What Did I Miss?

I was busy visiting family for the past week or so. Here's what's gone down since then.

USA Men

Oh yeah, that's a foul on Bornstein (in the dark uniform)!

Call it sour grapes, but the USA lost 1:0 to Slovakia on a terrible PK call. If that play had happened at midfield, the Slovakian guy would have been cautioned for the rugby tackle he laid on Bornstein. Check out the USMNT Youtube Channel for highlights. Oh well, that's the type of experience you want to gain in the friendlies leading up to the World Cup and not in it. Referee's see things differently in other parts of the world. Remember Gooch's PK giveaway to Ghana? They'll be playing taking on another World Cup opponent in Denmark on Wednesday.

Here's a pretty good retrospective on the past 20 years of the USMNT. In 1989, when Paul Caliguiri hit the "shot heard around the world", qualifying for the World Cup was a massively unexpected result. Today, it would be a massively unexpected result if they did not qualify.


MLS Final Set: LA vs Salt Lake


Real Salt Lake pulled a NY RedBulls by qualifying last for the MLS Cup Playoffs and running the bracket to the final. The RSL shootout win over the hard-luck Chicago Fire was certainly more exciting than the 2:0 LA victory over Houston despite the 120 minutes of scoreless soccer. I was on the East Coast while watching the LA game and it was a marathon affair of boring soccer with a few of power outages sprinkled into the late night borefest. So, it's on to Seattle for RSL and LA. Let's hope the final has some goals or at least some exciting attacking football.

HASL Division Champs Crowned

Four of the five Huntsvill Adult Soccer League divisions have crowned champions while the Premership will be decided on Wednesday night. Here are the other HASL Division Champions:

Division I: CD Venom
Division II: Arsenal FC
Division III: Chivas USA
Division IV: Juventus

Wow, we have a team from the EPL, MLS, and Serie A winning Divisions in HASL! :)

Twickenham Rovers

BTW, this season's Best Team Name Award goes to the Twickenham Rovers. Nice British sounding name with a nod toward old Huntsville.