Houston Dynamo

The Houston Dynamo showed why they are defending MLS champions Saturday as a late goal by substitute Kei Kamara earned the defending champs a 1-1 draw with the New York Red Bulls in the first leg of their Western Conference semifinal at Giants Stadium.

An injury-depleted Red Bulls team had taken the lead early in the second half thanks to a goal from captain Juan Pablo Angel. New York came close to adding to their lead as Dane Richards hit a goalpost and saw another shot cleared off the line.

However, Kamara came off the bench and knotted the match with four minutes left on the clock, scoring from inside the box as New York’s back line failed to clear a loose ball.

The second leg will be played next Saturday in Houston.  Buy Red Bulls at Houston Tickets

I was born and raised in Alvin, Texas, just twenty miles south of the big city of Houston.  I grew up loving the Houston Astros, Houston Oilers and Houston Rockets in the 1980's.  I played youth football, baseball and basketball and excelled as a young athlete. I always wanted to emulate my favorite local sports heroes.

One sport I never played, much less saw was soccer. I didn't have any friends who played. It was never on television. My dad never played it when he grew up. I never even knew there was a league in Alvin until I reached seventh grade. By then it was time for junior high sports and soon high school. So soccer stayed in the background as far as my personal interest went.

Fast forward to 1994. I was a newly wed attending college. The big sporting event that year outside of the Rockets winning their first championship was the World Cup being in the USA. As I love rooting for my Houston teams, I will also watch almost any sport where a team wears USA across the front of the jersey. So I found myself watching the USA play in the World Cup.

The USA was very successful in 1994. I attribute watching them and every other game I could catch on tv helping start the flicker of passion I have for the game today. I was able to pick up most of the rules of the game fairly quickly from those matches. I didn't know what any of the formations were, but I could see how teams tried to create space. It was easy to see the little triangles form as players passed the ball between each other. It was the start for me.

So I of course picked out Everton to follow in 1995, right? No it was ten more years from 1994 before I even knew who Everton FC was. For the next several years I generally only watched US men's and women's national teams. I might catch the rare MLS game on tv but Houston didn't have a team and I wasn't going to support the Dallas Burn. Yes it is still one of the worst names ever in all of sports.

The path to Everton opened up in 1998 when my son Xander was born. You see it wasn't until he started playing soccer in 2004 that I became fully excited about the sport. Like most things I become passionate about, I poured myself into learning about soccer. I checked out books from the library, watched matches on tv, talked to local youth league coaches and scoured the internet for information on how to help teach my son to play. I also wanted to take him to some games and help him see how the big boys play. Now he was six at the time, so his passion and attention span was much less than mine, but I digress.

On a Thursday morning that summer I opened up the Houston Chronicle our local paper to notice that there was an actual English Premier League team playing that night in Houston. The game was going to be against Mexican Football League team Pachuca. I quickly told my wife we were going to the game that night. Luckily she then gave her permission. So my wife and I and our children Xander and daughter Sydney headed off for Reliant Stadium to see our first big international friendly.

We bought tickets about ten rows behind one of the goals. This made it exciting during warm-ups as I had to keep knocking shots away from the heads of my kids. Xander loved this part. Sydney wasn't even a year old and was basically just a small target for errant shots.

As for the match, well it was an exciting one. Everton scored their first goal in the third minute. James McFadden scored off a nice pass from Leon Osman. Everton would go on to win 5-2. The players I remember most from that night were Osman, Marcus Bent for his amazing speed and Thomas Graveson as he knocked down countless Pachuca players and controlled the midfield.

We had such a good time that I went back to the Sunday match of Everton versus Club America. Club America is the most popular team in Mexico so this crowd was much bigger. Club America beat a tired Everton team 3 to 1, but I was hooked. I sat behind the Everton supporters club and talked with a few of the fans who flew over for the trip. They were very friendly and told me the background of the blues. After the game I was able to talk a bit with Leon Osman who came over to the side of the field. Just a few words but this also cemented my feelings toward this club.

After the Sunday match I went home and searched the net, finding out as much about the team as I could. I quickly learned that Wayne Rooney was going to be sold. It was expected to be a season in which Everton fought against relegation. Instead the team pulled together and had a great season.

It is still hard to sometimes follow Everton from America. They aren't a small club, but they aren't one of the big four either. I catch as many games as possible on tv, and I enjoy reading the post match reports after the games that I can't watch. This year those reports haven't always been as much fun to read.

So that is my long road to becoming a fan of the Toffees. If another club had come to Houston first, maybe the story would be different. I like to believe however that fate knew I was meant to follow "the People's Club," and helped send them my way at just the right time.

If you don't mind, tell me how you came to support your favorite club.

I’m an American, and, yes, I do think draws are boring. I’m not saying we should go back to the days of MLS extra time shootouts, but if I were manager of an MLS squad (or any club for that matter), I would push everyone up and try to get the win. If for every time you got the go-ahead goal, you blew it twice on defense, you would still break even.

Today’s MLS matchups resulted in three ties. Well, two official ties and one that appears to be a tie (LA and COL are tied with about 35 minutes to play). Boring? Sure. Especially when the players look as indifferent as some of them did today.

The Crew picked up a road point against the Fire, but neither team really cares anymore. Now, they are just doing what qualified teams are supposed to do: playing not to get hurt. Who can blame them? Apparently Steve Ralston didn’t get that memo, and now he will miss the playoffs, courtesy of Mr. Hercules Gomez.

United failed to get a much needed win at Houston. The Dynamo flat out dominated them, but couldn’t get a goal. DC’s winless streak is now ridiculously long. Their goalless streak is also now monumental, over 450 minutes. Perhaps the only thing longer than both is the odds they will make the playoffs this year. It’s pretty sad when your squad can’t get more than a point from HOU (who was missing some of its most potent weapons and seemed disinterested at times).

Finally, LA and Colorado are tied at one. LA needs the win, while the Rapids badly want it. Unless Buddle does it singlehandedly in the second half, it looks like the Galaxy’s playoff chances will go from unlikely to nearly impossible. If they do tie, today may be the most boring Sunday of the season.

They say, winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing. Which makes absolutely no sense, if you think about it. If it’s the only thing, than isn’t it everything?

Actually, don’t think about it. It may be too heavy a philosophical matter to consider on the Sabbath.

Have a beer and watch the rest of the Gals game instead.

As loyal STO readers may recall, a Houston Dynamo fan blog, Nutmegged, challenged STO and just about everyone else in the MLS blogosphere to a friendly game of fantasy football (er, soccer) on the web’s premiere MLS fantasy site, MFLS.com.

Well, twenty-four weeks are now complete, and I am happy to report STO has been dominating the bloggers who accepted Nutmegged’s challenge. Here is the standings with six weeks to play:

1. STO
2. Center Holds It
3. Blue-Blooded Journo
4. PeleOrei
5. WV Hooligan
6. Who Ate All The Cupcakes
7. Nutmegged
8. The DCenters
9. Soccerlens

Now, to be fair, other than STO, only Nutmegged, WV Hooligan and PeleOrei appear to have been updating their teams regularly throughout the competition. So, while we look to be certain to claim the division fantasy title, we also put in a lot more time and effort than many of our competitors. But, hey, at the end of the day, STO can still claim bragging rights as the best blogger/fantasy manager in the land.

We are also dominating the blogger division’s predictions league, though again, there hasn’t been much activity from many of the other managers. While we wish the other bloggers had participated more regularly, we will take the trophies if no one else wants to step up and compete for them. We’re not too proud to win by default. Heck, we’re not proud at all, just devoted MFLS participants.

As things currently stand, out of the 2,245 MLS fans who signed up for MFLS this year, STO is currently in 141st place overall in the fantasy standings and 138th place overall in the prediction league. Not too shabby at all and certainly better than we expected.

Hopefully, we can finish this year strong and crack the Top 100 in both the fantasy and predictions standings. If so, we’ll complete the rare double and be content to wait until next year when a new crop of bloggers comes calling for a little competition.

Maybe next year they’ll actually play too!

The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, or T&T, is found on a small archipelago in the southern Caribbean. 96% of the population lives in Trinidad and the other 4% live in Tobago, which leads me to question why Tobago gets equal billing.

T&T is famous as the birthplace of calypso music and the steelpan drum. T&T is actually far more similar to the US than one might imagine. It’s a prosperous nation due to its oil-rich economy. It’s a democratic nation. The official language is English.

We do have several differences as well though. For instance, T&T still uses the “cat o’nine tails” to flog its prisoners. We outlawed that practice years ago. We both still like to execute a prisoner every now and then though. You know, for the kids.

The football team, known as the Soca Warriors, is actually pretty good. They qualified for their first ever World Cup in 2006 and when they took the pitch in Germany they were the smallest country ever (population-wise) to play in a World Cup. The 2006 team, which was coached by Dutchman Leo Beenhakker didn’t fare too well in Germany though as it tied Sweden and lost to England and Paraguay.

T&T is making a strong push to qualify again and barring a bad defeat to the US and a big win by Guatemala, T&T should make it to the next round. T&T is currently ranked #80 in the world by FIFA, though they were as high as #102 only two months ago.

T&T’s best player is Dwight Yorke, who has scored sixteen goals in 59 appearances for the national team. Yorke, along with Carlos Edwards and Kenwyne Jones, play for Sunderland in England. Julius James of Toronto FC has gotten one call-up for the squad as well. It doesn’t look like Yorke, Edwards, Jones or James will be present Wednesday at Toyota Park though. Keon Daniel and Cornell Glen are two players who will be there and the U.S. will have to watch out for them on Wednesday night.

The Soca Warriors play a wide open style of soccer that produces goals, but leaves the defense vulnerable to counter-attacks. The US will need to use T&T’s style against them if they hope to sweep the qualifying round. Look for Michael Bradley and Maurice Edu to be two important cogs in the MNT machine.

The last time the Men’s Nats faced T&T during the Gold Cup in 2007, the US easily dispatched of the Soca Warriors 2-0 at the HDC. Eddie Johnson and Brian Ching, two guys who will be there tomorrow night, provided the US’s goals. Let’s hope Ching can do it again. I would hope the same for EJ, but methinks Bradley has forgotten he’s on the roster.

Bob, he’s the really fast guy on the end of the bench. The guy who can’t get it done against good competition but always slays little teams, like say, T&T.

Use him. Please.

The Houston Dynamo are starting to run away from the competition in the Western Conference. On a hot afternoon at Robertson Stadium, the Dynamo increased their lead to seven points ahead of Real Salt Lake with a 3-1 whipping of the Kansas City Wizards.

Nate Jaqua scored two second-half goals, Kei Kamara added the first two assists of his MLS career, and Brad Davis scored his third goal in the last seven games to help the Dynamo win for the fourth consecutive match at home.

And the Dynamo did all this without the services of three key players. Brian Ching (USA), Dwayne De Rosario, and Pat Onstad (both Canada) were all out of action while helping their respective national teams in World Cup qualifying matches.

Tony Caig filled in nicely in goal for the unflappable Onstad. Caig made one save and nearly shut out the Wizards for the second time this season. Caig improved to 3-1-3 while filling in for Onstad this season and allowed just a goal by Nederland, Texas native Davy Arnaud in the 87th minute.

Houston dominated the first half, but thanks to bad luck and great goalkeeping by Kansas City's Kevin Hartman, the score was just 1-0 at the break.

Stuart Holden got free and took a perfect cross from Waibel in the 10th minute. Holden's header was a bit high, but Hartman got a hand on it to keep the game scoreless in the early going.

Ten minutes later, Kamara broke free and fired a shot on goal from about 23 yards out, but again, Hartman was there to make a stop.

In the 24th minute, Brian Mullan got around the K.C. defense and saw Kamara with room inside the box and to the right of the Wizards goalkeeper. But midfielder Kerry Zavagnin slid into the pass, knocking the ball out of harm's way.

In the 28th minute, the Dynamo finally broke through. Kamara raced ahead of the defense to corral a long flick-on in the left corner, stopped, and slid a pass back to a trailing Davis, who blasted a left-footer just under the crossbar inside the near post to make it 1-0.

Davis is one of the league's hottest players at the moment and has recorded two goals and eight assists in his last seven MLS matches.

The goal was a beauty, but Kamara's work on the play cannot be discounted. Instead of forcing a shot, he held up the ball and set up an unmarked Davis and his midfielder delivered. For Kamara, it was his first career MLS assist in 54 matches.

Before the break, the Dynamo had two more chances to double their lead, but Davis bounced what could have been an easy goal off the turf and over the crossbar in the 41st minute.

Two minutes later, Kamara got control of a loose ball and fired a shot on goal from 17 yards out only to be denied yet again by Hartman.

Putting the heat and home-field advantage to good use, the Dynamo finally put the Wizards away with a dominating second-half performance even as Herculez Gomez and Abe Thompson made their respective debuts for Kansas City.

Before leaving to a nice ovation in the 83rd minute, Jaqua cut the K.C. defense to pieces, getting open twice to break open what was a close match.

In the 54th minute, he found room just inside the box, took a square pass from Holden, and fired a shot underneath Hartman. Kamara made a nice play just to control a long pass on the right flank, and the Dynamo were rolling.

Just under 15 minutes later, Craig Waibel, getting the start with De Rosario gone, sent a beautiful long through ball to Jaqua, whose shot from inside the box flew just under the crossbar in the 68th minute, effectively ending any and all hope for the Wizards.

Arnaud provided a late consolation for the Wizards when he charged down a clearance attempt by Wade Barrett, fought off the Dynamo fullback to reach the deflection, and powered the ball home from close range.

As far as I know, he’s never lived there either. Why is this important?

Well, Bradley seems to be quite fond of Californians. Or at least their soccer skills anyways. Of the 20 U.S. men he called in for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Cuba and Trinidad & Tobago, more than 1/2 are from the Golden State. This is one of the strange things I noticed while perusing Bradley’s latest selections.

Here’s Bradley’s team:

U.S. ROSTER BY POSITION
GOALKEEPERS (2): Brad Guzan (Aston Villa: 2/2 SO), Tim Howard (Everton FC: 4/3 SO)
DEFENDERS (8): Carlos Bocanegra (Rennes: 14/2), Danny Califf (FC Midtjylland: 2/0), Steve Cherundolo (Hannover 96: 16/0), Frankie Hejduk (Columbus Crew: 12/1), Oguchi Onyewu (Standard de Liege: 9/0), Michael Orozco (San Luis: 0/0), Heath Pearce (Hansa Rostock: 3/0), Marvell Wynne (Toronto FC: 0/0)
MIDFIELDERS (6): DaMarcus Beasley (Glasgow Rangers: 17/4), Michael Bradley (SC Heerenveen: 3/1), Ricardo Clark (Houston Dynamo: 1/0), Maurice Edu (Glasgow Rangers: 2/0), Sacha Kljestan (Chivas USA: 1/0), Eddie Lewis (Los Angeles Galaxy: 20/3)
FORWARDS (4): Brian Ching (Houston Dynamo: 8/4), Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy: 22/8), Clint Dempsey (Fulham FC: 9/2), Eddie Johnson (Cardiff City: 8/8)

I like the picks overall. Alot of people will decry the lack of our Double A Battery (Altidore and Adu), but Jozy needs to heal, and both players need time to ingratiate themselves with their new teams.

I’ll provide more thoughts on the roster and the upcoming games later, but here are just a few more of the strange things I noticed when perusing the roster:

• Michael Bradley turned 21 just days before the Olympics. No wonder he looked hung over out there the whole time.
• Only 7 of the players are from MLS, and none are from the table topping New England Revolution.
• Gooch and Guzan are tied for largest player on the roster with exactly the same height and weight.
• Beasley and Ching have the same birthday (May 24), but Ching is four years older. Special K and Guzan also have the same birthday (September 9), but the Guz is a year older than Klejstan.

I recently wrote an article about improvements the MLS needs to make so that it could become a more important league.  I got somewhat of mixed feedback.  A few said that I was right and a few said I was clueless as to what I was talking about.  If you haven't read the article here it is.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/45328-the-mls-needs-improvement

There was one person though who really wanted to debate this issue.  Here's the debate in unedited form.  DON'T READ THE COMMENTS BELOW THE ARTICLE UNTIL YOU"RE DONE THIS ARTICLE!

Jonothan:  Thomas - I appreciate that you took the time to write an article about Major League Soccer. This is a great opportunity to discuss the league and the beautiful game. Before I respond further to your article, I would appreciate if you would answer the following questions.

1. What MLS team do you support?
2. How many MLS games have you attended?
3. How long have your been following MLS?

Me:  DC United (and LA Galaxy

I've only been able to actually go to 5 games...I travel alot so I don't stick around in one place for long

I've been following the MLS since 2002.

Any questions?

Jonathan:  Allow matches to be seen on public TV: I'm not sure about all metropolitan areas who host MLS teams. I do know that in Houston - almost all Houston Dynamo games are broadcast free on local television stations in both English and Spanish with the exception of Superliga games which are broadcast only in Spanish. All games are also broadcast on local radio in English and Spanish. Glenn Davis hosts a two hour broadcast "All Dynamo Access" for two hours every Monday. This show is also available over the internet. He also broadcasts a half hour "Dynamo Soccer Report" every Friday evening. I have seen evidence of similar broadcasts . Games are also broadcast on HDNet, ESPN, ABC, Telefutura and Fox Soccer Channel. Games are also available on the Direct Kicks package and on the internet.

Me:  I'd like to see the cities that do have teams show it on TV. The problem is though, that not enough fans stay at home to watch it on TV! I've never seen a game on ESPN, I've always seen it on ESNP2. Didn't I say that it was on FOX Soccer? Not everyone is willing to pay for soccer packages by the way.

Jonathan:  Change owners: I think you may be a little behind the times on this one. While it's true at when the league was formed there were only a few owners (mostly Hunt Sports Group and Anschutz Entertainment Group). MLS owes a lot to these groups as they are they one's who kept the league afloat in the early years. The league is now mostly diversified. There are a number of international owners. Here are the current MLS owners: (I'm too lazy to include that list.  Just go look at it later.)

Me:  Most of these owners are owners of other teams in other sports. What I'm talking about is getting owners who are fully interested in the MLS and don't have interest in other sports.

Jonathan:  Introduce relegations and promotions: I agree with you that it would be great to have a relegation and promotion system. I also have to agree with Eric that at this point in time it wouldn't be tenable for the reasons he sited. I think that this happen down the road as both leagues expand and continue to build their fan bases.

Me:  Your right...we will have to wait. I didn't want all these suggestions to happen right away. I realize it takes time.

Jonathan:  Allow sponsors to compete: All professional team enter into exclusive deals for a set group of benefits in exchange for exclusivity. I agree that competion by sponsors helps the league. I have seen evidence that MLS does allow competition. As the leagues fan base continues to grow - so will it's power negotiate these deals for the better of the league. As the league grows and with the arrival of international stars such as Beckhama and Blanco, sponsors are coming more to MLS rather than MLS is having to go to the sponsors.

Me:  In the beginning, the MLS went to the sponsors. You are correct to say that sponsors will come to the MLS once it establishes itself more...unfortunately, the fan base right now sorta sucks.

Jonathan:  Bring in younger players: I'm not sure that I agree with you on this one. I see plenty of young players in MLS. An example would be Stewart Holden who just shot the winning goal in first round of the Olympics. You need a blend of experienced and younger players. MLS developed one of the best youth development programs in the World a few years ago. It's not long until you are going to start seeing these players. The international stars are on the older side. I don't forsee MLS bring in the very top of young players such as Cristiano Ronaldo or Kaka until it has more economic might but this is coming.

Me:  Definately the MLS will not be able to bring in the best young stars around. Sure the MLS has great young players, but put them in Europe or even South America, and they'll sputter. I did give the MLS props in creating a youth program. Now we just need to start seeing those players actually play.

Jonathan:  In looking at the fan base you have to go back and remember there we no MLS fans in 1994. I moved to Houston after living in Europe for 11 years in Italy, England and Spain. I moved to the Houston Texas area in 2002. I started to follow MLS when the Dynamo moved to Houston in 2006. Sports Business Daily reports MLS average attendance is 16,647 so far in 2008 and that attendance is up 10.6% compared to 2007. The attendance is skewed to the bad by two MLS teams are temporarily having to play in stadiums with limited attendance until their stadiums are completed. If weren't for these teams, MLS attendance would be significantly higher. Dynamo attendance for regular MLS home games this season is 16,189. This excludes Superliga. Superliga 2008 average home attendance was 19502. The biggest MLS games are yet to come. Attendance for each of the last 3 home games of 2007 was over 30,000. I believe the season will end with an average attendance of around 17,000 (possibly higher). Based on a previous MSL growth of 5.6% and an average attendance in 2008, in 5 years average attendance will be 38,653 and in 10 years will be 86,713. I personally believe that the growth will it will be much faster and will only be limited by the size of their playing facility. The Dynamo played in front of a crowd of 72,000 when they had a double header (Dynamo vs Club America and Barcelona vs Club America) in 2007 at Reliant Stadium. I believe this trend will hold across MLS.

Me:  The MLS has a small but devoted fan base. As the MLS grows and does well, its fan base will also grow. Right now, most fans of the MLS are younger people who have seen soccer elsewhere and now here in America.

Jonathan:  Agreed. Youth players are mostly going to also turn into adult fans. There are still many American's who didn't grow up with soccer (such as myself) are discovering the beautiful game and are finding out what they've been missing. I've seen many sports fans (both younger and older) who have come to Dynamo games and became fans. I'm still a European soccer fan but have become a strong MLS fan. It's an exciting league which has been underrated. As it continues to have more and more international play such as Superliga - it's status will grow. There are a lot of fans of foreign leagues and clubs who are slowly discovering MLS. I've found that those who actually get out and give MLS a chance join this devoted fan base.

Jonathan:  Here are some recent world soccer average attendance:

Country Avg. Att.
Bundesliga (Germany) 37,644
English Premier League 34,459
LaLiga (Spain) 28,838
Clausura (Mexico) 25,379
Ligue 1 (France) 21,817
Serie A (Italy) 19,711
J.League (Japan) 19,081
Eredivisie (Holland) 18,052
Campeonato (Brazil) 17,461
Primera (Argentina) 17,363
Major League Soccer 16,770
Scottish Premier League 16,194
Turkish Premier Super 14,058
A-League (Australia) 14,042

Me: (This list shows that the MLS is doing very well on the world stage.  Maybe someday it will attract as much as La Liga or the EPL.)  Good list...u mind if i make an article out of our discussion? i think it'd be pretty good

Jonathan:  I'm looking forward to reading it.

After you read this, post a comment.  Who do you tend to agree with?  Do you have something else to add into the debate?  I realize that I'm not the greatest of writers, but I do ok.  By the way, to better understand this debate you gotta read that article first. 

FC Barcelona put six goals in the net against the New York Red Bulls on Wednesday, August 6th. The Catalans were playing without superstar Leo Messi, just hours after the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled that Barcelona did not have to release him to participate in the Olympics.

Without Messi, Barcelona led 4-1 at halftime and 6-2 at full time behind two Samuel Eto'o goals, and a two assist effort from Xavi.

Amado Guevara, a Honduran midfielder playing for Toronto FC, was fined and suspended by the MLS disciplinary committee for his actions in a game last Sunday. Guevara was given a straight red card for hitting FC Dallas midfielder Pablo Ricchetti in the face during the 78th minute of Sunday's game.

Guevara has been suspended for a total of two games, and fined $500. He is not eligible to return to action until August 23rd.

Former New England Revolution icon Pat Noonan was dealt to the Columbus Crew on Wednesday. In January of 2008, Noonan signed with the Norwegian club Aalesunds FK, with New England still retaining his MLS rights. After eleven appearances in Norway, Noonan decided to return to MLS. Columbus offered their first round pick in the 2009 MLS SuperDraft as well as the option for New England to climb from 10th to third in the current MLS allocation rankings.

Real Salt Lake will open their gorgeous new stadium on October 9th in a match against the New York Red Bulls. The club had originally hoped to open the stadium some time this season, but was unsure if they would meet that deadline. The 20,000 seat stadium will make its debut on October 9th in a game nationally televised on ESPN2. RSL stadium will also host the 2009 MLS All-Star Game.

Last but definitely not least, the US Olympic soccer team began their quest for a gold medal with a 1-0 win over Japan in their first game. Midfielder Stuart Holden scored the winning goal just minutes before the half.

Last night was the final match of Superliga between the New England Revolution and the Houston Dynamo and I decided I needed to make a personal appearance.

This was predicated on three distinct factors. One, the match was only available on a Spanish language television network that I don’t think exists. Two, it was probably the only chance I would ever have to actually see a Championship live and in person. Three, I had such a great time at the first Superliga match that I attended; so I just needed to make an appearance.

For those of you who don’t know what Superliga is, the top four teams in the Mexican league and the top four teams in Major League Soccer go at it in a poor man’s version of the UEFA Cup.

Amazingly, the MLS version of the Buffalo Bills actually won the hardware this year, after beating the Dynamo in a shootout after the full 90 minutes and two 15 minute OT periods.

Instead of a cut and dry rundown on the 120 minute match (plus final shootout), I’m going to hand out awards in a manner I hope you will all find fun and entertaining (or hopelessly boring).

Best Goal of the Match: This is a tough one. On the basis of pure prettiness, you have to go with Steve Ralston’s goal in the 41st minute. It came at a nearly impossible angle and I was sure that even if you shot it, it would hit the side of the net.

On the basis of momentum, it goes to Shalrie Joseph’s goal at the 102nd minute, only four minutes after the Dynamo went up 2-1 in the extra period.

Most Annoying Fan of the Match: The Englishman who sat behind me and commentated the whole match. It was extremely annoying. My personal favorite was when he said the EPL was better than the MLS. Gee, really? Next thing you know, he was going to tell me that the sun rose in the East that morning.

Worst Clearance of the Match: No doubt about it, it goes to Rev’s defender Amaechi Igwe. The Dynamo sent a long free kick into the Rev’s penalty area, which Igwe ran on to and flicked back over his head (I have no idea why) and it just stopped dead. Dynamo Forward Nate Jacqua, who was making his run, happened upon this gift and easily put it past Matt Reis in the 18th minute.

Player of the Match for the Revs: As much as I hate giving it to the guy with the stats, it has to go to Steve Ralston. He had the pretty goal to even it at 1-1 in the first half, and then served up the assist off a free kick to Joseph’s head to tie it at 2-2.

Number two would be forward Mauricio Castro. Only played 70 minutes, but he was running all over the field, causing havoc for the Dynamo defenders. That’s the stuff you don’t see on the score sheet.

Worse Man-Crush of the Match: The Englishman behind me had a huge crush on Dewayne De Rosario. Everything he did was “pretty” or “amazing” or “outstanding.” I mean, he’s good, but this guy was about five minutes away from picking out a China pattern.

Player of the Match for the Dynamo: Man-Crush aside, I have to give it to De Rosario. He did all the things you want. He opened up the offense, he made runs, he caused fits for the defenders, and he kept going for the full 120 minutes.

Number two would be Rev’s defender Amaechi Igwe. He did everything to help the Dynamo. If the game had gone any longer, I’m sure he would have scored an own goal.

Best Quote of the Match #1: As the second OT period was winding down, I turned to the Duchess and said “If this goes to a shoot-out, it’ll be like Man U/Chelsea, except on a much, much smaller scale.” She rolled her eyes. Hey, what are girlfriends for?

Best Quote of the Match #2 – Near the beginning of the match, the aforementioned Englishman was asked by his daughter which player was De Rosario. His answer was “The one with the ponytail.” Um, there was no player on the pitch with a ponytail.

This was nearly as classic as the Trinidad & Tobago/US World Cup Qualifier I was at when some guy was praising Dwight Yorke for some play that Stern John had made. When I finally pointed out this error to him, he stayed quiet for the rest of the match. Good times.