Thursday night's draw in Seattle sets up Houston for redemption in the opening round of Major League Soccer's playoffs. Last season and facing the same scenario against New York, the Dynamo lost 3-0 at home. A physical game at Qwest Field takes the series to Robertson Stadium with both teams able to point to things that worked. Click to continue reading...

So let's start the discussion. Here are some of my initial thoughts from tonight:
1. The Onstad Bump: After the game, Alexi Lalas showed the smarts that made him the GM he was when he said that Onstad should have gotten a red card for that contact. "99 times out of 100, that's a straight red," ranted his Gingerness. Click to continue reading...

The ball and the title gets away from Alan Kardec and Brazil

Scoreless after a turgid 90 minutes, Brazil and Ghana went to extra time and then penalties in the Under-20s World Cup final in Cairo on Friday. Brazil failed to capitalize after Addo was sent off in the first-half and their lack of invention and drive was to cost them when the game went to a sudden death shootout.

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So is this the round that the Mariners prove they are real Westfield W-League title contenders? They are up against Brisbane Roar - the inaugural champions who so far haven't missed a beat. Then there is the team that met Brisbane in the grand final of the first season, Canberra United, who haven't registered a single point this year. Click to continue reading...

D.C. United put together one of its most comprehensive performances Thursday night at RFK Stadium by downing CD Marathon 3-0. Luciano Emilio broke out and scored two goals, while Jaime Moreno added a tally midway through the second half. The defense also kept a clean sheet for the second game in a row, as the Black-and-Red put together back-to-back wins for the first time since late July.

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Regular season USL-1 play has now concluded for 2009. The playoffs start tomorrow (Thursday). Sure it would have been nice to see Austin there; but I guess it just wasn't meant to be. We might as well get a head start on looking back.
Both of the league's expansion teams, the Austin Aztex and the Cleveland City Stars, fared poorly in their inaugural seasons, winding up at the bottom of the final standings:
P
Team
Pld
W
D
L
GF
GA
GD
Pts
1 Portland Timbers 30 16 10 4 45 19 +26 58 2 Carolina RailHawks FC 30 16 7 7 43 19 +24 55 3 Puerto Rico Islanders 30 15 8 7 44 31 +13 53 4 Charleston Battery 30 14 11 5 33 21 +12 53 5 Montreal Impact 30 12 7 11 32 31 +1 43 6 Rochester Rhinos 30 11 10 9 34 32 +2 43 7 Vancouver Whitecaps FC 30 11 9 10 42 36 +6 42 8 Minnesota Thunder 30 7 10 13 39 44 -5 31 9 Miami FC 30 8 5 17 26 52 -26 29 10 Austin Aztex FC 30 5 8 17 28 51 -23 21* 11 Cleveland City Stars 30 4 19 7 22 52 -30 19
As you can see, the Aztex escaped the very last spot, if barely. Click to continue reading...

Almost everyone from within football seems to have an opinion on time keeping in football after Sunday's derby day win over Man City. It sees the additional couple of minutes of stoppage time that was played by Martin Atkinson is a bit of a hotly contested topic. Given the simplicity of the reasoning behind the referee's decision, I really don't understand why we are still hearing about this.

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Background: I'm ready for the backlash, and I hold no remorse for putting beloved American player Pablo Mastroeni on this list. While I love me somes Pablo, both as an MLS star and a US MNT warrior, one cannot deny he is one of the dirtiest MLS players in league history.

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Nilmar scores three against Chile

Even without the suspended Luis Fabiano, Brazil still managed to find the net four times against a spirited Chile in Salvador on Wednesday night.

All eyes had been on Flamengo man, Adriano, but it was Villarreal's recent acquisition, Nilmar, who put away three of Brazil's goals.

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• RT @btsportzmom: Friday Crowder CC vs. St. Charles CC 0 to 0 after 2 OT periods. Next, Sunday Crowder vs. Independence CC 2:00 pm HOME. #
• $100/month to #Mediacom and I don't get ESPN Classic and tonights #USMNT game against El Salvador #fail #
• Kickapoo Chiefs fall 1-3 to Jeff City Jays.

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• RT @btsportzmom: Friday Crowder CC vs. St. Charles CC 0 to 0 after 2 OT periods. Next, Sunday Crowder vs. Independence CC 2:00 pm HOME. #
• $100/month to #Mediacom and I don't get ESPN Classic and tonights #USMNT game against El Salvador #fail #
• Kickapoo Chiefs fall 1-3 to Jeff City Jays.

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You could tell that the regular season was here by looking at the number of fouls and cards in tonight's match. This was definitely not a friendly exhibition. The 1,184 on hand witnessed UCF accumulate five yellow cards and two reds, while USF had two yellows.
In fact, the Golden Knights had already seen yellow twice, before the Bulls got the first goal of the match in the twenty-fourth minute. Click to continue reading...

Champions League | Video | Highlights Video | Highlights Video
Click on that link above, my friends, to see how you whitewash the incredible disaster that was that CCL game the other night. In a game with 11 yellows and five dismissals, you'd look at this highlight reel and think: "Wow! Wotta game! Click to continue reading...

After following the Twitter comments of Houston Dynamo supporters on Wednesday night and reading the various reactions of bloggers on Thursday, I was finally able to actually see the match that has stirred up so much controversy.
Houston's CONCACAF Champions League group stage match in Panama against Arabe Unido was at best a bad anomaly and at worst a shambolic example of what a complete joke CONCACAF is. Click to continue reading...

We all know that bad refereeing in Brazil has no limits. Last weekend, the match between Corinthians and Botafogo added another example to the pile. Now, Blog do Birner started to compile that data proves that Brazilian football has a thing for yellow cards.

The blog is comparing the amount of cards given in Brazil and in the main European leagues.

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Happy Thursday to you. Mr. Fish here, of The Kin Of Fish fame, coming to you from the town so nice they named it twice, and I'm unbelievably honored that Brucio asked me to step in and do Du Nord while he trudges back from the Azteca. Obviously, the topic at hand is yesterday's Mexico victory over the US, the Yanks' 24th straight winless match South of the border. Click to continue reading...

Another game, another not-great, not-terrible performance by the Aztex, another loss.
The lineup was about the same as it has been, with the exception of Nick Noble instead of Sam Reynolds in goal.
One difference, though not necessarily an improvement, was the number of cards they racked up. Click to continue reading...

It was the right result. Adelaide dominated the first half. Clearly Adelaide missed out on a straight forward penalty in the first 2 minutes as Jacob Burns had his first touch on an Adelaide leg entering the penalty box from the right. Later, justice was made when Chris Coyne pushed/pulled down Robbie Cornthwaite for a linesperson's decision. Click to continue reading...

The Crew defense dammed up the Rapids offense and the difference in the game was a couple of inches between the two keepers. Late in the first half Cory Gibbs committed an unnecessary (and admittedly, somewhat ticky-tack from what we could see on TV) foul near the top of the box. Chad Marshall lined up the free kick and put it on net. Click to continue reading...

CONCACAF has announced that Courtney Campbell will be the referee for tonight's U.S. Honduras semi-final match. This is a little strange because Campbell also officiated the U.S.'s 2-0 victory over Honduras in the group stage.

The Group Stage Match

In the group stage, Campbell awarded both squads two yellow cards (four total).

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CONCACAF has announced that Benito Archundia (Mexico) & Walter Quesada (Costa Rica) will be our referee and fourth official for Saturday's quarterfinal against Panama. And it might surprise U.S. fans to know that we're optimistic about our chances with this crew.

Benito Archundia

Overview

Archundia was the fourth official for the 2009 Confederations Cup Final, a 3-2 loss to Brazil.

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An international conspiracy:

John Harkes in the Brazil vs USA final said at one point that US defenders will have to be careful with their tackles given how the referees have been carding them. The Italy match got the ball rolling on that controversy. Thereafter, it was a cumulative process as the US picked up their share of yellows and reds generating a buzz that FIFA did not want to see the US succeed against the bigger teams.

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Previous Updates
#1 4/12 68 players remaining#2
5/25
37 players remaining
OTFATT is short for "On the field, all the time." In these updates throughout the season, I'll be keeping track of which MLS players have played every minute of every game (regular season only). That feat has been accomplished 35 times in 13 season by 28 different players. Click to continue reading...

Running the middle today is Uruguayan referee Jorge Larrionda. Name sound familiar?
Does 1-1 draw and three red cards in the World Cup ring a bell? Mr. Larrionda, who also did the France-Portugal semifinal in Germany, officiated the USA's tie against Italy in which he issued four yellows and three red cards. Click to continue reading...

It's a long long time since we've seen such an ugly strip at Newcastle, that's for sure. Steven Taylor cover your eyes quick! The new away strip has none of the classic colors of Newcastle black, white and blue, but is a ghastly yellow, and stripes no less in two different yellows. But [... Click to continue reading...

It has been reported in various newspapers today and web columns (especially on the Daily Mail) that Arsene Wenger will finally make his interest in Brazilian star Felipe Melo de Carvalho, currently of Fiorentina in the form of a bid.

Arsene Wenger has tracked the star for about 3 years now and lost out last season to Fiorentina who signed the Brazil international for £10 million euros from Almeria the Spanish side.

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We're going with Landon Donovan as our Man of the Match against Italy. This might seem like the obvious choice since he was the only American...er, the only member of Team USA to find the back of the net, but he really did much more than that yesterday. We often complain that he disappears from games and doesn't impose his will on matches, but he dictated the Americans' play yesterday, successfully created chances, drew a penalty fouls, and yes, converted yet another spot kick.

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NICK
These predictions are based on absolutely nothing...other than my unparalleled soccer expertize. Like many, I'm not feeling too optimistic about about this tournament after the last two qualifiers. My predictions for Team America...
Record: 0-0-3 (0 pts. Click to continue reading...

This is the result you get when the other team just plays better than you do. That's what the Charleston Battery did at Nelson Field on Friday, was simply outplay the Aztex for the better part of the game.
It was a face-off of vertical stripes. When the black-and-yellow jerseys had speed and pace, the red-and-white had less. Click to continue reading...

 With the Premier League race done and dusted and the Champions League trophy spending the summer in Catalonia, there's only one more piece of silverware on offer in the 2008-2009 season, and either Everton or Chelsea will lay claim to it tomorrow at Wembley. Who's in and who's out - Frank Lampard, Alex and Juliano Belletti are available for Guss Hiddink's alleged swan song as Chelsea's manager while David Moyes can select Phil Neville and Steven Pienaar, if he so chooses. Click to continue reading...

There's not much to say that I'm sure you are all not thinking.
The differences between tonights clash with the Fire and last weekend's game against the Wizards are vast. Unlike Saturday, tonights game featured tempo, drive, and was not played on what appeared to be a little league baseball diamond.

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I know I'm the Wizards blogger but because I have a few contacts outside the country I was given some juicy news about the mess that the Costa Rican soccer league is going through and how this might affect/help the United States National Team, who will be visiting them in June for the next World Cup Qualifier.

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AEK managed to beat PAOK 1-0 in a sold out Toumba satidum.

This is another great result for us and hopefully we will win the next three matches which will guarantee us a Champions League qualifying spot. Our two toughest games (in theory) are now over and we managed to come out with four out of a total of six possible points from the two fixtures.

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If James Riley is a hothead I don't know. What I do know is that he was Red Carded, and earned two yellows and fines in the last two weeks for his violent conduct on the pitch. What I also know is that due to the tactics that Coach Schmid employs concerning Riley [...] Click to continue reading...

"It's a fucking disgrace."
-Didier Drogba, to millions of viewers worldwide following the most undeserved result this side of "Titanic" winning a best picture Oscar.

Now, for the fuck offs...

• Fuck off Tom Henning for being the most inept official since the one that handed out three yellows to a single player at the 06 World Cup.

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