My favorite team in the English Premier team, Portsmouth, made a move to close the January transfer window that is disappointing on several levels.
They brought in striker Jermain Defoe from Tottenham, and to fund the move, they sold their own top striker, Benjani Mwaruwari, to Manchester City.
* Defoe is a solid player who often features on the English National team, albeit mostly on the subsitute's bench. Portsmouth coach Harry Redknapp explained the move as one that makes sense in that he's unloaded a top-level 29-year-old striker in return top-level 25-year-old striker.
But I'm not convinced. I lurked at the Tottenham message boards to gauge their reaction to the move. They were sad to see Defoe go because they had high regard for his character, but all felt there was no room for him on the team any longer. One even asked, "With Defoe gone, who is our fourth striker now?"
So not only did Pompey sell the EPL's third leading scorer for Tottenham's fourth best striker, but Benjani was a fan favorite to end all fan favorites. That's what really makes this sting. Benjani's work rate is out of this world, he's always smiling, and always points to the fans when he scores a goal. He was reportedly devastated with the news and wanted a long term career in Portsmouth. I'm gonna be sick.
With a new stadium in the offing, I had high hopes for Portsmouth to have as good a chance of anyone to challenge the Big Four hegemony, but knowing that Portsmouth cannot really afford both Benjani and Defoe gives me new doubts. At the end of the day though, I have faith in Redknapp to do the right thing and make the right personnel moves. He's demonstrated his canniness time and again.
* In other Portsmouth striker news, Kanu, who was Pompey's leading scorer last year, but whose form has fallen off drastically in the last year and a half, is being linked to an offseason move to an Australian League expansion team, the Gold Coast Galaxy. The ESPN article says the team is "believed to have close ties with the Los Angeles Galaxy."
"Believed?" This is ESPN. They can't verify if there is a connection between the LA Galaxy and Gold Coast Galaxy? Are these soccer franchises or the mafia?
* The U.S. Men's National team looked decent in their 2-2 draw with Mexico last week, but they gave El Tri an alarming number of shots from close range. Ramiro Corrales and Drew Moor, at least defensively, completely flunked their tests. I'd be happy to bring Jonathan Bornstein and Jonathan Spector into full-time USMNT roles.
On the bright side, they continue to look extremely smooth and comfortable at home when attacking, at least in those rare times the mids can push or pass the ball up the pitch. Jozy Altidore scored a goal and may be very close to passing Freddy Adu as America's next big young soccer star.
* As parity becomes more and more the norm for American sports, so it goes for world soccer. Egypt just won its second straight African Cup of Nations, and they did so with only four European based players (and the best one, Mido, missing the final). In between those two victories, Egypt did not qualify for the 2006 World Cup.
* Speaking of World Cup qualifying, the U.S.'s first opponent in 2010 qualifying is likely to be Barbados in June. The way CONCACAF World Cup qualifying works is the minnows of the region play head-to-head home-and-home, with the aggregate winners going up against the 11 best teams in the region in another knockout round (St. Vincent and Canada play each other in the second round of qualifying rather than a minnow).
That pares the field down to 12 teams, which are then split into three four-team groups for round robin play. The top two teams from each group move on to the final qualifying round, known as "The Hex." Another round robin format is played. The top three advance to the World Cup. The fourth place team plays a playoff against South America's fifth-place team.
So the US's "minnow" opponent will be the winner of the Dominica/Barbados draw. Barbados is far more accomplished of the two teams, having defeated Costa Rica and Northern Ireland in the last six years. On the other hand, Barbados could only manage a draw with Dominica in the latter's home fixture of the home-and-home contest. Either way, it's great to be gearing up for the long road to the World Cup again.
March 10, 2008
Doug:
Defoe is a huge step up from Benjani. For starters, he’s younger and has a ton of potential. I think Spurs will miss Defoe, and it’s not like Spurs had Defoe as the 4th striker because Defoe wasn’t good. They have him there because Keane and Berbatov are two top notch strikers. I don’t know if I would really say Darren Bent was a definite 3 to Defoe’s 4, but it came off that way because they were set in moving Defoe. The shame of it for Spurs is that they should have moved Berbatov, who has more value, could have pulled a higher transfer fee and then they play Defoe with Keane, which was their best combination with Bent subbing for Defoe. Not a bad move for Spurs, but just wasted since they took so long to move one of those strikers. Bringing in Bent originally just seemed foolish.
Think Defoe has already scored a couple of goals for Portsmouth since you posted this, are you coming around to the signing? Defoe was afterall on the English national team and it’s always been a question of whether he would get consistency in playing time to show how good he can be.