Compelling Soccer

Javier Hernandez. Chicharito. The toast of Mexico and CONCACAF these days. At 22, he set the Premier League on fire with 20 goals in 45 total appearances. And according to plenty of soccer writers, he’s the reason the US had better get used to looking up at Mexico in the soccer-world hierarchy.

Mexico’s 4-2 win over the US in the Gold Cup final has left many dismayed and even bitter. The two big fish in a backyard pond, the US has actually had the better of the rivalry in recent years. So naturally anything that upsets that balance is disturbing and will prompt lots of ink to be devoted to it. Hernandez does that, so there has been plenty on him the last few weeks.

Despite the title, this isn’t going to be another exercise in that. I don’t really care how good he is. Because THAT is precisely the problem. The US concerns itself with Mexico and it’s players to the point that’s all anyone here actually knows how to measure the US against. And after going on twenty some-odd years of that, 4-2 is the result.

I can’t help but compare the two takes on Grantland as the right way and the wrong way to look at the game, Hernandez and the US in general.

Carles reaction is to compare Hernandez to Freddy Adu, to tell us that Adu will never be Hernandez. Not that I think he will be, but I could draw a huge list up of former prodigies that were considered “done” because they didn’t thrive right away. But besides that piece of flawed reasoning, it goes on to say that Hernandez will send the us into the Dark Ages of soccer and that it’s probably no US player will probably score 20 goals in the EPL any time soon. Again, why he throws Juan Agudelo, who is playing at a higher level than Hernandez was at the same age, is a mystery beyond me.

But that gets to the flaw of all of this. Trying to compare the US to Mexico is a lazy exercise that results in the US being either slightly better or slightly worse, as the case was Saturday, to Mexico.

The US didn’t lose the Gold Cup final because Hernandez was unstoppable. They lost it because their two holding midfielders played awful games, ranging from shaky to plain shitting the bed at times.

On defense, Jonathan Bornstein may have played his away off the US team forever. I say may because I’ve thought that before with Bornstein and yet he always finds his way back, even if he’s not playing at a club level. Clarence Goodson is a decent player, Carlos Bocanegra is solid but slow and Eric Lichaj is talented but inexperienced.

The US was dominated in the midfield, something that has been a strength of the team in recent years. If you want to see who murdered the US Saturday, look no further than Giovanni Dos Santos, who made incisive runs all night, threatened the US defense, did things to Bornstein that were unspeakable and to cap it all off, embarrassed Bradley junior, Tim Howard, Jermaine Jones, and others en route to the goal of the tournament and maybe the year.

It was a performance that would have beaten the CONCACAF minnows anyway. Had Steve Cherundolo not gotten hurt or Bob Bradley not went to his worn out, smelly old security blanket in Bornstein, it might have beaten Mexico. But it would NOT have beaten England, France or heaven help us, Brazil.

And yet had we beaten Mexico, it would have reaffirmed to pundits and most fans that even with Hernandez, the US’ scappy play is good enough. ‘They found a way’ would have been the common phrase. It usually is, until it suddenly Saturday, it wasn’t anymore. But if it hadn’t happened Saturday, it would have happened eventually, because you could easily make it ‘They found a way to beat Mexico at home’ and have it mean the same thing it has for the past 10 years.

This is why Bill Barnwell’s take on the loss is probably the best I’ve read. It gets at the mindset flaw with US Soccer. The process is wrong.

Lionel Messi is better at soccer than you.



Yes, we know it's been a while since we posted. Life intervenes. We hope to get back in the swing of things soon.

The World Cup field is set but as is the way in soccer, it was not without controversy. The France-Ireland game ended in disaster for the green and orange as France drew level in extra time to win 2-1 on aggregate. The goal was scored after Thierry Henry played a ball with his hand (twice!) and then passed it on to William Gallas, who buried it with his head. The referee flat out missed the call. France went up 2-1 and Ireland couldn't find another goal. Thus France is going to South Africa. Ireland is going home. Naturally, Ireland and many others are rightfully upset at the non call.

It's bad, but let's put it in perspective here. This hurt their chances of qualifying but it alone did not eliminate the Irish. If the handball is called, Ireland still has to score. Otherwise, it goes to penalties. I'm sure they'd have taken that, but penalties does not necessarily a World Cup berth make. It stinks they got potentially deprived of the opportunity but let's also not pretend they didn't blow opportunities of their own.

Denmark v. US

US Starting Lineup

--------Altidore----Cunningham---------

-Feilhaber--Bradley----Clark----Holden--

Bornstein?!--Bocanegra--Spector--Hedjuk

-------------Guzan--------------------

Stakes: For the teams? Zip, zilch, this is a friendly after all. For the US players, there's a lot of the line for some. Some players will be fighting to make arguments why they should be in contention for a spot on the team headed to SA. This is especially big for MLS players who won't have the next few months to state their case in their league. I'm looking at you Jeff Cunningham.

Questions I Have: The pregame lineups have Jeff Cunningham in the lineup up top with Altidore. This is his shot. With few games remaining in International competition, a Conor Casey v. Honduras performance would go a long way to getting him on the 23, especially with the uninspiring competition he's got up top. Benny Feilhaber is on the wing today, not the center. Clark takes his spot there. Stuart Holden replaces Dempsey. Robbie Rogers heads back to the bench.

Now for the WTF moment. Jonathan Bornstein and Frankie Hedjuk? Really? REALLY? At this point what on earth is Bornstein going to show us that we don't already know? He's MLS quick, talented offensively and is a terrible, terrible international defender. And Hedjuk? He's old and he tries hard. He should be nowhere near South Africa. Why isn't Bradley getting a look at Edgar Castillo OR Heath Pearce in the LB spot with Jimmy Conrad or someone else in the center with Boca? (Spector out at RB) It makes no sense. You don't care about winning friendlies as much as you care about seeing who is worth your time. Hedjuk isn't. Bornstein is a known quantity.

Seriously, I'm just sitting here shaking my head.

Will I Be Watching: Will try to keep tabs if nothing else.

Expectations: Bornstein to crap himself again count? Hedjuk to run really hard but not get anywhere quickly? (But people still liking it because he does run hard) Whatever. I just hope we get a look at some of the other guys in place of the left and right backs.

So the Slovakia game was an ugly affair for the US team. Let's face it; the Slovaks are a team the US should be able to handle. Unfortunately, the US attack stagnated without Landon Donovan and became a complete non-entity once Clint Dempsey checked out of this one. With the two nowhere to be found for this game, that doesn't bode well for the team's chances against a much stronger Danish side. In theory it could provide plenty of opportunity for someone to step up, especially in the midfield, and show something that cements their place in the South Africa squad. In practice, that probably won't happen, though it's probably wise to keep an eye on Danish based Benny Feilhaber.

What lineup can we expect from Bob Bradley? Here's my educated guess:

---Altidore-----------Cunningham----


---Holden-------------------Rogers---


-------Feilhaber----Bradley-----------

Castillo----Bocanegra----Conrad----Spector


---------------Guzan----------------------

ESPN's just posted Nate Silver's SPI rankings, which is his system of ranking the world of International soccer. Never too early to get started on the WC promotion right? Slow Wednesday in November just before the final part of qualification is just as good a time as any to launch a system.

Since it's Nate Silver, I'm looking at this with intrigue. The guy's had a lot of success with this type of thing; from Baseball Prospectus to FiveThirtyEight.com. He discloses his methodology which nice. Some of it goes off leaps of faith, which he admits, but overall I don't see too many problems with it thus far. Or at least I think it makes more sense than a personal ranking or heaven forbid, FIFA's. Having read through the length explanation, I can't say I understand all of it, but I'm willing to give it the benefit of the doubt for now. The real test comes in SA next year. Until then every ranking has to be taken with a grain of salt anyway.

Expanding on the David Ngog furor from the past two days, I thought I'd go into a little exploration of the FIFA guidelines on fouls. Partial credit goes to my roommate for this idea; he broke out the FIFA rule book when he was discussing how the rules were applied in FIFA 10.

Anyway, I found the section on free kicks and ended up posting a smaller summary of my take as a comment on the SBI forums. Basically, the rules show why this certainly wasn't an egregious dive and could have been called a penalty either way.

This is the section on direct free kicks:

A direct free kick is awarded to the opposing team if a player commits any
of the following seven offences in a manner considered by the referee to be
careless, reckless or using excessive force:
• kicks or attempts to kick an opponent
• trips or attempts to trip an opponent
• jumps at an opponent
• charges an opponent
• strikes or attempts to strike an opponent
• pushes an opponent
• tackles an opponent
A direct free kick is also awarded to the opposing team if a player commits any
of the following three offences:
• holds an opponent
• spits at an opponent
• handles the ball deliberately (except for the goalkeeper within his own
penalty area)
A direct free kick is taken from the place where the offence occurred
(see Law 13 – Position of Free Kick).

So the soccer world is abuzz with Liverpool's controversial draw against Birmingham City. The reason it's being talked about? David Ngog drew a penalty after a "tackle" by Lee Carsley. It has been almost universally hailed as a dive and Ngog is being blasted by Carsley and the media as a result.

It was a dive, though not an egregious one. People are whining because it's Liverpool and because it was the biggest game on a Monday. But the reality was the tackle was bad. He slid, impeded his progress to the goal and never got the ball. If Ngog doesn't jump, he trips over him and it's a penalty. You can say he intended to go down but that's irrelevant (and also probably impossible to tell). The bottom line is if you go to the ground and don't get the ball, you're asking for trouble. If it happened at midfield, no one would complain. It certainly isn't the worst dive ever, nor does it prove Ngog is a cheat. It is unfortunate this happened, because the goal he scored earlier was quite the finish.

One step forward: Glen Johnson back in the starting lineup.

Half step forward: Steven Gerrard on the bench.

Status quo: Alberto Aquilani on the bench; not starting.

Twelve steps back: Fernando Torres nowhere to be found.

That is all.

Er... 22. Can't say I was too surprised by any of the choices. That isn't to say I agree with all of them. However we'll get to that in a second. First the list as per Soccernet:

GOALKEEPERS (3): Brad Guzan (Aston Villa), Marcus Hahnemann (Wolverhampton), Troy Perkins (Valerenga).

DEFENDERS (9): Carlos Bocanegra (Rennes), Jonathan Bornstein (Chivas USA), Steve Cherundolo (Hannover), Jimmy Conrad (Kansas City Wizards), Clarence Goodson (IK Start), Frankie Hejduk (Columbus Crew), Chad Marshall (Columbus Crew), Heath Pearce (FC Dallas), Jonathan Spector (West Ham).

MIDFIELDERS (6): Michael Bradley (Borussia M'gladbach), Clint Dempsey (Fulham), Benny Feilhaber (AGF Aarhus), Sacha Kljestan (Chivas USA), Dax McCarty (FC Dallas), Robbie Rogers (Columbus Crew).

FORWARDS (4): Jozy Altidore (Hull City), Conor Casey (Colorado Rapids), Jeff Cunningham (FC Dallas), Eddie Johnson (Fulham)

With an international break a week away and the US with two Friendlies upcoming, one would expect Bob Bradley will announce the group heading over to Europe this weekend. Speculation is that it will occur after this round of the MLS playoffs concludes this weekend, which sounds about right. That gives me time to throw up a list of players I'd take if I were running the US team.

That was going to say "BABEL!!!!!" up until the 90th minute. Then Sotirios Krygiakos committed his second error of the match and this time Pepe Reina couldn't bail him out. Lisandro Lopez buried the chance and Liverpool's CL hopes likely with it.

There's almost a strange symmetry between Liverpool and my favorite baseball team, the New York Mets these days. Injuries to two of their best players hurt badly, but the subsequent injuries are what does the team in. Today missing Steven Gerrard hurt as did not having Fernando Torres at full strength. But what proved to be the death blow was the lack of Glen Johnson on the backline. If Johnson plays, Jaime Carragher is in the center with Daniel Agger and Krygiakos is on the bench. Does Liverpool then walk away with the victory? It's impossible to say, even if it is tempting to superimpose Johnson into that moment instead of Krygiakos. But what we do know is that we can't do that; he wasn't there and the end result is a Liverpool draw that may as well have been a loss.

Lyon v. Liverpool

Lyon: 3-0-0, 9 pts, top of Group E

Liverpool: 1-0-2, 3 pts, 3rd in Group E

Stakes: As the title indicates, this is it for the Reds. As unlikely a run into the knockout stages of the Champions League is at this point, it has to begin with a win in Lyon. Down by six points with three games to play, they need a lot to go right to vault ahead of Fiorentina or Lyon. If they don't get a result here, they might as well forget about advancing past the group stage. With the Premiership already lost, that would end Liverpool's hope of hardware, unless you want to start rationalizing the FA Cup. Realistically though, that probably wouldn't be enough to save Rafa's job if it came on the line here. Rational or not, the CL is the last chance for Liverpool to bring back something meaningful from this campaign. This is their last shot in the CL so you can do the math. And for everything to be essentially removed from the conversation in November; such talk has been unheard of at Anfield in years.

For Lyon, a point sends them through to the second round. This game is anything but essential for them.

Thoughts on the Opposing Side: Not much. Lyon showed their worth when they beat the Reds at Anfield two weeks ago. This time they'll be at home, where they've already beaten Fiorentina.

Questions I Have: Gerrard? Out. Torres? He's playing but how will he look? He's managed in his first two games back, but with reports surfacing that surgery maybe necessary for him and Stevie G, one wonders how much more he can push it. It certainly makes Rafa's decision against Fulham more defensible, though potentially also more of a stalling tactic than anything else. If they both need surgery, then the Reds are absolutely finished for this season no matter if they beat Lyon 10-0 today. As for today, you have to wonder when you here quotes like this from Rafa:

"We have to take Fernando to Lyon because we don't have too many options."

Does that inspire you with confidence over his fitness?

Aside from that, little else matters. You might bring up the usage of Yossi Benayoun, but really, it's all about Torres. We know Gerrard is out. If Fernando Torres is 90% of Fernando Torres, then the Reds are in business. If his injury is getting worse, then Lyon is definitely going to the knockout stages today and Liverpool is certainly crashing out.

Will I Be Watching: I'll try to keep track. But as usual, work days prevent me from paying extremely close attention.

Expectations: Liverpool's supposed Premiership last stand against Man U ended with the Reds playing spirited and coming away with a 2-0 victory. But that was at home and we saw Torres make it happen. On the road with Torres remaining a question mark, I don't expect much. A draw is possible, but a win? I just can't see it happening.

Yesterday I went to a basketball game with my roommate who runs a blog of the home team. He mentioned how he used the official tags of his blog. So in that vein I decided to codify a few guys of my own. These things may be obvious to those who have read the blog since it started a few months ago, but I'm always a fan of award things and that's pretty much what this is. Like I said, for those who have been reading (hi mom!) these are just affirmations of things you've probably already figured out. If you're a new reader, feel free to accept this as a brief look into where my warped mind stands on the soccer world.

So without further ado (resisted the Adu urge) here at the official Officials of Compelling Soccer:

Jonathan Bornstein's last action for the US National team was the game tying finisher against Costa Rica that secured the first place in CONCACAF qualifying. Could it also have been his last start for the US squad in International tournament competition? Bob Bradley has called in Edgar Castillo for the US' European friendlies in November. Castillo is the New Mexico born left back who plays for Tigres UANL in Mexico's first division. He also played for Mexico's national team until losing his spot under Sven Goran Eriksson. Under the new FIFA regulations, he was allowed to switch to the US national team. Yeah, we get Mexico's sloppy seconds. But I'm perfectly okay with that; I mean honestly, would you care if Sean Avery made fun of you for dating Elisha Cuthbert? No, because you're hooking up with Elisha Cuthbert. Not that Castillo could be compared to the Girl Next Door. However US national team isn't in any position to refuse talent here.

Remember when Liverpool rose from the ashes against Manchester United and gave the Anfield faithful hope as they managed to down the Red Devils 2-0? Remember how Fernando Torres returned from injury and fought off Rio Ferdnand's constant fouling to put home the winner? Remember how that Lazarus performance was going to rekindle the Reds season?

One trip to London ended all that.

Fulham v. Liverpool

Fulham: 3-4-2, 13th in the Premiership, 11 Pts

Liverpool: 6-4-0, 5th in the Premiership, 18 Pts

Stakes: If this were American football, this one would be called the "Disappointment Bowl." Of course, Liverpool's recent failures need no introduction, though they will get standard qualification, i.e. no Torres or Gerrard for most of the recent stretch. Torres return against Man U sparked them to a season saving win. On the other side Fulham was a club with big dreams after qualifying for Europe this year but have gotten off to a rough start. They're out of the relegation zone right now, but 13th isn't exactly where the boys from Craven Cottage expected to be residing at this point of the season. A win should send them back into the top ten.

Thoughts on the Opposing Side: Clint Dempsey, you are an American who I can write about who will almost certainly play against the Reds, seeing as that my streak has been rather lousy with that. (Neither Jozy Altidore or Jonathan Spector played when I wrote I was looking forward to watching them) Dempsey finally scored in Fulham's draw against Man City last week as he looks to be fully recovered from his shoulder injury. Another American who we will NOT likely see is Eddie Johnson, though he did find his way to the bench against City. (Steps in the right direction I suppose)

Other names I'm familiar with are Danny Murphy, Damien Duff and Bobby Zamora. Zamora is the American fan whipping boy for why players in the Premiership are overrated. He also could, in theory, play for Trinidad and Tobago, though he still has yet to suit up for them. Zamora used to be good, he isn't these days. But he'd still probably be one of the best players in MLS, no matter how much American fans like to rag on him. Duff remember as being an odd man out when Chelsea went on their spending spree. He was rumored to be headed to Liverpool when he ended up on the outs in Chelsea but went to Newcastle instead. Danny Murphy was a Liverpool man and got sent packing when Rafa got there. Not a bad player, but not as good as the guys who were brought in.

Questions I have: No Gerrard, no surprise. But no Glen Johnson too? Yeah, I didn't see that coming. Thankfully Johnson is more easily replaceable. I might have guessed at a Fabio Aurelio/Emilano Insua back pairing, but Aurelio will probably stay in the midfield. Sotirios Kyrgiakos maybe? Who ever replaces Johnson will not be as proficient at the offensive end, so this constitutes a major loss. I wonder if this will force Liverpool to attack more on the left side with Insua, and possibly end up with an unbalanced attack pattern.

There will again be questions of Torres fitness, but hopefully he channels what he summoned in the second half against Man U.

The Liverpool backline faired much better against the Man U forward, but that's because they lack speed. Thankfully blazers aren't what Fulham are known for. Of course, if Eddie Johnson actually got in...

Will I Be Watching: I don't get Setanta so I'll have to find other means.

Expectations: Perhaps the Man U game has me too giddy, but for all the talk of Liverpool's poor form, it's not as if Fulham has been that grand either. Even on the road, I suspect the Reds pull this one out.

Anti Football; thy name is Houston.

Okay, that's a little harsh. Houston has some players who can create well; namely Stuart Holden. But after watching their game against Seattle last night, I came away disgusted on so many levels. The Dynamo played a downright dirty game and should have finished with nine men on the field. Instead a lenient official decided to give talk to the players rather than hand out fair punishment, which in essence, reward Houston for it's play. The result was a 0-0 draw with the return leg of their first round playoff match up taking place on November 8th.

Because you just might get it.

So yesterday rumors circulated that Hull City manager Phil Brown had been sacked. It turned out not to be the case, though Hull chairman Paul Duffen did resign. In the interim when it seemed like Brown was gone, there were a lot of US fans who were jumping for joy. Their rationale; Jozy Altidore was relegated to the bench by Brown. Therefore if Brown has been canned, Altidore would get a chance to play. It makes some degree of sense. When a new coach comes in, roles can change. So yeah, if Brown did lose his job, there's a chance Altidore would see more PT.