posted by kidpurple
June 20, 2007
The Fire fired long time head coach Dave Sarachan today and put his assistant in charge temporarily.
What is next for the Fire?
Maybe they’ll try to get Matthaus to come coach them unsuccessfully and then just leave Hamlet in charge.
posted by kidpurple
June 18, 2007
Well I got one game right, and it was the important game. USA beat Panama 2-1. My memories of Panama showed to be right on. They looked like cheap-shot and diving artists. I thought maybe the team had changed since we last saw them, but aparently not. Oh well, their Gold Cup is over and ours goes on.
Now we get Canada who has looked pretty impressive in the few highlights I’ve managed to catch of them. Surprising in the other group Guadeloupe has advanced to the semi-finals and will face Mexico who needed extra time to beat Costa Rica. My prediction has Honduras facing Costa Rica in that semi-final.
Now I guess I have to cheer for a USA-Mexico final, although it would be sweet to see Guadeloupe beat Mexico before taking 2nd place to the USA. A USA-Mexico final would be more exciting and emotional.
posted by kidpurple
June 13, 2007
As far as I can tell this is going to be how the rest of the tournament is set up.
Canada
Guatemala
USA
Panama
Honduras
Guadeloupe
Mexico
Costa Rica
This makes some exciting matchups in the first round. Mexico and Costa Rica would have been expected to have the first place positions coming out of the group stage, but now they have to face each other right away. I’m sure both of them would have preferred other opponents.
Honduras might have the easiest time in this first round, but I really don’t know anything about Guadeloupe.
Panama is hardly worthy of a 3rd place position, they could have eassily won that group. After 2 red cards agains mexico they will be feeling that in their match vs the United States, which they will lose very convincingly.
Canada and Guatemala could be a very good game. I don’t know a lot about either team so this one is hard to pick.
So this is how my 2nd round is looking:
Guatemala
USA
Honduras
Costa Rica
I can’t imagine Honduras will have any better luck against us in the semi-finals than they did in the group stage. Easy US victory. Honduras is not ready to compete with the elite of CONCACAF but they are close. Costa Rica in a close one.
That leaves the United States and Costa Rica to battle it out in the final. You know who I’m gonna pick here! We successfully defend our Gold Cup!
posted by kidpurple
June 13, 2007
On Saturday Tyrone Marshall and the Galaxy took on FC Dallas. Marshall made a hard tackle on Kenny Cooper which broke his leg, earned a red card for Marshall, and now today he’s been traded to Toronto FC for Edson Buddle.
Thanks a lot Tyrone, you broke the leg of one of my fantasy guys. He hadn’t been doing much for me recently anyway.
Now Marshall has to serve a 3 game suspension to start his career at Toronto FC. It isn’t the best way to start out at a new team, but it probably isn’t the worst either. Just a few weeks ago just starting a career at TFC would have been bad enough, but today it seems that would be a better deal than starting a career with the LA Galaxy. Maybe LA will get everything turned around in July? Maybe not?
posted by kidpurple
June 12, 2007
As everyone knows David Beckham will be here in less than a months time now. Over at the 3rd Degree some rules were set down for his much anticipated arrival. I would really like to add one to the list:
Talking about anything other than Mr. Beckham in any pre or post game interview: 1 game
That goes for all teams, not just the teams playing against the Galaxy that day.
Good list!
posted by kidpurple
June 11, 2007
The Rapids also took on the Chinese national team last nite after they lost to Real Salt Lake of all teams. Too bad for RSL they can’t beat any other MLS teams. Well the Rapids fielded a team of mostly reserves that lost 2-1 to China.
I’m not here to write about the game. I didn’t see it and I don’t know much about it. But more importantly right now is the title of best soccer blog headline from the Rapids blog at The Offside:
posted by kidpurple
June 10, 2007
The United States has been doing okay. Points-wise they couldn’t be any better, 6 points for 2 games and haven’t given up a goal yet. They could have been more impressive in their wins, but they are still wins!
As a fan of US Soccer, i have to say hahahahahahahahaha.
Okay, That group is home to 3 of my least favorite teams around the region. Mexico our rivals, Honduras is home to my least favorite player ever, and I just remember Panama being a real cheap, dirty, diving, faking injury type of team during World Cup qualifying leading up to Germany 2006. So I hope Cuba somehow wins the group and they decide to only take one team from that group. Unfortunately Cuba will probably finish up in last place.
How great would a USA vs Mexico final be though? What would your ideal final be?
posted by kidpurple
June 10, 2007
After initially writing about the supposed escape clause in David Beckham’s contract with the LA Galaxy I found a more reliable source. In this article Lalas claims that there is no escape clause and he fully expects Beckham to show up on time just as expected before the comments from Real Madrid’s president earlier today.
Supposedly Beckham’s agent has said there is no intention to do anything other than come to the Galaxy after the season in Spain is over.
I guess that answers that.
posted by kidpurple
June 10, 2007
There are rumors floating around that Beckham may have an escape clause of some sort in his contract with the Los Angeles Galaxy that would allow him to stay in Europe and basically cancel his contract with the Galaxy.
The president of Real Madrid was talking at the French Open final today about trying to persuade Beckham to stay at Real Madrid and not go to the Galaxy at the end of their season next weekend.
I have no idea how much of this is rumor and how much is real. I would think it is un-likely that Beckham would end up anywhere other than LA in July. What do you think? What are the chances he backs out of his Galaxy contract, if there even is any such escape clause?
posted by kidpurple
June 10, 2007
A Few weeks back Houston sent Alejandro Moreno to Columbus in exchange for Joseph Ngwenya. Today the two teams faced off against each other for the first time. Ngwenya scored the first goal of the game, but aparently Moreno was not feeling like he wanted to be on that end of the trade, so a short 3 minutes later he tied the game up. Only a few minutes later Houston Dynamo got the game winning own goal for the 2-1 victory over the Columbus Crew.
