1) Seattle…wow
Screw the David Beckham saga.  Seattle Sounders FC is THE story of the young season. I’ll get into a few more specific thoughts below, but let’s just remember that the last expansion team to start the season 2 and 0 went on to win the MLS cup that year (granted, in a weaker version of the league).  I feel the need to say that I was predisposed to hate the Sounders.  I was skeptical of the Ljungburg signing; I felt the stealing of Sigi Schmid from Columbus was a bit of a questionable move after he just helped that city win it’s first league trophy; having them play on a turf field that’s in a football first stadium; the fact that they’re in Seattle (which I have other sports issues with); and the fact that they basically swiped an NASL identity rather than create their own, although I have since reversed my feelings on this issue…bring in all the NASL identity’s you want.  It’s our professional heritage as a soccer country!  All this had me, uhh….let’s call it slightly put out with the Sounder expansion team when things first started.  But they have built a program up there that’s to be respected rather than slaping an expansion team together that’s prepared to fall back on the first year excuse.  And all props to Drew Carey, who is one of the best high-profile soccer fans in this country.  Little fact: he still holds his Galaxy season ticket despite being a minority owner of the Sounders because he lives in L.A. and wants to support his local team.  He’s good for this country’s soccer programs. He and the Sounders made the effort to woo the city and it’s fans first rather than just hoping they’d turn out.  They made it so that the city of Seattle identified with that team from the very start.  And they’re getting results to boot with two very convincing wins to start the season, one of them against a team who was in last year’s MLS cup, and another against a team many pick to make a run this year themselves.  After having watched the city embrace them, support them, and the model they’ve put together, I’m a converted fan.  I’m pulling for them for many reasons, not the least of which is if they are successful more expansion teams will aim to emulate their style and enthusiasm…and I don’t see how that could be a bad thing.

2) Columbus prettiest soccer in MLS?  Maybe, but here comes Seattle.
In watching most of the games in the first to weeks of this 2009 season I feel I can say with some confidence that the Columbus Crew, despite their tag of being the hardest working team in the MLS, also are currently deserving of the title of the prettiest soccer in the MLS as well.  Guillermo Barros Schelotto runs his mid-field with precision and confidence on the ball as well as a kind of player’s player mentality that just makes that team fun to watch.  I’m a huge MLS supporter, but even I recognize that the MLS has a ton of direct play, bypassing the midfield, and loose ball type play that gives it a few hard to watch games every year (by a few I mean more than half…and by that I mean a lot).  I love the physicality of the league, and the work ethic of the players, and the parity of the league, and the unpredictability of the way things bounce in the MLS, and the Revs…I love the Revs (although I’m super disappointed at Parkhurst’s departure…it’s taken something from being a Rev fan for me).  But when I want pretty soccer, I watch England’s Arsenal or Spain’s Barcelona.  Columbus is changing that a bit.  They are a hard working, good-looking soccer team.  Good for them, and I tip my soccer fan’s hat to them for that.
That being said, Sigi Schmid is putting together a pretty good-looking side in Seattle.  They were a bit frantic in the opening minutes, and even after a couple of goals, of the Red Bulls game.  But they showed some great flashes of slick play, a huge hunk of which came from the young Columbian, Freddy Montero.  Their second game against Real Salt Lake was a much more complete game from start to finish.  I was excited watching them play, their attacking runs, the way they controlled the ball and managed the game, which Ljumburg did very well upon his entry despite his high attacking expectations and the ho-hum response to his short performance.  He was smart and I, as a player, appreciated what he brought.  Rookie Steve Zakuani made a few overly long wasteful runs in which he covered a lot of ground only to get caught in a tight space and lose the ball, but brought it on enough occasions to warrant his continued selection.  If the expansion/inexperience blues don’t weight this team down over the run of the season, they’re going to continue to be effective, but more importantly they’re going to continue to be entertaining.

3) Hang on to Freddy Montero

This one’s no surprise really.  I don’t know what Montero’s contract deal is for, but I pray to the soccer-gods that it’s longer than a year, and that Seattle has the balls and brains to hang on to him as long as they can.  This kid’s been nothing short of brilliant in the first two games and he’s going to start to draw notice really quickly.  Someone who thinks they’re being business smart would say that when the high offers start coming in for Freddy Montero from overseas we should sell him and get bank for the kid early before he starts to decline or gets injured or something.  I say Seattle should go shopping for a second DP tag and hang on to this kid as long as is humanly possible.  He’s the kind of player that can galvanize entire fan-bases around him and his team.  He’ll put butts in the seats.  He’ll be remembered long after Ljumburg has ended his 1-2 year run, Keller has ended his 1-2 year run, and Seattle has lost it’s expansion buzz.  Other bright young talents will sign with MLS because of him as long as he’s here.  He’s the kind of player that the MLS needs to hang on to if it wants the level of play to go up.  Clint Dempsey, Jozy Altidore, Bobby Convey, Freddy Adu, and others were smart sells at the time because the league saw the benefit of the money to grow the league, and didn’t have quite enough swagger to pull off hanging on to them and their ambitions.  Montero represents the beginning of a new time period in MLS history.  He’s a smart, cheeky young player who’s come to the league from elsewhere in his prime as his announcement to the world.  Now’s the time to capitalize on his faith in the league to begin to hang on to these players and think about the product on the field.  A bold move like this would benefit the league long after any allocation money that would have been received for him would stop circulating.  I’m not stupid enough to think we won’t lose him eventually, but a year or two isn’t enough time to really allow what his actual playing impact can be to trickle down through-out the league.

4) NY reorganized to look disorganized
I’m shocked and disappointed that the NY Red Bulls revamp in the off-season has left them looking so disorganized and piss-poor so far this season.  Juan Carlos Osorio is looking less and less like the good coach he appeared to be with Chicago, and more and more like he doesn’t know what he’s doing.  In both their opening games so far they have looked like they were scrambling to figure out what the hell was going on in their defensive half, abandoned most of their midfield play, and had little to no possession on in the attacking third.  I sure hope they get it together or Juan Pablo Angel may decided he wants to go on loan somewhere in Europe this summer.

5) Houston and NE dominance over?
As much as it saddens me to say it, especially given my Rev’s trophy haul during this time, I believe Houston and New England may have seen one too many important players fly the coop than can be compensated for.  I believe both Dominic Kinnear and Steve Nicol are brilliant coaches, and I tag them both to dominate this league again with their team selection, but for now both the Revolution and the Dynamo look to be teams who are no longer set up to dominate this league.  They have both been unimpressive so far this season, and seem to be searching for answers in key positions.  Will Stuart Holden step up to lead the team and take some of the burden off Brian Ching?  Will stadium concerns and field concerns dog Houston all year?  Will Taylor Twellman and Steve Ralston come back with enough form to lift New England up by the bootstraps, and then continue to stay healthy?  Will Steve Nicol find someone or a combination of someones to replace the vital cog that Michael Parkhurst represented?  Can either team keep the ball on the ground long enough to actually create some flow to a game and therefore some decent attacking opportunities from the run of play rather than counter attacks and surprise chances?  These questions and many more will determine if we even see these two once dominant teams in the playoffs this year, but for now I certainly wouldn’t lay any money on seeing either of these two teams come out of the tunnel at Qwest field come MLS cup ’09.

So, in my post yesterday on the newly released US roster for the Cup qualifier on Wednesday against Mexico I stated that none of the inclusions or omissions surprised me because all of them related to problems I’ve had with the Nats since Bob Bradley took over. I wasn’t planning on writing this post so soon after saying that (I was planning on waiting until after the game to see if my complaints are even warranted), but I’ve been thinking about it since I said that and I’ve decided (or rather my impatience has decided) I just can’t wait.

My main problem around the Bob Bradley era version of the USMNT is actually a spill over from the Bruce Arena era, but it has been exacerbated by Bob. During the majority of Bruce Arena’s tenure he had Eddie Pope to call upon to play central defense. Pope proved on most occasions to be a smart, strong, speedy player who could hold our back line together as much with his brain as his brawn. He was a break from the long-standing mold of defenders produced in the United States that included Alexi Lalas, Marcelo Balboa, and Jeff Agoos, to name a few.  I hold Thomas Dooley to be an exception to this rule, but his memory went down in flames after he was asked to carry the world on his aged shoulders in the ‘98 debacle.  In 2006 Arena paired Pope with Oguchi Onyewu to create an interesting juxtaposition of playing styles in the middle of the field. It was an experiment that was never given time to adequately blossom. Teams took advantage of our weakness at outside back rather than play us down the middle, and Pope ended up red-carded for what ended up being out final game anyway. Pope’s retirement left us with some questions in the middle of the field…questions that fell to Bob Bradley to answer. Bob’s solution from the very beginning has been to use both Carlos Bocanegra and Oguchi Onyewu as the first choice pairing in all games of any consequence. Now, to be completely up front, I have no particular problem with either Boca or Gooch. They are both solid, gritty defenders who seem to lay it all out every time the step on the field. What I have a problem with is that they seem to be the exact same type of player. Both play in such a way that is more about strength and grit than reading the game, intelligence, or positioning. When I watch them play I see little finesse about our defense. Thank God for Tim Howard’s positioning genius and ability to play with intelligent reckless abandon. Just watch the Argentina friendly from a few months back to see how often he is forced to cover for them when their attempts to out-muscle leave them vulnerable to be split by a far more skilled player or players. These two are also largely responsible for the long-ball and counter-attack style that the US team plays. Instead of collecting the ball and being cool enough under pressure to give the midfielders a chance to check back, they tend to rid themselves of the ball with considerable gusto. This is a major reason why Brian McBride’s retirement was such a blow to the Nats, and why we continue to gripe about finding a player in his mold rather than developing a new system around the more ground-attacking minded squad we have. Our central defender’s tenancy to send the ball for a ride requires a forward who can collect long passes and hold the ball up long enough for the bypassed midfield to catch up.  Brian Ching, for all the flack he has caught for not being a major scoring threat since Bradley’s take over, is preferred by Bob for specifically these reasons, and is usually all alone when recieveing the ball.  This effectively takes him out of the attack on most plays because the defense has had time to organize and are usually keying on him because he’s the one holding the ball up to start the attack.

This is also part of our inability to use the wings to spread out another team.  Argentina spread us all over the field, as did England and Spain, as well as a host of other games I can think of in recent memory.  We have a few players who have come up through the system over the years who have been talented wingers, but wilted in long-run.  One of the reasons teams like England, Spain, the Netherlands, and even Mexico create such a broad pool of talented wide players is because they focus on that just as heavily as the center of the field.  The area you emphasize is the area that most readily develops.  What do we emphasize?  Defensive Midfielders.  What do we have a dearth of?  Exactly.  What does Brazil emphasize?  Attacking players.  Where have they always been vulnerable?  Defense and goalkeeping…it’s blindingly obvious.  Really, only DeMarcus Beasley has been a mainstay of the flank attack of the States with any kind of regularity, and even he has been in and out of form in long crests and troughs.  We simply don’t use the width of the field, and we rarely ever have.  Now we are resorting to using players who are not natural wide players to cover those positions, and get those players on the field (Donovan and Dempsey, anyone?).  But by puting these players who are vital cogs in our pool out there when we don’t use the wings, we are stranding skilled players away from the action and essentially taking them out of the game.  This all, of course, starts at the back.

(Wasted wide talent…)

The solution I’ve long been proposing has been bringing in and developing another group of central defenders that are cut from a different cloth.  Both Jay DeMerit and Michael Parkhurst are the type of players we should be looking at.  Michael, although often considered a bit undersized (despite his abundant success in face of the very physical play of the MLS), is a brilliant defender who makes his own success out of his ability to read the game, involve the midfield in the game, and his ability to position himself to break up the play before it happens.  DeMerit has had an up and down time with the Nats and with his current squad in the English Championship, but has been impressive in the few game situations he’s been asked to perform in.

And this leads into my third major gripe with the Bob Bradley version of the men’s national system.  Players who are seen as having “potential” are given very few chances to actually grow inside the system.  Most players called up on any regular basis have established themselves in one way or another.  Onyewu, Bocanegra, Cherundolo, Ching, Dempsey, Donovan, Howard, Beasley, and a small handful of others that have been given repeated call-ups paid their dues under Arena’s system.  The rest of the supporting cast has been called up on a somewhat rotational basis that makes only passing sense to anyone outside looking in.  If you believe the BB method, there is a huge talent pool in the United States, the second tier of which is either completely interchangable talent-wise or is so bad that we can’t seem to find adequate parts.  And whatever explanation you chose the general belief seems to be that they need to spend no time developing players at the national level.  Now, I don’t know about you, but the amount of actual playing time I see most of the fringe players (and some of our other regulars as well) in leagues outside of the MLS would suggest that their clubs aren’t spending too much time actually “developing” them.  I think that for the United States Soccer Federation to ignore internal development (which, let’s be honest, has kind of always been the policy…”Oh, let’s just let someone else worry about creating our players”) seems kind of blind and negligent. Freddy Adu and Jozy Altidore, along with Kenny Cooper, DeMerit, and Parkhurst have been the most glaringly obvious victims of this policy.

And this has been where the recent regeime has fallen down on us.  No one is going to develop our players for us.  Donald Rumsfeld once said you don’t go to war with the army you want, you go with the one you have.  Well, Donald and Bob are both thinking this way, and they are both wrong.  You go to war with the army you build.  Bob is playing, not with the team he inherited or the pool he’s got available to him, but with the one he’s building.  But he’s not conciously building one…and I believe it shows in the results.

With the real regional competition beginning this Wednesday for Africa, Bob Bradley and the USMNT’s every move will be analyzed and broken down from here to infinity until after that looming stage in ‘10.  Make no mistake about it, this is where the hard work starts…in a manner of speaking.  It was never really a question that the US would walk through to this point.  Any 12 year old in AYSO could tell you that the United States has at least advanced to a level where CONCACAF offers little to no resistance to the American’s attempts to qualify for for the quadrennial finals of the World Cup.  An honest observer would tell you that for a long time it has really been only Mexico that has offered any true challenge.  Now, let’s not get caught up in believing the US hype here and think this will be a walk for the Americans (who have dominated the series recently with an 9-2-2 in the last 13 meetings).  For whatever reasons you decide to believe, the US has had Mexico’s number recently.  But there is an electricity surrounding this game…it’s different from a lot of the meetings in recent past.

The rivalry had begun to feel a little stale due to the number of times the teams have played recently coupled with the fact that most all of these games have been played here in the States.  But this meeting is far from an also-ran.  There has been real fan pride lash-out on a lot of sites that are discussing the upcoming game.  Mexico seems to be on an upswing after a run of bad news.   And the US roster came out today after a long delay.

The roster looks like this:

GOALKEEPERS: Tim Howard, Brad Guzan

DEFENDERS: Oguchi Onyewu, Carlos Bocanegra, Frankie Hejduk, Heath Pearce, Dan Califf, Jonathan Bornstein, Marvell Wynne

MIDFIELDERS: DaMarcus Beasley, Michael Bradley, Sacha Kljestan, Jose Francisco Torres, Ricardo Clark, Robbie Rogers

FORWARDS: Landon Donovan, Clint Dempsey, Brian Ching, Jozy Altidore, Charlie Davies

This roster will make up the game roster apart from two more omissions.  Of course, every time Jozy Altidore is included in a US roster these days the blogosphere explodes with people clamoring for him to start.  And the opposite holds true for Brian Ching, with his detractors coming out of the woodwork in spades.  It will be very interesting to see how Bradley chooses to deploy his troops this time.  I suspect the US will take the field looking something like this:

GK: T Howard

RB: F Hejduk         CB: O Onyewu            CB: C Bocanegra      LB: H Pearce

RM: L Donovan       CM: S Kljestan     CM: M Bradley        LM: D Beasley

ACM: C Dempsey

F: B Ching

This line-up will play in Bradley’s favored 4-5-1 with Dempsey pushing forward at times and Ching falling deep into the midfield to receive the ball at times.  The two spots that are difficult to call are the left back, the trouble spot in the roster, and the possible positions of Clint Dempsey and Landon Donovan.  I believe Bradley will use Donovan on the right wing due to his use there at Bayern Munich as of late.  I could see Johnathon Bornstein being used at left back instead of Heath Pearce (Bradley shows an odd preference for him there), but Pearce has put in the most quality minutes there recently.  In a game of this caliber I just can’t see him giving the nod to Bornstein considering his recent length of time out of the National Team picture.

The issues I have with this roster are ones that I’ve had with the National Team rosters in general since Bradley took over (that’s for another post), so none of these inclusions or omissions come as a surprise.  I expect Robbie Rogers (due to his form against Sweden) and Charlie Davis to be the final victims of roster trimming before Wednesday.

I actually expect a close match due to the degree of competitiveness that the Mexican team is bringing on this particular occasion, combined with their close shaves in qualifying prior to this.  I think they’re out to prove something this time.  In the end however, I think the cold weather of Columbus and the cool preparation of Bob Bradley are going to have us in a position to win come late in the game.  I believe we will weather an initial storm early in the game after the Mexican’s get their legs warm, and then jump on them after half time.  We will probably own most of the second half, but we will surely drop off late in the game and be forced to bunker in.  I suspect Jozy Altidore will come on in near the 45 minute mark if we’re down or in a deadlock.  If we’re up late, I don’t expect to see him at all.  I just don’t see Bob Bradley having the confidence in him to give him the starting nod, but that also is the subject of another post.

My prediction – 2-1 US wins in a nail-biter by hanging on through the 96th minute (lots of fouls and lots of cards will give us a good hunk of stoppage time.)

The 6-1 blowout of the Cuban National team by the US Men’s team is no real surprise, especially after several player “failed to show up” for the game.  The real story is the amount of production and the look of desire in the eyes of several players.  The score sheet on the national team has been full of names lately, from the superstars to the defensive line.  I love to see our boys kicking butt and taken names.  During the World Cup of 2006, our boys were tentative and reserved.  I put the blame on the over all offensive strategy at the time.  This WCQ season had me worried when they set up with a 4-5-1 set up.  I rarely have ever seen this structure be productive, consistently anyway.  Well, I now have to re-evaluate that analysis, because Bob Bradley has set the team in a very productive posture.

USMNT. Vs. Cuba

I have been singing the praises of Brian Ching long before he was a starter on the national squad (mostly due the fact that I’m from Houston).  Now he has been put into a position on the national team that suits his skill set perfectly.  As a holding/strong forward, he has been able to open the play for all the teams offensive threats, as well as being the point man for the team’s impressive crossing abilities.  Ching, lastly, has been annoying to defenses by always being around the back line putting pressure on the ball.  He does all things a forward should do, and he is doing it in most cases alone.

Bradley, Ching, and Kljestan

Oguchi Onyewu has been a mixed bag in international affairs.  His size has been an advantage due to the shear strength he posses. Yet, it is that size and strength that has him being a focus of fouls against offensive runs.  He seems to have been able to balance his skills of late.  His size has allowed him to be a great focal point in set plays, and he has been able to cut off offensive runs and kicks that would go past smaller defenders.  The strength he puts into the game is opening up play and providing confidence in the defensive line.

Jozy Altidore is a star that is rising very fast.  This youth player turned million dollar man is going to be a starter on the national team by 2010, and I don’t make predictions lightly.  His skill to open up play at the top of the field is amazing.  The speed and ball control he uses is getting more polished every year, and the international experience he will be getting will increase his rate of improvement.  I just hope he doesn’t push my boy Ching to the bench.

Altidore making it look easy

Lastly, DaMarcus Beasley has returned to his past glory, and this time he has the experience to be scary to defenses.  A few years ago it looked like Beasley was the shell of the man he used to be.  His injuries affected his game-play aggressiveness, as well as his frame of mind.  DaMarcus played scared most of the time.  He was fouled almost every time he touched the ball.  I don’t blame defenses for this, he is a speed demon and has a shot not to be underestimated.  He showed that to Cuba by scoring twice, and almost slammed in a third.  His history with Landon Donovan is storied, and the future looks even more amazing.

Welcome back Beasley!!!

I’m a junkie for goal scoring opportunities, and the 6-1 beat down of Cuba was candy on top of my chocolate syrup all over my ice cream.  Keep it up guys, and never loose that hunger for success.  Never be afraid to take the shot, and never ever think the other team is better then you are.

When I originally envisioned this particular posting it was before the WC qualifiers had started.  I didn’t write it then because there were simply too many unknown quantities.  For instance, while I’m in complete support of bringing in players like Kenny Cooper, Jozy Altidore, and Freddy Adu into the mix of the first team because of the flashes they have shown when given the chance (or in Cooper’s case the sheer dominance he has displayed in his current goal-scoring form), but I hesitate to create a mental ‘best-case-scenario’ line up that includes them because we just don’t know.  The reality is that we as fans can only evaluate the effectiveness of players that Bradley Sr. actually chooses to play.  To assert otherwise is simply armchair arrogance.

What has prompted me to return to the idea of this article is my own internal need to comment on what I’ve been seeing happen in these initial stages of qualifying.   Wednesday night’s win against Trinidad and Tobago, and I’m not trying to take anything away from the T&T squad, but the win showed a level of play that I feel we should have been at MONTHS ago.  Our current attacking philosophy feels disjointed at best.  I think our reliance on the 4-5-1 type of formation doesn’t take advantage of the mindset that American players need to be groomed to have.  Our national team players are being drilled in a philosophy that, I think, is supposed to be defense-first and tactically sound, but instead is looking like conservatism-first.  Our players don’t seem to be playing with fire and determination.  Our players are picked apart on an individual basis because they don’t play with the fire of a combined unit.

I would advocate that the time has come for some tough love with players who only show ‘potential’.  Eddie Johnson, Brian Ching, Michael Bradley, and even Donovan, Bocanegra, and Beasley, and Dempsey need to be pulled out when their form is not good.  It hurts me to say that because I’ve always been a staunch supporter of allowing players to play through bad form.  But there’s an air of complacency that seems to have settled over the national team, which is ironic given the seeming hesitance of Bob Bradley to call up or field the same squad in repeated performances.

Landon Donovan was quoted after the Cuba game as saying, “”Something that gets overlooked is the goal is to win the game.  The goal is not to win the game 3-0 or 4-0, the goal is to win the game. Once you score a goal and if you’re winning in qualifying, the job then is to make sure the other team doesn’t score.  It’s not always as simple as, `Go attack, go attack, go attack.’  The goal is to win the game.”

In a way, he’s only half right.  The LARGER goal is to win the game.  And no, it doesn’t matter if the score is 1-0 or 10-0.  But this mentality ignores all the other things that go into the game…like focusing on maintaining position, possession, good shape, discipline, and playing with tangible grit.  If you take care of the game, the result will take care of itself.  Right now the USMNT is playing a reactive game.  This will not allow them to grow as a squad.

So what are my personal suggestions?  I would like to see the calm passing out of the back and good positioning of either Jay Demerit or Michael Parkhurst replace Carlos Bocanegra in the back-center of the park to offset the unquestionable physical and mental grit gifts of Oguchi Onyewu, who doesn’t truly provide those passing/positioning options. I would like to see us move away from the two-holding midfielder system OR (radical idea) play 3 across the back and add that extra to the attack while maintaining a duel-holding midfield presence.  I would like to see Bradley Sr. look at his playmaker options and develop that role within the US system.  I think it’s time to call up those I mentioned in the beginning of the article and allow them to develop IN the system rather than waiting until players appear to be the complete package.  I think it’s time to stop looking for a replacement to Brian McBride and start developing a coherent philosophy based around the players we have now.  We need to purposefully use the wings more and develop a true role for what we want those on the wings doing.  Given that we have very few true out-and-out wingers in the US national system (Beasley and Cherundolo are the only ones that come to mind) we need to create a clear idea of what our wingers do in the system because anyone we play out there is out of position and obviously no one has shown the instincts to play the position dangerously.

Just my two cents…

The second half was available on nation TV on ESPN, while the first half was cut due to a WNBA game that went into triple over time. See my views on that in the previous blog. Otherwise:

The 2008 El Capitan title is still up for grabs. The first two times these teams meet this season ended in 2-2 and 3-3 draws. This game ended in a 1-1 draw (I wonder if the next game will 0-0). The game started out with a new structure for the Dynamo, with De Rosario as a forward, and Stuart Holden as the offensive center midfield. This was obviously put it place due to no other strong offensive options. This also allows for a strong outer midfield threats from Davis and Mullen feeding in to Ching and DeRo. On the other side of the pitch, Dallas is adjusting to their new head coach who was going into their second game together. This new coach is putting more effort into the offense, by switching from a four man back to three and having five in the midfield. Cooper and Toja, for Dallas, were set as key target players, as they should be. Cooper, unfortunately, did not have a quality partner up front to hold off the Houston defense. So here’s my game break down:

First Half– The opening play was dominated by the attacking Houston Dynamo(aptly named according to the numbers), with several corner kicks with in the first 20 minutes. Then, in the 21st minute, after several attempts Craig Waibel crossed in to Brian Ching and scored a well placed header. Houston continued to dominate all aspects of game play (again according to the numbers) throughout the first half. And that’s all I have for the first half, again due to lack of TV broadcast (Jeremiah may have more to add this analysis).

Second Half– Dallas was limited to playing on their heels until the 58th minute, when Kenny Cooper stopped looking ineffectual and started looking like the scoring machine he could be. Juan Toja looked much older and slower then last year, perhaps due to the strong defensive shell that Houston created. Then, Dallas showed why this game is considered a strong rivalry. The Houston defense throughout the game likes to push forward and contribute to the offensive push. Dallas found that they could take advantage of the gaps this left in the back line. Toja used his speed to angle behind the midfield and catch a hole in the defensive line, then crossed in a nice angle to Cooper who evened it up in the 62nd minute. The well played game started to get really aggressive after that, and in the 68th minute Dallas’ Serioux received the first yellow card to stop a fast break. Then, in the 76th minute, Dallas’ Ricchetti tackled Holden from behind as he broke free from the defensive line and received a yellow card. This foul was contriversal due to the fact that Holden was free and clear to take a shot, therefore Ricchetti should have received a red card. Lastly, in the 82nd minute, Dallas’ Saragosa received a yellow card for tackling DeRo from behind, and then DeRo pulled Saragosa up off the ground and shoved him back granting himself a yellow card as well. This display of frustration by DeRo was a perfect sign of the lack of production on the Houston side. The Dallas defense in the second half stayed off repeated Dynamo opportunities. Over and over again the Dynamo could not maximize the chances they were producing, their new line up needs to practice together a little more to get their timing and distribution back on track. FC Dallas goal keeper Dario Sala did make the play of the game in the 85th minute, when he jumped over the entire Dynamo offensive attack and punch out a free kick into the box. This play was the last quality attack by Houston and Dallas controlled the tempo from that point on till the closing whistle.

The story of the game comes down to lack of finishing touches by Houston, and not creating enough chances for Dallas. Brad Davis, Bobby Boswell, Marcelo Saragosa, and Adrain Serioux were the horses this game rested on and they worked hard to keep their teams in the game all the way through.

Game Highlights from ESPN:

http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/video/videopage?categoryId=null&brand=null&videoId=3463105&n8pe6c=2

http://web.mlsnet.com/media/player/mp_tpl.jsp?w=mms%3A//a1503.v115042.c11504.g.vm.akamaistream.net/7/1503/11504/v0001/mlbmls.download.akamai.com/11504/2008/open/gp/06/062608_fcdhou_gp_350.wmv&w_id=22062&catCode=game_packages&type=v_free&_mp=1

Thursday June 12th, we get the best match of the weekend. New England Revolution vs. Houston Dynamo pits the beast of the East with the rising thunder from the West, not to mention another replay of the last two title cups. It’s no doubt that the Dynamo started this season off badly. Due to several issues, the team was not focused on the MLS season on day one. Houston has recently shown why they should never be counted out. With a strong win against Toronto FC 3-1, Houston has rebounded from a rough start that included several ties, and few victories. Yet, it was the ties that kept them in the hunt. Unlike, DC United who lost most of their opening games, yet has the same number of wins.

New England, on the other hand, has been on a winning run and has the team to go all the way to the Championship, again. The Revs are ready to battle and take the title rematch just like they did in March, when they won 3-0 against the Dynamo. I have my favorites in this game and I’m looking forward to a battle with spectacular shoots on goal. Can the Ching-DeRo combo beat the Twellman-Ralston combo, or will it come down to a new rising star like Holden or Castro.

This is why I love this game.

In anticipation of tonight’s US/Argentina friendly in New Jersey (7:30 pm Eastern Time, ESPN Classic) I thought I’d throw out my prediction. I actually have two based on the way the US comes out to play. If the MNT comes out and plays an attacking game that includes Donovan, Cooper, and Adu in the attack I could see us playing to a 1-1 or 2-2 draw (let’s be honest, we’re not gonna keep Messi and Co. off the board). I’m a little more than interested in what happened to Brian Ching in the player pool, and would have loved to see him in the mix for the game tonight as an attacking option. If the MNT comes out and plays the duel holding midfielders role and lays back the way we have been against Spain and England, I think we loose 2-0 or even 3-0. The most important thing I’m looking for in this game is that the US SCORES! We’ve been shut out in both of the last two friendlies. We’re playing at home, we’ve got better attacking options than we’ve had in the last two, and we should be royally pissed off at this point. To be honest, I see a mix of what I said above happening, and we lose 2-1…but I sure hope I’m proved wrong.

P.S. – If Eddie Johnson plays, I think we lose 3-1.