TYH'S MLS BEST 11 (Week 23)

GOALKEEPER

M. Pickens (CHI)

DEFENDERS

S. Thomas (CHV), A. Serioux (DAL), W. Conde(CHI)

MIDFIELDERS

P. Vagenas (LA), S. Kljestan (CHV), C. Ashe (HOU),
J. Moreno(DC)

FORWARD

L. Emilio (DC), N. Jacqua (HOU), M.Galindo(CHV)

Brazilians wax USMNT, 4-2

The U.S. managed to hold a one-goal lead over the five-time World Cup Champions for exactly 12 minutes, before U.S. defender Oguchi Onyewu handed Brazil an equalizing own goal. Three goals in the second half, including a trademark Ronaldinho free kick, sealed the deal.

With over 43,000 people on hand at Soldier Field in Chicago, Fulham capatain Carlos Bocanegra put the Yanks on top in the 21st minute with a chest ball, off a Landon Donovan corner kick. The equalizer came qucikly after, as Tim Howard's fantastic reaction save one-v-one against Kaka, bounced off the Gooch and past his helpless keeper.

DaMarcus Beasley had his requisite number of wasted chances, before halftime, but it ended 1-1 after the first 45.

Despite a strong showing by the U.S. early in the second half, Brazil would take the lead in the 53rd minute when Lucio headed home a Ronaldinho corner. Howard reportedly dislocated his finger on the play, but stayed in the match.

“It was pretty sore. I just tried to play through it, and hoped that the adrenaline would get me through it. You know to be honest, you know how it is when you travel with injuries—right now it’s swollen like a balloon, and I’m hoping that the flight doesn’t take too much out of it. I’ll see the doctors when I get back,” said Howard, following the match (ussoccer.com).

Some hard work by the U.S. put things even in the 73rd minute, when Steve Cherundolo found Clint Dempsey, who was making a trailing run through the box. Dempsey put it inside the far post to make it 2-2.

Two minutes later, Brazil would get the winner in their usual stunning fashion. After Bocanegra was whistled just outisde the area, Ronaldinho beat Howard with a seeing-eye shot that went through the wall and curled past Howard. Elano added an insurance goal from a PK in second half stoppage time.

The U.S. have scheduled a couple of European-soil friendlies against Catalonia (although the Spanish Soccer Federation might balk) on Oct. 14 and Switzerland on Oct. 17.

MLS Week 23: Fired up!

The Chicago Fire put one by Columbus to gain control of the final playoff spot with seven matches to play, while Houston managed to stay on course, despite a late surge from RSL. DC United remained on top by quelling the Revolution, while Denilson got on the MLS scoring table and LA got off the snide in week 23.

SEPT. 9
New England 2-4 DC United
United scored three goals in the second half and defeated Eastern rivals New England 4-2 at RFK Stadium on Sunday. After Fred scored his sixth goal of the year in the 31st minute, Taylor Twellman equalized right before halftime, chesting down a Khano Smith cross before blasting it past Perkins. Then, defender Jay Heaps managed a rare appearance on the scorer's sheet (its been two years in fact) with a 54th minute "goal" to put the Revs ahead. The quotes denote the strangeness of the play which began on a Steve Ralston corner and had referee Abbey Okulaja conferring with his assistant on whether the ball ever crossed the line. But following that strange score, DC began an avalanche of offense started with Jaime Moreno's 59th minute double-rebounded chip over Matt Reis, followed by a brace by Luciano Emilio, who now leads all scorers in MLS with 18 goals. Emilio's first goal (68th minute) came after a scrum in the box that the Brazilian managed to take advantage of to latch onto a deflection. The second was a header delivering a Brian Carroll cross past the helpless Reis.
Full Match Recap

New York 0-3 Chivas USA
Maykel Galindo is making a strong case for the MLS best newcomer award, as Chivas USA defeated New York 3-0, thanks to a brace by the Cuban forward and an Ante Razov PK. With goals on either side of halftime, Galindo helped Chivas USA leapfrog Dallas in the standings, as we near the home-stretch. Chivas have a single point lead over FC Dallas in the West, with a game in hand. The Red Bulls, on the other hand, are headed the other direction and will have to look over their shoulders for Kansas City or even Chicago.
MLS match tracker

SEPT.8
Chicago 1-0 Columbus
An ugly night for Columbus: both Guillermo Barros Schelotto and Rusty Pierce left early with injuries, lightning stalled the match for 32 minutes and the Crew were unable to convert on numerous chances. A couple of new Fire players, however, combined to grab three points for the Fire. Chicago's Paulo Wanchope converted his second goal of his MLS career in the 65th minute, converting a Wilman Conde through ball. With the win the Fire leapfrog Columbus and now sit in the final playoff spot with seven matches to go.
Full Match Recap

Real Salt Lake 3-4 Houston Dynamo
Houston never trailed, but needed every goal of a Nate Jaqua hat trick to fend off a late run by Real Salt Lake. Jaqua opened the scoring in the 6th minute, finishing a Corey Ashe cross, but RSL's new addition Fabian Espindola equalized just 12 minutes later. The Argentinean took the ball from Richard Mulrooney and fired a tight-angled shot from the left of goal, off the far post and in. Then, the ending Cup champions took over, as Eddie Robinson headed in a Mulrooney free kick before halftime and then Jaqua completed his hat trick in the 48th and 57th minutes. RSL kept battling, however, and Carey Talley scored in the 69th minute, before Kyle Brown added RSL's third goal in the 82nd, making the final eight minutes a bit hectic for Houston. The win keeps the Dynamo on top in the West and two points behind DC in the Supporter's Shield race with five matches to play.
Full Match Recap

Toronto 0-2 FC Dallas
Denilson opened his MLS scoring account, as FC Dallas cruised past struggling Toronto on the back of two penalties kicks. A nudge from behind by Reds defender Tyrone Marshall on Abe Thompson, drew a penalty and Denilson stepped up and but it off the the left stick and in for the 1-0 lead in the 36th minute. Dallas was awared their second PK after Toronto's Joey Melo took down Dominic Oduro in the 8th minute. This time, Thompson stepped up to convert the PK. Juan Toja made his second consecutive start after coming back from injury, but still didn't appear at full strength.
Full Match Recap

Colorado 1-3 Los Angeles
Call it the hot-seat derby (LA's Frank Yallop and Colorado's Fernando Clavijo). This match proved the old adage "even the sun shines on a dog's ass occasionally," as the Galaxy scored three unanswered goals to get their first MLS win since July. Peter Vagenas played a Beckham-like long ball over the top of the Rapids defense to Alan Gordon in the 46th minute. Edson Buddle added a second, chipping back-up keeper Zach Thornton in the 63rd minute. But the injuries continued for LA, as both Gordon and Buddle were forced to leave the match with injuries. LA midfielder Kyle Martino finished a Chris Klein cross to make it 3-0 in the 70th minte. Former RSL-midfielder Mehdi Ballouchy banged home a rebound to give Colorado a concilation goal in the 89th minute.
Full Match Recap

SEPT.6
DC United 2-2 Chivas USA
The two hottest teams in MLS met in Carson, Cailf., and it looked like it was going to be all DC United, as Luciano Emilio's brace put United securely in the driver's seat, but a mistake by 'keeper Troy Perkins opened the door for Chivas. Emilio's first goal came just three minutes in (ESPN wasn't even broadcasting the match yet), as the Brazilian hammered home a nicely played through ball from Jaime Moreno. Emilio's second goal, in the 26th minute, was simply clean-up duty, after a deflection from a Moreno shot. But Chivas stormed back after Ante Razov managed to block Perkins' clearance past the United keeper and into the net. The equalizer was courtesy of defender Lawson Vaughn, his first professional goal. Sacha Kljestan crossed from the endline to Vaughn, whose low, hard shot deflected off Clyde Simms and into the net.
Full Match Recap.

Hoops to host Revs in Open Cup final

In what could be a preview of MLS Cup, FC Dallas will host the New England Revolution in the final of the 2007 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup.

New England needed just four minutes of overtime to break the 1-1 deadlock with USL.1 club the Carolina Railhawks, as the Revs rode a Pat Noonan goal in the 94th minute into the final, while FC Dallas disposed of USL.1 upstarts Seattle, 2-1, on goals by Carlos Ruiz and Abe Thompson.

Carolina jumped out to an early lead when Anthony Maher put one past Mat Reis in the sixth minute, and managed to hold onto the lead for 45 minutes, surrendering a first-half injury time equalizer, scored by Jeff Larentowicz. Adam Cristman was credited with assists on both Revolution goals.

The equalizing goal came shortly after the double ejection of Carolina's Connally Edozien and New England's Shalrie Joseph. Carolina went down to nine men in the 80th minute when David Stokes was also sent off. Here's mlsnet.com's account of the dust up:

The match flared to life in the 38th minute after a hard John tackle, which looked fair, caused a fracas in front of the Revolution bench. Players grouped and discussed the situation and it took referee Shane Moody and his crew a few minutes to sort out the resulting melee. Yellow cards were issued to John, for the tackle, and Carolina defender David Stokes, for his role. If Moody thought he quelled the danger, it flared again before the restart in the 42nd minute. Joseph and Edozien came together. No punches were apparently thrown, but both Edozien and Joseph were sent to the showers as the game sputtered out of control.

FC Dallas and Seattle also needed overtime to settle their match, as the first 90 minutes ended without a goal. Ruiz broke the scoreless deadlock a minute into overtime, when Arturo Alvarez found him at the six from the right wing. Thompson added the insurance goal from the spot in the 119th minute, after Dax McCarty was brought down in the area. Finally, Seattle’s Leighton O’Brien managed a conciliation goal right before the whistle.

The Revolution will travel to Dallas for the final on or Oct. 3. It is the Revolutions second trip to the US Open Cup final; they have never won the title. FC Dallas were the 1997 U.S. Open Cup champions.

There 'Arnaud' suprises in U.S. roster

U.S. national team coach Bob Bradley released his 19-man roster for the September 9 friendly versus Brazil in Chicago, that some overzealous USSF marketeer dubbed the "Clash of Champions."

Here it is:

Goalkeepers: Tim Howard (Everton FC), Chris Seitz (Real Salt Lake)
Defenders: Carlos Bocanegra (Fulham FC), Steve Cherundolo (Hannover 96), Jay DeMerit (Watford FC), Oguchi Onyewu (Standard de Liege), Heath Pearce (Hansa Rostock), Frank Simek (Sheffield Wednesday), Jonathan Spector (West Ham United)

Midfielders: DaMarcus Beasley (Glasgow Rangers), Michael Bradley (SC Heerenveen), Bobby Convey (Reading FC), Clint Dempsey (Fulham FC), Benny Feilhaber (Derby County), Pablo Mastroeni (Colorado Rapids)

Forwards: Davy Arnaud (Kansas City Wizards), Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy), Eddie Johnson (Kansas City Wizards), Josh Wolff (1860 Munich)

A pretty strong side, but a bit on the boring side. No real surprises. There were only two names that really gave me pause. The first was Real Salt Lake's young back-up keeper Chris Seitz. If (god forbid) Timmy got hurt, you are setting up poor Seitz for quite a shellacking. Sure, he played well for the U-20s at the recent World Championships, but this is Brazil and they aren't bringing their C team. Hello, Ronaldinho. Why not throw poor Brad Guzan a bone? The guy has a 0.94 GAA for Bradley's ex-club Chivas USA. The other name that stood out was Davy Arnaud. Arnaud has just four goals in 23 matches. He's not exactly lighting it up for Kansas City, who have to rely almost exclusively on Eddie Johnson for goals.

You'll also notice that there are no representatives from any of the top six MLS clubs. No Jozy. No Taylor. No Marc Burch! (Burch is a big reason DC went undefeated in August). Sounds like MLS-USSF collusion to me. But you can't really blame them. DC, New England, Houston, Chivas USA, New York, and Dallas are all still in the hunt for the MLS Supporter's Shield (the true champion of MLS). As a matter of fact, DC United and New England Revolution have an important Eastern Conference match on the same day. Hence, Davy Arnaud. Maybe, he'll celebrate his default call-up by scoring a goal.

YA: Keepin' it real...American style

Sorry about the cheesy headline, but I'm hung over. Plus, it was a good weekend for American keepers, with one obvious exception (sorry Marcus). Berhalter scored again for Munich and Beasley factored into Rangers' easy win.

Americans in England
Fulham 3-3 Tottenham
A Clint Dempsey goal, a header in from Simon Davies' corner, kick-started a comeback, but Fulham needed a 90th-minute goal from Diomansy Kamara to save a draw. Captain Carlos Bocanegra went the distance, but the Fulham defense continued to look shakey. Goalkeeper Kasey Keller was benched in favor of Finnish keeper Antti Niemi.

Bolton 1-2 Everton
Tim Howard's side found a late winner in a match that featured the return of the "Gravedigger" Thomas Gravesen to Goodison Park. Howard was caught helpless by a 55th minute volley from Nicolas Anelka, but Joleon Lescott saved the day after heading in a Gravesen corner

Reading 0-3 West Ham
It was a rough day for American keeper Marcus Hahnemann, as the Hammers put it down, after being embarassed by Reading 6-0 last year. It could have been much worse, as Hahnemann managed a few difficult saves, but got little help from a porous Reading defense.

Blackburn 1-0 Man City
Brad Friedel preserved a 1-0 shutout for Blackburn, despite playing down a man for 11 minutes when Tugay Kerimoglu was sent off. Manchester City returned the favor in the 65th minute when Richard Dunne was also handed his walking papers. The only goal of the contest, by Benni McCarthy, came in the 13th minute.

Americans in Germany
Hannover 96 3-2 VfL Bochum
Steve Cherundolo's Hannover 96 managed to fend off a furious comeback by visiting Bochum, but Hannover's defense continue to struggle. Cherundolo played the full 90.

1860 Munich 1-1 FC Cologne
1860 Munich captain Gregg Berhalter continued his campaign of shock and awe in Bundesliga.2, as he converted his third goal of the season to help his side split the points with Cologne. Berhalter's goal came from the spot, after Timo Gebhartwas brought down in the area.

American in Scotland
Rangers 4-0 Gretna
Rangers rolled easily over hapless Gretna to stay undefeated in the SPL. DaMarcus Beasley didn't score in the rout, but managed to set up Rangers' second goal by finding Andy Webster with a nicely struck corner.

For a more complete description of all the Americans involved in this weekend’s action, check out Yanks Abroad.

TYH'S PICKS FOR MLS BEST 11 (Week 22)

GOALKEEPER

T. Perkins (DC)

DEFENDERS

M. Mantilla (RSL), M. Burch (DC), Eddie Pope (RSL)

MIDFIELDERS

B. Olsen (DC), S. Miglioranzi (CLB), C. Gomez (DC), A. Williams (RSL)

FORWARD

E. Johnson (KC), J.P. Angel (NY), E. Gaven (CLB)

Week 22: DC sittin' pretty

AUG. 29
Real Salt Lake 3-1 Kansas City
The addition of two Argentineans, Matias Mantilla and Javier Morales, paid instand dividends for RSL, as Kansas City have dropped four out of their laast five. It took a mere 15 seconds for the RSL newboys to combine, as Morales' corner kick found Mantilla's head. Fabian Espindola added a second in the 42nd minute. KC held out hope after a 69th minute goal by one-man-show Eddie Johnson, but Andy Williams dashed their hopes for a draw five minutes from time.
Full Match Recap.

SEPT. 1
Chicago 0-1 New York
In a battle of DPs, Juan Pablo Angel proved my April prediction was correct, as he put one by Matt Pickens in the 75th minute to snap New York's two-game losing streak. Even with Paulo Wanchope and Cuauhtemoc Blanco, Chicago continues to struggle away from home and can't seem to put back-to-back wins together. The loss puts Chicago a point behind the final playoff spot with eight matches to play.
Full Match Recap

DC United 4-0 FC Dallas
FC Dallas' latest signing Denilson never got a chance, as DC United were all over the home side, scoring four goals before the Brazilian even entered the match in the 55th minute. An early mistake in defense, led to an early goal from distance by Ben Olsen in just the fourth minute. Olsen added a second, cleaning up Luciano Emilio's blocked shot for his second just before half. Both goals two and three began with great service from United defender Marc Burch who continues his stellar play. Christian Gomez and Fred rounded out the scoring in the 47th and 50th minute. The win puts DC United top of the table with a 42 points, a +17 goal differential and a game in hand over second-place New England.
Full Match Recap

Kansas City 1-1 Houston
The MLS Cup defending champions managed to salvage a point against Kansas City with a 69th minute equalizer from Joseph Ngwenya after a physical match that nearly errupted several times after pushing and shoving between the clearly frustrated clubs. Both teams had a horrible August, as each managed just one win last month. For KC, it seems like no one but Eddie Johnson can score and he got his 14th goal of the season in first-half injury time. Houston's quick start still has them in good shape in the West, but it appears that Kansas City will end up battling with Colorado, Columbus and Chicago for the final playoff spot.
Full Match Recap

Real Salt Lake 2-1 Los Angeles
RSL won back-to-back matches for the first time all year and the Beckham-less Galaxy solidified their place as MLS's worst team, as the Real Stupid Names beat LA 2-1 on goals from Robbie Findlay and retiring veteran Eddie Pope. Los Angeles had a bright start, as Alan Gordon put them ahead in the sixth minute, but the second half was all RSL. Neither side is realistically playoff bound, but RSL coach Jason Kreis may save his job if RSL conintues to improve down the stretch. As for LA, everyone save Beckham is on the chopping block.
Full Match Recap

SEPT. 2
Colorado 1-1 Columbus
In the battle over the final few spots in the playoffs, Colorado were unable to gain ground but managed to salvage a point with a late strike from the recently resurgent Conor Casey at Crew Stadium on Sunday. It was another American having a difficult year that put the Crew ahead in first half injury time. The much maligned Eddie Gaven was served a fantastic ball by Stefani Miglioranz in behind the Rapids defense and Gaven easily beat Colorado keeper Bouna Coundoul. With the draw, things stay how they are, with Colorado trailing the final playoff spot on goal differential.

Full Match Recap