Chelsea and the Ivory Coast’s Didier Drogba was named 2006 African Footballer of the year finally denying Samuel Eto’o of Barcelona from the award. The 28 year old year old led the Ivory Coast to the World Cup Finals and Africans Nations Cup final plus Chelsea to the EPL title.
Couple of random thoughts on my mind here in St. Louis where I am attending the U.S Youth Soccer banquet.
*Great performance over two games from Houston Dynamo goalkeeper Zach Wells vs. Puntarenas. He put the team in a postion to advance after a great performance in the first leg including saving a penalty from Kurt Bernard and denying Brazilian striker Jorge Barbosa twice in 1v1 situations. His 68th minute save in the second leg at Texas AM was timely as Kelly Gray connected minutes later for the vital second goal
*Brian Ching continues to make big plays. After coming on as a late substitute his flashing header was pushed off the post by Puntarenas goalkeeper Orio with Gray sticking in the rebound. Timely substitution from Dominic Kinnear.
*It wasn’t pretty but it was effective and the qualities of character, willingness to work for each other plus level-headedness remains steadfast with this team. This comes from the top (Kinnear) and his desire to acquire players that fit in with his level of character expectation. This is what keeps this team in games on off days.
*Shifting gears to DC United , it is great to see Tom Soehn get off to a good start. I like coaches in this league that are willing to do the work as an assistant to gain the experience, this is clearly the way to become a head coach. Do your time and learn.
*Which leads me to Preki, I am not sure he is ready to adopt the head coaching role but maybe Chivas USA wanted to keep things familiar. He was an amazing player with definite ideas about the game…the question is can he get them across to his players. In essence can he manage personalities? Not sure he is ready.
*Luciano Emilio tore up his old Olimpia team with three goals in two games. Great move DC to acquire the top weapon from Olimpia. With Emilio , Christian Gomez, and Jaime Moreno Dc United is definetly the most unpredictable team in MLS. I know it is only two games Emilio clearly is a professional. Should be an excellent addition to MLS.
*Is Arsene Wenger whining about Arsenal’s treatment from officials or do they get treated differently?
Missed interviews with Bruce Arena, Landon Donovan and Mark Cuban. Go to www.790thesportsanimal.com or houstonchronicle.com
GlennDavis@thesoccerhour.com
Soccer Hour with Glenn Davis this Tuesday at 7PM on 790Am Radio