Last night at The Globe, I shared a table with two Hispanic men who were rooting for Mexico. I naturally assumed they were Mexican, even though they didn't seem too beaten up by the way they were playing. But after the game, the fourth person at our table and I were talking to them a little bit more, and they said they were from Puerto Rico.

I wanted a place online to talk about my new adventures in Chicago, but I didn't want to turn this into a personal blog. Instead, I've created another blog, DC To Chicago.

At the beginning of the season, I was a guest on John Dyson and Aaron Stollar's short-lived podcast a few times. On the season preview, I picked Chivas USA to go all the way this year. Admittedly, at the time I didn't realize that Guzan would be gone midway through the season, but I felt they were a good team that also knew it let itself down in last year's playoffs.

I haven't been posting too much lately for a bunch of reasons. One of them is that I feel I have already said everything about DC United's problems earlier this season, and I have seen nothing from them to suggest otherwise.  And since I don't believe in piling on with the same criticism week after week after week, I have chosen to let others do so.

Check in around 7:00 tonight for my liveblog of tonight's US Open Cup semifinal between DC United and the New England Revolution. I'll be going from the RFK pressbox, so I doubt I'll have the same WiFi problems that I had at the SoccerPlex last month (you never know, to be honest). But I am faster than MLS' matchtracker.

At the beginning of the season, we were told that D.C. United's squad was improved to compete in international competition. One of the biggest changes was the trade of Bobby Boswell to the Dynamo.

Tonight, Houston beat Pachuca, 2-0, to advance to the SuperLiga finals. Guess who scored the game-winning goal.

During the second field inspection, I asked a strapping young member of United's communications department if he had an explanation as to why they're insistent upon continuing the game, considering it was already a longer delay than we had on June 4. He said he didn't have an "official" response, but that the league policy is to see as many games as possible played to completion.

I was covering the game from Guadalajara's side, and I didn't get audio from the United players about last night's game. But you can read my take from the other side here. If you want the United perspective, Charlie brings the goods.

The domain transfer hasn't fully gone through yet (I'll call tech support as soon as I finish my coffee), but I saw this post by Luis and had to respond. He noted that, with Guzan leaving for England, Francisco Mendoza is the only player currently on Chivas USA's roster who was there from the beginning, and put it out to his readers for the others.

The domain transfer hasn't fully gone through yet (I'll call tech support as soon as I finish my coffee), but I saw this post by Luis and had to respond. He noted that, with Guzan leaving for England, Francisco Mendoza is the only player currently on Chivas USA's roster who was there from the beginning, and put it out to his readers for the others.

On October 20, 1996, Chris Armas scored what should have been the championship-clinching goal for the Los Angeles Galaxy in MLS Cup. But DC United fought back, and in the 4th minute of overtime, Eddie Pope headed in the golden goal, right over the head of the diminuitive midfielder, who was stationed at the near post.

D calls me out again, this time for my Olsen - Rizzuto post below, which I think it was really his way of drawing attention to it. But it's what reader "Big C" wrote in the Comments that I have to respond to. He wrote:

...for other MLS fans throughout the country, it didn't feel like the playing field was exactly level.

I'm going to be a little later with the Screaming Eagles Podcast than usual, because I was stringing for the San Jose Mercury News yesterday and I haven't started working on it yet. So look for it later today, but until then, here's my match report.

I covered tonight's sort-of game for the Houston Chronicle. There's not much, but here it is.

As you can tell, I did see Bobby Boswell. It was weird seeing him in a different uniform and in the visitor's locker room, but he's doing well and is having a good time in Houston. But he also said that, as he was driving through town, it hit him how many good memories he had of living here.

Tonight, I'll be the guest on Revolution Recap, previewing this Thursday's game. The show begins at 7:00, and I'll be on in the second half of the show. You can stream it from the site.

The full audio of it, and post-practice quotes from Soehn and Olsen can be found on the new SE Podcast.

Coverage of last night's victory over RSL is up at the Screaming Eagles site.  Quotes from Soehn, Wells, Burch, Quaranta, Simms and Moreno.

Crazy day up in Baltimore covering the SuperDraft. It didn't help that I had problems with my laptop's ability to get online (a mad dash to a local Best Buy to get a new wireless card -40 minutes before the draft started - didn't resolve the problem). But I was able to get everything done. I didn't really follow what was taking place on the main floor because I was busy in the media room.

For various reasons, it's been a few weeks since I've been able to do a Q&A over at USSoccerPlayers. Well, things are back to normal (hopefully). Yesterday, I spoke with Eric Wynalda about this Saturday's US-Sweden game, and it's up now.Â

I'm currently out of town, but this week on USSoccerPlayers, we listed a handful of our most noteworthy events in soccer over the past year.Â

Monday: Best Moments Of 2007

Tuesday: Worst Moments Of 2007Â

Wednesday: Â What We'd Like To See In 2008

Thursday: Games Of The Year

Friday: Goals Of The Year

Saturday: Albums Of The Year

After a brief absence (it's pretty tough to get in touch with players this time of year), my Q&A at USSoccerPlayers.com is back with a chat with Brad Guzan.

I spoke with him yesterday about the national team. It's up at USSoccerPlayers.com.

I spoke with Eddie Pope at the ESPN Zone when they gave out the MVP Award. I had originally planned to use the interview on the podcast, but it didn't fit in with the flow of the episode. Instead, I saved it for my weekly USSoccerPlayers.com Q&A.

OK, here's the article I was telling you about the other day. It's for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and it's about the health of the league through the prism of the expansion into Seattle.  As a native of the Northwest, Waibel was a natural focal point, and he's a pretty cool guy, too.

OK, I picked up my credentials today, and I'll be attending a bunch of the media events over the next few days, including the MVP Award presentation this afternoon. If the National Press Club has free Wi-Fi, I'll try to liveblog the Commissioner's Press Conference tomorrow.Â

Hopefully, I'll have the opportunity to put some of these things together into a podcast for you by Saturday, but I can't make any guarantees.

Closing out my series of talking to soccer players with a last name of "Barrett," here's my interview with Houston Dynamo captain Wade Barrett.

My interview with Chad Barrett is now up at US Soccer Players.

Yeah, I know we have a huge game tonight. But I have nothing to say about it because I'm way too nervous. Instead, here's my weekly Q&A at USSoccerPlayers.com, this time with Sacha Kljestan.