Monday Morning Centerback (A weekend to remember)

(Warning: This post contains a considerable amount of praise  and admiration for European Soccer. If you are an MLS fan who dreads any talk of European Soccer then don't read any further. Now, if you're a reasonable MLS fan who can appreciate the sport at its highest level, read on.)

Talk about a weekend to be a soccer fan. Inter Milan-AC Milan, Bayern Munich-Werder Bremen and the best match of the weekend, Barcelona-Real Madrid, were all on TV, making this the most entertaining weekend of soccer since the World Cup. There was even an MLS preseason game to take in. I had some free time this weekend so I watched all of the above matches Here's what I saw:

Barcelona-Real Madrid- The stars put on a real show here, as Lionel Messi, Ronaldinho and Ruud Van Nistelrooy all put on stellar performances. If you were lucky enough to record this match, it is one worth watching over and over. If you do this you will appreciate the performance of Guti, who put on a clinic on how to control a game as an attacking player.

What can you say about Messi? The kid is absurd. All three goals were the kind of cold blooded finishing that you just don't find in players his age. He isn't quite the finished product that Christiano Ronaldo is but it is scary to think how good Messi will be in another two years.

AC Milan-Inter Milan- Plenty of subplots in this one, including Ronaldo's first match against his former club. Now you can't blame Inter fans for being bitter about Ronaldo joining Milan considering how Inter stood by his side throughout his knee injury ordeals. What you do have to respect is Ronaldo's response to the boos. he hit a left-footed blast that reminded us all why he is one of the best goal scorers of all time.

Ultimately it was Inter with its incredibly deep squad that earned the three points. Zlatan Ibrahimovic has had his struggles with the move to Inter this year (as well as his terrible World Cup) but he showed why he is considered one of the most talented forwards in the world.

One somewhat disappointing aspect of watching these two huge matches was the realization that three of the teams had been eliminated from the Champions League.

Bayern Munich-Werder Bremen- I wasn't going to watch this game but Bayern's victory over Real Madrid in the Champions League made me watch (that and wanting to see how Claudio Pizarro is doing). How they aren't in first place in the Bundesliga is beyond me. With Makaay, Podolski, Schweinsteiger and Van Bommel they have more than enough in the attack. Funny enough Mr. Cro-Magnon himself, Oliver Kahn, might actually be one of the team's weaknesses.

Not to sound bitter or anything but two of the most infamous men in the history of U.S. Soccer were on the field for this match. Referee Markus Merk and Werder Bremen midfielder Torsten Frings were in attendance. You know, Merk is supposed to be one of the world's best refs but he didn't impress me that much in this Bremen-Bayern match. As bad as Merk's PK call was against Oguchi Onyewu I still consider Frings' intentional "unintentional" handball in the 2002 World Cup quarterfinals more of a tragedy in American Soccer. Think about it. If Berhalter scores that goal the Americans could have pulled the upset and would have faced South Korea in the semifinals. I know, I know, there's no point thinking about it anymore but that shouldn't stop American soccer fans from wishing bad things on Frings. And I don't just mean his hair.

I definitely need to order the green Werder Bremen hoodie with the word COACH in big letters on the back. Bremen manager Thomas Schaaf wore it and looked hilariously ridiculous.

Columbus Crew vs. FC Dallas- Yes, I tried to watch this game but if I have learned anything through the years it is that preseason games are painful to watch. I sucked it up and watched about half the game. The Lamar Hunt Pioneer Cup was well intended but it should have been played closer to the season, if not during the season. The Crew won the game 3-0 and showed some good attacking flashes. It was nice to see Eddie Gaven looking all grown up. It's scary to think that Gaven is still just 20 years old. It seems like so long ago since he slipped off the goalkeeper gloves and scored that overtime goal at RFK to lift the MetroStars over DC United.

Has Columbus improved enough to reach the playoffs for the first time in three years? Adding Andy Herron and Robbie Rogers should help but I still don't see them finishing ahead of DC, New England, Chicago or the Red Bulls. Then you have KC, which actually has a goalkeeper now in Kevin Hartman.

What did I see in FC Dallas? I saw a team that needs Adrian Serioux. I saw a team that is going to miss Ronnie O'Brien something terrible. I saw a team that just might miss the playoffs, which shouldn't happen to a team that has Carlos Ruiz and Kenny Cooper.

Talk about a good weekend. Some of the sport's best rivalries as well as a sampling of MLS action three weeks before the start of the season. Here is hoping we don't have to wait too long for another weekend of quality matches like this again.

Comments

[Pete]

Was it me or was it sad to see how ungrateful the Dallas fans are by not showing up for the game that was dedicated to the man, who if he didn't take over the team, would probably not exist (or at least not in Dallas). Not to mention Hunts' efforts to even get the stadium FC Dallas built. Just irritates me the dallas "fans" didn't show up to say thank you.

[Franco S]

Hi Ives, What do you think will happen to FCD and Crew in the future? Will the Hunt family invest money in the teams or will they try to sell them?

[Tom]

Never, ever mention the Eddie Gaven goalkeeper fiasco again. Yes, it was technically within league rules as they were written at the time, but it clearly was against the spirit of the rules, and thankfully MLS got rid of that loophole at the end of the season. It was one of MLS's all-time low points, and should not be spoken of again.

[Mike]

Keep crying tom. The metros were just smart enough to find the loophole, and it worked.

[Tom]

And in the end, Mike, what did it lead to? Gaven is in Columbus, Howard is with Everton, Bradley is with the National Team, the Metrostars are now the Red Bulls, and the trophy cabinet is still bare. And except for the LaManga Cup, the trophy cabinet is still bare. Don't miss DC United playing Chivas in the CONCACAF Champions Cup this Thursday on FSC, and dream.

[Mike]

huh? I don't think the move was designed to keep Howard from going to the EPL or stop the Red Bull takeover. However it was to win the game and it worked like a charm.

[Tom]

I was just listing all the key participants. It did win the game, true. Won the battle, lost the war.

[Mike]

And since we were talking about a play designed specifically to win the "battle" it made no sense to bring up the "war" in the first place.

[tex]

Ives, you look but you don't see.....it's preseason in mls and you talk p/o's? Come on man you can't be taht much of a dope.

[Wamiq]

Tom, I don't recall anyone giving you the right to tell someone else what to write on his blog.

And Tex, I know what it feels likes to be a bitter MLS fan, but preseason predictions are fun.

[George H.]

Ives,

I am extremely disappointed to see that the previous 10 comments didn't even broach the subject of the three fantastic matches in Spain, Italy & Germany. Are we that aslept as soccer fans in this country that no other readers of your blog were even watching???

The Super Classico delivered the goods as it always does. Amazing action, terrific technical football with some rough fouls thrown in. What I really enjoyed is that even though there were some brutal tackles, the pot never came to a boil like it does in other high profile games. Even though the first 20 minutes were a bit frenzied, the level of football always remained high and it didn't turn into just a giant game of head tennis like it might in the beginning of an EPL derby. I wish that football was played more like Madrid-Barca than what we typically see in the professional game. I'm sure that if any soccer haters were forced to watch this match, this would have converted a bunch of them (especially with Ray Hudson's "eh yeh" in the background). Great stuff.

BTW, did you see the Barca fan run onto the pitch? It appeared to me that he was trying to give a Madrid jersey to Thuram, implying that Thuram was playing so bad, he should just put it on. If that was the case, in my opinion, he should have handed it to Marquez who played another shaky match. That guy's form is growing worse by the day. Everytime that I watch him now, he seems to have a giveaway which leads to a chance or even a goal. Too bad, couldn't be happening to a nicer guy.

I missed the Milan derby, but Werder-Munich was a terrific match as well. You're right about Khan, he's not retiring too soon.