I was tempted to title this post "CONCAJOKE Champions League", but thought better of it. Still, too good not to use in some form.
This is going to start with some thoughts on MLS in the competition but quickly devolve into something else. Please bear with me.
Just when it appeared that MLS clubs were beginning to take the CONCACAF Champions League seriously after a week of group stage matches that saw two out of three American entrants win, last night happens. Two terrible showings combined with what was by all reports a joke of a football match, and MLS is back where they started, with a collection of clubs incapable of putting forth a decent showing in international competition.
Relevant MLS numbers from last night's matches: three matches, one point, two goals scored, nine conceded, four players ejected (three for Houston, one for Columbus).
Only the Dynamo saved face last night, although they were forced to do so in some of the worst conditions imaginable for what is promoted as a serious international competition. In all, five players were ejected from Houston's match against Arabe Unido in Panama, including Stuart Holden for picking up two yellows cards in a twenty-second span. Add the lights going out in the waning moments (immediately after Unido leveled the game), and any belief that the CCL should be taken seriously goes out the window.
Yes, I'm a bitter MLS fan. I fully admit that. I'm desperate for the league to do better in this competition, if only because it might shut up some of the detractors and give MLS a little credibility in the greater footballing world. But this tournament, besides being so skewed by the disparity in team bankrolls that any real assessment of leagues other than Mexico's is difficult, suffers from an extreme low-rent profile.
I wasn't able to see the Arabe Unido-Houston match, but what I have heard doesn't make me too bullish on the future of the competition. To say that the lights going out in the stadium immediately following the home side's goal is suspicious is a gross understatement; even if you don't believe that the power outage was intentional, the fact that the lights went out at all just illustrates the problems the Champions League faces.
Small crowds, minimal attention, poor facilities, hostile environments that include thrown items and players in danger of physical harm; the list of problems goes on and on. Many of those issues carry over to other CONCACAF matches, especially international ones in Mexico and Central America. Because the confederation is uninterested in taking measures that might actually affect change but will hurt the bottom line, nothing is done. When fans are filling cups with bodily fluids and then hurling said cups at opposing players, something isn't right. Racist chanting gets major attention in Europe (as it should) and can sometimes result in matches played behind closed doors; why wouldn't CONCACAF step in an demand that national federations do something about the behavior of their fans and the condition of their stadiums, with the threat of closed door or forfeited matches to back them up?
Anyone have Jack Warner's phone number?
If I start on the officiating in the region, we might be here all day. Let's just say that there's some anger on that issue as well, and leave it at that.
CONCACAF is a joke, and it's not because there isn't good soccer being played. When the odd idea comes up that perhaps the United States should pull out of CONCACAF and move to another confederation, I generally laugh it off. I never really though there was a reason to do so, because I always viewed the issue from a competition perspective; the US isn't what Australia was, a good footballing nation stuck in a region filled with minnows, and therefore looking poor by association. Mexico, Costa Rica, Honduras, etc., are all strong teams that play good soccer and quite often push or beat the United States. But maybe I'm looking at the question from the wrong angle.
Why should the US, and by extension MLS, want to remain in a confederation that allows environments that condone criminal behavior (at least I hope throwing bodily fluids at someone is a crime elsewhere in the region), officiating that is so poor it makes a mockery of the game, and a general disregard for order and properly conducted sporting events?
