Homer alert!

Oh Yeah! GO PATRIOTS!

GMU 2
#4 Maryland 0

Mason's 4th clean sheet in a row. Maryland had just beaten #2 North Carolina. Mason lost a man to a red card at the 30 minute mark, ahead 1-0, and shut down the UMd attack with 10 men. They scored their 2nd goal at the beginning of the 2nd half. Maryland's attack was nonexistent in the 2nd half. There's nothing better than beating the twerps. At least the Maryland soccer team had the guts to come to Fairfax, that's more than I can say about their lame ass basketball team, too scared to travel, afraid to find out that they may not even be the 3rd best team in the DC area. Sad. Mason is favored to win the CAA title this year. They got off to a good start by beating VCU 1-0. We will see how the season plays out. Go Mason! Green and Gold forever!

CONCACAF

Simple, just beat Costa Rica at RFK and you're in. Too bad RFK is an away game. I'll be there. Go El Salvador! Top 3 are in, 4th place goes into a playoff v 5th place from CONMEBOL which right now is Argentina.

	P	W	D	L	Pts	GS	GA	GD
United States	8	5	1	2	16	14	9	5
Mexico	8	5	0	3	15	12	9	3
Honduras	8	4	1	3	13	14	8	6
Costa Rica	8	4	0	4	12	9	13	-4
El Salvador	8	2	2	4	8	8	10	-2
Trinidad & Tobago	8	1	2	5	5	8	16	-8
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Mexico	v	El Salvador
Honduras	v	United States
Costa Rica	v	Trinidad & Tobago
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
El Salvador	v	Honduras
United States	v	Costa Rica
Trinidad & Tobago	v	Mexico

Fernando!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When in doubt give the ball to El Nino! Torres scores twice against West Ham and leads Liverpool to a big away win. No draws so far this year which cost the Lads last season. With Gerrard, Kuyt, and Benayoun heading the attach Liverpool looks in good shape. Now if they could only defend a set piece!

Totally off topic, sorry

Peter, Paul & ....

Mary Travers died today at age 72. Maybe she left on a jet plane. Don't think she'll be back again. Man I am old. Puff is crying.

Let's talk Burnley

Okay let's not but maybe these low end or new to the Prem sides need to refocus on the mission at hand, staying up in the Prem. Finishing 17th or better is the goal, not beating any of the big 4. Look at Hull last season, great start, had to sell off players in the January transfer window (at least Chelsea won't be getting any) and then struggling to stay up. Keep what you've got and maybe add a guy who can help, not a star but a gutsy, give it up for the team, kind of player. Hull has Jozy Altidore, a big strong kid, and they need to put him on the field. They're not lighting anything on fire as it is so what do they have to lose? Yes Burnley beat ManU and Everton but they got squashed by Chelsea and Liverpool. They need to win the games against the bottom half of the table, anything else is gravy. Fulham is struggling although they are playing well in the Europa Cup. Maybe Europe wasn't such a great thing for Fulham, their squad seems to be stretched pretty thin. Doing well in the Europa doesn't matter if you get relegated. I kind of wish Altidore had gone to Fulham, I think he'd help and it would keep up the tradition of Yanks doing well there. Fulhamerica!

Wolves, Burnley, Birmingham, Hull will only survive if they concentrate on beating the bottom half of the table and holding their own against the rest. Just as long as they all beat City!

Throw the book at Adebayor

ESPN/Getty

What could have possessed Emmanuel Adebayor to step on Robin Van Percy's face? I saw it live and had to avert my eyes. Then I saw the replay and realized that he did it on purpose. WTF? Later, Adebayor scored a goal and ran the entire length of the pitch to taunt the Arsenal supporters. That nearly led to a good old-fashioned melee, the type for which British football fans are well-known. The type in which people get badly hurt. Again: WTF? What do you do with behavior like that? Either incident, by itself, would normally fetch a 4 or 5 game suspension. I think that take together Adebayor deserves a harsher penalty. It better be a big money fine and at least 6 weeks suspension. What a jerk. It's hard for me to believe that I ever supported him when he was at Arsenal.

Boy does it suck to be you!

Georgia's Kakha Kaladze (of AC Milan no less) scored 2, count them 2, own goals to lead Italy to a 2-0 road win over Georgia in Lokomotivi Stadium this weekend in Europe's Group 8 qualifying. Can it get any worse than that? In South America he'd be a dead man. I feel for the guy, really I do, but 2 own goals? I'm guessing he's riding the pines at AC Milan.

USA - El Salvador

I like the starting line up, mostly. Back line is a bit of a worry.

Howard in goal
Spector & Bornstein outside, Marshall and Bocanegra inside with DeMerit (injured) and Gooch (cards) both out. I miss Frankie Hejduk.
Feilhaber, Bradley, Donavon, Dempsey in mid
Altidore and Davies up front. Ching just hasn't looked as good lately.

We'll see how it turns out. A drag that ESPN put the game on Classic instead of ESPN2 or the main channel, Classic's not in HD (at least on Verizon).

What have we (DC United) learned today?

1. Don't get into a war of words with an opponent when your team sucks (from Jack).
2. Don't play a 3 man back line - EVER!
3. When you lose your keeper to a red card (what the hell was that about?) you take out the useless forward who's done nothing all game and not your playmaker and set piece specialist!
4. When you (the last defender) are nowhere near the back line and there's an attacker breathing down your neck,
KICK THE BALL OUT OF BOUNDS!
5. Emilio has to go.
6. The coach has to go.
7. Josh Wicks may be the best Keeper in MLS.
8. At least United won't have to worry about playing in anything but MLS next season. Maybe then they can right the ship because right now it's sinking.

Congratulations Seattle on winning the US Cup.