Author Archives: Ridge Mahoney

[USA-GUATEMALA REPORT CARD] Soccer America’s Ridge Mahoney grades the U.S. players’ performance in their 2-0 victory over Guatemala on Wednesday …

[MLS] Landing an MLS expansion team, even in these tough economic times, requires a strong lineup of financial and political backers, heavy hitters if you will. St. Louis has added power and prestige to its lineup, both figuratively and literally, and its bid by adding Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols to its proposed ownership group, which until recently had been virtually nonexistent, at least publicly.

A goalie, especially a young one, might be the worst player to ask about how a successful head coach manages and prepares a team. The tinkering of lineups and personnel and formations and tactics by Red Bulls coach Juan Carlos Osorio has attracted much notice and some disdain, but as keeper Danny Cepero notes, the Osorio Method that has sent the Red Bulls to the MLS final is as much about what a player is between the ears as what he does between the lines.

Maybe the gods of this game really are contrarians, as so often seems the case when one team plays the soccer and the other team gets the luck, when a fourth-year franchise playing just its fourth game in a new stadium packs the place yet sends a sellout crowd home unhappy. Reducing the Real Salt Lake-New York semifinal — won by the Red Bulls, 1-0, Saturday in a pulsating Rio Tinto Stadium — to that simple formula does an injustice to the resilient Red Bulls, scorers of an opportunistic goal in the 28th minute and stout fighters through numerous furious assaults.

[MLS] Soccer America’s Ridge Mahoney grades the players’ performance in the New York Red Bulls’ 1-0 semifinal win at Real Salt Lake. …

[MLS SEMIFINAL PREVIEW] The 2008 MLS playoffs have conjured up two wonderfully warm and fuzzy stories, but one of them must end in the Western Conference final on Saturday when Real Salt Lake hosts the New York Red Bulls (9:30 p.m., Fox Soccer Channel, Fox Sports en Espanol, HDNet).

Soccer America’s Ridge Mahoney grades the players’ performance in Columbus’ 2-1 semifinal win over Chicago. …

[USA] Coach Bob Bradley dipped deeply into the ranks of the vanquished to pick a preliminary squad of 19 players for next week’s World Cup qualifier against Guatemala in Commerce City, Colo., Nov. 19. Teams that missed the MLS playoffs – including Colorado, Toronto FC and FC Dallas – as well as those eliminated last weekend in the conference semifinals fill most of the slots.

[MLS] The Columbus Crew has already won three prestigious awards in the 2008 postseason yet for one of those so honored the most important trophy is yet to be handed out. Coach of the Year Sigi Schmid guided the Crew to the Supporters’ Shield with a league-best record of 17-7-6 by melding a myriad mix of talents and personalities, and extracting performances like that of Chad Marshall, named 2008 Defender of the Year after finishing the 2007 season on injured-reserve following several concussions

[MLS] For the first time, one conference will provide three members of the final four MLS playoff teams, and might yet supply both MLS Cup finalists. Form held in the East, with both of the higher seeds winning, yet in the West, neither of the top two survived. Eastern conference champion Columbus defeated No. 4 Kansas City, 2-0, Saturday to complete a 3-1 aggregate win and on Thursday (7:30 p.m. ET ESPN2) hosts the No. 2 Fire, a 3-0 aggregate winner over No. 3 New England. The Red Bulls, fifth-place finishers in the East, travel to Utah for a Saturday (9:30 p.m. ET, Fox Soccer Channel) showdown with Real Salt Lake, which won the first playoff series in its history by tying Chivas USA, 2-2, to prevail on aggregate, 3-2. New York stunned Western Conference champion Houston, 3-0, Sunday for a 4-1 series victory.

[MLS PLAYOFF PREVIEW] Only four of 12 MLS regular-season champions have lifted MLS Cup, so whatever euphoria Columbus players may have felt last week after substitute Steven Lenhart scored a last-minute goal to tie the first leg, 1-1, against Kansas City had best be long gone.

[MLS PLAYOFF PREVIEW] Whether or not the Magic of Yura Movsisyan arises yet again, Chivas USA must get its house in order at Home Depot Center. After losing just once in 16 home games (counting playoffs) last year, it dropped four matches at HDC this season, including a loss to Real Salt Lake in mid-June. And all RSL needs to win this series is a tie, thanks its 1-0 lead on Movsisyan’s remarkable back-heeled goal in the final seconds of regulation at Rio Tinto Stadium last weekend.

[MLS PLAYOFF PREVIEW] Going into the second leg of a conference semifinal tied is a new experience for the two-time defending champion Houston Dynamo and bad news for its opponents from New York.

If history is to repeat itself in the MLS playoff series between Chicago and New England, the Revs can’t lose, right? Not necessarily, for while New England has knocked off Chicago in the last three postseasons, and can do so again Thursday (ESPN2, 8:30 p.m. ET) when the teams meet at Toyota Park, who’s to say the Fire won’t duplicate its 2003 triumph?

[MLS] In deciding to accept a callup from Mali for its friendly later this month against Algeria, Chicago defender Bakary Soumare is paying homage to his homeland, not snubbing his adopted country.

[MLS REF WATCH] For the MLS referees in the quarterfinal, first legs, the bottom line read: One red card, certainly justified; the same for two disallowed goals; and no penalty kicks. Neither of those figures would be reassuring if officials had ignored a savage off-the-ball incident meriting an ejection, or somehow missed a stone-cold penalty, or whistled for a phantom infraction and pointed to the penalty spot. Fortunately, in most cases the officials rose to the occasion and performed at their own playoff caliber.