Colorado's rapid decline or 'Life is(n't) beautiful'

BigSoccer moderator prk166, whose real name is Allen according to his profile, recently registered the web address fireclavijo.com, calling for the head of Colorado head coach Fernando Clavijo. After being called out on Dino Costa and Marcelo Balboa’s radio show, he called in and defended his position (as much as he could with ’Celo talking over him). The gist of the conversation was that he believed it was time to make a change.

Look, I like Clavijo. He’s funny and reminds me of Italian director Roberto Benigni, but Allen might have a point. Clavijo has never coached a team that has finished above .500 in either New England or Colorado, and he is near the bottom in winning percentage among MLS coaches both current and former.

If statistics aren’t your thing, consider Colorado’s 4-1 most recent loss, to DC United last night. The Rapids were without Kyle Beckerman and Herculez Gomez, while DC was missing Ben Olsen due to national team duty in Copa America. ’Celo and other Clavijo sympathizers have pointed to injuries and call-ups as reasons for Colorado’s 4-7-3 start, citing a lack of team depth to deal with the losses. But last night, Colorado had Pablo Mastroeni back from Gold Cup duty to solidify a defense that has become notoriously porous late in games.

With Colorado up 1-0, veteran defender Mike Petke was injured and substituted in the 29th minute and then Greg Vanney handled the ball in the box, giving DC the equalizer from the penalty spot. It was still 1-1, though, until Clavijo decided to sub Mastroeni, in the 71st minute, bringing on Stephen Keel for his MLS debut. And like removing the lynchpin from the axletree, that’s when the wheels fell off the truck, and DC scored three goals in 16 minutes.

Today, the Rapids made a move to perk up the shrinking violets of their defense by trading defender Greg Vanney to DC for Argentine defender Facundo Erpen. Vanney handles the ball in the box and gives away a penalty; the next day he’s traded…wow that’s cold.

But the young Argentine defender, while a decent addition that makes the backline younger immediately (average age now 29, instead of 30), has been inconsistent with DC, so he’s certainly not the answer to Clavijo’s backline problems. And rumors swirl around another Argentine acquisition, forward José Luis Calderon, who currently plays for Estudiantes de La Plata. But, again, not going to help with the defense.

Allen (prk166) quotes Clavijo on his pink-slip site as saying, “I’ve been saying all along it would take 3 years to put a group of players together and this is 3 years, so no excuses. Everything is falling into place and you have to believe that this is our time.”

Well, at least one fan doesn’t believe, Fernando, and he’s calling for your head.

(Click here for Allen’s soccer bog, where he takes TYH to task on the Cunningham-Esky trade)
Just for the record: Cunningham has 2Gs, 1A in 5GP for TFC; while Esky has 1A for RSL in 5GP. But I’m not ready to concede, just yet. For my take on the trade, click here)

Soccer talk? On the radio? In the U.S.? By Americans?

Yes. You read correctly or heard correctly, if you, like me, listened to ’Celo Balboa and Dino Costa talk soccer last night on the live webcast of the duo’s Denver-area radio show, “From the Pitch with Marcelo Balboa.” Finally, Americans have a voice on the radio that discusses soccer in the U.S. beyond the contractual box-score read or the fraternity-boy bullying that the worldwide leader in baseball (ESPN) occasionally does on its stations.

Sure, there have been other programs, specifically on television, that covered the world of professional soccer, the first incarnation of MLS Extratime and a few MLS city-specific shows on local sports networks come to mind. But for the most part these programs were extended commercials for the league, with puff pieces on how Landon Donovan was giving back to the community and how Carlos Valderrama let a homeless family live in his ’fro. The local programs were full of softball questions to coaches and GMs and player-reporter love fests in the wake of humiliating defeats. And there have been other internet radio programs, usually hosted by Brits or Irishmen or Scotsmen or some guy that they pulled out of an Irish pub in South Florida who happened to have the right sound (read: accent) to cover this “foreign” sport. I tied to listen to a few of them, but had a difficult time, discerning my argy-bargy from my bugger-all. These blotto berks with their daft and dodgy comments left me scatty and in a strop. Know what I mean? Nudge, nudge, wink, wink, say no more.

Which is why Costa and Balboa were so refreshing. Some highlights of the program included Dino and Balboa letting Colorado vp and managing director twist in the wind when a caller did his best impression of the Bobs in Office Space and asked the Rapids exec, “What is it, you would say, ya do here?” Costa, although he sounds a bit like Rush Limbaugh, managed to sound informed and knowledgeable, which is more than you can say about most sports talk radio hosts. He is a self-described soccer guy (likely the only one working in terrestrial radio) and if I lived in Denver I would make his daily radio program, appointment listening. As for Balboa, I have been critical of his color commentary during some MLS matches, but he seems to be coming into his own. At times during MLS match broadcasts, he seemed a bit too much the company man, but last night he let rip comments on the piss-poor referring in the first five weeks, the need to improve the production quality of the match broadcasts and challenged Fernando Clavijo’s utilization of Herculez Gomez and Brandon Prideaux (while the coach was on the phone).

The show was great, but there’s certainly room for improvement. First, they need to hire better screeners to weed out the morons who call and ask questions like, “How do you learn when you lose?” Second, they need to know when to cut off callers or to interrupt guests, like when Clavijo begins to ramble in that accent that makes him sound like a 12-year-old Antonio Banderas. That reminds me of another funny moment, when they dropped Clavijo accidentally right before the question of Conor Casey came up. In all though, it was an enjoyable two-hours, and I believe each MLS fan deserves to have a similar program in his or her city. The scattered podcasts by supporter’s groups are better than nothing, but now that we have caught a glimpse (or a listen) to what could be, MLS fans deserve more.

Odds & Ends
Jimmy Conrad out minimum nine days with a fractured jaw.

Juan Pablo Angel scores in his debut, but NY loses to Galaxy 3-1 in U.S. Open Cup play-in game. Only 10,774 on hand at The Home Depot Center to see Angel’s debut.