Author Archives: Ridge Mahoney

[LAMAR HUNT U.S. OPEN CUP] Now that executives of the two teams are done sniping at each other about hosting the game, first-year club Seattle and defending champ D.C. United are set to contest the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup final Wednesday at RFK Stadium (7:30 p.m. ET, Fox Soccer Channel). In launching an unsuccessful bid to host the game at Qwest Field, Seattle has followed through with the emphasis it is putting on this competition, the winner of which probably earns a ticket to the Concacaf Champions Cup, as D.C. did by beating Charleston (USL-1) in the 2008 final.

[USA] The top scorer in Major League Soccer wasn’t on hand when the U.S. national team began preparations Monday for its seventh game of the Hexagonal, to be played Saturday against El Salvador in Sandy, Utah.

[MLS] Former SMU defender Ugo Ihemelu is returning to Dallas to play for the man who coached him in college in a trade of players taken back-to-back in the 2005 SuperDraft. FC Dallas has sent defender Drew Moor, a second-round pick in the 2010 SuperDraft, and allocation money to Colorado in exchange for Ihemelu, who played for FCD head coach Schellas Hyndman at SMU.

[MLS PREDICTIONS] FC Dallas takes the week off as Real Salt Lake and Chivas USA double up after their match on Wednesday (a 4-0 RSL win). Three teams are coming off Concacaf Champions League duty in midweek, and major intraconference clashes are set for national television. ESPN2 carries the SuperClasico from Home Depot Center Saturday night with the participants just two point apart in the standings, and preceding that game, Fox Soccer Channel shows an Eastern Conference battle between Chicago and D.C. United.

[MLS] Real Salt Lake pumped some life into its playoff quest by beating Chivas USA, 4-0, Wednesday at Rio Tinto as three players shared the goals. Team top scorer Robbie Findley added two late goals after Pablo Campos opened the scoring in the 43rd minute and Fabian Espinola‘s clincher with 15 minutes left.

[CONCACAF CHAMPIONS CUP] Much of what troubles international club soccer on the field erupted Wednesday in La Chorrera, Panama, as Houston and Arabe Unido traded fouls and cards while tying, 1-1.

[CONCACAF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE] A better showing might have been expected from the reigning MLS champion, but Cruz Azul is a pretty good team, and its stadium is a tough place to play. Columbus lost its second game in Group C of the Concacaf Champions League, 5-0, to Los Cementeros, who reached the CCL final last spring.

[CONCACAF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE] Home and away, D.C. United’s failure to close out games has cost it points, of which it has zero after two matches in Group B of the Concacaf Champions’ League. A week after conceding two late goals in San Pedro Sula to lose, 3-1, to Marathon, United suffered the same fate at RFK Stadium Wednesday against Mexican club Toluca.

[MLS] With new teammates Jesus Padilla and Maicon Santos playing their first games for Chivas USA, midfielder Sacha Kljestan took advantage to play his best game of the season and continue a revival for the club that started off strong before a six week winless slump.

[MLS] At a transfer fee reported as $1.4 million and $2.1 million by various outlets, and said by a source to be $2 million, MLS and Chicago have agreed to sell defender Bakary Soumare to French club Boulogne. The club – along with a few other teams — had expressed interest in Soumare in June, shortly after the European season ended, but MLS and the Fire tamped down the inquiry though an offer was reportedly made. A native of Mali, Soumare, 23, moved to the Paris suburb of St. Denis at age 3 and to New York at age 15.

[MLS PREDICTION] The two expansion entrants of 2005 that met in last year’s playoffs square off for the second time this season, with host Real Salt Lake desperately in need of a win.

[CONCACAF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE] He missed out on the most recent Mexico-USA showdown at Azteca Stadium, so defender Frankie Hejduk is perhaps even more eager than usual for the assignment handed to him and his Columbus teammates Wednesday.

[MLS] Seattle fans — 32,705 for a midweek game! — might want to subtitle their team’s 1-0 home loss to New England Thursday, “The Curious Decisions of Baldomero Toledo,” yet a more objective viewpoint would point blame in other directions.

[MLS] A team that has taken pride in winning titles with few foreign players and no Designated Players has changed tack. A long-rumored move of Mexican forward Luis Angel Landin to Houston has been completed. The Dynamo announced Thursday Landin, 24, will join the team on loan from Cruz Azul. He will be contracted until the end of 2010, with Houston accorded an option to acquire his rights.

[MLS PREDICTIONS] After thinning out its schedule in June and July to accommodate other competitions, MLS stages a full schedule of seven weekend games on the heels of two midweek contests. Most games feature teams placed close together in the overall standings, with only three games matching teams separated by more than one win. For all of Soccer America’s predictions, as well as TV viewing information, and to see how Ridge Mahoney fared so far this season …

[MLS] Maybe this one can be explained away by fatigue, or turmoil induced by the fining of locker room combatants Denis Hamlett and Bakary Soumare, or simply taking a shorthanded opponent too lightly. Yet championship aspirations require a solid footing, and Chicago gouged deeply into its own foundation by succumbing meekly to Los Angeles, 2-0, at Toyota Park Wednesday in front of a sellout crowd. An enthusiastic few hundred chanted to the end, but many more trudged up the steps to the exits during a depressing second half.

[CONCACAF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE] A combination that seems to work no matter what the circumstances produced again Wednesday night to earn a Concacaf Champions’ League victory for the Houston Dynamo. Teammates for club and country, and on this night, substitutes – yes, you read that right – Stuart Holden and Brian Ching combined midway through the second half for the only goal Houston needed to beat Salvadoran club Isidro Metapan, 1-0, at Robertston Stadium in the first group match for both teams.