Especially with me being a Gunner fan, I’m looking forward to this Arsenal/ManU game more than any other so far.  More than the AC Milan/Inter derby, more than Christano Ronaldo’s Madrid bow, more than any Champions League qualifying.  This is where we see what Arsenal is really made of this year.  There’s been a lot of grumbling and murmurs that Wenger has lost it at the Emirates, and won’t buy just because he doesn’t want to spend.  He’s set himself up to be either a genius or a madman…no middle ground.  They’ve had a very impressive start to this campaign in both the league, and in Europe.  This, however, will prove to be the stone over which the players with either prove themselves, or break themselves in the perceptions of everyone not a Gunner.  I can’t wait.

Speaking of Arsenal in Europe, I’m a bit flummoxed by this decision to charge Eduardo with simulation by UEFA.  I’ve seen the replays, and will definilty say that the referee got it wrong.  I don’t believe that was a penalty.  No argument there.  But to come out and openly call Eduardo a cheat is another thing, and that’s exactly what UEFA are doing by deciding to charge him.  I’m no cheat, but I’ve gone to ground without being touched in situations with goalkeepers because I didn’t want to 1) get hurt or 2) hurt the other guy.  And anyone who has seen Eduardo’s collision from two seasons ago where he broke his leg cannot blame him for avoiding contact in a head-to-head situation.

Here’s the replay:

Here’s Wenger’s thoughts on the topic (notice I didn’t need to use any words like “rant” or “furious” to introduce this!):

For anyone still not convinced, here’s Eduardo’s injury from the ‘o7/’08 season:

What do you think?

Note: I wrote this post last evening (Hawaii time), just sort of punching it out in response to a thought I had at the time.  After posting it, I continued to mull the topic over and realized that there was more to the story than I had written.  I have since revised this writing as of 12:36 pm Hawaii time.

Today I am wrestling with an internal conflict.  Arsenal played one half in the 4-4 dance that was the Arsenal-Liverpool match.  This match had title implications, as Liverpool had really been nipping at Man United’s heels, and in fact had surpassed them on goal differential.  Here’s where the conflict comes in.  Arsenal’s draw with L’pool means that United have the opportunity to go three points clear this weekend, and still have a game in hand.  I despise Manchester United and the last thing I want to see is Arsenal helping them to the top of the table…a place they hold now for the third year in a row.  But I can’t help being giddy at the irony of Arsenal ending Liverpool’s title hopes this year by drawing them late in the season.  It was Liverpool that arranged for our Champion’s League exit last year at The Emirates with a 4-2 win capped off by a Steven Gerrard penalty.  It was Liverpool that, earlier that same week, ended any realistic title hopes the Gunners had with a 1-1 draw.  Seeing them out of the CL and pushed to the brink of being out of the title race in the same week is gratifying to me, in an immature revenge seeking kind of way.  And then I came upon this comment in my blog archives:

“Bit of a wimpy response, mate. Face the facts, there has to be a major overhaul of the squad. The other big three have left us well behind because we didn’t SPEND ENOUGH! Senderos, Hleb and Aboule – and probably Bendtner – are out of their depth. That’s why Ces is always so tired lately, and therefore not as effective. Those four have got to go and need to be replaced. Otherwise, next year, more of the same dross…”

As some of you may know I have a personal blog, and that’s how I got started writing articles about soccer-related topics.  Last year I wrote an article called “The Utter Heartbreak of Arsenal’s 2007-08 Season“.  I criticized the hesitation to spend enough money to bring in an experienced player or two to help the young squad gel.  They fell off at the end of the year due to a lack of grit, and little else.  Grit is something that comes with experience.  The above response was written to me at that time.  At the time I refused to say that the squad needed overhauled because I felt that Wenger new what he was doing.  I despise the large clubs who buy the biggest name at every position to try to gain immediate success (*cough* Real Madrid *cough* Chelsea).  I believe this squad will show it’s steel in the future…and I’m willing to be patient.  But I really felt they needed some experience now to help this squad find itself.

Cut to a year later.  Arsenal has bought mostly young players in the past year, with one exception.  We’ve been through a horrible run of injuries that has masked what this squad can do.  But that with the squad beginning to get healthy and the youth beginning to take the mantle at Arsenal, that one player that Wenger did splash cash on (by Gunner standards anyway) is doing exactly what is needed to help carry that mantle with the young players.  Andrei Arshavin pulled Arsenal along today and provided that last bit of grit in the final third that the Gunners have needed and lacked for so long.  And he’s been brilliant since he got here.  With a healthy squad all it took was that one piece and away we go.  Arsenal has looked a different squad since Arshavin arrived…at it only really took one player to add to the existing squad, even with a few losses that were considered key at the time.  I stand behind Arsene Wenger as one of the greatest managers in the game, one of the best minds in charge of a club’s future and direction in the game, and stand behind Arsenal as the lone exception in the top four in terms of the amount of MONEY that takes the field and maintains a high level of competition.

That, and they’re just beautiful to watch…

Arsenal is benifiting from Arshavin's grit this year in it's domestic campaign

1) Seattle…wow
Screw the David Beckham saga.  Seattle Sounders FC is THE story of the young season. I’ll get into a few more specific thoughts below, but let’s just remember that the last expansion team to start the season 2 and 0 went on to win the MLS cup that year (granted, in a weaker version of the league).  I feel the need to say that I was predisposed to hate the Sounders.  I was skeptical of the Ljungburg signing; I felt the stealing of Sigi Schmid from Columbus was a bit of a questionable move after he just helped that city win it’s first league trophy; having them play on a turf field that’s in a football first stadium; the fact that they’re in Seattle (which I have other sports issues with); and the fact that they basically swiped an NASL identity rather than create their own, although I have since reversed my feelings on this issue…bring in all the NASL identity’s you want.  It’s our professional heritage as a soccer country!  All this had me, uhh….let’s call it slightly put out with the Sounder expansion team when things first started.  But they have built a program up there that’s to be respected rather than slaping an expansion team together that’s prepared to fall back on the first year excuse.  And all props to Drew Carey, who is one of the best high-profile soccer fans in this country.  Little fact: he still holds his Galaxy season ticket despite being a minority owner of the Sounders because he lives in L.A. and wants to support his local team.  He’s good for this country’s soccer programs. He and the Sounders made the effort to woo the city and it’s fans first rather than just hoping they’d turn out.  They made it so that the city of Seattle identified with that team from the very start.  And they’re getting results to boot with two very convincing wins to start the season, one of them against a team who was in last year’s MLS cup, and another against a team many pick to make a run this year themselves.  After having watched the city embrace them, support them, and the model they’ve put together, I’m a converted fan.  I’m pulling for them for many reasons, not the least of which is if they are successful more expansion teams will aim to emulate their style and enthusiasm…and I don’t see how that could be a bad thing.

2) Columbus prettiest soccer in MLS?  Maybe, but here comes Seattle.
In watching most of the games in the first to weeks of this 2009 season I feel I can say with some confidence that the Columbus Crew, despite their tag of being the hardest working team in the MLS, also are currently deserving of the title of the prettiest soccer in the MLS as well.  Guillermo Barros Schelotto runs his mid-field with precision and confidence on the ball as well as a kind of player’s player mentality that just makes that team fun to watch.  I’m a huge MLS supporter, but even I recognize that the MLS has a ton of direct play, bypassing the midfield, and loose ball type play that gives it a few hard to watch games every year (by a few I mean more than half…and by that I mean a lot).  I love the physicality of the league, and the work ethic of the players, and the parity of the league, and the unpredictability of the way things bounce in the MLS, and the Revs…I love the Revs (although I’m super disappointed at Parkhurst’s departure…it’s taken something from being a Rev fan for me).  But when I want pretty soccer, I watch England’s Arsenal or Spain’s Barcelona.  Columbus is changing that a bit.  They are a hard working, good-looking soccer team.  Good for them, and I tip my soccer fan’s hat to them for that.
That being said, Sigi Schmid is putting together a pretty good-looking side in Seattle.  They were a bit frantic in the opening minutes, and even after a couple of goals, of the Red Bulls game.  But they showed some great flashes of slick play, a huge hunk of which came from the young Columbian, Freddy Montero.  Their second game against Real Salt Lake was a much more complete game from start to finish.  I was excited watching them play, their attacking runs, the way they controlled the ball and managed the game, which Ljumburg did very well upon his entry despite his high attacking expectations and the ho-hum response to his short performance.  He was smart and I, as a player, appreciated what he brought.  Rookie Steve Zakuani made a few overly long wasteful runs in which he covered a lot of ground only to get caught in a tight space and lose the ball, but brought it on enough occasions to warrant his continued selection.  If the expansion/inexperience blues don’t weight this team down over the run of the season, they’re going to continue to be effective, but more importantly they’re going to continue to be entertaining.

3) Hang on to Freddy Montero

This one’s no surprise really.  I don’t know what Montero’s contract deal is for, but I pray to the soccer-gods that it’s longer than a year, and that Seattle has the balls and brains to hang on to him as long as they can.  This kid’s been nothing short of brilliant in the first two games and he’s going to start to draw notice really quickly.  Someone who thinks they’re being business smart would say that when the high offers start coming in for Freddy Montero from overseas we should sell him and get bank for the kid early before he starts to decline or gets injured or something.  I say Seattle should go shopping for a second DP tag and hang on to this kid as long as is humanly possible.  He’s the kind of player that can galvanize entire fan-bases around him and his team.  He’ll put butts in the seats.  He’ll be remembered long after Ljumburg has ended his 1-2 year run, Keller has ended his 1-2 year run, and Seattle has lost it’s expansion buzz.  Other bright young talents will sign with MLS because of him as long as he’s here.  He’s the kind of player that the MLS needs to hang on to if it wants the level of play to go up.  Clint Dempsey, Jozy Altidore, Bobby Convey, Freddy Adu, and others were smart sells at the time because the league saw the benefit of the money to grow the league, and didn’t have quite enough swagger to pull off hanging on to them and their ambitions.  Montero represents the beginning of a new time period in MLS history.  He’s a smart, cheeky young player who’s come to the league from elsewhere in his prime as his announcement to the world.  Now’s the time to capitalize on his faith in the league to begin to hang on to these players and think about the product on the field.  A bold move like this would benefit the league long after any allocation money that would have been received for him would stop circulating.  I’m not stupid enough to think we won’t lose him eventually, but a year or two isn’t enough time to really allow what his actual playing impact can be to trickle down through-out the league.

4) NY reorganized to look disorganized
I’m shocked and disappointed that the NY Red Bulls revamp in the off-season has left them looking so disorganized and piss-poor so far this season.  Juan Carlos Osorio is looking less and less like the good coach he appeared to be with Chicago, and more and more like he doesn’t know what he’s doing.  In both their opening games so far they have looked like they were scrambling to figure out what the hell was going on in their defensive half, abandoned most of their midfield play, and had little to no possession on in the attacking third.  I sure hope they get it together or Juan Pablo Angel may decided he wants to go on loan somewhere in Europe this summer.

5) Houston and NE dominance over?
As much as it saddens me to say it, especially given my Rev’s trophy haul during this time, I believe Houston and New England may have seen one too many important players fly the coop than can be compensated for.  I believe both Dominic Kinnear and Steve Nicol are brilliant coaches, and I tag them both to dominate this league again with their team selection, but for now both the Revolution and the Dynamo look to be teams who are no longer set up to dominate this league.  They have both been unimpressive so far this season, and seem to be searching for answers in key positions.  Will Stuart Holden step up to lead the team and take some of the burden off Brian Ching?  Will stadium concerns and field concerns dog Houston all year?  Will Taylor Twellman and Steve Ralston come back with enough form to lift New England up by the bootstraps, and then continue to stay healthy?  Will Steve Nicol find someone or a combination of someones to replace the vital cog that Michael Parkhurst represented?  Can either team keep the ball on the ground long enough to actually create some flow to a game and therefore some decent attacking opportunities from the run of play rather than counter attacks and surprise chances?  These questions and many more will determine if we even see these two once dominant teams in the playoffs this year, but for now I certainly wouldn’t lay any money on seeing either of these two teams come out of the tunnel at Qwest field come MLS cup ’09.

18.3 – A club intending to conclude a contract with a professional must inform the player’s current club in writing before entering into negotiations with him. A professional shall only be free to conclude a contract with another club if his contract with his present club has expired or is due to expire within six months. Any breach of this provision shall be subject to appropriate sanctions.

I think it should be said, first and foremost, that I am not a Cristiano Ronaldo fan. I have my reasons, and say what you will, but I remain unconvinced over a lot of things about this guy. Neither am I a Manchester United fan. Again, I have my reasons. But I’m intrigued, and a bit nauseated, over this business between the two mentioned parties and Real Madrid. According to the wording above, Madrid have done nothing technically wrong, that we know of, and United’s reporting of Madrid can only be out of indignation over Madrid’s media courting of the young winger.

Now, I don’t want to hear about United’s “past” dealings or any of that. I’m not here to look at that, I’m here to talk about the situation at hand.

The situation as I see it is this: Madrid have done nothing wrong according to the rules, but what they have done is rather despicable. To continue to use the media as a conduit to players in this way so that you can test the waters and yet keep your hands clean is as bad as if you had just outright approached the player. I don’t like it. It’s yet another way that larger clubs, who get more media attention, can undermine smaller clubs to get players that they want. Madrid have always been more in the business of buying players than playing football if you ask me (as have United and Chelsea for that matter), and this unsubtle approach is better left out of the game.

Ronaldo has complicated matters, of course, but saying he would like to play for Madrid. It burns my blood to see this rampant disloyalty to clubs who have nurtured young players. Cesc Fabregas has had interest from all over the world, but he’s stuck with Arsene Wenger because he knows that he owes Arsenal something still. There comes a time when players need to move on despite a history with the club, as David Beckham did when he moved to Madrid from Manchester, but this reeks of disloyalty from Ronaldo.

And I had just gained back a little respect for him after not having to watch him spend all season diving on the ground…