Reminder: US MNT vs. Mexico in Gold Cup Final Today at Noon

Gold Cup final is today at noon. The US MNT (well, kinda the B squad of the US MNT) will be taking on the Dirty Sanchez in New Jersey today. Hopefully no elected New Jersay officials will be involved in the game (let's leave soccer corruption in FIFA and UEFA where it belongs!)

Sounders 0 : 0 Fire

First the good news: The Sounders totally outclassed the Fire yesterday at XBox Pitch.
Next, the better news: The Sounders outclassed the Fire even though they beat Houston in overtime in one of the most intense games ever played on North American soil on Tuesday. It was
Now, the bad news: Freddie Ljungberg is back to his old ways of arguing with the refs. He got busted on an obvious dive that earned him a well-deserved yellow card. I was in Section 237 enjoying the game with Mrs. Hooligan and little Hooligan Jr. and we could both see the dive. Okay fine, but then he got up and freaked out at the ref (probably something about how the EPL reffing is sooooooo much better than MLS reffing). Here's some cultural training Freddie: in North America, when we get busted on something we own up to it.

Montero and Jaqua both had lots of chances but they both looked tired on their finishes. I don't mind the tie at all considering they were coming off that intense Houston US Open Cup Match and the Ravers still looked much better than the Fire.

Here are the highlights: (The Freddie dive is at 3 minutes)

Highlights: Chicago Fire 0, Seattle Sounders FC 0

Odds and Ends:
Cuahtemoc Blanc looked very ordinary for the entire game. He had one free kick that he hammered into the wall. He can score on those but fortunately the spin wasn't there for him on Saturday.

Tyson Wahl didn't exactly make a strong argument for keeping his job on Saturday. Leonardo Gonzalez is on his way, which should shore up the Ravers line and help them protect leads (not that they have needed that lately but Gonzalez will definitely improve the Ravers defense). Gonzalez just put in a great performance playing for Costa Rica in the Gold Cup (Costa Rica was eliminated by Mexico on PKs on Thursday)

Preview: Sounders vs Chicago Fire

Good match coming up.

Overview:
Seattle and Chicago are tied for second in the league table at 28 points each (behind Houston with 31 points). Seattle has 26 goals compared to Chicago's 25, while the Ravers have given up 16 goals the Fire's 20, yielding a goal differential of 5 in Seattle's favor. Both teams are on mini-hot streaks (both unbeaten in their past 3 matches).

Brian McBride is out for shoulder surgery, which leaves a pretty big hole up front for Chicago. Cuatemoc Blanco likes to pass to McBride and the two have combined for several goals this year. In the absence of McBride, look for Marco Pappa or Patrick Nyarko to be on the receiving end of Blanco passes. Blanco is on fire (ha ha) lately and was named the MLS player of the week for his performance against the SmurfQuakes. The Fire are also missing starting M Logan Pause as well as as starting D Bakary Soumare and sub D Gonzalo Segare.

Clips
Here's a shot of Blanco turning the Earthquakes' defenders inside-out before chipping a pass to Patrick Nyarko for the game winner in the 82nd minute of the game last week:

Blanco-Nyarko combo

Here's a shot of Marco Pappa scoring the week 16 MLS Goal of the Week:

Pappa picks a corner

And here's a shot of a vicious Blanco free kick against the Revolutions:
Bend it like Blanco

Bookies:
Half the money is on the Sounders with the other half split evenly between the Fire and a tie. I've punted on the Sounders for this one since the Fire's D is weak right now.

Sounders in US Open Cup Final

WHAT A FREAKING GAME!!!!!!! Our boys came back from a 0-1 deficit against Houston to score with less than two minuted to play. This is the second time in two weeks that the Sounders have come back against the best defense in the MLS.

Jaqua was everywhere, and I mean everywhere tonight. That guy has hockey player blood in him. He got his head split open in the first 15 minutes, went and got a civil-war style head bandage put on, came back in the match, and proceeded to lead the Sounders to a come-from-behind win over the best defence in the MLS for the second time in two weeks. The blood continually soaked through his bandage so he had to keep running to the sidelines to get it changed. He also had to change to a fresh jersey with no name on it because his first one was covered in blood. Him and Andrew Hainault were mixing it up HARD all game.

Houston opened the scoring about 30 minutes in on a decent goal by Akinbiyi (who is that???). Houston controlled the rest of the first half. The Sounders gradually got stronger as the second half progressed, and by the 80 minute mark all the play was in the Houston zone. Zakuani was put in for Nyassi at about 60 minutes, which definitely improved the runs down the side. Then in went Alonso for Vagenas at 65 minutes, and Levesque replaced Tyson Wahl at about 80 minutes. Then it was GAME ON for the Sounders. They owned the rest of the match, with Jaqua evening the score on a sweet pass from Le Toux. Stephen King stole the ball in front of the net and blasted home the game winner early in overtime. Houston was broken after this and couldn't put up any serious offensive effort for the final 25 minutes. The Dynamo had subbed in defenders late in regular time to protect their lead and had no-one who could take the ball up the field. They ended up resorting to long shots from well outside the box, all of which Keller handled easily.

The fans were incredible. As loud as at XBox Pitch. Definitely some intimidation of the refs and the Dynamo going on.

Don't ask about the reffing. The guy did as best he could. Houston should have been playing man-down for all the dirty tackles and dangerous plays that they did, but the ref didn't have the cojones to pull the yellow card. When Houston figured this out, it became open season on Montero, Nyassi, and Jaqua. Nevertheless the Ravers persevered and pulled out a huge victory.

The US Open Cup final will be in DC unfortunately, but hopefully it will be televised.

Gold Cup

Stuart Holden scored on a one-touch blast to tie the game against Haiti in yesterday's phenomenal Gold Cup match. Haiti played their hearts out. The Sounders have an upcoming Open Cup matchup with Holden's team (the Dynamo). We lucked out in not having to face him on Saturday. Here's hoping that the US MNT continues their Gold Cup winning ways and keep Holden (and Brian Ching) away from the US Open semis.

How To Sell A Goal and Other Highlights from Sounders-Dynamo

It turns out that Fredy Montero can score without even putting the ball in the net. Now that's talent. Look at how he nonchalantly acts like he just scored after Chabala makes what should have been the save of the match. Game highlights here.

Patrick Ianni Does a Lance Armstrong

Superstar forward Patrick Ianni...hmmm that's not right...Superstar midfielder Patrick Ianni...that's still wrong...Superstar Defender Patrick Ianni scored the game winner on a bicycle kick from within the six yard box against his old team at the start of the second half of the Sounders-Dynamo match today. Crazy. Crazier still was the fact that a defender was in the six yard box in the first place. So much for soccer being a position game.

Here's another bit of crazy from the game: With the Sounders up 2-1 heading into injury time, Coach Schmetzer (Sigi was in DC for his son's wedding) put Roger Levesque in for Freddie Ljungberg. Here I was thinking that when you are ahead you should adopt a more defensive posture but noooooooo the Sounders decided to put in Levesque. Oh well, it worked which is a good thing because "Pulling a Schmetzer" has a certain ring to it. I wonder if Sigi was scratching his head in DC wondering what on earth Schmetzer was doing.

Jozy Altidore: Future US MNT All-Star

Anyone who saw 19 year old F Jozy Altidore turning the Spanish defense upside-down and inside-out in the Confederations' Cup last month knows that the guy is special. Well, Club Olympiakos, the top club team in Greece, agrees. They just picked him up on loan from Villareal. This guy is going to be a key part of the US World Cup run next year. I can feel it...

We'll Mess Up Texas

Well, well, well. The Brokeback State is sending their footy best to compete up in the Great Northwest not once but twice in July. It'll be fun to see our boys lay a smackdown on the Houston Windshield Cowboys twice in the next two weeks. Houston sits atop the MLS ranking right now (see table at right). They are also at the top of the MLS Power Rankings. Houston has a powerhouse defense which has only given up 10 goals so far this season and the team has a league-leading goal differential of +11. Pretty impressive stuff...but Seattle should win this one easily.
Houston short-staffed.
Houston is going to be without Bobby Boswell and Geoff Cameron on defense. They are out because of caution accumulations (both players have started every game so far this year). Andrew Hainault, another important defender, is gone playing Gold Cup for Canada as is Julius James playing for Trinidad. That leaves them with Richard Mulrooney (age 34) and some non-starters on D. Brian Ching, the top Houston Forward, is playing for the national team at the Gold Cup. So is the second top Houston scorer, Stuart Holden. So who can score? Kei Kamara is the most likely suspect (see attached video; wicked cross by Chabala to Kamara). But the reality is that this is not the Houston that is leading the Table, it is a short-staffed team with a very weak defense and little firepower up-front.

The Sounders, for their part, are without Brad Evans (Gold Cup). Other than that they are full up. Ljungberg is carrying 4 yellow cards, so he might see limited action. He needs three clean games or he'll be suspended for a match.

Betting
The betters are definitely laying down for the Sounders in this one. Almost half the money is on the Sounders, with the rest being split between a tie and the Dynamo.

Gooch Signs with AC Milan

Anyone who watched Oguchi Onyewu in the Confederations Cup knows that he is a very, very good center defender. He was part of a line that completely shut down the high-powered Spanish team. Well, someone in Italy (!) noticed, since he just signed with AC Milan. Hmmm...a ten man USA almost beat an 11 man Italy in that tournament...someone must have been watching.

http://espn.go.com/videohub/player.swf?mediaId=4311166

Sounders Through in US Open Cup

Seba Le Toux scored on a PK in the 90th minute. Get your tickets for the match against Houston at Starfire ASAP!

Audiocast of Tonight's Game

Ravers vs. The Wizz: US Open Cup Semi-Finals

No television for this match. Someone at Sounders HQ was decent enough to set up an audiocast over the interweb:

Click here for audiocast

US Open Live Blog is here:

Live Blog

Hurtado is starting (he'd been out with a groin pull). Evans is gone for the Gold Cup and Ljungberg is sitting due to nationality limits (5 non-US players are allowed per side).

Sounders sign Left D Leonardo Gonzalez

Right-freaking-on! Ravers just signed one of the top defenders in the CONCACAF, Leonardo Gonzalez. This guy is solid. He plays left D (where several recent goals against the Ravers have come from), he's left-footed, experienced (28), highly-regarded (starts at left D for Costa Rica, has 3 World Cup matches under his belt, and is pretty much a regular on the Costa Rican national squad, which is very good), and proven (he helped Liberia Mia to a Costa Rican Club championship last year). AND he likes to play up when we need a goal.

The Sounders had one of the best defenses in the MLS before this (behind Houston and maybe Chivas and on par with a few more). This will take care of the one truly weak spot on the team: left defense. Tyson Wahl will probably be put on the bench for now.

The Defensive line now looks like (choose any 4):
-Hurtado
-Marshall
-Gonzalez
-Riley

This addresses the problems that Seattle has had in keeping a lead, and is also going to make scoring on them much more difficult and adds depth to the defense in case of injury or call-ups. Gonzalez can also run the line, and you have to assume that Ty Marshall is approaching the end of his MLS career at 34.

Sounders are looking like MLS Cup contenders...

Portsc*m Highlights: Levesque and King and Nyassi and Le Toux and...

Roger Levesque continues to pick Portsc*m defenders apart (you gotta lover the Nyassi-Le Toux-Levesque combination! USL all over again...)























And the obligatory dig at Portsc*m (ht GoSounders.com)