An Open Letter to Colin Clarke

I'm sorry for ever doubting you could beat the LA Galaxy in your CONCACAF Champions League series. I realize that you coached the Puerto Rico Islanders to the semifinals of the inaugural CONCACAF Champions League. I know you drew with Saprissa, Columbus and Cruz Azul in the group stage of last year's tournament, coming within five minutes of beating Cruz Azul and giving up Saprissa's equalizer in the 89th minute. It just wasn't enough to convince me this year would be the same.

To be fair the Islanders are at the bottom of the USL Conference within the USSF D2 league, and were just 1-4-4 on the road this season coming into their game with the Galaxy. But your Islanders beat the Galaxy anyway, pasting them 4-1 at the Home Depot Center. Four away goals more or less seals the deal unless a cataclysm of biblical proportions happens in the second leg in Bayamon.

So I apologize. I will never doubt you again. Please come coach the Chicago Fire.

Love, PhantomTollbooth

Efan Ekoku is 'Effin Wrong

If you watched the opening game of the 2010 World Cup here in the United States, you likely heard Efan Ekoku complaining to high heaven about Mexico being cheated out of a goal. Ekoku's contention was Carlos Vela was not offside and should have been credited with a goal, and he whined and whined about it.

The main problem, is that he was wrong. Ekoku clearly doesn't understand how the offside rule works. Quoth FIFA in their laws of the game (which you can get from here):

A player is in an offside position if:
• he is nearer to his opponents’ goal line than both the ball and the
second-last opponent

Which Vela was when he received the ball. There's no distinction between the goalkeeper and any other opponent, so it doesn't matter that there was another player on the line.

So these are the announcers ESPN had to import because Americans weren't good enough? Really? Off the top of my head I'm pretty sure the Christopher Sullivan and Marcelo Balboa both understand how the offside rule works. Even though he's batshit insane Ray Hudson probably knows this as well. I know Alexi Lalas does, as he point blank said the refs were right.

Here's a clip of the non-goal:

CONCACAF Champions League - Best Finishes By Country

I realize the competition is only two years old, but here's the best finish by country.

Belize - Prelims: Hankook Verdes (2008/09)
Canada - Quarterfinals: Montreal Impact (2008/09)
Costa Rica - Group Stage: Saprissa (2008/09 and 2009/10)
El Salvador - Group Stage: L.A. Firpo (2008/09), Isidro Metapan (2009/10)
Guatemala - Quarterfinals: Comunicaciones (2009/10)
Honduras - Quarterfinals: Marathon (2008/09 and 2009/10)
Jamaica - Prelims: Harbour View (2008/09)
Mexico - Champions: Cruz Azul (2008/09), Pachuca (2009/10)
Nicaragua - Prelims: Real Esteli (2008/09)
Panama - Quarterfinals: Arabe Unido (2009/10)
Puerto Rico - Semifinals: Puerto Rico Islanders (2008/09)
Trinidad & Tobago - Group Stage: Three Teams
USA - Quarterfinals: Houston Dynamo (2008/09), Columbus Crew (2009/10)

Final 2009 CONCACAF Champions League Results By Country

I'm finally getting around to mopping up some things. Here's the final CCL results by country. I'm sure everyone is surprised to see Mexico at the top of the list for the second year in a row.

                W  L  T  GF  GA  DIF  Win%  PPG
Mexico         25  8  7  79  36   43  62.5  2.05
Honduras        9  9  0  29  39  -10  50.0  1.50
Panama          5  6  1  17  18   -1  41.7  1.33
USA             8  9  7  35  36   -1  33.3  1.29
Guatemala       3  5  1   9  21  -12  33.3  1.11
Costa Rica      2  5  3  11  20   -9  20.0  0.90
Puerto Rico     1  3  4   7  12   -5  12.5  0.88
Trin & Tobago   4 10  2  21  31  -10  25.0  0.88
El Salvador     1  5  2   5  21  -16  12.5  0.63
Canada          0  1  1   0   1   -1   0.0  0.50

Thanks for Nothing MLSsoccer.com

MLS revamped their web site to coincide with the start of the season, and to say that this was a debacle is a disservice to debacles. When the commissioner has to address how terribly broken the league's web site is during an interview with Sports Illustrated, that's failure on an epic scale.

I won't bore you with the list of all the things that went wrong Fake Sigi has already done a great job explaining that. The thing MLS doesn't seem to understand is that since things are still broken now five games into the season is that they are preventing people like me from giving them free publicity. I use their stats and player profile pages a considerable amount in my blogging. You still can't search the alumni database for a given player. There is still no way to get more than the top four leaders in any statistical category for any year. There's no way to get the career leaders in any category that I can see.

At some point I'll start blogging again... if I can ever get some source material to back things up with.

An Embarrassment of Riches

The recently-signed MLS collective bargaining agreement raised the salary cap to $2.55 million per year, with 5% increases each of the four years after that. If you think that's a small number, take a look at our neighbors to the south in Jamaica.

Howard Hamilton recently published a summary of a couple of articles showing just how cash-starved the Jamaican federation (and it's club teams) are. The Jamaican league has decided not to participate in the CFU Champions Cup - the regional tournament which is used to qualify teams for the CONCACAF Champions League. The reason was that the tab for playing these games was too much for the teams to bear. So what is the estimated cost for making it through the tournament?

$65,000

That's right -- an extra $65,000 is enough to put these teams significantly in the hole. There's your dose of perspective for the next time you want to complain that MLS teams aren't spending enough.

Best Beyonce-Sauron Connection Ever

One of the funniest things I've seen in a while... yes, I'm a huge geek. If you like it check out xkcd.