I did a piece for Tom Dunmore's excellent blog Pitch Invasion today about how I became the obsessed soccer fan that I am. Kudos to anyone who can name a player for the Dayton Dynamo!

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Toon midfield dynamo, Danny Guthrie, has been expressing his admiration for Newcastle United's 'Three Amigos', Jose Enrique, Fabricio Coloccini and Jonas Gutierrez. As Newcastle United prepare for a wet Monday evening at Deepdale in Preston, Guthrie mused on how they have defied the stereotypes about fancy foreign players who aren't up for a good scrap [. Click to continue reading...

-According to the Dynamo, Ricardo Clark, whose contract expires next month, has no intention to re-sign with Major League Soccer as he pursues opportunities abroad.

-Brian Ching underwent surgery Tuesday to address a meniscus tear in his left knee. He suffered the injury in Game 1 of the series against Seattle Sounders FC but is expected to make a full recovery during the offseason.

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The USMNT meet Denmark, today at NRGi Park, Aarhus, 8:30 p.m. local time (2:30 p.m. ET), and the match will be broadcast live on ESPN Classic at 2:25 p.m.

There maybe a reason for Bob Bradley's faith in Jonathan Bornstein. They both began their national careers on 20 January, 2007 against Denmark and Bornstein repaid his coach's faith by scoring the game winner.

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Sadly, my viewing of the semi-final matches was limited this weekend. I planned to watch the Galaxy-Dynamo match before hitting the road Saturday morning, but the delayed kickoff and power outages meant I only caught the first half before hitting... Click to continue reading...

Why is this man not in the All XI?

Its the numbers you produce and not the little things that you do on the pitch to improve your team which seems to drive the MLS All XI. Even when you factor in stats it does not seem to add up to why Cuauhtemoc Blanco was left out.

Blanco played 21 matches, started in 15 of them and in 1452 minutes of playing time he scored 5 goals and 8 assists.

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Garber sees growth in MLS. (Getty Images)

I've spent a good portion of the day collecting my thoughts on a couple subjects and then it happen to be the same day that MLS commish Don Garber had his State of the League address. Yeah, let's just say some of his comments just made my head go nuts (and your's too judging by some emails).

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Greetings, Dynamo fans. As we are all well aware, our beloved Orange fell short of the 2009 championship. It was a valiant effort against David Beckham and the LA Galaxy. Watching from Houston, the Dynamo played well on Friday night, but early Saturday was a different story.

As midnight passed, LA took advantage of two costly fouls by Ricardo Clark.

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There's all kinds of MLS and soccer lovin' going around this morning in our fine land. Devin Barclay, now a rock star on Ohio State's campus, played parts of five seasons in MLS from 2001-2005. He suited up for Tampa Bay, San Jose, D.C. United and the Columbus Crew before hanging up the cleats and--eventually--picking up some other cleats. Click to continue reading...

Well, turns out Jozy Altidore, Clint Dempsey & Co. have about as much drawing power in Eastern Europe as Anvil. For whatever the reason Friday night I decided to stay up through multiple power outages for the MLS Western Conference Final between the Galaxy and Dynamo. During the match the thought drifted into my head about Saturday's USMNT/Slovakia friendly -- why wouldn't Bob Bradley simply roll Click to continue reading...

A trip to the MLS Cup is on the line as the Chicago Fire and Real Salt Lake are almost set to face off in tonight's Eastern Conference Final at Toyota Park. Who will advance remains to be seen, but I'll be here to take you through the whole day with Fire Confidential's second All Day Blog.

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The Galaxy did just like I said and took away the assist-maching in Houston in a shutout to reach the Final for the MLS Cup.

I also mentioned that the Dynamo needed to find a way to keep Landon Donovan "double-teamed" or something that would not allow him to beat them and they simply couldn't do it.

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Galaxy 0 Dynamo 0

Two 15 minute halves.

Few clear cut chances in the second half with both teams knowing one mistake could settle this one.

Dynamo sub Luis Angel Landin had the ball in the net in the 80th minute (actually it was Andrew Hainault), but the goal was disallowed for Landin's foul on A.

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Galaxy 0 Dynamo 0

This is a helluva game - or at least it has been since the lights came back on, with the Galaxy having the better of the attacking chances and restricting Houston to some long-range efforts.

First, in the 25th minute Stuart Holden cleared a Landon Donovan header off the line.

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The floodlights have just failed here at the HDC. (No kidding). It's the 18th minute of the game.

Updated: Since we have a few minutes here it's worth pointing out the Dynamo are keying on the soft spot just inside the left back position of the inexperienced A.J. DeLaGarza and to the left of sluggish central defender Gregg Berhalter.

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Whatever happens tonight it's the last game of the season at Home Depot Center with a trip to MLS Cup 2009 in Seattle against either the Chicago Fire or Real Salt Lake in the offing for the winner.

Looks like another good playoff crowd gradually filling in with the temperature about 60 degrees and excellent for football.

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Plenty of other soccer on TV in addition to tonight's Galaxy-Dynamo game, while local colleges enter post-season play this weekend.

TV best bets
11 o'clock tonight Fox Soccer Channel New Zealand-Bahrain (World Cup qualifier with former Galaxy man Simon Elliot on the NZ squad).

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Gameday is upon us. I don't want to talk any trash or make any predictions. We must avoid the jinx at all costs. It's not that I believe in that voodoo rhetoric, but why chance it? I will keep it simple and possibly very bland.

Here are a few game related articles. One states how Los Angeles is just 90 minutes away from the finals.

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I was starting to write a long piece on magical thinking and sending orange-colored positive waves westward for tonight's game. Then I read the stories in the Chron today (listing of the stories and Bernardo's blog post here) about how the entire world seems aligned against Dynamo in favor of the Galaxy, including Alexi Lalas (which actually fills me with something like relief. Click to continue reading...

Episode 52: "Bluth's Frozen Banana Stand @ St. James' Park"
Host: Scott
Panel: Sarah Wilson, Brian Zygo, Mark Fishkin
Listen on the CSRN Media Player
DOWNLOAD Episode 52
32-Bit (Small File)
96-Bit (Large File)
Available on iTunes, just search Winning Ugly


Ultimate Dynamo supporter recruiter Brian Zygo and everybody's favorite girl from Hull, Sarah Wilson, return to face off with WUR newbie Mark Fishkin. Click to continue reading...

Galaxy central defender Omar Gonzalez, the club's top draft pick out of Maryland didn't miss a game for the Galaxy this year and was literally head and shoulders above other candidates.

From the Galaxy press release:

The 21-year old defender from Dallas, Texas, becomes the second consecutive Galaxy defender to win the award.

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Salt Lake vs. Chicago: Saturday's MLS playoff teams have one thing in common -- their goalkeepers are the shortest starting netminders in the league. Chicago's Jon Busch is listed at 5-10; Salt Lake's Nick Rimando at 5-9.
"People that tell me I wasn't going to achieve anything because I was too short, I just remember that, and I like to shove it in their face whenever I can," Rimando says. Click to continue reading...

Houston travels to L.A. on Friday to take on the Galaxy for the Western Conference crown. This is the matchup of all matchups. The two best teams in the West (which makes it all the more funny that RSL is in the East and yet the city is farther west than Houston, but who's counting really?

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Tiffeny Milbrett will be giving a field demonstration at the NSCAA Convention in January in Philly. On Tuesday, November 9, 2009, I met up with the FC Gold Pride forward in San Carlos, California, to help her plan for the event.

We talked about how the Convention is set up, and what to expect when delivering a session in front of a room full of information-hungry coaches.

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The two contests between the Dynamo and the Galaxy this season were tense, tight affairs.

Back on June 28, the Dynamo visited Home Depot Center riding a club-record 11-game unbeaten streak, while the Galaxy were tied with the fewest wins in MLS with New York (seems an eon ago doesn't it?).

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The Conference Championships are now upon us, and I must say: "Could we have asked for anything more?" After all, these two games have more storylines than a Tarantino film (and they could end up being as violent). But, before I further tease this week's monumental matchups, I want to first take a look back at last week's amazing results.

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1. Sounders FC get champions welcome -- via Jose's blog.
2. Arsenal mascot dudes? -- via ??? Russian static diary?
3. Dynamo dancer girl (Ana Faris) -- via The Original Winger
4. Owner in a bear suit? -- via Dirty Tackle
5. Is this guy a giant? Click to continue reading...

Check this out from Freddy Ljungberg's blog people:
THE BRAWL IN HOUSTON
I'm sorry that it has taken quite some time after the game to post something, but I have actually been quit pissed off and in a bad mood after the game and wanted to think things through before I said anything. Click to continue reading...

EDIT - BREAKING NEWS! Preki re-nominated for Hall of Fame! Feel free to factor in his performance over the weekend. (Yes, I know you're not supposed to.)
Now that I've got my head out of the oven, let's warm up with some trivia.
Depending on what happens Friday night, one bit of statistical weirdness will fall. Click to continue reading...

In my opinion, the two best teams in MLS already faced eachother during these playoffs. Forget the finals, the best matchup is/was Houston vs. Seattle.

What more can you say about Seattle and their fans? They are the pinnacle example of what every team strives for. Sure, there might be some exceptions, like a few over-zealous Sounders fans that chose to sing through the moment of silence for the Fort Hood tragedy.

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Pat Onstad deserves a medal. Keeping two own goals out. The second one was a sequence of goal line saves in the 42nd minute as Freddie Ljungberg's free kick was helped along by Ricardo Clark with Onstad backpedaling to parry it out before it crossed the goal line and then falling down to bat the ball away from Fredy Montero's opportunistic foot.

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I spent yesterday morning/early afternoon with my missus & our offspring taking in the rare 70+ degree November day at Coney Island; we hit the aquarium, at funnel cake, listened to a random psycho-surf blues band, decided to learn Russian (Coney Island is Mini-Moscow) and watched crazy people swim in what is essentially the ass-end of New York harbour. Click to continue reading...

David Beckham switches attack with a swerving long ball down the left to Donovan. The Galaxy skipper crosses into the box to Mike Magee who is brought down by Yamith Cuesta's challenge. Ricardo Salazar points to the spot as Magee writhes in pain. Donovan converts the PK after an interminable wait.

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Seattle Sounders FC v. Houston Dynamo
As Kevin Calabro might say, the magic-carpet ride is over. The inaugural season for the Sounders FC is over after an overtime strike by Brian Ching gave the Dynamo a 1-0 aggregate win.
Can't say Seattle didn't turn heads in their first year. Click to continue reading...

The playoff numbers look like this...

5 year comparison Conference Semifinals 1st Leg  Avg +/- Home Teams  2005  12,147 NA  Chicago  NY  Colorado  Los Angeles  2006  9,533  -21.52%  Chicago  NY  Colorado  Chivas USA  2007  14,245  49. Click to continue reading...