SoccerBlogs

Awake.

Bearded Pirlo's eyes burn and every part of his body not encased in dense bearding feels filthy under the blast of stale air pumping out of the airplane vent above him. Rest has escaped him since three nights before Italy's loss to Spain in the Euro 2012 final.� Silva then Alba then Torres then Mata.

Portugal kept their Euro 2012 Championship dreams alive when substitute Silvestre Varela scored the winner with three minutes left to give Portugal a thrilling 3-2 victory.

Portugal, coming into the game on the back of defeat by Germany, needed at least a draw to stand any chance of extending their record of reaching the knockout stage in their last five European Championships.

Saturday's 7:30 PM match between the aspiring Seattle Sounders and struggling Goats features one of the hottest teams in MLS and a team that is bewildering. Despite several name brand players on offense Chivas USA has 9 fewer goals than the next worst in the league. If it wasn't for Dan Kennedy and the strong defense there would be no chance for the other SoCal team to make the MLS Cup Playoffs.

Packed into the summer of soccer (isn't every year now?) is the US Open Cup and the Sounders quest for #SE4TTLE. This attempt at history sees a familiar adversary, a team that Seattle has faced and eliminated from the tournament three times. Chivas USA lacks trophies (though not as lacking as say Red Bull) and with a regular season that sees them basically eliminated from contention Wednesday night's game at Starfire will be their most important of 2012.

Oh. My. God. As bad as it has been around these parts over the past couple weeks, Saturday felt like a rather massive relief. Not only did the Seattle Sounders win their first league game in almost two months. Not only did they look sharp doing it. But we also got to see Steve Zakuani play against the same team that put him out about 14 months ago.

Chivas USA acquired Philadelphia's Danny Califf and NY's Juan Agudelo in trades made on Thursday, May 17, 2012. Califf, returned to MLS when Philadelphia joined the league after several seasons playing in Denmark. Agudelo, who still considered by many to be a key part to the future of the USA National Team, only had played in four matches (one start) this season.

It's time for our weekly 3 Questions exchange with the SB Nation blog of the opposing team. This week, Alicia Ratterree of The Goat Parade was kind enough to partake in this exchange with me. As we all know, Friday is a big game for the Fire. To me, 3 points feels essential to get us back on track.

The Philadelphia Union face Chivas USA at the Home Depot Center tonight, at 10:30 p.m. EST, marking their first time in Los Angeles during the 2012 MLS regular season. Coming off of the team's first win of the year, a 1-0 victory against the Columbus Crew, Philadelphia looks to start a winning streak to pull itself out of the Eastern Conference's cellar.

Remix! In a sense, anyway. Those of you who have been with us since the pre-season will remember that a similar interview occurred between ourselves and The Goat Parade for the pre-season tournament match against Chivas USA. As such, today's preview interview will be a bit shorter than what we're used to given that not a lot has changed between now and then.

Shalrie Joseph is gone. He is no longer a member of the New England Revolution. It is time to move on.

The oddest part of this whole Shalrie trade is that ultimately we do not know what to make of the spare piece we received. There is a second round pick in the SuperDraft - a tool for getting players that is slowly and surely losing its relevance.

Sexism for Major League Soccer's Official Media Rears its Head (Again) - The Goat Parade
"This is an alarming pattern, and MLS needs to stop immediately. The cascade of representations of women as good supporters of the real deal, the "true" and legitimate male MLS fan, was retrograde when the league was founded in the 1990s.

Another week is in the books for Major League Soccer. Week 9 kicks off tomorrow so it is time to get the rankings out of the way.

A decent amount of movement this week for me. The top three remain the same while the second tier continues to get interesting. The third tier continues to shrink though as another club dropped to the bottom group, which is also growing like weeds.

After every match this season, the staff here at The Bent Musket will be putting together player ratings. Ratings are on a 1-10 scale, with 5 representing a thoroughly average performance, and 6 a decent/capable showing. The final ratings will be averages of individual ratings from Steve Stoehr, Corey Major, and Brendan Schimmel.