It's been one of those weeks in MLS where the news off the field superseded the action on it, namely Chivas USA ditching the forever enigmatic Amado
Guevara and Real Salt Lake finally employing some common sense and removing John Ellinger as head coach.
In the case of Guevara, I suspect there's not a lot of sympathy towards a player who despite his undoubted talent was rarely worth the headache he caused, save for one memorable season where he was named MVP. The biggest surprise is not that he was ousted by new coach Preki, but that apparently several MLS teams remained interested in obtaining his services, (What are you thinking Dallas, Colorado and Columbus?) despite his penchant for petulant behavior and going MIA in key games.
As for Real Salt Lake, the team's epic comeback against the Red Bulls (scoring two late goals) under new coach Jason Kreis would indicate things are on the upswing, but this might be deceiving. First, the Real Salt Lake defense looks as shoddy as ever and second, Chris Brown's superb late strike which salvaged the points for RSL is hardly likely to be duplicated any time soon -- when you factor in the dubious penalty decision from which Jeff Cunningham netted, the result begins to look more of a miracle than anything else.
The fiery Kreis might yet prove to be exactly what Real Salt Lake needs to get out of the doldrums, but I'm shocked the club has retained John Ellinger in a personnel capacity. This is the same guy who has continually whiffed on various personnel decisions (drafting Nik Besagno No. 1 overall, leaving Jason Kreis unprotected in the expansion draft, signing Clint Mathis, etc.) over the last few years and now his sole charge is to handle personnel?
At least things are looking up for Freddy Adu, who finally recorded his first assist of the season and quieted his detractors -- oh wait, that assist came on Chris Brown's goal, the one where Brown beat his man and curled a sublime long-range shot into the top right hand corner of the net. I've said it before and I'll keep saying it, where does MLS come up with these definitions of assists? Talk about throwing the kid a bone.
New England surprisingly took care of Chicago despite missing Shalrie Joseph (who seems to be the recipient of more bogus red-card suspensions than any other player in this league). You can probably attribute the win to the Fire's wayward finishing in a first-half they dominated and Ivan Guerrero's hapless defending in the second half that was responsible for both Revolution goals. Granted the second was also down to a nice piece of skill from rookie Wells Thompson (although to say that Guerrero was soft in his tackle is an understatement) -- but the goal for Steve Ralston where Guerrero allowed Ralston to drift in goalside despite being the only Revs player among five Fire defenders in the six-yard box was inexcusable.
Guillermo Barros Schelotto made his long-awaited debut for the Crew, coming on in the 65th minute and looking lively, showing nice touch and dribbling skills in the loss to Kansas City. The Crew are going to need him at his best though, because they continue to look like an outfit that are hard to beat but can't score, which given the creativity of midfielders like Eddie Gaven, Ned Grabavoy and Schelotto, places all blame at the feet of the Crew's impotent strikeforce. (Where's your goal-scoring touch gone Jason Garey?) As for the Wizards, they continue their surprising start to the season thanks to a superb individual effort from left back Jose Burciaga Jr. These days nothing Burciaga does surprises me, the only real surprise is that he'll continue to be ignored by the powers that be that select the U.S. national team, although that's a snub he's probably used to by now unfortunately.
EPL
An interesting weekend in England where we saw one present coaching great, Sir Alex Ferguson, haul in his ninth Premiership title with Manchester United, and one future coaching great (and former Ferguson prodigy) Roy Keane win the English League Championship in his remarkable debut season as coach of Sunderland. Bet on Keane to be Sir Alex's ultimate successor down the line but for now, Ferguson has stated his intent to continue for several seasons and why not? His current edition racked up more Premiership points in a single season than any Man U squad before them, leading to the inevitable question as to where they rank all-time among Ferguson's title-winning teams.
I'd rank them third behind the '98-99 Treble-winning team that had the irresistible Dwight Yorke-Andy Cole partnership and the '95-96 team that mounted an improbable comeback against a superb Newcastle team and caused the infamous Kevin Keegan press conference meltdown.
Before he was fired as Fulham's coach, Chris Coleman had mentioned to reporters that he felt that U.S. international Clint Dempsey had displayed the potential (albeit in practice) to become the U.S' best ever field-position import. It was a little surprising therefore that Coleman rarely used Dempsey in anything more than a substitute role (although Coleman argued that Dempsey still lacked match fitness), and with Coleman's firing, you had to wonder whether or not the new regime under Lawrie Sanchez would see Dempsey in a favorable light or not. Following Dempsey's goal Saturday against Liverpool, a goal that ensures Fulham's survival in the Premiership, there's no doubt that the club's love affair with Americans will continue. Dempsey's goal was classy, taking on and beating Xabi Alonso before deftly finishing a give-and-go.