Hah! Ineffablebob I was just coming to post about that game. The Galaxy are looking good, damn them. 19 shots to 4 on the first half alone ouch. They’ve beat Seattle and now Portland in consecutive games. Someone (the Crew!) should stop them.
A couple things about MLS
Schedules are crazy. Other leagues play every game in saturday / sunday. Your league appears to be all over the week.
Some VERY bad defending: I’ve watch a lot of recaps and one of the things that stands out to me is the sheer ammount of defenders just lazily giving the ball away in front of the box, or not knowing how to freaking challenge the offensive player.
Maybe in part because of No. 2, there’s a lot of scoring on MLS, I like it, but as a fan of all aspects of the game, I do appreciate a good defensive performance, and like to see good defenders just owning the box and denying and frustrating the opposition.
Edit: the Galaxy’s second goal was a beauty of a team effort.
Re: Everton and Lukaku: I think he is a great player who will hopefully get more disciplined in his game. The reason he was important for Belgium on that match ataings the USNMT was he came in when everyone else was essentially gassed, having been delegated to the bench before.
So Honduras new coach Hernad Medford has called his first list of players for our national team. No Noel Valladares, and a whole lot of other “last gen” players. He is starting with a fresh, young group, and again I only hope he is allowed to carry on his plan for the team. The terms of the contract don’t give me much hope tho: 1 year.
Didn’t get to watch that live, but just looked at the highlights. Nice that the All-Stars won, and fitting that Donovan scored the go-ahead. Based on what they showed in the recap, it was only through some pretty nice MLS keeper play that Bayern was held to one goal.
Bayern only really started to carburate when they -hilariously- mass subbed the whole team late in the second half. But they didn´t build any kind of rythm and really MLS keepers had some very nice saves. I actually thought MLS All Stars looked better most of the game.
Both MLS AS goals were great, but I have a soft spot for the second one. When Donovan came in the crowd welcomed him big time, and when he scored a few minutes later everyone just went nuts, I love to see that kind of stuff :)
Pep Guardiola was really pissed off and seemed to me he refused to shake hands with someone after the game, probably because some of the Bayern players got kicked around a bit and the referees said nothing.
Oh, and another great thing: at one point and for several seconds Bayern had 13 players in the pitch hahaha.
Yeah, Pep did not want to shake the hand of the MLS team’s manager. I guess they patched it up later, but there was very little to be riled up about. The slide tackle on the ball coming to Shaqiri was the worst since he took out Shaqiri with his trailing leg, but other than that, there was the late challenge on Schweinsteiger that wasn’t even hard, it was just late. I only saw it live, but I don’t even think Johnson got him on the ankle at all; the contact points were mainly upper leg and hip.
Really, at that point, the crowd and the MLS players were really into it and I’m surprised that the MLS players weren’t going into it even harder, as it really started to have a really competitive feel to it.
Miro Klose has also announced his retirement from Germany National team. What a great player it was a pleasure to see him score in 4 World Cups and finally break the record.
The Pep thing, it wasn’t about anything other than he was pissed to be beaten by an MLS team. He expected to come in, destroy, market the brand, and boost morale. He was basically throwing the toys out of his pram, very pathetic.
According to BILD, who tend to know this stuff, Löw tried to convince Klose to continue [implied: until EURO 2016]. He declined: “There cannot be a more beutiful point in time to end the chapter ‘national team’.”
The friedly against Argentina(!) on Sept 3rd will be the farewell for Klose and Lahm.
His stats:
He became a pro at the rather late age of nearly 22.
11 months later he got his first two nationals as a joker. He scored 2 goals within 33 minutes.
137 games for the national team, one more to come.
71 goals … Gerd Müller had 68 (in far less games).
4 World Cups (2, 3, 3, 1).
16 World Cup goals (#1 on the eternal list)
More records from Wikipedia:
FIFA World Cup all-time top scorer: 16 goals[71] (five in 2002, five in 2006, four in 2010 and two in 2014)
Only player to have had four FIFA World Cup medals.[76]
Only player to have had 17 wins in FIFA World Cups.
Only player to have appeared in four or more semi finals in FIFA World Cups.[77]
Only player to have scored at least four goals in three FIFA World Cups.
Scored in 11 World Cup matches, record shared with Ronaldo.
One of only three players, along with Pelé and Uwe Seeler, to score in four FIFA World Cup editions.
Scored at least five goals in two FIFA World Cups,[78] record shared only with Teófilo Cubillas and Thomas Müller.[79]
Record for scoring most goals from headers in a single edition of the World Cups.[80]
Only player to have participated in six Euro and World Cup semifinals.
First goalscorer in World Cup & Euro competitions combined with 19 goals.
Germany’s second most capped player behind Lothar Matthäus.
FIFA World Cup’s second most capped player behind Lothar Matthäus.
One of eight players in Serie A history scoring five goals in a match.[45]
A truly great player. Man that friendly against Argentina should be fun, I don´t think the boys in blue took kindly to the “this is how the Gaucho walks” celebration (I found it a bit insulting myself) and will have an axe to grind.
Tottenham paid $4 million for Seattle’s DeAndre Yedlin. What a ride. The kid was a last selections to the USMNT and he made a name for himself at the World Cup.
Yeah, this is gonna hurt. ;)
It was less aggressive than it looked though. There was some back story to it which I don’t have ready now (-> some other German targets). I would see it as youth enthusiasm gone out of control. Certainly not nice, but really no big deal.
Klose, Ribery, Lam, and I expect some of the spanish players will retire from international competition as well. A good thing tho, great as they are I´m always in favor of bringing the young blood in.
Wow that´s great stuff for Yedlin. Hope he does great!
Germany has arguably put a bit too much focus on young players since Klinsmann took over though. Only this time they had the right mix.
The next one leaves the ship: Inside defender Per Mertesacker, age 29, retires after 104 caps. He wants to have more time for his family and wants to concentrate on his new responsibilities as Arsenal’s vice captain.
Looks like Timmy is going to take the next year off from the USMNT. Not a huge deal, since it’s just friendlies during that time, but it means we’re probably watching the next USMNT keeper in either Brad Guzan or Nick Rimando during those games.
There’s no way it’ll be Nick Rimando as the “next” keeper (too old). I’m actually hoping we’ll see more of the younger keepers like Bill Hamid or Sean Johnson. I think there’s another young prospect too, but I can’t think of his name offhand. Anyway, Guzan is definitely the “next” goalkeeper. He’s good and plays week-in and week-out in the Premiership, which Jurgen Klinsmann loves.
