I've been watching from the start, but had some connection problems.
4 - DeRo from distance, off the post.
6 - Announcers discuss Igwe, correctly asses that Jay Heaps was unjustly suspended from the final in the Atlante scrum.
8 - Joseph with a scorcher from distance. High.
10 - This game has had a ton of intensity from the start. Click to continue reading...

Basically, Carlos doesn't think teams should play SuperLiga if they can't behave better. But he also blames the structure of the tournament.



By the way, don't knock me for not knowing all the panelists names - I don't watch the show that often, but feel free to inform me if you know who they are. Click to continue reading...

Mediotiempo cartoons of course have something to say about the exits of Atlante and Pachuca. Here the Pachuca gopher and little horse of Atlante complain about their mistreatment to the authorities. It's paradoxical, considering the players that got physically rough as the games ended.

Click to continue reading...

Need translation? Click below.


Announcer introduces analyst Carlos Albert
Carlos Albert: Atlante has demonstrated, like all the teams in this tournament, that they're not in good form yet, they're in preseason. But that's a pretext, like the bad refs, because all the Mexican teams accepted those terms while chasing the carrot of a million dollars. Click to continue reading...

In only two years of existence, two different SuperLiga scenarios have already played out in the final.
The first was the MLS/Primera Division split final, with Pachuca and the LA Galaxy representing both participating leagues. Pachuca, of course, became the first SuperLiga champion in history. Click to continue reading...

What was supposed to have been a battle for the right to play for the SuperLiga final instead turned into, well, a battle.

Atlante vs. New England in a battle royale. Vilar versus Heaps. Atlante assistant versus Albright. Disgrace versus Revolution.


The match itself was not the greatest display of soccer. Click to continue reading...

Here we go, with the game to decide the second finalist of the SuperLiga. The telenovela is ending, and Paloma's heart has been broken because she has just returned (from a kidnapping?) to find the love of her life has married. Or maybe it's a lie, but too late, the game is starting.
The announcers focus on the midfield, saying Shalrie Joseph is key for the Revs. Click to continue reading...

Mediotiempo cartoons skewer the SuperLiga again.
I don't know why the Houston guy isn't in Houston colors, but anyway, he's in the background cheering on Atlante's horse against New England.
But he has selfish motives - "I don't want to go get a million dollars on foot," the Dynamo dude tells Atlante's horsey. Click to continue reading...

Hey, hey - here we go now. Well, not just yet, some telenovela is on. "No quiero verle nunca mas!" spits the heroine. Oh, ok, it's over now. Bring on SuperLiga! Post predictions quick!
Ha, the announcers know all about the Houston/Pachuca history.
"Houston wants revenge," they say. I've picked Pachuca to win, however, so I predict a heartbreaking 2-1. Click to continue reading...

Well, maybe he'll talk to other reporters and maybe they'll put the audio up on a blog or site somehwere. Until that happens, though, here's Sacha Kljestan before he departs for the Olympic squad.

Sacha was disappointed about the result as everyone else on Chivas was. He felt they played well enough to win. Click to continue reading...

Jesse Marsch didn't seem too happy after the match. He is usually in decent spirits even after losses. That wasn't the case on Sunday. And I wasn't about to take a picture of him that way.

I asked Jesse all of the questions on the audio clip here. So most of the time he was looking right at me. Click to continue reading...

Preki was not in the country on Sunday as he was in Serbia tending to some sort of family emergency. In his place was Mike Matkovich, the club's assistant coach.

Matko, as he is known to his players, and Preki took care of the starting lineups as they were in communication throughout the day. Click to continue reading...

Steve Ralston was his usual calm self after the match. He didn't rip into the field nor did he get too excited about the prospects of playing at home.

He did however have a huge influence in the match as he sent in the corner that led to the equalizer.

Ralston answered some questions about the potential schedule logjam coming up as well as a bit on the All-Star game. Click to continue reading...

Matt Reis was another of the players who did not care much for the field. In fact, none of the Revs players I heard had anything but negatives to say for the field.

Reis of course is a local guy, a UCLA product, and he was on the Galaxy before when the Galaxy played games here on a somewhat regular basis. Click to continue reading...

Steve Nicol spent much of the imprompt post-game presser talking about the deplorable field conditions. He had as good a view as anyone and didn't really feel like the field was something that should have been used for a tournament of this magnitude.

The field was pretty bad. I could tell from up here that it wasn't the greatest but the way it went down, well, Nicol was none too pleased about it. Click to continue reading...

Welcome to the beautiful Titan Stadium for tonight's SuperLiga (and I use the word beautiful loosely). I tried to get pictures of both teams before the match but only New England gathered for a team shot. Perhaps Chivas players were too focused on the game...

Here are the starting lineups:

Chivas: Dan Kennedy; Carey Talley, Claudio Suarez, Bobby Burling, Francisco Mendoza; Sacha Kljestan, Daniel Paladini, Jesse Marsch, Jonathan Bornstein; Ante Razov, Roberto Nurse. Click to continue reading...

My latest effort for SI.com is on Mexican soccer players' and coaches' levels of respect towards MLS and SuperLiga. I was able to get quite a few people's thoughts on both, from Mexican players and Argentine players as well as a veteran coach and a young coach and they all had overwhelmingly positive things to say about MLS. Click to continue reading...

Mediotiempo cartoons on the SuperLiga continue.

This time, the little Chivas USA goat asks the Santos player, "You got "Championitis" already?" The player responds, "It's better to get sick here than in a tournament that really matters."

In the background - I'm not sure - could be a Revs player chasing the Pachuca gopher with a stick. Click to continue reading...

When Chivas USA acquired Carey Talley, I figured he'd man the right back slot until Lawson Vaughn was healthy enough. I didn't realize that he'd become such an integral part of the squad, so much so that The Law may not play right back provided he gets back healthy and Talley stays healthy.

I had the chance to catch up with Carey after the match as he was holding his new but fully drenched Santos Laguna jersey. Click to continue reading...

Matias Vuoso spoke to reporters after the match. He's a Spanish speaker so read on if you want to hear his palabras.

Vuoso kept it brief. He basically said that Chivas had one chance and put it away while Santos had many but couldn't do anything with them.

Here's his audio. Click to continue reading...

Through two games, all teams in Group B are still alive and, as far as we can tell, each team has a chance of crashing out of the tournament on Sunday.

That means Santos, who have zero points in two games, still have hopes while New England, with six points in two games, might still not advance. Click to continue reading...

In their short history, Chivas USA has gone through quite a bit. For a while, every positive thing was a first: the first win, the first winning streak, the first time they were over .500, the first time they were top of table, etc.

Still, in Year Four, those string of firsts is not stopping. Click to continue reading...

Edgar Castillo was a popular player following Wednesday's match. Because he can speak English and is a key player for Santos Laguna, it was easier for the English reporters to deal with him. In general, it's easier to deal with anyone directly when you don't lose anything in translation.

But Edgar did field some questions in Spanish. Click to continue reading...

Carey Talley battled Edgar Castillo all match long, and the two exchanged jerseys as the match ended. I don't know where Castillo put his Talley jersey, but Talley had Castillo's with him (you can just see it on the edge of the picture).

Of course, the Talley jersey his kid is wearing here wasn't from this game. Click to continue reading...

Daniel Guzman didn't participate in a post-match press conference. When I caught up to him in the mixed zone, he was actually being asked about whether or not, with the success of a Mexican-American like Edgar Castillo, he was interested in bringing in more U.S. players. Here's his response. I didn't translate, because the Chivas USA media officer is translating in the background. Click to continue reading...