Rongen Feels the Pressure
Playoff pressure can produce more than just surprising victories and unexpected losses. It can also bring some interesting comments from under-siege coaches.
With the Major League Soccer approaching the final two weeks of its sixth regular season, the eight teams that will advance to the playoffs are almost set.
Six already are known. They are the Galaxy and San Jose in the Western Division, Chicago and Columbus in the Central Division and Miami and the New York/New Jersey MetroStars in the Eastern Division.
The Tampa Bay Mutiny has been mathematically eliminated from contention, leaving five teams battling for the remaining two playoff spots.
Of the five, defending champion Kansas City and Dallas appear to have the best hope of advancing, but New England could squeeze in, while Colorado’s chance rests on two games against the Galaxy this Saturday and next.
Three-time MLS champion D.C. United is all but out of it, which explains why embattled Coach Thomas Rongen had little hesitation speaking his mind about officiating after referee Brian Hall tossed D.C.’s two Bolivian stars, Marco Etcheverry and Jaime Moreno, out of the recent U.S. Open Cup semifinal against the Revolution.
New England’s 2-0 victory ended all hope of Rongen’s team salvaging anything from the wreckage of this season.
“I think we need to go with younger referees with professional playing experience who can feel a game and can feel a foul and look at something nasty and not [red-card] guys,” Rongen told the Boston Herald.
“I know they’re trying very hard and we need to be patient and after [only] six years it’s hard to get those experienced guys. Each year two or three good ones surface and the rest stay at a very mediocre state.”
Rongen, whose team missed the playoffs last year too, probably didn’t see anything amusing a few days later when angry D.C. United fans paid $450 to hire a plane to fly over RFK Stadium towing a banner that read: “It’s the Coach, Stupid!”
Fusion Flip-Flop
Miami Fusion Coach Ray Hudson was fuming after forward Diego Serna, who leads MLS with 44 points from 16 goals and 15 assists, skipped training for two days last week to tend to “personal business” back home in Colombia.
“This is just yet another total slap in the face to his teammates,” Hudson told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. “It’s beyond disappointing, and it’s something we don’t need now.
“We’ll deal with Serna after the season is finished. His professionalism is truly scandalous.”
The next day, Serna showed up, played well in a 3-2 loss to the MetroStars, and all was forgiven.
“He was superlative,” Hudson said. “He was a threat, he was dynamic and he was unselfish. He was a complete package. Diego was an inspiration for us. It’s amazing.”
No, what’s amazing is how Serna gets away with it time and again.
Generation Next
Two MLS forwards will lead the way when the United States under-17 national team travels to Trinidad later this month to compete in the ninth FIFA Under-17 World Championship.
Coach John Ellinger selected Washington D.C. United’s Santino Quaranta and the Dallas Burn’s Ed Johnson as part of his 18-player squad for the Sept. 13-30 world championship.
The U.S., which finished fourth in the previous tournament in New Zealand in 1999 when the San Jose Earthquakes’ Landon Donovan and the Chicago Fire’s DaMarcus Beasley starred, will play Japan, France and Nigeria in the first round.
The U.S. team includes defenders David Chun of Irvine, Jordan Harvey of Mission Viejo, Chad Marshall of Riverside and Tyson Wahl of Newport Beach, and midfielder David Johnson of Riverside.
Quick Passes
April Heinrichs, coach of the U.S. women’s national team, has called 24 players into camp starting Monday to prepare for the four-nation NIKE U.S. Women’s Cup. The Americans play European champion Germany on Sept. 9 at Soldier Field in Chicago; Japan on Sept. 11 at Crew Stadium in Columbus, Ohio; and China on Sept. 16 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Mo.... The Galaxy and New England Revolution have filed bids to U.S. Soccer asking to stage the U.S. Open Cup final on Oct. 27.
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MLS Playoff Picture
*--*
Rk Team Pts 1 Chicago 49* 2 SanJose 42* 3 Galaxy 41* 4 NewYork-NewJersey 39* 5 Columbus 39* 6 Dallas 34 7 KansasCity 33 8 New England 27 9 Colorado 23 10 D.C.United 23
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* Clinched a playoff spot.
Note: The top eight teams qualify for the playoffs, where the No. 1-ranked team plays the No. 8; No. 2 plays No. 7, No. 3 plays No. 6 and No. 4 plays No. 5.
