Soccer Miscellany

Local writer Zach Dundas has fired up his own football blog, Eleven Devils. Should be a good read, so check it out.

MLS chief gives thumbs up to a proposed "Beckham rule," wherein each MLS team would be permitted to bypass the salary cap and sign one renowned international player. While I kind of like the idea of salary caps, because I am just a dirty commie that way, I like good soccer even more, and hoo-boy, could we use a boost like this in the MLS. Becks isn't a player I'm going to be writing any paeans to around here, but I have long thought his coming to America might be good for the overall popularity of the sport.

And I'm already reading and hearing some nasty rumblings in the wake of the Champions Cup final about the quality of the refereeing, and I've been turning it all over in my head. Here's the bottom line: Barca scored three goals--one of them disallowed--while Arsenal scored one. Let's say Lehmann doesn't get sent off but gets a yellow instead, which means the one goal is presumably allowed, and he manages to block Barca's other two shots where Almunia could not. You're still looking at 1-1 and a game that goes into overtime. Sure, what if Arsenal had played with eleven men? Similarly, what if Barca--what if the whole game--had not lost steam for some time following the Lehmann red card? But if we're going to theorize about bad refereeing and imagine the Lehmann call going differently, we're also going to have to rule out Eboue's blatant dive, which led to Arsenal's only goal for the match. I guess what I'm saying is that I wasn't happy with the refereeing toward either side, but I don't think that's ultimately why Arsenal lost the final. I think they lost because once they had a goal they defaulted to the defensive play that got them past Villarreal and into the final, and when their defensive line was clearly tiring toward the end, Barca was able to exploit that vulnerability. Meanwhile, along the same lines of strategy, Wenger refused to sub in a second striker or any support for Henry, which I think made all the difference.

I don't believe either team was a clear favorite going in, and neither played their very best, but I do not think it was even close to a clear-cut case of Arsenal being robbed by the ref, as Henry basically claimed as he left the pitch earlier today. I was sorry to hear these words from Henry because he is a player I like an awful lot and I normally consider him to be an all-around class act, and he ought to have been more gracious than he was. (While the ref missed fouls on both sides, the one call I thought Henry would have been fair in disputing--the Lehmann red card--he seems to be okay with.) The problem wasn't that the ref was a Barca agent in disguise--he just made many lousy decisions, and both teams suffered for it.

And then Lehmann turns around and is more gracious than I expect him to be--although he, Wenger, and Henry all claim in that piece that the disallowed goal was probably offsides. And...I gotta admit, they could be right about that--I'd have to replay it and see for myself.

This is why I hate dodgy refereeing (as opposed to generally unfounded contempt for and distrust of the referee who called the game that your side lost, which is a time-honored and important tradition I intend to participate in throughout the season as needed) no matter whose favor it goes in: it always taints the result. I mentioned the what-might-have-been game the other day in my post about the Timbers loss against FC Miami--I understand why Gunners fans are indulging in it and I'd be doing the same thing in their place. But in the end, I think Arsenal was undone by trying to play too much defense against a team that took a long time to loosen up but played with all their attacking strength in the end.

And what I wouldn't give to be in Paris or Barcelona tonight!