SuperLiga 2008 Schedule released

The second edition of the cross-border showdown is booked and if 2007's tournament is any example, we can expect some of the best games of the season.

The four teams representing MLS have been known for some time as they were based on last season's performance, so the main part of today's announcement was the Mexican teams. Houston, DC, New England and Chivas USA will take on Chivas Guadalajara, Atlante, Pachuca and Santos.

Group A
Houston Dynamo
D.C. United
Guadalajara
Atlante

Group B
Chivas USA
New England
Pachuca
Santos

Date	Match	Venue	Kickoff (ET)
July 12	DC - Guadalajara	RFK Stadium, DC	8pm
July 12	Houston - Atlante	Robertson Stadium, Houston	10pm
July 13	NE - Santos	Gillette Stadium, Foxborough	8pm
July 13	Chivas USA - Pachuca	Home Depot Center, Carson	10pm
July 15	DC - Atlante	RFK Stadium, DC	8pm
July 15	Houston - Guadalajara	Robertson Stadium, Houston	10pm
July 16	NE - Pachuca	Gillette Stadium, Foxborough	8pm
July 16	Chivas USA - Santos	Home Depot Center, Carson	10pm
July 19	DC - Houston	RFK Stadium, DC	8pm
July 19	Atlante - Guadalajara	TBD	10pm
July 20	Chivas USA - NE	TBD, LA	8pm
July 20	Santos - Pachuca	TBD	10pm
July 29	Seminfinal 1	TBD	TBD
July 30	Seminfinal 2	TBD	TBD
Aug 5	Final	TBD	TBD

2007 SuperLiga - Must win night

SuperLiga flairs back into action tonight with two high stakes games. Four teams will enter; only two leave alive.

Alright, no one will die, but these two games look to be as fantastic as the previous matches in this tournament because all four teams still have a chance of advancing to the knockout stage. With pride and money on the line, you can beat these games will be good viewing.

LA Galaxy (3pts) vs. FC Dallas (2pts)
Pizza Hut Park, Frisco, Texas
8pm ET/5pm PT
TV: TeleFutura (Spanish)
Internet: MLStv or SuperLiga Web Site (English)

The big news for many is David Beckham missing the match (look at the Craig’s List DFW for more), however if you are in the area, you should still go. FCD has been the most unlucky side in the tournament as they are two horrible calls away from a full six points (uncalled handball for Guadalajara's goal in the first match and an additional goal in the second match wrongly called offside) while LA handled Pachuca but were run like cheap stockings by Guadalajara. Because of this FCD must have a win while LA can sneak by with a tie. This is the setup for an explosive, physical match with each player knowing that failure means no million-dollar bonus for the club.


Pachuca (1pt) vs. Chivas de Guadalajara (4pts)
Dick's Sporting Goods Park, Colorado
10pm ET/7pm PT
TV: TeleFutura (Spanish)
Internet: MLStv or SuperLiga Web Site (English)

Over the last few years Pachuca has moved from good side to top class team in the Mexican league, which has not been fun for Guadalajara (or Club America) to watch. Whenever these two clash, it is a good event but tonight it will be something even bigger as Pachuca must win if they want to go to the second round. Guadalajara looked a bit sluggish against Dallas but turned it on against LA while Pachuca still have not come together just right, however I think they will be able to get it together for this one.

Group A

Team	Pts	GP	W	L	D	GF	GA	GD
Guadalajara	4	2	1	0	1	3	2	+1
LA Galaxy	3	2	1	1	0	3	3	0
FC Dallas	2	2	0	0	2	2	2	0
Pachuca	1	2	0	1	1	2	3	-1

Group B

Team	Pts	GP	W	L	D	GF	GA	GD
DC United	4	2	1	0	1	2	1	+1
Houston Dynamo	4	2	1	0	1	2	1	+1
Monarcas Morelia	2	2	0	0	2	2	2	0
Club América	0	2	0	2	0	0	2	-2

SuperLiga schedule and why you should watch

The first addition of the SuperLiga begins tonight with FC Dallas facing off against Chivas de Guadalajara followed by LA playing host to Pachuca. Perhaps none of these teams are your team, however if you are a fan of soccer in North America, you should take an interest in this tournament.

The short term goal of the SuperLiga is simple, 8 teams will play 15 matches to decide who gets the $1 million prize, but long term, those in charge are hoping to build this into a competition on par with the Champions League. Okay, such a day is a long way off, but it is good to have a dream.

Why this should matter to all MLS and Mexican league fans as well as other countries in Concacaf is simple, the more of a success this tournament is, the great the chance of increased money flowing into the various leagues (they hope to expand it to include other countries' leagues in the years to come). This money will be used to improve training facilities as well as bring in better players, thus making Concacaf a better stop for international players from all over the world.

The teams are divided into two groups playing a three game round-robin stage with the top two teams from each group advancing to a the knockout stage with the ultimate winner taking home the largest prize purse in North American soccer history.

All games will air in the US on TeleFutura as well as on the internet at MLSnet and the SuperLiga website (no word if there will be English or Spanish calls for the internet broadcasts).

Group A
Chivas de Guadalajara
FC Dallas
LA Galaxy
Pachuca

No.	Date	Time (ET)	Match
01	24 July	9:00pm	Chivas de Guadalajara 1-1 FC Dallas
02	24 July	11:00pm	Pachuca 1-2 LA Galaxy
05	28 July	8:00pm	Pachuca 1-1 FC Dallas
06	28 July	10:00pm	Chivas de Guadalajara 2-1 LA Galaxy
09	31 July	8:00pm	LA Galaxy 6-5 FC Dallas
10	31 July	10:00pm	Pachca 1-0 Chivas de Guadalajara in Denver

Group B
Club America
DC United
Houston Dynamo
Monarcas Morelia

No.	Date	Time (ET)	Match
03	25 July	8:00pm	Morelia 1-1 DC United
04	25 July	10:00pm	Club America 0-1 Houston Dynamo
07	29 July	8:00pm	Club America 0-1 DC United
08	29 July	10:00pm	Morelia 1-1 Houston Dynamo
11	01 Aug	8:00pm	DC United 0-1 Houston Dynamo
12	01 Aug	10:00pm	Club America 3-2 Morelia in Chicago

Semifinals
14 Aug - Houston Dynamo 2 (3)-(4) 2 Pachuca
15 Aug - LA Galaxy 2-0 DC United

Final
29 Aug - Pachuca vs. LA Galaxy - Location and time to be decided

All four Mexican teams are very solid, however most of them will be missing players due to recent international competitions plus their season ended almost two months ago, which should give the US teams a bit of an advantage (not to mention home pitch advantage). Still, this will be a good test for all those involved and should provide some fun viewing.

Which brings me to one last question, why isn't this airing on any English language stations as this seems perfect for ESPN or Fox Soccer Channel? It is an international competition that takes place over a short period of time with a major payout at the end. Seems like an easy sell to the casual fan. Hopefully next year it will be a little different story.

Pachuca rules CONCACAF, KC loves the rain

Chivas de Guadalajara 0-0 Pachuca CF
6-7 on penalty kicks
It took 120 minutes of play and 14 pk attempts, but in the end Pachuca walked away with the CONCACAF crown.

Pachuca deserves this title as they were the best team through out the whole tournament. I was surprised to see Chivas of Guadalajara close down their attack during the match, but in the end, the better side won.

Pachuca will now represent Concacaf in the FIFA World Club Cup this December.

Toronto FC 0-3 Kansas City Wizards
Now to a much less intercepted or watched game. In MLS action, the Wizards continued the tradition of making Toronto FC look like second division rejects as they smoked them 3-0 in the rain. Before I go any further I really have to salute the 7,500 fans who showed up in the downpour to watch this match. For a wet, Wednesday night, this is impressive.

As far as the game, TFC's fatal flaw was their inability to clear balls in box. Time and time again the Wizards would get two or three chances per attack. Greg Sutton is a good keeper but not good enough to stop three or more shots in a 5 second period. That said, even if they had cleared it, KC probably would have won it back quick enough as Toronto's midfield didn't seem to realize there was a game being played on the field.

There was a bright spot for Toronto as Alecko Eskandarian proved he could still unravel a defense. If he had any support, his side would have got their first goal last night.

Kansas City played another great game, but against TFC, that's to be expected. These two face each other again on Saturday and as easy as this win was for them, the Wizards can't let it go to their head. At some point Toronto will win a game and it will probably because the opposition didn't take them seriously and KC is in a great spot to have that happen to them.
Goals: KC: Eddie Johnson 5', Kerry Zavagnin 55', Yura Movsisyan 70'

Real advances; Chivas-Pachuca tied after first leg

Real Salt Lake got their first meaningful victory of the year last night as they downed the Kansas City Wizards 2-1 in their US Open Cup qualifier. I'm sure the fan that was in attendance went wild.

Please don't take this as a knock against the Real faithful because it's not their fault that US Open matches mean so little that their club scheduled a 5pm kickoff time for the match. Then again, who can blame Real's front office for the choice when all you get for winning the oldest cup competition in America is three been and cheese burritos and a two week old gallon of warm milk.

I really like the US Open Cup, but US Soccer needs to figure out if they actually want to support this thing or not. Find a corporate sponsor or come up with some way of making it worth the time. It doesn't have to be much, think if there was a $750,000 prize for the winner with at least half of it promised to the players. I think we would start to see a bit more excitement during these games.

Anyway, enough ranting, Real was able to pull off this victory despite continuing their trend of giving up late, late goals. Jeff Cunningham put them on top in the 12th minute on a penalty kick, but Sash Victorine tied it up in the 88th, sending the match into overtime where Andy Williams had a 15-yard blast smack a post and find its way into goal. The news reports of the game sound like it was a decent 120-minutes of play, but few will ever know.

Real advances to play the Colorado Rapids on May 28th.

Next up for MLS qualifiers sees LA travel to Columbus next Tuesday. Although LA has a strong history in the Cup, I find it hard to believe the club is overly interested in cramming more games into their already overflowing schedule. Proof of that might be their recently added friendly against the Vancouver Whitecaps which will take place on October 3rd or the day after the October 2nd US Open Cup final.


In a completely different tournament, Pachuca CF and CD Guadalajara socked out a 2-2 draw in the first leg of the CONCACAF Champions' Cup final last night. Omar Bravo was the man of the night for Guadalajara has he notched both goals including an equalizer right before halftime. But Pachuca would not be denied. Down 2-1 in the closing minutes of the match, Marvin Cabrera was able to give his side the much-needed second goal sending the series back to Pachuca all tied up.

The second leg takes place next Wednesday and if you are a Pachuca fan, you must like the position your club is in.

CONCACAF Champions' Cup Finals start tonight

Okay, a lot of the thrill of the Champions' Cup has gone away since no MLS team will be in the mix, but tonight's match should still be fun to watch.

Pachuca CF and CD Guadalajara will meet in the first leg of the final tonight in Guadalajara. These two are both good sides, but I think the edge goes to Pachuca. They have looked exceptional throughout the whole contest while the goats have stumbled a few times.

The winner of this series will represent CONCACAF in the FIFA World Club Cup in Japan this December.

By the way I was surprised to find out that this is only Guadalajara's second trip to the Champions' Cup final with their first being back in the inaugural 1962 edition. I'm sure that has been mentioned before, but I just didn't catch it.

For those interested in watching these great Mexican sides face off, Fox Soccer Channel will air the game live at 9:30pm ET.

Champions' Cup - DC United 1-2 Chivas Guadalajara

Tonight was not the night for history as DC United fell in Mexico to Chivas Guadalajara.

Chivas did not play a good game on the night, but thanks to a lucky reflection, they will advance to the CONCACAF Champions' Cup final.

Troy Perkins did not lose this game. The second goal just took an odd bounce off his hand. Far more worrisome was United's inability to shut down the lane on their right side. Most of Chivas's best chances were on the counter attack, but with a constant opening on the side, DC is lucky more attacks did not find their way through.

For United, they just could not finish plays that started off so nice. Their goal by Jaime Moreno was beautiful and one for the highlight reels, however in the end DC just could not make it happen.

Chivas now waits for the winner of the Houston-Pachuca series on Thursday. Houston goes in up two goals, so they will not need to make history to advance. However, until that final whistle blows, don’t count out the Mexican side.

DC United looks for historic win in Mexico

DC United vs. Chivas Guadalajara
CONCACAF Champions' Cup Semifinal
Tonight, 9:30pm ET
TV: Fox Soccer Channel, FSE, North Cone

DC United's quest to be the best in CONCACAF faces a difficult test tonight, as they go to Guadalajara, Mexico, needing a win to advance out of the semifinals.

Although it seems much longer, it was just 17-days ago that DC got a late, late equalizer from the newest United hero Luciano Emilio to send the series back to Mexico on even terms. Now United needs to prove that they learned a lot on that wet March night and bring down the goats in front of, what is sure to be, a rowdy and intense crowd.

The good news for DC, Guadalajara will be without forward Omar Bravo due to yellow card accumulation. Also, there is a chance that new signing Brazilian attacker Fred could see action on the night, but coach Tom Soehn is not counting on that.

But were there is good, there is always bad and in that case it has to do with history. No MLS club has every beat a Mexican side on their home pitch.

For United to make Major League Soccer history tonight their midfield will need to control play. In the first match, Guadalajara disrupted their flow and passing throughout much of the game. This prevented DC from using their skills and running abilities to create openings on attack.

Guadalajara is a great club, but they have a habit of missing marks on crosses. If United can open up a lane down the outside and send in a number of decent balls, they will find net. If they try to hack their way through the middle, they are all but doomed.

Then there is the United backline. Too often it seems lost in confusion. Without strong communication, hello Mr. Boswell, Guadalajara will sneak one in.

In the end, I think this will be a really good match. There will be a lot of cautious play, but someone is going to make some magic happen. History points to Guadalajara being the team with the magic, but I have this tendency to respect but laugh at history, so I'm going to pick United. They have the talent and desire and at some point, a MLS team has to win in Mexico. United, this United, is the team to make it happen.

Prediction: DC United 2-1 Chivas Guadalajara