Friday, February 15, 2008

The Crazy Talk Express just crashed into a wall


Geez Louise, you walk away from BlogWorld for one day and the next thing you know you start seeing reports on Dynamo adding yet another talented, underplaying midfielder (who we'll leave anonymous here so as not to fan the flames, but who'll we'll call Shmenny Shmeilhaber) because you know, why do you need keepers, backs and forwards in the modern game when 11 midfielders will do just fine! What's more, so sayeth some reports, Dynamo will be using their DP money on the guy.

So everyone's favorite Costa Rican and soon-to-be US citizen, the Chronicle's own Bernardo Fallas, rides to the rescue on his Soccer y Fútbol blog with the following clarifications and information: No Shmenny, no DP, yes to a forward (possibly next week, possibly Central American, possibly South American, but, knowing Dom Kinnear and John Spencer, only if the guy holds a Scottish passport that is), $100K from San Jose in the Ramiro Corrales deal and Dwayne De Rosario reams the Canadian National Team a new one. Great, great stuff.


One thing I missed yesterday is the game report of Dynamo's 1-0 preseason win over the San Jose Earthquakes 3.0. In one of my favorite game reports ever, Chris and Steve Wondoloski's dad gives a rundown of the game here. (The Mercury News' story is here, while the Chron's two-fer game story/Ramiro Corrales piece is here.) Apparently, despite the 1-0 score, it was a near-total smackdown. The posted a nice photo gallery of the game at its Web site. Hey, do the EQuakes even have 11 players yet? According to Papa Wondo, Dynamo will play Cal-Berkeley today before they go against the Quakes again tomorrow in Frisco, er, San Francisco.


On DDR's rant against the CSA (here) our favorite Maple Leaf could not be more spot on. Anyone who saw that team during the Gold Cup last year knew immediately how close they were to competing at the US/Mexico level. And I'm sure there are STILL some Canadian fans holding a grudge about the call that led in large part to their losing to our Rattlers. Canada needs only strong leadership to be a regional player, and possibly, power, and when arguably Canada's best player in national history calls you out, you had better listen. Oh Canada, Oh Brother.

And apart from calling out his national team, this is easily my favorite DDR quote from the week so far. If that guy starts leading with his words AND his play, this season is going to be a lot of fun:

You definitely won't see me as a striker. I don't want to get anyone comfortable with me at that position and I don't want to get comfortable at that position. My job is in the midfield, and the only time I'll move from there is when someone earns the respect and beats me out of the position. At the end of the day, I'll do what I can to help the team. If Dom wants me to play forward for five or 10 minutes I will consider it, but as of right now my duty is in the midfield and we have forwards that can play. We have Chris Wondolowski, we have Brian Ching and new guys we picked up and it will be a good time for them to express themselves and showcase their talent and their ability on the field.

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