Wednesday Rebounds

So yesterday in my Toe Pokes I apparently jinxed Sunderland by noting they were at the time leading Chelsea, but needed to do better than the 8 goals allowed against the Blues in the 2008-09 season if they were to hold on. Of course the Black Cats capitulated and allowed three goals for 3-1 loss. If there's a bright spot for Sunderland, it's that Darren Bent, who I think is extremely overrated, is starting strong with goals in their opening two games.

Here are highlights before they get snatched from YouTube.

On the other hand, Wolverhampton Wanderers ended up holding on to their 1-0 lead to get their first win of the season against Wigan.

DC United suffered another setback, losing 3-1 to Marathon in San Pedro Sula. DC United was actually the better team on the night, dominating probably 70% of the game. Unfortunately for DC, the other 30% involved Greg Janicki. I noted before that this season he's shown why he was just a USL-2 player prior to his loan to DC. Well let's just say that Janicki is an unmitigated debacle in the back. I'm pretty sure that he couldn't play for either of my men's teams, one of which has players who had never played soccer before. I won't post highlights because it's not even worth watching Janicki being specifically, 100% responsible for all three goals.

On the more humorous side, if you watched the game, you were treated to the San Pedro Sula p.a. and the Fox Soccer Channel broadcast team. As Washington Post reporter Steven Goff put it, it sounded like Charlie Brown's teacher found a new job. I think they just outsourced the job to the DC Metro. As for Christian Miles and the FSC boys, well, they simply need to do better as professionals. I kept thinking during the game about how awful and plain wrong they constantly were, and you should never get caught up in the broadcasters when watching the game. At times it's humorous to listen to someone so bad, but I guess there's not much that can be done. Oh well.

Today brings some more action, including CONCACAF and UEFA Champions Leagues. In CONCACAF, Houston takes on Metapan of El Salvador. In UEFA the games of note are Lyon against Anderecht and Panathinaikos against Atletico Madrid. Read up on HalaMadrid's informative take on the new Champions League qualifying rules.

MLS and EPL also have some games to play today. Chicago facing a David Beckham-less LA Galaxy thanks to his red card over the weekend. LA has the potential to have a very strong offense, with a young and promising defense that still leaks goals, but they're still positioned well to make the postseason, while Chicago is strong but uninspiring, as always.

In England, Liverpool needs to pick up three points at Stoke or else their EPL championship bid will end before it really begins. Tottenham has a great chance of getting out to a solid early start with a second win against shorthanded Hull City. Portsmouth and Birmingham face off in what many would predict is going to be an important relegation match when all is said and done. Man U also faces newly promoted Burnley (as of this writing Burnley is leading 1-0, will they suffer the same fate as Sunderland after I wrote about their lead yesterday?).

And finally, after the off season drama and the horrible showing against Arsenal, David Moyes has shaken things up by dropping Joleon Lescott for a poor attitude. Could this be a prelude to an exit to Manchester??

DC United Advances in spite of Ronaldo-esque attempt at PK tomfoolery

First, DC United advanced past Firpo to reach the CONCACAF Champions League group stage. The game was 1-1 after 90 minutes plus full time, with DC emerging victorious 5-4 on penalties. It was clear that DC was the more talented team, and they rightfully deserved to win.

I would like to note a controversial moment, namely Firpo's goal in the 39th minute, which was a pentalty kick. Leandro Franco took Cristiano Ronaldo's patented stop-start run-up to new extremes. You know Ronaldo's style well - he starts his run, but in an awkward looking and ultimately unsuccessful attempt at fooling the keeper into guessing one way early he takes a jerking stutter that kills his momentum. Usually this doesn't matter because Ronaldo can still finish with pretty much unsavable placement anyway; however, he famously missed in the Champions League final in 2008 and it looked like his usual accuracy was thrown off by his annoying, stuttering run up (though I give him credit for a strong game overall and a wonderful headed goal for Man U during normal time).

Here's Ronaldo's penalty, at 0:49 of the clip.



Looking back now I see that he completely stopped, which is technically illegal. Last night Franco actually planted to kick at the ball and then stopped right at the ball, much closer than what Ronaldo does. Because he looked like he was in mid-kicking motion, DC goalie Josh Wicks guessed to his right, opening the goal for Franco. Once Franco stopped and waited a second, Wicks also stopped and looked at the ref to make a call. The ref did nothing and Franco scored easily. Here's Franco's penalty kick at 0:33 of the clip.



What do you think? Was Franco's kick illegal, should it have not counted? What about Ronaldo's? Despite being one of the best free kick takers on the planet, I was never comfortable that Ronaldo would score his penalties, despite his high success rate in them, because the stutter run up seemed a disaster waiting to happen, and fortunately for Man U the wet grass and John Terry's footing saved them in 2008. I think it's a pretty stupid way to take penalties. And Franco's goal should have been disallowed.

Anyway, DC joins Houston and Columbus as MLS teams in the group stages. Toronto was eliminated by USL team Puerto Rico and the Red Bulls take a 2-2 away leg tie into tonights match in New Jersey. Let's hope W Connection from Trinadad can hit some away goals today.