And further report:
Jonah Freedman - Crew proves worthy of MLS Cup Story Highlights
The Columbus Crew was the best team in the regular season and playoffs
Guillermo Barros Schelotto is one of the best players in MLS history
There was no stopping Guillermo Barros Schelotto all season or in the championship match.
AP
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CARSON, Calif. -- Five things we learned after the Columbus Crew's 3-1 win over the New York Red Bulls in MLS Cup 2008:
1. The best team in Major League Soccer finally won the title, and all is right with the world. Whether you're a fan of MLS' playoff system or not, it's been a strange few years in the postseason. Be it the Los Angeles Galaxy winning the title in '05 after backing into the playoffs as the team with the worst record, or the New England Revolution -- perhaps the best overall team in MLS over a three-year span -- losing three straight title matches, MLS Cup has crowned a controversial champion for arguably the last five years.
Columbus finally set the record straight Sunday. They were hardly anyone's preseason pick to win the title, but they played by far the best of any team during the regular season and capped it with a deserving win in the title match, becoming the first team to win the Supporters' Shield and MLS Cup in the same season since the Galaxy in '02.
"Our goal going into the season was to make the playoffs, and then once we made the playoffs, we'd make some noise," said head coach Sigi Schmid. "As the season progressed and we got better and better, we thought, well, we might as well win the Eastern Conference and try to get homefield advantage, and then we talked about, OK, let's go get the Supporters' Shield. We believed early on in the season after six or seven games that we had a team that had a chance to win the MLS championship."
2. In just two seasons, Guillermo Barros Schelotto has become one of MLS' all-time greats. Not since Carlos Ruiz in '02 has one player made such a difference that he guided a team to the best record in MLS as well as the championship, all while winning both the league and championship MVPs.
The Argentine wizard's performance here was the perfect capper to a perfect season: He assisted on all three Crew goals and had the championship game MVP wrapped up almost at halftime.
"He's a magic man," said Crew captain Frankie Hejduk, whom Schelotto assisted for the Crew's third goal. "I've played with a lot of great players in this league, and he's near the top. His vision of the game is second to none. He's got eyes in the back of his head."
But it wasn't just today: Guille has been by far his team's best player and quarterbacked a Crew team that put on some of the most polished, pretty passing I've seen in MLS in years. With Schelotto operating the attack, Schmid was able to build around his star and the result was a team that looked far more like a South American unit than an MLS team.
Some of that is thanks to the Latin smarts of fellow Argentine Gino Padula and Venezuelan Alejandro Moreno, but Guille was able to get the best out of his American teammates as well, especially the young midfield pair of Robbie Rogers and Eddie Gaven. Not that this needs to be repeated, but Designated Players David Beckham and Cuauhtémoc Blanco weren't in the building on Sunday. Barros Schelotto is not a DP.
3. Any aspiring American fullback should mirror the toughness of Hejduk. Hopefully Jonathan Bornstein was watching this game, because the Crew captain is a shining example of how to play the position, how to lead a team and how to never give up.
Throughout a 13-year career for both club and country, Hejduk has earned a reputation as one the hardest workers on the field. On Sunday, he was asked by Schmid to change up his usual game plan -- push forward with speed as much as possible to contribute to the attack -- and instead to sit back to neutralize New York's Dave van den Bergh. Hejduk handled the assignment with aplomb and took the Dutch midfielder out of the game, and then scored the prettiest goal of the game in the 82nd minute on a gorgeous header.
The result was Hejduk's first-ever club title at the age of 34. And he ranks that accomplishment as high as reaching the quarterfinals of the '02 World Cup with the U.S. national team.
"I dedicated nine years of my life to MLS and being here," he said. "You keep thinking, 'Maybe next year,' and all of a sudden, nine years later, you still don't have a cup. You're like, wow, man, how many years do I have left in me? To be able to stick with this team for so long and bring them a championship is a dream come true."
If you're talking heir-apparents, Bornstein is next in line to follow Hejduk's career arc. The Chivas USA All-Star has been national-team coach Bob Bradley's top choice at left back. Hopefully he took fastidious notes on Sunday.
4. We haven't heard the last of Juan Carlos Osorio and the Red Bulls. For all of New York's (well-documented) failings over its 13-year history, Sunday was a giant step forward for the organization. And that comes down to its Colombian mastermind coach. Even at the beginning of the season, I decided Osorio would finally be the one to turn the Red Bulls around -- just not this season. I stand corrected.
I was as surprised as anyone when the Red Bulls turned their season around and clamped down in the playoffs, allowing one goal over three games (and obliterating defending champion Houston) to reach their first-ever MLS Cup final. Osorio did this all with many of the same players he inherited from his predecessors Bruce Arena and Mo Johnston.
He's still making this team his own. And while some of his own additions have worked out (Jorge Rojas, Juan Pietravallo) and some haven't (Gabriel Cichero), this team will become more and more his own next season. With another year under his belt, Osorio may have his team finally hosting its own trophy sooner than later.
5. MLS needs to figure out a way to sell out its title game, and it needs to do it soon. The announced attendance at the Home Depot Center on Sunday was a capacity 27,000, but no one in the stadium would believe that. Part of that's due to the fact that Galaxy season-ticket holders had first crack at the tickets, but that's a whole other can of worms that suggests the league leans on its supposed glamour franchise far too much.
Failing to fill a stadium in the league's most important game of the year, one that's televised on ABC, is a big, big failing. MLS needs to get rears in the seats -- whether that means bussing in kids, giving away free tickets in predominantly Hispanic neighborhoods or whatever. There were too many empty green chairs exposed Sunday, and that doesn't look good for a league that's trying to grow and expand by four franchises over the next four years.
sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/jonah_freedman/11/23/mls.cup/?eref=sircrc
