Africa pipeline? Mamadou it

Mamadou, the "Senegalese Sensation" (center)

According to a reports in the Gambia press, MLS player agent Patrick McCabe is meeting with former Major League Soccer star Mamadou Diallo in hopes of creating a pipeline of talent from Africa to MLS.

Buoyed by the success of Gambian pair Kenny Mansally and Sainey Nyassi with New England, McCabe is hoping to find additional diamonds in the rough on his tour.

Diallo has been back playing in Africa since 2005. He currently plays in the western African nation of Mali for Djoliba AC Bamako and has also played in South Africa for Jomo Cosmos. Diallo played for the contracted Tampa Bay Mutiny, MetroStars and New England in MLS between the years of 2000 and 2002.

Olympics: Parkhurst's smog blog

USA defender Michael Parkhurst, one of three senior members on the U.S. Olympic team, will be writing a blog for The Boston Globe during the Olympics. In his second post, he comments on the much talked about issue of air quality in Beijing and the surrounding areas.

There is no such thing as a bright blue day around here, although I did see a small patch for a bit yesterday. But for the most part it is just a gray haze. The visibility out into the distance from our hotel does not span more than a couple miles. So the smog is a reality. However, it's not something that will greatly affect us during the Games. It is one of the reasons we came China a week early and I think most of us, by now, have adapted to the heat, humidity and ... smog.

The U.S. Olympic team will take on Japan tomorrow morning at 5amET in their first match of the tournament in Tianjin. The match will be broadcast live on MSNBC, the NBC Olympic Soccer Channel and Universal HD.

SuperLiga: Revs edge Dynamo in SL final

I guess it isn't always about the Benjamins, as a spirited SuperLiga final ended with the New England Revolution claiming a 6-5 win on penalty kicks at Gillette Stadium on Tuesday night, despite the specter of the past week's bickering over the tournaments $1 million purse.

The Revolution twice fought back from a goal deficit, both in regular time and overtime, to force the match into penalties, where Matt Reis went from almost goat to certain hero. With the PKs knotted at one apiece, Reis sailed his attempt high over the goal, opening the door to a Houston win, but Reis redeemed his miss by stopping Houston's Dwayne DeRosario attempt. Then Reis saved Brian Ching's attempt on Houston's next kick, but Dynamo keeper Pat Onstad equaled him, saving Khano Smith's attempt. In sudden death, with the score 6-5, Ricardo Clark missed his attempt off the crossbar to give the Revs the SuperLiga trophy.

The first half saw each side trade goals, with Nate Jaqua scoring the first of the match in the 18th minute and then Steve Ralston responding just before halftime. The match remained deadlocked despite several chances by each side until overtime, when the clubs again traded goals in the first session of extra time. Kei Kamara out jumped Reis for the go-ahead goal, but midfield general Shalrie Joseph equalized with a header of his own six minutes later.

With controversy regarding the purse for the winning team, including a threat by both squads to split the money and a stern response to the Players' Union by the league's commissioner, many were wondering how it would affect the effort in the game. But apparently, the competitive spirit bested any animosity toward the competition organizers and MLS. It also helped that the Revs have been trying to get the big, orange monkey off their backs for some time, losing to Houston in the 2006 MLS Cup (on penalty kicks) and again in last year's MLS Cup.

The Revolution, who appear poised to make a return to this year's MLS CUp, will look to get their second piece of hardware in the US Open Cup, which resumes play next week. The Revs take on DC United at RFK Stadium in the first semi-final on August 12.

SuperLiga: It's like NASCAR, says Garber

Commissioner Garber responded to the threat made by the MLS Players Union that Houston and New England would split the SuperLiga final payout among all the players on each club regardless of the outcome, saying that such an arrangement was a violation of the collective Bargaining agreement.

As reported by Steve Goff, Garber told reporters that the players plan to split the money " is not something [MLS is] going to allow." And if they decide to go ahead with the plan? He offered this ominous warning:

"... We will have to manage it the way we would manage any other violation of the collective bargaining agreement. ... We will pay the prize money as it was originially dictated as determined by MLS ownership. If there is something we determine is a violation of the CBA, we will address it."

Garber acknowledged that the payout to the players would be just $150,000 to the winning side (which he mentioned was equivalent to the MLS Cup payout), and added that the rest of the advertised $1 million will go to the club owner.

"It's no different from a NASCAR tournament where the team owner wins prize money and the team owner has a driver under contract, and whatever his agreement with that driver is is what that driver receives. ... What I have found very frustrating is that this has been positioned as the league misleading the public by saying that the prize would go to the players. We never, ever implied that the players would get the one million dollars. The winner is the team. The club gets that million-dollar prize, and then we have an agreement as to what that share would be to the players."

The problem with Garner's position is that in NASCAR the individual owner can set the amount of the prize money awarded to his driver and it is usually a much bigger percentage than 15%. In MLS, the owners are really just investors and the amount of money to be awarded was set by the league, not the owners of the specific clubs. There were some reports that owner-operators of both Houston and New England were willing to work out a deal, but MLS squashed the deal.

Now Garber expects the two teams to go out there and "be professionals."

"I would expect that our players would be playing for the pride of being the best team of eight teams in this tournament. I don't recall anybody ever talking about what the players' share of prize money is for winning the MLS Cup."

I also don't recall the MLS Cup being hyped as having the "heftiest winner's purse in North American soccer history."

SuperLiga: Final threat not a bluff

The SuperLiga final is in danger of being a boring affair, now that the players of both clubs have agreed to split the prize money between all of them win or lose.

A statement from the MLS Players Union states:

"The players on the Houston Dynamo and New England Revolution have agreed in advance of tomorrow night's SuperLiga final that they will split evenly the bonus money at stake in the game. The players have made this decision to show their solidarity and in protest of the league's violation of the Collective Bargaining Agreement with respect to the negotiation of bonuses for this tournament."

The "protest" is in reference to MLS's decision to pay the players on the winning team just $150,000 to split among them, instead of the $1 million payout that the league has advertised as the reward.

Therefore, players on the two clubs will pool the $150,000 and the $100,000 given to the runners-up and split it evenly among the players on both squads. With nothing at stake in terms of money or qualification to additional tournaments, one can assume that the level of play may resemble a pick-up game over a couple of beers in the park. I wouldn't be surprised if the two sides started popping open some cold ones right at midfield.

You can't blame the players. This isn't a question of greed. In a league where some players are paid less than $20,000/year, money is still a great motivator. MLS should act fast to remedy the situation by agreeing to award the winning side the $1 million purse or by negotiating an acceptable payout with the union. Otherwise, they run the risk of turning the final of what has been a terrific tournament so far into a super joke.

TYH'S MLS BEST 11 (Week 19)

GOALKEEPER

Z. Wells (DC)

DEFENDERS

J. Olave (RSL), W. Barrett (HOU), R. Cochrane (SJ), W. Conde (CHI)

MIDFIELDERS

I. Guerrero (DC), A. Alvarez (SJ), J. Mapp (CHI)

FORWARDS

K. Cooper (DAL), J. Moreno (DC), B. Ching (HOU)

MLS Sunday round-up (Week 19)

August 3
Los Angeles 2-3 San Jose (McAfee Coliseum)
San Jose's Ryan Cochrane delivered the knockout blow in the Battle of California, scoring in the 90th minute to defeat their downstate rivals. After going up 2-0 in the first half on goals by new additions Arturo Alvarez and Darren Huckerby, the Galaxy fought back with a goal just before halftime by Landon Donovan and another in the 76th minute by Edson Buddle. But Cochrane's clean-up of a Huckerby rebound gave San Jose the full three points.

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FC Dallas 2-0 Toronto FC (BMO Field)
A brace by FC Dallas' Kenny Cooper gave Toronto their first home loss of the season. Dallas fans must be thanking their lucky stars that their club put the kibosh on a Euro tarnsfer for Franken-Coop. The match was scoreless until the 81st minute when Cooper converted from the spot, after Amado Guevara was given an off-the-ball red card for a foul on Pablo Ricchetti in the penalty area. TFC saw another player sent off, Marco Valez, in the 84th minute before Cooper added a second goal in injury time. Match referee Baldomero Toledo's terrible decisions and total lack off control demonstrated once again the need for more professional and competent referees in MLS. Toledo even sent off a TFC trainer for apparently mouthing off from the sideline.

Cooper's second
TFC trainer sent off
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MLS Saturday round-up (Week 19)

August 2
Kansas City 0-2 DC United (RFK)
Luciano Emilio's MLS hot streak continued, as he added his 11th goal of the season in DC's 2-0 home win. Take that All-Star team. But Jaime Moreno, 34, is still United's MVP, assisting on the Emilio goal before adding his own off a curling re-start from distance by Marc Burch.

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Chivas USA 0-1 Chicago (Toyota Park)
With Cuauhtemoc Blanco on the bench due to card accumulation, rookie Patrick Nyarko provided the scoring, sneaking one past Zach Thornton, Chivas' midseason replacement for England-bound Brad Guzan.

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Columbus 0-2 Houston (Robertson)
Houston's SuperLiga success has energized them in MLS play, and the defending MLS Cup champions are poised to make a late season surge. Two first half goals, by Brad Davis and Brian Ching, put Columbus down for the count in this one.

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