Subbing off the bench in the 76th minute against Belgium, the Colorado Rapid’s Jeff Larentowicz earned his second United States men’s national team cap. The U.S. National team played a 1 -0 defeat at King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels, Belgium on Tuesday. With only a little over fourteen minutes to evaluate his play, it was hard to truly rate his performance, but he stepped in and played a similar role as he does with the Rapids. Jeff plays as a defensive holding midfielder and is tasked with breaking up opposing attacks in our defensive half. This year for the Rapids, Larentowicz has seen career high numbers in goals scored (6) and has played in all 28 games so far. His six goals currently lead the Rapids tied with Caleb Folan and Conor Casey.

Larentowicz, who in my opinion, isn’t always the most exciting player to watch on the pitch is one of the most consistent players on our current Rapids roster and is well deserving of the U.S. national team call-up. It was great to see him get in the match in Belgium and earn valuable playing time against top talent in the world. With his recent national team training, he should come back to his club team, a little tired, but with a wealth of knowledge to pass along during the Rapid’s CONCACAF Champions League run. His style of play appears to be an important piece to Jurgen Klinsmann’s U.S. side but it also appears to be a very competitive position as well. Maurice Edu, Real Salt Lake’s Kyle Beckerman and Michael Bradley appear to be competing for this spot and all have more national team experience than Jeff. It still waits to be seen which players Klinsmann wants in his new system and he appears to be giving many an opportunity to earn their position in the new attack minded style of play. One thing is certain; his formation requires a central defensive midfielder and Larentowicz has earned his call-up. After seeing his second national team cap, it’s now up to him to show Klinsmann he deserves more minutes.

JMH

International Soccer, Rapids News and Analysis, US National Team Jeff Larentowicz, Jurgen Klinsmann

Who:
Isidro Metapán. The full name of the team is Asociación Deportiva Isidro Metapán. They play in the top division of football in El Salvador. The club has some history going back to the 1950’s under a different name when a top league was being formally organized. However, the club known today was officially reintroduced to the top division in 2001. The team has five Primera División titles to their name having won the Clausura 2007, Apertura 2008, Clausura 2009, Clausura 2010 and Apertura 2010.

League:
Primera División de Fútbol de El Salvador. The league was founded in 1969 and currently includes 10 teams. Like most Latin American football leagues, the Primera División is broken into two half seasons called the Apertura or Clausura. Before 1998, the format was a season long tournament but the decision to switch to the Apertura and Clausura was made to gain more popularity in El Salvador. The most decorated club in La Primera is C.D. FAS with 17 championship titles to their name. However in recent years, Isidro Metapán is considered one of the top consistent teams winning 4 championships in the last 7 seasons.

How Isidro Metapán qualified:
2010 was a great year for Isidro Metapán. The team won both the 2010 Clausura and 2010 Apertura. By winning the 2010 Apertura, they earned a berth into the 2011-2012 CONCACAF Champions League. Two teams from El Salvador were invited to this year’s CCL yet neither was given an automatic berth into the Group Stage. The second team from El Salvador that joined Metapán was the 2011 Clausura winner, Alianza.

Both Metapán and Alianza entered the Preliminary Round. Alianza was eliminated by FC Dallas, however Metapán went on to beat the Puerto Rico Islanders. The first match between Metapán and the P.R. Islanders was played on July 27th in Metapán, El Salvador in the 8,000 seat Estadio Jorge Calero Suárez. Isidro Metapán went on to win the first leg 2-0 in front of a “crowd” of 1,658 people. The second leg, played on August 3rd in Puerto Rico, was won by the Islanders 3-1, leveling the aggregate score 3-3. With the away goal rule in effect, Isidro Metapán advanced into Group B to face the Colorado Rapids.

Top Players:
Léster Blanco, a 22-year old striker is one of the more dangerous players scoring 16 times in 31 matches in 2010. He already has one goal to his name in this year’s CCL. Ramón Sánchez, a midfielder for Metapán, has 67 caps with the El Salvador National team. 21-year old Edwin Sánchez has 8 national team caps and also scored one goal in this year’s CCL tournament. Miguel Montes is the goalkeeper for Metapán as well as El Salvador National team’s first choice keeper. Montes is probably the most well known player on Metapán.

Commentary:

With the valuable away goal, Isidro Metapán entered into our group. Knowing that the Puerto Rico Islanders play in the NASL (the second tier of professional soccer in the U.S.), it’s easy to compare an aggregate score of 3-3 as a draw. Both teams seemed evenly matched throughout both games, which would point to the conclusion that Isidro Metapán is equivalent to a 2nd division team in the U.S. I’d have to say the Rapids match against Metapán should be the easiest of the 3 team we face, however we can’t underestimate any team in the CONCACAF Champions League.

Last year, the Puerto Rico Islanders destroyed the LA Galaxy 4-1 at the Home Depot Center. The importance of winning at home is key to doing well in this tournament. The Galaxy went on to win the second leg in Puerto Rico last year, but they dug too deep of a hole when the Islanders embarrassed them in front of a Galaxy home crowd. No team can be taken lightly, but if there’s one team Gary Smith can experiment with, it will be against Isidro Metapán. This will be the first ever CONCACAF Champions match for the Rapids in club history and will be played on August 17th at DSG Park. This is a must win match to set the tone of our CCL run and even more important, keeping a clean sheet against a team that was one goal away from not advancing to Group B.

JMH

CONCACAF Champions League, International Soccer

Who:
Club Santos Laguna. The full name of the team is Club Santos Laguna S.A. de C.V. The team was founded in 1982. Compared to other top Mexican clubs, Santos Laguna has a short history. They have three championships to their name: 1996 Invierno, 2001 Verano and the 2008 Clausura. On a side note, the team partnered with Celtic F.C. in December.

League:
Primera División de México. There are currently 18 teams and the most recent format for the league started in 1996, which introduced 2 champions, one Verano (Summer) and one Invierno (Winter). There has since been a name change for the two short seasons, now called the Apertura (Opening) and the Clausura (Closing). The Primera División was established in 1943 and has gone through a few format changes to decide the champion. The top Mexican league has a far more in depth history than the U.S. top domestic leagues. Much like everywhere else in the world, soccer plays a far larger part in Mexico’s culture compare to the U.S.

How Santos qualified:
Mexico received four berths into the 2011-2012 CONCACAF Champions League season. It was decided that the Primera División champion and runner-up of both the 2010 Apertura and 2011 Clausura would represent the league. The champions from each short season earned an automatic group spot while the runner-ups were entered into the preliminary round. Because Santos Laguna was a runner-up for the 2010 Apertura, they were entered to play in the preliminary.

Santos Laguna was drawn to play Olimpia, the most decorated club team from Honduras, for a bid to enter Group B with the Colorado Rapids and Real España. The preliminary was a two leg round based on aggregate scoring, enforcing the away goal rule. The first leg was won by Santos Laguna on July 27th in their home stadium, Estadio Corona, located in the city of Torreón within Mexico, by a score of 3-1. The second leg, played in Honduras, was won by Olimpia on August 3rd by a score of 2-1. With aggregate scoring in place, Santos Laguna earned a spot in Group B with a score of 4-3.

Top Players:
As of this article, striker Oribe Peralta of Santos Laguna is currently leading the 2011 Apertura league with 3 goals. Christian Benítez, who was the teams and arguably the league’s most prolific goal scorer in the past year, transferred to Club América for a reported fee of $10 million, a record in the Mexican league. Santos Laguna’s number 10 is Daniel Ludueña (29 years old). He has the most appearances for Santos Laguna on the current roster and is among the clubs top all-time goal scorers with 54 goals to his name.

Commentary:

In the 2010 Torneo Bicentenario (January 16 – May 15, 2010), Santos Laguna went to the final and lost to Toluca. Later that year in the 2010 Torneo Apertura (July 23 – December 12, 2010), Santos Laguna went to the tournament championship to come up empty once again, losing to Monterrey (Four months later, Monterrey went on to defeat Real Salt Lake in the 2011 CONCACAF Champions League final).

While Santos Laguna failed to earn another championship title to their name last calendar year, they were a consistent team, finishing both short seasons within the top five in total points before the start of the tournaments. The team slid earlier this year and didn’t qualify for the 2011 Torneo Clausura, however form seems to be coming back a bit with a couple competitive games under their belt. The 2011 Apertura began July 24th and they already have a couple wins to their name.

It’s hard to say what team we will see. While Santos Laguna was consistent in the past year, they fell off a bit but are starting to gain better form with their new season taking place. Where team depth could play part in how the Rapids compete in this year’s CCL, early season team form could play a factor on how well Santos Laguna competes. MLS teams have consistently been terrible when playing matches in Mexico and I’d have to chalk up a potential loss when we play in Torreón. That makes our home match against Santos Laguna that much more important to win.

JMH

CONCACAF Champions League, International Soccer

Who:
Real España. The full name of the team is Real Club Deportivo España. The term “Real” was actually bestowed upon the club by the King of Spain in 1977. This is their 2nd appearance in the CONCACAF Champions League. Currently, they are the only team the Rapids know for sure they will be playing in Group B.

League:
Liga Nacional de Fútbol de Honduras. There are currently 10 teams in the league with 3 teams qualified for this season of the CCL; Real España, Montagua and Olimpia. Olimpia is the most decorated club with 23 titles to their name and have qualified for the CCL 4 times now. They did win the CONCACAF Champions Cup (The tournament before the CCL) twice.

How Real España qualified:

The season is divided into two halves. The first half, called the Apertura, started August 7, 2010 and ended November 20th. The top 4 teams in the Apertura season play in a playoff based on one home and one away match with aggregate scoring. Real Espana won the playoff on December 11th with a 3-2 aggregate score against Olimpia, making them the first team to qualify from Honduras for the 2011-2012 CONCACAF Champions League. This was their 10th title in the league. This might sound like a lot, but the league was established in 1964. Let’s not forget the Liga Nacional started the Apertura and Clausura for the 1997-1998 season which doubled the amount of champions each calendar year. The club has been around since July 14, 1929 so there’s great history with club and their supporters. The second half called the Clausura (Jan 15, 2011 – April 20th) was won by Motagua in the same playoff format as the Apertura. Motagua and Olimpia will play in the preliminary CONCACAF playoff rounds. Olimpia (who could potentially be in the same group as the Rapids) is the 3rd and final berth from Honduras. Olimpia got in for finishing at top the table in points from the combination of both the Apertura and Clausura, the equivalent to the our Supporters Shield.

Top Players:
Real España’s top two goal scorers for the 2010-2011 season were Douglas Mattoso (9 goals) and Luis Lobo (8 goals). However, Mattoso is no longer with the club and is now on Olimpia. Real España also has 2 current players on the Honduras National Football team, both in the midfield, 21-year-old Alfredo Mejia and 24-year-old Edder Delgado.

Commentary:

It’s hard to say what we can expect from Real España. How they qualified for the 2011-2012 CONCACAF Champions League sounds pretty close to how the Rapids qualified. They weren’t the best team during the Apertura season, but played well in the playoff run and ended up with a championship title to their name. Their supporters, known as the Mega Locos, are said to be the most passionate fans in Honduras. The Rapids away match against Real España could prove to be a difficult test considering the environment. In this tournament, you must win at home and anytime an opponent can make the most of their home atmosphere, the better chance of getting out of the group stage.

JMH

CONCACAF Champions League, International Soccer

The Rapids are finally home preparing for their next home match this Sunday against Toronto FC. They not only came home from a 3 game road trip with 5 points but also to some “rigorous” training that included a little Porsche test-driving (See previous entry). Could this be the first Rapids jersey sponsor? Outside of the potential new kit logo, the Rapids also learned of their favorable grouping for the 2011-12 CONCACAF Champions League earlier today. So why this lull feeling?

Reason One: The Tackle
Reason Two: The Team
Reason Three: The Front Office

Let me sum these reasons up by saying we haven’t had any good press since well before “The Tackle”. This lull could very well be the slow transition from bad press, to no press to good press, fingers crossed. I feel we’re finally out of the dimlight (can’t use spotlight) from Brian Mullan’s tackle thanks to passing time as well as Marcos Mondaini’s potentially season ending tackle on Javier Morales.

Now that reason one of the land of lull is over, let’s cross that one off. Looking at reason two, the excitement over the 2010 championship team has slowly lost its sheen. Let’s just say we aren’t quite #winning big at home in the same fashion we finished and first started this year. As a fan, we live for goal scoring. Take the low score lines of late and minus the lack of fan favorites on the field and you get a boring, reserve squad. No excitement equals reason two of lull. On top of that we haven’t seen our boys in burgundy at home since April 30th.

The last reason that seems to always be in the background is the front office’s inability to schedule international friendlies, sign designated players and find team sponsors. It’s like beating a dead horse so I won’t say much on the subject. As a fan, we need hope, we need to look forward to the future and we need to know the front office is trying everything to make the Colorado Rapids a successful organization.

Now that my half empty coffee cup is just about finished, I’ve realized I kind of feel half full. Here’s why; I’ve drank half of my coffee. But on a more serious note, the sun is shining (actually Colorado hasn’t been sunny for more than a week). All right, all right. Stay with me. The Colorado Rapids have a home game this week and all we need is one good game that includes injury-free star power, a win and a few solid goals. There’s the solution to get over reason two of lull. The Colorado Rapids have an upcoming announcement about a new sponsor. There’s the hope we need, even if it is just a sliver. Let’s get over this lull together and both pretend the front office has special things in the works. False hope is still hope. From one fan to another, see you Sunday!)

JMH

CONCACAF Champions League, International Soccer, Major League Soccer (MLS), Rapids News and Analysis Brian Mullan, Javier Morales, Marcos Mondaini

In case you didn’t hear, Real Salt Lake made MLS history last night after they secured a spot in the 2010-2011 CONCACAF Champions League Final. They beat Saprissa on an aggregate score of 3-2 and will now be playing current Primera Division de Mexico champions, Monterrey, in the final match of the tournament. This is the first time a MLS team has made it to the final match in the current format which started with the 2008-2009 qualified teams (Before 2009 it was called the CONCACAF Champions’ Cup).

So why am I writing about Real Salt Lake? From a Rapids fan perspective, we can’t stand RSL but do we see ourselves cheering for them on the international stage or do we cheer against them? From my perspective, any MLS team competing in international competitions like the CONCACAF Champions League deserve our support. Will I cheer against them in MLS league play? All day. The overall picture boils down to supporting the MLS or supporting your club. I understand people are very passionate about their soccer clubs, especially the supporter groups who have a club first mentality. After all, we need those diehard fans to bring extra passion to the Rapids matches.

I like to think of myself as club first, but I suppose if I cheer for RSL outside of MLS league play, I’d find myself more aligned with a fan of the MLS. Raising the awareness of our league in terms of quality can come from several sources. A consistent CCL champion from the MLS can only improve our top division in the long term. For a rivalry that’s only been around since 2005, it’s hard for me to believe that Rapids fans inherently grew up hating Real Salt Lake. Sure they are our biggest rival in the MLS, but far from a local derby compared to football leagues in England, Spain and Italy. Besides, the MLS is a single-entity organization, which is much different than other leagues around the world. Clubs will improve if the league improves. That’s just how it’s set up. In a sense, cheering against the MLS is almost like cheering against the progress of your club.

Over time, that balance for me between league and club will switch (and to be quite honest, the potential power of the MLS is a little scary) but right now, I believe we grow as a league before growing as a club. So congratulations and good luck to rival’s Real Salt Lake! I’ll be cheering against you when you come home.

JMH

CONCACAF Champions League, International Soccer, Major League Soccer (MLS) Monterrey, Real Salt Lake

The World Cup in the US with Morgan Freeman’s voiceover. Dang that guys voice is cool, and this is a very well done video.

International Soccer, US National Team Morgan Freeman

CRF hereby pays “honor” to the biggest footballing a$$hole in world football, Dutch midfielder Nigel De Jong. US Men’s National Team fans will remember how he “took care of the situation,” Mafia style, on March 4, 2010. His reckless tackle broke Stuart Holden’s ankle and ruined Holden’s season after a dream move to Bolton.

Some will say De Jong is an enforcer. No, Van Bommel is an enforcer. VB is an aggressive, wily veteran who comes close to “dirty” every game but almost always stays on the right side of the line.

De Jong is just plain dangerous, which is unfortunate as he is a gifted and physical defensive midfielder. He must’ve been disappointed in South Africa to leave so many ankles unbroken (though watching his body of work one can’t say he didn’t try). He did however leave his “imprint” on Xabi Alonso, who is too much of a gentleman to get up and headbutt him in the nose.

Nigel De Jong…congratulations for truly earning the title of World Football’s greatest a$$hole.

International Soccer, US National Team Netherlands, Nigel De Jong, Stuart Holden, Xabi Alonso

As we approach the end of the World Cup, one glaringly obvious conclusion must be drawn: having an elite league in one’s country does not equal national team success. The top 5 leagues in Europe (and arguably the world) are:

1. English Premier League
2. Spanish La Liga
3. German Bundesliga
4. Italian Serie A
5. French Ligue 1

The English, Italians, and French were all various forms of a disaster. The Germans & Spanish fought for the European crown in 2008, and are destined for a monumental clash tomorrow. 2 out of 5 is not a good rate, especially when you consider the success of impoverished nations like Uruguay, Paraguay, and Ghana.

The trajectory of American soccer is indisputably up. You might wish it was more steeply graded upwards, but upwards it is nonetheless. Major League Soccer continues to grow steadily if slowly, and US soccer interest (as evidenced by TV ratings) is burgeoning.

Ok so I used a little hyperbole in the title (@BMer916 I hear ya, I hear ya). The countries above are superpowers in both club and country. But the staggering wealth of the super leagues means the emphasis will follow the money. Inter Milan won the Champions League without a single Italian. The French really had no business being in the World Cup (handball!). Who is standing in line replace the talented, famous, but aging English midfielders? European leagues are moving towards stricter requirements for having nationals on your club team to combat this trend, but South American talent is being cultivated far better in European football than is national talent.

MLS may never be a top 5 league, though a top 10 league seems a reasonable proposition in the next decade. Nonetheless for the purposes of the growth of soccer, and the quality of the National Team…it doesn’t need to. Having an elite league does not equal success in the World Cup.

International Soccer, Major League Soccer (MLS), US National Team English Premier League, French Ligue 1, German Bundesliga, Italian Serie A, Spanish La Liga, World Cup

In time for the World Cup the Onion has put out their introduction to the World Cup. Be sure you are in a place where your raucous laughter won’t disturb others.

Also check out article about the nation’s soccer fan becoming insufferable.

The Onion Sports Introduction To World Cup Soccer | The Onion – America’s Finest News Source.

International Soccer, Main