Monday, April 23, 2007

MLS random thoughts

Some random thoughts that rattled around my head over the past few days.

- It's a good thing FC Dallas is off to a good start. They've already been on national television three times (TeleFutura twice, ESPN2) and there will be no shortage of nationally-televised FC Dallas games in the next week. Thursday, FC Dallas-New York will be on ESPN2 while Sunday it's FC Dallas-New England on TeleFutura. FC Dallas, America's Team.

- Toronto FC will play at Kansas City on Wednesday in the Wizards' home opener. I kind of get the feeling that Toronto is like the team that everyone wants to schedule for their homecoming game. You want to win your homecoming game, and MLS teams want to win their home openers so it makes sense to schedule a lightweight. Early prediction: KC a lot, Toronto a little.

- Speaking of Toronto FC, they've already dealt Richard Mulrooney and Conor Casey and brought in Marvell Wynne and Kevin Goldthwaite. Looks like they've learned from Chivas USA and Real Salt Lake of 2005 and are hitting the panic button now instead of later.

- Schedule complainers of the week: the Galaxy. "Hey MLS, why are we getting so much time off right now? We didn't play last weekend. After our game this Saturday, we won't play until May 12. What gives? Okay, we know we'll be far more of an attraction with Beckham in August than without him in April and May but more games now and fewer games later would have been nice. Between our season opener on April 8 and our May 20 game against Chivas USA, you guys have us playing five league games. That's five games in 43 days. Now, take a 43-day span beginning on Aug. 5 and we've got 10 games in that span. 43 divided by 10 is 4.3, which means we'll be playing roughly one game every 4 or 5 days. And we'll be playing in five cities as well as a few home games. Thanks a lot."

- Colorado needs goalkeeping help. Trading away Joe Cannon was good in that it brought in Herculez Gomez and Ugo Ihemelu but it also left a gaping hole that the Rapids did not addresss. Bouna Coundoul is a liability.

- Shaka Hislop still hasn't recorded an MLS shutout.

- Maykel Galindo scored his first goal on Saturday 28 seconds into the game. None of us reporters in the press box saw at exactly what second the ball crossed over the goal line. Either a statistician or a Chivas USA official said it was 28 seconds so we went with it. I watched the highlights this morning and the ball actually crossed over 27 seconds in. Yes, I know it's nit-picking but that would have tied him with Jamar Beasley as the fifth-fastest goal in MLS history. I haven't taken an official poll yet but I think I'm the only person who cares about this.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Luis, I care too.

Anonymous said...

and I'm sure the guy who keeps the Climbing The Ladder blog cares too :-)