Hockey Matchup Report

With former great Peter Vermes at the helm Sporting Kansas City hopes to make a deep run to the MLS Cup this year, after falling short of a playoff berth last year. They are in an Eastern Conference where just about anything can happen, so if everything goes right their chances are just as good as any other team’s of playing for an MLS Championship.

Sporting Kansas City has what could potentially be a lethal trio up top. Youngster C.J. Sapong and Teal Bunbury will combine with veteran Omar Bravo on a forward line that may be capable of scoring a lot of goal throughout the season. Vermes’ style is meant to pressure and create opportunities, which they have a great chance of doing with the youth and enthusiasm of Sapong and Bunbury mixed with the experience and leadership of Bravo. Senegalese veteran Birahim Diop and Kei Kamara from Sierra Leone also add great talent to the forward line, giving Kansas City a diverse array of options to attack and score goals with. It’s a group that should keep opposing goalkeepers sweating all game long, and give Sporting KC an opportunity to score their way to a lot of victories this year. However, the question marks start after that.

The midfield, defense, and goalkeeper positions may not be able to hold off teams enough to get wins. The exciting, pressure and attack oriented style that Vermes will employ will leave the team vulnerable to counter attacks, which will force them to be up to the challenge of stopping other teams heading into their zone with a full head of steam. If the defense, led by Brazilian Julio Cesar, can not slow teams down, then the pressure will truly be on the talented group of forwards to score goals and win high-scoring shootouts.

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In early 2010 the Houston Dynamo lost Stuart Holden to the Boston wanderers of the English Premier league. Holden was a great player who helped the Dynamo to several tremendous regular-season records, but he’s far from the only player on the Houston team was a leader. Perhaps the best player in the history of Houston Dynamo soccer Brian Ching is still the heart and soul of the team.

I seasoned veteran Brian spent most of 2010 with a nagging injuries preventing him from playing his best. But perhaps previous seasons with Houston indicate what changes possible of. In 2009 he was in MLS All-Star scoring 14 goals in the last 20 regular season

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Bye bye Beckham, there seems to be only one thing standing between Tottenham and midfielder Beckham from joining the team on loan from the Los Angeles galaxy which is a permission slip from the major league soccer team.

So it appears Beckham is on his way to White Hart Lane ASAP in a move that would mark the former Manchester United Star’s return to England, and the Premier League. He iscurrently sitting at home since major league soccer has a season schedule that is during the summer while one of the top leagues in the world is currently active. Beckham has done (more…)

What was suppose to be a triumphant debut for MLS’ newest superstar turned into the last great memory of a fan favorite in Houston. Brian Mullan, now with the Colorado Rapids, came on as a second half substitute and headed home an Andrew Hainault cross late in the match to provide the Houston Dynamo with a 2-2 draw with the New York Red Bulls.

The match was the debut of French international Theirry Henry, who unexpectedly went the full 90 minutes and set up the first Red Bull goal. Henry showed a glimpse of what he could be for the Red Bulls terrorizing the Dynamo backline and showing his pace and skill.

Mullan had been on the bench due to the impressive form of second year player Danny Cruz. However, Mullan was in good form himself and entered the match and produced the tying goal playing out of position at forward. It was the (more…)

The Galaxy kept in-stadium competitors Chivas USA to a 2-1 win in a very choppy SuperClásico game on Sunday night in the Home Depot Center. The triumph places the Galaxy back in contention for the 2010 Major League Soccer Supporters’ Shield along with merely 3 matches remaining to play inside the regular season. 1st half goals coming from Buddle & Beckham had been sufficient to beat a second-half attack via Alan Gordon as LA got home their 3rd sequential SuperClásico trophy.

Chivas USA’s defeat, their 3rd in several matches, efficiently eradicated Martín Vásquez’s men from post season competition for the 2010 playoffs. The Goats won’t find playoff participation since 2005. Sunday’s match had been mostly an account of 2 halves, with the 1st owned exclusively to LA. The Galaxy energized out from the locker room early on & almost pulled forward within the 4th minute, but Buddle ended up being helpless to solidify cross coming from (more…)