Levesque Goal Celebration

Last night, Seattle Sounders forward Roger Levesque - who just looks like a crazy person, but in a good way - unveiled a new goal celebration. It was quick, simple and brilliantly funny.



Levesque, in his own words:

"That's something Mike Fucito and I have been working on for awhile now. I didn’t really expect it to knock the wind out of me."

See?  Crazy, but in a good way.

Tenuous EPL connection, if you need one: Kasey Keller and Teemu Tainio played while Thierry Henry missed the match through suspension.

Another MLS interlude

If you'll forgive our stateside fixation on our Premier League blog, but today is decision day for those of us playing fantasy Major League Soccer. With Gold Cup in full swing, injuries and suspensions mounting and the odd schedule quirk it's a tough week to pick.

First of all you have a lot of good players on international duty. We've certainly written enough about that. Injuries and suspensions are another matter. New England is missing half its first team through injury and the Red Bulls have half of their first eleven questionable. Houston is going to be stretched really thin. Not only are they missing defenders Robinson (long-standing injury) and Barrett, and Waibel but Hainault is on international duty with Canada and their starting center backs, Geoff Cameron and Bobby Boswell, are both suspended for the road game against Seattle. They should have Clarke back in the midfield so Mulrooney can cover at fullback, but that's a bandaid. So I'm dropping Onstad and picking up Frei (TFC@SJ - not ideal but he was on the bench so it doesn't burn a trade) in net. And at forward I'm hoping Montero can continue his hot streak in front of goal. One note of caution before you pile in on Sounders, they have an exhibition match with Chelsea next week so they don't play in the league.

I've saved my trades for the midfield. I dropped my two FCDallas middies (who didn't do anything for me last week against the Red Bulls) and I've had to bench Pontius as DCUnited are off this week. Finally I sold Kandji as he's injured. That means Brad Davis keeps his place by default even though he's been a points black hole for a month or more. And in come Pappas and Blanco from Chicago. They're home against Columbus this week and home again next week to San Jose. I'm not thrilled about those two, but there are so few quality midfielders actually playing this week because of all the above reasons.

The last midfield spot goes to Mike Magee, who's always been a blog favorite even though his MLS roots are with NY/NJ. Hopefully he can keep his place in an improving Galaxy side (I'm thinking he stays at attacking mid and Landon Donovan, who is my captain again this week, goes back to forward for now) against the struggling cross-town Goats.

Finally at forward I'm dropping GBS for Ryan Johnson. I'm unsure of this move, but going for the home team as the tie-breaker. That and if Frei can't keep a clean sheet, maybe it will be RJ who gets the points. So he's the pick for a hedge.

MLS First Kick

Oh. My. God.

Congratulations to Seattle on their resounding (Sounders. Resounding. Get it?) win over NYRB tonight. But before anyone in the Pacific Northwest gets carried away the NYRB looked... HORRIBLE. They looked like the expansion team. They looked like a pub team. The looked like shit!

Somehow the were crowded out in central midfield where they were playing three - in Rojas (who should have been further upfield), Pietrovalla and Ubiparipovic who were equally abject. For all the pre-season talk of the Red Bulls being built around speed, they played short, careful passes through the midfield. Or tried to. I don't think Richards and JPA had a half dozen touches between them as I don't think there was a ball played forward more than 10 yards until the 54th minute. And I can't begin to count how many passes they misplayed. Too often there were two Red Bulls attacking a ball in midfield, from opposite sides and just getting in each other's way... leaving the ball for Seattle.

Seattle's third goal was typical as the defense dwelt on the ball too long and were too sloppy with their touches, allowing Montero to nip in an finish nicely.

So again, kudos to Seattle for a great performance. Montero looks the real deal. Jaqua was a handful. And in Le Toux, Zakauni, Nyassi and Evans they have plenty of creativity even without Freddie Ljundberg, who will be back soon enough.

As for NYRB it looks back to the drawing board again.