Photo by ISIphotos.com

Just when you think you have a good read on Major League Soccer, you get a week like Week 11.

The Chicago Fire defeated Chivas USA, arguably the best team in MLS, on Thursday, then gets pummeled at home by FC Dallas, widely-regarded as one of the worst teams in MLS.

First, the good news: Houston Dynamo picked up a crucial away point by drawing 1-1 with Panamanian champion Deportivo Arbe Unido. That puts Houston second in their group with two games played. So far, so good for the Dynamo.
Now things get ugly.
DC United fell at home 3-1 to Mexican side Toluca Wednesday night.

Second-half substitute Brianna Pugh scored two goals, helping the Real Colorado Cougars turn a 1-0 halftime lead into a 4-1 blowout against the Vancouver Whitecaps on Sunday afternoon in Highlands Ranch.

The first half was sluggish because of the afternoon heat, and most of the action was in the middle of the field.

Maurice Edu made the most of his chance to start for Glasgow Rangers on Wednesday, scoring the game-winning goal in Rangers' 2-1 victory against St. Mirren on Wednesday.

Edu's powerful header, his first goal for Rangers, capped what was considered a strong effort in place of cast-off former Rangers captain Barry Ferguson.

FIRE KINNEAR NOW.
I told you this was going to be a blowout Everton victory, and I was right. American soccer has proven once again that it does not belong on the world stage. But that's not news - how long has it been since the United States national team hasn't beaten a highly-ranked opponent?

When the U.S. men's national team takes the field in Honduras, it will see plenty of familiar faces on the opposing team, but the Americans will see an even more familiar face working the game as referee.

The match referee for Saturday's World Cup qualifier is Panamanian official Roberto Moreno, a referee who has become somewhat of a regular in U.

Bob Bradley shook up the US lineup today inserting the young Charlie Davies into the starters and the move payed dividends in the 21st minute were Davies stayed persistent and jammed the ball into the net from the left side of goal. The play used some skill and a lot of heart, something the US had been missing in the games against Brazil and Italy.

Photo by ISIphotos.com

Real Salt Lake was coming off a shutout loss and was 52 minutes into its game against New England without finding the net.

With so few games this past week there really wasn't a lot of change in the Power Rankings. Even with some wins for clubs near the bottom of the pack I just couldn't punish those in SuperLiga play.

The only real movement was near the top-middle half of the order. This was mainly due to Colorado's two game week that saw them draw Dallas at home (really could have been a loss) and a blowout loss at Seattle.

The Los Angeles Galaxy had spent much of the current MLS season playing stingy defense and establishing itself as a legitimate MLS title contender.

At least before last night.

FC Dallas walked into Home Depot Center on Saturday and proceeded to dismantle Bruce Arena's squad as a combination of speed, impeccable service and defensive breakdowns by LA turned last night's Western Conference clash into a 6-3 blowout.

Once again, the stat freaks at Climbing the Ladder have given us a nice little bit of fodder to chase our tails with. If you watched the MLS Cup, you would have noticed that, included in their analysis was the usage of an old hockey statistic the plus/minus rating. It is a fairly basic stat which measures the goals scored for during your minutes, contrasts them with your goals against, and gives you a score.

I wondered if I'd even be allowed to referee this game. This year the youth soccer association is requiring all referees to go through background checks (that makes three in the last twelve months - if these things count against you like multiple credit checks I'm going to be really really annoyed). Due to my being out-of-town a lot lately, I caught the tail-end of the rectification classes and background check information (which I found out about at the recert class); I had to send a check to the association to pay for it, but the post office didn't pick up the letter from my mail slot so.

This past weekend saw one of the most exciting and dramatic ends to group action in an international tournament. While Group A was dominated by Spain, Group B was dominated by drama and action.

Spain and South Africa progressed out of Group A, while it's Brazil and the United States of America coming out of Group B.

While both CONCACAF Gold Cup quarterfinals on Saturday night were tightly contested, Sunday's quarterfinals were anything but.

Mexico and Costa Rica both scored blowout victories on Sunday in Dallas to set up a great semifinal match-up. Costa Rica rolled to a 5-1 victory against Guadeloupe, while the Mexicans were never troubled in posting 4-0 victory against Haiti in front of a sold-out crowd of 82,252 at Dallas Cowboys Stadium, the first event at the new stadium.

I guess this was a week that some clubs decided to wake up and actually play for once. Sure they may have been home games for these two clubs but when one scores six in a game and another blanks someone with four goals people will take notice.

Yup, FC Dallas and San Jose decided to play in week 20.

By CHRISTA MANN

Sky Blue FC (NJ) will be making an improbable trip to the WPS Championship after pulling off yet another upset when they defeated the St. Louis Athletica 1-0 in the WPS playoff semifinal on Wednesday.

For the first time since July 18, St.

If we were talking about the Miami Dolphins losing by three field goals, it would have a decent result on the road despite having zero offensive production.

The bad news was that Miami FC lost to Carolina 9-0 on Wednesday night at WakeMed Park. The wheels have officially come off of the Blues' ride towards the playoffs.

Arjen Robben announced his Bundesliga arrival by scoring a brace in Bayern's 3-0 win against Wolfsburg.

Wesley Sneijder was put into action right away by Jose Mourinho in Inter's blowout of Milan. Later, Mou praised him saying that Sneijder was an essential part of bringing balance to the club.

Ok folks, I know Soccer is a gentlemen's game, but I really need you to follow my logic here.

Manchester City's Emmanuel Adebayor was charged with improper conduct after celebrating a goal during a defeat of his old club Arsenal last week. I know, I know, taunting and excessive celebration are a problem in sports, but I'm not understanding this at all.

When the U.S. men's national team takes the field in Honduras, it will see plenty of familiar faces on the opposing team, but the Americans will see an even more familiar face working the game as referee.

The match referee for Saturday's World Cup qualifier is Panamanian official Roberto Moreno, a referee who has become somewhat of a regular in U.

I'm leaving on Monday for a trip to Las Vegas for a search marketing conference, so I want to wrap up the EPL Talk contests before I leave in order to mail the packages and to make some football fans very happy. So today, if you're lucky enough to be reading this, you have the opportunity to win one of three copies of FIFA 10 we're giving away and a copy of the book by Barney Ronay named The Manager.

Thunder Travel to Austin Texas To Open Aztex Inaugural USL-1 Season.

The Game: Thunder versus Aztex, Saturday, April 18, 7:30 pm CST.

Don Gramenz reports this week that the Thunder are again healthy. I asked the Thunder coach if he thought the team had any difficulties transitioning from turf to real grass last week when the Carolina RailHawks beat the Thunder 2-1.

With Women's Professional Soccer missing several international players due to National Team duty, the schedule was full over the weekend. The league got it's first blowout, with Chicago putting up four goals against Boston while Washington and FC Gold Pride also pushed the offense. Saint Louis Athletica 0 - Los Angeles 0 Hope Solo saved an Aly Wagner penalty in the 73rd minute to split the points in a game where Los Angeles could easily.

Chelsea vs Barca, CL semi-final first leg.

The spotlight is on Leo Messi as it should be, arguably the best player in the world.

So for all the fevered attention given to containing him, it should not be overlooked that Barca's orchestrator in the Bayern blowout, was Iniesta. His prior work culminated in the Messi goals.

So yesterday wasn't the best but I figure today will be a vast improvement. If you are in NYC and are feeling it, come celebrate soccer and my place in the unemployment line with me. I'll be posted up at Nevada Smith's with some of the ESC/North Jersey Brigade boys for the US-Spain match, then down to Sarah D.

The San Jose Earthquakes were unable to capitalize on the momentum from last week's blowout of Seattle, falling 3-0 to the Columbus Crew Saturday in a result that flattered the visitors. "You look at the score line, it looks like we were murdered," Frank Yallop recapped, " but up until the [70th minute] goal it's an even game.

The Honduran national team moved into second place in CONCACAF World Cup qualifying after posting a 4-0 mauling of Costa Rica in San Pedro Sula. The win, and four goals, pushed Honduras ahead of the United States for second place on goal differential.

Trinidad & Tobago pulled closer to the pack with its own 1-0 home victory against El Salvador.

Didier Drogba: Chelsea

Drogba was able to shake off an injury plagued 2008/2009 season with an excellent debut in the 2009/2010 season. Drogba (PLTO's Pick for Most Improved Player this season) started off the year with the dramatic extra time goal to put Chelsea over Hull City 2-1.

What a difference three months makes.

Back in June, Costa Rica thrashed the U.S. men's national team, 3-1, in World Cup qualifying, leading to national celebrations and rock star status for Costa Rica head coach Rodrigo Kenton, who had his team in first place in CONCACAF qualifying.

Photo by ISIphotos.com

The U.S. Under-20 national team needed a positive result in its match against Cameroon to keep alive its hopes of reaching the second round of the Under-20 World Cup.

Kenny Cooper and the Lions will try to bounce back from their midweek cup blowout when Kaiserslautern come to town while Steve Cherundolo and Hannover will hope to keep their momentum as they visit Cologne.

As mentioned before, I'm skipping the high school season; in this case because I've got other regularly occuring activies that happen the same days as high school games - and frankly sometimes I just need a year away (see many many rants about high school soccer). But I am working games at the same sport-centered school I've been fortunate enough to work for the last two winters.

It seems month after month I hear of a blowout involving Luciano Spalletti and a Roma player.A few months back it was Christian Panucci and Spalletti. Panucci refused to enter a game as a substitute against Palermo.What ensued was a month long battle that turned very ugly. That row nearly saw Panucci transferred to Torino of the Serie A and I think it was Hull City of the Premiership.

Thunder Travel to Austin Texas To Open Aztex Inaugural USL-1 Season.

The Game: Thunder versus Aztex, Saturday, April 18, 7:30 pm CST.

Don Gramenz reports this week that the Thunder are again healthy. I asked the Thunder coach if he thought the team had any difficulties transitioning from turf to real grass last week when the Carolina RailHawks beat the Thunder 2-1.

Photo by ISIphotos.com

Just when you think you have a good read on Major League Soccer, you get a week like Week 11.

The Chicago Fire defeated Chivas USA, arguably the best team in MLS, on Thursday, then gets pummeled at home by FC Dallas, widely-regarded as one of the worst teams in MLS.

Charlie Davies with some fine footwork blasts the ball off the Egyptian defender to carom into the net

Bob Bradley shook up the US lineup today inserting the young Charlie Davies into the starters and the move paid dividends in the 21st minute where Davies stayed persistent and jammed the ball into the net from the left side of goal.

The Thunder and Lightning play in a double header this afternoon and evening at the National Sports Center, Saturday, June 27.

Play beings when the Lightning host the Cleveland Internationals at 5:05 p.m. with the Thunder following at 7:35 p.m. against the Rochester Rhinos.

The Thunder and Lightning play in a double header this afternoon and evening at the National Sports Center, Saturday, June 27.

Play beings when the Lightning host the Cleveland Internationals at 5:05 p.m. with the Thunder following at 7:35 p.m. against the Rochester Rhinos.

Spain. Spain started out cool, calm, and collected, tiki-taka-ing right on over poor New Zealand with a 5-0 blowout. Here I confess that it really never occurred to me that they wouldn't be in the final. They entered the tournament with a winning streak of more than 30 games; who was going to defeat them en route?

Well, it wasn't a blowout. It wasn't a romp. It wasn't a massacre. Though for a few minutes at the start, it looked like it might be a couple of those, the Aztex hung in there and fought the good fight. Scoreless at the end of the first half, it was easy to imagine overtime after another 45 minutes like that.