This and that on the U.S. Soccer scene

Scribbling and scattershooting while wondering whatever happened to Doctor Khumalo ...

Let’s see. L.A. Galaxy veteran attacker Clint Mathis retires, somewhat suddenly. L.A galaxy striker Alan Gordon is traded across the hallway to Chivas USA. The summer transfer window remains open. The Galaxy has another Designated Player slot still available. Anyone else smell an impending announcement?

Chad Marshall turned down a chance to play for Bob Bradley’s national team? Against Brazil? Hmmm. He says he just wants to exploit a break in the schedule and use the time to squeeze in some extra rest. While admirable, I can’t help but wonder if there’s more to that story.

The lack of self-awareness around D.C. United is mind-boggling. They still seem to live in 1999 around there. Kevin Payne keeps banging on about what it means to wear the D.C. United shirt. I’ll tell you what it means: it means you’ll miss the playoffs five times in 10 years when you miss them this year. In MLS! That’s absurd. Read more about it here on my piece at SI.com.

I like my stadium porn as much as the next guy. Nothing jingles my keys like the next innovative plan for the next great U.S. soccer venue. But, man, this one sounds a little out there for me.

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Every week I watch every MLS match. Sometimes when overly chatty announcers (who need to pay more attention to the game) or when overly lenient referees (who are afraid to call fouls and can’t properly control matches) aren't driving me crazy as an outhouse rat, the pissy poor quality of crosses in this league is. You can read more about that last one in my weekly column on tactics in MLS.

If you missed the ESPN2 weekly offer (Columbus went into Philly and came out a winner) you missed Taylor Twellman’s debut as an analyst. Verdict: Not bad at all. Well, unless you’re Steven Lenhart’s mom, and you got a wee bit upset over Twellman finding a “long I” vowel sound in your son’s name. Twellman seemed comfortable. He had opinion and insight. I only hope that he continues to think like a player instead of like an announcer, if you know what I mean. Otherwise he could fall into the broadcast cliché traps. Or even better, maybe he’ll heel up and we could see him back in the league next year.

For anyone wondering, group play in the CONCACAF Champions League begins Aug. 17. For those wondering,Real Salt Lake, Toronto, Seattle and Columbus have qualified to represent MLS. Puerto Rico is the lone rep from U.S. Soccer’s second division. The schedule is here.

I poked around a little while at FC Dallas-Inter Milan last night and found out why, for the love of all that’s good, FCD will begin a match Sunday at 5 p.m.  If you’re not familiar, it’s brutal in Texas in August. Starting matches anytime before 7:30 p.m. (or even better, 8 p.m. as yesterday against the European champions) is a really bad idea. It kills the game. It kills the opportunity to draw any kind of a crowd. But Fox Soccer Channel asked, the league said OK and nobody around FCD stood up and said “NO! We’re not doing that to our fans!”

I met new GM Doug Quinn last night. I have a feeling that FC Dallas won’t be playing any 5 p.m. games in August next year; I think he’ll be on top of such things.  FYI: He was doing at least one thing that has been sorely missing around Pizza Hut Park. He had a notepad with him, jotting down all the little customer service foibles that have lingered far too long at PHP. He says he already knows which taps ran out of beer and where the longest concession lines were and such. Good on him.

He told me FC Dallas is getting close to selling out the upcoming game against the Red Bulls, and he also hopes to sell out the regular season closer. If he can stamp out some of those stadium issues (like playing peppy music after the opposition scores, as game producers did last night … what’s up with that?) then FCD Dallas will be on their way to making more repeat customers out of the supporters who help fill up the stands on those evenings.