Tonite DC United take a winning streak into the Home Depot Center to face Chivas USA who are also on a winning streak of their own.
If DC United win:
- Chivas club record winning streak of 3 comes to an end.
- Chivas un-beaten on home field this season comes to an end.
If Chivas USA win:
- DC United league history record 6 consecutive win streak ends.
- DC United domination over Chivas USA ends with first EVER Chivas win.
If the game ends a draw:
- Chivas USA at least claim their first EVER point away from DC United.
- Two record setting win streaks come to an end.
- Simple minded folks who can’t understand not having a winner have more reason to hate soccer.
Both teams are pretty hot coming into this game. My prediction is that both winning streaks end tonite.
Two more lower league teams dropped two more MLS teams out of the US Open Cup. The Seattle Sounders beat Chivas USA 3-1 to advance to the quarterfinals and will eventually face the Colorado Rapids. The Carolina RailHawks beat Chicago Fire 1-0 and will go on to face the Richmond Kickers in the quarterfinals.
Major League Soccer teams have not fared too well in this years US Open Cup. Only 3 MLS teams have advanced to the quarterfinals while 3 USL-1 and 2 USL-2 teams are in the quarterfinals. The Next round of games takes place on August 10th.
Here are the quarterfinal matchups:
Harrisburg City Islanders
New England Revolution
Richmond Kickers
Carolina RailHawks
FC Dallas
Charleston Battery
Colorado Rapids
Seattle Sounders
Another lower league team has dumped another MLS team out of the US Open Cup. This time it is DC United that fell to the Harrisburg City Islanders 1-0.
This leaves 3 USL-1 teams alive in the tournament and 2 USL-2 teams. Already qualified for the quarter-finals are 3 MLS teams, 2 USL-2 teams and one USL-1 team.
Still to play in the round of 16 is Seattle Sounders (USL-1) vs Chiavs USA, and the Carolina RailHawks (USL-1) vs. Chicago Fire.
The US Open Cup is in full swing tonite.
DC United vs Harrisburg City Islanders
Rochester Raging Rhinos vs New England Revolution
Richmond Kickers vs LA Galaxy
Carolina RailHawks vs Chicago Fire
Atlanta Silverbacks (lost yesterday to) FC Dallas
Charleston Battery vs Houston Dynamo
California Victory vs Colorado Rapids
Seattle Sounders vs Chivas USA
View the brackets at the official US Open Cup website.
It was a crazy weekend for Major League Soccer.
Way to go DC United, now every team in Major League Soccer has a win. Before this weekend Real Salt Lake was the only team without a notch in the W column. I don’t know if you guys felt bad for them or what is going on. And what was up with scoring the goal at the very end of the game like that? Why not just give them the shut out as well? Well done Robbie Findley, they should build a statue of you outside the stadium there in Salt Lake. Quite a way to make an impression with a new team, 2 goals that lead to the first victory of the not-so-young-anymore season. Sorry but that wouldn’t have been quite as impressive if you had been traded to someone like the New England Revolution and done that. The should be setting up their teammates and winning games. Real Salt Lake shouldn’t.
Too bad the Galaxy didn’t have Robbie Findley still on their roster for their loss to the mighty Columbus Crew. Some recent acquisitions paid off in this game as well. Alejandro Moreno scored the game winning goal for the Crew, and Edson Buddle scored a late consolation goal for the Galaxy. Not worth anything really, but it was a goal and I’m sure Galaxy fans have to take what they can get.
Moreno’s old team, Houston Dyanamo have been hot this week scoring two big wins. Well beating Chivas maybe can’t be considered real big, but they also went to Kansas City and took a one nil victory from the powerful Wizards, who also lost to the might Columbus Crew last week.
So the Crew and Dynamo win 2 games this week. Dynamo fans probably expect a lot of this, and Crew fans will probably never forget this week. The Wizards drop 2 games that a team so close to the top should expect to win. DC United’s great run comes to a screeching halt. But most importantly, the US is Gold Cup Champions!
I like Preki, in fact he is one of my favorite players of all time along with Wynalda. I don’ like Guevara. Preki doesn’t like Guevara either. Guevara is leaving Chivas USA, but where to?
I’ve written about it before, ever since I saw Guevara fall to the ground in agony from a towel snap that appeared to completely miss him from a bench player, I can’t stand him. The player on the bench got a red card and Guevara didn’t get any acting awards, but he deserved one more than he deserved any soccer awards.
Anyway, he’s leaving Chivas USA but I don’t know where to? Another Major League Soccer team maybe? He refused a transfer to Toronto FC, so maybe he’s goin home. I thought this was a rumor right away, but I’ve read about it several places now so who knows?
Carlos Llamosa injured his knee at a training session on April 10th and underwent ACL reconstruction surgery on his left knee late last week. Llamosa will now miss the rest of the season.
Llamosa had not played a game yet for Chivas, so really he’s probably not missing out on a lot of playing time, but he won’t be able to train with the team either. He missed the 2004 season for the same type of injury. It is too bad to see stuff like that happen, but I bet they are happy it wasn’t Ante Razov. I don’t mean to take anything away from Llamosa, he had a long spell of good times with the national team.
I finally got around to voting for the Sierra Mist Goal of the Week tonight. There wasn’t anything spectacular to vote for, but it seemed clear to me that Sacha Kljestan deserves the goal of the week, and aparently most of you agree, he had 49% of the votes. That brings me to my next thought: Chivas USA. I know they at home and up against an expansion team, but they were still the most impressive team in my opinion.
Maykel Galindo looked like he’s going to cause a lot of problems for defenses this year. With him and Ante Razov they could be a deadly strike force. I hate to admit it cause I don’t like the guy, but toss Guevara in there with those two and it gets even more dangerous. On top of that Brad Guzan looked like you’d have to be crazy to not keep him in the net. I’ve got a feeling about that team this year, I wish I was a Chivas fan, cuase I think things could be really good for you if you are a Chivas fan this year.
Of course we haven’t seen the Wizards play yet. Maybe they’ll be more impressive. Or maybe not.
With Bob Bradley gone to the Olympic and Men’s National team the Chivas have given the top job to one of Bradley’s assistants and former MLS, US MNT star and one of my all time favorite players Preki.
Preki had an amazing career in Major League Soccer, most of it spent with the Kansas City Wizards along with one year with the Miami Fusion.
From the LA Times:
During 10 seasons in MLS, all but one of them with the Kansas City Wizards, Preki scored 89 goals and had 117 assists in 266 regular-season and playoff games. Known for his cutback moves and his deadly left-foot shot, he helped the Wizards win the MLS title in 2000.
A devotee of yoga, Preki is renowned for his fitness. He was the league’s most valuable player in 1997 and again in 2003, when he was 40 years old, and also won the league’s scoring title.
Read the whole article here
Congratulations Preki, If your coaching career is half as successfull as your playing career, Chivas will be very well off!
The 2nd quarterfinal of the night was a good one. This game had it all, a red card, a penalty kick, a pissed off coach, a late goal, some bench clearing shenanagains after the final whistle, the end of the season for one team, a come from behind, and best of all it had some good exciting soccer!
Houston got their first goal on a PK in the 2nd half. After seeing the replay I think it was a fair PK but that was not my initial thought. Chivas seemed to go back into a defensive shell in the 2nd half being up by one goal on the aggregate, thats never a good idea. The game seemed to be headed for extra time, but then in stoppage time Brian Ching put in the game winning goal. I’m surprised there were no more cards issued after the final whistle.
