I'm pretty sure Shoe is bad luck. It seems like every time I hear of him going to D.C. games they end up losing.Nevertheless, we were subject to one great game and one terrible game last night, as Chivas (Mexico) downed D.C. United 2-1 in the opener and Houston walloped Atlante 4-0 in the nightcap.
We knew the opener was going to be good as both United and Chivas have met numerous times in international competitions. When it comes to a rivalry between a Mexican and an MLS club, it's great that we finally have one, and it showed last night.
You never know what you're going to get in this competition, with the Mexican teams being between seasons right now. But Chivas came out to play, survived an early post from Luciano Emilio and got the go-ahead goal. Another post from Devon McTavish kept the game 1-0 until a great free kick from Gonzalo Piñeda made it 2-0.
Almost immediately Emilio responded making it 2-1. You just had the feeling that he was going to get one, but I wasn't expecting him to draw an immediate penalty from the restart.
Luis Michel's save on Jaime Moreno's shot preserved the lead and the 3 points for Chivas, who'll now travel to face a Houston side that'll be without Dwayne De Rosario.
Despite DeRo's 45th-minute red card, the Dynamo had the game well in hand, on their way to a 4-0 win.It wasn't that they embarrassed Atlante, the side from Cancun did that themselves. As good as Chivas looked in the first game, Atlante looked horribly unprepared, out of sync and flat out made the Mexican League look bad.
It's a performance that was reminiscent of some of the worst Interliga performances I've seen. Teams that are out of season, away from competition and are unprepared for returning to action.
Unfortunately for Houston, the game will be remembered for DeRo losing his head and getting suspended for Tuesday's game against Chivas. Atlante will head to D.C. to take on United with both teams' chances of advancing on the line.
Tonight brings reigning Mexican champions Santos Laguna to New England in the opener while Pachuca heads to Los Angeles to take on Chivas USA in the nightcap. What'll be interesting to note is whether Santos can reclaim their explosiveness that led them to the Clausura championship a few months ago, and how Chivas USA will perform in their first international competition, coming off Thursday's hard-fought draw against the Galaxy and the loss of Brad Guzan.
6 comments:
Well, I don't know about Shoe being back luck... but there were a few bad omens. The brown-out (which made for a great plug for a new stadium in DC), how someone kept moving the goal by about 4 inches so that the shots kept hitting the posts, and the creepy pro-Chivas atmosphere even in one of the most established American soccer hotbeds, thanks to the Screaming Eagles and the Barra Brava. Given the trend, you just knew that Jaime would miss the PK.
Just go ahead and die and remove this blog.
the cupcakes just gone stale?
The Main reason they started this "blog" was to disparage the Silverbacks and their head coach but that has not worked out so well since he is probably the best coach in the league. Just face that fact. Now they have run out of steam .
Smith will more than likely be the MLS Silverbacks coach when Blank and Jerkunica enter the MLS in 2012.
Anonymous has an agenda, who would have ever guessed?
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