Over the weekend, I noticed something on MLSnet.com that made this whole pre-season results coverage concept appear redundant. They’ve got the interns posting pre-season results round-ups – much like the item they ran on February 9. That report contains word on one of the earlier MLS-on-MLS pre-season games, as well as a couple others. I’ll get to that shortly, but only after a quick reassessment of my purpose here….OK, done.
Why? The richness of the blogosphere. Sure, MLSnet.com tells you who did what, but the explosion of blogs means there’s always more, more, MORE to pass on. On top of that, it seems some games don’t show on the radar – for instance, FC Dallas’ shellacking of amateur side Centro America (which is more or less what you’d expect), an event 3rd Degree covered exhaustively. So, armed with such goodness, I only want to say….I’m not irrelevant yet, you fuckwits! (I’m just parasitic.)
So, here goes…
Columbus Crew 4-0 Kansas City Wizards
Wizards fans seeking solace can credit Hillcrest Road for pointing out that the 30-minute scrimmage between each clubs’ starters ended 1-0 to Columbus. Obviously, things progressed, or worsened, from there. Hillcrest Road’s reported on the full game (and helpfully included pictures of waterfowl) as did Shawn Mitchell on his Covering the Crew blog, even if there’s not much there except the Crew’s scorers and line-ups. But Mitchell does provide in another post, this one featuring practice observations. The good news on the latter: Robbie Rogers looks sharp in practice, while draftee Steve Lenhart continues to make a good impression (helps he scored against KC as well). On the bad side: Andy Iro’s adjustment to the pro game has proved something other than flawless; still, there’s time and Mitchell reports an incident that demonstrates a willingness to learn…a good thing, right?
Chicago Fire 3-1 U.S. U-17s
Real Salt Lake 4-1 Santa Barbara City College
Along with the “official” report on the Crew v. KC, the February 9 pre-season round-up features some details on those two games. Way to beat up on some community college kids, RSL (yeah, it’s a joke; please don’t write in to inform me of SBCC’s soccer prowess).
February 8 Pre-season Round-Up
Real Salt Lake 7-0 Ventury County Fusion (seriously?)
DC United 0-1 Odense BK
Both these results appear in the above-linked-to February 8 season round-up. But, you can find a little more dish on the first game in the RSLFM Report’s coverage. I tell you, it looks like RSL has the number of every damn community college and PDL team in the country!
Finally…
Chicago Fire 2-1 University of South Florida
One last game to note. Chicago needed a late goal to win a preseason game against a college team. Do you feel the confidence?
Filed under: Chicago Fire, Columbus Crew, DC United, Kansas City Wizards, Major League Soccer, Real Salt Lake, Results, preseason
You know, echoing your comments above, I’ve always found preseason game coverage in any sport to be a little silly. Preseason games are less about winning and more about giving veterans time to round into shape, bubble players the opportunity to prove they belong and the rest to prove they deserve to be bubble players. Admittedly, professional athletes should always play to win, but in the larger perspective, winning comes fourth behind those other goals, especially early in the preseason.
That being said, in the spirit of complete honesty, if my Dynamo don’t whip up on San Jose (Hey, do they even have 11 players on their roster yet?) this week, I’ll probably be pretty bummed!! :>
True. Still, it’s good to see someone like Mitchell giving good coverage of things like who looks good in camp. That’s worth looking for at least.