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David, Goliath, etc.
English side Chelsea, in America on a preseason tour, got off to a hot start Wednesday against American powerhouse New York Red Bulls. It's safe to say New York's manager will give his team a talking-to after Chelsea were allowed to not only take the lead in the first half but to score two (!!!) goals in the game.
Sure, Red Bulls scored four and won the game, and sure, they played a reserve squad against most of Chelsea's starters, but still. This is embarassing. English teams shouldn't be able to score multiple goals against clearly-superior MLS sides.
MLS is clearly still ahead of the Premier League in terms of quality, but yesterday's game showed England is closing the gap on the Yanks.
if this was a reserve Red Bulls squad, imagine what the first-choice XI would have done, sure, but this result remains no less worrying for the Red Bulls. Club officials will have to think long and hard about the direction the club is heading if results like this become the norm.
Not to mention Toronto FC losing to Sunderland, Portland Timbers 2 squeaking past Newcastle United, and both Richmond Kickers and Charleston Battery losing to West Brom, all unacceptable results.
Something's gotta give here. Maybe we could introduce some kind of promotion-relegation thing where the worst American clubs have to move to England and play in the EPL. That would give crappy American teams a kick in the pants.
Highlights (if you can even call them that):
Contact The18 Staff Writer Sam Klomhaus at Klomhaus@The18.com or follow him on Twitter @SamKlomhaus
