Neven Subotic: The One That Got Away

You may or may not recognize Serbian Neven Subotic by name. If you do, it's likely because he's currently sought-after by most of the top clubs in Europe: Chelsea, Manchester United, AC Milan, Arsenal and Barcelona, to name a few. You might also recognize him if you're a follower of the Bundesliga, where the 6'4" footballer stars at center back for Borussia Dortmund, with a remarkable 7 goals in 43 games and tremendous aerial ability. What you probably don't know him for are his stints playing for the University of Southern Florida, and the U.S. Mens U-17 and U-20 teams. Which begs the question: Why does he play for the Serbian national team now? The unfortunate answer to that question sheds light on some of the larger problems plaguing U.S. soccer.

The U.S. Mens' National Team could certainly use a center back like Subotic. We have no one near his quality in the back today--either on the current team or among our rising defensive stars. But he slipped through the USMNT's fingers. Subotic played for the U-17 team and trained with the U.S. U-20s, but was not selected for the U-20 side for the 2007 U-20 World Cup. U.S. coach Thomas Rongen received a lot of criticism for the snub, but supported his decision with the claim that Subotic had "not accelerated over there [for FSV Mainz 05 in the Bundesliga] to the point where we feel he belongs on the U.S. team." Subotic naturally didn't take that news too well. His reaction? "Well, Rongen certainly said some discouraging and false things about me. . . . I still don't know what he saw in the other players, and what he didn't see in me." Well, Neven, that makes two of us.

Rongen selected players like Nathan Sturgis, Anthony Wallace, Julian Valentin, and Amaechi Igwe over Subotic. None of those four are pushovers--all but Valentin play for solid MLS teams--but none begins to rise to the level of quality of Subotic's game. Certainly none of them are being sought by Chelsea, Barcelona, and AC Milan. So who's driving the selection process among our cadre of national teams? Perhaps, more importantly, who's scouting the younger talent? Who missed Subotic's quality in deciding to overlook him for four decent MLS-quality guys that likely will never attract the attention of the squads Subotic commands today? There's a lot of talk going on about expectations for the U.S. team following the attention they garnered in the Confederations Cup, but in order to rise to those expectations over the long-term and avoid the "one-time wonder" label, the U.S. is going to have to do a better job not only at spotting, but also at securing long-term talent for its squad.

So we chalk up Neven Subotic as another unfortunate loss and toss him in the same bin of might-have-beens as Giuseppe Rossi (whom we honestly never had much chance of getting in any event). In the meantime, there remain a few rays of hope among potential future USMNT players, players with proven quality like Edgar Castillo (UANL Tigres in the Mexican Primera Division) and Jermaine Jones (FC Schalke in the Bundesliga). Let's hope we can close on those players and see them performing well for the U.S. Mens' National Team in the near future.

A Deeper Look at What It Takes to Beat the Red Devils

Let me start off with a couple disclaimers: (1) I'm a shameless Liverpool fan, but will try not to be completely biased in this post after a terrific victory for the Reds this weekend; (2) I spent WAY too much time compiling the statistics used in this post, so pardon the data dump. Now for the main course:

I wanted to take a closer look at the Liverpool-ManU game from last weekend, partly because I've been a little bemused by the Reds up-and-down play this season and wanted to get behind it; and partly because I've always felt that you could get a lot of quality analysis out of a deeper statistical look into the game of football than the cursory shots, goals, assists, cards tallied by most media around. So I watched the game touch-by-touch and kept track of every bit of play by Liverpool to see how the team played the game. I tallied the usual goals, assists, etc., but also touches (good and bad), attempted and successful passes, pressured passes, dribbles, completed dribbles, turnovers, blocks, interceptions, whether a player was outpaced, and a host of other minutiae. Some of my stats are necessarily a little objective (like whether a touch was poor or superb, for example). And I admit there could be some small errors here and there in the tallies, but it's more or less accurate. Here's some of my conclusions:

The biggest revelation from the statistics is how Liverpool's holding midfielders dominated the game. Lucas Leiva led the team in touches with 44, and completed an astonishing 38 of 42 passes. His first unsuccessful pass came at 11:24 in the first half, after 10 successful ones, and incredibly he didn't miss another pass until the 81:09 mark, and that was a tight through-ball that almost placed Kuyt in a clear scoring opportunity. For a player who's caught a lot of (perhaps unfair) criticism, he showed up for the game.

Mascherano did as well (as he usually does), with 39 touches and having completed 31 of 34 passes, to go along with 4 tackles, 15 interceptions and a block. Mascherano didn't miss a pass until the 13:55 mark, after he had made 14 successful ones. My only criticism of Mascherano's game is that he tends to gun for goal from outside when the better play would probably be for one of his forwards. He missed at least one solid chance for Torres this week.

Carragher--another Red who's taken some heat this season for what some thought to be a decline in form--also had a very good game. He led the team by far in defensive stoppages with 5 tackles, 21 interceptions, and 3 blocks (one of which likely saved a goal). He was truly beaten only once--when Owen snuck in behind him and forced a professional foul that, I admit, looked like the only way to stop a direct goal-scoring opportunity. (There's a good argument it should have drawn a red). Overall, Carragher didn't show the lack of pace that has drawn criticism earlier this season. But one weakness did surface: Carragher loves the long ball, and it usually doesn't work for him. He had 12 turnovers in the game to lead the team in that dubious statistic, and 11 came from long-ball attempts that went nowhere fast. Take those away, and Liverpool retains possession better and Carragher only passes awry once.

Yossi Benayoun was the other unsung hero of the game. His assist to Torres on the first goal was world-class quality in a pressure situation. He trailed only Lucas in total touches, led the team in dribbles, played several superb balls through, and even dropped way back for several key defensive stoppages during the final quarter of the game. While he had several turnovers (7--second only to Carragher), most stemmed from his quality efforts to create openings in attack, not poor play.

There's a lot more that might be said about what the data shows, but I'll cut it short there for now, with the final observation that there's no statistic to describe the quality of Torres' goal. For all SAF's complaints about the referee work on Sunday, Ferdinand's desperate and unavailing effort to stop El Nino was the closest thing to a penalty in the game, and didn't even draw a whistle.

But for all the quality that surfaced in Sunday's game, in the end, the only statistic that really matters is the point tally on the league table. By that all-important count, ManU is still on top and Liverpool still have a ways to go...

Where Do Golazos Come From?

Beauty, as they say, is in the eye of the beholder. And the phrase is no truer than as applied to the beautiful game. For example, search for "greatest football goals" (on yahoo.uk, by the way--you won't get anything about soccer until page 143 in the U.S.) and you'll find list upon list of the best goals ever, and every one will be different. So what distinguishes your everyday goal from a true "golazo"? And what makes a given "golazo" one of the greatest goals of all time?

Is it the technical skill exhibited by the player, as in these goals by Bergkamp (this one, by the way, is accompanied by maybe my favorite piece of goal-scoring commentary ever, even though I hardly understand a word of it), Ibrahimovic, or George Best?

Is it the player's athletics or acrobatics that make a stunning goal, as in these by Van der Vaart, Ibra again, or this by Rivaldo (which, by the way, put Barca into the Champions League that year).

Does it depend on the stage on which the game is played, the momentousness of the occasion, as in these by Maradona (1986 World Cup) or Van Basten (1988 Euro Final)?

Is it the quality of the play leading up to the goal, as in this tremendous build-up and score by Argentina in Germany 2006, or this by Brazil in the 1970 World Cup?

Or is it just the stunning manner in which the goal is scored--the "Wow Factor", as in these from Roberto Carlos, Bergkamp again, Mancini, or the incomparable Ronaldinho?

This last from Ronaldinho, for example, is peerless from a purely technical standpoint, and is unequivocally a stunner, but it meant very little in terms of the outcome of the game--nor was the game itself incredibly significant in the grand scheme of things. So maybe it doesn't belong in the same category as, say, Maradona's 1986 World Cup end-to-end vs. England.

On the other hand, while Maradona's goal was undeniably momentous, and played out on the biggest stage there is in soccer, I can't refrain from opining--and I know this is borderline blasphemy--that in terms of technical skill and the "Wow Factor," it's great and all, but I have to say it's just not in the same league as some of the others set out above. At a minimum, it has it's equals, like this from Ryan Giggs (getting ManU into the 1999 FA Cup Final in extra time), or this from George Weah.

Obviously, if you can score a goal that has bits of all the criteria set forth above, you have a real contender for the greatest of all time, which is why I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Van Basten's takes the cake.

What do you think? And have I missed a criterion that defines a true "golazo" for you? Put in your two cents in the comments...

"It's onside, linesman, keep your flag down. Your village is missing their idiot..."

Ever hit a dead zone with your cell phone while driving around a large city? Do you have to endure the same area of no coverage on your way home from work every single day? Ever wonder why a farmer in the corn fields of Iowa gets better cell reception than you do? That, in a way, is what this blog is all about.

All two of you who will ever read this are probably wondering "what is this?", "who are these guys?" For several years, we have wallowed through dead zone after dead zone trying to follow "the beautiful game" from the richest, most powerful nation in the world. Eventually, we grew tired of rarely being able to see important fixtures, never knowing a club's schedule and struggling to find user-friendly sources of information on the game. As the description of the blog in the banner indicates, we are far too lazy to continue to exert so much energy to follow the game we love. Hopefully, this blog and the tools it will eventually include can help those similarly situated (on their couches) as a one-stop shop for all things football from this side of "the pond."

So what are our qualifications to do this? Nil. Why should anyone read what it is we have to say? Let us give you an example. A small group of us were watching a Manchester United game. Ji-Sung Park (As a side note, this will be one of many, MANY, rants against Park) was terrible.


Yet time and time again the commentators praised Park's performance and Sir Alex kept him in. Were we watching the same game the "experts" were? Did they really think Ji-Sung Park played well? This blog is like a wake up call for those commentators and experts whose, to borrow from the immortal GolTV commentator Ray Hudson, villages are crying out for their idiot to return home.

It's our hope and intent, that our perspective on the "beautiful game" from this side of the "pond" will provide a new and different slant for those of you who have been following the game and open up the game to those of you who have yet to catch the bug.