Another international disappointment

I was wrong when I suggested earlier that DCU would probably be taking the CCL seriously, since they had rested Emilio and Fred for the Dallas match. Instead we sent out an even weaker team tonight, that included the reappearance of Zach Wells! Goff says it's because Crayton had a sore knee, I'm not so sure. A 2-0 loss to the best team in Concacaf isn't necessarily an end to our international play this year though. As long as Saprissa beats up everyone else too, we've still got a chance. That is if we want one.


1. Clyde Simms was the best player on the field last night for us. And he had our best scoring chance of the night with a header off of a Burch cross in the 72nd minute.


1. That was another quality match from Boyzzz Khumalo. He certainly gave a lot of effort.


1. I don't agree that the challenge by Devon McTavish deserved a red card, but he sure did hang his team out to dry. Even though it looked like we were playing something like 8 v. 13, not just 10 v. 11.

2. I debated in my head for a while where to put Marc Burch. His defending was poor, but he was our best offensive threat. I'd almost forgot he had that kind of crossing ability, and is really much more of a left back than a center back.

3. Craig Thompson looked like a rookie reserve player who has been asked to play way too many minutes for the first team. Oh wait, that's exactly what he is, and it's not really his fault.

4. Minor demerits to Bryan Namoff for his second below average performance in a row.

Now I usually reserve space in this blog only for discussions of in-game developments and thoughts on particular players, but let's take a step back and look at the broad league-wide political issues that this and other tournaments have raised. Fixture congestion, the salary cap, and roster restrictions are major impediments to the success of MLS teams in international competitions. The best example is New England's somewhat comical home loss to Joe Public. The league needs to set its priorities straight. If the priority is still to make the league and the teams profitable as soon as possible, then I understand the cap restrictions, but then why play so many damn games? If the priority is make the league better respected internationally, then the league needs to give the teams more incentive to try to do so in international tournaments, instead of just rolling out the reserves, and needs to give the teams the tools (cap space, increased roster spots) to do it.