Fighting Talker

This is a sign of how bad DC United’s defense has been at times this season (and especially in SuperLiga).

When I saw the news on Goff’s Soccer Insider that Abel Xavier had been let go by the Los Angeles Galaxy, my first thought was, “Oh, DC should go get him.”

Then I came to my senses, remembering how poorly I had seen him play when United routed the Galaxy, 4-1, late last month.

Then, for a split second, I had the “sign him” thought again.

Perhaps the heat and humidity are getting to me.

Carvallo had his debut and finale in the same game.

I just wanted to post some quick words of remembrance for Jose Carvallo. No, he’s not dead. But his D.C. United career is. He was waived by the club this week, unable to take the starting job away from Zach Wells - who you may remember doesn’t have a clean sheet in a league match lasting longer than 16 minutes yet this season.

Carvallo played one memorable game in a United uniform. He played the kind of game that those of us mere mortals really will never forget. The kind of game that the record books will note well into the future, and one that we will be telling our grandkids about way into the 2050s.

That game saw him give up a remarkable 4 goals on just 6 shots on target. It was a 4-0 loss to the long-time Western Conference power, Real Salt Lake. I think I can safely say that as a nation, and to a man, we all remember where we were the night Carvallo made his much anticipated debut, and finale, all in the same night. I don’t really remember it, but I’m sure you guys do.

Somewhere, somehow, Nick Rimando was laughing. … Well, of course he was, he was the goalkeeper on the other side of the field.

Yes, folks, the Jose Carvallo era in DC is over. He probably won’t make the Ring of Stars or whatever they call it now, but it’s still worth taking time to pause, pour some out for our now departed goalkeeper, and go forth into the future knowing we’ll never see one of his like again. But yet, we’ve got to go on with our lives.

God bless you, Jose Carvallo. God bless you, indeed.

Hey folks, I am heading up to Portland, ME for a week-long vacation tomorrow, so I won’t be posting quite as much as usual. Don’t worry, I’ll be sure to let you know my thoughts on Craig Thompson’s upcoming signing with Arsenal (he’s all we can afford at this point), but otherwise I am going to enjoy some nice weather, the brisk freezing Atlantic ocean, and some good seafood. I don’t know if there is soccer in Maine. I don’t really care either. But don’t fret too much folks, I am sure Ed will take good care of this place.

I’ll keep this quick… so here is an Aaron at 11 p.m. “lighting round” of analysis.

• Yawn
• Defense was a sieve
• Thompson not as bad as I though
• Not Wells’ fault
• We miss Gallardo
• We need defenders
• Tuesday Saturday will be tankapalooza, and rightly so

Again, this all looks like an indictment of Kasper. Where is all that depth? Where is all that talent brought here to bring us success in international competition?

I used to be much higher about this tournament than I am now. The new CONCACAF Champions Cup has rendered it superfluous. If it wants to be the “UEFA Cup” of CONCACAF, then let it. But if that’s the case, then teams already in the CCC shouldn’t have to slog through it.

Life goes on. Bring on the league, bring on the Open Cup.

meet

See, when I ripped Craig Thompson earlier today on the blog I did it to motivate him, not trash him… and it worked too, what with him setting up DC’s first goal tonight.

Yum, this crow tastes good.

Good evening.

Berbatov to Manchester United?

Took me a while to find the place tonight. Aaron changes the colors on here faster than Brett Favre changes his mind about retiring.

Indecision and confusion are about all I can think of regarding the rumored sale of Dimitar Berbatov from Spurs to Manchester United for a cool £28 million, which, with the way the US Dollar is going, equals roughly $353 million. Soccernet had the story this morning, though you can judge its accuracy perhaps by the fact you can’t find it on their home page as of 8 p.m. today.

As a Manchester United fan, I can’t say as I understand this move, if true. Some would argue, as a United fan, I don’t understand much, but anyway. It’s not as if goal scoring was the club’s problem last season - you know, one where they won a couple trophies. Does it signal the end for the Ronaldo saga? Hard to imagine Real Madrid would shell out the cash for an injured player (due out some 12 weeks), but who knows. It also would be a bit odd for United to be passing out their pence prior to any Ronaldo deal going through. It’s not as if they’ve hauled in the cash during the transfer season - and the folks across the pond keep telling me the club is in debt because of those alleged greedy American bastards. (more…)

The Independent has a great story written by West Ham’s Robert Green about his recent trip to Africa for charity work. I encourage all of you to read it.

Playing professional football you surround yourself in a bubble. For 11 months of the year you don’t have a choice of truly experiencing real life. Having left school and gone straight into football, I have played almost every day of my adult life. As far as lives go, I admit I have a pretty great one. But as far as life experiences go, it has been of fairly limited scope.

In a similar way, life as a footballer is self-focused. It can be easy to take for granted the life that you lead. Focusing on the negatives, not appreciating what you have, things that anyone in the western world could be guilty of. As a footballer you live on challenges, whether they are set by fans, managers, media, the opposition or yourself. This summer I wanted something to challenge the habits, thoughts, and beliefs that I had built into myself after 12 years of full-time football.

So around Christmas last year I approached a number of charities with my thoughts on how I wanted to use my summer break. Amref (the African Medical Research Foundation) came across as positive and active and saw my interest as an opportunity they could make something of: to use football and, in particular, the popularity of the Premier League as a vehicle to spread their Aids, HIV, health and peace messages.

Before I go entering a fantasy Premier League team for the 2008-2009 season, I wanted to put this out there. Is there a fantasy EPL game out there that uses a draft rather than a salary cap? Salary cap league stink because, almost inevitably, everyone ends up with the same guys.

Every spring, I am outraged that no MLS fantasy has integrated a draft, and now I want to see if there was a game with a draft amongst the more plentiful number of fantasy EPL sites.

Is there one out there? If so, I am there.

From the SE’s web site:

He’s the typical MLS winger, fast, industrious, goes in for 50/50 balls, etc…

Where is crossing the ball on that list? I am not sure I’ve seen him put in one decent cross yet, not one. I know the league isn’t great, but I would hope the “typical MLS winger” occasionally put in a cross.

With the lineup unlikely to include many improvements from what we saw on Saturday night, it might be time for United to punt on the Superliga, start the reserves and let everyone recoup for the second half of the season. Even if DC beats Atlante tonight, they don’t have anywhere near the squad to win the tournament and might as well not get anyone else hurt if they are not going to win it.

I know this is pessimistic and probably angers those who say DC ought to go into every tournament with their eye on winning it, but right now, United needs to be most concerned with MLS and Open Cup matches. If you can’t win the Superliga, what’s the difference between finishing second and not getting out of the group phase, or more relevantly to United, getting knocked out in the semifinals and getting knocked out in the group phase?

I am starting to be really worried about Gallardo’s injury. If he has go in for surgery, is that it for him this season? Will he be around in the playoffs? Can this team go anywhere without him? I wish I knew the answers to those questions.

Prediction for Tonight: 1-1