By Christopher Schachter, EPL Talk correspondent
I really thought Joe Cole was doing his best Damien Duff, an arms flailing dive not 5 minutes into the 2nd half, but unfortunately Mourinho (“I am not a doctor”) offered up the fact that indeed, the England winger must have his knee checked for ligament damage before leaving Chicago. And so the tone was set for the post match remarks parsed out to a standing room only crowd beneath Toyota Park, by the engagingly arrogant manager. Jose was pissed and in the 10 minutes allotted to the working press, unless you’re Chelsea TV, it was only the rude but efficient British media that dared to pose the questions. The MLS was faster, sharper and better conditioned, while according to the coach, Chelsea were tired, slow and without legs after a week of two-a-day sessions in 90+ degree LA and as a result, even though the Ballack thru ball to Drogba for a nullified 1st half goal was NOT offside (he mentioned this twice), in the end it was MLS conditioning winning out over CFC quality. “Some players couldn’t play 45 minutes.” He then suggested that the MLS keeper deserved the Man of the Match, not the goal scorer, for the former succeeded in wasting 10-15 minutes! Both Sheva and Ballack did show that their “positional relation is correct,” while he mumbled that Wayne Bridge hardly played at all in the last year. When it was mentioned that Gallas’ agent is interested in a switch to Arsenal, Jose railed “I don’t talk to agents,” team PR nazis then chirped in that JM will only discuss the game…Whatever. Fact is, John Terry moved himself up to striker in injury time and posed the only credible EPL threat to MLS. The man can’t stomach losing, be it one-touch in training or this meaningless pre season match and that is worth the price of a ticket.
