We don’t care about the SuperLiga.

Euro friendlies? Nice, gets you some exposure and ticket revenue, but nobody cares who wins.

Tonight’s MLS all-star match is nice, but the same Man U team of backups facing the all-stars already lost to a 10-man Kansas City squad that’s one of the league’s worst.

What (should) matter most are the following:

• Regular season and playoffs (although too many teams make the playoffs);
• CONCACAF Champions League;
• U.S. Open Cup.

So when your league’s best team loses 4-1 at home to a second division squad in Champions League, it’s absolutely inexcusable.

That’s right. The Los Angeles Galaxy lost 4-1 at home to the Puerto Rico Islanders. With center back Omar Gonzalez, left back Todd Dunivant, and goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts on the bench, the league’s best defense barely showed up to play. It’s like the Galaxy didn’t even try to win.

Heads up: Champions League matters. The opportunity to play in the Club World Cup against teams like Barcelona or Inter Milan matters. The opportunity to win internationally recognized trophies matters. When you blow it off and treat it as though it doesn’t, MLS gets embarrassed, as it did last night. Don’t give me this bit about an experienced team or whatever.  Yeah, we know Puerto Rico was a Champions League semifinalist last year. Big freaking deal. This is the best team in MLS by far, and they got smoked. All the excuses translates to is “blah blah didn’t take it seriously, got our buts kicked, blah.”

MLS was recently ranked the world’s 88th best domestic professional soccer league by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics.

Yes, we all know the league is far better than that, probably ranking somewhere from 15th to 25th, much like the Russian league is far better than its perch at No. 44. The rankings heavily factored in Champions League showings.

The choice to blow off Champions League games is foolish, much like the complete lack of respect for the U.S. Open Cup. Every serious domestic league in the world has at least one major cup competition and Champions League. I’d much rather watch a meaningful Champions League game against Chivas Guadalajara or Saprissa, two of the best teams in Mexico and Honduras, or a U.S. Open Cup match against the Red Bulls or Harrisburg than Celtic’s second teamers.

Fans would take Champions League and U.S Open Cup seriously if only MLS clubs would. Yet they don’t. American professional soccer gets a black eye as a result.

Do you want MLS to be taken more seriously by top players considering playing in the U.S. and Canada? Winning the Champions League and going to the Club World Cup would be a start.

Then, instead of meaningless friendlies against second stringers, an MLS team could play the world’s top clubs in games that actually matter.

I was going to write a column about this until I realized I already wrote one — eight months ago. Amazingly, it all remains relevant today, so I’m reposting it below. All that’s changed is that Donovan proved what was predicted.

• He proved he can play in one of the world’s best leagues and star for one of its better teams.
• He’s now a household name in the U.S., and our one soccer superstar needs to be given the chance to pave the way for others like him.
• The transfer fee will never be higher than now for a 28-year-old World Cup star. His $10 million-plus transfer fee could equal the total cost of a designated player for each MLS team.

Don Garber’s pronouncement that Donovan isn’t for sale is hopefully just a negotiating tactic to hike his transfer fee. Yes, casual fans might go to a Philadelphia Union game if Donovan plays, but one Donovan visit a year to Dallas won’t change that franchise’s problems. Regular fans are more likely to have a residual distaste for MLS’s refusal to let a great player grow and its missed opportunity to reinvest on a broader basis.

MLS must show it won’t trap promising players. (See Twellman, Taylor.) Otherwise, the Stuart Holdens and Danny Mwangas of MLS will plan to leave as soon as their rookie contracts expire, because they’ll be trapped later. That in turn could force MLS to sell them well before they peak — which means lower transfer fees — or get nothing when they leave on free transfers, as happened with Holden (and possibly now Jonathan Bornstein).

Donovan needs to go abroad. Here’s why, as first published here on Dec. 6, 2009:

Donovan to Europe — the best thing for MLS

Donovan will, however, move to Everton in the English Premier League on a loan beginning in January, the Los Angeles Times reports. The agreement allows Donovan freedom on off-season loans, but it could effectively close the door on a permanent move to Europe.

Donovan’s new contract calls for a big raise, but the full terms haven’t been released, so it’s unclear whether it will have a buyout clause that could free Donovan to move overseas at some point.

We may weigh in a bit more on this later, as more information becomes available.

So what do you think? Good choice? Or will this leave Donovan’s club career forever incomplete? Weigh in with comments below.

Yes, I said it. No, I haven’t spent the day doing bong hits.

Picture it: Donovan moves to a mid-table team in Spain, France or England. He gets regular playing time and produces. He doesn’t need to be Christiano Ronaldo. Simply matching what Clint Dempsey is doing at Fulham would suffice for now (though Donovan can do much more than that).

A successful showing in Europe would speak volumes about the improved quality of play in MLS. Yes, we have plenty of players moving back and forth across the pond, but Donovan is the American soccer superstar right now – or the closest thing we have to it. Most MLS players move to Europe before they hit their primes, so they’re not as well-known when they go. Donovan is already the face of American soccer. If he succeeds in Europe, it won’t sneak up on people, like Michael Bradley’s run in the Dutch league last year. People will follow Donovan closely from Day 1.

As he said before the Mexico game, “This is me now. This is how I play.” Swine flu aside, Donovan was the best player in CONCACAF during World Cup qualifying. As he showed with his beautiful goal against Brazil and in a solid showing against Spain, he not only can hang with the world’s best, but he can change a game.

He hasn’t hit in previous tries in Germany, but that wasn’t his time. This is his time. For years, he was a young guy with too many expectations upon him. Now, he’s old enough to handle the burden of being the America’s best soccer player, and it’s easier to carry now with players like Dempsey and Tim Howard standing out in the world’s best league. He’s grown up. He’s ready.

Donovan told ESPN’s Bob Ley last week, “At this point, it’s probably 50-50” that he’d sign in Europe. (View the full interview below.)

Click here to view the embedded video.

What he needs to do is find the right situation. (i.e. Not Germany.) He needs somewhere where he can get out in space and run, and it needs to be someplace he can get on the field immediately. People may worry Donovan will get stapled to the bench like Oguchi Onyewu at AC Milan and not be match-fit, but the MLS off-season would keep him out of regular matches till late March anyway, so that’s not much of an argument. Plus, there’s simply no way Donovan doesn’t get playing time at a mid-table team unless the coach is an idiot (which I suppose is possible, since they let guys like Raymond Domenech coach national teams). Pick some place like Birmingham, Getafe, Paris Saint-Germain, someplace you’ll play.

When he succeeds (yes, WHEN), top players around Europe will increasingly look at MLS as more than just a retirement home. For those of us who eventually want to be able to see the best soccer players playing for U.S. soccer clubs, sending our league’s best player away is the best thing we can do for our domestic league. There’s nothing left for him to do here.

Posted via web from The Philly Soccer Page

The Real Salt Lake goalkeeper stopped two penalty kicks and benefited from a stunning Landon Donovan PK miss to claim the Major League Soccer title for his squad. I said Monday it might play out like this on PKs, and sure enough, it did. How much of it was Rimando, and how much was it due to Jovan Kirovski and Edson Buddle simply choking? Of everyone who stepped up to take their kicks, there were only two I looked at and said out loud, “He’s going to miss.” That was Buddle and Kirovski. How many of you did the same thing? Buddle looked like he wanted to be anywhere else but on that penalty spot. And Kirovski, who has been 12 for 12 on PKs previously? Big spot, big game, not a big game player. Rimando stopped them both. (He also guessed right on Berhalter’s kick, but Berhalter hit it perfectly.)

As for Donovan’s miss? That’s going to follow him a long time. Is it John Terry in the Champions League? Well, maybe there’s a bit less money and prestige at stake. But it could be the way Donovan ends his MLS career (at least for now), as we could be be seeing him in Europe come January.

Credit to RSL though: They played solid soccer throughout the game and pushed the attack even in the waning minutes, never appearing to stall too much to bank on a penalty kicks win. Robbie Findley was explosive throughout the game and looks like he could be a legitimate option to replace Charlie Davies as a speedy forward option on the U.S. national team.

One interesting Philadelphia Union-related note: Josh Saunders looked really good for the Galaxy after coming on to replace an injured Donovan Ricketts in goal. Would the Galaxy go so far as to protect two goalkeepers? I suspect not. Saunders might look good in the Union’s blue and gold come Wednesday’s expansion draft if he remains unprotected.

Posted via web from The Philly Soccer Page

It was that the RSL goalkeeper “guessed” right on six of seven shots.

Rimando reads penalty kicks so well that it’s clearly not guesswork for him. He went the right way on all but one Saturday night, even if he couldn’t get a hand on each. That ability could decide this Sunday’s championship match against the Los Angeles Galaxy and affect the pace of the game.

Don’t expect RSL to hit the gas on the attack against the Galaxy. They’ll likely pick their spots, hope for a Robbie Findley breakaway against a slow Galaxy defense, and generally try not to make mistakes, much as they did against the Chicago Fire on Saturday.

After all, when you have a PK “beast” like Rimando, as RSL midfielder Kyle Beckerman called him, why not be content with a scoreless 120 minutes? If it goes to kicks, RSL know they have the advantage.

Could that make for a boring game? Hopefully not. This clearly isn’t the dream final some hoped to see. You can bet the MLS brass was rooting for Chicago, and if so, could you blame them? Chicago plays a more attractive brand of soccer (even with a hunchbacked playmaker) and may have the most talented squad in the league. A  Beckham-Blanco final might have prompted another 15,000 ticket sales, instead of just the 6,000 additional tickets now opened up for Sunday’s sellout game.

B ut this is what we have, and RSL definitely earned their win over Chicago. Now let’s just hope they make it worth it come Sunday, so we don’t spend the off-season wishing we had Beckham-Blanco instead of Beckham-boring.

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While you’re watching the game Sunday, keep this in mind:

Two guys on the field (or the benches) could be playing in Chester next spring.

Major League Soccer’s expansion draft is scheduled for Nov. 25, three days after the championship game. Philadelphia Union can select 10 players from other teams’ rosters, though no more than one from any team. Each team can protect 11 players, their designated players and their Generation Adidas youth, presuming this year’s draft rules are the same as the 2008 rules. (The 2009 draft rules have not been announced yet.) Teams’ protected lists are expected to be made public next Monday.

The Union have the chance to find some real contributors in this draft, or they could walk away with nothing but trade bait and roster filler. The Seattle Sounders found starters Nate Jaqua, Brad Evans and James Riley in the expansion draft, as well as four other bench players, but other expansion teams haven’t fared as well.

If the Union draft well, they could field a competitive team on Day 1, much like the Sounders. If they don’t, it could be a while before this team does much in the results column.

When the protected lists come out early next week, we’ll have a rundown here of potential targets for Peter Nowak’s crew. I’ll put money on  Philly guy and soon-to-be free agent Jeff Larentowicz (and others) landing with the blue and gold. For the rest of the roster? Check back next Monday.

Posted via web from The Philly Soccer Page