Bye-Bye Hodgson

Well, it's official. After a horrible half season, the 2010 Manager of the Year is now the first fired manager of the new year (well other than that other Roy but the Championship doesn't count). It really is a shame it had to come to this. You had a quality mid-table manager just simply way too far out of his depth. Hodgson can get you some decent results, but he is never winning a title. Even at his best, he lacks an ability to get any team to perform on the road. But, I will stop. Far too much ink has been wasted on his ineffectiveness as the manager of Liverpool. He just was not the right man for the job.

I think his career won't be soiled too horribly by this, and he surely will work again. There will probably be a few more openings this year in both the Premier League and the Championship, and he has never shown himself to be unwilling to go abroad. So, he will work again. He will be successful again, but his success is not that of a championship winning manager, it is that of stable mid-table success. An odd cup run, midtable finishes and no relegation. And that's what plenty of teams would kill for.

Roy Keane, on the other hand, has to be close to finished in football management. He is quite far removed from his only success (Sunderland's promotion and their subsequent staying up) and has followed that with his acrimonious exit from Sunderland and his horror show with Ipswich. Simply put, I don't think he has the temperament for management. Unless he got a big club (very fat chance), he will almost assuredly never manage a player as good as he was. Regardless of where he coaches, he will never coach a guy as tough as he was. And he will forever remain infuriated by his players by not reaching his own lofty standard. They will burn out by the military atmosphere, and eventually tune him out. He was hated as a player, and that's fine. In this day and age, you simply cannot be hated as a coach. The players have too much power.

Friendlies Roster

So Bradley has released the roster for the USA National Team's upcoming friendlies. It's a who's who of young American talent in the MLS, along with our old Scandinavian stomping grounds. Cervi plays for Celtic, which is the only foreign club of note here. Obviously he doesn't start. In fact he's on loan to Dundee. Where he doesn't start. Sigh.

Here's the list:

GOALKEEPERS

Cervi, Dominic (Celtic)
Johnson, Sean (Chicago Fire)
Pickens, Matt (Colorado Rapids)
Rimando, Nick (Real Salt Lake)

DEFENDERS

DeLaGarza, A.J. (Los Angeles Galaxy)
Franklin, Sean (Los Angeles Galaxy)
Gonzalez, Omar (Los Angeles Galaxy)
Ihemelu, Ugo (FC Dallas)
Loyd, Zach (FC Dallas)
Miller, Ryan (Halmstads BK)
Ream, Tim (New York Red Bulls)
Wallace, Anthony (Colorado Rapids)
Wynne, Marvell (Colorado Rapids)

MIDFIELDERS

Alexander, Eric (FC Dallas)
Bedoya, Alejandro (Örebro)
Cronin, Sam (San Jose Earthquakes)
Diskerud, Mikkel (Stabaek)
Larentowicz, Jeff (Colorado Rapids)
McCarty, Dax (D.C. United)
Shea, Brek (FC Dallas)

FORWARDS

Agudelo, Juan (New York Red Bulls)
Braun, Justin (Chivas USA)
Bunbury, Teal (Sporting Kansas City)
Wondolowski, Chris (San Jose Earthquakes)

Feliz Navidad!

So, I don't want to give the impression I have a Giuseppe Rossi man-crush by including him in the last two posts, but it's much more indicative about how bad at posting I've been recently. Here is Villareal's Christmas ad which I thought was cute. Come on it's in good fun. It is a little sad that he is clearly an Italian, through and through, to everyone in Spain and Europe. Obviously having him sing Yankee Doodle Dandy would be great but as I've said before I really have no hard feelings towards Rossi. As opposed to other players who more callously choose their national team off of a combination of prestige and possibility of playing time, he never wavered in his commitment for Italy. He always represented them at the youth level and never toyed with the US. He always made it clear he wanted to represent Italy, which for a kid from New Jersey, is a pretty ballsy move. I respect that. He could have been first-choice striker for 15 years for the US team (assuming we don't have some golden generation of 14-year olds right now) but instead is trying to play for the team of his childhood dreams. What's wrong with that? Besides he basically moved at 13 to Parma so by that logic Ghana should hate Freddy Adu (or they would if he was good) and so many other countless movements of players. I have more respect for Rossi, a kid who chose a path he has never wavered from and was always clear and upfront about who he wanted to represent, than I do for Jermaine Jones, who I really think just wanted to play some international football. I have no issue with Jones as I would do the same in his situation but does anyone really think that he would be playing for USA if the German national team had been calling? He played in three friendlies but never would have seen any starting lineup. Look, I'm going to stop ranting but where I'm going with this is that I think hating Rossi shows how weak a footballing nation we are. He is clearly the best player to have been born on American soil and barring some new prodigy, will probably hold that title for his career. Donovan is great but come on, everyone would take Rossi first. The problem isn't that USA soccer didn't hold on to Rossi (whom even Brazil wouldn't have) but the problem is that we are so desperate for a creative player that we'll scorn a kid living out his dream.

Anyways, here is that Christmas special, it is quite funny.

Quick La Liga Action

Everything the USA National Team could use in a striker (Rossi's goal, Villareal's second). In other news, FANTASTIC La Liga season thusfar. 10 goals in 8 matches for Cristiano. Legitimate contenders not named Real Madrid and Barcelona, and generally just the best football to watch from a neutral's perspective. Here's the Villareal Highlights

Roy Ghoulson

When your manager and assistant are both walking undead, things are going poorly:

Cobra or Sodomy: A Discussion

This is a couple weeks old, but I was busy:


We are all familiar with this stunning goal by non other than Cesc Fabregas. I was quick to proclaim "COBRA COBRA COOOOOOOOOOOOOBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA" when I witnessed it, and nearly wet myself with excitement. However, a real discussion has to be made into whether or not it was cobra, and if not, what type of hitback it was. Let's rule out the obvious.

Divine Sodomy: Cesc is in the opposing half and has never played defense. Not a chance.
The Rattler: Cesc appears to make no other attempts at the hitback, nevermind a constant stream of attacks that would declare a Rattler.
Sheva: I don't believe these are possible in professional football.
Sodomy from the Skies: CLEARLY NOT. Besides the great David Wronski would have chosen something other than a Gooner to be his Chosen Heir.

So let's go into the options:
Hambone: From the center forward position, a straight hitback on either keeper or defender.
Cobra: From a left forward or right forward position, a straight hitback on either keeper or defender.
Spitting Cobra: Same as above, with caveat that it loops over the defender and keeper.
Sodomy: A hitback from the midfield position.

Now, I believe we can immediately rule out Hambone, as Cesc is clearly not in a Center Forward position at the time of the hitback (I'm deeming his position on the pitch more important than his actual position in the formation) and I think we can also rule out a plain Cobra, due to the fact that if this is a Cobra, it is clearly a Spitting Cobra.

What needs to be addressed now my friends is the position of the hitback. Observe where Cesc hits the ball. Now observe the relative positions of players on a standard Tornado Foosball Table:


Clearly, my friends, what we are dealing with here is none other than a SPITTING COBRA!!!!! Well done Cesc. Well done.

Why I'm Stopping Power Rankings

So, I should mention that I'm stopping Power Rankings. I just don't think it's as relevant in Football as in other sports. I might go back to doing the weekly recap of games though. With Power Rankings, I love them I really do but honestly I don't have the time, and they always end up being pretty obvious anyways. I liked the recaps better anyways, and so I'll start those up after my job interviews this week. So, if you guys want to do those again, that'd be great, but I'm going to retire my contribution to the Power Rankings.