Who the heck is Ali Daie?

I read the news this week that Abby Wambach had passed Mia Hamm as the all time goal scorer in international women's soccer.   My attention was caught though by this statement embedded in the article  "the record for men's international soccer is 109 goals, held by Ali Daie of Iran."    What?   I was dumbfounded.   The leading international men's goal scorer is a guy from Iran?  A guy I've never heard of?  

I was particularly intrigued because Daie is from Iran, a country seen in so many ways as being at odds with the rest of the world.   And yet here was a football hero who was not just a national phenome but was in fact on FIFA's steering committee.

Daie was recruited by no less a footballer than Beckenbauer and played professionally in Germany though it seems his national team appearances were sometimes a conflict with his club commitments.

For comparison, the other top men's scorers are not necessarily the most obvious names. Following Daie is Ferenc Puskas, the brilliant Hungarian striker, who tallied nearly a goal per game for eighty five appearances, sixty some fewer than Daie's.

The tally board is worth looking over.  In part because the most effective strikers aren't necessarily household names.   Pele is merely the fifth on the list- his appearances being fewer than some other strikers.

Far down the column is the USA's homegrown champion,  Landon Donovan with forty nine goals in 144 appearances.

Worth thinking about,  this question of footballers and the satistics we all crave about their performances.  

Midseason I have to be impressed by the Portland Timbers

I watched the last ten minutes of the Timbers' away match tonight v the LA Galaxy and decided I had to doff my hat to the work that Caleb Porter and each and every one of the players on the team have done this year.   The possession-based,  clinical style of play that Porter has espoused has made a clear difference in the poise of a group of players who were mercurial in the past,   sometimes hot and sometimes cold.   Tonight's fourteenth contest without a loss nailed that difference.   The Timbers continued to march like a machine through the minutes--no panic,  no hurry,  no goals against.   

We stand at the midway point of a long season,  and I am sure there will be grim moments ahead. Despite that,  I want to say 'thank you' to the club--as individuals who have made the commitment to work to a common purpose,   no hysterics,  and to be confident that on a given night,  their approach to the game is enough.   


RCTID

So much futbol to comment on...

I just turned off the replay of the exhibition match between Chelsea and Man City in St. Louis, one of the oldest and staunchest hotbeds of soccer in the US.   What a crazy but entertaining match for the audience of 46,000?  Did I get that number right?  Regardless it was a lot o' folks.   And Man City coming back from a three goal deficit to win 4-3 can't be dismissed as exciting.

Turn back the clock to Saturday afternoon when the Portland Timbers took on DC United in DC and came home with to notches on their gunbelts, a 2-0 win in a hardscrabble match.  Who would have imagined that this shift in outcomes was possible with so many of the same players as we've fielded in previous years.   I am so impressed with the impact that the coaching change has made.    And it's wonderful to see the players who've worked so hard and had so little to show for it in 2012 be rewarded for their efforts this year.   Makes me happy.


I am particularly happy to see Rodney Wallace explode into a ferocious and deadly scorer.  I have said in the past that I was not a fan of Wallace on the back line when he started.  And even moved to midfield,  I was nervous.  But his role in this year's team as an attacking wing is thrilling to watch.   I see hunger and determination and poise under pressure and character.   Rodney, I am glad that the Timbers have found the right role for you.  


On a different theme,  the Galaxy's butchery of the Sounders was not fun to see.  It speaks to the fact that the Galaxy are a well-oiled machine regardless of whether they have a British supastar.   I was sad that the front end of the match report was about Robbie Rogers' return and not about the match itself.  I think it's sad that Rogers and other professional athletes still have to make this the first issue people talk about instead of their performance on the field.
The Sounders seem to have lost their way,  an observation that gives me little consolation since I know they will look to claw their way back to credibility over us.   At the same time, I'd like to see the PNW Cascadia teams and San Jose--the old guard-- be the strongest and grittiest part of the MLS.    We spent decades in the stands willing various versions of our teams to hold on because one day 'the game was going to be successful'.   And here it is.  And here we are.   And the scars from getting here mean we should always aspire to live up to that legacy. 

Signing off for now!

Can it really be? Portland Timbers hunker down and grab a road win!

I tuned in late tonight to the Timbers' away match against Sporting KC.  By the time I had found the channel,  the team was already in a 0-1 hole.   And the oppressive, dark feeling of being down in a well with the water rising  surfaced back in the corner of my mind.   But I truly want the good to prevail,  and so I found myself jumping up and down on the couch,  heart pounding,  and trying to respond to my relatives who share the game around the state via text message.  Yes!! It was mostly all Yes!!

I am wary of defining 'turning corners'  until years after the event.  I am wary of wanting to have a scary great team creating legends until the legends are already carved in stone.  I am wary of hoping too much from a simple football match.  All that being said,  I was enchanted by this game.   The players showed courage,  energy, poise.   They were hungry.  They were creative.   They were fierce.   And nothing seemed likely to stop them.   

When Futty went down---I exhaled a string of expletives.  How many times has that happened?  Just when we hit our stride we're hamstrung by the hobbling of a key player.  And Futty's injury was not a small loss in a team that looked much as a winning team should look.  

Despite that,  we took home a win.   We saw what was possible.  We sent a tremor,  I hope, through the ranks of the storied teams of MLS.   PTFC.   It's gonna be the brand you see streaming by you.

I can't wait for the next match.

Portland Timbers claw out a victory in KC