Flashback 2010: An underrated goal from the assist king himself

I was hoping to do some flashbacks this year to look back 10 years to 2010, when I was in my second year as the radio play-by-play broadcaster for the Houston Dynamo. Now with sports shut down and so much of life seemingly on hold, it seems like the right time to aim for a series of retrospectives, looking back at some memorable or quirky moments from my career in sports.

May 8, 2010
There won't be too much more 2010 content as part of this flashback series, but it's been 10 years since I called one of my favorite sneaky-good goals, and I never get tired of excuses to watch this thing.

I mean, who scores a goal like this? Who runs onto a through ball, slides, and THEN lobs the keeper with his first touch? I don't recall this getting any momentum for Goal of the Week, and I don't think you'll see it on an MLS retrospective of best lobs, but I just think it was a special play. I know it was against Chivas USA, and I know Zach Thornton in goal was not known for his mobility, but this goal has always stuck out in my memory banks as being unusual and skillful and awesome. So please ignore the decidedly low-quality video footage and enjoy:

As you've figured out by now, It was scored by Brad Davis, one of the great assist men in MLS history, and a guy with whom I had a history. Davis was just 20, when I interned with the MetroStars in 2002, two years older than I, and although he was a hotshot rookie on the club, he was also one of the less intimidating presences for me, a college freshman. I rooted for him from the start, from the MetroStars to the Dallas Burn to the San Jose Earthquakes and then through the move to Houston, and six years later, when our paths crossed again, he was still making my life easier.

I joined the Dynamo in 2008, managing the team web site and working in the communications department, so my job included some media relations duties. Once I began traveling with the team to every game as radio broadcaster in 2009, those duties ramped up and I was often tasked with connecting reporters and players for interviews. It's a relatively simple task, but when your approach to almost any player elicits a groan and a, "What now, Yardley?" it's not always a fun one.

Brad was one of the guys who made it easy. Oh, don't get me wrong: He'd give us crap. Seeing a staffer walking toward him after practice, he'd yell out, "WHAT!?" in mock anger or walk right past with his head turned before doubling back to hear out the request. Outside the locker rooms at Robertson Stadium, if somebody flicked your ear and then scampered through the doors, it was probably Brad.

But he also said, "Yes," and, "Just have them call me," and, "Whatever you need." Words that made my life easier, all the time. An easy choice to go to when a media outlet asked who was available and I didn't want a headache by asking the same guy twice (or three times, etc.) It helped, of course, that Brad was a starter and, eventually, a durable one.

He will always be known, of course, for assists, particularly from his left-footed dead-ball service. But there were other, subtler parts to his game (did you have Brad Davis pegged for the first elastico in MLS Cup history in 2006??), and occasionally he wound up on the scoresheet for some of those as well.

As the guy who dealt with statistics in a league with second assists, I even got to play a part, which brings me to one of my favorite Brad Davis stories.

I was in the coaches' office at Robertson Stadium on a training day, probably bugging Dominic Kinnear for content for the gameday magazine and taking good-natured ribbing from everybody in the room. Talking about some recent game, I mentioned that Brad had multiple assists in the game. Dom said, "Brad, really? He just had the one, from the free kick." And I responded, "Yeah, but he got a second assist on [so-and-so's] goal. I had to call the league to make sure he got credit for it."

"Second assist, c'mon," came the reply. "What are you doing pushing more numbers for Brad, anyway? Did he put you up to it? Who cares? What in the world has he ever done for you?" (Yes, there was an expletive in there. Probably more than one, knowing Dom.)

I just kind of shrugged and said, "Hey, it's my job," which of course Dom knew perfectly well. He always made sure we remembered that the players came first and was quick to put me in my place if my actions didn't reflect that. ... But he didn't want Brad or anybody else to worry about statistics or get a big head, either. Maybe the greatest Dynamo compliment you could give was if a player was, "honest" in his work ethic.

Fortunately for me, Brad popped his head into the coaches' office a few minutes later, and I asked him about doing an interview that I needed to get crossed off my list. He quickly said, "Yeah, sure, have him give me a call," and moved on with his day. I turned to Dom and the room and said, "You asked what has he ever done for me? That, right there. Huge help."

So maybe I have a soft spot for Brad Davis, but despite his MVP nominations and his spot on the 2014 World Cup roster and his No. 3 ranking in MLS history in assists, I still felt he was underrated at times. As a technical player, as a versatile player, as a well-rounded player. Everybody focused on the dead-ball delivery, and it was incredible. But he was much more than that, and he even changed his eating and work habits mid-career to become fitter and perform at a higher level.

This goal was far from his stereotypical skillset. If you watch the play again, he and another orange jersey make the same run, chasing a well-weighted Brian Mullan ball behind the back line, and Davis actually had to out-run (or at least not lose too much ground to) Dominic Oduro, of all people, just to get to the ball first. Fortunately, Mr. Freaky Fast himself backed off and let Brad take a run at the thing.

Then the early slide is, to me, the most underrated part of the play. It seems to accelerate Davis and allow him to beat the center back (Dario Delgado, in his only year in MLS; I had to look him up) to the ball, while also leaving Thornton in no-man's land. It was timed perfectly, allowing for the scooped finish as the ball was already bouncing up.

You just don't see this play often, and it's one I always felt got lost in the shuffle but deserves a little limelight.

Flashback 2010: Palmer's ridiculous rip and Cameron's "unique" celebration

I was hoping to do some flashbacks this year to look back 10 years to 2010, when I was in my second year as the radio play-by-play broadcaster for the Houston Dynamo. Now with sports shut down and so much of life seemingly on hold, it seems like the right time to aim for a series of retrospectives, looking back at some memorable or quirky moments from my career in sports.

April 17, 2010
2010 was, in many ways, a lost season for the Houston Dynamo. The club missed the playoffs for the only time in its first eight years of existence (2006-13), and it led to a lot of pressure, angst, and, ultimately, changes to both the team on the field and the organization behind it.

But that doesn't mean it was all bad. There were some incredibly cool and fun moments to that season, even if they did wind up overshadowed by the frustration of it all.

So I thought I would start this series of flashbacks with one of my favorite goal calls from early in my radio days, one that survived on my demo reel for several years, even after I had transitioned to mostly TV work. Houston brought in a Jamaican midfielder during preseason named Lovel Palmer, he scored a great long-range goal in preseason, and the Dynamo pulled the trigger on a transfer, paying his club Harbour View an (of course undisclosed fee) to sign Palmer.

Lovel Palmer! That's how you do it!
His first Houston start came 10 years ago today – April 17, 2010 – in the fourth game of the season, and when he pulled the trigger from about 35 yards away in the first half, firing a shot past Zach Thornton to make it a 2-0 game, I exploded:

"Into the middle to Palmer, with a man on him. Nice turn to get around Kljestan. Palmer, gonna shoot … fires! Finds the net! What a goal! Lovel Palmer! That's how you do it! His first start, his first Dynamo goal, and boy is he pumped!"

It's one I could watch all day, because of the goal itself and because of what I knew it meant to Lovel, an emotional player who became a fan favorite with every club he represented in his career. (As an aside, I ultimately learned to pronounce his name as LUH-VELL, with an accent on both syllables, rather than the luh-VELL I used here.)

So I went back to watch and enjoy the highlights:



and I found a lot more than just Lovel's outstanding finish.

Geoff Cameron, Easter Bunny?
Geoff Cameron scored the opening goal on a feed from roommate and constant odd-couple-partner Corey Ashe, then launched into a …bunny-hop celebration? What the heck was that? Was it an Easter thing? No, this was almost 2 weeks after Easter.

I really couldn't remember, so I had to Google it, and it started to come back to me. Geoff, a Best XI selection as a center back in 2009 but returning to the Houston midfield in 2010, had done a commercial for Volkswagen involving various elaborate goal celebrations, and his was: the bunny hop. Somehow he decided to bust it out in a game (he had also used it in the 2009 Dynamo Charities Cup), and I seem to remember all of us busting out laughing at the same time.


(As an aside, look at how wide-eyed Geoff is for this commercial shoot! I don't think he's acting when he's looking around on that pedestal all uncomfortable. And who came up with this campaign, anyway? Disaster or genius?)

Dom Oduro's "shoes are hot!"
Cameron did keep the shoes on for this celebration, which cannot be said for the day's third goalscorer, Dominic Oduro. After tapping a Brad Davis feed into an empty net from about 4 yards away, Oduro "play[ed] hot-potato with his cleat," a celebration I certainly had never seen before. When asked about it later, Oduro was quoted as saying, "My shoes are hot. It's going to be hot from now on. It's a goal, and the shoes are hot."

So our communications office definitely had a "shoes are hot!" saying whenever Oduro's name came up from then on. Of course, he proceeded to score 1 goal in his next 17 games …

A Moonlight Graham moment
This highlight reel closes with the debut of 18-year-old Francisco Navas Cobo, the Dynamo's second Homegrown Player and first to appear in a game. This was a big deal for the club at the time, trying to prove to anyone and everyone that the Houston academy could and would provide opportunities no other local club could.

Of course, if you've read this far, you probably know that the Houston academy is considered one of the least successful in MLS, and Navas Cobo never made another MLS appearance, one more cautionary tale of American soccer: We're all looking for the next big thing, but the success rate is low.

End of an era
My lasting memory of this game is just bliss: a 3-0 win for the team that employed me, some great goals and entertaining celebrations to call, and a couple of debuts to boot. But in some ways, it was the last hurrah for the great Houston(/San Jose) dynasty. The Earthquakes were MLS Cup champions in 2001 and 2003, Supporters' Shield winners in 2005, then moved to Houston and won MLS Cup titles in 2006 and 2007, won the West regular season title in 2008, and tied for the West regular season title in 2009. This was a juggernaut, pushed off course by postseason misfortunes in 2008 and 2009, but still feared around the league.

The roster on April 17 had six players who had been in San Jose, with two other starters injured. Yet one week later, on a rainy night in Chicago, Cameron ruptured his PCL, and the jig was up. Having already lost Ricardo Clark and Stuart Holden in the offseason, Houston never recovered in 2010. The club finally had to go younger, and so Brian Mullan was traded closer to home during 2010, and Pat Onstad, Richard Mulrooney, Ryan Cochrane, and Craig Waibel all moved on after that season, with Eddie Robinson limping through one more campaign in 2011.

The runs to MLS Cup finals in 2011 and 2012 and the Eastern Conference final in 2013 looked very different, with only a few names (Kinnear, Ching, Davis, Clark) who had celebrated titles in San Jose colors. So, in many ways, April 17, 2010 was one final day of belief in the promise of that era. And boy, were we pumped!

Most interesting MLS story of 2013? Chivas USA

Born in the U.S. but raised in Mexico, Josue Soto (left)
is a friend of mine from the Dynamo but is now part of
the Chivas USA overhaul.

The Major League Soccer storyline that most interests me entering 2013, by a wide margin, is Chivas USA.

Normally an afterthought and one of the league's least popular clubs, I'm interested because they are basically re-starting the club and returning to its original intent: to be an American version of Chivas Guadalajara, playing a Mexican style and fielding a mix of Mexican-Americans, Mexican players on loan, and Californians.

I have seriously mixed emotions about this mission. It smacks of prejudice. Employing almost exclusively players of a certain nationality/race? Hard to root for. From what I have heard, there has been a major emphasis that every member of the front office staff be able to speak Spanish, and the team has done away with English-language television broadcasts completely. Not exactly inclusive.

On the other hand, it's fascinating. The attempt to turn over most of the team in one offseason is fascinating. The attempt to play a Mexican style in an American league is fascinating. The attempt to gather promising Mexican-American players in one team is fascinating. The reported use of the 3-5-2 formation - little-seen in MLS since DC and New England, circa 2007, is intriguing. I can't take my eyes away.

The biggest flash point, of course, is the team's stated Mexican identity. As a United States fan, I have hated the Mexican national team - and, I thought, Mexican soccer in general - since I began following soccer. But working for the Houston Dynamo gave me a different perspective on the Mexican teams we faced in SuperLiga, Champions League, and friendlies. Yes, there was the condescension and dirty play that made me hate the Mexican national team. But I also learned to respect certain teams and certain players (while still wanting to beat them every time). I admired Pachuca's style of play, began to appreciate Santos' attacking movement. I am now far more interested in the Mexican league than I was six years ago, and I love watching the clash of styles when Mexican and American teams meet.

Chivas USA could bring that to MLS every week, and it could be really fun to watch. They could be a hated rival for every team with a fan base that loves the U.S. national team.

So when Chivas USA opens its season tonight at home against Columbus, I'll be watching closely. It sounds like there may not be a big crowd in the stadium to watch closely, but it's going to be the start of something epic. It may be an epic fail, if the team fails to perform and Southern California fans decide not to get on board. Or, if the team succeeds, it may produce an epic villain of a team that opposing fans love to hate. Either way, I'm fascinated.

For more on the Chivas USA makeover, read on for a list of players brought in during the 2012-13 offseason. All 14 are Hispanic.

Preseason invitees 2013 - Western Conference

The MLS preseason is inevitably a blur of players coming and going as teams try to fill out their rosters. Here is an attempt to keep track of who's under contract, who's in camp with whom, and which teams are keeping spots open for the summer.

Information is unofficial, acquired to the best of my ability via team and media reports.

Western Conference:

Chivas USA (7-18-9, 9th West) -- 'Chelís' Sánchez Solá			Signed: 28 / Open: 2
2013 Newcomers: MF Carlos Alvarez (draft, 1990, UConn), MF Eric Avila (trade, Toronto via Colorado), DF Steve Purdy (1985, Portland), MF Carlos Borja (1988, former Chivas, LA Blues), MF Edgar Mejia (1988, Chivas Guadalajara, Mexico), FW Giovani Casillas (1994, Chivas Guadalajara, Mexico), DF Mario De Luna (1988, Chivas Guadalajara, Mexico), DF Joaquin Velasquez (1975, Puebla 2010, Mexico), DF Walter Vilchez (1982, Sporting Cristal, Peru), MF Josue Soto (1989, Houston / San Antonio Scorpions loan), DF Emilio Orozco (1992, Tigres, Fort Lauderdale Strikers loan), MF Daniel Antunez (1986, Inter Turku), FW Jose Manuel Rivera (1986, Chivas Guadalajara, Mexico), Julio Morales (1993, Chivas Guadalajara)
Draft: Alvarez, DF Jose Diaz (1991, UC Riverside), FW Paul Islas (1991, Fresno Pacific), DF Joe Franco (1990, Cal State Northridge)
Trial: MF Rodrigo Lopez (1987, Orlando City), FW Leopoldo Morales (1990, Fort Lauderdale Strikers)
Rumored via Chivas de Guadalajara: Juan Pablo Ocegueda (1993) Not with Team: Ante Jazic

Sitting with Mr. Jazic

I planned to post about our May 19 broadcast, which I was really pleased with, but instead I took a couple of days’ vacation at my parents’ house in North Jersey. We went to the Red Bulls-Chivas USA game tonight, and I want to tell you about our seats. Or, more accurately, the people sitting near our seats.

We were fortunate enough to be guests of the Red Bulls on this night, enjoying seats in the lower level. As I informed my parents of the various storylines in the game: Juan Pablo Ángel’s history with the club, Thierry Henry’s pedigree, Rafa Marquez’s reputation, and the recent trade, I could tell the gentleman in front of me was listening in. As the game went on, it became clear he and his wife were emotionally invested in Chivas USA for a pretty good reason.

After a hilarious visit to adjacent seats from some of Juan Agudelo’s family, still getting used to Chivas USA colors, I guessed the original couple in front of us was Dan Kennedy’s parents, because they seemed so focused on the defense. But after Chivas scored in the second half, the man stood up to cheer and encourage the Chivas players celebrating right in front of us, then turned around and apologized by explaining his connection to the team: They were actually the parents of Chivas left back Ante Jazic.

As the second half continued, Mr. Jazic talked to us a bit, and it provided a really different perspective than you typically get. Sitting with a player’s parents, every play by that individual is magnified. The parents perk up, raise their camera if they're into photography, and stop everything else to watch the play. Take the focus you would have watching an American playing in Europe or a player from your alma mater making his debut. Then multiply that by a few million hours of parenting. That gives you a bit of an idea. Ante Jazic is 36 years old, his father told us more than once, and he has played hundreds of games in more than a dozen countries. Yet for this fairly average, regular-season, mid-week game, Mr. Jazic was still lifting up out of his seat with excitement when Ante had a chance to cross from the left, and he was crestfallen when Dane Richards snuck behind Ante to set up New York’s tying goal.

Having called several games that included Jazic over the years, I could not resist asking Mr. Jazic how the family name should be pronounced. After all, it looks and sounds Serbo-Croatian, but the pronunciation has always been listed as a very North American-sounding ‘JAZZ-ick’ in every pronunciation guide I’ve seen. A Canadian-Croatian, Mr. Jazic quickly confirmed that it should be pronounced ‘YAH-zich,’ but after all this time in Canada, he said it is OK to say ‘JAZZ-ick.’ Still, having heard it directly from Ante’s father’s mouth, I think I’m going to go with ‘YAH-zich’ when Dallas plays Chivas USA in October.

Throughout the second half, Mr. Jazic shared some other good tidbits concerning the pressure-packed environment of Ante’s early days at famed Hajduk Split in Croatia and told us a bit about his career with the Canadian national team. But most of all, he rooted for Chivas to pull out the result. On the field, his son recovered well from the goal, using his experience and positioning to limit the speedy Richards the rest of the way. He even made a key goal-line clearance in the 83rd minute. In the stands, Mr. Jazic celebrated the Chivas goal and rooted for the final whistle. It brought joy and relief, another positive result for his son.

Players are players, and we judge them on their attributes and performances. But they all have families and support systems, traveling the country or staying online late to watch their sons with pride. I was glad to see that pride first-hand on Wednesday, and one has to admire those contributing to the often untold back stories throughout Major League Soccer.