Author Archives: Ridge Mahoney

[CONCACAF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE] The Houston Dynamo, the only MLS team to get so much as a tie on the road against a Mexican team in competitive play, came up two goals and a man short Wednesday night.

[MLS] As it did this year during certain FIFA international dates, MLS will lighten its schedule next year during the World Cup. But rather than reduce the number of games, MLS will take a complete break during the group phase. MLS president Mark Abbott spoke exclusively to Soccer America on the league’s decision to halt play June 11-25 and to institute a balanced schedule.

[CONCACAF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE] The defending MLS champion Columbus Crew accomplished what the U.S. national team has never been able to do and win at the Estadio Ricardo Saprissa in Costa Rica. The Crew moved into second place in Group C of the Concacaf Champions League with a 1-0 win over Deportivo Saprissa.

[MLS] Kei Kamara is on the move again. The man of many teams will join the fourth team of his rather brief MLS career in a swap of strikers announced Tuesday, the MLS roster freeze date and trade deadline.

[CONCACAF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE] A decidedly low-key setting didn’t deter D.C. United, which ended a victory drought in the Concacaf Champions League group phase by beating San Juan Jabloteh, 1-0, Tuesday night in Port of Spain, Trinidad.

[MLS] Kansas City and FC Dallas crept into playoff contention, barely, by posting vital victories last week. Since they meet this weekend, only by winning can either team realistically stay in the hunt. Counting those two outsiders, there are nine teams vying for the four wild-card spots, allotted by overall points, with the top two finishers in each conference earning guaranteed places. (The top two currently being Columbus and Chicago in the East, and Houston and Los Angeles in the West.) Soccer America’s Ridge Mahoney explains which teams are poised to reach the playoffs.

[MLS] The effect of signing international midfielder Julian De Guzman as its first Designated Player may not take full effect until next year, but Toronto FC has already put another piece into play for 2010. Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLS&E), the team’s primary investor, has received approval from the board of governors of Exhibition Place, site of BMO Field, to install a grass playing surface in time for next season.

[U.S. SOCCER] After Mexico beat the USA, 2-1, at Azteca Stadium last month, Landon Donovan grumbled about Israel Castro‘s equalizer, a searing strike from well outside the penalty area that tied the game in the 19th minute.

WEEKEND UPDATES …
College Men: Weekend Scoreboard
College Women: Weekend Scoreboard

[MLS PREDICTIONS] San Jose takes the week off as the other 14 teams resume regular service. Conference leaders Columbus and Houston meet on Sunday, the same day Chivas USA and New England – tied with 33 points and both with eight games to play – square off at Home Depot Center. The Saturday slate pairs Toronto and Colorado, which played last week with the Rapids winning, and pits D.C. United against Seattle in a rematch of the U.S. Open Cup final. For all of Soccer America’s predictions, as well as TV viewing information, and to see how Ridge Mahoney fared so far this season …

[TRINIDAD & TOBAGO-USA REPORT CARD] Soccer America’s Ridge Mahoney grades the U.S. players in their 1-0 win over Trinidad & Tobago in World Cup qualifying on Wednesday in Port of Spain.

[WORLD CUP QUALIFYING] The USA defeated Trinidad & Tobago, 1-0, on Ricardo Clark‘s goal in the 62nd minute. The win moves the Americans closer to their goal of playing in the World Cup for the sixth straight time. It clinched no worse than fourth place in the Hexagonal and a berth in the Concacaf-South America playoff. With two games to play, the Americans are now in first place, one point ahead of Mexico, three ahead of Honduras and four ahead of Costa Rica, which lost at El Salvador, 1-0, on a last-minute goal.

YOUTH SOCCER REPORTER

[MLS] Count Kansas City among the MLS teams that in October may be lamenting the squandering of opportunities as other teams prepare for the playoffs. The Wizards carried much of the play Wednesday against D.C. United at RFK Stadium but were not only shut out, but also beaten, 1-0, by a Luciano Emilio goal to quell the momentum they’d created by thrashing New England, 4-2, last weekend.

WEDNESDAY MLS PREDICTION
D.C. UNITED (7-5-12) vs. KANSAS CITY (6-10-6), 7:30 p.m., Direct Kick
A run of five straight home games won’t mean much if D.C. doesn’t get three points in this one, which won’t be easy, since defenders Marc Burch (ankle surgery) and Dejan Jakovic (sports-hernia surgery) are both out two to three weeks, and the Wizards’ somnolent attack awoke last weekend to drill four past the Revs in a 4-2 win while playing a man up for more than an hour.

[MLS] A lackluster 1-0 loss to Colorado last weekend gave credence to the belief that Toronto FC can’t play a pat hand and reach the MLS playoffs this season for the first time. Changes are in the works. The Toronto Globe and Mail is reporting that stalled negotiations with midfielder Julian De Guzman, who is out of contract and has yet to find a new club, have been revived and a deal could be announced sometime this week. He would take the roster spot of striker Danny Dichio, who has been bothered by injuries the past two seasons and is making his retirement from the club official at a press conference Wednesday.

[WORLD CUP QUALIFYING] In past Hexagonals, the USA has qualified for the World Cup as early as the seventh game in the 10-match campaign, or by the eighth game on other occasions. No such guarantee is available this time around. Even a victory against Trinidad & Tobago Wednesday in Port of Spain (kickoff at 7 p.m. ET, ESPN Classic, Telefutura) in Game 8 will assure only fourth place …

LINEUPS:
USA — Howard, Spector, Onyewu, Bocanegra, Bornstein, Clark, Bradley, Dempsey, Donovan, Altidore, Davies.
Trin. & Tobago — Ince, Edwards, Abu Bakr, Lawrence, Samuel, Tinto, Leon, Noel, Spann, Glenn, Jones.

WEDNESDAY’S World Cup Qualifying Results

[MLS] Only three league games were played last weekend yet each tweaked the wild-card picture, and this week MLS goes back to a full slate. Colorado won a game it couldn’t afford to lose, the Revs let one slip that they might not miss, and D.C. United got a point in Dallas that might prove to be as valuable as it was fortunate. Soccer America’s Ridge Mahoney assesses the playoff race. …

[WORLD CUP QUALIFYING] For once, not all of the U.S. troubles against a supposedly overmatched Concacaf foe were of its own doing. Still, it fouled up on enough occasions to mar stretches of crisp, confident play while beating El Salvador, 2-1, in Sandy, Utah, Saturday. Goals by Clint Dempsey and Jozy Altidore late in the first half brought the USA back from a 1-0 deficit inflicted when Christian Castillo headed home a Rodolfo Zelaya cross in the 32nd minute.

[USA-EL SALVADOR REPORT CARD] Soccer America’s Ridge Mahoney grades the U.S. players in their 2-1 win over El Salvador in World Cup qualifying on Saturday in Sandy, Utah.

[USA-EL SALVADOR] The game plan for the USA in its Hexagonal qualifier against El Salvador Saturday (TV: ESPN Classic, TeleFutura, live, 8 p.m. ET) seems simple enough: go at ’em from the word “go.” That’s what El Salvador did five months ago in San Salvador when it raced out to a 2-0 lead it eventually blew. The USA left it late before rallying for a 2-2 tie that was disappointing, but another draw would this time be disastrous.

Saturday’s World Cup qualifying scores

[MLS PREDICTIONS] The international schedule shrinks the MLS menu to just three games, all with crucial playoff consequences for at least one of the participating teams. The national telecast is on Fox Soccer Channel, and showcases the first of back-to-back meetings matching Colorado and Toronto, which are separated by just two points in the overall standings. For all of Soccer America’s predictions, as well as TV viewing information, and to see how Ridge Mahoney fared so far this season …

[WORLD CUP 2010 QUALIFYING] Since the 2006 World Cup, the USA has tried to replace veterans whose poise and toughness in critical situations carried the team through some very precarious moments. More than three years later, and with less than a year to go until World Cup 2010, where stands the process of filling the voids left by Claudio Reyna, Brian McBride and Eddie Pope? Has the coaching staff unearthed in the current player pool their characteristics, and not just in the players who might fill similar positions or roles on the field? Qualities personified by those three players have yet to emerge on a regular basis, which is one reason a team that beat Egypt and Spain and stripped Brazil of some samba at the Confederations Cup could struggle against El Salvador Saturday in Sandy, Utah (ESPN Classic & Telefutura, 8 pm ET), and in Trinidad next Wednesday.

[WORLD CUP QUALIFYING] Being from Mexico, where many cities are parked more than a mile in the sky, Carlos de los Cobos, El Salvador’s national team coach, knows the effects of altitude. Since the team arrived earlier this week in Salt Lake City to prepare for the Hexagonal match Saturday against the USA, the coach has trained his team for the effects of altitude, though the 4,200-foot elevation much is less than what is encountered in places like Mexico City and Toluca. One player familiar with the conditions is San Jose midfielder Arturo Alvarez, who represented the U.S. at youth levels but has successfully petitioned to change allegiances to El Salvador, the birthplace of his parents.

[LAMAR HUNT U.S. OPEN CUP] In a spirited game filled with chances for both teams, the Seattle Sounders defeated D.C. United, 2-1, to win the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup and become the second MLS expansion team to win the oldest cup trophy in American sports. For the second time this week, D.C. goalie Josh Wicks lost his cool, this time stomping on Sounders forward Fredy Montero after the Colombian opened the scoring in the 67th minute, and was red-carded.