fastidium » World Cup

Coming in 2010 – The Two Escobars

douglas — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 19:21:45 +0000

Here was a country with a national identity so integrally connected to the success of its soccer team that one mistake on a playing field dashed the pride of an entire society and cost a man his life. Looking into the incident, I learned that the dramatic rise and fall of Colombian soccer was inextricably tied to the rise and fall of Pablo Escobar’s Medellín Drug Cartel, considered by many the ‘ruling party’ of Colombia at the time.

The Arena Effect

douglas — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 20:00:13 +0000

Bruce Arena succeeded Ruud Gullit as the manager of the LA Galaxy on August 18, 2008 ( press release ). In his first game in charge, he inherited a team from which he picked the following line-up against Chicago on August 21st. It was a home game that was lost 0-1. Beckham and Donovan were both away on national team duty.

G Steve Cronin
D Greg Vanney
D Troy Roberts
D Ante Jazic
D Sean Franklin
M Chris Klein
M Peter Vagenas
M Pires Alvaro  (Josh Tudela, 50)
M Ely Allen     (Mike Randolph, 67)
F Edson Buddle
F Alan Gordon   (Israel Sesay, 86)

The next match, which included both Donovan and Beckham, was August 30th, a 2-2 draw at New England. This was a particularly interesting line-up, seeing Greg Vanney in the midfield. Bruce was starting to bring in some fresh faces, with Eddie Lewis being the first.

G Steve Cronin (Josh Wicks, 45)
D Chris Klein
D Troy Roberts
D Ante Jazic
D Sean Franklin
M David Beckham
M Greg Vanney  (Mike Randolph, 65)
M Eddie Lewis  (Eduardo Dominquez, 81)
M Peter Vagenas
F Landon Donovan
F Edson Buddle

From this pool of 18 players, 11 are no longer on the official Galaxy roster: Cronin, Vanney, Roberts, Jazic, Alvaro, Tudela, Randolph, Vagenas, Sesay, Dominquez, and Allen. Over the past year, Vanney has retired, some have been traded and others let go. The rebuilding culminated, in my opinion, with the signing of Gregg Berhalter in April of 2009.

This team surely needed some senior leadership and Arena could trust some old-timey Nationals to provide it. He already had Chris Klein. Lewis signed the same day as Arena’s first game in charge, in August 2008. He brought Jovan Kirovski into the mix in October 2008. With the new season starting, Tony Sanneh and Berhalter came on board. The team started to look like the US National Team circa 2002, especially if you include Donovan and assistant coach Cobi Jones.

As a bit of trivia, I tried to find a U.S. National Team match when all 8 guys (Kirovski, Donovan, Lewis, Klein, Berhalter, Sanneh, Arena, and Jones) were involved but I couldn’t find any. I only looked at FIFA sanctioned matches so there could have been a friendly where all were there. Kirovski, Klein, Berhalter, Sanneh, and Jones (no Donovan or Lewis) all played for Arena in the World Cup Qualifier against Mexico in Azteca on July 1, 2001. Kirovski, Donovan, Lewis, Klein, and Berhalter (no Sanneh or Jones) played for Arena on June 21, 2003 in the Confederations Cup match against Brazil in Lyon, France.

The point of all this is just to say that we’ve finally got a good mix of players: a group of senior players, some established players (Dunivant, Magee, Buddle, Gordon), some promising new faces (Chris Birchall, Donovan Ricketts), and a couple of up-and-coming youngsters (A.J. DeLaGarza, Omar Gonzalez). I don’t know how all those salaries are staying under the cap, but we could make a serious run to the MLS Cup final. Its just amazing to me how the team has changed and how anyone thought that that team against Chicago a year ago, could do anything but stumble.

Just to give some perspective, here’s the lineup from the New England game again lined up against the team from the most recent match, July 16, 2009, at New York. Quite a contrast, me thinks.

G Steve Cronin                       G Donovan Ricketts
D Greg Vanney                        D A.J. DeLaGarza
D Troy Roberts                       D Gregg Berhalter
D Ante Jazic                         D Omar Gonzalez
D Sean Franklin                      D Todd Dunivant
M Chris Klein                        M Eddie Lewis (Chris Klein 85)
M Peter Vagenas                      M David Beckham (Christopher Birchall 70)
M Pires Alvaro  (Josh Tudela 50)     M Stefani Migilioranzi
M Ely Allen     (Mike Randolph 67)   M Landon Donovan
F Edson Buddle                       F Edson Buddle
F Alan Gordon   (Israel Sesay 86)    F Alecko Eskandarian (Mike Magee 74)

Donovan’s Diagnosis

douglas — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 22:08:10 +0000

In a Washington Post article, After Lackluster World Cup, Donovan’s Focus Is Galaxy by Steven Goff, Landon Donovan acknowledges that he didn’t play well in the World Cup and explains how too much criticism has been given to him personally when the finger should be pointed to the whole team. While I agree that he didn’t play well, the criticism he’s received is not, in my mind, too much. He was the “play maker” of the team, the midfielder that sits right behind the forwards, and distributes the ball. If he plays bad, the whole team plays bad. That’s the reason for the criticism. In my estimation, the criticism has been mild. In any other country, there would be petitions to ensure that he never puts on the jersey again.

The article is telling because Landon himself diagnoses his own problem but doesn’t see it as the reason for not playing well. He says,

“I should’ve been more aggressive,” he said. “I just felt like half the time I was out there I was just going through the motions. What’s the point of being there? “That’s really disappointing for me because I thought I was smarter and I thought I would realize that more. I didn’t until it was over, and that’s frustrating because you can’t go back.”

Want to know why Landon wasn’t more aggressive? Because, in MLS, he’s not expected to be. When all you’re expected to do is “get into the playoffs”, the level of play is degraded and players aren’t held to a higher standard. Landon himself says that his aspiration, by staying in MLS, is to simply be a good player. Not a great player, just good. He continues,

“My world, I’m not on this Earth to go be in Europe and become the best soccer player in the world. My life is about being happy. I want to enjoy it, and I think I can balance all of that and still be a good soccer player.”

Thanks for the clarification Landon.