Sven column

I'm away from my computer now but I wanted to post a link to SI.com. I wrote a column on the Sven-Goran Eriksson firing and sort of the overall state of El Tri.

Here's the link to the main soccer page on SI.com. Hopefully my story's up.

If you've been reading my blog, you know where I stand on the issue. Javier Aguirre looks like he's the man, and I didn't really get into that in my column, but anyone who thinks Aguirre is going to be able to flip a switch and have the team firing on all cylinders and having their way with every team from now on is mistaken.

That seemed to have happened in 2001, but the team is much different now, and I talk about that part so read the column to get my thoughts on that aspect.

Aguirre is a good manager but he's spent a lot of time in Europe and one of the complaints about Sven was that he didn't know the league and the players, and Aguirre might not be too familiar with the current league and players. Still, he can probably acclimate himself quicker than Sven. But how much will that really matter? Are there any diamonds-in-the-rough out there that will make an immediate impact? In '01 he lopped some players off the team and some he didn't bring back, including Pavel Pardo.

And also, as happy as everyone is about the possibility of Aguirre coming back, he did have a horrendous loss of his own, the 2-0 defeat at the hands of the US in the World Cup. And remember the little thing about the naturalized players? He kind of started it with Gabriel Caballero. So it's not like he doesn't have his own skeletons.

Anyway, check out the story. And let me know what you think of the move. I'm probably in the minority who doesn't think it was the greatest move.