have heavy Supporters Shield implications.

Beckham, 35, has not played since tearing his Achilles tendon in March while on loan to AC Milan. The injury cost him a spot on England’s World Cup team (but not on the bench) and the vast majority of his fourth season with the Galaxy.

“The doctors’ original date was Oct. 1, but I always kind of said I want to be ready before then. I’ll keep my fingers crossed and hopefully will play in part of the game here against Columbus. I’ll be on the bench, and hopefully I’ll get on the field for 15-20 minutes. That’s what I’m looking at,” Beckham told the Galaxy’s Web site.

The midfielder trained with L.A. for the first time on Aug. 11 and has gradually been increasing his workload. “You have good days and you have bad days,” he said. “It’s a bit difficult because when you don’t play in games. That’s where you get the real fitness from. But I’m doing what I can in the gym and what I can on the field, just trying to get strength back in my leg.”

The road back has been a long one. In addition to the disappointment of missing out on what would have been his fourth World Cup, Beckham said he has been “kick(ed) up the backside” by the difficulty of overcoming such a damaging injury. He was on crutches for six weeks, and then it was another month before he could put any weight on his left leg. He couldn’t jog without a limp until early August, and lately has had to endure additional intrigue surrounding his relationship with England coach Fabio Capello and his future with the national team

“The rehab has been tough. Being motivated to do the same thing over and over again, twice a day for the last four months has been difficult, but I’m getting there,” he said. “I always set a target of when I first did it I was trying to get back before the six months was up. Hopefully I can do that.”

Los Angeles will be hoping he can do that as well. Despite Beckham’s absence, the club shot out to what looked like an unassailable lead in the standings in April and May. But since the World Cup, the Galaxy has fallen to Earth, enduring a 3-6-1 slump that’s included elimination from both the CONCACAF Champions League and U.S. Open Cup. Its lead atop the MLS table has been trimmed to two points. The Galaxy is 13-5-4. The trailing team? Columbus (12-5-5), of course.

“I don’t think it’s a huge problem,” Beckham said of the slide. “We had such a great start to the season, and in the middle of the season there’s always going to be a point where you have a dip in form. We’re going through that at the moment. We have to realize as individuals and as a team that to win the MLS Cup you have to go through the difficult moments. We enjoyed the first part of the season, and we have to find a way of getting ourselves out of this. It’s not going to be hard because we’ve got the ability, we’ve got the players and we’ve definitely got the unity within the team.”

Beckham has played in just 45 games in his MLS career, which began in the summer of 2007, tallying seven goals and 16 assists. The numbers certainly don’t match his $ 6.5 million annual salary. Not even close. But if he can return and help the Galaxy capture their third MLS Cup, the infuriating fits and starts over the past three years certainly will be largely forgotten.

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Fanhouse Soccer

Filed under: MLS, US Soccer, Chivas USA, Columbus Crew, D.C. United, Seattle Sounders FC

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Wednesday night’s U.S. Open Cup semifinals in the nation’s capital and the Seattle suburb of Tukwila were yet another sign that some take the 96-year-old national championship tournament very seriously, and that others (including the organizers) do not.

There was controversy and drama in the first game of the evening, as the Columbus Crew outlasted D.C. United, 2-1, in overtime. A D.C. red card, an 89th-minute equalizer and an extra time penalty kick propelled the Crew into the final for the first time since 2002.

Across the country, the Seattle Sounders dispatched Chivas USA, 3-1. The Sounders now are on the verge of becoming the Open Cup’s first repeat champion since a mouthful of an amateur team called the New York Pancyprian Freedoms (which still exists) did the trick in 1983. The final will contested Oct. 5 at Qwest Field.

The Cup is a great idea, should be a lot of fun and is a legitimate piece of soccer tradition that genuine supporters of the American game can cling to. But in practice, it’s only as good as the effort put into it by the U.S. Soccer Federation, the participating teams and fans. Wednesday night’s games showcased the best and worst of both.

We’ll start in D.C., where the hosts were clinging to the Cup as the only potential salvation in an otherwise brutal season. “It has been a tough year. We have all struggled,” interim coach Ben Olsen said prior to the semifinal. “It’s not been fun, and here is a chance to get into a final and raise a trophy, something that this club has always prided itself on. So it’s huge. This is the biggest game we have had this season.”

While Olsen and the club clearly regarded the Open Cup as a trophy worth winning (the coach even rested several regulars during last weekend’s league match at Chivas USA), the United fan base did not. Wednesday night was their Super Bowl, or at least their conference title game, and they responded with a shocking attendance of 3,411. Yes, it’s been a long and difficult season. Frustrations are high, and it really was pretty damn hot on Wednesday. But 3,411 is a Women’s Professional Soccer crowd.

United didn’t let the empty seats dampen its spirit, and they played with a commitment that revealed the importance of the game. Columbus did the same, fielding a first-choice lineup (except at goalkeeper) despite the fact that it’s in the thick of the race for MLS’s best record and competing in the CONCACAF Champions League. It was a game played at a high level.

U.S. Soccer however, did not afford the match the same respect. Controversy and anger was plentiful following the game because of referee Chris Penso, who ejected D.C. forward Pablo Hernández after an altercation with the Crew’s Danny O’Rourke. It was the sort of play where a red or yellow card to either or both players could have been justified, but Penso chose red for Hernández and yellow for O’Rourke. It changed the game, forcing D.C. to play with 10 against a superior side.

Penso is not a regular MLS referee. He occasionally serves as a fourth official, but does not run the middle in the country’s top league. Why then, would U.S. Soccer ask a less experienced ref to handle the semifinal of its own championship tournament? Additionally, Penso had a history with D.C. United. He threw out former coach Curt Onalfo in an Open Cup game against FC Dallas in April. The hosts were lived with his appointment on Wednesday, which demonstrated a real lack of attention from the sport’s governing body.

The loss was devastating for D.C. Olsen could barely speak in the post-game press conference. “I mean, yeah, we had it. What do you want me to say? We had it,” he muttered.

A continent away, the fans most certainly did care, although the Sounders once again limited attendance by hosting an Open Cup game at the very minor league Starfire Sports Complex. That sends only one message — the Sounders consider the Open Cup a minor league tournament. But the fans showed their interest and produced a sell-out crowd of 4,547.

Nate Jacqua (two) and Fredy Montero scored the goals as Seattle advanced untroubled into next month’s final.

Sounders coach Sigi Schmid: “Obviously playing at Starfire is a unique situation because the fans are so close to the field and we pack the place. It just lends itself to a completely different atmosphere. But I think every club wants to win trophies.

“In our first two years of existence to be able to get to two finals in the Open Cup, to win the first one and now have the possibility to win the second one, becoming the first team to win two in a row since MLS has joined the Open Cup is something that obviously we’d like to do, because it hasn’t been done and it’s something unique and special for our club to achieve.”

Chivas USA, now in it’s sixth year, hasn’t accomplished nearly as much. In fact, Wednesday night’s game was the first semifinal of any kind the red-and-white had played. One writer (on the club’s own Web site, no less) said it comes down to a “lack of swagger.”

Jonathan Bornstein, at least, showed he cared. The U.S. national team defender, who’s leaving for the Mexican league after the season and who’s won’t play in this year’s playoffs (Chivas is last in the Western Conference at 6-11-4), saw his final chance for a trophy evaporate and was in tears afterward, according to Goal.com.

“Where we are in league play, it would have been huge for our guys and our club to go to our first final,” Chivas Coach Martín Vásquez said. “We were putting all our marbles in tonight’s game.”

Some went all in, others paid no attention at all. It was just another night in the U.S. Open Cup.

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Fanhouse Soccer

Filed under: European Soccer

Last time Icelandic club Stjarnan caught the public’s fancy with a goal celebration, the team pantomimed the act of catching a live fish. This time, it appears the side might have downed some bad seafood.

Showing a level of creativity that would do Iceland natives Björk and Sigur Rós proud, the Stjarnan soccer club recently celebrated a goal during a match by using no fewer than three players to intricately create a toilet on the pitch. Which then gets used by the player who scored the goal in question, naturally.

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Fanhouse Soccer