SuperLiga = SuperBad

I think I’ve gotten around a half dozen emails this morning about last night’s SuperLiga semifinal between New England and Atlante. I caught the majority of the game and thought it was a bit chippy but what happened towards the end pretty much put a damper on the game and the tournament that didn’t need any more bad press.

New England went ahead early thanks to Shalrie Joseph. Atlante lost the match because of that early goal and then a few players due to red cards. They tried to turn the final minutes and seconds of the game into a full fledged battle royal. Players and coaches got involved from the Mexican side and showed just how sore of losers they really were.

Things were just ugly.

With Atlante’s actions last night it put yet another damper on this tournament that has not had the same luster as the 2007 version. I won’t take anything away from what the MLS clubs did on the field because New England and Houston deserve to be where they are at in this tournament, in the finals. I just think this year’s tournament hasn’t been nearly as good as last years.

The use of smaller stadiums, the poor field conditions at some stadiums, poor officiating, and let’s not forget for the MLS sides that this isn’t quite a million-dollar tournament like everyone hyped it to be. All things against this tournament in 2008.

I hope this year’s tournament will serve as a guide that SUM and MLS need to revisit this tournament and redo it a bit. Hopefully the actions by some of the Mexican clubs will cool off in future editions of this tournament and the officiating will improve.

What do you all make of this year’s tournament? To me it hasn’t been nearly as watchable as last year’s.