Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Random Thoughts
- With ManU’s win over Bolton and Chelsea’s draw at St. Andrew’s, the gap is down to seven points between the two. These two teams will meet on April 29th at Stamford Bridge, but does ManU have enough time to catch the Blues?
OK, just for arguments sake, let’s assume that ManU gets all three points vs. Chelsea. That would put the spread at four, now let’s look at the remaining fixtures for each team:
ManU: Arsenal, Sunderland, @ Tottenham, Boro & Charlton.
When I look at that, the only match that I may not see ManU getting max points is when they go to White Hart Lane to play Spurs. So if you assume a draw there, ManU pulls 13 points from those five matches.
Chelsea: West Ham, @ Bolton, Everton, @ Blackburn and @ Newcastle.
This is not an easy schedule with the most difficult fixtures being Bolton and Blackburn. Both teams are vying for a spot in Europe and will have revenge in mind from some of their past clashes vs. the Blues. However, even if they draw or lose both of those fixtures, but win everything else (11 pts), ManU would have to run the table as well as improve their goal differential (Chelsea is at +41 while ManU is at +34) in order to win the league. Stranger things have happened, but I think Chelsea’s title is safe.
The real intriguing storyline is at the bottom of the table. While Sunderland has been “tits up” for awhile, both Birmingham and Portsmouth have made a push to get out of the drop zone. With West Brom has now been pulled into relegation fight, it will be three teams fighting for one spot. My money is on Pompey to stay up. The moves that Redknapp made in January are now starting to pay off. He just can’t get relegated two years in a row, can he?
- I watched El Classico this past weekend. While Barca got the benefit of a dubious penalty given when Mark van Bommel took a dive off of a Roberto Carlos challenge, it was Real Madrid who showed some resolve by earning a 1-1 draw. What made this even more impressive was that they did it while being down a man after Carlos got his second yellow for dissent.
It had to be a disappointing result for the Catalans as they desperately wanted to deliver the knockout punch to their rivals. While it’s unlikely that Real will catch them, this can’t be good for Barca’s confidence with the second leg of the Champions League match with Benfica. They had such trouble finishing chances in the first leg and Saturday’s match did nothing to help their struggling form. Even Ronaldinho looked rather ordinary as he had several free kicks blocked by Real’s wall, that’s something you don’t see every day.
- I had my first taste of MLS Direct Kick this weekend. While it was great to be able to watch whatever game that I wanted, I was somewhat disappointed by some of the quality of the telecasts. The Crew-Wizards game looked like it was filmed with a convenience store surveillance camera. After seeing the lack of atmosphere in KC, I wonder why they haven’t moved that franchise somewhere else. Why not just put them in St. Louis? It’s such a great soccer town, they would probably get more support than KC. Are the Wizards tainted because they play in KC and no one in St. Louis would want them?
The one game that I did watch in its entirety was the Red Bull-DC match. While it had to be disappointing for Red Bull to lose a 2-0 lead, they still showed some guts by holding on for the draw. I was impressed with how the Bulls back four played. Even though they are relatively young, they performed well. I thought that Jeff Parke (Drexel grad) and Marvell Wynne both had strong games. I think that the Bulls will be better this year. Having Edson Buddle is going to help them, I just hope that he continues to progress because the young man has a lot of talent.
For DC, I thought that Ben Olsen was the MOTM. His work rate was excellent and he was active on the offensive end as well. I thought that Freddy Adu played much better in the second half when Nowak put him in central midfield. As amazing as it sounds, he seems to be more dangerous in the center of the field rather than on the wing. DC was much more effective with Eskandarian on the left and Adu in the middle.
Now, Bruce Arena has said that if someone starts out on fire in MLS, he would probably take them to Germany. Well, Brian Ching is officially on fire. Four goals last night with a hat trick in the first half. I hope he plays well vs. Jamaica. He really brings something different to the table as far as the other forward candidates are concerned. I know that I keep saying this, but if McBride were ever to go down, we would be without a target forward. This is especially important in group play when we match up with bigger European sides. (George)
OK, just for arguments sake, let’s assume that ManU gets all three points vs. Chelsea. That would put the spread at four, now let’s look at the remaining fixtures for each team:
ManU: Arsenal, Sunderland, @ Tottenham, Boro & Charlton.
When I look at that, the only match that I may not see ManU getting max points is when they go to White Hart Lane to play Spurs. So if you assume a draw there, ManU pulls 13 points from those five matches.
Chelsea: West Ham, @ Bolton, Everton, @ Blackburn and @ Newcastle.
This is not an easy schedule with the most difficult fixtures being Bolton and Blackburn. Both teams are vying for a spot in Europe and will have revenge in mind from some of their past clashes vs. the Blues. However, even if they draw or lose both of those fixtures, but win everything else (11 pts), ManU would have to run the table as well as improve their goal differential (Chelsea is at +41 while ManU is at +34) in order to win the league. Stranger things have happened, but I think Chelsea’s title is safe.
The real intriguing storyline is at the bottom of the table. While Sunderland has been “tits up” for awhile, both Birmingham and Portsmouth have made a push to get out of the drop zone. With West Brom has now been pulled into relegation fight, it will be three teams fighting for one spot. My money is on Pompey to stay up. The moves that Redknapp made in January are now starting to pay off. He just can’t get relegated two years in a row, can he?
- I watched El Classico this past weekend. While Barca got the benefit of a dubious penalty given when Mark van Bommel took a dive off of a Roberto Carlos challenge, it was Real Madrid who showed some resolve by earning a 1-1 draw. What made this even more impressive was that they did it while being down a man after Carlos got his second yellow for dissent.
It had to be a disappointing result for the Catalans as they desperately wanted to deliver the knockout punch to their rivals. While it’s unlikely that Real will catch them, this can’t be good for Barca’s confidence with the second leg of the Champions League match with Benfica. They had such trouble finishing chances in the first leg and Saturday’s match did nothing to help their struggling form. Even Ronaldinho looked rather ordinary as he had several free kicks blocked by Real’s wall, that’s something you don’t see every day.
- I had my first taste of MLS Direct Kick this weekend. While it was great to be able to watch whatever game that I wanted, I was somewhat disappointed by some of the quality of the telecasts. The Crew-Wizards game looked like it was filmed with a convenience store surveillance camera. After seeing the lack of atmosphere in KC, I wonder why they haven’t moved that franchise somewhere else. Why not just put them in St. Louis? It’s such a great soccer town, they would probably get more support than KC. Are the Wizards tainted because they play in KC and no one in St. Louis would want them?
The one game that I did watch in its entirety was the Red Bull-DC match. While it had to be disappointing for Red Bull to lose a 2-0 lead, they still showed some guts by holding on for the draw. I was impressed with how the Bulls back four played. Even though they are relatively young, they performed well. I thought that Jeff Parke (Drexel grad) and Marvell Wynne both had strong games. I think that the Bulls will be better this year. Having Edson Buddle is going to help them, I just hope that he continues to progress because the young man has a lot of talent.
For DC, I thought that Ben Olsen was the MOTM. His work rate was excellent and he was active on the offensive end as well. I thought that Freddy Adu played much better in the second half when Nowak put him in central midfield. As amazing as it sounds, he seems to be more dangerous in the center of the field rather than on the wing. DC was much more effective with Eskandarian on the left and Adu in the middle.
Now, Bruce Arena has said that if someone starts out on fire in MLS, he would probably take them to Germany. Well, Brian Ching is officially on fire. Four goals last night with a hat trick in the first half. I hope he plays well vs. Jamaica. He really brings something different to the table as far as the other forward candidates are concerned. I know that I keep saying this, but if McBride were ever to go down, we would be without a target forward. This is especially important in group play when we match up with bigger European sides. (George)
