By Andrew Dixon - MIAMI, FL (Dec 10th, 2009) USSoccerPlayers -- Wow look at all this mail in the mailbag!
My man Zeke in DC writes: Aren't you due for a One Grown Man's Opinion?
Yeah, I think my editor was saying the same thing?
For me, nothing. But it took awhile. I waited three seasons in fact to really believe you wanted to play for the Galaxy. At the beginning I heard how excited you were to join MLS, but not necessarily the Galaxy. I heard how convenient it was for you to be in LA because your academy was there. I saw you mail it in the second half of '08, go to Milan where you talked about loving your club football again.
The moment I knew you wanted to be a part of the Galaxy wasn't your celebrations of The Truth's goals or satisfied facial expressions after victories. It was when the camera panned to you right after the Don handed Real Salt Lake the Uncle Phil Cup. The look on your face was pure annoyance, pure agitation, and pure disappointment. That's when I knew you wanted to be a member of the LA Galaxy and that you'd be back next year.
Here's something from a D. Check in Salt Lake City: "Is anyone criticizing our style of play now? HUH! ARE THEY?!?!?! And didn't you say we had no business being in the Cup Final?!?!?!?"
Well yeah, I did say that when I was previewing the match on the Weekend Sports Rap. I thought RSL was resilient but certainly not good enough to sustain such a run to claim the Cup I saw Colorado get to the final and lose the '97 Cup to a better team. We saw RBNY get to the Cup last year and lose to a better team. But as Jason Kreis said in the post-game, your team believed in themselves as much as... well, basically everyone outside of Utah didn't, and they ultimately played LA right out the park. A mark of a great team is one that wins games they're not supposed to and RSL certainly did that.
And um, no, I doubt anyone's complaining about how your team plays any more.
I got the same letter from like 29734 people. Allow me to paraphrase: "Did the US get a great World Cup draw or what?"
Easy answer is yes, but not so fast.
I admit, the US' draw could have looked a lot worse as we avoided teams like France, Portugal and the better African teams like Cote D'Ivoire, Nigeria and Ghana. Still no game at a World Cup is a pushover for a team still establishing its Worldwide credentials. Our forward position is still unsettled. Left back still remains a question mark. And I'm still not sold on our consistency. The teams as it stands right now, isn't the same team that took that 2-0 lead on Brazil earlier this year.
That being said, I'll take my chances advancing out of our group as opposed to say, Mexico's. I'm certainly more optimistic then I was four years ago about this time.
My girl Allie B. in London asks: "How crazy is the the buildup going to be for the opening match. C'MON England!"
It's going to be ridiculous. The banter on Bigsoccer alone would be worth microwaving some popcorn and setting aside a few hours to read. Given the cultural, historical and political ties the countries share, the increasing amount of US players going to England to play, the Beckham factor (assuming he's there) and English teams that have played exhibitions over here, this simply has the capacity the most anticipated, most watched and highest rated match for a US National team ever.
We'll hear about 1950 and Joe Gaetjens over and over. Heck what's the over/under on how many times Alexi Lalas talks about the match in '93?
It's going to be an interesting time in American soccer. After Mexico, I think the side US fans want most is England. People were chanting 'we want England' behind Rob Stone at Nevada Smiths. Well, we got em.
The Don, somewhere in New York wants to know: "What was up with Figo? Our presentation was ruined!"
Don't sweat it, Don Garber. I know, you're salty about the fact that as the United States was making its video presentation, Figo and Fernando Hierro came into the room and all of the journalists jumped up and abandoned your presentation like they did Eddie Murphy near the end of Dreamgirls. Both Figo and Hierro have claimed innocence, saying that their transportation brought them to the venue later than expected.
Ultimately, I doubt it will have hurt the USA's chances of landing the Cup in 2018 or 2022. We still have the stadia, a growing audience, good infrastructure and the experience of putting on one of the most successful World Cups in 1994. I think everyone knows what they're getting with a US bid.
I got a letter here from a James N. in Philadelphia stating: "Any chance we can recreate what we saw in Seattle in our first year in MLS."
It'll be difficult to match Seattle's first year success. First and foremost, Seattle already had a fan base because the Sounders were an established team. It also helped that the ownership had a charismatic front man in Drew Carey. I even wouldn't discount that the city had just lost a professional franchise when the Supersonics took their tradition of Jack Sikma, Downtown Freddy Brown, Tom Chambers and Ray Allen to... Oklahoma City.
Most importantly, though, Seattle were successful on the field. In terms of stacked expansion clubs, this was probably the second strongest after Chicago. They got off to a very good start, picked up some silverware, and looked strong in the playoffs.
Winning - or at least being competitive - is going to be even more important in Philly. Despite the historical ties soccer has to the city, there hasn't been a top-tier side there in a long time. The city still has all of its sports teams, including a team with two straight World Series appearances, giving the Union more competition in the sporting landscape.
However, the East wasn't strong last year (as evidence by its representative in MLS Cup was from Utah) and a lot of uncertainty remains with teams whose colors aren't Yellow and Black. The added allure of an I-95 rivalry with DC and RBNY will help spur interest along with the um... energetic... Sons of Ben. If Philly gets off to a decent start, good things should happen.
J. Heaps in Boston writes: "Have I done enough in my career so that people will stop referring to me as the guy who walked onto Duke's basketball team?"
Yeah how annoying did that get?
You've had a very productive MLS career starting from your time down here in S. Florida with the Fusion and establishing yourself as an automatic starter with the Revolution. You appeared in every one of New England's MLS Cup appearances won an Open Cup, a SuperLiga title, and finally represented the US at the Gold Cup this past summer. The longer your career lasted, the better you got. You certainly did the business and took advantage of every opportunity the league gave you.
The League will miss both you and Ben Olsen greatly.
J Hutch in DC just hit me with an email saying: "Will you finish this thing up already? You send me nothing for 3 weeks and now you can't stop writing????"
Sorry, boss. Just giving the people what they want.
Andrew Dixon is a soccer writer based in Miami and a weekly columnist for USSoccerPlayers. Contact him at: golnoir@golnoir.net
