Praise for Peers. Oh, and the CONCACAF Champions Cup Schedule

I don’t have anything to say, at least at this time, about the schedule for the CONCACAF Champions Cup, which was released today…or thereabouts. No, I just want to thank Mike H from My Soccer Blog for visiting the official sites, reading the god-awful press releases, and posting them in a nice, easy-to-read, even eye-pleasing, format. So, thanks, Mike H.  Here’s to you (and ignore that lady in the front row…don’t know what’s wrong with her).

He even posted the TV times, as did Soccer Insider’s Steve Goff (though the link he provides comes out as pdf); choose the format that makes you happiest.

The TV thing is an issue – or at least a potential one.  Let’s just say I’m less concerned with who plays whom just now than I am with insuring that I have cable on March 11…stupid life….

Crew TSII: Break-Even Weekend, Good-Look Rook, Other Junk

If you smush together the Columbus Crew’s 1-2 loss to the San Jose Earthquakes (et tu, Kei?) and their 2-1 win over Chivas USA, they wind up breaking even on the weekend. And that’s good stuff: ending at .500 in MLS gets a team into the playoffs about half the time, right?

In all seriousness, the real good stuff – or at least the stuff that means much – comes with the details, namely, who scored goals and who’s trying out with the team. If there’s a big bright-spot, in my mind at least, about the Crew’s pre-season, it’s seeing Eddie Gaven’s and Robbie Rogers’ names continuing to show up in the box scores. The Crew’s present, um, difficulties with bringing in impact players turns up the pressure on the guys they’ve got. If you review the Crew’s pre-season results – which one can easily do on a numbers and goal-scorers level, courtesy of the team’s official web-site – you’ll see both players’ names twice. Better still, you’ll see rookie “Meet” George Josten’s name three times – and that’s just what it takes to get flattering copy in in-house perspective pieces.

Fortunately, a couple trialists have joined the Crew on their way to compiling an impressive (and largely irrelevant) 4-2-0 preseason record (that’s W-L-T; and use the “numbers and goal-scorers” link for verification; and, seeing as they play the Ventura County Fusion next, I’d expect that record will go to 5-2-0). I’ll admit I can’t pick ’em all – even after reviewing the current roster – but these are the unfamiliar names I’m seeing: Emmanuel Ekpo, who I believe is a “midfielder,” type unknown…to me, anyway; Ryan Miller (?); Sandro da Silva, who, according to a report by Covering the Crew, may not stick around; and, Mamadu Bah, who, according the the report linked to in the previous sentence, is a Sierra Leonian striker. Damn shame about not seeing his name on the score-sheet, ’cause that’s where the Crew need the most help.

Rapids/Crew, Splitting My Posts/Personality

Um, hey.

So, slight change in plans to how I’ll be handling the project of clocking the real or imagined revival of the Columbus Crew versus the Colorado Rapids. I received an invitation to cover the Rapids for The Offside – and (sucker!) I have accepted.

The upshot of this is pretty simple. I’ll just be posting any thoughts I have on the Rapids over there (e.g. on The Colorado Rapids Offside) and everything I have to say on the Crew over here (e.g. on Center Holds It). This won’t change the overall project or thesis, but will pose some challenges to linking the two projects. Tentatively, I think the plan will basically involve linking to anything I have written about the Rapids on The Offside when I post about the Crew – or, failing that, I’ll go with my original plan of linking to all the Rapids stuff I’m posting at least once per week.

Perhaps a little awkward, maybe a little unwieldy? We’ll see. But I do like the separate space arrangement. I’ll have to see how deeply I can divide my personality – perhaps even split my psyche into two different, mutually antagonistic selves in order to liven up the project. Stranger things have happened….and online no less. (WARNING: This link shouldn’t be NSFW. Too weird. But, in reality, it probably is. Just scroll down…and recoil in horror.)

OK, real Crew news to follow shortly here. And real Rapids news to follow shortly over there – or, at the very least, an introduction to The Offside’s readers (here that is…remarkably long).

All I know is I frickin’ hate that asshole from the Rapids’ Offside…

La Liga: Madrid Celebrate…Getafe Scores…Madrid Cries

In case you haven’t seen any of the commotion from the Madrid – Getafe game, here is the highlight that may seal the deal that Real Madrid either get helped immensely by the ref, or they get screwed six ways to Sunday.

The premise is Real Madrid score what looks to be a goal, only to have the goal waved off for offsides. While Robben and Madrid are still jumping around and celebrating, Getafe put the ball back into play, and go on essentially a 6-2 break. Uche then gets a great pass across the middle and slots it past Iker Casillas for the win.

You can be the judge on whether it should count or not. I certainly think it does. Why not? Once you put the ball down and back into play, it’s game on. Serves them right for celebrating.

AS printed out this cover today with the headline Pardillos which means ‘Stooges’.

And how.

If you want to see a bigger roundup of La Liga action, go see my buddy Striker here