MLS Officiating Again Called Into Question
After Saturday night's 5-2 Galaxy blowout of DC United both DC United's coach, Tom Sohen and defender Marc Burch made comments critical of officiating which may come under review at MLS HQ this morning.
With regards to Burch receiving a red card for a 62nd minute foul on David Beckham in which Beckham said to the referee "That's not a red!

As we approach the one year anniversary of the Top 25, the Soccer Source ranking committee was faced with arguably our toughest task yet: deciding this week's #1. The identity of the top club was of course cast into doubt after last week's #1 was outplayed and outcoached for large portions of yesterday's game, which came against a team that did not even field its best player.

Photo by ISIphotos.com

When Jaime Moreno scored what seemed like his 100th career goal against the Red Bulls on Sunday you got the distinct feeling that the season was ready to slip away for the New York squad.

Hey y'all. If you are in the Gotham area and you'd like to aid in helping fight AIDS in Africa, have a $125 tax write-off in February, and get trollied in the presence of all manner of Soccerati™ you should really think about coming to Ethan Zohn's blowout at Marquee on Thursday night.
Please excuse the ghetto Photoshop job I did on the flyer but I thought that I'd mention some of the names that are expected to be in the house in hopes of enticing you into joining me and a few of the other DP's for a good night out for a good cause.

Photo by ISIphotos.com

A blown lead on an absolutely embarrassing mistake, A 2-0 loss to a USL-2 team AND a 4-0 blowout loss on the 4th of July. These three events took place in a seven-day span, leading me to wonder if there is any way this wasn't the worst week in the history of the club.

Germany must avoid defeat today in order to prevent being eliminated in the Euro 2008 group stage. That sentence isn't one many people thought they would see but the pre-tournament favorites are just in that position after losing to Croatia in its second game of the tournament.

Germany must register a draw or win to advance to the quarterfinals, where a meeting with Portugal awaits.

The quarterfinals come to a close as Spain meet Italy for the right to face Russia in the semifinals. Both teams opened the group stages with blowout games- Spain winning 4-1 over Russia and Italy finishing on the wrong end of a 3-0 result against Holland. Spain continued to roll, winning Group D with a 3-0 mark.

On paper, this matchup should be a blowout.

Shouldn't even be close.

As a warm up to the Beijing Olympics, and to continue developing a local facility where the soccer community can come together to enjoy broadcast games, Coester's and SGFsoccer.com is initiating MSL Thursday's this week with a double-header!

The KC Wizards host Red Bull NY at 7:00 pm, available only on Direct Kick.

Photo by ISIphotos.com

It wasn't pretty, nor was it a blowout, but much like its World Cup qualifying win against Guatemala, the U.S. men's national team did just enough to escape a road game with a win and valuable three points after Saturday night's 1-0 win against Cuba.

While I agree with Nick that Italy didn't look nearly as bad as the headlines following their 3-0 defeat have suggested, the result of the fan fashion battle on the streets of Bern where the match took place was indeed a blowout.
Holland's supporters were, like their heroes, mighty offensive.

US - Brad Guzan, Carlos Bocanegra, Pablo Oastroeni, Oguchi Onyewu, Steve Cherundolo, Clint Dempsey, Landon Donovan, Brian Ching, Michael Bradley, Heath Pearce, DaMarcus Beasley
Barbados, Alvin Rouse, Dyson James, Daryl Ferguson, Greg Belle, Paul Ifill, Jonathan Forte, Mark McCammon, Norman Forde, Jonathan Forte, Norman Forde, Jonathon Nurse, Rommelle Burgess
Landon gets honored for his 100th cap.

D.C. United's rapid recovery and rise up the East standings took a familiar step last weekend, as the Red Bulls rekindled the roll of D.C. punching bag in a 4-1 blowout loss. The match showed just how much better D.C. is playing than it was a month ago, while also revealing for all to see just how far away the Red Bulls are from being a legitimate contender.

Despite Trinidad's best efforts to collapse, form pretty much held during this most recent round of CONCACAF World Cup qualifying. The U.S. and Mexico each went through rather easily as expected while Honduras, Guatemala and Canada surged to blowout victories as well.
The only "surprises" possibly were Panama losing to El Salvador and Guyana losing to Suriname, but that's like being surprised that the rotten eggs smelled worse than the spoiled milk.

It was a bloodbath worthy of a regional champion facing a minnow, but through all the goals and the domination by the U.S.national team in its 8-0 drubbing of Barbados on Sunday, we are still left trying to figure out exactly what we learned from the exercise.

Well, we learned that the Americans won't be facing a humiliating upset in this round of World Cup qualifying.

Commentators like to say the penalty shootout is a cruel lottery, but there was nothing cruel about Spain prevailing 4-2 over Italy after a 0-0 draw. Only one team came to Vienna actively seeking a win, and while Spain battled fruitlessly for a goal for 120 minutes, at least they were battling. Spain outshot Italy 27-12, but it could have been a greater margin if Spain didn't so often seek the perfect play opposed to the quick release.

As a warm up to the Beijing Olympics, and to continue developing a local facility where the soccer community can come together to enjoy broadcast games, Coester's and SGFsoccer.com is initiating MSL Thursday's this week with a double-header!

The KC Wizards host Red Bull NY at 7:00 pm, available only on Direct Kick.

Photo by ISIphotos.com

It wasn't pretty, nor was it a blowout, but much like its World Cup qualifying win against Guatemala, the U.S. men's national team did just enough to escape a road game with a win and valuable three points after Saturday night's 1-0 win against Cuba.

A preview of Monday's and Tuesday's matches.