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...Ecuador's LDU Quito won the Copa Libertadores by virtue of a penalty kick shoot-out in Wednesday night's second leg of the finale. The Copa Libertadores, for the uninitiated, is almost certainly the second biggest club competition on the planet. Unfortunately, it doesn't get much coverage outside of South/Latin America. None of it was broadcast in English in the U.S. and I don't think European TV covered it at all (somewhat understanding considering the games are played in the middle of the night there). With all the attention the just-completed Euro championships received stateside (free TV coverage for the first time since, well, ever) you'd figure this might be about to change. I wouldn't hold my breath on that one but that's just me.

A shame, because there was some serious drama. And goals. Lots of them. Ten in two matches, to be exact. North American audiences surely would have appreciated this, along with the rough play and "emotion" U.S. sportscasters love to speak about. Because, you know, American sports are so much more masculine than soccer. But the play itself was admittedly not as refined as what we had seen at the Euros, which is to be expected seeing as that was basically an all-star tournament and nearly all of the best South American players ply their trade in Europe.

One thing that stood out for me was solid goalkeeping by both sides. Usually, this is the one area where South American teams fall short of true world class. But not tonight. Both of these guys, Jose Franciso Cevallos for Quito and Fernando Henrique for Fluminense, played really well even (especially) in the penalty shootout. In fact, Cevallos saved three (3) out of four penalties. When was the last time you saw a European keeper do that? The defending, on the other hand, left a lot to be desired. Think only several notches higher than MLS defending. OK, I'm exaggerating a bit. MLS defending is far worse than that.

Quito took a 4-2 lead from the first leg into the Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro. Yes, that Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro. It's still standing, though they no longer let a quarter million spectators through the gates the way they used to.

Quito struck first, after only a few minutes, temporarily silencing the partisan crowd. It didn't last though because Fluminense quickly created some chances for themselves and the crowd got back into it. Then Thiago Neves Augusto scored the equalizer for the home side. Moments later, he scored again. Thiago is a 23 year old Brazilian attacking midfielder who was capped a few times by Brazil's Under 23 national team but somehow was never signed by a European club. That may be about to change.

Then one of Fluminense's players was pulled down in the Quito penalty area but the ref's whistle stayed silent. It didn't matter because Fluminense suddenly had the upper hand, probably for the first time in the entire series.

And yet, Quito proved to be extremely dangerous on counters. The frenetic pace slowed a bit into half time, only to resume with force after the break. Fluminense kept the hammer down but Quito was able to match them. The play was rough and the ref briefly appeared to be losing control of the match. He was letting a lot go.

But not everything. A freekick was called on the edge of the Quito penalty area. Thiago stepped up and coolly chipped it over the wall and into the back of the Quito net. Left footed. Why is this guy not in Europe? Fluminense 3, Quito 1. We were level. No away goal rule. This ain't UEFA.

Neither team managed a break through after that, though both came close, hitting the posts once each. Extra time failed to produce a goal as well though Fluminense dodged a bullet in the closing minutes. One of their defenders literally rugby tackled a Quito player who had a clear run on goal. The ref didn't hesitate and showed him a red card. Fluminense were lucky. If the foul had taken place a few feet closer to their end line, the fouled player would have been in the penalty area and the transgression would have earned a penalty kick. Instead, the freekick went nowhere.

Fluminense's players, by the way, have some pretty cool names: Washington, Somalia, Roger, Romeu, Cicero and my personal favorite, Dodo. What the hell was that guy thinking? Where do they come up with this stuff, anyway? If a U.S. player ever makes it in Brazil his name should be Dude. Maybe put one of those weird accents on the "e" or something to spice things up.

Photo taken from Perucampeon.com without permission.

The best team in Europe won the European championship. But before we defend this (hardly controversial) claim, a discussion of the pregame ceremony is in order:

First, that techno-waltz thing. Okay, I get it: Austria is the home of Mozart and other famous musicians like Falco, and Vienna was where they were playing the game. But as creative and clever as it may have been, I don't think U.S. audiences, many of whom still cling to the belief that soccer is a sissy sport (or worse), along with other myths, were able to appreciate the full effect. Just a hunch.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the worst of it. Not even close, in fact. We were next treated to Enrique Iglesias (badly) lip-synching the tournament's techno-anthem while his "band" play-synched their instruments. This complete waste of time, space, technology and hot chicks (the backup singers) was nothing short of an insult on all the senses. I would not be surprised if many Americans used this freak show as an excuse to change the channel, perhaps to the NASCAR race that was taking place at the same time. To many, this was likely their first (and last) exposure to professional soccer.

A shame, because they missed a game that while admittedly not as good as some of the others played in the tournament, was an impressive display of solid technical soccer (quite unlike the MLS game that preceded it. Which is okay, MLS doesn't claim to be anywhere near this level. Or at least I hope they don't. Seriously though: with David Beckham honing his rapidly-declining skills over here, and still holding down a starting spot for England, can there be any surprise they didn't qualify for the tournament?).

Yes, Philip Lahm probably should have done better holding off Fernando Torres, even if he was three heads shorter and even though the Spaniard showed himself adept at muscling his way past the little German (I wonder if that move was something he picked up in England? Maybe the English game--or certain parts of it at least--still has its place after all). And Germany was pretty disappointing in this game. They seemed more interested in b*tching at the referee than playing their game (further evidence that globalization has infiltrated the sport; Spaniards playing physical, Germans acting like Southern European crybabies. What's next: Italy playing attacking soccer? Nah, even globalization has its limits).

There can be no doubt, though, that pound for pound Spain was the best team in this tournament. Their squad really does not appear to have any weaknesses; Ilker Casillas is probably the best goalkeeper in the world not named Buffon, Torres and Villa are world class strikers, Fabregas and Xavi Hernandez brilliant creative midfielders. Iniesta and David Silva terrific all-rounders who combine to make the Spanish midfield one of the very best ever. Carlos Puyol a rock in central defense. Who needed Raul? Luis Aragones undoubtedly made the right call leaving him off the squad. And these guys are still young. Obviously, Spain are looking like the early favorites for the 2010 world cup.

As for Germany, I am not actually convinced after today that they were the second-best team in this tournament. Playing above their potential is a typically-German trait in the recent history of international soccer (see 1982, 1986, 1996, 2002 and 2006) so it isn't a big surprise it happened again. Would Germany have beaten Holland or Italy or Croatia or Russia? We'll never know (actually we do know about Croatia, who beat them in group play). Anyway, this was a fun tournament. The soccer, that is. The staging and transmission issues are another matter entirely.

Earlier this week we had some points of contention with Du Nord, so let's pick right up where we left off, shall we? Except, this isn't so much a point of contention but more a point of confusion. The site introduced something today called "The Designated Players," which appears to be some kind of blogging quintet featuring Ives, This is American Soccer, The Original Winger and The Offside Rules. Du Nord doesn't say what the partnership means, except that the other four are his "brothers in arms." I expect further clarifications to be forthcoming. Or maybe not. Don't get me wrong, I think it's cool and all, though I do have a bit of an issue with the (I assume rhetorical) question posed by Du Nord; "Do you really need to go anywhere else for your soccer news?" (Yes you do. Blogs are great and all but sometimes you need properly written, edited and fact-checked news stories if your society isn't going to degenerate into a type of gossip mongering parody of itself. Not that that could ever happen in America of course).

Sadly, actual soccer reporters are fast becoming an endangered species. Earlier this week we had a bit on longtime Boston Globe soccer writer Frank Dell'Apa being reassigned to cover the Celtics. Now, Sideline Views tells us about the OC Register axing its Galaxy coverage. Somebody else told me about The Metrowest Daily News disposing with Mike Biglin, their soccer writer. Where will this all end, yo, I don't know.

WVHooligan asks its readers if it is time for New York Red Bulls constantly oft-injured midfielder Claudio Reyna to go. American Soccer News asked the same question a week ago (the result, so far, is pretty telling). In case you didn't know this, Reyna played in a charity game in New York's Chinatown this week, while his team was out west. The aforementioned Ives criticized him for this, calling it a slight to Red Bulls fans. Who Ate All the Cupcakes was right behind him, arguing that somebody as injury prone as Reyna should not be putting himself at risk in a charity game. I tend to agree with them and would jump onboard with some choice words of my own, except I am so tired of criticizing the Red Bulls in general and Reyna in particular. Which is not to say they don't deserve it. I'm just tired of it. This season is shaping up to be a typical RB/Metro campaign; glimpses of hope interspersed with sustained periods of disappointment and a few hopelessly embarrassing events thrown in for good measure. All of which will culminate with another first round exit from the playoffs. What's different this year is that there really, truly is light at the end of the tunnel--and it ain't an oncoming train, neither! Reyna's contract is up at the end of the season and sometime (probably late) next year the team moves into its shiny new digs in Harrison, N.J. But for the immediate future the franchise is just treading water, which admittedly isn't pretty.

First, the TV transmission of the Germany-Turkey Euro semifinal goes dark for unexplained reasons. Many, myself included, initially (and, it should be pointed out, falsely) blamed ESPN2 for the blackout. It wouldn't have been the first time the folks in Bristol messed up big time with soccer coverage. But ESPN had nothing to do with it. There were no TV pictures anywhere!

To make matters even more bizarre, this was an event taking place in Switzerland, a country renowned for its efficiency (along with a few other things, but we don't need to get into that right now). With the other semifinal and final taking place in Austria, this was the country's signature moment of the tournament. UEFA blamed electrical storms in Vienna, which is a perfectly reasonable argument until you realize Basel is hundreds of miles away from the Austrian capital. No wonder the BBC is lodging formal complaints with UEFA tomorrow (good luck with that one, folks).

The Euro tournament, for all its charms (and don't get me wrong, some of the games have been great) is kind of like the midterm elections in American politics. It gets media attention and people discuss it around the water cooler, but ultimately you know it's just a warm-up for the main event that takes place two years later. So it really is a testament to the growth of the sport in this country that the Euro is being taken seriously by U.S. media. The final will be broadcast on ABC as part of a doubleheader with the LA Galaxy and DC United squaring off first. The Globe and Mail, for one, is calling ESPN's decision to broadcast all of the Euro games revolutionary (yeah I know the Globe and Mail is Canadian, which is not American).

American soccer pundits (yes we have some) have even begun debating media strategies. The L.A. Times' Grahame Jones thinks the doubleheader is a bad idea because it will expose the inferior quality of play in MLS. Du Nord begs to differ because "it will show that MLS is not that far off from the top squads of the world."

Personally, I think they're both wrong. Du Nord because he doesn't think MLS is "that far off" and Jones because he thinks a U.S. audience will actually notice the difference. Make no mistake about it: MLS is definitely inferior, sometimes even vastly inferior, to the top leagues in the world. This is especially true if you watch the defensive play, which is at times nothing short of appalling. Demonstrating his naivete, Du Nord holds up last summer's New York versus L.A. match as a shining example of MLS' prowess, calling it "as good as anything I saw." Well, I saw the game too, and while I enjoyed the goals as much as the next guy, I did not exactly feel like somebody had put me in a timewarp and transported me back to the 1970 World Cup semifinals (okay fine, I wasn't actually around for that. I'm not that old. But I did watch the France v. Brazil quarterfinal match at the 1986 World Cup (on TV), and that was as good as anything I have ever seen and likely ever will see. I have a feeling those who witnessed it will back me up on this). Because seriously, going back to the LA v NY game here, if either team had a clue about basic defending, we would only have seen a fraction of the nine goals we witnessed.

But I think this proves my point, that U.S. soccer fans, even knowledgeable ones like Du Nord, are still naive when it comes to the intricacies of the sport. I don't think very many of them will pick up on the shoddy (or worse) defending, the inconsistent passing, poor first touches and lack of creativity from the run of play that are the hallmark of your typical MLS game. For that matter they probably won't notice how the Euro final is superior in all these areas, or recognize that these qualities are standard fare for the world's top leagues. So I don't think ABC is taking a huge gamble, as Jones posits.

Unfortunately it's not all progress to report. The Boston Globe's Frank Dell'Apa has been taken off the New England Revolution beat and tasked with following the Boston Celtics instead (didn't the Celtics' season just end? What is there to follow, exactly? Okay, the NBA draft. Anything else?) For those not in the know, Dell'Apa has been one of the best MLS beat writers since its inception and probably the only one who has done any consistent, quality reporting on the Revs this past decade. It is a sad day in MLS because the Revs are one of the most media-unfriendly teams not only in the league (and organized sports in general) but probably just about anywhere (as somebody who has spent a lot of time dealing with flacks at investment banks you can trust me on this one). The team would truly have benefited from Dell'Apa's coverage. But all is not lost yet. The Globe's sports editor, Joe Sullivan, may be in a position to put Dell'Apa back where he belongs.

To celebrate our return we are opening up one of those Q&A sessions bloggers everywhere seem to have been launching. I can't believe anybody would care enough about Soccer-Source to ask us anything, least of all something meaningful ("why are you such a wanker?" doesn't count. Sorry folks). But I also thought nobody would miss us ever and judging by the comments and emails that have come pouring in I was very much mistaken!

So contact us via email and ask anything you want. Who knows, we may even answer.