The United States went into Commerce City, Colorado on Friday night in a must win situation. After losing their first game to Honduras, they sat at the bottom of their World Cup Qualifying group. Another loss could not be afforded. Costa Rica were the opposition who made the journey to Colorado and were met with a big surprise. A blizzard.
As the fans packed into the sold out stadium, the snow was coming down pretty good. The temperature was a chilly 29 degrees Fahrenheit. Grounds crews shoveled up as much snow as they could before the game, making sure to highlight the 18 yard box, midfield, and the out of bounds lines. The US were in there brand new centennial jersey. The only problem with that was, they're white. But oh well most people could see them. Remember when Nike made that awesome new match ball for this season? Well they forgot one thing. To make an orange one. The brightest it comes in is yellow. Which from the TV screen looked very difficult to track. Even the commentators at the game had trouble seeing the ball. I would thing a huge company like Nike could make an orange ball. Anyway lets get to the action.
The US started the match off with a lot of control. Their passes were not as sloppy as we have seen in previous games. In the 16th minute Jozy Altidore (who I hate) took a shot from outside the box, or just in it, which deflected of a Costa Rican player and fell to the newly named captain Clint Dempsey. It was an easy finish for the him and it put the Americans up 1-0. I actually couldn't see the goal on my tv, I just saw Altidore's shot then heard the crowd go wild. It was a good thing the US scored early, because the conditions of the pitch got worse as the game when on. Every time the ball went out a person would shovel as much snow as they could off the field before the match resumed. The ref, at any moment, could pause the game if he wanted to, or stop it for good. Luckily the game went with no interruptions through half time.
In the second half Costa Rica came out with the upper hand. They kept it in the US half of the field. As the blizzard got worse and worse, the ref stopped the game. Juergen Klinsmann, the United States head coach, was furious. All the US players went over and talked to the ref. More surprisingly, so did the Costa Rican players. Costa Rica felt they had control of the play at the time and they wanted to keep playing. After a 2-3 minute conversation the game got underway again. The US soon picked up control again. They kept it that way most of the game. At the 90 minute mark, 5 minutes were added on. Costa Rica had a few set pieces in the time, but could not convert. The game ended 1-0. The United States taking the needed 3 points.
Brad Guzan had a solid game. Not many tough saves were needed though. Tim Howard has a few broken bones in his back, so Guzan was called up. Geoff Cameron did not have the best game and had a few cheap giveaways. Jermaine Jones also had a solid game and left with snow in his hair.
Friday, March 22, 2013
Thursday, March 21, 2013
I'm back and so is the MLS!
That's right people, I'm back. The last time I posted seemed to have been a million years ago!
The Major League Soccer (MLS) season started just a few weeks ago. The first week came with a giant upset in Seattle. The Montreal Impact traveled to Seattle to play the Sounders. Seattle is not an easy place for the opposing team. Montreal was not troubled by the noisy crowd and came out with a 1-0 win. Montreal went on to win their next 2 games and sit upon the top of the Eastern Conference. To add to the glory of their 3 wins, one of the wins was against their rivals Toronto FC. It will be fun to watch and see if the Impact will continue their run of form. Is this their year? Well probably not, but we will see!
FC Dallas made it 2 wins out of 3 in the Texas Derby on Sunday. I happened to go to the game. The game was great and lived up to the "Derby" hype. FC Dallas sprang out to a 2-0 lead, then in the second half Houston came and tied it up 2-2. In the 90th minute Michel, who was voted player of the game, crossed the ball into the box and Kenny Cooper headed it down, then poked it in to make the score 3-2. The game ended that way and all the Dallas fans were happy that they could finally celebrate a Texas Derby win again. The only problem with Cooper's header was, it could have been called a hand ball. When I got home and looked the amazing play up on Youtube, you could see that Cooper's head missed the ball and hit his bicep, then rolled down his arm. There is argument whether a handball should have been called or not (of course one was not). Some of the Youtube comments include: That it was not a hand ball because his arms were in a natural position and he tried to head it, or it was a scoring chance so even though it was unintentional, it should have been called.
The MLS youtube channel posts the highlights of all its league matches, so if you miss a game go check it out.
I hope to write more often then I have been!!
The Major League Soccer (MLS) season started just a few weeks ago. The first week came with a giant upset in Seattle. The Montreal Impact traveled to Seattle to play the Sounders. Seattle is not an easy place for the opposing team. Montreal was not troubled by the noisy crowd and came out with a 1-0 win. Montreal went on to win their next 2 games and sit upon the top of the Eastern Conference. To add to the glory of their 3 wins, one of the wins was against their rivals Toronto FC. It will be fun to watch and see if the Impact will continue their run of form. Is this their year? Well probably not, but we will see!
FC Dallas made it 2 wins out of 3 in the Texas Derby on Sunday. I happened to go to the game. The game was great and lived up to the "Derby" hype. FC Dallas sprang out to a 2-0 lead, then in the second half Houston came and tied it up 2-2. In the 90th minute Michel, who was voted player of the game, crossed the ball into the box and Kenny Cooper headed it down, then poked it in to make the score 3-2. The game ended that way and all the Dallas fans were happy that they could finally celebrate a Texas Derby win again. The only problem with Cooper's header was, it could have been called a hand ball. When I got home and looked the amazing play up on Youtube, you could see that Cooper's head missed the ball and hit his bicep, then rolled down his arm. There is argument whether a handball should have been called or not (of course one was not). Some of the Youtube comments include: That it was not a hand ball because his arms were in a natural position and he tried to head it, or it was a scoring chance so even though it was unintentional, it should have been called.
The MLS youtube channel posts the highlights of all its league matches, so if you miss a game go check it out.
I hope to write more often then I have been!!
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
German and Spanish League Roundup
Before we get to the Bundesliga and La Liga, Manchester City played in the Capital One Cup today against Aston Villa. The result was a Villa win 4-2. The performance from Man City was said to be disappointing. It's not like City was playing a bunch of their backups and even if they where their backups are pretty good expensive players. It started off good for City when Balotelli scored but from then on it was not good for the Citizens. Manchester City will now be eliminated from the tournament.
Bayern Munich made it a five out of five start by winning against Wolfsburg at the Allianz Arena. Bayern has looked very good at the start of the season, while defending champions Borussia Dortmund are not doing so great. They tied there last game against Eintracht Frankfurt 3-3. Schalke continues to fight at the top of the table with a nice 3-0 victory over Mainz. The standings right now say that Bayern Munich is in first with Eintracht Frankfurt in second and Schalke in third. Borussia Dortmund is a disappointing fifth. And just to let you know Eintracht Frankfurt is a new promoted team to the Bundesliga.
In Spain Barcelona has also made it a five of out five start and are at the top of the table. Malaga is in a surprise postion of third. And Real Madrid is all the way in second. You can probably expect Madrid to start back up again and challange for the top, but right now they have a long way to go.
Thanks for reading today, come back soon!
Bayern Munich made it a five out of five start by winning against Wolfsburg at the Allianz Arena. Bayern has looked very good at the start of the season, while defending champions Borussia Dortmund are not doing so great. They tied there last game against Eintracht Frankfurt 3-3. Schalke continues to fight at the top of the table with a nice 3-0 victory over Mainz. The standings right now say that Bayern Munich is in first with Eintracht Frankfurt in second and Schalke in third. Borussia Dortmund is a disappointing fifth. And just to let you know Eintracht Frankfurt is a new promoted team to the Bundesliga.
In Spain Barcelona has also made it a five of out five start and are at the top of the table. Malaga is in a surprise postion of third. And Real Madrid is all the way in second. You can probably expect Madrid to start back up again and challange for the top, but right now they have a long way to go.
Thanks for reading today, come back soon!
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Champions League Action
So far this week there has been a few UEFA Champion's League games, including Arsenal vs. Montpellier and Real Madrid vs. Manchester City .
Arsenal started off really bad against Montpellier when Thomas Vemaelen took down a player just inside the box. The foul might have been outside the box and it might have not even been a foul and at all. But the ref called it and Montpellier took advantage, taking the lead 1-0. The rest of the first half was all Arsenal from there on. Podolski scored his first Champion's League goal for Arsenal and his third of the season. Then Gervinho scored to put Arsenal up 2-1. The second half was opposite from the first half because Montpellier had most of the controll, but could not make anything out of their chances. Arsenal wins 2-1.
Real Madrid vs. Man City was a great game. There was 5 goals scored in the game and all of them came in the second half. City struck first with Dzeko. Then just about 7 minutes later Marcelo scored a deflected shot to tie it up. Then Man City got a free kick from a kind of weird angle which Kolarov crossed into the middle. The ball missed everybody including the Madrid keeper and that gave City the lead once again. But the sub Benzema took two nice touches around a defender after recieving a pass and scored with a great finish. 2-2 was now the score and it looked like a tie was brewing, but Ronaldo got the ball and dipped it under Joe Hart then it bounced into the goal. It was a skillful strike. Madrid wins 3-2.
Arsenal started off really bad against Montpellier when Thomas Vemaelen took down a player just inside the box. The foul might have been outside the box and it might have not even been a foul and at all. But the ref called it and Montpellier took advantage, taking the lead 1-0. The rest of the first half was all Arsenal from there on. Podolski scored his first Champion's League goal for Arsenal and his third of the season. Then Gervinho scored to put Arsenal up 2-1. The second half was opposite from the first half because Montpellier had most of the controll, but could not make anything out of their chances. Arsenal wins 2-1.
Real Madrid vs. Man City was a great game. There was 5 goals scored in the game and all of them came in the second half. City struck first with Dzeko. Then just about 7 minutes later Marcelo scored a deflected shot to tie it up. Then Man City got a free kick from a kind of weird angle which Kolarov crossed into the middle. The ball missed everybody including the Madrid keeper and that gave City the lead once again. But the sub Benzema took two nice touches around a defender after recieving a pass and scored with a great finish. 2-2 was now the score and it looked like a tie was brewing, but Ronaldo got the ball and dipped it under Joe Hart then it bounced into the goal. It was a skillful strike. Madrid wins 3-2.
Friday, September 14, 2012
Exciting World Cup Qualifying
A lot to talk about since the last time I wrote!!
Firstly World Cup Qualifying has been going on and is over for THIS INTERNATIONAL BREAK, but will continue NEXT INTERNATIONAL BREAK. Some of the major headlines where: Jamaica beats U.S. in Kingston, Bulgaria holds Italy to a 2-2 tie, and Columbia shows that they are not that bad.
The United States had to Jamaica in their first of two games against them. Even though the U.S. was on the road and in a tough stadium to play at, they where still the favorites. Dempsey struck first for the U.S. but that would be the only goal for them on the night. Jamaica went on to score two more and they where both on free kicks. The first free kick was just a good kick and it would have been hard for any goalie to save. Tim Howard, the American goaile, probably should have gotten to the second kick. He had stopped many like it before. He did pick up a slight knock earlier in the game which might have contributed to him not making the stop. The United States got revenge in Columbus just a few days later when Hercules Gomez put one past the Jamaican keeper, on a free kick.
For a team that made it to the Euro 2012 Finals, you think Italy could handle Bulgaria prettly nicely, however that was not the case. Bulgaria struck first in the 30th minute. Italy followed with a goal in the 36th and 40th, then Bulgaria got the equalizing goal in the 66th. This will be a very dissapointed result for all Italian teams.
Columbia in South America was not expected to be a very good team, but they have proved people wrong. The went up against one of the hardest teams in the region, Uruguay and ended up beating them 4-0!!! It was a major upset and gave the Columbians lots of momentum going into another tough game in Chile. Columbia handled them nicely with a score of 3-1. Columbia could now be a major challenger for the top spot, but I do not see them getting past Messi and Argentina.
Club football has started up again and the Premier League starts week 4 tomorrow. It should be another excitng week as Aguero returns to action. An upset could be brewing with QPR vs. Chelsea, but with the form Chelsea's on it will be very hard for the Rangers. On Monday there will be a very good matchup with Everton playing Newcastle.
That is it for today thanks for reading!
Firstly World Cup Qualifying has been going on and is over for THIS INTERNATIONAL BREAK, but will continue NEXT INTERNATIONAL BREAK. Some of the major headlines where: Jamaica beats U.S. in Kingston, Bulgaria holds Italy to a 2-2 tie, and Columbia shows that they are not that bad.
The United States had to Jamaica in their first of two games against them. Even though the U.S. was on the road and in a tough stadium to play at, they where still the favorites. Dempsey struck first for the U.S. but that would be the only goal for them on the night. Jamaica went on to score two more and they where both on free kicks. The first free kick was just a good kick and it would have been hard for any goalie to save. Tim Howard, the American goaile, probably should have gotten to the second kick. He had stopped many like it before. He did pick up a slight knock earlier in the game which might have contributed to him not making the stop. The United States got revenge in Columbus just a few days later when Hercules Gomez put one past the Jamaican keeper, on a free kick.
For a team that made it to the Euro 2012 Finals, you think Italy could handle Bulgaria prettly nicely, however that was not the case. Bulgaria struck first in the 30th minute. Italy followed with a goal in the 36th and 40th, then Bulgaria got the equalizing goal in the 66th. This will be a very dissapointed result for all Italian teams.
Columbia in South America was not expected to be a very good team, but they have proved people wrong. The went up against one of the hardest teams in the region, Uruguay and ended up beating them 4-0!!! It was a major upset and gave the Columbians lots of momentum going into another tough game in Chile. Columbia handled them nicely with a score of 3-1. Columbia could now be a major challenger for the top spot, but I do not see them getting past Messi and Argentina.
Club football has started up again and the Premier League starts week 4 tomorrow. It should be another excitng week as Aguero returns to action. An upset could be brewing with QPR vs. Chelsea, but with the form Chelsea's on it will be very hard for the Rangers. On Monday there will be a very good matchup with Everton playing Newcastle.
That is it for today thanks for reading!
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
World Cup Qualifying
Hi and this week a break in club soccer
All around the world this week and part of next, will be the World Cup qualifying. Qualifying actually started earlier this summer, but the National teams took a break to play club soccer. Some notable matches include the U.S. vs. Jamaica. It should be a pretty close match and will be exciting to watch. I would like to predict the U.S. getting the win, but the game will probably tie 1-1. That match is September 9th, then just two days later on the 11th they play again but this time in the U.S. In that game, since the United States has home field advantage, I think they will win 2-1. In the United States first two qualifying games they won 3-1 and tied 1-1. If they can tie the game at Jamaica and win the game here, they should feel pretty good going into the games in October!
Another good match that will be played is the Czech Republic vs. Denmark. Both the teams did pretty good in the Euro's. Even though Denmark did not make it to the knock out stages in the Euro tournament, they had the hardest group. The Czech Republic made it to the semifinals in the Euro's where they lost to Portugal. Denmark gets home field advantage and Czech Republic's captain is injured so I think Denmark will win this one 2-0.
Wales and Belgium also play against each other. This one should probably be pretty close, but with Fellani and Vermaelen on pretty good form Belgium should win. Both teams have a good offense and Belgium has a little better defense which will hold Wales to just 1 goal and Belgium scoring 3.
Come back in the future to read more of my blogs!
All around the world this week and part of next, will be the World Cup qualifying. Qualifying actually started earlier this summer, but the National teams took a break to play club soccer. Some notable matches include the U.S. vs. Jamaica. It should be a pretty close match and will be exciting to watch. I would like to predict the U.S. getting the win, but the game will probably tie 1-1. That match is September 9th, then just two days later on the 11th they play again but this time in the U.S. In that game, since the United States has home field advantage, I think they will win 2-1. In the United States first two qualifying games they won 3-1 and tied 1-1. If they can tie the game at Jamaica and win the game here, they should feel pretty good going into the games in October!
Another good match that will be played is the Czech Republic vs. Denmark. Both the teams did pretty good in the Euro's. Even though Denmark did not make it to the knock out stages in the Euro tournament, they had the hardest group. The Czech Republic made it to the semifinals in the Euro's where they lost to Portugal. Denmark gets home field advantage and Czech Republic's captain is injured so I think Denmark will win this one 2-0.
Wales and Belgium also play against each other. This one should probably be pretty close, but with Fellani and Vermaelen on pretty good form Belgium should win. Both teams have a good offense and Belgium has a little better defense which will hold Wales to just 1 goal and Belgium scoring 3.
Come back in the future to read more of my blogs!
Sunday, September 2, 2012
Man City Bad Draw and RVP saves Man U
Hello, today topics are Champions League drawings, first three weeks of the Premier League and minor stories!!
The defending champions of the Premier League season where not given a one seed in the drawing for the groups of the champions league. For me it was okay since I do not really like Manchester City, but the City fans across the world where probably pretty mad! Manchester City has one of the toughest groups in the Champions League with Real Madrid (defending La Liga Champs), B. Dortmund (defending Bundesliga Champs) and Ajax (defending Dutch Eredivisie Champs). Just across the street Manchester United got a way easier group than City and they should make their way through to the knock out stages. Other notable groups include group C which have the teams AC Milan, Zenit St Petersburg, Anderlecht, and Malaga. Arsenal drew Schalke, Olympiakos, and Montpellier. So it will not be the easiest way through for them, but I think they can make it.
In the Premier League, South Hampton kept another close score with a top team. They lead Manchester United 2-1 pretty late in the second half and when Robin Van Persie missed his penalty kick South Hampton got momentum. But the missed penalty did not affect RVP as he scored the next two goals for Man U, which put them up 3-2. Manchester went on to win the game with that score and Van Persie actually scored all three of their goals. Arsenal got their first win against Liverpool with new signings Santi Carzola and Lukas Podolski both hitting the back of the net. In three games Arsenal's defense has allowed 0 goals!
In transfer news both Hugo Lloris and Clint Dempsey have gone to Tottenham! The Spurs also signed another Fulham player Mousa Dembele. Dempsey should help out in the midfield after the departure of Modric. Hugo Lloris will have to battle for the goalkeeper spot with American goalie Brad Friedel. Nuri Sahin has went to Liverpool instead of Arsenal, but Arsenal did not need Sahin in their game against Liverpool as you can see in the score line above.
Thanks for reading today!
The defending champions of the Premier League season where not given a one seed in the drawing for the groups of the champions league. For me it was okay since I do not really like Manchester City, but the City fans across the world where probably pretty mad! Manchester City has one of the toughest groups in the Champions League with Real Madrid (defending La Liga Champs), B. Dortmund (defending Bundesliga Champs) and Ajax (defending Dutch Eredivisie Champs). Just across the street Manchester United got a way easier group than City and they should make their way through to the knock out stages. Other notable groups include group C which have the teams AC Milan, Zenit St Petersburg, Anderlecht, and Malaga. Arsenal drew Schalke, Olympiakos, and Montpellier. So it will not be the easiest way through for them, but I think they can make it.
In the Premier League, South Hampton kept another close score with a top team. They lead Manchester United 2-1 pretty late in the second half and when Robin Van Persie missed his penalty kick South Hampton got momentum. But the missed penalty did not affect RVP as he scored the next two goals for Man U, which put them up 3-2. Manchester went on to win the game with that score and Van Persie actually scored all three of their goals. Arsenal got their first win against Liverpool with new signings Santi Carzola and Lukas Podolski both hitting the back of the net. In three games Arsenal's defense has allowed 0 goals!
In transfer news both Hugo Lloris and Clint Dempsey have gone to Tottenham! The Spurs also signed another Fulham player Mousa Dembele. Dempsey should help out in the midfield after the departure of Modric. Hugo Lloris will have to battle for the goalkeeper spot with American goalie Brad Friedel. Nuri Sahin has went to Liverpool instead of Arsenal, but Arsenal did not need Sahin in their game against Liverpool as you can see in the score line above.
Thanks for reading today!
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