With only a couple of days until the Pan-Pacific Championship tournament in Hawaii it really gets me geared up for the upcoming season. It is nearly upon us!
Now don't get me wrong...the winner of this friendly tournament will hardly be a champion of anything. The invited teams are MLS Champions Houston Dynamo, Aussie League3rd place team Sydney FC, J-League 3rd place team Gamba Osaka, and then for publicity reasons...the Los Angeles David Beckhams. Last year's new tourney was Super Liga and also featured invited teams rather than actual champions...and I found Super Liga to be very fun to watch. While I'll be tuned in, I'm not as optimistic about overall experience of this tournament, though I do believe it has potential. But whatever...add Championship to the name of a tourney and then it is legit right?
If the PPC turned into something legitimate that would pit champions around the Pacific together it could be tons of fun. If it were to take champions from the United States, Mexico, Japan, Korea, and Australia it could really be something. As it stands it is nothing more than good pre-season competition to fine tune the MLS invites. With so many little tourneys scheduled and now with the new CONCACAF Champions Cup it will be interesting to see if this thing sticks around. Now this CCC is something to get excited about, but I'll wait for a later date to go over that.
Putting 'what could be' aside, there is the potential for some fun soccer. Houston vs Sydney in the first round will not only let us watch the reigning two time MLS champs at work, but they will be playing a good Sydney FC team that features Brazilian play maker Juninho. At age 34 he is in the twilight of his career, but that is a career that has included 50 caps with his national team and also suiting up for clubs such as Sao Paulo, Middlesborough, Palmeiras, Vasco, Flamengo, and Celtic. Not too shabby of a list.
It will be interesting to watch the new Los Angeles Galaxy team play together for the first time against Japan's Gamba Osaka. Thanks to help from MLS LA now has three players that fit the designated player mold with David Beckham, Carlos 'Pescado' Ruiz, and Landycakes Donovan. Will these three play well together? Will it matter? In acquiring the dynamic trio the Galaxy also dealt away any proven talent the team already possessed. I'd like to think it won't matter and that our lower talent outranks that of Japan, but I admittedly know next to nothing about soccer in the Land of the Rising Sun.
Normally I cheer on any MLS side in these competitions against international foes, but when you put Carlos Ruiz and Landon Donovan on the same team it makes it really hard to want them to win. Though what a combination...you have Pescado Ruiz rolling around on the ground for hours each game so LD can sweep in and score hundreds of PKs to convince people he is an offensive power. According to some posters in the 'Japan' section of Big Soccer Gamba Osaka will be missing seven of their starters because of the East Asian Championships and U23 stuff so this is really the perfect game for LD to come in and score a bunch of goals.
So with the first game coming just this Wednesday I'm preparing myself for MLS soccer and despite the lack of importance this tourney holds...I'll still follow it like it means something.
Pan-Pacific "Championship"
