It's the opening football post for the Chivas USA season, and things are looking pretty darn nice. We'll start with a Euro tour, however.
The lead for Celtic atop the SPL over Rangers was increased to 3 games over the weekend, with a 2-2 draw against Croc Dundee United. My boy Scottie McDonald did it to the rival side with the somewhat Australian name, earning his 16th goal in the 24th minute. Unfortunately, it was Francisco Sandaza of Dundee who would earned himself a double against the Hoops and Artur Boruc quickly into the second half. The Green & White went from thinking they had a win in the bag, to trying to find any way to earn a draw. As time expired, it was perennial favorite and Bloxwich native (which sounds like a totally cool place to be from) Lee Naylor saving the day to help the Celts earn the single point. With 64 points in 29 games, the Celts have pushed their lead over Rangers (note, not "the Rangers") to a full win (3 points, for all of you confused hockey fans). Next up for my Bhoys is a SPL match against Hamilton Academical (which appears to be a word in Scotland). The Hams are the #8 team in the SPL, and with Rangers matching up against last place Falkirk, it would be pretty important for the Celts to take the Hams seriously.
Newcastle played Arsenal, so you pretty much can figure out how that went. An amazing second half from the Gunners blew 'Castle off the pitch, as Bendtner, Diaby, and Nasri all scored with 10 minutes. Um, does it matter that Obafemi Martins scored the Newcastle goal that temporarily evened the match at 1 all? Not really, I guess. The point of the game that kind of said it all was when Oba had a chance to get things going on a penalty in the fist half, only to be stopped by the Arsenal keeper. Ugh. The loss has made things pretty ridiculously gloomy for Toon Nation (that's right Brandon, we have a Nation too). With 29 points in their 30 games (you read that right), Newcastle are now squarely in the relegation zone. Not tied for the spot to get out of the zone, but completely in the zone headed out of the EPL. Remember 18-20 get kicked out of the premier division, and my boys from 'Castle are 18th with 29 points, trailing #17 Blackburn's 31 points. Now we can't just skate our way to staying in the top division, we actually have to do something to get out. I don't know, maybe it would be fun for my favorite English soccer team to get relegated to the first division. Of course, it would be even worse if that happened and we still couldn't get wins, but getting back to the EPL would be a huge lot of fun. We're not going to get any help next week, though, as Newcastle takes on Brandon's Chelsea, the #3 team in the EPL. Maybe Brandon can convince his Blues to cut us some slack? We could really use those 3 points.
Chivas Guadalajara lost another close 0-1 game over the weekend, dropping their most recent L to the U.A.N.L. Tigres. Pedro Benitez got the golden goal at the 39 minute mark against Luis Michel and the Goats, who continue to stumble through this FMF season. At 3-5-3, a seriously bad start to the campaign, Chivas are in second to last place in their division. However, a win would put Chivas at 15 points, which would be good enough for second in the six team division, if everyone else loses. I guess it's a bad start for everyone. Next week, Chivas gets back to home action in Guada, welcoming San Luis. San Luis is brigning up the #4 spot in their group 3 table with a 4-4-3 record. We may have a chance to handle things, right? Well, the team that just beat us (Los Tigres) are the team right below San Luis in the table. Things are going from bad to worse for my Boys in Bars from Mexico.
Now to the real action, as the MLS got underway. It was all love at the Home Depot Center this weekend, as Chivas star Paulo Nagamura came into his own with his first career MLS double in a tight 2-1 win over the Colorado Rapids. What a way to start the season. Nagamura earned his beauty with goals in the 55th and 59th minute to cancel out the goal scored by the Raps earlier on. It was Chivas' fourth straight opening day win, and they were able to pull it off without the starting services of the injured trio of Ante Razov, Maykel "My Boy" Galindo, and Alecko Eskandarian. Naga's first goal was scored with a low blast from about 25 yards out to tie the game, and his second was just six minutes later when the Rapids failed to clear a ball that he pounced on and sent into the twine for the lead. La Legion went completely nuts in section 110, and Chivas rolled on to their first win of the year, and an undefeated start. Chivas is joined only by the upstart Seattle Sounders in the top spot of the West after losses from all teams but RSL (who have yet to play). Next weekend we have Chivas trying to continue pushing things forward on the road against Dallas, who lost their season opener 1-3 to Chicago. Let's keeping it rolling along boys.
On my way out, I'll provide today's LSFISP (LSF Irish Slang of the Post). Today's Irish slang is Mingin', which is slang for "displeasing to the eye." Example: "Newcastle's play was just mingin' this weekend. Feck!" Feel free to use it.
Anyone want to gamble on the Celtics/Clippers game? When they get together, you know you can throw the records straight out the barn door.
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