By Tony Edwards - San Jose, CA (July 24, 2012) US Soccer Players -- In Tuesday's Five, Tony explores confusion in the Dallas penalty kick hierarchy, team goal scoring in MLS, and a bit of the Crew’s history they probably shouldn’t highlight.
In last Wednesday’s San Jose-Dallas game, Dallas had a chance to tie the game with a penalty kick in stoppage time. Why did defender Jair Benitez step up and take the kick, which he skied over the bar?
Dallas coach Schellas Hyndman both took and avoided the blame for a guy who had never scored in 83 League games taking a crucial penalty.
“Unfortunately, Brek (Shea) is the one who normally takes our PKs and we subbed him out," Hyndman told MLSsoccer.com. "(David) Ferreira is another one that has taken PKs and (Daniel) Hernandez is another one that has taken PKs. So we were looking at potentially three different players and the question became, ‘who can do it?’”
Any coach has to live with his substitutions. Tactically, you can make a case that Hyndman’s team was the better one after the subs. Still, by this late in the season, all a team’s penalty kick options should be clear. That's especially true for Dallas, since Ferreira just came back from injury.
Which was the last MLS team to score 60 goals in the regular season?
It's been awhile. The underrated 2000 Chicago Fire with 67. San Jose has 44 goals scored after 22 games. On his own, San Jose and MLS leading scorer Chris Wondolowski has outscored Chivas USA 17 to 13.
Of Sigi Schmid, Greg Andrulis, Robert Warzycha, Timo Liekoski, and the other head coaches in the Crew’s history, who has the best overall regular season record?
Warzycha with a record of 53-41-33. The Crew has a 1-4 record in the playoffs under Warzycha, who signed a two-year (with an option for two more years) contract extension last Fall.
Staying in Columbus, If you go to the Crew’s ‘History’ page on their website, you’ll learn the nickname ‘Crew’ came from the lone entry in a name-the-team contest. Some things are better left forgotten.
Who scored the first goal in MLS All-Star Game History?
In one of the canniest scheduling moves of all time, MLS put their first All-Star Game on the day after Major League Baseball’s All Star Game, brought in a FIFA World XI as part of a doubleheader, and drew more than 78,000 people to the Meadowlands in July 1996. Former US National Team player Tab Ramos, who is the current USA under-20 team’s head coach, scored the first goal in All Star history in the 14th minute from an assist from Carlos Valderrama. The same event in the same stadium in 1997 would draw less than 25,000.
What does Chelsea's chief executive cite as the reasons behind his club's preseason tour of North America?
It’s NOT the money, Ron Goulay told the New York Times’ Richard Sandomir. “We have a long-term plan,” Gourlay said. “It’s not just to play and get out.” Sandomir reported that European teams can receive up to $2 million to play these games, but often the fee is considerably less. Chelsea, like Real Madrid, and it’s $295 open training session, uses the tour to train for the upcoming season.
Tony Edwards is a soccer writer from the Bay Area.
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