Arsenal disregards all conventional wisdom and messes with Texas. For a month, at least.
Brek Shea’s season may have ended when the New York Red Bulls knocked FC Dallas out of playoff contention last week, but the 6’3” winger will spend a month training with Arsenal after the upcoming international friendlies in France and Slovenia (November 11 and 15). The Texas native has been linked with a move to Europe and has publically stated he would like to ply his trade in Europe one day. If he impresses, perhaps Arsenal will make an offer Dallas cannot refuse.
According to Dallas FC, “The decision to send Shea to train with the Gunners was made after USA head coach Jurgen Klinsmann encouraged his MLS-based players to spend the off-season training overseas to enter January camp in top shape.”
Shea, 21, scored 11 goals in 31 league appearances in 2011.
Without a doubt, Dallas does not want to lose Shea. He still has three years on his contract. But the MLS season doesn’t start up again until March. Perhaps a loan deal could be in the cards.
Update, 11/10:
Wenger mooted the idea that Shea may play a game with the Arsenal reserves, if possible.
Wenger told ArsenalTV: “(He’ll) practice with the top team when it’s possible, practice with the best prospects of the club as well outside the normal sessions and have a contact with top level football in the world and there’s no better place than the Premier League to do it.”
The Red Bulls misinterpret the phrase, "Show some fight, boys." Felled by an air punch after the final whistle, Rafael Márquez pulled off an Academy Award-worthy performance, while Stephen Keel (hand on face) boringly falls from an actual punch.
The L.A. Galaxy takes to the pitch Thursday night at home (11 p.m. ET, ESPN2) with a one-goal lead in the second leg of the MLS Western Conference semi-finals, having beaten the New York Red Bulls 1-0 in New Jersey on Sunday.
One might ask why an Eastern seaboard team finds itself in the Western conference side of the playoffs. The reason’s too long and too boring to go into. (In briefest explanation, New York won a 2-0 Wild Card round victory against FC Dallas the previous Wednesday.)
Mike Magee scored the lone goal against his former club, meaning the Red Bulls must win by a scoreline of 2-0, 3-1, etc. in order to progress outright. (Scoring, as with the Champions League, is done on aggregate.) Alternately, they must win by one in regular time, which would force 30 minutes of overtime. If still level on aggregate at 120 minutes, the team that shoots penalties best wins.
With a one-goal lead, Los Angeles can play for a tie at home and advance. Unfortunately for New York, no team has defeated the Galaxy at home this season, due largely to defensive stalwarts Omar Gonzalez and A.J. DeLaGarza. The Galaxy has won 8 straight at home, kept 10 clean sheets and outscored its opponents 28-8 in 2011. Unbeaten in 18 straight regular-season home games overall, Los Angeles enjoys the fourth-longest home record streak in the history of the MLS.
The Red Bulls trailed the Galaxy by 21 points and nine places in the standings at end of regular season. Were Kansas City to be adjudged “Western,” the Eastern Conference leader would have slotted in at fifth in the Western conference. It calls into question the legitimacy of having separate conferences, with one so far superior to the other. For now, however, it’s the system in place.
In the first leg, English superstar David Beckham, 36, in the fifth and final year of his MLS contract, served up a perfectly looped assist with pinpoint delivery for Magee to nab the match winner. Beckham finished second in the league with 15 assists and finds himself in realistic contention for league MVP. As does Landon Donovan, who scored 12 goals (tied for fifth in MLS) and holds the record as all-time highest goal scorer in MLS postseason. The Beckham Experiment may just conclude with an MLS Cup trophy, after all.
However, as long as Thierry Henry can walk and kick a ball, it’s unwise to entirely count out the Red Bulls. He played tenaciously on Sunday, a bit overly aggressively, even, and his leap into the air for a powerful bicycle kick showed him a 34-year-old with yet more gas in the tank. At 14 goals, he racked up the league’s third highest goal tally in the regular season, and his strike in the match against Dallas helped book a spot in the conference semi-finals.
Recent absentees Donovan and former Spurs man Robbie Keane (or, Roibeárd Ó Catháin, for those who speak Irish) have returned from injury, recovering from a quad strain and adductor injury, respectively. Both look likely to start Thursday, having suffered no setbacks in the first leg. Red Bulls managed to contain and shut them down on Sunday. They’ll likely need an encore performance to have any hope of progressing.
Goalie Josh Saunders notched his ninth shutout in 19 matches this season for the Galaxy, who lost 2-1 to the RBNY earlier this month at the Red Bull Arena. The Red Bulls need goals, but Saunders and the L.A. back four don’t often concede.
The defensive story on the New York side reads quite differently. Confusion over Keane and/or Magee being offside in the 14th minute of the first leg played a not insignificant part in the goal. And central defender Tim Ream dubiously tried to out-Terry John Terry, tripping himself up and faceplanting into the ragged pitch a day after the Chelsea captain’s farcical rendition in England. As for transfer rumors linking Ream to Arsenal, West Brom or Everton, even aside from the klutzy faceplant act, the Red Bulls conceded the most goals (53) in the league this season. Hardly compelling credentials.
The commentators made a meal of Henry facing Keane for the first time since Henry’s double handball denied Ireland the 2010 World Cup by setting up a William Gallas goal, but they predicted the wrong scufflers on that one.
Instead, a postmatch melee erupted at the final whistle involving the Galaxy’s Donovan (alleged trash talker), Adam Cristman (shover) and Brazilian midfielder Juninho (face elbower) against Mexican defender Rafael Márquez (ball thrower, puncher and Academy Award hopeful) and defender Stephen Keel (face elbowee) from Red Bulls. Donovan may or may not have said something snipish to Márquez, who grabbed the game ball and fired it at Donovan’s leg. Bodies closed in, Cristman shoved Marquez, who retaliated with a punch, later falling down from a phantom air blow. Juninho, meanwhile, delivered an actual punch to Stephen Keel’s face. Márquez and Juninho both earned red cards and now miss out on Thursday’s match.
Juninho’s lone goal against Honduran club Motagua fired the Galaxy into the CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinals in March 2012. The Galaxy will face one of Salvadorian club Isidro Metapan, Seattle Sounders or Toronto FC. The loss of Juninho, on loan from São Paulo, in the current match presents L.A. with a selection headache, while many in the Red Bulls fanbase see the erratic Márquez missing out as a plus.
Real Salt Lake awaits in the Western Conference finals, having sealed a 3-2 aggregate win over Seattle Sounders, who went into last night’s second leg with a three goal deficit. Both teams shut each other out on home soil, but Salt Lake’s 2-0 victory last night fell just short of forcing extra time.
If Dempsey were a dolphin, he'd have a platinum fin.
When Clint Dempsey scored for embattled Fulham in the 2-0 victory over Wigan this weekend, he tied the record of former U.S. international Brian McBride as all-time highest American goal scorer in England’s top flight. (McBride did loan spells at Preston North End and Everton before his tenure at Fulham.) The pair also share another distinction, along with Landon Donovan they are the only American players to have scored in multiple World Cups.
The 28-year-old Dempsey now has 36 league goals in his Premiership career. He also holds the record for highest goal scorer at Fulham, where he joined from the New England Revolution in 2007. Only the most down and out gambler would bet against him extending that onward and upward. Duece be doin’ it up. Clint D, Nacogdoches, represent.
For those who have never checked it out, watch him shout out an alternate reality in which he’s a platinum-finned dolphin. It’s astounding that he has the balls to rhyme with cameras capturing it all for posterity. But you can’t help but love this clip. Could anyone actually hate a player dophin?
Don’t hate, celebrate (with Clint). Perhaps by reliving his incredible chip at Juventus in the 2010 Europa League.
“He scores with his left,
He scores with his right.
That boy Clint Dempsey
Makes Drogba look shite.”
Robin van Persie now has nine goals in five matches.
Mindblowingly awesome.
I speak of course of the massive and totally unexpected Arsenal 5-3 away victory over Chelsea on Saturday. Chelsea had not lost a game at home this season. Arsenal found itself racking up its worst string of away results since 1992. But the stat junkies must now officially hit reset. And update Robin van Persie’s tallies for 2011 to 28 goals in 27 matches. He has notched 9 in the last 5 and he just scored the second hat trick of his career.
Every match is about scoring more goals than the other team, but the Stamford Bridge showdown took it to another level. The players celebrated afterwards as if they’d just won the domestic treble. And though it was just one game, three points like any other, I felt exactly the same, staring at the TV in disbelief. In recent memory, only the 2-1 victory over Barcelona last spring and last December’s 3-1 victory over Chelsea compare in terms of sheer jubilation.
When I ended the match preview on Thursday with, “Van Persie has scored six goals in the last four league games. Hopefully he’s saved a few for the Blues.” I never thought anything like a hat trick possible. Or John Terry tripping himself and faceplanting from out of nowhere to set up the easiest goal van Persie will ever score. Terry is innocent until proven guilty, and the allegations of a racial slur against Anton Ferdinand are yet still allegations, but you have to imagine the brothers Ferdinand will save that match on the DVR for months to come. I wouldn’t mind looping that clip into a continuous play video myself.
In fairness, Chelsea did not play their best match. As expected, both defenses lacked solidity and leaked goals. If not apparent before, Mourinho has truly left the building, even though many of the old guard remain. As with Arsenal, Chelsea’s game plan mandates scoring more than they concede, because they look ever ready to concede.
Theo Walcott, Aaron Ramsey, Laurent Koscielny, Mikel Arteta and of course van Persie had outstanding performances. For the opposition, Juan Mata played excellently for the Blues. He is very much the one who got away. Linebacker Romelu Lukaku opted for a different approach, that of launching an NFL tackle on Andre Santos. Interesting tactic, and apparently not card-worthy in the eyes of the official.
Fernando Torres, the £50 million man, did nothing, and I mean nothing, of any consequence whatsoever on the pitch. He did catch a point-blank ball to the face, though, which was fun to watch. At Liverpool, he was incredible. Those days seem increasingly long ago.
Santos had a terrible first half, but he emerged from the tunnel a new man in the second. He defended much more effectively and scored his second goal in seven games with Arsenal. To compare to a recently departed Arsenal left back, Gael Clichy scored 2 goals in his 8 years at Arsenal. Just saying.
The team unity at the final whistle was a great sight to see. Thomas Vermaelen, Gervinho, Arteta and Santos looked ecstatic. And van Persie, for all the speculation of his moving on to pastures greener, looked a happy Gunner. After the match. Chelsea supporters called Yossi Benayoun “Judas” for complimenting his current loan club on the victory over his home club. One wonders if the hecklers considered the Israeli irony of it all… Yossi, you can kick it with us. Forget about the boo boys in Blue.
I would venture that the team has still not “turned a corner,” but Arsenal definitely took another step in the right direction. Eight in nine, now. Of course, Arsenal drew Manchester City for the quarterfinals of the Carling Cup on Saturday, so we might be out of that competition quite soon, but one step at a time.
Arsenal travels to West London for the early match on Saturday to face off against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge (7:30AM EST on ESPN2). It’s the sternest test since the desperately needed improvement of late, and the result will reveal whether the team has finally shaken the pernicious monkey off its back or if the Red and Whites really are a defensive shambles with only one dependable goalscorer.
Van Persie has scored six goals in the last four league games. Perhaps a few left in the tank for Stamford Bridge?
It’s not a make-or-break match, per se, but the result carries more weight than simply three points. Arsenal has finally cobbled together a string of results in the league, in Europe and most recently in the Carling Cup, but all that could soon come to a screeching halt. Most people are expecting to hear that ear-splitting screech. However, if Arsenal can emerge with a draw or perhaps lose but put in a convincing performance, things really could be looking up. A win would cause half of North London to flip out, undoubtedly, but at some point one needs to be realistic.
To start with the positives, Arsenal top their Champions League group at the midway point and have only Olympiakos away, with Dortmund and Marseille set to travel to the Emirates, where Arsenal has racked up the majority of its wins. The team has clawed its way to seventh place after an abysmal start to the season (1-1-3). Robin van Persie is still far and away to go-to man for goals, but Gervinho, Aaron Ramsey and Andrey Arshavin have started scoring a few themselves, in addition to some excellent assists. Gervinho played an outstanding match against Stoke, involved in all three goals, scoring the first off an incredible chip from Ramsey. Meanwhile, many positives emerged in the 2-1 Carling Cup win over Bolton on Tuesday. Of which more right now.
For starters, Thomas Vermaelen captained the side on his long-awaited return. Steely-eyed and solid as ever, he commanded his area as if he never left. His recovery means that all the center halves are again fit. It’s surreal to even write that. As any statistician knows, the last time Arsenal had all its center halves fit is a month and year that does not translate in modern alphanumerics. Heady times. Even backup center halves Ignasi Miquel and Sébastien Squillaci are fit (both of whom played Tuesday, and Squillaci wasn’t even half bad for once).
After the match, news broke that Vermaelen may have suffered a calf injury. Cue Bacary Sagna leg-break despair. But then he declared himself fit again (rejoice!), which could put him in the frame for Chelsea. One would forecast the bench as his most likely destination, with the Mertesacker-Koscielny axis in good working order at present, and rested. But Vermaelen is our best defender, and Chelsea away is when you’d like to have your best defenders. It would also free up Laurent Koscielny for right back. Wenger definitely has some decisions to make.
For those looking to spot Americans in action overseas, check the Europa League—it’s televised, great teams abound and, well, there are Americans, too. The elusive soccer grail, as it were. Europa League matches offer rare chances to see national team expats competing against high-caliber opponents on a real live TV. No streaming, no pirating, just a mildly usurious cable package.
He rocks the mic, he rips through defences. Word.
While English Premier League devotees get to see Clint Dempsey (right), Tim Howard and Brad Friedel scoring and shot-stopping on the regular, and Serie A followers will catch the occasional glimpse of Michael Bradley, the Europa League showcases players in the Portuguese, Dutch and Belgian leagues who get showcased seemingly nelsewhere. To be fair, GolTV does broadcast the occasional Bundesliga match, giving some small-screen shine to Steve Cherundolo and the German-Americans in the national team, but to see Oguchi Onyewu (Sporting Lisbon), Jozy Altidore (AZ Alkmaar), Sacha Kljestan (Anderlecht) or Jonathan Spector (Birmingham City), Europa’s your best bet.
Ironically, the team most populous in expat Americans, Rangers, utterly dominates the Scottish Premier League this season but got dumped out of the Europa League in late August (after getting dumped out of the Champions League qualifiers in early August). Carlos Bocanegra, Maurice Edu and Alejandro Bedoya regularly receive starting berths, but that didn’t stop Slovenian minnows NK Maribor from handing the team its collective Glaswegian ass two months back, so that’s that for the American Rangers. Other Americans who could be seen until they couldn’t are/were Clarence Goodson (Brøndby) and Michael Parkhurst (Nordsjaelland), who both compete in the top flight in Denmark.
Fear not, though. Many survived the qualifying cull, performed well in Matchdays 1 and 2, and may again feature this Thursday on Matchday 3.
High-functioning U.S. perennial Dempsey has been on fire for Fulham this season and he scored the lone goal against Honduras two weeks back. He gives everything in every game and excels at nearly everything he does (check the Deuce’s rhymes on YouTube…or better yet, don’t). Friedel, for his part, has proven such a crucial addition to Tottenham since joining this summer that Tottenham keep resting him in the Europa League, so don’t necessarily expect to spot his particular shiny bald pate, unless it’s atop a body seated on the bench. Spector, who once more sees the TV cameras zooming in after West Ham’s relegation last season, helped exact revenge on Maribor for his SPL compatriots in Birmingham City’s 2-1 win over the Slovenian outfit on Matchday 2, so good on him (thanks be giving, Rangers supporters).
Altidore will likely lead the line again for AZ Alkmaar, after netting his fourth in the tournament and seventh of the season for the Dutch champions last time out. The spectacularly bearded Onyewu, that unlikely cross between Isaac Hayes and Kareem Abdul-Jabar, has similarly returned to form with Sporting Lisbon, after escaping from PSV Eindhoven purgatory this past summer. From the bench, current Schalke 04 midfielder and former Blackburn loanee Jermaine Jones came on as a substitute in the 3-1 Matchday 2 victory over Maccabi Haifa. AZ Alkmaar, Sporting Lisbon and Schalke 04 all top their groups, and the group leader trend continues at Anderlecht, where Sacha Kljestan will look to start again, having done so in all 13 matches this season, including Anderlecht’s 5-0 thrashing of Standard Liege on Sunday.
Hannover 96 captain Cherundolo, meanwhile, must cope with the ignominy of second place. Although tied with Standard Liege on points, the team cedes first on goal difference. Let’s see some more clean sheets, Steve.
Dominic Cervi, third in line for the goalkeeper spot at Celtic, has yet to feature this season. Perhaps he will at last get a shot to stop the shots. (But be honest. Have you ever heard of him?)
Stay tuned for the continuing exploits of Uncle Sam’s soccer spies overseas. (Seriously. I mean to make a series of this.)
As one last word on Deuce’s iced-out flows, in a freestyle a few years back he had a truly great/awful line in “If I was a dolphin, I would have a platinum fin.” That one really is kind of worth checking out.
Matchday 3, October 20:
1:00 pm EST on GolTV, DirecTV: Club Brugge vs. Birmingham (Jan Breydel Stadium)
1:00 pm EST on DirecTV: AZ Alkmaar vs. Austria Vienna (AFAS Stadion)
1:00 pm EST on DirecTV: Wisla Krakow vs. Fulham (Stadion Miejski im)
1:00 pm EST on DirecTV: Stade Rennes vs. Celtic (Route de Lorient)
1:00 pm EST on DirecTV: AEK Larnaca vs. Schalke 04 (Neo G.S.Z. Stadium)
1:00 pm EST on DirecTV: SK Sturm Graz vs. Anderlecht (UPC Arena)
3:00 pm EST on GolTV, DirecTV: Sporting Lisbon vs. FC Vaslui (Estadio Jose Alvalade)
3:00 pm EST on DirecTV: Tottenham Hotspur vs. FK Rubin Kazan (White Hart Lane)
3:00 pm EST on DirecTV: Hannover 96 vs. FC Copenhagen (AWD-Arena)
To recap, Americans still in the competition:
Clint Dempsey (Fulham, MF)
Steve Cherundolo (Hannover 96, D)
Brad Friedel (Tottenham, GK)
Jonathan Spector (Birmingham City, D)
Jozy Altidore (AZ Alkmaar, F)
Oguchi Onyewu (Sporting Lisbon, D)
Jermaine Jones (Schalke 04, MF)
Sacha Kljestan (Anderlecht, MF)
Dominic Cervi (Celtic, GK)
And those Americans who let down themselves, their teams and their country:
Carlos Bocanegra (Rangers, D)
Maurice Edu (Rangers, MF)
Alejandro Bedoya (Rangers, MF)
Clarence Goodson (Brøndby, D)
Michael Parkhurst (Nordsjaelland, D)
Just by plucking names from this group of current and eliminated Europa players, one could field a highly competitive national side. In fact the back 4 and front 2 played the second half against Honduras in the last international break.
If you write an optimistic match preview and it just doesn’t pan out, it’s never fun writing the post-match report. Such are the perils of wishful thinking. You have to walk back to the discussion with tail firmly between legs, no one’s fault but your own.
Kyle Walker proves the match winner.
Put simply, Tottenham earned the 2-1 win today, not only because Arsenal’s defense was again found lacking but because the attack didn’t have nearly enough attack in it. Van Persie didn’t get adequate service, Walcott, Gervinho and Arshavin were flat, and the midfield opposition repeatedly outmatched Arteta and Ramsey.
That said, as much as it’ll make a bad week for any interactions with Tottenham supporters, it was no mauling. At 1-1, losing was not a foregone conclusion. Tottenham were the better team on the day, but one would hardly herald them as the new Barcelona. As for individual or collective errors, none came close to catastrophic shake-one’s-head moments on the order of calamities past.
On the positive side, Song, Szczesny and Coquelin all acquitted themselves well. Before a month ago, few Gunners would even have recognized the last name in that trio, but the Academy product never looked inexperienced or out of his depth. In Song, Frimpong and Coquelin, we have three solid defensive midfielders, all brought through the ranks of the youth system. And during a time when we only have one fit central defender, Song slotted in seamlessly and didn’t look like a man played out of position.
Ramsey did not quite resemble the crafty creative midfielder who captains Wales, but he scored well, although Song deserves the majority of the credit for a point-perfect cross.
Arteta’s pace underwhelmed and he stayed pretty anonymous, but I chalk it up to an off day. I saw nothing that for me spelled doom, in his performance or anyone else’s. If one compares today’s match to those against Manchester United, Blackburn or Newcastle, one has to admit improvement, even if the failings are all too familiar and continue to rankle.
Going forward, I would really like to see van Persie partnered up front in a 4-4-2 (or 4-4-1-1, however you choose to call it). Not saying forever ditch the 4-3-3, but switch it up more.
I understand Wenger’s decision not to play Oxlade-Chamberlain or Miyaichi in a contentious away match like the North London derby, but I’d like to see more of them, and Park as well. When Walcott, Gervinho and Arshavin look flat on the day, bring out youth wingers with speed.
Overall, losing (particularly to Tottenham) is a total drag, and not at all what the team needed, but compared to some of the disappointments of the recent past, it’s not the end of the world. Seeing Sagna stretchered off the pitch, to me, was far and away the true casualty of the day. Arsenal can bounce back. Arsenal will bounce back. (Delusions sometimes never die.)
And Adebayor didn’t score, so prediction wrong on that count. Plus, he comported himself well. All things considered, this is an incarnation of the lanky one I can deal with.
