Texas Pro Soccer Festival [Rs] http://www.texasprosoccerfest.com/index.php For those who don't know, DC, Houston, Chivas and TFC are participating in this little pre-season tournament, located just North of San Antonio, Texas. It's a simple little affair with each team playing the other once. It runs from Wed, 3-5 (today) through Sun, 3-9. As far as I know, there is NO TV or Radio coverage. Being the nice guy I am, I've got tickets for all 6 games and will cover them as best I can. I won't be able to bring my laptop in the stadium, but I'll be taking notes and posting them here afterword. I also know that there are quite a few others from Houston showing up, so they'll offer their thoughts on the games for everyone. Here is the schedule: Wed 3-5 Hou v TFC - 6pm CST DCU v CUSA - 8:30pm CST Fri 3-7 TFC v DCU - 6pm CST CUSA v Hou - 8:30pm CST Sun 3-9 Hou v DCU - 12:30pm CST CUSA v TFC - 3pm CST There are also training sessions inbetween, and actually the teams have been in town since Monday practicing. If I can, I'll try to make it over to one of these and scope out the teams and let you know what I see/think. I'll try to be as unbiased as possible...
Re: Texas "Pro" Soccer Festival Awesome, they rejected the original spot because of a crappy field. That makes me happy. MLS teams need to start demanding excellence.
Re: Texas Pro Soccer Festival [Rs] Cool. Can you take some streamers and dump them on TFC during corners.
Re: Texas Pro Soccer Festival [Rs] Hehehe That sounds like a good idea. I'm sure the players would love that Maybe I should bring a sign for Chivas and DC...something about how picky they are DCU v CUSA - 2-1 F Reserves are playing tonight, per Goff
Re: Texas "Pro" Soccer Festival You think that's bad, Gullit was complaining that the field in Shanghai had rocks and bones on it.
Re: Texas "Pro" Soccer Festival That's just great. Any news on the other games? I assume they will pull out of those as well leaving me with no soccer fix this weekend. Signed, San Antonio MLS Fans
Re: Texas "Pro" Soccer Festival That is what you get for being a Chivas USA fan when there are 2 teams near by
Re: Texas Pro Soccer Festival [Rs] We need a sign saying "Grow some balls because that is all we need to play a game of soccer"
Re: Texas Pro Soccer Festival [Rs] Ooops...thanks for the catch Too much back and forth here on BS....
Re: Texas "Pro" Soccer Festival no they haven't pulled out, they'll just be playing reserves in the match.
Re: Texas "Pro" Soccer Festival That's great, I'll take time and drive to the other side of town and pay money to watch a preseason MLS reserve match. How much do they charge for in season reserve matches? I'm sure it'll be worth it. I wasn't expecting much from this game or even this "tournament" but I was expecting to see 45 mins or so of solid if not excellent football. Oh, 3 and 5.5 hours are not nearby teams.
Re: Texas "Pro" Soccer Festival DCU reserve matches are free during the season. SA customers are definitely getting hosed on this. You would think someone would have checked to see if the fields were usable a little sooner than the day before the matches. Looks like the tournament organizer blew this one.
Re: Texas "Pro" Soccer Festival 57 yards wide, crappy field? That's Bad News Bears treatment. These are pros, the organizers should've been on the ball on this. I'd hate to see Emilio out for weeks because a tweeked ankle from a crater in the field.
Re: Texas "Pro" Soccer Festival No crap. This makes me mad. These tickets cost a lot! Our players risking injury the week before CCC could cost way more. Dammit! This sucks.
Re: Texas "Pro" Soccer Festival Had they cecked the link to the 'stadium' I doubt any team would have attended.
Re: Texas Pro Soccer Festival [Rs] The team went to this for the $$ I am sure they all get an appearance fee and why not its nice to get away in the preseason and start building the teams chemistry. Yeah, you SA fans are getting screwed 35 a day for tix for preseason and mostly reserves.
Entertaining Article on LAG Vs. Shanghai This one's well written. Really drives home the key points. A nice bit if writing, which really gets the important moments across. SHANGHAI - Carlos Ruiz scored a hat-trick as the Los Angeles Galaxy cruised to a 3-0 victory over Shanghai-Hong Kong United in Shanghai on Wednesday. Former England captain David Beckham set up Ruiz's first goal but then sat out the final 20 minutes after taking a kick to his right thigh, although the injury is not thought to be serious. Ruiz opened the scoring in the first half and then added two more late on to give the scoreline a flattering look. David Beckham set up one goal as Los Angeles Galaxy eased to a comfortable 3-0 victory over Shanghai-Hong Kong United in Shanghai today. The England midfielder was substituted with 20 minutes remaining after taking a knock to his right thigh, although the injury is not serious. Carlos Ruiz scored all three goals, opening the scoring in the first half and then adding two more late on. http://web.mlsnet.com/news/mls_news.jsp?ymd=20080305&content_id=141853&vkey=news_mls&fext=.jsp
In regards to the stadium in San Antonio, it wasn't the worst pitch I've seen and a quote from a Dynamo staffer said it best: The Dynamo like it because of "similarities to various CONCACAF team fields...allows players to be familiar with these conditions." It looked hard, but with grass over it. It was level, thin grass, but hard. Certainly better than what Houston saw in Costa Rica last year. With that said, here are the results from the first two games: Hou 4 - 3 TFC DC 2 - 1 CUSA Houston XI Start: Onstad 16-32-2-24 ----13---- 8--------26 ----11----- ---7---25 TFC XI Start: Sutton 8---14--2--11 21--17--25--35 ---96---9---- If I have players a bit out of position, sorry...they didn't exactly give me a starting lineup here... Goals by: 3' Houston Goal by Wondo (7) A by Waibel (16) 36' TFC Goal by 35 with an A by 11 42' Hou Goal by Ching (25) with A by Davis (11) 44' Hou Goal by Ching (25) with A by Waibel (16) 47' Hou Goal by Ustruck (6) with A by Davis (11) 71' TFC Goal by 25 PK 81' TFC Goal by 28 Unassisted In the second half, Houston threw out a reserve squad. Only Onstad, Davis (11), Wondo (7) and Ashe (26) stayed in with Davis subbed out later on. TFC subbed out 2 for 7 to start the half. Later, about midway in the half, 9 came off for 28. General impressions of TFC: The usual suspects played well for Toronto. Cunningham and Dichio were great, with Cunningham and Ashe going at it for quite a well (with Cunningham winning most of the time). No individual player stuck out at me, but then Toronto didn't have one of their better games. In regards to the PK, 25 took a pass to the top of the box and was tripped up just inside the box, earning the Houston defender a yellow (they never announced who it was). Easily converted for Toronto. The 3rd goal by Toronto was a beaut. Took a loose ball outside the box and blasted it into the goal before Onstad knew what hit him. A very nice goal. In the first half, Toronto was playing catch-up as Houston dominated possession and controled the flow of the game. The 2nd half started the same, with the Dynamo Reserves charging out the gate. But as time wore on, they grew sloppy and Toronto regained possession and put Houston on their heels, allowing several shots. Onstad ended up with 4 saves and Sutton had a pair. The big points were the offsides and fouls: Offsides: Hou 8 TFC 7 Fouls: Hou 18 TFC 11
The nightcap was ChivasUSA and DCU, which ended up 2-1 DCU. Both teams fielded Reserves and Trialists, with the CUSA bench overflowing with players. DCU XI: 12 5-21-6-22 16-8-25-15 ---34---35 13 came in for 35, 32 came in for 5 and 8 came out with 33 coming in late. The last two subs were late game subs. CUSA XI: 21 34--4--14--39 19--31--37--22 ---17--32 35 came in for 22, someone came out for 38 while 32 came out with 36 coming in. That was a double sub and the speaker on the mic rushed it Goal Summary: 13' - Chivas Goal by #19 with A by #17. Man...I was flored by this goal. Just...wow. I hope it was recorded cause it was great. #17 sent a long cross from the right flank and hit #19 on the left side of the box. With his back to the goal, he settled it, turned the DC defender and had a wide-open net. BOOM! Oh man. That got people cheering and screaming cause of the effot. Nice. Very nice. DCU 0 - 1 CUSA 16' - DCU Goal by #5. During a corner kick, the Chivas defense had a horrible clearance and the ball landed right at his feet in front of the net. Just put it in, no sweat. The defender was trying to loft it out, but he mishit the ball and it landed at 5's feet. Again, no problem. DCU 1 - 1 CUSA 27' - DCU Goal by #35 with an A by #34. 34 sent a through ball to 35 who split the defense and had a clinical finish. Very much a textbook sequence. DCU 2 - 1 CUSA General perceptions: #15 and 16 for DCU played very well together. A lot of give-and-go and created havoc in the center all game long for Chivas. They definately stood out and looked impressive. 34 for DC showed foot finese but had the tendency to show off his Ruiz skills, too If he remained on his feet, he may have been able to open up more chances. However, in fairness, he didn't do it nearly as often as Ruiz does, nor did he try to win a PK, either. With Chivas, #17 was lethal on the right and blew by the DC defense all game long and sent in several dangerous crosses. Unfortunately, there weren't always players to get on the end of them, though. Good thing for DC, too. Anywho...those are just a few thoughts. I'll post more later. Off to bed for me now as it's cycling towards 1AM here.
For those who care, here are the players for DC and Chivas as best as I can tell. DC Carvallo Peralta--P Carrol--Mediate--Cordeiro Stratford--Moose--Quaranta--Dyachenko ----Niell--Cesar Chivas---mostly trialists and I couldn't find names. I really wish I got the same info the media got...but haven't found anything from them, besides Goff yet, either. Go fig. 21 34--Thomas--Vaughn--Marsch Flores--31--37--22 ----17--Hamilton