Carey Talley Fan Club

Just a shjort (whoa...is that Swedish or something?), ahem, short preamble this week.

As threatened a couple weeks back (may or may not have actually happened, as these things do...or don't), I slipped Mad Lib sentences at the end of each of the match reviews you may or may not read below regarding the games I only caught through the highlights. Provided you had friends, you remember these things from way back when....at least I don't think that's so far back...surely, these now exist on-line...yep. At any rate, count...

Alternate Title: “The game is 90 minutes. The ball is round.” I would have used it, as FOX’s Christopher Sullivan did, but I’m not sure it means anything beyond the literal. And you just have to love the man's enunciation: "pa-na-MA."

“A=C “ at least captures an interesting truth about CONCACAF. With the Gold Cup now having taken the first step into the quarterfinal stage, the cream of the competition should have frothed to the top….and yet the United States just advanced on the back of what’s generally adjudged a...

DISCLOSURE: I didn't watch this entire game. In fact, MLSnet.com's Match Center's feed crapped out (late) last night some time between the end of the first half and the start of the second. So, yeah, I only caught the first half. And because I strongly suspect The Hudsucker Proxy was better, can't say I minded all that much....what that means to you probably hinges on how much you liked that movie. So, the game...

Seeing that I don't rate Toronto that highly, I expected a Houston win. That said, I didn't expect it to...

Is there more to say apart from good win? A thing or two, and only one of them pre-emptive. The good news: the U.S. picked up three precious points in the World Cup qualifying campaign and did it by a lopsided 3-0 score. The less than good news: it wasn’t all that exciting to watch. A couple bouts of bravado in both haves aside, Trinidad & Tobago (T & T) walked to Nashville in quaking boots; in boxing terms, they blocked for 80 minutes, throwing in a couple jabs for show. Nice as it was to see our boys take the points, they took them from an open hand.

...

What the Numbers Say
13-5-12, 51 points; 45 goals for, 32 against

What I Remember
The chief adjectival phrasing with which I associated the Houston Dynamo in 2008 was “one step past it.” Because I couldn’t find an image for that, I went with Grumpy Old Men…even though Houston isn’t grumpy; they seem very nice actually. Personal struggles with image aside, Houston did look just that little bit off last season, a little like one’s favorite...

I started this one about the 40th minute, figuring the game was well over when the Houston Dynamo let in “Super-Softy” – e.g. the second goal to Mexico’s Atlante FC. Sure, sure, expecting Houston to win the series after blowing Leg 1 seemed a lot to ask. But to give up a goal like that second goal with so much game left to play, when simply limiting any and all potential damage constituted Houston’s first, second, and third task, spelled doom in big graffiti letters.

Sad to Houston played a good enough game: call it...

Too easy, I know.

I tell ya, after a shaky opening 20 the Houston Dynamo looked like no more than a couple of weeks had passed since their ignominious exit - for it was that - from the 2008 MLS Cup Playoffs. Possession and a little more possession was the order of the proceedings, followed by a parade of corner kicks: vigorous tackling backed both.

Until around the 80th minute, I had the title to this post down as "Atlante, Meet the Set-Piece." When the 70th minute passed without a second Houston...