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It's Going to Be a Long Saturday
The problem with following soccer, ironically, is that there’s just too much of it.
If you're an MLS fan, you probably also follow a team or two in Europe, Mexico, or South America, where the soccer season comes to a close just as the MLS is heating up. And then domestically there's the U.S. national team, the never-ending World Cup qualifiers, and a dozen or so other tournaments. If you get too addicted, there's soccer literally every minute of every day.
Saturday is set up for a perfect storm of soccer madness. First at 5 pm is the United States’ World Cup qualifier against Honduras, the fifth of 10 games in the fourth round of elimination. Until Wednesday, the US was the top dog in the conference. Then we went to Costa Rica and displayed a classic example of everything to do wrong, losing 3-1 and embarrassing ourselves yet again on the global stage. The US played pathetically in the spirit of the worst soccer stereotypes, getting scored on after 78 seconds, and letting their guy dribble through three of ours and the keeper. Third-place Honduras will be invigorated by our weakness, and they’re still riding high from their 2001 victory over Brazil in the quarterfinals of the Copa America —a singularly impressive feat.
More to the point: This has direct implications on the Sounder's 7:30 game in LA against Chivas. In anticipation of the Honduras qualifier, the U.S. national team has called up two Chivas starters, Sacha Kljestan and Jonathan Bornstein. Usually, I'm a soccer purest: let the best team win, without handicaps (like who's out that day). But as we face Chivas—the only team to truly outplay us this year—for the second time, I'm all about missing starters. Because our situation isn't good: we’re still muddled in a rut of ties and we're playing the league's current leader.
Between this and the game against Honduras, it's going to be a long Saturday.
If you're an MLS fan, you probably also follow a team or two in Europe, Mexico, or South America, where the soccer season comes to a close just as the MLS is heating up. And then domestically there's the U.S. national team, the never-ending World Cup qualifiers, and a dozen or so other tournaments. If you get too addicted, there's soccer literally every minute of every day.
Saturday is set up for a perfect storm of soccer madness. First at 5 pm is the United States’ World Cup qualifier against Honduras, the fifth of 10 games in the fourth round of elimination. Until Wednesday, the US was the top dog in the conference. Then we went to Costa Rica and displayed a classic example of everything to do wrong, losing 3-1 and embarrassing ourselves yet again on the global stage. The US played pathetically in the spirit of the worst soccer stereotypes, getting scored on after 78 seconds, and letting their guy dribble through three of ours and the keeper. Third-place Honduras will be invigorated by our weakness, and they’re still riding high from their 2001 victory over Brazil in the quarterfinals of the Copa America —a singularly impressive feat.
More to the point: This has direct implications on the Sounder's 7:30 game in LA against Chivas. In anticipation of the Honduras qualifier, the U.S. national team has called up two Chivas starters, Sacha Kljestan and Jonathan Bornstein. Usually, I'm a soccer purest: let the best team win, without handicaps (like who's out that day). But as we face Chivas—the only team to truly outplay us this year—for the second time, I'm all about missing starters. Because our situation isn't good: we’re still muddled in a rut of ties and we're playing the league's current leader.
Between this and the game against Honduras, it's going to be a long Saturday.
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