MLS Cup 2011 - The Hollywood Ending to a Stellar Season

On Sunday, November 20th, the LA Galaxy faced the Houston Dynamo in the MLS Cup in the Galaxy's home stadium, The Home Depot Center. The Galaxy finished the season winning every home game, an amazing feat. In addition to being the last game of the season for the Galaxy to conclude their unbeaten home streak, it was David Beckham's last game under his 5 year contract for the MLS. Many had called Beckham's time in MLS a failure because of his inability to help his club earn a major trophy. While the Galaxy made there way to the 2009 MLS Cup final to play Real Salt Lake, they ended up loosing in a penalty shootout, 5-4, after a critical Donovan penalty miss where the ball was sent flying over the bar.

This past Sunday, the Galaxy were out for redemption and a trophy. The Galaxy and Dynamo played in front of a sold out crowd in Carson, CA. While the Galaxy had the advantage, Houston did not make it a simple game. The Galaxy were the obvious favorites, between their unbeaten home record and their superb roster - boasting 3 top notch big name designated players: Beckham, Keane, and Donovan. The Galaxy were off to a rocky start after, Alan Cristman was unable to convert three easy goal opportunities in the first half. Early in the second half, Irish international, Robbie Keane trappeda long cross and scored a goal only for it to be called offsides, controversially. The game remained scoreless until Beckham and Keane, combined to assist Landon Donovan's goal in the 77th minute. Some critics criticized Donovan for asking to be allowed to miss the November USMNT friendlies in order to stay with his club and prepare for MLS Cup. I respected Donovan's decision and it clearly paid off. With Donovan's lone goal, the Galaxy won MLS Cup for the first time since the acquisition of David Beckham.

After an amazing season and team effort by the Galaxy, they won MLS Cup 2011 with Landon Donovan being given the game MVP award. In addition, this team has been named the best team in MLS history, with their record and the most expensive team in MLS history having a team salary of $13,058,438. The Beckham Experiment was a success, while it took years and money to finally work, it was a success. Beckham finally got to hoist the MLS Cup, an image that will stay with us fans for a long time to come. It is also, interesting to note, that Beckham has won a championship in three separate leagues in 3 separate countries, a spectacular feat - not many players have accomplished. While we don't know Beckham's club future, quite yet, it has been said he is split between staying with MLS or moving to France to join PSV. It will be interesting to see where Beckham ends up. I foresee Beckham staying with the Galaxy.

My USMNT video!

I made a video about the USMNT and the journey they have taken to prove themselves to the rest of the Soccer World chronicling the buildup of the team from the 2002 World Cup up tothe present.

Please give it a watch and give me your thoughts!

MLS Playoffs

I've been busy, but now I am back and blogging about my favorite topic - American soccer!

So much is going on right now, in the MLS playoffs. The wildcard matches ended exactly how so many had expected, with New York and Colorado advancing to the next round.

Conference Semifinals began yesterday where we saw the Seattle Sounders take on Real Salt Lake. Salt Lake easily scored three goals against Kasey Keller and the Sounders back-line. Alvaro Saborio scored twice and the coup de grace was scored by Ned Grabavoy in the 88th minute.

Today we saw three playoff games, but none were quite as hyped as New York Red Bulls vs LA Galaxy. The face-off between the MLS designated players: Beckham, Keane, and Donovan against Henry and Marquez. Mike Magee scored the game's less than stellar decisive goal in the 15th minute and this turned an already very physical game more dangerous. But the real action didn't happen until after the final whistle blew. After the game was over, New York defender, Rafa Marquez, threw the ball at Landon Donovan, this turned into a fight, which resulted in red cards for Rafa Marquez and LA Galaxy's Juninho. I for one, have had enough of Rafa's antics. For the money is earning, he isn't showing anything for it! Between badmouthing his own teammate Tim Ream, his consistent red cards and suspensions, and poor leadership skills, it seems as if Marquez may have seen his final days in the Red Bulls uniform. I would be shocked if Rafa is still playing for the Red Bulls next year especially if New York doesn't advance past the Galaxy on wednesday.The whole point of brining in such an expensive player is to make the fans happy and win games. It is interesting when so many fans, are unhappy with Marquez and prefer when he doesn't start for the Red Bulls. Not to long ago, the Red Bulls didn't win a single game when Rafa was starting. New York has to do some thinking about Rafa - and soon.

The League's most expensive DP's

(Robbie Keane, Landon Donovan, David Beckham, Rafa Marquez, and Thierry Henry)

On another note, I enjoy watching the Beckham vs. Henry MLS rivalry! It is lively and exciting fight to see the two highest payed players going at it. The former Manchester United and Arsenal men are giving the fans their money's worth.

While on the topic of the Red Bulls, Hans Backe has not been giving promising youngster Juan Agudelo any playing time. It is surprising that the young American star hasn't been given a chance to perform on the field. Some are questioning whether Agudelo is being punished by Backe. Many fans and pundits, myself included, are hoping to see Agudelo get some major playing time on Thursday. We will see what happens on when the two teams face off again in the second and final part of this series at the Home Depot Center back in LA where the Galaxy are unbeaten this year.

In other games, the Dynamo seemed to beat the Union at PPL park 2-1 with ease earlier. All three of the game's goals came in the first 30 minutes of the game. Calen Carr scored a quality goal for the Dynamo and Freddy Adu showed promise for Nowak's Union clearly deserving a start in Houston on wednesday. Sporting Kansas City took on last year's champions, the Colorado Rapids in today's final matchup. SKC's Teal Bunbury scored two goals, one of which was from the penalty spot to ensure Kansas City a much needed confidence booster and win.

The final round of the Conference Semifinals will be played this week, with the Conference championships coming Sunday, November 6th.

Please comment about your thoughts on what RBNY should do with Rafa Marquez, and who will win the MLS Cup this year.

Soccer is moving up in America!

Today was a huge day of success for professional soccer in the USA. This evening will be important as well!
First, the cover of FIFA 12 was officially unveiledtoday and it sports LA Galaxy and United States star Landon Donovan on it's cover for the second year in a row. To Donovan's right is Red Bull New York star Rafa Marquez. Last year Donovan also starred on the cover, however he was inUS National team gear. The new game cover is shown below.

Then it was announced that NBC networks had acquired the rights to air MLS games beginning in 2012. NBC will broadcast two regular-season games, two playoffs games and two USMNT games. The rest will be on the NBC Sports Network (currently known as Versus). This is a major accomplishment for professional soccer to be on a major network that reaches so many more households in America than Fox Soccer Channel did.

As almost every USA Soccer fan knows, today is Jurgen Klinsmann’s debut as manager of the USMNT. As I said in yesterday’s post, Klinsmann is instituting quite a few changes as coach. Some of the changes include Klinsmann only putting the player’s numbers on the back of the jersey. However Klinsmann is only numbering the starting players 1-11. The reserves will be numbered 12-18. This is an interesting change for the team. However, Klinsmann is also removing the player’s last names from the back of the jerseys to bring the players to recognize that the name on the front of the jersey is more important than the name on the back. This concept is very South American and European in nature. This is a very interesting move on Klinsmann’s behalf.

How do you feel about Klinsmann’s new team decisions and the new partnership between MLS and NBC. Match made in heaven or not so much? I will have another blog post this evening after the game is over. Let’s go USA!

Jurgen's Decisions: Injuries and Captiancy

Jurgen Klinsmann has been busy making decisions as the new head coach of the United States Men's National Team. Klinsmann is making the expected new decisions (including -new captaincy, new formations, and bringing in new young players). Then, he has to make the unexpected quick decisions regarding injuries and then the subsequent player changes.

Jurgen Klinsmann's first US men's national team roster has been plagued by injuries. The changes began with Timmy Chandler being removed from the roster due to an injury. Chandler was replaced by Zach Loyd of FC Dallas. A few days after Chandler was replaced, Maurice Edu was swapped for Robbie Rogers (of the Columbus Crew) to Edu's calf strain. The third player injured and removed from the roster is Clarence Goodson. Goodson has a hamstring injury that club doctors advised him not to play on, due to risk of further injury. Due to how recent Goodson's injury came about, no replacement has been made.

The new captaincy is an interesting issue as well. Carlos Bocanegra has served as captain during Bob Bradley's tenure. Now that the Bradley era is over, a new captain will be named. In my opinion, I would like to see Landon Donovan or Tim Howard serve as the new captain.

Will the sudden player changes and new captaincy make a major impact in how the team plays tomorrow?

Leave your comments below about who you think should be captain of the USMNT!

A Place to Start!

Hello everyone!

I am a die-hard US Men's National Team fan, and a huge soccer fan as a whole!

So, today I decided to start a blog to talk about my favorite thing, soccer!

Being a soccer fan in the United States has not always been easy, however soccer in the USA is on the rise at the moment and is becoming more popular day by day.

This past weekend, I attended Lollapalooza, a Music Festival in Chicago. Everyday I attended, I saw thousands of soccer jerseys! Everyday, I saw hundreds of USA National Team jerseys and MLS Jerseys. Seeing all of these fans representing their favorite USA Teams was amazing!

However, the icing on top of the cake for me, was this past Saturday night. On Saturday, I wore a USA Jozy Altidore jersey, and as I was walking back from the Eminem concert at Lollapalooza, on Saturday night, I was surrounded by chants of "Altidore! Altidore! Altidore!" However, they didn't stop there, the fans proceeded to chant. Only This time they chanted, "Jooo.... Jozy, ooh, ahh, I wanna knooow will you score a goal? Landon.... Landon Donovan oooh ahh I wanna knooow that we'll destroy Mexico!"

Hopefully, these fellow USA fans are right, and Landon will help usher the USMNT into the first win of the Klinsmann era of USA Soccer. (We'll know on Wednesday)

Secondly, today was a bit of a shock in the USA Soccer world as former USA National Team coach, Bob Bradley was offered the coaching job of the Egyptian National Team. Apparently, Bob has been on the Egyptian federation's radar ever since the USA shocked the soccer world by beating the African Champions, Egypt 3-0 in the 2009 Confederations Cup.

Do you think Egypt would be a good fit for Bob Bradley? Please leave your thoughts below.

Well, that is all for now on the first post of USA Soccer Thoughts!

Come back soon!

Follow me on twitter @MKDovellos for more soccer thoughts and commentary!