Well, I thought I would watch the SuperLiga final between Mexican champions Pachuca and the hapless LA Galaxy to see if anything interesting happened before the floodgates opened. It turned out to be an absolutely fantastic game, even in the Galaxy eventually lost in PKs. Remarkably (inexcusably?) all Landon Donovan needed to do was put away his penalty, but his effort was weak. Then Xavier missed the goal completely and in a matter of four PKs, the Galaxy went from being all-but-winners to losers.
Alas, the newspapers are only focusing on Beckham’s injury in the 30th minute rather than the overall spectacle of a great game. You can watch the highlights via YouTube, but it was save after fantastic save from both of the keepers. The Galaxy looked quite bad in the first 45 minutes, but the Galaxy emerged as a new team in the second and gave Pachuca all they could handle. And the bicycle-kick goal from Chris Klein to bring the match level in stoppage time? Simply unbelievable. They replayed it about 43 times on TeleFutura and I think most fans could have gone for a 44th. Grant Wahl wrote a nice piece on the SuperLiga final on SI.com and Jen Chang did a minute-by-minute live recap on Soccernet.
To lift a line from Chang, “That was utter incompetence on Vagenas’ part.” This comment came in the 28th minute when Vagenas’ own goal put Pachuca on the scoreboard. Incompetence is putting it lightly. I had to rewind the DVR to revel in the stupidity of it all. Vagenas actually had to swivel his hips in order to clear (or rather shank) the ball into his own net with the wrong foot. Why he didn’t just play it straight back to where it came from plus thirty vertical feet, I have no idea.
And to quote Chang again: “Is this man the worst forward in the history of the Galaxy? It’s close.” He’s referring to Alan Gordon who probably should have had a hat-trick. I actually muttered, “Is this guy the worst striker on the planet?” during the second half after he missed his second point-blank opportunity.
Anyway, this inaugural SuperLiga has to go down as a complete success. There were many memorable games and a final that will be hard to top. Heartbreaking stuff for the Galaxy, and you can hear a giant flushing sound from California as they kiss the rest of the season goodbye. An already exhausted team does not need to lose their marquee player before an overtime penalty loss. There’s a chance that Beckham won’t suit up for the Galaxy again this season as early predictions state it will be six-week layoff. Not the story MLS and Alexi Lalas will want to have written but hey, that’s the world of sports. Not entirely unlike that whole “Adu the phenomenon” bit that blew up, innit?
Current Mood: Thoughtfull | 