MLS Five-a-side:The skinny on five things that matter this week in Major League Soccer:
1. Running on fumes: The D.C. United roadster has stalled coming out of the driveway. Again.
For all the distress emanating from RFK Stadium right now, Tom Soehn's team (believe it or not) stands better today than at this point last year. The initial foursome of 2007 brought three losses and a tie. This year, at least, United has a win to show for its first four go-rounds.
Still, Thursday's loss at RFK to Columbus is troubling nonetheless. So what's going on with the team, and can Soehn grab hold and get things sorted out as spectacularly as last year, when the April showers abated and United stormed to a league-best 16-7-7 mark.
One difference now is in Brazilian attackers Fred and Luciano Emilio, who were the talk of the league by midseason in 2007. This year, the words "sophomore slump" could be framing the conversation. Emilio has one goal and one assist in four matches, but he's squandered opportunities aplenty. Fred has one lone assist.
New playmaker Marcelo Gallardo has yet to register an assist and he appears to be adjusting slowly to the brisk and physically MLS pace.
In the back, new Argentinean signing Gonzalo Peralta was stellar in his first two outings (and also in the club's CONCACAF Champions' Cup matches). But for whatever reason he has looked out of sorts in United's most recent pair of MLS matches.
United gets eight full days to rest before a big match at home against Real Salt Lake.
2. The coming sounds of Seattle: While 14 clubs try hard to pull things together for this year, one MLS sapling has a tight focus on 2009.
Officials in Seattle are picking up the pace on efforts for their upcoming launch. This was an important week as the Seattle Seahawks and Seattle Sounders hosted Mexico and China in a well-attended (56,416) match at Qwest Field. Sounders vice president of operations Gary Wright said the night was instructional in several ways, including the development of a better picture of who might visit Qwest next year for MLS matches.
Wright and other Sounders officials were surprised to see the encouraging support from beyond the immediate Seattle area.
In general, he said things are moving forward nicely. The coming Sounders priorities: converting those 14,200 season ticket pledges into full packages; identifying corporate sponsors, including a presenting sponsor for the jersey; developing a local broadcast package; and, developing the kit design.
Meanwhile, player personnel director Chris Henderson and GM Adrian Hanauer have recently visited Argentina and Uruguay and have trips pending to Ghana (with other possible African stops) and Mexico.
"Adrian has such a good eye for finding players," Wright said. "He's done such a great job of it for the USL club."
Wright said the first player signing probably can't be announced until completion of the current MLS season. The naming of a manager could come sooner, but might also have to wait until November or so.
Can Seattle convert all those season ticket pledges? Wright believes so. He's even optimistic of going higher in season tickets, the better to more frequently fill the stadium's 24,500 lower bowl seats, which will be used for soccer matches.
3. It's all about the home fort: The Columbus Crew's big win Thursday at RFK was certainly noteworthy for Sigi Schmid, who bravely confessed during the preseason that he probably couldn't survive a slow start. Well, nine points from a possible 12 to open the season is just what Columbus and Schmid needed. And while the three points gained in the nation's capital Thursday is meaningful, it's really a perfect 2-0-0 mark at home that has the team sitting in first place (going into the weekend, at least.)
Schmid's team last year was pretty handy on the road. A 4-6-5 mark away from Crew Stadium gave the men in yellow more road points than three playoff qualifiers.
It was Columbus' 5-5-5 mark at Crew Stadium that sank the Crew's playoff push. Generally speaking, teams can sneak into the playoffs by scraping together at least 24 points from 15 home matches. That's cutting it close, however; most playoff teams cobble together 28-30 points from home, at least.
The winning has Schmid in a good mood apparently. Check out this gem after Thursday's triumph: "I was never worried. There was a German pope in town who gave a German Mass. With me being a German coach, I was never worried at all."
4. Crackin' the list of free kick crackerjacks: The league suddenly has a new cache of heavy weapons in the set-piece department. Three newcomers are lighting up the corner kick arches and the free kicks from dangerous spots, challenging the current (and more heralded) set-piece standard-bearers, guys like Cuauhtemoc Blanco and David Beckham.
No goalkeeper will relish seeing Toronto's Amado Guevara or Laurent Robert standing over a free kick. (We'll count Guevara as a "newcomer" for our purposes, even though isn't his first MLS rodeo.) Robert's blast from beyond 30 yards gave Galaxy goalkeeper Steve Cronin fits last week, and Toronto turned it into an important goal in the 3-2 upset.
Robert started showing off his big left foot a week earlier, delivering a couple of tantalizing balls on free kicks against D.C. United.
Of course, he won't take all of them for TFC. That's because Guevara is around. If you've seen any Guevara highlight compilations, then you've surely seen a couple of his killer free kick strikes.
While Toronto has two fellows who can do supply delivery from either side, right foot or left foot, New England has one guy who hits them pretty good from either side. Mauricio Castro is taking charge of free kicks and corner kicks at Gillette Stadium these days, and the Revs' versatile attacker is doing it with a force. Think of what all those whipped-in corners and free kicks will look like once Taylor Twellman brings his intelligent runs back into the fold.
Of course, in order to produce in the free kick department, Castro will have stay on the field. New England manager Steve Nicol will have a tough choice to make once Steve Ralston returns to health. Between Castro, Ralston, Khano Smith and young sensation Sainey Nyassi, someone will probably be left on the bench.
5. The little five:
No one has improved more steadily in MLS than Rapids' goalkeeper Bouna Coundoul. In terms of better distribution and better assessment of his range, the brazen Colorado 'keeper is miles ahead of where he was two years ago.
Everyone is talking about the unfortunate game-winner Brad Guzan allowed. But in truth, Chivas USA's usually reliable backstopper allowed two bad goals; he was a step out of position on Robbie Rogers' first strike as well.
It's barely mid-April and Kansas City has chewed through almost a third of its home schedule.
Columbus attacker Adam Moffat is my early favorite for personnel steal of the year.
United seems to have a conflagration of too many little problems right now: Emilio looking slow, Gallardo's transition time appearing too plodding, Jaime Moreno appearing a bit sluggish, etc. I'm wondering how many of those elements won't look so bad once Ben Olsen and his energy are re-introduced to the park? The amount of counter-weight he provides might be striking.
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