Soccer Buzz

The second round of Superliga games has come and gone. MLS clubs have held their own with the LA Galaxy the only team to fall to a Mexican side, but too be fair, their 2-1 loss to Chivas de Guadalajara was nowhere near as close as the scoreline indicates. Every MLS team still has a good chance to advance (well, maybe not the Galaxy) on Tuesday and Wednesday, and perhaps this showing could in some small way convince soccer fans in this country that MLS teams aren’t total pushovers (well, maybe the Galaxy are).

One more Superliga note - it is now confirmed that Beckham will not be playing on Tuesday against FC Dallas, although to be fair, this isn’t a total shock. Becks is now hoping to start training with the club again later this week and shooting for the August 5th match at Toronto. Sorry, Dallas fans.

Freddy Adu has finalized a deal with Benfica in Portugal. I’ll probably talk more about this tomorrow.

In MLS, despite the light schedule this weekend, we saw some pretty good goals:

(Goals in order: Ivan Guerrero for Chicago against Toronto, Kerry Zavagnin for KC against Chivas, Yura Movsisyan for KC against Chivas, the bespectacled Jeff Larentowicz for New England over Real Salt Lake, Ante Razov for Chivas against New York)

New England Revolution 2, Real Salt Lake 1 (My prediction 3-1 Revs)

After Carey Talley converted a penalty in the 72nd minute, ten man Salt Lake looked like they might steal a point after New England looked like the dominant team all evening. Then the Revs won a dubious free kick in a dangerous position. At this point, I asked myself “why the hell is Jeff Larentowicz lining up this free kick? What does he think he can accomplish?” Well, I soon found out when he sent in a laser of a game-winner.

Chicago Fire 3, Toronto FC 0 (My prediction 1-1)

Chicago, who hasn’t won on the road since April, really did a number on Toronto. Cuauhtemoc Blanco seems like he has added some offensive spark to this team. Meanwhile, Toronto really has no depth whatsoever. They seemed lost without Jeff Cunningham and Ronnie O’Brien, and to make things worse, Danny Dichio will now miss a month with a hip flexor injury. Of course, TFC is stuck with some young, unproven goalkeeper with Greg Sutton out for the rest of the season with a concussion. Toronto is back at the cellar of the Eastern Conference, and unless they get several players healthy in short order, I think they will stay there.

Kansas City 3, Chivas USA 2

The week’s best match, and that includes the Superliga games. Things didn’t look good for the Wizards early on after Jonathan Bornstein opened the scoring for Chivas, and then Carlos Marinelli missed a penalty a few minutes later. Then Kerry Zavagnin beat Jeff Larentowicz in the category of “Wonder goals scored by defensive midfielders” when he unleashed an upper 90 left-footed beauty. I didn’t think Zavagnin was capable of pulling off such a shot. Chivas didn’t seem to think he was capable of it either as they gave him plenty of space to line it up, and judging by the goal celebration, I don’t think Zavagnin or any of his teammates believed could pull off that shot either.

Both teams looked like they wanted all three points, and Kansas City was the team to get the victory from Yura Movsisyan’s deflected shot in the dying minutes of the game. The win for Kansas City keeps them within one point of New England in the Eastern Conference before their game this Thursday, and the Wizards also showed that someone other than Eddie Johnson can score goals when Johnson is in the lineup. Chivas, on the other hand, no longer look like weak sisters on the road after beating New York last Thursday and losing a heartbreaker in Kansas City.