MLS on Fire Week 15.5

Welcome to the first installment of MLS on Fire. A simple roundup of players that are doing great things for their teams or for the league as a whole. We might even throw in an announcer or a coach every now and then. So lets start things off with a bang here...

Darlington Nagbe is obviously on fire with this wonder-goal he scored for the Timbers against Sporting KC. You might want to put on a diaper before watching this, as it caused me to seriously loose my shit.

Though Portland failed carry the momentum of this goal into a tie or a win, the 20 year old midfielder may have scored a greater victory in the process. If this doesn't force Euro-snobs to take note of the ever rising tide of talent in the MLS, nothing will. Rooney's lucky bicycle kick can move on over because there's a new sherif in town. Honorable mention to the announcer (John Strong?) of Nagbe's goal for matching the emotion of the moment perfectly.

Steven Lenhart makes the list this week, but not without pissing a lot of people off to get there. I can't decide whether to love him or hate him, but he has certainly made his presence known lately. There has been no slowing him down since his hat trick for San Jose against DC. He was the difference maker against LA, pulling a bitch move to infuriate Josh Saunders enough to act a fool. Lenhart had the European instinct to sell the foul hard enough to get the ref to show red. Then last night against the Red Bulls, he made very few friends, but played a key role in keeping the match level.

Chris Pontius makes the list for keeping DC United classy, despite all efforts by Charlie Davies to drag the team through the mud. Please try to ignore one of the most annoying goal callers in the MLS and check out why Pontius is climbing the ranks among the MLS elite.

It may not be the prettiest goal ever, but for every ball he puts… ugh… "IN THE NET", five more have been hitting posts or have somehow been miraculously saved by keepers. Pontius has been firing shots left and right for DC, so look for more goals from him in coming weeks.

Brek Shea is simultaneously on fire and heating up. He has been absolutely dazzling for FC Dallas, and everyone who has seen him play a single game knows it. Somehow this cat manages to outdo his past performances every single game. Instead of a recent goal highlight, get to know the man named Brek with this little gem here. Spoiler alert: Brek Shea is an abstract artist. I guess that explains the haircut.

USMNT boss in the making? Perhaps.

Dax McCarty and Dwayne De Rosario get honorable mentions for seamlessly integrating into their new squads after a surprising swap this week. (I secretly suspect DeRo got tired of name confusion between him and Dane Richards. Same initials and similar first names? Too much for the Canadian star to handle.) De Ro had a nice assist, and McCarty had a less flashy performance, but did the job well in the midfield. After doing this well in their first week at new clubs, we can expect better things to come for the Red Bulls and DC.

Will Johnson gets honorable mention as well for continuing to be Will Johnson.

Thats all for today, but with a few exciting matches left to be played tomorrow, a week 16 post may not be far away. If you disagree with our rulings or think somebody got snubbed, feel free to let us know in the comments.

Why The 2011 Gold Cup Has Been So Annoying

The Gold Cup is a CONCACAF tournament played every two years. It is an exciting time for the region, as teams from smaller nations in the Caribbean and Central America have the chance to face off against the Soccer giant of the region, Mexico, and the slowly rising star that is the US national team. It is an exciting time for American soccer fans, as we are able to watch our prospective World Cup team develop in front of our eyes. Fresh blood, controversial call-ups, and hype for new national team players, and of course criticism as soon as these new players make one mistake. This is all part of the excitement of the Gold Cup. Half the time the Gold Cup is played for an extra prize. National pride is always at stake, but when the Gold Cup played directly following a World Cup year, the ante is upped. The winner of the tournament wins entry to the Confederations Cup, a tournament played the year prior to the World Cup in the coming World Cup Country’s venues against winners of other FIFA regional competitions. In 2007, the United States’ victory over Mexico earned the team a spot in the Confederations Cup in South Africa, giving the team a crucial trial against some of FIFA’s top teams, and some crucial experience on the field where they would soon compete for Soccer’s ultimate prize. USA stunned international audiences in 2009 by beating Spain to earn it’s spot in the final, where they fell to Brazil. We defeated the World Cup champions the year before the World Cup, and it was all made possible by the Gold Cup.

This Gold Cup, as you may already realize, falls on one of those important years, and matters that much more to the nations involved. But for some odd reason, I’m yet to reach the appropriate level of excitement. Even now that the USA v. Mexico final has moved swiftly from prediction to reality, I don’t find myself feeling even half the butterflies that I felt for the team in some international friendlys in the past. And I am not alone in my sentiments. Although there has been plenty of conversation about the National Team through their uneasy journey to the finals, it has been tainted by an overwhelming amount of negativity from domestic fans. Instead of rallying support for the team, every decision has been questioned and mocked as if US Soccer were conspiring against the success of our nation. But that isn’t it either. Something about this team has failed to inspire fervor in the hearts of even its most attentive fans. Even after the lackluster victories and the embarrassing defeats, this team still represents the greatest selection of individual talent an American soccer side has ever seen. And even though they have been underperforming from the start, the spark of interest was never really there to begin with. Why?

Well, in a roundabout way we are suffering from a problem we have never had to worry about before. There are too many talented young American players. The MLS is doing its job, and doing it damn well. Our domestic league is churning out talent at an ever increasing pace, and the US has never seen so many viable options for call-ups. And while this is an overwhelmingly positive thing for the future of the National team, it makes it all to easy for us fans to criticize. Now instead of focusing on some subtle progression made by our young guns on the team, we now have the option of looking elsewhere. So if our one of our offensive talismans are slumping (for example, Dempsey in Panama round 1), instead of getting behind him and reminding others of past performances and important history with the team, we can look elsewhere, and say “Brek Shea is murdering it right now for FC Dallas! Where the hell is his call up?!?!” It was an option that was simply much less prevalent in the past. If Tim Ream, a man who has been a incredible stalwart and rock for us in the back, slumps for a few games, our first impression is no longer to question what could have caused this change or simply hope for him to regain his form. Our gut reaction as a nation is now to see who is doing the job better elsewhere and search for answers for why Bradley wasn’t able to predict the future. I’m as guilty as any other of taking the easy way out, and it has lead me to a bit of lack of compassion for the current US team. Our true problem is right now as fans and as a team, is that we are a Soccer nation going through puberty. Late bloomers, perhaps. Inconsistent ones? Certainly. But even if one leg grows a bit faster than the other, I think some day soon we’ll be standing tall.