Happy Friday everyone! The Sounders played yesterday against the mighty New York Red Bulls. At this point I would probably give you the scoreline, a comment or two about the game and highlights. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to watch the boys in green yesterday since I have a rather inconvenient business trip to Baltimore this weekend. Until someone tells me differently, I'm going to assume they won 6-0 and all six were scored by Fredy Montero who is on my fantasy team. Dizzo did miss six goals, 5 scored by Sounders, although Zach Scott's was going the wrong way. Seattle Sounders fans are certainly still happy from the 4-2 win.
Yep, I'm writing this links post on a Thursday morning. I have no idea when I'll be able to get in front of a computer for a sustained period of time this weekend. When the NYRB game kicks off I'll be somewhere over Utah on the red-eye east ordering a whiskey and coke, as is my want when flying over Utah. When this links post goes out I'll be rubbing the sleep out of my eyes and looking for a place in Balmer to get Lake Trout and 'slaw for breakfast.
For those of you, like me, who missed the game yesterday, the Seattle Sounders always post highlights the next day and you can get them here. You can also look at pictures from Rick Morrison on the previous NYRB matches. Or you can just watch Roger celebrate again.
Gold Cup Success: The Gold Cup matches yesterday went about as well as could be expected for the US national team. The USMNT beat Panama 1-0 on a great sequence between Clint Dempsey, Landon Donovan and Freddy Adu. Yeap, that was Freddy Adu providing a brilliant outlet pass to Landon Donovan to set up the play. Like fellow SBN blogger Kevin McCauley, I think all of us fans from the original MLS 1.0 days are in danger of our heads exploding in disbelief. As icing on the cake, the Honduran national team took the Mexican team into overtime before losing 2-0. Local radio will be carrying the game.
More links after the jump:
US U-17s lose to Uzbekistan: Mistakes cost the US U-17 team in their recent 2-1 loss to Uzbekistan at the U-17 World Cup. It was a physical game where the Uzbeks were able to dominate the US. Alfred Kooma was a spark off the bench for the US and scored the lone US goal. Group D is still up in the air with all of the teams able to land anywhere from first to last. The US face New Zealand on Saturday where a victory will secure them a place in the knock-out rounds.
Pumas Draw 1,298: As I'm sure you know by now, the Kitsap Pumas beat the Real Colorado Foxes for a chance to play the Seattle Sounders in the Open Cup. It was shaping up to be a classic David vs. Goliath match-up were you feel slightly sorry for the poor little Pumas when they face their inevitable defeat. I even felt bad about the timing of the match in their crowded schedule. Then Pumas owner Robin Waite went forth to the local paper and made the daft claim that no one cares about the Open Cup in Seattle. Let's see...the Pumas drew 1,298 for their game against the Foxes and that's more than double their average attendance. Starfire holds 4,500 and we're going to pack it to the brim. So Robin would roughly 3 times the fans change your mind?
Smith to Miss Rest of 2011: Speedy Sporting KC winger Ryan Smith will miss the rest of the season as he returns to England to attend to family matters. Smith is a blazing fast winger trained in the Arsenal youth system much like our own Steve Zakuani. Unlike Zakuani, he's had problems turning his obvious talents into sustained success for the teams he's played on. It's stories like these that make me appreciate Zakuani and his efforts for the team and the community even more. Speaking of...Zakuani has just posted his first Q&A on his new blog where he talks about his favorite goal of all time, favorite pass-times and the dangerous of pushing kids to be successful.
Another Jersey Fail: Few and far between is how I would describe the Sounders fans who actually like the new tech-fit jerseys. You know what would make them even better? Some gaudy sparkly crap on the shoulders and under the pits. With that design aesthetic in mind the great designers at Adidas bring you the 2011 MLS All-star jerseys. Now only $80 bucks at the MLS online store. Get it quick before it ends up at the discount bin of the local Dick's Sporting Goods.
New Sports Center Ads: Sports Center has a couple of new ads featuring Abby Wambach and Landon Donovan. Both ads are pretty funny if you haven't already seen them. Wambach's ad lambasting diving in the workplace is probable my favorite of the two. Although I'm always in favor of giving Landon Donovan cards. Hey, at least the copy machine calls it consistently!