I'm coming in here early because I'm headed to bed at the final whistle. It sucked. Terry Vaughn robbed us with a bogus call on Hainault's goal. I called in the pregame, terribly inconsistent ref who saw guys go down and blew the whistle without actually seeing the foul. I wonder if the USSF ref week in review will cover this, probably not since it was an incorrect call and altered the outcome of the game. MLS got what they wanted for the final. Of course they took away any integrity left in the league by trying to fix the final, and having an intimidated ref in the center. Dynamo played well but ultimately the lack of offense did us in tonite. Stuart Holden was a beast out there. I hope we can re-sign him. A very good season, came up short tonite. Those points dropped late at Columbus and the tie at home vs. Kansas City will haunt me all offseason as we would have had the Shield and homefield tonite. Forever Orange.
We were in complete control of this game until Ashe came in. I am not blaming it on Ashe by any means, but the chemistry was shot after that. Dammit. This sucks and it hurts.
The best team won blah blah blah... ...except that the best team didn't win. You just KNEW that when Hainault's legit goal was called back, it wasn't gonna happen for us. A few observations 1) No, LA aren't that good but got the help they needed to win. 2) Why can't MLS referees be consistent? I'm not saying that they can't make mistakes although the blunder tonight was reeeaaaallly bad. 3) I'm gonna go against the grain here and other than pin this loss on Terry Vaughan for taking the goal away, I'm gonna give some of it to Dominic Kinnear. Why you ask? Since he got rid of Kamara, we've had no threat up front. None. Landin, as much as I'd like to see him work out probably won't and Oduro's not a long term solution. Never should have traded Kamara regardless of the issues he had with him. 4) I'm guessing that Holden will be headed off to Europe unless we give him DP money. We should, but probably won't. 5) ESPN can kiss my ass. Waaaay too much hype for LA. I told my dad I thought I was watching the LA pregame show. Almost makes me not want to watch MLS on ESPN anymore. It's like the Dynamo were an afterthought. 6) Sucks to get past the toughest team in the entire playoff picture in Seattle only to lose to a very mediocre team like LA. So mad right now I could break something but I guess I'll cool off and see the responses in the morning.
I have never liked John Harkes and his fake English twist on words, he might as well have unfurled a Galaxy banner in the booth tonite. Disgraceful. Now I'm glad he got cut from the 1998 WC squad. Jerk. The lack of offense did us in tonite and late in the season. Landin didn't do much tonite. I think Kamara was a bit immature but we struggled scoring with the roster we had down the stretch. Between the referees and the breaks, it just wasn't meant to be.
As a neutral, you guys were robbed by the ref...I hate seeing games end up like that. Secondly, what in the world is MLS trying to teach our kids with Beckham always getting into trouble at games end??? If someone says something to him first he needs to realize to back away, and how MLS lets him get away with it and not fine or suspend him is beyond me...way to teach the youth what class is. I knew going into the game a PK would be called for LA(but i think it was the right call), but I also knew the ref would help LA out a little bit and he did with that goal call back, and thats huge..it should have still been 1 to 1, game on.
It doesn't matter who is in the mls cup, LA is going to win it. MLS and ESPN won't have it any other way. Meanwhile the two best teams in MLS are going to be home watching. Oh well, that's the way it is. But man, we got SCREWED!! I am so sick over this. DAMNIT! The sad thing is that anyone thinks this will help the ratings. Anyone who cares if Houston or LA is playing in the cup were watching tonight. Joe Sixpack isn't going to tune into the cup because Beckham and Landy are in it.
BULLCHET ARSE LEAGUE...... the "dream match" between blanco and becks/donovan is gonna happen. holden and mullan were on it and then what.. the lights go out... etc..etc.. hainault no-goal... whatever... after the second light goes out i knew it.. the "mls dream match will happen" im f-ing disgusted by the league... what is mls now.. foking metapan...huh.... f the gaylaxy... f the league... f rsl... f fire... .....welll...... i will root for fire only because of blanco..and cuz i hate gaylaxy and their TWO DPs...
They went to talk to the guy that scored the first game of the match, I thought they were going to talk to Hainault, but talked to Berhalter instead. (SARCASM) MLS got what they wanted, and legitimacy to the MLS cup is gone.
Does Terry Vaughn get a Western Conference Championship ring? I am going to call up MLS HQ on Monday and ask them that.
LandyCakes probably is the best player in the league, but damn, he has to be the least charismatic superstar next to Kobe Bryant. Except Kobe is actually one of the 2 best players in the world in his sport so I can live with the hype. Landon is probably like number 800. This is disgusting. Now their fat fans are fondling the fake silver cup. Hurray.
Game in a nutshell LA gets 1 chance Houston absolutely dominates them until...a power outage LA outplays Houston the rest of the first half Mostly even early in the second half Last 20 minutes of the second half are about as lopsided as you can get in favor of the Dynamo 1AM...the Dynamo just stopped...right at 1AM The Dynamo were the team that strung passes together and unbalanced the opponent over and over, but... This team doesn't score. Sure the corner could very well have stood. That doesn't change the fact that Houston should have had 2 to 3 goals in regulation. Rickets made a big save, Hainault had one, and Holden and Oduro both didn't get it done when in the box with options. Sometimes its not your day, but when you've had 270 minutes of regulation time in the MLS playoffs and you score 0 goals you have to point the finger towards yourself. Ching, Landin, Oduro you guys didn't get it done. Holden, Davis, and Mullan also didn't get it done, but they can't share the same amount of blame as the forwards.
Great game to the Dynamo, you really played your hearts out. There never would have been an overtime had the goal stood. I would still love to know just what call the ref made when he blew the whistle to call back the goal. And the two announcers can go satisfy their LA lust.
Though the foul leading to Berhalter's goal was dubious, as was the one negating our goal, we lost MLS cup back in the summer when even one more point would have had this match back in Houston. Instead, the best team is out thanks largely to midweek flights to Panama and the like. Well, won't have to worry about that next year.
So many things wrong with this post I don't know where to begin. Let's suffice it to say that they DID GET IT DONE, and in regulation too. They kept a clean sheet and scored a legit goal. You can stop right there with the 270 minutes of regulation because facts are facts. And the FACT is that we scored and ref called it back. After that, sure but last I checked, the Galaxy didn't score in regulation. So long answer I guess is, yes, we did get it done but it was pretty much taken from us. (EDIT: Sorry for the tone and don't take it personal, still steaming here...)
Sure, we need some changes. We need a better option in the front. Landin is too much like Ching to be on the field at the same time as him, and Oduro just isn't good. If Stu comes back he needs to play on the wing. I hate to bring this up but it would be GREAT if we had Dero in the middle and Holden out right. The back line lost focus a lot during the season, but they stepped up big in the playoffs. I would like to see Cameron play in the midfield next year though, because he really is a beast on the ball. Though I wouldn't move him unless we get a better option to replace him in the back line than Cochrane.
I just rewound and watched it several times. Berhalter rides/pushes Ching into DeLaGarza who goes down (as does Ching) but Rico is in the mix and Vaughn calls it, although AFTER the ball is in the net. So LA fouls us and our goal is disallowed. Brutal, but expected when you watch enough MLS soccer with poor officiating.
LA had no answer for the Dynamo and the a "power outage". The second power outage was just LA showing off that they could do it when ever they wanted. All kidding aside, 1am rolled around and the Dynamo fell flat. IS there any other legitimate league in the USA that starts a Conference Final at 11:25pm ET?? We hit the post and scored a goal in regulation....should have been enough. Beckham what is left to say, that man is a poor sport and a poor winner.
Umm, Robinson? Agree that Holden on the wing means he gets more touches around the box. Pair Mullan with Ching or slide him to right back.