Why the Dallas-RSL matchup intrigues, other mailbag topics

ABOARD UNITED FLIGHT 4962 FROM MADRID TO WASHINGTON D.C. -- Lots of fun stuff going on in Planet Fútbol this week--mine and the world at large--so let's crank out a Mailbag. Ready, go!

Do you think Dallas has any chance of winning the MLS Cup?
-- @rdmcclenagan

I do, but it won't be easy. Dallas got things off to a good start in the opening leg of its Western semifinal on Saturday, using a late (and majestic) Eric Avila strike to go up 2-1 on defending champion Salt Lake. No team has won at Salt Lake in more than a year, but a tie this week would give Dallas the mild upset and knock out the champs. For me this is the most interesting matchup of Week 2. Salt Lake will be missing its best player, red-carded midfield maestro Javier Morales, so RSL's vaunted depth will get a big test. (I suspect there will be a lot of pressure on Andy Williams, in particular, with Morales out.) If David Ferreira can keep finding seams in the defense the way he did on Saturday, Salt Lake's league-best defense may continue allowing more chances than we're used to seeing. And if you let Jeff Cunningham have even half a chance, he's capable of finding the net (as we saw last week).

In the end, I still think Salt Lake's defense, depth, quality and home-field advantage will win out. (I also can envision Nick Rimando coming up with some of his usual playoff theatrics.) One other point about Saturday's Dallas-Salt Lake game: I was reminded once again that beauty is in the eye of the beholder when it comes to soccer. Soccer America's Paul Gardner, usually one of the bigger curmudgeons you'll find, heaped praise on Dallas-Salt Lake: "a wonderful game, by any standards, in any league, anywhere." Meanwhile, Fox Soccer's Jamie Trecker had the opposite view: "Technically poor, slow and meandering ... It sucks." I like and respect both these guys, and I happen to think the game was somewhere in-between, with flashes of impressive skill and generally attack-minded play marred by some mistakes. But my point is this: How great is a sport when two people can see the same game completely differently?

Has Arsenal done enough so far through the season to be legitimately considered for the EPL title or Champions League?
-- @Drofdarb23

There's still a long way to go in both competitions, but if you're an Arsenal fan I think you have to be somewhat encouraged so far. Chelsea is going to be awfully hard to beat in the Premier League, but this Arsenal team appears to have more bite in the midfield than at any time since Patrick Vieira's glory days. That's allowing dynamic players like Cesc Fabregas, Samir Nasri and Andrei Arshavin the time and space to create, and I've been impressed with new acquisition Marouane Chamakh, who may not be the smoothest forward but finds ways to score. The big questions for me: Will Arsenal finally go after a reliable goalkeeper in the January window? Can Arsene Wenger get his injured players back on the field and performing? (I'm looking at you, Robin van Persie and Thomas Vermaelen.) Can this injury-prone team avoid them moving forward? And can Arsenal prevent the kind of shock results that we saw when it lost at home to West Brom a few weeks ago? You can't let that happen if you want to win trophies (which, as we know, Arsenal hasn't done since 2005).

I read with great interest your article on concussions. A couple questions: It doesn't seem like concussions really register in European soccer culture. Petr Cech has his headgear, as does Christian Chivu, but the general approach seems to be in line with what the NFL was like not too long ago: Get up, play on and don't mention it. How do you see this playing out in the coming years? I know, too, that headgear is not a magic bullet. What do you see happening in terms of protection for players?
-- Joe Addison, Washington D.C.

I've had the same questions about how concussions are viewed in European soccer, and I'm hoping to do some detailed reporting on the topic soon. The awareness of concussions does appear to be higher in American soccer, but it's not like the sport is fundamentally different here -- you could argue that there's even more athleticism and speed in the European game that might cause head injuries. When I asked Taylor Twellman about concussions rarely being part of the discussion in Europe, he noted that his first concussion as a pro came when he was playing at 1860 Munich, and very little was done about it at the time.

Twellman retired Tuesday due to his ongoing battle with post-concussion syndrome, a sad ending to one of the most productive careers ever by a U.S. forward in MLS. Twellman will always be remembered for his fearless forays into the penalty box, and it's a shame that his playing days are over far sooner than they should have been. To his credit, Twellman plans to become the main point man in America raising awareness over concussions in soccer. Through his achievements on the playing field and off (where he's off to a good start as an analyst for ESPN), he's the ideal man to do it.

As for headgear, there is not yet any proof that it prevents concussions in soccer. When I spoke to one of the U.S.'s leading concussions experts, Dr. Robert Cantu, he told me that the best thing to do to protect soccer players is for players and their trainers to be aware that they can't return to the field too soon after suffering a head injury.

Have you read Inverting the Pyramid? I just started it and am really digging it. Do you think tactics are as important as the author Jonathan Wilson does?
-- @FerrisOnline

There's a reason SI.com soccer editor Jen Chang hired Wilson to write for us: He's the foremost journalist expert in the world on soccer tactics. I have read Inverting the Pyramid, Wilson's epic account of the history of tactics in the sport, and I can't recommend it highly enough. (I even got Wilson to sign it for me at a party at our World Cup house in Johannesburg.) It's definitely graduate-level material, and those who aren't X's-and-O's types might find it tedious in places, but I came away with a fundamentally altered view of the sport. That's in part due to my own upbringing: I didn't grow up in a soccer-crazy culture, and most SI writers (with the exception of Dr. Z) are better at storytelling and building relationships with the people we cover than with the nuts and bolts of sports tactics. I've acknowledged that I need to improve my tactical analysis and have been trying to do so in recent years.

Wilson has been an inspiration in that department. Back in January at the Africa Cup of Nations, we got stuck in a flight delay together at the airport in Luanda. The four-hour conversation that followed was one of my highlights of the year.