Weekly football post #42.

It was a weekend of disappointment as far as football was concerned for this guy, and here is a recap of the suffering. 

Just a couple of days after an amazing U.S. win against Spain to earn a trip to the Confederations Cup final, the Mighty Americans gave up a first half 2-0 lead to drop the final match against Brazil 2-3. It was a tale of two halves, with the US dominating the first 45 minutes, only to look like an AYSO team against Brazil in the final 45. Brazil could have earned more than three, if calls and balls would have gone just slightly more their way. From a questionable no goal to just an immense amount of pressure applied by the Green and Yellow, most fans around our nation had a feeling that it was just a matter of time before Brazil would overtake our underdog squad, and they did. Clint Dempsey (10th minute on an easy redirect) and Landon Donovan (a fast break goal at the 27th) opened the scoring for the Americans that prompted text messages and tweets to fly across the nation in anticipation of another unbelievable US upset. However, the Brazilians nailed home an early second half goal from Luis Fabiano in the 46th minute, and the flood gates opened. The US looked paralyzed against the opposition's striking for the entirety of the second half, and only naturally allowed goal from Fabiano again (a header in the 74th off of a crossbar rebound), and from Elano (a real easy header on a corner in the 84th). The American put tons of pressure on in the final couple of minutes, but it just wasn't meant to be. The beautiful run ended with a second place finish. Despite the disappointment after the huge start today, I'm pretty sure that all of us are proud of the effort our boys put out and are stoked on our chances at the World Cup. 

Over in Newcasatle, my "Eggies" (a new nickname thanks to their new kits) continue to sit in limbo as we start to get ready for the Championship promotion run. Alan Shearer has yet to be named as the manager for the 09/10 season, as the team continues to work toward being sold before making any big moves. 'Castle players are due back for training this Wednesday, and we still don't have a coach. I'm not a huge supporter of Alan as a manager, but we need to pick somebody! Newcastle will be matching up against the Shamrock Rovers of Ireland on July 11th as they continue to prep for the upcoming second division season. The Barcodes will also prep against Darlington, Huddersfield Town, FC Utrecht, Leeds, and Dundee before getting their promotion bid on against West Brom on August 8.

Meanwhile, Celtic has started to make some noise to make up for losing a couple of clutch players. Remember, Shunsuke "Ninja Warrior" Nakamura is off to Espanyol and Paul Hartley has been released. To counter by bringing somebody in, the Celts have brought in a Polish star to match up well with Pole stud Artur Boruc between the pipes. Lukasz Zaluska has been transfered in from Dundee United for the 09/10 season. Zaluska played 53 matches for the Crocs between 2007 and 2009. Our newest Polish keeper had a tough time with Dundee, suffering injuries and attacks from fans of Aberdeen. Hopefully he can learn from Boruc, be a solid backup, and continue the amazing luck that the Green & White have had with getting backstops from Eastern Europe. The Hoops start SPL play August 15 against that very same Aberdeen after a ton of preseason fixtures warm them up. 

Chivas USA made sure to continue to disappoint the fans of Goat Nation with another sad result in the Super Liga. This tournament is made for Chivas USA, especially the way that we opened the MLS season, and we just completely bombed. Losses to Tigres UNAL and Chicago left us with a game against San Luis that we had to win by 2 to move forward in the tournament. Guess what? We didn't. Chivas came away with a 1-1 draw against the Mexican side, despite San Luis dominating most of the game, and was promptly eliminated from this year's Super Liga tournament (which, in case you don't know, is a battle between the MLS' best and Mexican soccer's best). I guess we can at least take away the fact that the draw we earned prevented San Luis from moving on as well (big ups to John for the Fire moving on?). The first 45 was just a couple of back and fourth plays, with nobody really taking control. In the 53rd minute, however, San Luis broke through with a goal from Alfredo Martinez. Of course, the goal was scored after a questionable move by Coach Preki. Preki moved to take Zach Thorton out of the game, allowing his backup Lance Parker to take over between the pipes. Clearly, Preki was showing that he favors MLS play more than Super Liga action, and the move led to San Luis breaking the game open. It was a penalty kick that opened it up, so I don't want to blame Parker too much, but it was Parker that caused the penalty in the box, so may I should! Our main man Atiba Harris headed a ball from a corner into the net in the final seconds of the game to draw the Goats even 1-1. It didn't help us move forward in the tourney, but at least we didn't lose all three. It should be noted that San Luis had two goals disallowed due to offsides calls that were questionable. Either going into the new would have sent San Luis through, so maybe the HDC officials had some kind of beef with the Gladiadores. Heading back to MLS play, we focus on our 8-4-3 record (27 points), and the fact that we trail Houston by just a single point in the table after this long drawn out tail spin. We get back to MLS action against the hated LA Galaxy on July 11th after a little break. We'll need the break, and we'll need to play strong against a 2-3-9 Galaxy team. When the two LA squads get together, records obviously go out the door, but we are the better squad and we have to start playing like it. 

As we get back into things, let's lay out the LSF's 5 favorite Chivas USA players: 

1) Maykel "El Cubano" Galindo (2 goals on 9 shots in 10 games). He may not be the greatest guy on the team this year, but the Villa Clara, Cuba native has been my favorite player on the team ever since he burst onto the scene with a team leading 12 goals and 5 assists in 2007. That season earned him the "Budweiser Golden Boot Award," and he is finally getting back to form after a difficult 2008 season filled with injuries. 

2) Eduardo "99" Lillingston (6 goals on 27 shots in 14 games). E-Lill is one of the most underrated Chivas forwards, due to being frequently used as a sub, but the Guadalajara native is leading the team in goals, believe it or not, and is making a name for himself during his first season with this squad. 

3) Paulo "MLS Champion" Nagamura (4 goals on 13 shots in 14 games). Naga, a native of the hated Confederation Cup winners, has been totally solid as a midfielder in his third season with Chivas. He came over from (Andrew's?) Toronto FC in the 2007 season after getting traded, and has finally been coming into his own. Naga has a MLS Cup title with the LA Galaxy back in 2005, and hopes to be a part of brining the cup back to LA for Chivas USA here in 2009. 

4) Zach "The Beast" Thorton (7 shutouts in 15 games with a 0.80 GAA). Thorton came over in 2008 from New York on a trade after beloved Brad Guzan went to Europe. ZBT started just seven games for the Red & White before falling to injury, and really was an unknown factor to most Chivas fans, despite starting both playoff games last season. Thorton has been in the MLS since 1996, winning the MLS Cup and Goalkeeper of the Year in 1998 with the Chicago Fire. The 35 year old Maryland native is back to being solid this season, keeping Chivas in a ton of games with his miniscule goals against average. He's been off as of late, so hopefully the 6'3/230 giant can get back into form from here on out.

5) Atiba "Ezra" Harris (2 goals on 17 shots in 13 games). Atiba Harris has been rocking it with Chivas USA since last season. ATB played in the most games of any Chivas player in his first season with the squad (28), and shifted between being a midfielder and a striker. He had three goals and five assists in the season, and is really pushing things forward here in 2009. His favorite soccer squad, outside of his own, is Chelsea FC (appealing to Brandon?), and his cousin Micah Richards plays in the EPL for the hated Manchester City. Atiba reminds all of us Chivas fans of our former favorite Ezra Hendrickson, who now plays with Seattle, and hopefully he will continue to play like him as much as he looks like him.

Honorable Mentions) Extra love has to go to Huntington Beach native Sacha Kljestan (1 assist in 10 games), Justin "Big Country" Braun (1 goal in 7 games), Los Alamitos native Jonathan Bornstein (1 assist in 12 games), and the up and coming Wake Forest graduate and 2009 1st round pick Michael Lahoud (1 shot in 6 games).  

Man, I love Chivas.