2015 Season Kick Off Preview + CCL Report

PHEW!!!! In the very first minute of extra time, the MLS Players Union and the league’s owners agreed to a new Collective Bargaining Agreement late on Wednesday, thereby averting a strike and allowing this weekend’s game to proceed as planned. My favorite quote regarding this agreement came from the Twitter-sphere,

I know from years of watching my dad negotiate union deals and CBAs that if both sides aren’t fully happy with outcome, it’s a good deal.

— Jonah Freedman (@jonahfreedman) March 5, 2015

Only history will truly allow us to evaluate the quality of the deal, but there can be no doubt that the timing of it all can only be viewed as positive – no games were missed.  With that bit of business behind us, we can look forward to our guys’ contests and we can also talk about what DC and Montreal did in their CONCACAF Champions League Quarterfinal second leg matches this past week. Let’s get to the report/preview:

MONTREAL IMPACT  •  Carrying two precious away goals and a  2-2 aggregate score after its first leg match with Pachuca, Montreal fought and fought and fought for 79 minutes on Tuesday, only to allow a penalty kick goal to give los Tuzos a 3-2 advantage.  But in the dying minutes of extra time, rookie Cameron Porter controlled a bomb of a pass from Callum Mallace before poking it through Pachuca goalie Conejo Pérez’s legs to level the score at 1-1 and send the Impact into the semifinals (3-3 aggregate, away goals tiebreaker) – making them just the second (or third, depending how you look at it) MLS team to advance so far into the competition.  Evan Bush [Concord Township/Lake Catholic] was marvelous in goal for the home side, making two saves and dealing cleanly with any ball that got to him (minus the penalty).  Next up for the Impact will be a home-and-away with Costa Rican club Alajuelense (see below) next month.

DC UNITED  •  In a deep hole after the away leg, having lost 5-2 in Costa Rica a week ago and needing a 3-0 win to see them meet Montreal in the CCL semifinals, the best DC could do was beat Alajuelense 2-1 last night, which sent the Ticos on with the 6-4 aggregate win.  Chris Korb [Gates Mills/University School] got the start at left back for the hosts, on a horrible, freezing rainy night in our nation’s capital on Wednesday.  DC was up 1-0 at halftime, thanks to a goal from Costa Rican Jairo Arrieta, which created more hope for them to possibly turn things all the way around, but a late goal from the visitors wrapped things up for them, despite a consolation penalty kick from Fabián Espíndola.

Here is this weekend’s schedule of games (for our guys’ teams only):
FRIDAY, 7 MARCH
– LOS ANGELES  v  Chicago, 1030pm, UniMás [If you’d like to watch this game, but can’t understand Spanish, you’re in luck.  Hit this link for tips on how to adjust your SAP option on your TV.]
SATURDAY, 8 MARCH
– DC UNITED  v  MONTREAL, 3pm
– Vancouver  v  TORONTO FC, 6pm
– Houston  v  COLUMBUS, 8pm
– PORTLAND  v  Real Salt Lake, 1030pm
SUNDAY, 9 MARCH
– Orlando City  v  NEW YORK CITY FC, 5pm, ESPN2

PHOTO CREDIT:  Paul Chaisson

2014 MLS Minutes…

Earlier today, I saw a tweet from @HelltownBeer listing the State/Country with the most #MLS minutes played this season:

76,473 California
33,979 England
29,493 Argentina
26,501 Brazil
26,251 Texas
23,958 Ohio

Naturally, I looked up our Northeast Ohio fellas in order to calculate their contribution to Ohio’s total.  Here’s what I have:

Darlington Nagbe 2,681    
Justin Morrow 2,676
Chris Korb 1,376
Evan Bush 1,170
Josh Williams 1,123
Ben Zemanski 734
Ben Speas 704
Kenney Walker 329
Michael Nanchoff 85
TOTAL – 16,411

So… being the curious sort, I looked up other Ohioans of note, and it was:

Kofi Sarkodie [Dayton/Houston]  2,872    
Wil Trapp [Columbus/Columbus]  2,486
Nick Hagglund [Cincinnati/Toronto FC]  2,088
Marc Burch [Cincinnati/Colorado]  1,899
Troy Perkins [Springfield/Montreal]  1,890
Chris Rolfe [Kettering/DC United]  1,679
Danny O’Rourke [Columbus/Portland]  975
Chad Barson [Columbus/Columbus]  766
Austin Berry [Cincinnati/Philadelphia]  497
Eric Brunner [Columbus/Houston]  297
Erik Palmer-Brown [Napoleon/Sporting KC]  235

Great news – it turns out that the grand total from my math puts our Ohioans at a grand total of 32,095!!  Not too shabby!!  Take that, Texas, Brazil and Argentina!!

PHOTO CREDIT:  Nagbe – timbers.com; Sarkodie – kelvinkuo.com

MLS PLAYOFFS REPORT #2

And then there was one.  The offseason began for the other two.  Not much else to say, so here’s how it all went down:

DC UNITED  W 2-1  v New York Red Bulls  [2-3 aggregate]  •  It was the away goals rule that really changed this tie for the worst, when a 57th-minute goal from Peguy Luyindula not only leveled the score at 1-1 in the game, but made it so that DC would have to score three more goals to go through.  The home side got one more, but it was just too tall of a task for the Eastern Conference Champs.  Chris Korb [Gates Mills/University School] was an unused sub, which is curious, since his inclusion in the lineup has mostly gone along with preferred results for DC (last week being an exception, obviously).

COLUMBUS CREW  L 1-3  @ New England Revolution  [3-7 aggregate]  •  The Crew did not go down without a fight, but they did go down with not enough goals.  In fact, it was the visitors who carried the play in the opening moments, but they lacked that sharp scoring touch when they needed it.  Ben Speas [Stow/Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy] subbed on for the final 16 minutes and helped create a little spark, but it  wasn’t enough.  One major plus to this negative result was the return to MLS action of Josh Williams [Copley/Copley], who subbed in for the final 34 minutes, as the Crew continued to chase the game after Ethan Finley’s (bogus) red card.  It had been a long 158 days (if my math is good) since Williams had last made an MLS appearance, after having surgery in June to remove a rib to alleviate some blood clotting issues he was having.  It was great to see him back on the field again.  He looked good and his playoff beard game was tight.

LOS ANGELES GALAXY  W 5-0  v Real Salt Lake  [6-1 aggregate]  •  While many pundits figured that the Galaxy would advance from this series, I’m not sure too many people predicted that kind of scoreline.  Landon Donovan and Robbie Keane were in control from the get-go and few teams in MLS can handle LA when they’re in that kind of mood.  Kenney Walker [Wickliffe/Wickliffe] had great a great view of the drubbing, as he was an unused sub.  So the Galaxy move on to play Seattle in the two-legged Western Conference Finals.  Game 1 is at home on Sunday, 23 November, 5pm (ESPN) and Game 2 is at Seattle on Sunday, 30 November, 9pm (ESPN).

Our next post won’t come until after the first leg.

PHOTO CREDIT – mlssoccer.com  (I looked high and low for an action photo of Williams from that game, but could NOT find one.)

MLS PLAYOFFS REPORT #1

One game into the two-legged conference semifinal series, one of our teams is near dead, one still has a ways to go and the third has the only one of our boys to see playoff action this season.  As everyone likes to say, “It’s halftime of these semifinal series,” and anything can happen as we head towards next weekend.  This year, a new rule change is that away goals is the tiebreaker.  Here’s a review of how the rule works: After regulation of the second game, if the teams have scored the same number of goals, the team that has scored more goals as the road team advances. If neither team holds such an edge, the series proceeds to extra time (two 15-minute periods played in their entirety) and penalty kicks if necessary.  The away goals rule does not apply to goals scored in extra time. If an aggregate score is tied at the end of regulation of the second game, for example 3-3, and both teams score in extra time, the series is tied, 4-4. The goal scored by the road team in extra time affects only the aggregate score.  Keep all that in mind as you consider our fellas’ likelihood of advancing.  Here’s what went down yesterday and today:

COLUMBUS CREW  L 2-4  v New England Revolution  •  Ufff… hosting the first leg of these ties puts the onus on the away team to at least get one goal – especially now with away goals being the first tiebreaker.  So, the Crew still have some hope next Sunday when they go to Foxboro, but not much.  A little.  They’ll need to win 3-0 to get to the Eastern Conference Finals.  Stranger things have happened, I suppose.  Ben Speas [Stow/Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy] was an unused sub today.  In case you were wondering, only one visiting team scored three goals in New England, and that was Philly in a 3-1 win.  So…

LOS ANGELES GALAXY  D 0-0  @ Real Salt  •  Not losing the away leg is a good policy, but RSL can still advance with away goals and a draw next weekend in Carson.  Next Sunday, Job One for LA will be to shut out one of the highest scoring teams in the league.  Job Two will be to win.  Seems easy enough.  Kenney Walker [Wickliffe/Wickliffe] was an unused sub today.  

DC UNITED  L 0-2  @ New York Red Bulls  •  An away goal would’ve been nice, but this series isn’t over.  Not with the home form DC had this regular season – 11 wins, 4 draws, 2 losses.  Also, they beat the Red Bulls 2-0 and 1-0 at home.  Chris Korb [Gates Mills/University School] started at right back and played all 90.

Here’s the schedule for the second legs of the series:
Saturday, 8 November
  –  DC  v NYRB, 230pm – live on NBC
Sunday, 9 November
  –  COLUMBUS  @ New England, 5pm – live on ESPN2
  –  LOS ANGELES  v Real Salt Lake, 730pm – live on ESPN2

PHOTO CREDIT – DC United Instagram account

2014 Week 32 – Regular Season Finale Report

This report, I’m splitting in three – MLS, CCL and NASL.  I’ll present the MLS stuff in order of finish of the fellas’ teams in the overall Supporters’ Shield race – and I’ll also make note of who’s in the playoffs and who isn’t by using a horizontal line across the page!  Three in, three out.  Things in the CCL were a little bit better.  Two in, one out.  NASL… neither side made the playoffs.  Alright – enough intro.  Here’s how it all went down last weekend:

LOS ANGELES GALAXY  61 pts [17 wins-7 losses-10 draws]  L 0-2  @ Seattle Sounders  •  Kenney Walker [Wickliffe] played no part in this one, as he watched it all from the subs’ bench (and also from the warmup area, presumably).  It wasn’t great soccer and there were tons of fouls, but the hosts got the goal(s) they needed in the second half to earn the Supporters’ Shield.  LA goes into the playoffs as the #2 seed in the Western Conference and will play the winner of the FC Dallas-Vancouver knockout match in a quarterfinal home & away series.

DC UNITED  59 pts. [17-9-8]  D 1-1  v Montreal Impact  •  Chris Korb [Gates Mills/University School] started and played all 90 of this one, which wasn’t exactly meaningless for DC.  They wanted to roll into the playoffs on a good note and they kind of scrapped out a point up north, so that’s better than a loss, right?  DC will host the winner of the Eastern Conference knockout game (NYRB v SKC) in a home & away quarterfinal series.

 W 2-1  v Philadelphia Union  •  Ben Speas [Stow/Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy] started and played 78 minutes before subbing off.  He contributed an assist on the Crew’s first goal, springing Jairo Arrieta to run free and finish the 1v1.  Having qualified for the playoffs, the Crew needed to win again to give themselves the best possible shot at making it to the #3 seed, which would allow themto avoid playing in a Eastern Conference’s #4 v #5 knockout match.  This win, coupled with a Sunday night favor from NYRB, who beat Sporting KC, made that dream a reality.  There are a lot of teams that are not exactly looking forward to playing the Black and Gold, as the Crew was the only team in the league to win all of its final three matches.  Great time to be in fantastic form.

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PORTLAND TIMBERS  49 pts. [12-9-13]  W 2-0  @ FC Dallas  •  Darlington Nagbe [Lakewood/St. Edward] started at attacking mid and played all 90 and scored the opening goal of the match  two minutes before halftime.  Two things, 1) Nagbe owns Dallas and has scored five goals in ten career MLS matches against them – plus another S-I-C-K one from US Open Cup play last year; 2) back in March, if you had bet any of the MLS media experts or any Timbers fan that Nagbe would go goalless for 2014 until the final game of the season – or simply that he’d only score once all year – you’d now be a rich man or woman.  Coming off a 2013 of nine goals, nobody would’ve thought he’d just get one.  Anyways, never mind that!  In a game that Portland needed to win if it was going to make the playoffs, D-Nags delivered the goods… too bad Vancouver tied and edged them out by one slim point for the final Western Conference spot.  Ben Zemanski [Akron/Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy] started and played all 90 at holding mid.  Michael Nanchoff [North Royalton/Walsh Jesuit] was not in the travel team. Bummer of an ending to a bummer of a year for Portland, who will look to re-tool a bit and sharpen up the edges that allowed nearly twice as many home goals as were conceded a year ago.  BTW, if you didn’t catch this skills video featuring Nagbe, dig it here!

TORONTO FC  41 pts. [11-15-8]  L 0-1  @ New England Revolution  •  Justin Morrow [Cleveland/St. Ignatius] started at center back (?) and played all 90 as the year ended with just a dollop of dog crap on top of a heaping pile of disappointment – New England’s goal came on a disputed offsides call.  Was it or wasn’t it?  Yo no sé, but the experts claim that it was a good call.   In mid-September, the Reds were in the playoff hunt, but they went L-L-L-D-L down the stretch and that was that.  There’ll be tons of questions all offseason, but one of them should not be #2 at right back.  We’ll delve deeper into this topic in our individual postseason reports, but of all the team’s offseason acquisitions, Morrow might have been the team’s most consistent performer.

MONTREAL IMPACT 28 pts. [6-18-10]  D 1-1 @ DC United  •  Evan Bush [Concord Township/Lake Catholic] started in net for the Impact and made four saves in his 90+ minutes of work.  It was kind of fitting that DC tied it up in the 86th minute, from the point of view that while Bush has played well during his 13 games this season, les Bleus’ shaky defense has kept him from putting up decent stats.  Montreal limps home, dead last in the league.

CONCACAF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
PORTLAND  L 1-3  @ CD Olimpia  •  Needing to do basically anything  other than lose by two goals or more in Honduras to ensure they’d move on to the CCL Quarterfinal Round, the Timbers blew it.  Zemanski played all 90 at holding mid, Nagbe came on with 19 left and Nanchoff didn’t make the trip, but the PTFC boys just could not put in or keep out that one goal that would have seen them through.  It’s never easy when you go to Central America.

MONTREAL  D 1-1  @ New York Red Bulls  •  Having already qualified, this was truly a meaningless match.  Well, maybe other than getting guys experience and match fitness it was meaningless.  Bush started and made one save.

DC  W 1-0  @ Tauro FC  •  Down in Panama, DC was also playing a meaningless group 3 match, since they had already qualified for the quarters.  They won and Korb subbed in for the final 29 minutes.

NASL REPORT
OTTAWA FURY  L 1-2  v Indy Eleven  •  Sinisa Ubiparipovic [Mentor/Mentor] started as one of the mids and played the first half of this clash of the expansion teams.  It was the Fury’s final home game of the season and puts them on 16 points with one match remaining.  They’ll travel to South Florida to take on the Ft. Lauderdale Strikers on Saturday, 1 November at 730pm.

PHOTO CREDITS:  Portland Timbers Facebook page

2014 Week Thirty-One Report

The penultimate weekend of the regular season saw some great games and great goals, and the Crew got some help from the Impact, which enabled them to qualify for the playoffs for the first time since 2010.  Here’s how our boys did over the weekend:

PORTLAND TIMBERS  D 0-0  v Real Salt Lake  •  In the weekend’s kickoff match, the Timbers huffed and puffed but could not blow the ball past RSL ‘keeper Nick Rimando, who made six saves and two punches to keep the home side frustrated and goalless.  Darlington Nagbe [Lakewood/St. Edward] started and played 82 minutes before subbing off, and saw Rimando make a flying save to deny him in the second half.  Ben Zemanski [Akron/Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy] played 90 at d-mid.  Michael Nanchoff [North Royalton/Walsh Jesuit] was not in the team.  Portland has not yet been mathematically eliminated from the playoffs.  They could get in if Vancouver loses next Saturday and if they beat FCD.  Let’s start crossing some fingers now!

DC UNITED  W 2-1  v Chicago Fire  •  Chris Korb [Gates Mills/University School] subbed in for the final 21 minutes to help kill off the game, as his team locked up the top spot in the Eastern Conference and the #2 seed in the playoffs with this win.

TORONTO FC  D 1-1  v MONTREAL  IMPACT  •  It wasn’t “win and we’re in” for TFC, but three points would sure have helped.  Instead, the Reds scored in the 20th minute, gave up the equalizer in the 39th, and the second half turned into card-fest, as both teams had players’ names go into the ref’s little black book – and they both finished with ten men.  It’s game tape that’s not going to be preserved for future generations of players to review for entertainment.  Justin Morrow [Cleveland/St. Ignatius] started and played all 90 for TFC, and Evan Bush [New Concord Township/Lake Catholic] was in net for the Impact, making three saves and picking up a yellow card in the 90th minute for time wasting.

COLUMBUS CREW  W 3-1  @ New York Red Bulls  •  Even before this game kicked off on Sunday, the Crew learned that it had qualified for the playoffs, thanks to the Canadian stalemate.  For some teams, getting in would have been enough, but the Black & Gold have adopted the motto of “Let’s go for 3rd place!”  By beating the Red Bulls, they jumped over them and into 4th.  It was quite a performance from the visitors, who are in fine form at the right moment.  Ben Speas [Stow/Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy] was an unused sub.  No Josh Williams [Copley/Copley] or Brad Stuver [Twinsburg/Twinsburg] in the gameday XVIII.

LOS ANGELES GALAXY  D 2-2  v Seattle Sounders  •  There were lots of story lines on offer Sunday night in Carson, California for an encounter featuring the top two teams in the Western Conference and probably the entire league.  Kenney Walker [Wickliffe/Wickliffe] was an unused sub as the Galaxy scored twice in the first half and then gave up two goals after the break to make their chances of winning this season’s  Supporters’ Shield a bit slimmer.  To do it, they’ll have to win next weekend up in Seattle.  Not impossible, but not easy.

NEXT WEEK
Tuesday, 21 October – CONCACAF Champions League
– DC  @  Tauro FC, 8pm
– PORTLAND  @  Olimpia, 10pm – Fox Soccer Plus
–MONTREAL  @  New York, 8pm
Saturday, 25 October
– LOS ANGELES  @  Seattle, 230pm – NBC
– DC  v  MONTREAL, 4pm
– TORONTO  @  New England, 730pm
– PORTLAND  @  FC Dallas, 830pm
Sunday, 26 October
– COLUMBUS  v  Philadelphia, 4pm – UniMas

The NASL REPORT
OTTAWA FURY  L 0-2  v FC Edmonton  •  Sinisa Ubiparipovic [Mentor/Mentor] subbed on in the 57th minute of this match, which puts the Fury at 16 points from 16 matches, in ninth place.  Next weekend’s home game with Indy (Saturday, 25 Oct, 4pm) could be huge if Ottawa can win it – they’d jump over the Eleven in the standings in that case.

PHOTO CREDIT – Veronica Henry/Toronto Sun