Anti-Football, Diving, and a Question for the MLS

This weekend brought up a lot of interesting questions. Where do we start? Old Trafford (I got the score right)? No, let’s start in Madrid. Real Madrid brought in their new reign with a tight victory against Deportivo La Coruna at 3-2. Ronaldo was the only “new” player to score – off a penalty, with the other two goals by Raul and Lassana Diarra. I thought Real looked confused at times and the problem is still the defense. The Deportivo goals were well worked and they even scored off a free kick that could have been in a Disney movie due to its audacity. Barca take the field in 10 minutes so we can exhale and watch them. Atletico Madrid also lost, which upset me because I like Atletico and especially Aguero and Forlan (the European Golden Boot winner last year. Yeah read that again. Manchester United reject, by the way).

Mr. Wenger is calling Manchester United’s tactics on Saturday “anti-football.” The only way in which I agree is to the extent that we came with a 4-5-1 formation AT HOME with Rooney all along up top. Just like against Barcelona in Rome, our midfield looked awful. Very weak and lacking creativity. I don’t know how this guy is playing in the number 16 shirt, it is not the Michael Carrick I remember. Wenger also complained a great deal about Darren Fletcher and all his fouls being anti-football (he never said his name but alluded to a blond midfielder). Does Wenger remember that RVP also had 6 fouls and a booking? Do we need to talk about penalties? You cannot compare the Eduardo dive against Celtic and Rooney. Boruc pulled his arms back and you can see  space between the bodies. Rooney did make a move to the ground BUT the law states that if a goalie makes contact with a player and denies a goal scoring opportunity then it is a penalty. End of story?

Hoffenheim, the newcomers to the Bundesliga last year, have added two young Americans to their team. Attacker Joseph-Claude Gyau and midfielder Charles Renken (16 and 15 respectively). I can go both ways on this: I am very excited that a good Bundesliga team are scouting our youth, this can only be great news for the national team. BUT, where is the MLS in all this? I know players will always fall through the cracks, but the fact is players still want to make their professional career in Europe (when I was a kid, playing a in Europe was always THE dream over winning let’s say an MLS cup…). I guess we can keep the same “it’s a young league, give it time,” argument. Excuses… Get rid of the Salary Cap, or at least rework it!

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