Thoughts on Honduras-Mexico Last Night

I know it's been a while since I posted anything here. Writing articles for BleacherReport.com is so easy, but I had trouble last night. I've found I have trouble writing a game recap for a game in which I don't have a rooting interest, something I need to fix.

I attended the final of the Men's Olympic Qualifying tournament at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park last night, a match featuring the U-23 squads of Mexico and Honduras. You would think that I'd be able to generate a rooting interest for Honduras, considering how much I dislike Mexican soccer, but you would be wrong. No offense to SKC's Roger Espinoza, but the way that Honduras played last night didn't make me a fan at all.

Don't get me wrong, Honduras played very well defensively last night. They withstood a heavy barrage of attacking soccer from Mexico, finally conceding the first goal in the 75th minute. It was their complete lack of discipline that turned me off. Guatemalan referee Walter Lopez showed a total of nine yellow cards to Honduran players (including two 2nd yellow/red cards). In contrast, Lopez only gave two yellow cards to Mexico, one of which was for diving in the penalty area, something I didn't think he had the cojones to do.

It wasn't just Honduras' yellow cards that turned me off. It was also the way they seemed to be begging for cards when they were fouled. Granted, there were some plays/situations that I thought, to be far, should have drawn yellow cards for Mexico. For example, the goal celebration after Marco Fabian's 25-yard rocket in the 74th minute seemed to go on for longer than what usually gets carded these days. However, the way Honduras seemed to be telling it, by their body language, there should have been several more cards handed out. If there's not a card handed out, man up and get on with it. Doing otherwise makes you look like whiny brats.

The atmosphere in the stadium last night was very good. The announced attendance was only 10,501, but not that you could tell that from the level of noise. The overwhelmingly pro-Mexico crowd was incredibly passionate and engaged with the game. On every goal kick, they would all yell the same word, one which I won't translate here (this is, after all, a family-friendly blog). It's the loudest I've ever heard 10,000 people be. CONCACAF may be a little disappointed with the attendance, but I'm sure the stadium would have been packed if the US had made the final. I would hope they won't hold that against Kansas City when it comes to the scheduling of future events.

On a side note, I'm glad that the Honduran team was off the field before the trophy presentation. Instead of red and green, the confetti launched into the air was blue, one of Honduras' colors. I understand that's what they're normally loaded with for Sporting KC games, but it might have made more sense to have some other colors on hand, so as to not add insult to injury.

On a personal note, I've been offered a trial run as a MLS/Sporting Kansas City Featured Columnist on BleacherReport.com with the potential to move to being a full-fledged FC. Couldn't possibly be happier about it, considering BR gets 25 million hits a month. May even lead to bigger and better things, like being paid to write about sports for a living. What's not to like about that?

That's all for now. See you soon.

Bleacher Report article...

Last night's game was the source for my first article for BleacherReport.com... Sporting KC: Battle Between Playoff Contenders Ends in 1-1 Draw

The editor gave my ego a boost when he said it was an excellent piece and called it "nearly flawless." One nice thing about writing for B/R is that I can use Getty Images, which are, quite frankly, usually a lot better than mine, if only because they're using better equipment.

That's all for now... See you soon...

USWNT Thoughts And Big News (For Me)...

In the first game since their heartbreaking loss to Japan in the final of the World Cup, the United States Women's National Team played Canada to a 1-1 draw before 16,191 fans at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park. The US took an early lead on a 10th minute penalty kick by Abby Wambach. Canada equalized just before halftime on a goal in the 42nd minute by forward Melissa Tancredi, with an assist to midfielder Kelly Parker. In post-game interviews, team captain Christie Rampone gave credit to Tancredi for finishing a good shot, but also put some of the blame on the spacing issues involved with learning their new one forward system. The second half had both teams creating scoring chances but Canada's Erin McLeod and halftime substitute Nicole Barnhart both saved anything that came their way.

I've been writing this while also trying to watch the Sporting KC match with Real Salt Lake. It's kind of distracting, really.

That's not the only thing, though, that's distracting me right now. I'm still a bit surprised about a bit of news I got yesterday after I got home from the USWNT training session at the stadium, and that's the big news for me I mentioned in the post title. My application to write for BleacherReport.com was accepted. From what I hear, they're really picky about who they let write for them, accepting only 20% of the applications they receive. Their partner sites include CBSSports.com, USAToday.com, and NBA.com, as well as local editions associated with the newspapers in Seattle, San Francisco, Houston and Los Angeles.

So, most of my writing will be moving there. I will still post photos and small blog posts here, but I'll be concentrating on the shiny play toy I've been given.

That's all for now... See you soon...

Movin' On Up To The Top...

On May 22nd, Sporting KC were basement dwellers in the Eastern Conference of MLS. Not only were they bottom of the table for the conference, they had the fewest points of any team in the league. Turns out they were only squatters for a while. With today's 3-0 win over Houston, the club moves into first place, ahead of Columbus by virtue of a better goal differential.

Forward Teal Bunbury opened the scoring in the ninth minute, putting a ball from midfielder Graham Zusi in the back of the net. Bunbury also scored in the 73rd minute, this time with an assist from defender Julio Cesar. Rookie of the Year candidate CJ Sapong collected his fourth goal of the season in the 79th minute. Graham Zusi and Kei Kamara were credited with the assists.

Aside from the early goal, Houston manager Dominic Kinnear said the main difference between the sides was the 64th minute red card given to his Honduran forward Carlo Costly. Costly was given the early shower after a dangerous tackle on Sporting's Chance Myers. Myers, who will have an x-ray on Monday, was substituted in the 78th minute as a precaution.

I'll have to get pics up later as I need to get to work. That's all for now. See you soon.

Us Against The World

Not that anyone in the stadium was surprised, but the referees impacted another Sporting KC match at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park. Referee Ricardo Salazar, linesmen Brian Poeschel and Peter Manikowski made several questionable calls. It's hard to pick the one that had the most impact on the game, either the linesman allowing Sean Franklin's first goal in the 25th minute which appeared to be offside, or the 2nd half goal by Aurelien Collin being disallowed, even though it doesn't seem possible that Collin was offside. Omar Bravo was in an offside position, but the officials told manager Peter Vermes that the goal was disallowed for Collin being offside. Vermes called taking away a world class goal like that was unacceptable, and I agree with him. Having seen several replay angles, there's no way that goal should have been disallowed.

Speaking of Collin, it was good to see him, Davy Arnaud and Jeferson on the field again. They seemed to be a bit rusty, but that's understandable, considering how long they were out (in the case of Davy, especially). Vermes said they were lacking rhythm in the game and that was one reason Davy came on late, but Davy played well, putting several balls into the box and making a general nuisance of himself.

One other thing about the officials: Before tonight, when was the last time that Landon Donovan and David Beckham were both booked in the same game? I'm sure Ricardo Salazar will be hearing from the commissioner about that. *rolls his eyes* The only thing that refs in this league need to be hearing is that they need to either get better, quickly, or look for another line of work. The quality of the officiating, as I've said before, is holding MLS back in its quest to become one of the premier leagues in the world. I wouldn't go so far as to say the officiating in the English Premier League is perfect, but it's certainly light years ahead of MLS and one reason it's widely regarded as the best league in the world.


Some pics from tonight's game and then I'm going to call it a night...

Defender Seth Sinovic, one of the unsung heroes of the defense (I think)...

Aurelien Collin celebrates Julio Cesar's goal...

Goalkeeper Jimmy Nielsen kneels to watch the video board on the south end for Omar Bravo's penalty kick...

Galaxy manager Bruce Arena...

Sporting KC manager Peter Vermes...

That's all for now... See you soon...

Well, that sucked...

Sporting KC took only their 2nd loss in their last 18 MLS matches with a 3-2 defeat to FC Dallas. Questionable officiating (I would have said the same if SKC had won) marked the entirety of the match, most notably in the yellow cards to Teal Bunbury. Unfortunately, that is plural, and Teal will miss the game against Houston on September 10th. He was going to miss the Galaxy game anyway with his call-up to the national team.

I was not the only person in the post-game press conference who was reminded of the team's loss to Seattle. The team had a late lead, went down a man due to a red card, and gave up two goals in the dying minutes to lose the match. Manager Peter Vermes, however, gave credit to a very tired but resilient Dallas squad and said the team just simply didn't play well to close out the match.

Teal's red card was the team's 3rd in their last 5 matches.I still don't understand how he got the first yellow card, much less the 2nd. Vermes pretty much refused to address it, saying the team had been down this road too many times this season. I have a feeling that that was his way of not getting fined or suspended. I'll say it for him. This team got screwed with its pants on. That is not to take away from FC Dallas at all. They had an opportunity to get points from the match and they took advantage of it. However, before the absolutely horrible red card in the 76th minute, the team was putting tremendous pressure on FC Dallas keeper Kevin Hartman and the Dallas defense. Teal even hit the crossbar in the 56th minute with what would have been a top shelf goal if it had been even 6 inches lower and 6 inches to the right. Sporting KC did continue to put pressure on Dallas after the red card, but as Vermes said after the game, they did not do well with balls out on the wing, not getting close enough to deny service into the penalty area.

It was really a combination of the red card, Dallas playing well late and Sporting KC not putting the game away when they had the chance. I'm rambling now, I know, but I can't really help it. The team lost, which never puts me in a good mood, and I'm having difficulty importing photos off of my camera. I'm not sure why, but I'll just simply try to get photos done later.

That's all for now... See you soon...

Our House...

Sporting KC moved to 2nd in the Eastern Conference with their 1-0 win over Handball DC United at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park on Sunday night. Kei Kamara's goal in the 19th minute was all the offense the stout KC defense needed, with another strong performance by goalkeeper Jimmy Nielsen. Nielsen made a key save in the first half that may be another save of the week candidate.

Evidently, Portland manager John Spencer asking me if I had a big head has been passing around the building since Wednesday. One of the security supervisors came by and asked me if Spencer had really said that to me. I'm also now getting crap for it from some of my fellow media critters. It's okay... as long as they're talking about me, right?

Here's some photos from tonight's game...

A fan's banner parodying DC United's logo...


Jimmy Nielsen celebrating Kei Kamara's goal... or just trying to duck another bobblehead...


Referee Alex Prus shows a yellow to DC's Santino Quaranta after a foul on Roger Espinoza...


And one from Wednesday... Portland manager John Spencer shortly before he asks if I had a big head...


That's all for now... See you soon...