Someone from Nigeria recently visited our little soccer blog. Nigeria is Africa's most populous nation and boasts one of the best teams. The senior team is known as the Super Eagles. The Olympic team claimed gold at the 1996 Atlanta Games. Nigeria has a lot of impressive players, and Newcastle striker Obafemi Martins is a favorite of mine.
1. Columbus Crew - Sigi Schmid and his team reap rewards of sticking together and developing these past couple of years 2. FC Dallas - No Toja available, but Arturo Alvarez and Co. prove their worth on the road. 3. Kansas City - Top of the table, but Chicago had so many chances to tie, it seems a bit of a fluke 4. New England - The Revs grit out an undermanned draw on the road. 5. Chicago Fire - The basic concept of ball into net eluded Chicago on numerous occasions 6. Colorado Rapids - Rapids get reality check - the rest of the West is better than early results indicated 7. Toronto FC - Team is finally developing to the squad fans deserve - now about that field surface. . . 8. Chivas USA - The good - Kljestan and Mendoza return next game. The bad - Still so many injured. 9. Los Angeles Galaxy - This team is going to suffer when Donovan and Beckham leave for international games. 10. Real Salt Lake - Losing to a team with less MLS seniority always adds salt to the wound. 11. New York - At home, a man up, leading with a beautiful goal by Altidore, give up equalizer. 12. San Jose - It's alive! Quakes 2.0 prove they can score and win. 13. Houston Dynamo - The Dynamo produced a sublime first half of soccer, but at the end of four games, are winless. 14. DC United - The team that won the 2007 regular season made the most changes in personnel - that's looking like a mistake.
1. Kansas City (3-1-1). Made early goal stand on the road. 2. FC Dallas (2-0-2). See above. 3. Chicago (2-1-1). Generated offense but finishing let them down. 4. Columbus (3-1-0). Surging Eastern power. 5. Houston (0-1-3). Strong side coming together. 6. New England (2-2-1). Down a man, overcame deficit. 7. Colorado (2-2-0). Squandered chance to gain valuable home points. 8. Chivas USA (1-2-1). Lack of intensity puzzling. 9. Toronto FC (2-2-0). Reds' midfield leading charge up table. 10. New York (1-1-1). Angel injur may im 11. Los Angeles (1-2-1). Could have done more. 12. San Jose (1-2-0). 'Quakes officially back. 13. Real Salt Lake (1-2-1). Maybe 4-0 win was a fluke. 14. DC United (1-3-0). Bottom has fallen out on DC.
I've always wanted to road trip the Americas myself. From Canada to Argentina, that would be sweet. You also only basically need to know three languages most of the way - English, Spanish, and Portuguese. I'm actually ok in all three.
Oh, and I was there the day they shot this commercial. See me in the Brazil jersey at the very end in the corner?
Kidding, though I've always been told I look a bit Brazilian. I was at the HDC when they were shooting the commercial, but I just passed by the whole production on my way to do interviews.
5- GOAL! Kenny Cooper on a feed from Ricardinho. He's chasing Donovan for the Golden Boot with four this season. Poor start for Chivas USA, but their home form is legendary. 7 - Maykel Galindo has the ball in the box, but doesn't keep it in close control and Sala scoops it up. 9 - Of course, it was probably too much to expect that the changes in the roster due to injury wouldn't affect Chivas USA. Cooper offsides. 11 - Galindo goes down outside the box, no call. That late afternoon shadow makes the game tough to watch on TV. It's probably not easy to play with, either. 14 - Well, today we've already seen a team make an early tally hold up - KC won 1-0 versus the Fire. I think this game has more goals in it, though. We shall see. 16 - Suarez is back, and he fouls Ricardinho for a Dallas FK. McCarty (Flecha Roja) stands over it. Not a great service, Chivas USA safely clears. 19 - Dulio Davino stops a Chivas USA counter by holding up Childs. The FK is cleared, but Chivas USA gets a corner. It leads to another corner, but that one is cleared. 23 - Guzan is out for the ball, but doesn't quite get ahold of it. Dallas doesn't take advantage, though. 25 - Alvarez in the box, but he gets stymied by the Chivas USA defense. Pozniak did well there. 27 - Justin Braun misses in front of the box - first his header is off, then he can't latch on to Galindo's cross. 31 - Chivas USA corner, Sala come out to punch it, a shot rebounds off a Dallas defender, FC survives Sala leaving an empty net for a moment. 35 - Braun is down and Terry Vaughn keeps the card in his pocket. 36 - Long free throw from Serioux goes to the box, but the Dallas header goes wide. 38 - Dallas is enjoying possession, rotating the ball around, but not really generating an attack. Galindo picks off a pass and generates a counter just on his own. His speed beat Davino, but his shot is from a tough angle and is over the bar. 39 - Galindo again - shoots over the goal. 43 - Boy, Chivas USA will be really glad to have Kljestan back for the SuperClassico next week. 44 - CK, Chivas - Childs takes it, then gets to a pass to take a shot on goal that forces Sala into a diving parry. 45 - Another CK for Chivas. Davino and Suarez are in a duel on these corners. Halftime - all the new players having trouble gelling for Chivas USA. FC Dallas hasn't been sparkling, but they've been effective. 65 - Connection probs, but the score is still the same. Rocha coming back on the field after taking a knock. Galindo picks up a yellow for a late tackle. 66 - CK for Chivas USA, but they haven't made the ten previous ones pay off. This one doesn't either - Sala punches it out through traffic. 68 - Davino has knocked balls out for corners a lot of times. He's unafraid of thatoption as a safe play. Chivas USA can't take advantage of this latest one, either. 71 - Abe Thompson is in for Ricardinho. 73 - Off a deep FT on the wing caused by the run of Braun, Galindo gets the ball and passes in front of goal. Sala is out for it and hangs on, even as Atiba Harris slides into him. 76 - Rocha's long pass caught by Guzan. 79 - The pace of this game has dropped off considerably. Galindo earns another corner. Sala catches it. 80 - GOAL! The fresh legs of Abe Thompson run down a long, insightful pass behind the defense from Arturo Alvarez. Shavar Thomas chases Abe down, but then slips trying to make a play on the ball. Guzan has come out, but Abe coolly slots the ball past him. TIP - If you're having trouble with you MLSLive feed, try minimizing the window and then putting it back. I don't know why, but it works for me. 86 - Bornstein to Razov a bit off. 87 - Brock Shea's first pass int MLS goes to the other side. He came on for Blake Wagner. 90 - Razov! He hits a scintillating scissor kick that gets past everyone in the box except for the immovable post. Yikes. That would have been such a pretty consolation goal. There just doesn't seem to be much urgency in the Chivas USA attack. I don't mean just at the game's end, but throughout the match. Granted, the minutes I missed could have been voracious attacking soccer. Suarez with a final shot in the box. It's wide. Final whistle. 2-0 Dallas takes the lead in the West.
Chivas USA: Brad Guzan; Jonathan Bornstein, Shavar Thomas, Claudio Suarez, Chris Pozniak; Kraig Chiles, Paulo Nagamura, Jesse Marsch, Lawson Vaughn; Justin Braun, Maykel Galindo.
FC Dallas: Dario Sala; Blake Wagner, Adrian Serioux, Duilio Davino, Drew Moor; Arturo Alvarez, Marcelo Saragosa, Andre Rocha, Dax McCarty; Kenny Cooper, Ricardinho.
For Chivas, some things of note:
- Lawson Vaughn didn't train with the team on Wednesday but apparently showed enough in three days afterward to merit a start. He's playing on the right side of the midfield as Chris Pozniak stays on the backline.
- Ante Razov is on the bench. Razov hadn't practice in several weeks but returned to the training field on Wednesday. My guess is he plays part of the second half.
- Raphael Wicky is not on the bench.
- Jorge Flores returned from Portugal and is in uniform.
Now that the women know their Olympic group for the Games, it's as good a time as any to look back at their qualifying triumph. Here's a YouTube clip of the moment Nicole Barnhart's stop secured the Olympic qualifying title for the U.S.
Right now, your guess is as good as mine. Landon didn't appear in the post-game press event, though he scored twice. He was hustled off to some pre-arranged appearance, so no reporters were able to ask him what he said to Pat Ianni. There's a Landon quote in my espn.com piece because a Galaxy press official recorded a couple of statements on the game from Landon before he left. So what is that best guess that people have on what he said? I'm curious as to who might figure it out. I'll ask Landon about it when I can.
We had 131 people vote in our poll about who stood a better chance of winning on Saturday. Only 13 voters - a meager nine percent - thought San Jose had the better chance of winning as on overwhelming 70 percent went with Houston to beat the Galaxy. I, ahem, was part of the majority, I must admit.
I'm at 50 percent myself this weekend - had the Rapids and Dynamo each winning by two. But I took New England and New York to tie and had Toronto beating RSL in a close game, so I may have made some bettors money after all. We'll see if Chicago comes through for me.
So technically Houston is the last winless team in the league but the two-time champs have three points in four games and they're not hitting the panic button at all.
Both Beckham and Ruud Gullit went out of their way to praise the fan response at the Home Depot Center. I personally think the supporters were a bit taken aback at the shaky play of the Galaxy in the first half, but like the team, they rallied in the second half, led by the Riot Squad, Galaxians and Angel City Brigade groups. They were shouting encouragement and bringing a new emotional element to the match even before the Galaxy tied. My favorite part is still the upperdeck stomping. Someone sent me an email about the "drums" at a certain time in the match - people, there are a few drums at games, but that really deep reverberation is the upper deck fans stomping. The crowd was frustrated at the end, though, because it did look like Edson Buddle scored and the linesman just missed it.
The final match of Week 4 promises to be an entertaining affair as FC Dallas visits Chivas USA. The hosts will carry quite a bit of injuries into the match and have a pair of players suspended as well.
Just taking a guess here but I'm thinking this is how Chivas will line up:
Brad Guzan; Jonathan Bornstein, Claudio Suarez, Shavar Thomas, Eric Ebert; Keith Savage, Jesse Marsch, Paulo Nagamura, Chris Pozniak; Atiba Harris, Maykel Galindo.
Ebert had a nightmare game last week but I think Pozniak needs to slide into the right side of the midfield with Sacha Kljestan's absence. Suarez should return to the starting lineup relegating Jim Curtin to the bench.
It will be a tough match for the hosts as FC Dallas has played well this season. I didn't make a pick on this game in my weekly previews but with this sort of banged-up roster I think a draw would be a bit of an accomplishment.
I actually thought Ianni was doing well for himself. He was in good position and seemed to do well with Bobby Boswell in the center of the Dynamo's defense. But ultimately Donovan was too tough. Still, I think their "feud" would have played out better in the future had they not exchanged jerseys after the game because now the next time they meet it's a non-issue.
I really like this sweater. It's a great color. I didn't ask Becks where he got it, though, or I'd be the candidate for "Most Bizarre Becks Question" at the press conference. The reporters were talking before he appeared about how Beckham brings out some kooky questions, especially in the last two sessions. We wondered who might continue the trend. No one did, actually. All the questions were on point and not weird.
Here's the reaction sidebar I wrote early this morning. I fell asleep before espn.com posted it. I'm curious, though, about the reaction among our regular readers - you guys know I love your opinions. Post what you thought of the game (I know some already have, I'm just encouraging any shy ones to speak up).
Actually, Dom Kinnear was very reasonable post-game, but he does have a cold, or the flu, so his voice sounded funny. I apologize for the shaky video. My digital recorder wasn't turning on, so I was trying to figure out what was wrong with it even as I held the camera. Turns out I had put the battery in backwards.
Steve Cronin did well for himself on Saturday. He made some clutch saves that kept the Galaxy in the game. Perhaps it's a sign that he's coming into his own. Still, it wasn't good enough for the full three points though as the Galaxy tied 2-2.
Rode in the elevator to the presser with a bunch of Galaxy guys, Ruiz, Alvaro Pires, and basically all the Galaxy guys who didn't dress. "I wonder what Landon said to Patrick," Julian Valentin wondered out loud. So do I, Jules.
