I still can’t tell if this was a good game or not the field looked horrible and I swear I kept seeing this big bump near the touchline by the benches but that can’t be to blame for the clear cut scoring chances wasted.

Still to go to the Estadio Mateo Flores and come out with a draw is a task in itself and I’m grateful we can go into the 2nd leg with that confidence of not losing. It started out promising, the first 15 minutes was pretty explosive, Ching was looking extremely sharp on the ball and Onstad had a great performance thwarting the efforts of the home team. The crowd was into for long stretches of time but our boys didn’t seem too bothered. But over all the team got into great rhythms at times but still looked as if they were in pre-season mode.

My ratings of the player’s performance:

Wondolski: Was looking sluggish but he also set up Ching with quite possibly the best chance of the night when his header went right across the mouth of the goal and Ching just looked at it in awe. He had another chance later on but obviously he didn’t score. 8/10

Ching: Looked sharp up until jet lag caught up with him, he had some great chances but just couldn’t put them away. Played as a midfielder for the last 45 of the match then started to run out of gas. 7/10

De Rosario: Did way to much defensive work (Although it’s greatly appreciated) and didn’t get into the game creatively, he is my favorite most underrated midfielder but even he had a bad game. 7/10

Ricardo Clark: Wow..is all I have to say, played an amazing game and was very imaginative, by far the best chance of the night when he hit a rocket from about 30m’s out that hit the post and the reaction from the players warming up said it all. I for one am so glad he is back from suspension 10/10

Wiebel: Played a good game, made some very important diving saves to deny the home side overall I was pleased with his performance and his professionalism. 8/10

Mulrooney: Played a good game almost scored a great goal overall solid performance. It was great fun to watch him try and move the photographers for that corner near the end. 9/10

Onstad: As always made some really great saves to deny the home side, and he can still move around quite nicely, not bad for a guy that just turned 40 years old…. 10/10

Ashe: Didn’t have the best game of his life and didn’t have many ideas and his crosses from the left were horrendous, it was expected from a non starter. 7/10

Boswell: Solid game, good performance. 8/10

Robinson: One of my favorite players, set the tone of we take no prisoners in the beginning by giving one of their strikers a nice elbow to the face in the beginning, overall solid play and great to see him in action. 9/10

Barret: Usually one of our better players pushed up to far in the end and got caught napping on a few plays, I blame this on jet lag but hopefully his performance level will pick up. 7/10

Subs: Caraccio – Looked ok for the 12ish minutes he was on, when he did get around the ball looked quick and calm.
Mullin – Came on at the same time as Caraccio, added some pace but he is still has a tiny injury problem.

I was very pleased with this performance although some players were not at their best, now to Robertson Stadium for the second leg next Wednesday March 19th.

It was a cracker of a match, with Houston, ironically, having the fewer chances but capitalizing when it counted — the exact opposite of their season where they would have tons of chances in a game but few finishes.

Typical of Houston (and the San Jose incarnation), they do it best through adversity, giving up a headed goal to Taylor Twellman early in the first half. But Houston was calm. After all, just a few weeks ago they were two goals down to Dallas in the playoffs and won that series 4-2. And who can forget last year’s immediate comeback against this same New England team in the final?

Houston’s been a second half team all season and this game was no exception. They kicked things up a notch in the second half, coming out with more aggression and determination and fixed some of the defensive lapses they showed in the first half. New England, it must be said, looked like they thought they’d already won (shades of last year’s Cup), and failed to be as aggressive as they could and scorned a few gorgeous opportunities.

The comeback for Houston started with a fabulous sequence of pressure by the Dynamo, getting the ball deep into New England’s box and creating several dangerous chances. A Houston corner kick was rejected, but aggressive play from Dynamo Captain Wade Barrett kept the ball in play at the near sideline and he managed to toe-poke the ball to teammate Brian Mullan who fed a long ball into the box. It skittered across to Dwayne DeRosario on the far side and he managed to cross it hard into the box. It was too hard for Jaqua who was crashing in but it fell gloriously to Joseph Ngwenya. But he flubbed his left-footed shot as the ball went through his legs. But the Revolution defense didn’t clear the ball and Joseph didn’t quit, taking a second swipe at the ball with his right and sliding it underneath Revs’ keeper Matt Reis to level the score.

No game is complete without controversy and this came in the 64th minute when Cano Smith and Craig Waibel clashed in the box. Smith wanted a penalty kick (it was shoulder contact, not a foul) but the ref waved it off. Smith and Waibel had words, however, and then Cano — a mere yard from the referee — out-and-out head-butted Waibel in the jaw! Shockingly, this outrageous display of temper and unsportsmanship — little different from Ricardo Clark’s kick to Carlos Ruiz that earned him a league-record nine-game suspension — was dealt with merely a yellow card by referee Alex Pruis. I don’t like to see red cards in finals, but that was deliberate and regardless of the amount of contact (Waibel dodged most of the blow), it should have been a red. It was no different from Zidane’s head-butt in the World Cup final. (That said, a red would have tainted the result and I’m perfectly happy with the final score.)

Late in the game New England had a couple opportunities but couldn’t capitalize. One of the best was a cross through the box with Twellman waiting at the back post for a certain tap-in goal, but Dynamo goalkeeper Pat Onstad (my Man of the Match) flew in and got his fingertips to the ball to snare it with a fabulous saving play. Even better, the rebound was easily dealt with by the Dynamo defense and a counter-attack started.

Exactly forty seconds later, the Dynamo scored at the other end. Ngwenya’s good hold-up play on the right wing got the ball to Waibel who’d run up in support and he played it to a wide open Brad Davis just outside the box. Davis’ gifted left foot placed the ball perfectly in the box for De Rosario who snapped his head to the ball knocking it into the far corner past a helpless Reis. The defending champions were now leading with less than twenty minutes to go.

The final few minutes saw some tremendous pressure from New England and an unbelievable save from Onstad. In the 87th minute the Revs took a corner kick which eluded the Dynamo defense and reached Larentowicz who met it with a diving header just three yards out. It was bullet of a shot that should have been a goal — but Onstad was well-positioned and the ball ricocheted off his legs and was successfully cleared by Houston.

Amazing, and plays like that had to hit New England’s confidence where it hurts most. They never looked the same after that save, with Houston defending with authority and the Revs struggling. This was epitomized by play from DeRosario in the 91st minute when Jay Heaps twice tried to play a long cross to the box and both times DeRo leaped in front and blocked it with his back. If you can’t put in a simple cross from the half-field line with just one guy in front of you, what can you do? Disheartening, to say the least. The final play was a long feed from Reis that went right to his counter-part, Onstad, and the game ended without another chance for New England.

While I feel deep sympathy for the Revs — I’ve been a fan of theirs for years, since their underdog days (us long-term San Jose fans related to them), and I can’t imagine what it is like to lose three finals in a row — I have to give the Dynamo the win in this one. While they defended more than I preferred, their defense wobbled but didn’t break, and they pressured aggressively (even when the game was tied) and took two chances and converted. If you look at all the little things in the match — the way the forwards helped out on defense, the work rate, the relentless pressure, their calmness in the face of mistakes — Houston deserved this championship. Nowhere was this more evident than the reactions of each team when they gave up their first goal: the Houston players nodded, clapped each other on the back, and gritted their teeth, while the Revs cursed and moaned and looked at each other in bewilderment and frustration. And remember, Houston did this without two key players in Brian Ching and Ricardo Clark, which is the hallmark of a championship team.

Hat’s off to New England who fought hard, and played aggressive, attractive soccer. They have accomplished a lot: three straight finals and an Open Cup trophy is an amazing achievement. Their day will come.

Congratulations to the Houston Dynamo! You guys were wonderful all season. You battled through adversities, injuries, national team call-ups, trades, and the inevitable human error. In the end you’ve repeated as champions, which people who know sports say is always much harder than winning the first one.

Soccer’s a team sport, and Houston (going back to the San Jose days), is the embodiment of team spirit. I hope they never lose that. It’s what makes this group of rag-tag cast-offs from other teams greater than the sum of its parts.

His evaluations are interesting, as he weighs the forwards, midfields, defense, bench, and intangibles. I’m not quite sure I agree with the low score, however. The biggest intangible for me is attitude. He thinks the teams will come out cautiously but I wonder if New England won’t feel the greater pressure to score because of their MLS Cup history. That could open things up for Houston to convert on the counter and could lead to an early goal or two.

At any rate, I’m anticipating an exciting game.

We had the same finalists a year ago, and they produced a turnoff classic, a game that was dreadful beyond any telling of it. The good news about this year’s final is that it has to be better than last year’s, if only because it cannot possibly be worse.

Now I’m certainly not going to defend last year’s title game as a classic (though the overtime was exciting), but I resent Gardner’s assertion that the Dynamo aren’t an attacking team. It seems to me he’s basing his opinion on last year’s final and hasn’t watched any Dynamo games this year.

Sure they have the best defense in the league (a new MLS record), but this is a team that never stops attacking. They play some of the most beautiful soccer in the league: one-touch passes, lovely build-up play, and some fine finishing from the entire team. They are the best team I’ve ever seen: no superstars, no egos, just a bunch of hard-working castoffs of other teams that pull together and do the impossible (I’m including the San Jose guys that are the core of this Dynamo team).

Where does Gardner get off writing this outrageous statement:

The Dynamo’s playoff games have been full of incident, lively enough, without featuring much by way of good soccer.

Oh come on! Granted, there were times in the Dallas match where they were just grinding it out, but there was some excellent soccer in there as well. The Kansas City match was just brilliant. Both matches were terrific to watch with tons of goal-scoring chances. How could that be called boring and defensive? I saw a post on Big Soccer that just fifteen minutes into the K.C. game was saying it was ten times more entertaining the entire NE/Chicago game and I’d have to agree.

Now I doubt that we’ll see a hugely lopsided result on Sunday (though it could happen). I suspect it’ll be tight and it’ll be a real battle. But what’s wrong with that? As long as there are goal-scoring chances created, it’ll be a fun game to watch, and lately Houston’s been working hard to generate tons of chances and it’s been a blast to watch. I’m looking forward to Sunday and I sure hope Houston prove Gardner wrong.

So, do you agree with Paul or me?

– Marc

I think six games is more fair. If you look at what Jimmy Conrad said during the KC game Friday night, he pointed out that last year Sala’s post-game attack in the playoffs neted him only a six-game ban and it was not something that happened in the heat of play, but minutes after the game ended. Sala’s situation was much worse from a fighting perspective, but he got off with a much lighter ban.

BTW, that linked article is cool — it has some good details on the Chivas-Houston battle for the Western crown:

Houston has three games left, Chivas four. To clinch the West before the Oct. 20 game against Houston, Chivas would need to build at least a four-point lead. Thus the Dynamo can keep its hopes alive by winning its next two games, even if Chivas wins its next three. If the teams finish tied for first, Houston holds the tiebreaker because it has beaten Chivas twice this season.

Love that Houston own the tiebreaker! I am predicting Houston will be doubly motivated to beat L.A. this weekend both because it’s the Galaxy (longtime San Jose rival) and because the Dynamo do not want to lose the Conference to a newcomer like Chivas USA.

I have to say I am surprised at this. I thought he might get a few games extra, but this is severe. No word on any extra suspension or fine for Ruiz and his role in the conflict, which I find a bit odd.

Now I’m not saying Clark doesn’t deserve punishment: attacking another player is wrong and shouldn’t be tolerated, but MLS has historically missed a lot of these kinds of plays in the past so it’s a bit unfair to single out Clark. More importantly, if you watch the video replay, the kick was not particularly hard — he was de-accelerating as he kicked, probably thinking better of his rash action but unable to stop it. Even more signficant was Ruiz’s reaction — he got kicked in the shoulder and rolls over grabbing his face. That’s not the sign of an injured player at all. Ruiz should be fined and suspended for bad acting and provoking. Maybe he’ll get a separate suspension handed down later.

I agree that the league should want to disuade players from this kind of action. But the league should also take into account other factors: the game (this was a derby between two teams notorious for disliking each other), the time in the game (right at the death when passions are at their most heated), what’s already happened in the game (many hard fouls and some missed calls), and player’s histories (Ruiz’s reputation for cheap shots and diving and Clark’s reputation generally decent sportmanship but the occasional show of temper). When you factor all that into play, I don’t think this is worthy of such an extreme suspension and fine. I mean, come on — a few years ago Demo broke O’Brien’s leg and didn’t even get a red card!

What I think happened here is that the video evidence put Clark in a bad light. It was not clear what Ruiz did, but Clark’s kick was obvious, and Ruiz was “defenseless” on the ground, and the League felt pressure to make an example of Clark lest people think the league is soft on such things. It’s a bummer for Clark, but hopefully it’ll be a lesson learned. Go kick the post or stamp the ground or scream or something, but don’t kick another player no matter how tempting or what he’s done to you.

All that said, while Clark is one of my favorite Dynamo players and I’ll miss him, I don’t think this will hurt the team’s post-season chances. Houston is very deep in the mid-field, baring another injury, and should be just fine with Mulrooney and Holden and Brad Davis to pick up the slack.

What do you think? Was this suspension/fine extreme? Just right? Not enough? Post your comments and let’s discuss it!

The gist of the article is about how much money is being spent by the city to “investigate” and (basically) say no to possible public funds for sporting complexes.

The sports authority spent close to $3 million to operate last year and one in four of those dollars went to pay lawyers, even though the three big projects of the Sports Authority, Minute Maid Park, Toyota Center and Reliant had long been built.

But there were some tidbits about a Dynamo stadium:

Is the Houston Sports Authority planning to join the city to help the team build a new [stadium] with your money?

“I don’t think there’s any question that’s what they are going to do,” said Harris County Commissioner Steve Radack. “That’s what they are leading up to and I am 100 percent opposed.”

No one is saying yet whether taxpayers will get to vote on a new stadium, but Mayor White says a Dynamo decision could come this year.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t sound much better than the stadium situation in San Jose. Houston already supports other sports and yet when it comes to soccer — where expenses are dramatically cheaper — they decide that they must draw the line. But at least there are more locations available in Houston. San Jose’s so cramped it’s hard to find a place everyone can agree upon.

So, we’ll just watch and wait.

Houston Dynamo Poster: $12.74 on sale

Mispell a player’s name? Priceless!

(You may have to zoom in to see Brian’s name.)

Houston also need to watch behind them, as Chivas USA, with their win over Toronto on Saturday, are inching up to within four points of the Dynamo.

Of course the Orange are coming off mixed form: after their 11-game unbeaten series, they’ve lost two 1-0 heartbreakers (one to an own goal) and were knocked out of the SuperLiga on Tuesday in a penalty kick shootout despite playing a fantastic match (Ngwenya’s penalty notwithstanding). They certainly looked to have gotten their game back on Tuesday, and now without the SuperLiga distraction they can concentrate on the league. But will they be too tired after playing two hours in the heat with just ten men most of the match?

But the Dynamo always get up for the big games, especially rivalries. The players will be motivated to play. It’s not going to be an easy game, especially with important players like Brad Davis, Stuart Holden, and Ricardo Clark missing, but surely the Orange will prevail.

And remember: it was the Dynamo-Dallas game earlier this season that righted the Dynamo’s early-season funk. Let’s hope this game will have a similar result and start a new unbeaten series!

If you can’t see the game (or you just want to follow along with me), I hope to be using Twitter to broadcast my comments live, during the game (4 p.m. PT, 7 p.m ET). Go Orange!

Yet this terrific match was not televised.

Okay, it was, but only sort of. It could be seen in crappy low-resolution glory on MLSnet.com, or in Spanish on Telefutura a channel no one gets (I get hundreds of DirecTV channels and pay extra for soccer channels and I don’t get Telefutura).

Meanwhile, ESPN changes its schedule to add extra LA Galaxy games so we can watch the “Beckham cam” of David sitting on the bench and nursing his sore ankle.

Anyone but me see something wrong with that picture?

Yes, it’s great David’s in the league, and yes I understand he’ll bring in the ratings the same way Tiger Woods does for golf, but at the same time, fans become long-term fans by seeing *compelling* games, not boring nil-nil draws between mediocre low-level teams in which Beckham doesn’t even play.

Why doesn’t ESPN or FSC or GolTV call up MLS right now and get the rights to re-air the Houston-Pachuca semifinal?

And what about the LA Galaxy-DC United semifinal tonight? David Beckham’s supposed to start in that one. Will a network pick up that broadcast? How about the final on August 29th? It’s now guaranteed to be an MLS-Mexico final and should be a good match, regardless of who advances. (If it’s the Gals, their whole season resides on that match, so it would be a cracker.)

Now I’m sure a lot of SuperLiga broadcast decisions were made months ago. Perhaps it’s too late to change anything now. I’m not a lawyer or a television executive and I have no idea how these contracts work. But it seems to me the nation is missing out on something really special and I’d just like more soccer fans to be able to see these incredible games. Every match has been exciting and as we get closer to crowning a champion, it just gets bigger and better. I just wish I could watch it on TV!