Sunday, May 20, 2007

Change, change, change

Today I was covering the Chivas USA/Galaxy match for MLSnet in Spanish.

Nothing unusual about that.

But I was writing about it from Chivas USA's angle, specifically, although my usual assignment is Galaxy games. Jaime Cardenas, the Chivas USA beat writer, couldn't make it today, so the task fell to me.

It was a little weird, trying to focus on the other team when I'm used to watching what the Galaxy are doing.

Despite the Landon Donovan/Brad Guzan duel, I'd have to say that this latest match lacked some of the energy of previous encounters. All of the players I mentioned this to said that the heat played a part. It was hot on the field and that sapped energy.

That makes sense, but I also wonder if it is difficult for the teams to get motivated when they're not really in any battle for points at the top of the league. Or, to put it another way, assuming the players want to win badly no matter their standing in the table - what about the fans? I just don't see them getting that excited when neither team is contending for the league leadership.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've been to every Superclassico, including the US Open Cup. This was the worst one, and that includes the 0-0 match from 2006.

L.B. said...

I must agree. I too have seen all the Super Clasicos and I too think Sunday's was the worst. I think the nil-nil game was one of the most dramatic actually and was ten times the game yesterday's was despite the lack of goals.

There was little drama, few great plays, no great individual efforts as far as I saw.

As much as I hate to say it, that's what happens when bad teams meet, and that's what we've got right now. Both teams have issues and teams with issues usually produce bad games.