Revisionist history: Bruce Arena

Here's something that has been kicking around in that empty space between my ears: What if Bruce Arena was still coaching the U.S. national team.

How could that happen? In 2005, when the groups for the 2006 World Cup were announced, the U.S. and Mexico were running neck-and-neck to get a top spot in one of the groups. Ultimately, Mexico got the nod. But what if FIFA had correctly given the top spot to the United States?

Instead of Italy, Ghana and the Czech Republic, the U.S. would have been grouped with Portugal, Iran and Angola. There's a good chance that the U.S. finishes second in the group and ends up playing Argentina in the round of 16.

Even if the U.S. had lost to Argentina, wouldn't the perception have been that the U.S. had a pretty good showing in the World Cup? It's not a leap to think Arena keeps his job and we never have to suffer through that messy Juergen Klinsmann courtship.

More dominoes: The Wizards would be playing a Bob Bradley-led Chivas USA instead of Preki. And maybe, Mo Johnston is still in New York facing New England, while Bob Gansler finishes his first season in Toronto.

For more on the MLS playoffs, check out today's soccer notes in the Star:

http://www.kansascity.com/sports/wizards/story/338189.html

Chivas quotes

Thought I'd drop a couple of postgame quotes in here from Chivas USA. They're feeling confident despite being down 1-0.

From Jesse Marsch: "We feel good about tonight's result. I thought we dominated the match. We were able to dictate the game the way we wanted. We didn't give them any chances tonight, and we were unfortunate that the free kick glanced off the wall."

From Brad Guzan: "I think we were unlucky to have the ball deflect off Paulo (Nagamura)'s face on the free kick. Other then that I thought we dominated the game. Look at the second half we dominated the possession. We created the majority of chances (and) just couldn't put one in the net."

Here's is Bob Luder's game report in the Star:
http://www.kansascity.com/sports/wizards/story/336474.html

Any predictions on the return leg?

MLS playoffs

Not to fans those flames of being underappreciated, but MLS seemed show KC no love. How'd that happen? The league sent out the playoff schedule and had game one of the Wizards-Chivas game starting at 7:30. The Wizards sent out a release saying the game started at 7 p.m. (which it does).

MLS came back Wednesday with an "Updated MLS Cup Playoff Schedule" that showed the game starts at 7:30! C'mon. Think that'd happen with D.C. United?

OK, so it's a stretch, even for a conspiracy theory, but it is a little embarrassing.

Here is Bob Luder's preview of Saturday night's game ...
http://www.kansascity.com/sports/story/335334.html

Anyone dare to make a prediction on this game?

MLS playoff format

Here's a little something I had on the MLS playoff format today:

www.kansascity.com/sports/wizards/story/331820.html

While it's nearly like the European model during Champions League, of course, the playoffs are a little different here.

Jimmy Conrad thinks MLS one day will go to the format that's used in Europe: giving greater weight to the road goals. It's just that the average football/basketball/baseball fan doesn't have the brain capacity to figure out how that works. (My editorial comment, not his)

"I think we're just trying to give them small doses of what I think will eventually happen," Conrad said. "You have to give the home team the advantage. They have to go on the road first, knowing they're going to go home. Once they have that result in mind, now they can go home and get the best out of that result. It's not something that doesn't happen now, but teams know if they can get it going and get a road goal, how crucial that is.
"It just gives it a different wrinkle, a different feel. Every goal matters. It it's weighted twice, it's a big deal."

It really is. To me, it seems that MLS went to the current playoff format less to appease soccer fans (although the best-of-three was a bad idea) than to make sure each team gets a home playoff game. So it's the owners who can make a few more bucks rather than worrying about the purity of making sure the best team advances. If the league changes to the current European model (which would include a home-and-home in the conference finals), then I'll admit the owners are doing it to ensure the best team wins.

Chivas update

Just heard that Chivas USA will be arriving in Kansas City a day earlier because of the wildfires in California. They'll be here Thursday instead of Friday. It'll give them another day to acclimate to this cool fall weather as well.

Incentive for Wizards?

Check out Grant Wahl's latest Q&A with soccer fans. Near the end, he makes a promise on what he'd do if the Wizards make the MLS Cup final.

Just click on the title of this entry to get there.

MLS expansion

MLS sent out an e-mail to journalists today clarifying its expansion plans. Nothing too exciting here, but I thought I'd pass along the key points the league highlighted:

* The 15th and 16th expansion clubs may be announced by the end of 2007 or even as early as MLS Cup 2007, but MLS does not have a set deadline to make that announcement. Thus, it may early 2008 before both teams are announced.

* MLS is currently in discussion with potential expansion team owners and local governments in more than a dozen markets across North America.

* Major League Soccer’s timeline for expansion allows us to take our time in evaluating potential expansion markets as we are not relying on expansion revenue to fund our ownership group. We expect to reach 16 markets by 2010, but we will only add teams when it makes strategic sense. We understand that the League must expand its footprint to increase its profile, but we are not in any rush.

Chivas

In the last month or so, it appeared as though the Wizards would face D.C. United in the playoffs. And during that month or so, the Wizards players were saying privately that they thought that was a good match-up for the team. Now they'll get Chivas USA. Haven't had a chance to talk with any of them in the last week or so, but that seems like a good match-up as well. The games this season have been competitive and Chivas will be without Ante Razov.

One other reason the Wizards liked the thought of playing D.C.: "No turf" as one player said. New York and New England each would have meant playing on artificial turf. That won't be the case in Carson.

One other thing: If you have any questions for me, drop me an e-mail at pgrathoff@kcstar.com. Some of you have posted questions/complaints. I'm always eager to talk with other fans.

New York attendance

Anyone else wonder why more isn't written about New York's absolutely pathetic attendance? The Wizards are a regular punching bag for fans around the league -- in particular Jamie Trecker, who wrote in 2004 that the Wizards would be relocated. Um, they're still here.

Yes, the Wizards don't currently draw well, averaging 11,586 a game. But New York is more than 10 times the size of KC and the Red Bulls are bringing in 16,583 a game. That's bloated because of the 66,000 on hand for the Beckham game. Just 16K in New York? Are you kidding me? In a town that size?

There were only 20,083 on hand Saturday for the Red Bulls' key game against the Wizards. Some will say wait until the Red Bulls move into their own stadium, that'll help attendance. Well, hey, ditto for KC.

Actually, maybe MLS should move the Red Bulls to St. Louis. I heard there's a waiting fan base there, right?

Wizards playoff opener II

Steve Goff of the Washington Post notes on his blog that D.C. likely will play its home game in the first round on Nov. 1. That's a Thursday and the game will be on ESPN2. Here's the link:

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/soccerinsider/

I'm just speculating, but perhaps that would affect the Wizards' home game if they end up playing D.C. in the opening round. Maybe the league would want both games on a Thursday rather than doing a Saturday-Thursday combo.

Wizards playoff opener

The Red Bulls announced they'll play host to their playoff opener on Oct. 27 (a Saturday) at 6:30 our time. That got me to thinking about the Wizards playoff opener and it'll be that same weekend. The great news is the Chiefs don't play that weekend, so hopefully the Wizards won't be stuck with a Friday night game again. Maybe the Wizards will get to choose the time and day they think will work best. When's the last time that happened?

Women's team in KC?

Here's a link to my story in The Star about a women's soccer team possibly playing at a new Wizards stadium. Anyone got an idea for a nickname for a women's team?

http://www.kansascity.com/sports/wizards/story/308948.html

Funny link

Saw this on deadspin and had to share it. Fans wonder why soccer has a bad reputation ... it's because of stuff like this. But this is funny.

http://deadspin.com/sports/soccer/man-that-had-to-hurt-307047.php

And AC Milan lost, so that's an added plus.

Catching up with Kerry

I had the chance to chat with one of the nicest guys in sports: Wizards midfielder Kerry Zavagnin.
What did he think of playing before a team record crowd of 32,867 last Thursday at Arrowhead Stadium?
“That was nice,” he said. “More importantly, a lot of people who went to the game were entertained, and while the home team didn’t win, it was in a lot of ways an exciting and entertaining game. It’s nice that we could provide that. It would have been better if we’d been able to win, but hopefully we converted some people into soccer fans and that’s the goal when you get a crowd like that.”
Even if the crowd didn’t get to see that guy from England, right?
“What guy?” Zavagnin quipped.
And for Wizards fans who worry about another late season fade, just know that Zavagnin is not sweating it.
“For some reason, I don’t know why, it feels so much different from the other seasons that we ended with such a bad run,” he said. “I feel like we play well. When you look at the game the other night, the other team has three shots with one on goal and it’s a deflection that lands on the guy’s head. We’re not scoring and not finishing chances on our end, but I really feel good about our team and I don’t feel like any of us feel like there’s a lot of pressure to do things that we haven’t been doing. We feel good about our chances.”
Not just to make the playoffs, but to make some noise when the postseason begins.
“I don’t think anybody would expect us to do well,” Zavagnin said. “First of all, there are probably a lot of people who think we’re never going to make the playoffs, and after that, they think we’re going to be a two-game-and-out kind of team, but we’re going to be a tough team whoever we play.”