Author Archives: Ridge Mahoney

[MLS] If it ain’t broke, so goes the adage, don’t fix it. But if it is, as in the case of the San Jose Earthquakes, well, get to fixin’. They’ve sent away a veteran defender and possible targets include an England international.

[TEAM OF THE WEEK] Players who reprised their former positions took center stage to help their teams win in Week 12 and head Soccer America’s MLS Team of the Week for Week 3.

[MLS] Coping with international absences last week tested the depth of numerous MLS teams, and of those that passed the tests there was at least one major surprise. Despite being deprived of important players, Houston (Ricardo Clark, Brian Ching) and Chivas USA (Sacha Kljestan, Jonathan Bornstein) both won, by narrow 1-0 scores, against Chicago and Seattle, respectively, heading into their meeting Wednesday at Robertson Stadium.

[WORLD CUP QUALIFYING] The margin of victory might have been more, or there could have been no margin at all, as both the USA and Honduras came within whiskers of making plays that would have changed the result. Three days after their 3-1 loss at Costa Rica, the Americans proved that they could come back from an early goal.

[USA-HONDURAS REPORT CARD] Soccer America’s Ridge Mahoney grades the U.S. players and comments on their performance in Saturday’s 2-1 win over  Honduras in Chicago.

[HEXAGONAL] About a decade ago, U.S. keeper Kasey Keller succinctly stated the plight of American soccer players when he said, “We hate playing away games, at home.” Just such a scenario is likely Saturday at Soldier Field in Chicago, where tens of thousands of Honduran fans – bolstered by their team’s 3-1 thumping of Mexico in its last qualifier – are expected to fill much, if not most, of the renovated stadium that can seat 60,000 fans if full. (TV: 8 pm ET, ESPN & Galavision).

[MLS] One could check the result of Thursday night’s match at RFK Stadium and assume the 2-0 win registered by surging United against the reeling Red Bulls had unfolded in a straightforward manner, and one would be wrong.

[MLS PREDICTIONS] National team call-ups will stretch the depth of many MLS teams this weekend. Chivas USA will be missing two starters when it hosts Seattle, as will Houston for its match against the Fire, and the Rapids for their visit to Salt Lake City. The Galaxy is only four ties away from tying the league record (13) as it heads north of the border to Toronto, and D.C.’s 2-0 win over New York Thursday keeps the Red Bulls four points back of sixth-place Columbus with both teams facing tough road games against Eastern Conference rivals. For all of Soccer America’s predictions, as well as TV viewing information, and to see how we fared last week. …

[COSTA RICA-USA REPORT CARD] Soccer America’s Ridge Mahoney grades the U.S. players and comments on their performance in Wednesday’s 3-1 loss at Costa Rica.

[WORLD CUP 2010 QUALIFYING] A crushing defeat in Costa Rica adds even greater importance to the next U.S. match in the Hexagonal, against Honduras Saturday in Chicago. At Ricardo Saprissa Stadium in San Jose on Wednesday, Americans were second-best for most of the match in all areas of the field and could have lost by a greater margin.

[MLS PREDICTION] MLS has scheduled another nine-match slate of games despite this being a FIFA international double-fixture week, with the action kicking off Thursday at RFK Stadium, where D.C. United welcomes longtime rival (but seldom equal) New York.

[WORLD CUP QUALIFYING] How the USA fares in its attempt to win a World Cup qualifier in Costa Rica (Wednesday, ESPN2, Galavision, 10 p.m. ET) for the first time depends much on its central defense tandem of Carlos Bocanegra and Oguchi Onyewu. The latter returns to the U.S. squad after winning the Belgian league title and filing a lawsuit against an opposing player.

[CANADA] USL club Vancouver assumed control of the Nutrilite Canadian Championship by beating MLS’s Toronto, 2-0, Tuesday at Swangard Stadium to all but clinch a spot in the 2009-10 Concacaf Champions League.

[WORLD CUP QUALIFYING] Coach Bob Bradley faces perhaps his most daunting problems since taking the job 36 games ago, because not much has gone right for the USA heading into its toughest two-match stretch of the Concacaf Hexagonal, after which it will have completed one-half of its schedule in this final qualifying round for the 2010 World Cup.

[MLS PREDICTIONS] Former Crew coach Sigi Schmid leads the Sounders against Columbus in a match to be presented on Fox Soccer Channel (Saturday, 10:30 p.m. ET), and is just one of five interconference tussles to be played on Weekend 11. Chicago (21 points) has widened its Eastern Conference lead and hosts Dallas Sunday on TeleFutura (3 p.m. ET), Kansas City travels to Los Angeles, Toronto is in Houston, and cellar-dweller New York winds up a four-game homestand against Colorado. The all-Western Conference matchup is in San Jose, where the last-place Quakes take on RSL, whose own playoff quest has stalled. This weekend’s Eastern showdown is at Gillette Stadium, where the Revs host a D.C. United team it led at RFK last month until a miraculous header by Ben Olsen in stoppage time pulled out a 1-1 tie. Soccer America’s Ridge Mahoney breaks down all the weekend action.

[MLS] A clasico turned into a bit of a fiasco Thursday night at Home Depot Center, where amid a blizzard of yellow cards and penalty kicks, Chivas USA squandered a 2-1 lead and lost to Chicago, 3-2, in a showdown of conference leaders.

[MLS] For once, Crew fans didn’t have to sweat as much after their team took a second-half lead. Five times this season Columbus has conceded a goal in the last 10 minutes, and when Guillermo Barros Schelotto scored Wednesday to break a 1-1 tie, there were still 44 minutes and 32 seconds, plus stoppage time, still to be played. But the opponent this night was San Jose, and despite its desperate plight and the entry of recently signed striker Cornell Glen with 20 minutes to play, the Quakes seldom mustered a serious threat.

[MLS] They are years removed from their time in Chicago, yet the former Fire members now employed by Chivas USA are respectful of that past as well as the present. Chicago comes into its Thursday meeting with Chivas USA (10:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2) at Home Depot Center as the league’s only unbeaten team (4-0-6) and atop the Eastern Conference. Chivas USA leads the West with the league’s best record (7-1-3) and four former Fire players on its roster, headed by Jesse Marsch and keeper Zach Thornton.

[MLS PREDICTION] The excellent Chivas USA defensive record (six shutouts, six goals allowed) is tainted somewhat by the fact Zach Thornton leads the league with 41 saves, and quite of a few of them have tested the 6-foot-3 keeper. If it gives up a proportional number of chances to Brian McBride, Chris Rolfe, Cuauhtemoc Blanco, et al, it will be lucky to maintain its unbeaten (5-0-1) home record.