The Soccer Thread (IV)

I've so been hoping Liverpool would wise up and buy him to play the left.

 

Aside from the MLS Cup, Columbus could be a serious threat for the Champions League. If the Crew stay healthy the sky is the limit.

 

Juan Carlos Osorio has "resigned" as head coach of Red Bull New York, which has just two MLS wins a year after somehow qualifying for MLS Cup. Jersey's own Richie Williams will pick up the interim tag yet again. I think that means he'd be both No. 8 and No. 11 in the MetroStars/RBNY coaching pantheon... but I lost count somewhere along the way.

 

Can't imagine Agoos is long for RBNY, either.

 

Desk, point taken, but this is assuming that Burnley will BEAT its fellow relegation bait and win every game it should -- which won't happen. Man Yoo won't win every game it should, so how will Burnley?

Besides, Burnley will lose one or both to the likes of Chelski, Arsenal, Liverpool et al, while one (or more) of those other teams will beat one of the other Big Four or pretenders Aston Villa or Everton. So the three points it gets from this win get negated.

It's a nice, nice win and a great story, especially in light of a Billy Witz NY Times story from last month pointing out that as Chelsea was touring the US in the World Football Challenge, playing Inter Milan in front of 80,000-plus at the Rose Bowl, Burnley was playing a Ventura County semipro team in front of 3,300 at a Ventura County high school.

But it's August.

 

I wouldn't be so quick to pooh-pooh what Burnley did. If the last few seasons are anything to go by, 40 isn't even the magic number anymore. Breaking 35 puts you on the cusp of safety, and even if you just win your home games against the other nine teams in the bottom half, that's 27 points right there. Throw in a fluke victory or two and a few hard-fought away draws and you're looking at another year of Premiership cash.

What's more, you have to take into account the psychological factor of beating -- not just playing well or scraping a 0-0 draw against -- a team like ManYoo. An underdog like Burnley will receive a massive boost of confidence if it can go through an opening stretch of ManYoo, Everton, Chelsea and Liverpool and not find itself rooted to the bottom with no points.

Who's to say any of the other scrappers will actually finish the job and get all three points against one of the Sky Four? If anything, you'd figure the likelihood of such an upset happening would be greater now, when the promoted sides are still an unknown quantity and the established sides are still sorting out their lineups, than later in the season.

 

So you're saying Portsmouth DO have a chance to beat Arsenal today?

Look, by no means did Burnley secure safety by winning on Wednesday. But they're probably two points closer than anyone figured they'd be after two games. A few more surprise results and they're 1/3 or 1/2 of the way there.

Meanwhile, I'm going to a League 2 match later today ... and hoping I can keep up with the Ashes on my cheap-ass phone.

 

As long as there are 11 human beings not named Tim Tebow on each side, anything is possible.

Like I said, though, psychology and team spirit plays a big part in all this. I'd much sooner back a promoted side running on early-season adrenaline than a club that barely averted relegation and is wondering where all the money it received for selling its best players went.

 

Looks like Altidore will be on the bench tomorrow.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/aug/21/squad-sheets-hull-bolton

 

Hey! We did not 'barely avert relegation'! We were safe with, I dunno, three games to play?

Even though we were, of course, plummeting like a stone and had been ever since that Judas Redknapp scarpered for Spurs and took half the first team with him. Now the bastard wants David James, too.

Hard to believe a year ago there were four current or soon-to-be England internationals in the Portsmouth side.

 

Judas Redknapp ... I'm sure Southampton hearts bleed for you.

 

Bob Ley on South Africa, one year out:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/otl/columns/story?id=4320498

The money quote for those of the journalistic or traveling fan persuasion:

"In Germany [at the 2006 World Cup], you could get from one venue to whichever other one in two hours," one veteran American broadcast executive says. "In South Africa, it could take two days."