The Dynamo had another positive preseason match today, defeating San Jacinto College 4-0. Goals from Nathan Sturgis, Will Bruin, Adam Moffatt and trialist Jorge Escobar did the damage for Houston.

Houston Dynamo Press Release:

The Houston Dynamo continued their 2012 preseason with a 4-0 victory over San Jacinto College, Wednesday morning, at the Houston Amateur Sports Park.

One of the neat experiences I've had coaching youth soccer is having a player who can do a flip throw. We actually have two players on our 96 girls team that can do it, though one is a striker and only throws in on occasion. The other is one of our starting defenders and was a competitive gymnast before she started playing soccer.

szólj hozzá: Incredible Mark Bunn save 1. While you've all been busy stuffing your faces for a few days, Blackburn boss Steve Kean might just have found a Bunn to save his bacon. Young keeper Mark Bunn put in a great performance to earn a point at Liverpool. 2. It definitely wasn't a Blue Christmas.

szólj hozzá: Incredible Mark Bunn save 1. While you've all been busy stuffing your faces for a few days, Blackburn boss Steve Kean might just have found a Bunn to save his bacon. Young keeper Mark Bunn put in a great performance to earn a point at Liverpool. 2. It definitely wasn't a Blue Christmas.

Liverpool have taken more points off Aston Villa than any other team in the Premiership, 68 points to be exact. Villa have let in seven goals through opposition setpieces prior to their match against the mighty Reds. And so, it was inevitable that Liverpool would get three points against the toothless Villans and that the goals came from corners meant that Liverpool exploited Villa's weakness.

Football Focus pundit Garth Crooks has praised the performances of Martin Skrtel in light of the towering centre-half's superb individual effort at the weekend.
The Slovakian international scored Liverpool's second goal during the 2-0 win against Aston Villa and the 27-year-old has been one of Kenny Dalglish's most consistent performers.

Aston Villa 0-2 Liverpool | Premier League match report

The woodwork continues to frustrate Liverpool and Luis Suárez in particular but this was never going to be one of those days when Kenny Dalglish would be left lamenting the number of times that his side have been denied by the upright or crossbar.

Liverpool employed speed merchants against Chelsea last weekend, with Johnson, Bellamy, Maxi and Suarez all starting against the Blue Champions. It turned out to be shrewd decision by Dalglish and his coaching team as the Reds pressed high up the pitch, robbing Chelsea players of time and space to move the ball.

The eyes of the world are largely elsewhere this afternoon. International matches and the first round proper if the FA Cup mean that even the tiny amount of coverage that a match in Division One South of the Ryman League might attract pales away to nothing. Yet this is, in its own way, an intriguing match.

The Rapids start the playoffs tomorrow night at the Dick against the Columbus Crew. 4 games in the next 11 days separate them from another trip to MLS Cup. Tomorrow night its simple, win or go home. There will be 30 minutes and, if necessary, PK's to decide a winner. Of course last year when Colorado started their run to MLS Cup they did it by beating the Crew in the first round.

From Press Releases:
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - The No. 21 Virginia men's soccer team will take on American at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Klöckner Stadium. It marks the Cavaliers' final non-conference game, as well as the start of three straight home matches to conclude the 2011 regular season.

At some point today, SI.com editors will put the headlines, captions and final graphical flourishes on the lengthy MLS playoff preview I just put together. You may, at this very moment, find yourself trembling in anticipation. Not to worry – you are not alone.

Until that's posted, to keep you sated, here are 15 great things I learned (or knew and thoughtfully re-considered) while putting that bad boy together.

An injury crisis stripped the club of William Gallas, Michael Dawson, Ledley King and Vedran Corluka leaving us to field what was practically our only available back four yesterday, but two-goal Rafael van der Vaart was quick to praise our defence's contribution.

"When you score you're always in the headlines, but I think the defenders were amazing today.

The New England Revolution scored goals on either side of halftime to overcome an early Toronto FC lead, but in fitting fashion gave up a late equalizer to finish the season with a 2-2 draw. The Revs (5-16-13, 28 points) finish last place in the Eastern Conference, five points behind eighth-placed Toronto (6-13-15, 33 points), for the first time since 1998 and fail to reach at least seven wins for the first time in club history.

Photo: Nicolae Stoian

It was as poor a performance as we've seen from the Philadelphia Union this season against a New York team that, with rare exceptions, did not look at all good.

With the obvious exception of the number of goals, when looking at the match statistics, there appears to be as much parity to be found as there is advantage.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - Despite a hat trick from Will Bates (Jr., Chester, Va.), the No. 18 Virginia men's soccer team saw its three-match win streak come to an end Friday as it dropped a 4-3 decision to Wake Forest at Spry Stadium in Winston-Salem, N.C.

UVa (8-5-0, 3-2-0 ACC) fell behind 3-0 early in the second half before Bates scored two goals just 29 seconds apart to pull the Cavaliers back into the game.

Saturday night in Foxboro, the New England Revolution played a great match. They owned 55.2% of the possession, completed more of their passes, had more shots and shots on target, committed fewer fouls, had more corner kicks and won more 50-50 battles than their opponents, the Seattle Sounders. In just about every possible statistical category, they were better, if not outright dominant.

Sigh. Another game, another lack of attack until its too late, another failure to win. The Rapids spent a good 60 minutes doing essentially nothing in the offensive third, and by then they were down 1-0. They showed some life in the last 30 minutes and were somewhat unlucky not to find two goals, but at the same time they were lucky to get one.

The University of Maryland's perfect start is a thing of the past.

Using a defense-first mentality, Seton Hall held the nation's No. 1 team (Fox Soccer/SBI) to a 0-0 draw in New Jersey Tuesday night.

Maryland outshot Seton Hall 23-6 and had a 13-0 edge in corner kicks, but the Terrapins (7-0-1) couldn't break through and were held to less than two goals for the first time all season.

Photo by Brad Smith/ISIphotos.com

After seeing Charlie Davies, Teal Bunbury and Jozy Altidore all find goal-scoring success over the last week, Edson Buddle did his part to re-enter the U.S. Soccer forward conversation with a strong aerial display for FC Ingolstadt on Friday.

The No. 19 University of Denver men's soccer team was edged 1-0 to No. 6 Creighton in the season opener at CIBER Field on Saturday night.

"I think Creighton is a legitimate national championship contender, and I think our guys came out here and battled them, playing our brand of soccer," head coach Bobby Muuss said.

The Colorado College women's soccer team got the better of the statistics line on Friday afternoon against Utah State, but not in the one count that mattered the most.

The Aggies scored on their only two shots of the game and escaped Stewart Field with a 2-1 victory in a game that started 30 minutes late because of lightning.

Galaxy 1 Alajuelense 0

Galaxy forward Chad Barrett enters the game in the 74th minute for Adam Cristman; it's the UCLA product's first appearance since July 4.

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Landon Donovan got a 68th minute yellow card for flinging an opponent to the ground.

Quotes:

Portland Timbers Quotes

Head Coach John Spencer
On the overall result and its importance:
"We had a couple of late scares there in the game, but I think we also had a couple of good chances where we might've finished the game off. They're (Chivas USA) a very resilient group.

Well, that was pretty awesome, wasn't it? When you go to Mexico and beat a team as good as Monterrey, who happens to be using a lot of their starters, there's really no point in worrying too much about how it actually happened. The Seattle Sounders are 2-0-0 in CONCACAF Champions League group stage play and are suddenly looking pretty good.

Photo: Nicolae Stoian

When it comes to goals, it's easy enough to find out who has scored them. As the season goes on, the hard part is remembering how the goals were scored. Did this goal come from open play or was it a set piece? Was that goal from a throw in or was it from a corner kick.

There is a clear difference between playing well and creating chances, and the Philadelphia Union embodied the former on Saturday night.

A controversial (read: very poor) penalty call was the difference as the Union fell 2-1 to the Eastern Conference leading Columbus Crew Saturday night in front of what looked to be 45 people.

If early returns are any indication, the already-must-see Barcelona-Real Madrid rivalry might be reaching a new peak in 2011-2012.

Barcelona captured the SuperCopa after a 3-2 victory in Wednesday's second leg (5-4 on aggregate), with Lionel Messi scoring two goals, including a late match-winner, in a thrilling preamble to the Spanish regular season.

Photo by ISIPhotos.com

By IAN HOLIDAY

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Ryan Cochrane scored early and Bobby Boswell struck late as the New England Revolution and the Houston Dynamo split the points in a 1-1 draw at Gillette Stadium Wednesday night.

For the Revolution (4-11-10, 22 points), the result will feel like two points lost, as Boswell's 90th minute goal spoiled a superb individual effort from goalkeeper Matt Reis, who made seven saves and single-handedly preserved the Revs' lead on multiple occasions.

With statistics from last season suggesting the extent of Manchester United's aerial threat – scoring more headers than any other team – it's a shame they haven't moved for potential Barcelona-conqueror and Stoke City hurler Rory Delap in the summer window. But they've got the next best thing – a man who also compliments those in his team with a good head.

Abby Wambach and Hope SoloOK, you've won me over United States Women's National Team (#USWNT as we say in the Twitterverse). I got sucked into that game yesterday and I enjoyed it; why is this starting to sound like some kind of Alcoholics Anonymous initiation rite?
I admit I was late, forgive me, but I did catch up quickly after halftime.

The Colorado Rapids are undefeated when Scott Palguta scores.

Admittedly, the reserve defender has only scored twice in his career, with both goals coming this season. Each strike, however, has been the winner in 2-1 decisions for the Rapids (6-5-9, 27 points).

Palguta, who came on when Danny Earls couldn't continue after 23 minutes, was in the right place at the right time to stroke home a rebound from a Conor Casey header and put the Rapids up 2-0 on the visiting Vancouver Whitecaps on Saturday night.

After seven days of play in the 2011 Women's World Cup there is one obvious trend: Set pieces and headers result in goals. Including Saturday's four goals, 13 of the tournament total of 29 goals have resulted from a dead ball or a header. That statistic is an astounding 45%.

Anyone well informed in the game of soccer knows that set pieces are dangerous.

The Fire and Red Bulls are coming off of mid week matches while looking at the prospect of playing another match on Tuesday in a hectic stretch for both sides. New York has one less day of recovery and has had to travel from the west coast which could play favorably into Chicago's favor.

A 4-2 loss in Seattle on Thursday night was only a continuance of New York's problems on defense.

Another match in the northwest of the country and another crazy night for the Red Bulls as they traveled to face the Seattle Sounders, who were looking very pleased to get Dane Richards back from Gold Cup duty. But the terrible decisions in the net went to Greg Sutton as he had a major meltdown.

Soccer fans on Friday night got an entertaining match and a win for the home team as the Colorado Rush dispatched the Seattle Sounders 1-0 in W-League action.

Lindsey Horan delivered the lone goal of the evening in the 56th minute at Trail Winds Park in Thornton, Colo. Horan threatened several times during the night before her shot from inside the box found the upper left corner, giving her four goals in four games this season.

Last year, much of the of the case made for Sigi Schmid starting Mike Fucito in league play revolved around his PP90, which was absurdly high due to sample size. Around here, we of course we knew that would not carry over into multiple goals in every start. But despite the lack of forward scoring, the Seattle Sounders are generating chances with Fucito on the pitch, and it is obvious that Jeff Parke respects his game (Mayers, Seattle Times);

"He causes havoc everywhere because he's got that 'no quit' attitude," said Parke.

Another New England game and once again they were held scoreless as they were held to a 0-0 draw by Toronto last night at Gillette Stadium.

New England (3-7-5), which has the fewest goals (11) in MLS this season ran its winless streak to five matches (0-4-1), while Toronto (2-5-9) extended its own winless slump to seven (0-2-5).

They must be so bummed he missed the Revs' match
IN THE TUNNEL:
With Boston area fans geared up to watch their Bruins in the Stanley Cup Final, this may be one of the lowest attended MLS matches of the season. Although... how will you tell? Gillette Stadium usually looks that empty.

DETROIT - Jozy Altidore and Clint Dempsey each found the back of the net as the US put on a dominant performance to defeat Canada 2-0 in Gold Cup Group C action at Ford Field on Tuesday night.

The Americans piled on the pressure from the opening whistle, pinning Canada back in their own half and forcing a flurry of corner kicks and free kicks that led to a few half-chances for the USA.