Hope from the Northwest.

Last night was the first game of the MLS playoffs between the Seattle Sounders and the Houston Dynamo. Seattle, MLS's newest expansion team, plays in at Quest field, home of the Seattle Seahawks NFL team. Any casual viewer of MLS is accustomed to seeing soccer being played on turf fields in massive American football stadiums which have no hope of being filled. No matter how dedicated your fan base its hard to create good atmosphere when you have 10,000 fans in a stadium designed to hold 80,000, and I'm sure little is more depressing to a player then seeing thousands of empty seats, or playing atop a field clearly marked with yard lines and an NFL crest. This is not the case in Seattle. The Sounders have averaged about 30,000 spectators a game, about double the league average. For the play off on game on Thursday the upper section of Quest field was opened to accommodate five thousand additional fans making the total in attendance just over 35,000. This summer when Barcelona came to play the Sounders, all 67,000 seats were filled. The numbers speak for themselves, soccer has a foothold in the pacific northwest.
Not only does Seattle average a respectable attendance figure comparable to some of the smaller BPL teams, (Burnley's Turf Moore seats 25,000), but the fans come decked in green, waving scarves, and singing songs, and generally behaving like soccer fans should. Its not surprise that MLS is opening an expansion team in 2011 in Portland Oregon and Vancover Canada to capitalize on the apparent soccer fever which grips the Midwest. The prospect of a Northwest derby is as tangible as it is exciting Back in the days of the NASL, the Sounders developed a fierce rivalry with the Portland Timbers and the Vancover White Caps, with the three teams meeting several times in the post season. With the creation of a Portland and Vancover teams in 2011, that sea of green could have an outlet for their passion which could establish a lasting rivalry.
There have been many "soccers gonna get big" moments in the US, but a good deal of these moments have been based around big media grabbing events, like Beckham coming to LA. If the Sounders have shown us anything, its that grassroots organizing and exciting play can motivate a crowd more then big names. Weather the northwest becomes America's bastion of soccer remains to be seen, but sea of Green at Quest field seems to imply steps in the right direction.

Real Weird

Soccer fans let out a collective what the fuck as Real Madrid was destroyed by spanish league three side Alcorcon in a Copa Del Ray match today. Maybe if they buy some players from Alcorcon it will solve their problems. Being a Chelsea admirer I really cannot bash Madrid for spending money, but I can fault them with picking players who seem to be incapable of playing on a team that dosent have Cristiano Ronaldo. Since the striker was injured against Marseille Madrid have won one, lost one, and drawn one, in spanish league play. I've said from the start that Ronaldo's individual skill is the only thing that keeps Madrid in the title race, but even I was surprised by this seemingly impossible result.

Real Madrid Lineup:

Dudek; Arbeloa, Albiol, Metzelder, Drenthe; Mahamadou Diarra, Guti (Gago, min,46), Van der Vaart; Granero (Marcelo, min.63); Raúl (Van Nistelrooy, min. 72) y Benzema.

Fun Fact: The Alcorcon striker who opened the scoring, and scored again at the matches close, makes in a year what Ronaldo makes in a day.

If you dont sign this your a terrorist

http://www.gousabid.com/pages/take-action/

Charlie Davis walks, Jermaine Jones cleared for USA action

The Summer is far away but several stories relating to the US national team have come out in recent days. Charlie Davis was moved out of intensive care, and took his first few steps since he was involved in a car crash the night before USA's qualifier with Costa Rica.

On a different note Jermaine Jones has pledged himself to the USA national team. Jones is relatively unknown in the US, and although he is no Kaka, he is a regular starter on a top level Bundesliga team (Schalke 04). In 2008 Jones was even deemed good enough to make 3 appearances in friendlys for the German national team (hes half German half American). The USA team will take any regular European starters it can get, and in addition to his first team prowess at Schalke, he also captained Eintracht Franfurt, hinting that Jones could bring some needed leadership to the USA team.

Jones signing does present some difficulties for Bob Bradley. Mainly how to acclimate a player who is used to top level European competition, with legions of supporters, to the decidedly more low key US soccer scene. Bradley certainly isn't inexperienced with dealing in high profile players. As the coach of the Chicago Fire he brilliantly used Polish International Peter Nowak to help his team win the MLS cup. No doubt Bradley is well equipped to deal with Jones, less fortunate are the players Jones could replace, including Bob's son Michael.

Just what was needed

This blog has been full of talk about the woes of Liverpool recently, and so it was a welcome relief to see then soundly defeat Man United today. Fernando Torres ran his battered frame through the United defense to score in the second half, and substitute Ngog made his mark with a goal in stoppage time to take the pressure off a game which looked as if it could be another example of United's knack for scoring late. The win meant Liverpool moves just one spot outside of the top four, and Man U moves to second behind Chelsea, right where they belong. Also the victory undoubtedly took the pressure off Rafa, whose neck was rumored to be dependent on the outcome today, at least for a bit.

How To Dive

A hilarious video, but sadly not far from the truth.

English Premier League Action

It was another exciting Premier League Saturday as the results fell:

Birmingham	2-1	Sunderland
Burnley	1-3	Wigan
Chelsea	5-0	Blackburn
Hull	0-0	Portsmouth
Tottenham	0-1	Stoke
Wolverhampton	1-1	Aston Villa

The results important to me, though, are the Villa and Chelsea results. Chelsea hammered Blackburn 5-0 at home, and to be honest, it should have been 6 or 7 for Chelsea. As the match headed to the 90th minute, I think shots on goal were something like 15-1 in favor of Chelsea. With Joe Cole back in the starting line up and all their stars performing well, Chelsea have not conceded a goal in over 12 hours of playing at Stanford Bridge, and sit at the top of the league pending Man U-Liverpool tomorrow.

The Villa result, for me, was a boring game and a disappointment. My favorite team looked flat and consigned to a draw for 80 minutes, and then when they finally do score, they conceded a clear-cut penalty 4 minutes later. That is exactly the type of team Villa need to beat to keep up with the big teams, and they just didn't do it today.

-DM

Onyewu out for 6

Despite what I saw as two very disappointing showings from the Milan defender in the USA's last two games, I was very sad to see that Onyewu has been ruled out for six months after receiving surgery on his knee. This injury all but rules him out of league play for Milan in the remaining season, and even worse casts his world cup appearance in doubt. Even if Onyewu was to make a faster then predicted recovery, the time required to return to match fitness would make it very likely that he would have to sit out on South Africa.

UEFA roundup

Real Madrid continued to show that they are lost without the individual skill of Ronaldo after going down 3-2 at home to an AC Milan which has made one of its worst starts in history in Serie A play.

Elsewhere Chelsea overcompensated for their loss at Villa park with a 4 nil thumping of Althetico Madrid. Kalou scored twice, showing that he is a more then viable replacement for the still banned Dider Drogba, and Frank Lampard scored for the first time in eleven games played.

Liverpool lost at home to Lyon, effectively spelling their doom for their hopes of reaching the next stage, and maybe even spelling the end of Rafa Benitez, unless he can seriously impress this weekend against United. Either way that Arab sheik swooping in and buying up the club is looking even more likely.

It was a good weekend for French clubs. Besides the Lyon Victory, Marseille beat FC Zurich one nil away, and Bordeaux defeated an injury stricken Bayern Munich 2-1.

Manchester United, true to their traditional champions league form, did not impress this weekend, but still came away with a victory in a fruitful although not entertaining outing against CSKA Moscow, which they won late strike from Antonio Valencia to make the score 1-0.

This weekends biggest upset of course was Rubin Kazan's defeat of Barcelona at the Nou Camp. The defeat was the first loss the club has sustained in all competitions since they started pre season over this past summer.

Its a good thing these guys are good

s

Some players I feel are particularly ugly... Tevez goddam

BPL round up game week 9

It was a weekend of significant movement for several clubs, with Manchester United assuming a delicate one point advantage over Chelsea and taking first place, while Liverpool continued its bad form with a one nil defeat to Sunderland, moving them down to 8th place.

Starting with the Sunderland Liverpool match, which I'm sure all of our readership have heard about, and the bizarre beach ball goal. I didn't delight in watching Sunderland work Liverpool over (however watching them almost beat Man U was like crack to me), and I felt that Sunderland's solitary goal should have been disallowed. Darren Bent's goal technically should have been nullified after it deflected off a Liverpool FC official beach ball (Manchester United fans have reportedly bought the rest of the beach balls to throw at the team when they travel to Anfeild next week) which had been released onto the field by a Liverpool fan. The rules state that when an object interferes with play the ball is ruled "dead" and a free kick should be given. Despite this unfortunate turn of events, even more unfortunate was Liverpool's form. Saturday's game really made you realize that when you take away the brilliance of Torres and the rock solid performances of Gerrard, Liverpool is an extremely ordinary team. With the exception of Kyut and Benayoun, the entire team looked lax and uninspired. Not that LFC's dismal performance should take the credit for the win. Bent looked extremely dangerous, as did Jones, and the two look like they could develop into one of the leagues more fruitful partnerships. The problems could potentially snowball out of control for Liverpool if they continue to show bad form. The team is hugely in debt, without any promising reserves or youth and thus tied to the transfer market, in danger of losing out of the champions league (and thus all the TV money from its broadcasting), and facing Manchester United next week. Lets face it, the real savior of Liverpool at this point isn't a player, its some wealthy Arab sheik.

Chelsea had a royal fuckup in their match at Villa Park on Saturday. In their defense its been a busy week for CFC players. An amazing 17 members of the first team were away on international duty. Still, this figure may have justified the lax marking Chelsea displayed in Villa's first goal scoring corner, but it certainly doesn't justify the exact same mistake later on in the game. Chelsea certainly still have it in them to win the title, and I fully except them to despite this disaster of a game. John Terry's fit after the Villa goal convinced me that if Chelsea ever makes a defensive mistake again hes going to jump up and down in place and scream at the ball, something no Chelsea defender wants to see their grown captain doing.

Elsewhere in the league Fulham displayed some good form beating Hull, obviously the problem for Hull being that Jozy Altidore only played 22 minutes, while United won a tense victory against Bolton, helped by a Zak Knight own goal. This will be the second time in two consecutive games that United has earned points on the table due to an own goal, I guess there just really good at making defenders mess up.

Hmmm

this guy..

No homo

Aston Villa 2 - 1 Chelsea

It was a great day at Villa Park today as Aston Villa thoroughly defeated Chelsea 2-1 from 2 goals off of corners. After Didier Drogba scored the first goal for Chelsea on 15 minutes (which clearly should have been saved by Brad Friedel) Aston Villa were the more dominant team, and always looked like the greater threat to score.

The breakthroughs, though, were more on account of terrible Chelsea marking on corners than brilliant Villa play. On the first goal, coming in the 32nd minute, Richard Dunne broke easily away from Ricardo Carvalho to score off an Ashley Young inswinger. Lampard deflected the ball right to Dunne, but there is no way that an opponent should ever be allowed to cut inside right to the center of goal unmarked. The second goal was even worse, however, as Petr Cech made a half-attempt to punch, the ball sailed over him, and James Collins, again completely unmarked, powered it in for a goal that anyone in the Premier League could have scored.

All in all, a miserable game for Chelsea that allows Man. United to take the top spot, but a great day for Villa as they are now 2/2 against the so-called "Big Four".

This guy...

Leo Messi is going to south africa, lets see if his pretty boy counter part qualifies. Who knew it was so sunny in Manchester.

USA Costa Rica 2-2

This one really had me running the spectrum of emotions last night. I went from throwing my hands up in mild disappointment after the USA defense, in a collective brain fart, allowed Costa Rican striker Bryan Ruiz to slide one past Tim Howard early on in the game, then I threw my remote at the wall when in another brain fart the US defense gave Ruiz way too much space and allowed him to absolutely laser the ball into the top left corner. Finally I shouted for joy as the US eventually equalized in the second half.

Up top, Casey scuffed an early chance when he was set up by a perfect pass from Altidore, sending the ball embarrassingly wide of the net. After that initial chance Casey remained largely inactive and I was glad to see him come off at the half. Staurt Holden, a player I backed to develop well in my last national team post, played almost no role in any of the drives, giving questionable service into the box on the occasion he did gain possession. Donovan and Altidore were by far the most active players for the USA on the pitch. Donovan scuffed a chance of his own, and missed a early free kick, but regained his composure and played out a decent first half, and a fairly good second half. We didnt see a repeat of his free kick magic, but he had a large part in the US's first goal, as his blocked shot rebounded to Michael Bradley who put the ball away in the second half. Altidore was by far the stand out. Jozy was a man possessed in this match, certainly playing with the injured Charlie Daveis in mind. Altidore played in an extremely physical manner, reminding us that although he doesnt always play like it, hes a lightning fast six foot tall beefy forward, who can muscle defenders around if he really puts his mind to it. Altidore had his own problems though, and that immense energy he displayed with energy might have worked against him as he over struck some of his chances in the first 45.

In the back the standout was Onyewu, but not because he played well. The mistakes which I deemed out of character for him in the last game came back, this time with consequences as he was beaten badly to let in the first goal. Im starting to worry that sitting around in Milan could be dulling some of his skills, as the normally rock solid defender looked quite lax for the entirety of the game until he was taken out in the 83rd with a bad knee injury.

Im going to assume that most of our readership has watched the game or at least knows the goal scorers, so I wont go into the details of the second half. I will say that Robbie Rogers really impressed me with his pace and energy. I had never seen Rogers play since I missed most of the Gold Cup, but it was easy to notice how he added a much needed spark to a desperate USA. I have a bad habit of getting very excited over young players who tend to fizzle (Freddy Adu), but I will certainly be watching Rogers in the future. In the end, the USA keeps their home unbeaten record going, and ends their world cup bid as champions of their group. I did feel a little sorry for Costa Rica, who played a fantastic first half, but if its between our home unbeaten record and your world cup qualifying, ill take our record any day. It should also be noted that by beating Costa Rica the US allowed Honduras to qualify, a country which hasnt been to a world cup in 27 years, and a nation which could really use some good news in a tough political climate. The mistakes need to be worked on, but an excellent display of spirit from the USA.

The Tandem Bicycle

Argentina Qualifies

Argentina has qualified for the World Cup with a 1-0 win over Uruguay. That scoreline flatters them, the game should've been a draw, but Caceres of Uruguay got sent off and then Argentina scored on a deflected free kick. Even so, a draw would have also put them through.

It is probably no surprise that they qualified in the end with the talented players they have. However, I predict they will not get far in the World Cup because of Maradona's ineptitude. For example, in the 89th minute of this game, Maradona put on Carlos Tevez for Lionel Messi. Tevez is a pure striker while Messi is more of a rover, and his team was trying to nurse a 1-0 lead! That substitution makes absolutely no sense, and that type of coaching is why Argentina will be out early in the World Cup.

Davies in car crash

USA forward Charlie Davies is in stable condition after a car crash today,exact details on his condition are not known. Davis is undergoing surgery tonight, and therefore is guaranteed not to play tomorrow against Costa Rica, a loss for the USA indeed, good thing were already in.

U-20 progress report.

Ghana has qualified for the U20 World Cup Final, meaning the tournament played in Africa will have African representation at the top. The Ghanaians face either Brazil or Costa Rica (but lets be serious its going to be Brazil) in Fridays match in Cairo Egypt, to determine the tournaments winner.

Ghana came out today against Hungry with typical African style, physical aggressive play, and a lot of quality finishing from Abeiku Quansah. The Hungarians played a pretty terrible first half, with the African side holding a good sixty percent of possession, and a 2-0 lead going into the second half. To the credit of the Hungarians they really upped the play in the second 45, with two very fine goals, a mix of Hungarian aggressiveness and Ghanaian laziness. In the end though Ghana held on, and put one more in the net to make the final score 3-2.

-MC

Possibly the sickest soccer commercial ever. I miss Ronaldinho at Barca.

International Round Up: World Cup Qualifying

The USA was not the only team to qualify for the World Cup yesterday, with Ivory Coast, Germany, Denmark, Serbia, Italy, Chile, and Mexico all clinching their spot at South Africa 2010. Elsewhere in Europe, Switzerland, Slovakia, Russia, Bosnia, France, and the Republic of Ireland have all guaranteed themselves at least a playoff berth. Not any real surprises in the qualified group other than Chile, who qualified for the first time since 1998, and previous qualifiers North Korea, who made it for the first time since 1966.

The most surprising thing, really, is the powerhouses that may be left out of the world's greatest tournament. Portugal, who has arguably the world's most talented player, Cristiano Ronaldo, still have not guaranteed themselves a playoff spot in the UEFA qualifying, although they will probably end up getting at least that far. The real shocker, though, is Argentina.

Argentina has probably top 3 talent in the world, but they are still just 1 point clear of Uruguay and 2 points clear of Ecuador in South American qualifying. They lie in 4th place, the last guaranteed place in CONMEBOL. A 5th place finish would force them to a playoff with Honduras, while a 6th place finish would see them out. They basically have to beat Uruguay on Wednesday (after a miraculous 2-1 win, with a 90th minute goal against last-place Peru yesterday) to assure qualification.

The fact that they are even in this position is a joke, because they are so much more talented than Chile and Paraguay, who have already qualified. It really falls squarely on the shoulders of Diego Maradona, their former star player who scored probably the two most famous goals ever (Hand of God and Goal of the Century) but is now proving to be an atrocious coach. The Argentine team basically is running around on a field with no strategy at all. Worst of all was the 3-1 defeat at home to Brazil, a scoreline that humiliated and flattered the hosts. If Argentina do end up qualifying, it will be by sheer luck and raw talent, because their iconic, recovering cocaine addict coach doesn't know the first thing about soccer tactics or training.

-DM

International Round Up: USA 3 Honduras 2

USA-Hondouras: USA showed some real quality with this one, at least in the front. Two goals from surprise pick Conner Casey, and a 23 yard free kick from Landon Donoven ensured that the USA booked tickets to South Africa. The real meat of this story was the Conner Casey goals. Casey has appeared 14 times for the US national team, and this is the first game in which he scored. Casey was in for much of the match in the place of Hull City striker Jozy Altidore, who has appeared and scored regularly for the USA. Although Altidore is my favorite USA international, it makes sense to me that Bradley would pick Casey, a regular starter for the Colorado Rapids, over Altidore, a sometimes player for Hull. Casey showed his strength and power, when he absolutely decked the Honduran goal keeper in the fight for his goal scoring header.

In for the injured Clint Dempsy was Stuart Holden. I honestly have no idea how Dempsy continues to score since hes so dam slow, and it was refreshing to see Holden get a look, a player who I feel works much harder in his position then Dempsy does. Holden played a pretty solid game, but was called for a handball which lead to a thankfully missed penalty. Well see how Holden develops, hes certainly going to South Africa, but weather a sub or a starter is yet to be determined.

In the back Howard continued to show his quality as he mad a crucial reaction save to deny the Hondurans the equalizer. Onyewu had a few out of character mistakes, but made up for them late in the game with some quality slide tackles. Overall the US defense held their own when they were not making penalty drawing mistakes.

Overall, very glad to see the US can score 3 in a though atmosphere. I would like to see far less mistakes in the back, and maybe a little more possession play, but a solid performance in the end.

-MC

This is the game

In 1950 a group of young men, a high school teacher, a mailman, and a dishwasher among them, traveled to Brazil for what was known around the world (but not in their home country the USA) as the greatest show on earth. For a short while, these young men traded in their everyday jobs for a position on the US national soccer team. The prospects, as they had always been for the US team looked grim. "We have no chance," the USA head coach stated bluntly as the team prepared to face England in the group stages of the World Cup. England has always been a top team, and in 1950 the three lions were the kings of soccer. The England squad at the time was loaded with talent befitting of the team's prestigious name and rank, and the group of semi professionals opposing them on the USA side looked like they were in for a landslide England victory.

By the 12th minute of the game England had had six shots on goal, many of which drew American goalkeeper Frank Borghi to a full stretch. Then in the thirty seventh minute the US team crossed the ball to Joe Gaetjens who headed the ball neatly past the England Keeper. The crowd exploded as the USA took the lead. For the next 45 minutes they would fend off attack after attack, to seal the win. Joe Gaetjens was carried off the field by his team mates, and the one American journalist at the World Cup sent a brief dispatch back to his Saint Louis paper, the only paper in the US to carry the headline.

It's moments such as these that make soccer a beautiful game. This blog which carries the nickname given to the American victory is dedicated to sharing with you the moments and players who make football the most widely loved sport in the world. Miracle is made up of several writers who owe their allegiances to several teams. We do not seek to compete with conventional soccer outlets like FSC or ESPN, instead we offer our news with a healthy does of opinion and wit, not just fact. Although we certainly wont try to be unbiased in our assessment, Miracle will try to cover all aspects of soccer, including multiple leagues, international football, and champions league matches.