Wow, talk about an extended hiatus. I think it’s been since early December since we last did this, not counting that thing I did helping Tonyonball cover Futbol Americano de Universidad. Whew, glad that’s over. Who won our bowl picks competition anyway? Probably me (Editor’s Note: It was bad for both of us, article to come). Anyway, part of the reason for the extended time between soccer posts is that there hasn’t really been much going on lately. The MLS season wrapped up with another bland final in which the winning team was only there because they cheated to get past Sporting KC earlier in the playoffs (Editor’s Note: Spoken like a true KC sports fan). Most of the major European leagues took an extended holiday break and even though they’re back playing now, many of the games have been pointless early round cup matches. I think the Champions League is still a few weeks away from resuming, and there haven’t been any interesting World Cup qualifying games either. But that’s all behind us now and there are many exciting things on the horizon.
(Editor's Note: Sunday Soccer Soundoff is still looking for sponsors. If you have a product that you would like to reach hundreds, nay, thousands of eyeballs, please send your advertisement to Tony.M@MidwestCSLLC.com.)
1. Premier League title race heats up, sorta
I say “sorta” because it looks like Chelsea is beginning to run away with things. Until Tottenham (more on them in a minute) played a brilliant match to beat the Blues 2 weeks ago, Chelsea had rattled off 13 straight league wins, which tied a record I’m told. Conte has the team playing efficiently with a 3 back system. This formation only works because of the obscene work rate and midfield coverage of Kante, which provides cover for the defensive inefficiencies of David Luiz but allows him to spur attacks from the back with his excellent passing range and willingness to dribble into open spaces in front of him. Additionally, by removing a defender and adding an attacker, opposing defenses have little chance of stopping the 3-headed monster of Costa, Hazard, and either Pedro or Willian. Add a resurgent Cesc Fabregas pulling the creative strings from just behind the offensive trident, and that’s a recipe for a lot of Ws. (That analysis was totally stolen from someone online, sorry) Now, if Conte can continue to manage the egos on his team, they should win their second title in 3 years, but that’s a big if when you’re dealing with the Brazilian pear that is Diego Costa (Editor's Note: Nice use of the word pear).
As for the contenders, United are actually playing pretty well lately, but their early season struggles have likely left them with too much ground to make up (but they would be my pick right now to win it next year, especially when they give Mourinho another $100M to spend in the offseason) and City have practically admitted defeat in the title race with Guardiola seemingly out of ideas on how to fix his squad after a scorching start to the season has given way to a lot of “meh” performances. Liverpool were keeping pace with Chelsea up until the new year, but consecutive draws against Sunderland and United (how the hell did we get screwed again by an offsides no-call? It wasn’t even close. And the linesman was 5 yards out of position after a throw in that took place literally right in front of him.) have left the Reds trailing by 7 points (I think). The game against Chelsea in 2 weeks will be huge. Which leaves us with Tottenham, who became the hottest team in the league with their defeat of Chelsea and routes of Swansea and West Brom. If they continue with their current form (or really, if Dele Alli continues with his current form – welcome to my fantasy team, btw) and get a little help from Chelsea, they would find themselves right in the thick of the title race. Of course, it will be hard to win the title if they continue with their insistence of finishing behind Arsenal every year since the beginning of time.
2. Welcome back, Bruce!
US Soccer did the smart thing and hired a known quantity for the national team’s head coaching vacancy with Bruce Arena. He should be able to clean up Klinsmann’s mess and get us to the World Cup, and probably get out of our group. After that, US Soccer, hopefully under new leadership by then, can get as fancy pantsy as they want and hire Jose Mourinho for all I care (please don’t, forget I ever said that). But right now, we need someone who can help us win games now. Bruce can do that while at the same time boosting the profile of our domestic league by actually calling in its best players. Klinsmann was so poo-pooey on MLS that I feel he did damage to the league as well as handicapped his own chances for success.
3. World Cup 2026 to the US - Awesome! With 48 teams? - Boo
After getting screwed out of hosting either of the next 2 World Cup tournaments (by the way, I love how it has been proven that Qatar and Russia bribed FIFA officials in order to host the tournaments, yet they’re still allowed to host them. And the scandal came out almost immediately after the tournaments were voted on, it’s not like timing was an issue. PLUS…what is even more maddening is that right after Qatar won the hosting rights, they immediately reneged on almost all of the cool stuff they said they would do that won them the votes in the first place (besides the bribes of course), like air conditioned stadiums using 100% renewable energy. PLUS…they practically enslave their workers and a bunch of them have died during the construction process. End rant) it looks like the US is in line to win the hosting rights for 2026. That’s cool. What isn’t cool is that FIFA recently voted to expand the tournament from 32 teams (what a nice, even number for which to construct a tournament format with) to 48 teams (Editor's Note: Entering the cranky old man zone). Not only does this water down the tournament and make qualifying less of an achievement, but a 48 team format is silly. The current proposal is for 12 groups of 3 teams each, with 2 teams from each group advancing to the round of 32, which will then unfold in a single-elimination format. Yuck.
4. Hot start to the new year
Well, it appears that being a player-manager agrees with me quite well. Last session, Mug Club managed to finish second, despite being the oldest team in the division (Editor's Note: That's a humblebrag, homes). Meanwhile, the Cookie Monsters finished first in the Over-30 A division and won a $25 gift card to the local brewery. Good times. And the success has continued into 2017. With 8 goals in 4 games and a 3-1 overall record (if I was able to trim a little fat from the Cookie Monsters’ roster it would be 4-0) things are looking good. (I will now certainly go back to my usual rate of 1 goal per session) I think the switch to my new Nike Tiempo VI indoor shoes has helped, although they were the culprit when I rolled my ankle on Monday, putting my status for tonight’s 10 pm nightcap (ugh) in doubt. Wish me luck, we play one of those teams with a name I can’t pronounce, as is the case almost every week.
-Robert the Cheech
