 |
| Just something I found googling the word "mediocre." Ties in with a line... |
I want to start this Major League Soccer Week 10 in Review
with a concept I slipped too softly into my write-up on San Jose’s sucker-punch, 3-0 win over my beloved Portland Timbers…of which, this week
wasn’t shy on sucker-punch wins, whether it’s the Philadelphia Union’s
at-long-last 3-0 win over the New York Red Bulls, or Minnesota United’s
surprising-only-because-2-goals home win over Sporting Kansas City. Why a man
in an expansive mood might even cast a curious eye over the Houston Dynamo’s
4-0 curb-stomp on Orlando City SC…because, as the man in the broadcast booth
said, but for Joe Bendik, that one would have ended 6-0 or 7-0…
…but back to the concept. The Timbers looked like headless
blind chickens out there, unable to think, never mind connect, and that got me
wondering about how much any given team actively plans its Plan B. How much
thought goes into how to play in the event that your team has to play, say,
without Carlos Rivas, as Orlando did this weekend? How much game planning does
a team plan for contingencies? How much can a team do? I don’t know the answer
to that, but I think whatever it is takes a team to either MLS Cup or the
Supporters’ Shield….speaking of the latter, anyone else getting the impression
that winning MLS Cup is a shit-poor indicator for success in the subsequent
season? All I’ll say is that I’m starting to collect data…and I’m lookin’ at
you, Seattle.
Big question, that, but it’s time to move to the long-lived
tradition of Conifers & Citrus Game of the Week (right?). This week I took
in the full 90 of New York City FC’s 3-1 win over Atlanta United FC…or tried
to. Damn wifi crapped out when the second half kicked off. So, I formed the
impressions below based on the entire first half, followed by watching the
condensed game on MLS Live. And, with confessions and caveats out of the way,
this is what I saw.
