Category: Story

[MLS] To the critics of slow starts, which have been the rule rather than the exception since the team moved from San Jose to Houston, Dynamo players, coaches and fans reply thusly:

[HEXAGONAL] Qualifying for the World Cup is a relatively straightforward process: win all your home games and take the odd point on the road and you should go through. It’s been a winning formula for the USA in the last three Hexagonals, where three of the six teams advance to the finals. With that in mind, the USA’s entirely forgettable performance at Costa Rica is irrelevant. Winning its three home games and earning a point with a late comeback in El Salvador put the USA in reasonably good shape at the halfway point of Concacaf’s final round of 2010 World Cup qualifying.

[HEXAGONAL] Mexico avoided the unthinkable but just barely. It got goals early in both halves from Argentine-born Guillermo Franco and Oscar Rojas and edged Trinidad & Tobago, 2-1, at Azteca Stadium to move into fourth place at the halfway point of World Cup 2010 qualifying in the Concacaf zone. Honduras remained third, behind Costa Rica and the USA, with a 1-0 win over visiting El Salvador.

[WORLD CUP 2010 QUALIFYING] Argentina doesn’t like to play at altitude. After falling to Bolivia, 6-1, at 12,000 feet above sea level in La Paz in April, it traveled to Quito and lost to Ecuador, 2-0, at 9,300 feet above sea level. Coach Diego Maradona remained confident Argentina would qualify for the 2010 World Cup, but its lead over Ecuador for the fourth and final automatic berth in the World Cup 2010 finals was reduced to two points with four games to play. In Europe, former U.S. U-17 international Neven Subotic scored an insurance goal for Group 7 leader Serbia in the its 2-0 win at the Faeroe Islands.

[U.S. OPEN CUP] The Ocean City Barons became the first PDL team to beat a higher ranked team in the U.S. Open Cup when they beat Crystal Palace Baltimore of the USL Second Division, 3-0. In Wednesday’s other makeup game, USL2’s Real Maryland edged the Aegean Hawks, 1-0, in a game cut short by lightning.

[OFF THE POST] Harvard student Jessica Lin designed a soccer ball that captures impact energy when the ball is kicked and stores it to charge lights and batteries. Lin and her team of students received a grant from the Clinton Global Initiative University to bring the energy balls to Nigerian farmers.

[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.

[WORLD CUP 2010 QUALIFYING] Before Brazil heads to the Confederations Cup, where it will face the USA, it hosts Paraguay Wednesday in a clash of the South American qualifying group leaders. For more on the Brazil-Paraguay showdown in Recife and a listing of all of Wednesday’s qualifiers on television …

[MLS PREDICTION] Western Conference leader Chivas USA will take a break from league play starting June 20 for the SuperLiga, but first has a tough road date Wednesday in Houston and another in Columbus Sunday, and thus needs points. The second-place Dynamo is riding an eight-game unbeaten streak and with two games in hand can close to within three points of the conference lead by winning.

[HEXAGONAL] Mexico returns to the friendly confines of Azteca Stadium, where it faces Trinidad & Tobago Wednesday in Mexico City in a battle of the last two teams in Concacaf’s World Cup 2010 qualifying group. Big changes are expected after the Tri lost its fourth straight qualifier on the road Saturday. Of perhaps more importance to the USA’s hopes of qualifying for South Africa is Wednesday’s other Hexagonal match between Honduras and El Salvador. A tie or El Salvador win would very much be the USA’s interest.