8.28.14
ASN Morning Read: Donovan Does it, Again
The Los Angeles Galaxy star doesn't need Robbie Keane's help to dominate a match; Real Salt Lake ain't ever getting a United States star; more on the Jermaine Jones transfer saga.
BY
Noah Davis
Posted
August 28, 2014
8:37 AM
The LA Galaxy straight-up destroyed D.C. United Wednesday night, winning 4-1. Landon Donovan played a role in all three first half goals. Someone should pay attention to him. That dude can ball:
Perhaps the nicest moment, however, came when Baggio Husidic finished off a 26-pass sequence for the game's third goal:
The boys of RSL Soapbox know their squad will struggle to score a U.S. national team-caliber player they haven't developed on their own: So that rule has been gutted, and maybe it should read a little something like this: "Allocation order is that mechanism by which players that aren't really the best U.S. national team players enter MLS, but if they're good enough and have been offered a substantial enough salary, then we'll just ignore it. But if they're being signed as designated players, they go through an apparently separate list that's entirely secret. Oh, and maybe if there's a dispute, we can have a coin flip." Joking aside (if there was any joking there), this doesn't bode well for Real Salt Lake.
Speaking of that, Graham Parker on Jermaine Jones: Yet each time a deal like the Jones deal is done, I keep visualizing a magical space at MLS HQ, possibly hidden from casual visitors like me by a David Beckham mural, where senior MLS officials don cowls in dim lighting and go about the business of player allocation in sequences straight out of "Game of Thrones." I keep imagining this space, because if it doesn't exist, you suspect the league would make it up on a whim one Thursday evening and then claim it had been there for a thousand years. The relative banality of the rest of the offices could not possibly produce such language as "designated player of a certain threshold" (which I intend to steal for the "Occupation" line on my passport), or the ritual of the "blind draw."
So much for the "League Cup match as showcase for Geoff Cameron" narrative:
More of the same, more of the same: "We are not alarmed. The situation is about the same over the past 16 years with a drop (in concussions) in 2006 when we introduced red card (match disqualification for an elbow to the head)," Jiri Dvorak, chief medical officer and chairman of the medical and research center for FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association), said Monday.
