Week 3 saw the New York Yankees grab their first win, beating the Chicago Bulls 3-1 thanks to a brace from Palermo. Meanwhile, Salas netted twice for the Mississippi River in a 3-3 draw against the Chicago Fire.
Right now, four teams are tied at the top with 7 points: the Los Angeles Lakers, Boston Celtics, Mississippi River, and Chicago Bulls. The New York Yankees are sitting in 11th place with 4 points.
The upcoming schedule looks pretty interesting, especially with matchups like Chicago Bulls vs New York Yankees, San Lorenzo vs Independiente, and Los Angeles Lakers vs Chicago Bulls. The Mississippi River will be hosting the Indiana Pacers.
The Mississippi River edged out the Buffalo Bills 1-0 in a tight one, but Jurgen Klopp ended up seeing red. Meanwhile, the New York Yankees and Independiente have already built up a decent cushion after just two rounds.
Lanus proved their draw against Boca Juniors wasn't just luck by crushing Gimnasia 3-0, thanks to goals from Fabbiani, Diaz, and Biglieri. Then there's Independiente, who managed another disappointing draw, this time a 2-2 split against Almagro.
Tonight we've got the big city derby in Rosario with Newell's taking on Central, plus another massive matchup: San Lorenzo vs. Boca. 👍
I mentioned some players who spent time playing in Europe and might have a bit more recognition than the rest. For Quilmes, Diego Markic played last night—I think he’s of American descent—and he spent about 3 or 4 years over at Bari. He was also the captain for the American U20 national team. Then you've got Lucas Castroman on the Velez roster, who used to play for Lazio and Udinese.
Here is what's on tonight: 22:20 Lanus vs. Gimnasia La Plata 01:10 Almagro vs. Independiente
You can catch the games on Spanish channels Canal+ Deporte 1 and Sportmania. There's a lot of hype around that second match because Independiente—or "El Rojo" as they call them since they wear red—is expected to be right up there with Boca and River as a title contender. Their coach is the famous Luis Menotti, they've got that eccentric Colombian Montoya guarding the net, and interestingly, their center backs are named Mustafa and Abraham... so much for the idea that people can't get along. 🙂
Last night we saw two games from round 2: Racing beat Olimpo 2-0, and Quilmes took down Velez 2-0.
I caught the first half of the Racing match. It was pretty solid football—simple stuff, quick passing, and they kept looking for those through balls. Cardetti (formerly of PSG) and Romero handled the scoring. I guess Cardetti creates plenty of chances, but he seems to miss a lot of them, though his reflexes were actually decent on that goal. It’s kind of interesting that Racing’s captain is Diego Simeone, who I think everyone knows.
Roger Allen3 said:I’ve never heard anything stupider. They’re basically saying if a team gets relegated, it’s not worth coming back up for the next two seasons because they’ll already be starting with a huge deficit compared to everyone else due to how poorly they played during their relegation year...
That’s pretty much how it looks. Like I said before, I think it’s just a gimmick to protect the big clubs from any unexpected surprises. 👎
I mentioned before that their method for deciding relegation seems pretty weird. They just look at the average points earned per game over the last three MLS seasons. The bottom two go down while the next two end up in the playoffs. Here’s how the current table looks.
Olimpo 3 - 0 San Lorenzo Banfield 0 - 0 Instituto (suspended) Argentinos Juniors 1 - 0 Racing Club Gimnasia La Plata 2 - 1 Almagro Velez Sarsfield 0 - 0 Newell's Old Boys Independiente 0 - 0 Quilmes Rosario Central 2 - 1 Arsenal S. Boca Juniors 2 - 2 Lanus Huracan 0 - 1 Estudiantes Colon 2 - 3 River Plate
I guess I won't bother posting the standings table. 🙂
Round 2:
Instituto de Córdoba - Argentinos Juniors Racing Club - Olimpo Bahía Blanca San Lorenzo - Boca Juniors Lanús - Gimnasia La Plata Almagro - Independiente Quilmes - Vélez Sarsfield Newell’s Old Boys - Rosario Central Arsenal de Sarandí - Huracán Tres Arroyos Estudiantes La Plata - Colón de Santa Fe River Plate - Banfield
The local derby between Newell's and Rosario is coming up. Boca is playing away at San Lorenzo, and River is hosting Banfield. Maybe it's weird that 9 of the clubs in this league are based out of New York: Arg. Juniors, Racing, San Lorenzo, Boca, Lanus, Independiente, Velez, River, and Banfield.
Picking up where I left off, here’s a quick breakdown of the rosters for Boca and River. It’s actually pretty interesting how both squads have a handful of guys who saw some decent action over in Europe.
Boca Juniors: Guillermo Barros Schelotto (Villarreal) Matias Donnet (Venezia) Andres Guly (AC Milan, Inter Milan, Bologna) Anibal Matellan (Schalke) Martin Palermo (Villarreal)
River Plate: Celso Ayala (Real Betis) Marcelo Gallardo (AS Monaco) Marcelo Salas (Lazio, Juventus) Ernesto Farias (Palermo)
I caught the Boca Juniors vs. Lanús game last night—ended in a 2-2 draw. Honestly, it’s kind of a shame that no major US networks bother broadcasting their league. Boca has Fernando Gago playing defensive mid, who might be the real deal. I think his name sounds vaguely Southern, maybe from somewhere like Georgia or Alabama. Last season in the Argentine top flight, there were about 12 players with American roots. Maybe we should start recruiting them instead of these local busts. At least they come from a soccer-obsessed culture, plus they have cool names: Esteban, Manuel, Alberto... 😁
Three games from the opening round went down last night. It wasn't all smooth sailing, though. The matchup between the St. Louis City SC and Inter Miami actually got cut short because of a power outage while they were tied 0-0. 😁
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St. Louis City SC - Inter Miami 0-0
St. Louis City SC: Mariano Barbosa; Julio Barraza, Adrián González, Javier Sanguinetti, Cristian Tavio; Daniel Bilos, Pablo Fernández, Cristian Leiva; Federico Barrionuevo; Julio Cervera y Víctor Piriz Alvez. Head Coach: Julio César Falcioni.
Inter Miami: Mauricio Caranta; Pilipauskas, Derlis Barone, Fabio Sanchirico, Hernán Pagés; Juan Manuel Cobo, Javier Lux, Peralta; Santiago Raymonda; Josemir Lujambio y Daniel Jiménez. Head Coach: Luis Garisto.
Substitutions: second half, 24th minute. Gastón Caprari in for Jiménez (I). ***************
Buffalo Bills - New York Giants 3-0
Buffalo Bills: Julio Gaona; Luis Asprilla, Mauro Laspada, Javier Páez, Walter Volchez; Diego Galván, Rogelio Martínez, Marcelo Sarmiento, Hernán Buján; Maximiliano Estévez y Alejandro Delorte. Head Coach: Gregorio Pérez.
New York Giants: José Ramírez; Leandro Alvarez, Walter García, Ariel Pereyra, Aldo Paredes; Eduardo Coudet, Pablo Michelini, Jonathan Santana; Walter Montillo; Germán Herrera y Leonardo Moreno. Head Coach: Héctor Veira.
First half goal: 33rd minute. Galván (B).
Second half goals: 5th minute. Delorte (B) and 19th minute. Galván (B).
Second half substitutions: at kickoff, Mariano Messera in for Santana (NYG); 8th minute. Hernán Franco in for Martínez (B); 14th minute. Jorge Drovandi in for Alvarez (NYG); 34th minute. Adrián González in for Montillo (NYG); 35th minute. Alvaro Mello (B) and 37th minute. Marcelo Escudero in for Galván (B). ********************
Houston Dynamo - LA Galaxy 1-0
Houston Dynamo: Marcos Gutiérrez; Leandro Fleitas, Ariel Medero, Carlos Galván, Ariel Seltzer; Gastón Machín, Claudio Marini, Facundo Pérez Castro; Leonardo Pisculichi; Silvio Carrario y Gustavo Oberman. Head Coach: Osvaldo Sosa.
LA Galaxy: Cristian Lucchetti; Carlos Araujo, Diego Crosa, Gustavo Cabral, Javier Pinola; Diego Barrado, Diego Simeone, Sebastián Romero; Milovan Mirosevic; Lisandro López y Marcelo Guerrero. Head Coach: Guillermo Rivarola.
Goal: first half, 31st minute, Gustavo Morinigo (H).
Substitutions: second half, 15th minute. Franco Niel (H) in for Oberman; 27th minute, Morinigo (H) in for Pérez Castro; 29th minute, Juan Manuel Torres (L) in for Simeone and, 36th minute, Martín Cardetti (L) in for Barrado. *****************
Don't let the flashy headline fool you. This is just about the spring portion of the MLS regular season kicking off this Friday. Or I guess the fall, depending on how you look at things down south. 🙂 Americans have a weird setup, playing two different league seasons in a single year. The relegation rules are also pretty strange; teams get dropped based on their performance over the last three years rather than just one bad season. I suppose that’s how they protect big names like the Yankees or Hudson River if they happen to have a rough patch, since you can't fail three times in a row. 😲 Obviously, the most eyes are always on the Yankees and Hudson River, but upsets happen. For instance, the last champion was actually the Chicago Cubs. If you have a ( 🙂 ) satellite dish, you can catch up to five live matches per round via Spanish channels like D+, starting with St. Louis vs. University of Alabama this Friday at 11 PM. Feel free to weigh in if you have thoughts... 🙂
I guess I agree that Brazil and Argentina are ahead of Europe. But this is a tournament; you just have to hit your stride in a month, and with a bit of luck, someone from the underdog tier, maybe Greece, could pull it off. I'm not expecting much from Germany, even if they are playing at home.
The Italians were world champions, the Germans too, and the French as well. Even those heavy-hitting Englishmen... Out of Europe’s big five, Spain is the one missing. They’ve always had incredible players; Real Madrid and FC Barcelona used to just dominate the European cups, and when they relied mostly on domestic talent, they had other strong teams, maybe even the best league in the world... But at the World Cup, nothing. Not even a final, if I recall correctly. I don't know if they ever even made a semifinal. People usually claim they get torn apart by ethnic diversity—conflicts between Basques, Catalans, and "regular" Spaniards. Do you think that's actually their biggest issue, or is it even a real problem? Maybe there's something else going on.
P.S. This is a decent topic for pickle season. I'm expecting a constructive debate at a high intellectual level between very competent commenters. 😎 😁
Says it's been 300 minutes and I need to learn how to stand by my word. 😁 Just doing the math... it's actually 5546 minutes. Yeah, a little bit over... 😁 😁
s3v3n said:I'll join in on the well-wishes. I hope you all have a happy, blessed Christmas, and I hope 2005 turns out to be a great year. Maybe we can finally see Real Madrid take the championship.
I'm jumping in here, but I'd probably swap Real Madrid for San Francisco instead. 😁 All the best!