United States Gets Historic Win at Estadio Azteca

With an unlikely goal by Michael Orozco Fiscal in the 80th minute of last night's international friendly between Mexico and the United States at the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City, history was made as the United States beat Mexico, 1-0.

For the first time in its 75 year history, the United States, featuring a young, cobbled together squad, managed to beat their CONCACAF rival, Mexico, on Mexican soil. It was just a friendly, and a mid-August friendly at that, but it is proof-positive to the US National Team that it is possible for them to beat Mexico at the forbidding Azteca.

Despite the historic win, this was not necessarily one of the best performances by the United States. For the bulk of the match, Mexico controlled the ball, primarily in the US's half, and out-shot the US. In fact, but for the goal keeping of Everton's Tim Howard, Mexico should have picked up at least four goals.

The fact that Mexico was putting so much attacking pressure on the US, but was unable to score, highlights one of the bright spots for the US, its defense. The combination of Howard in goal and Geoff Cameron, Maurice Edu, Edgar Castillo, and Fabian Johnson on the back line showed great strides in the ability of the US team to shut down the attack; however, clearing the ball is something the defense still needs to work on.

The US's midfield was a bit of shambles, failing to play much of a role in either the defense or attack. The absence of Michael Bradley, who is now with A.S. Roma, and Clint Dempsey was evident in the midfield's ability to accomplish anything positive for the US. Meanwhile, Landon Donovan was apparently hampered by his left hamstring and left the match after halftime.

Herculez Gomez started the match as the lone forward but it's hard to put 100% of the blame for the US's lackluster attack during the first 77 minutes of the match on Gomez's shoulders since he wasn't getting much service from the midfield. The fact that the US only started one forward is disappointing not because US Coach Jurgen Klinsmann has promised a more attacking style from his side, but more because history tells us that the US tends to attack poorly when it only has one player up top.

Next up for the United States is the start of CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying as they travel to Kingston, Jamaica to face the Jamaican National Team on September 7, 2012. The win over Mexico should give the US some good momentum going into the qualifiers and should give them a boost of confidence the next time they face Mexico at the Azteca, which, should be, a match that matters in the hexagonal.

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Geoff Cameron's 20 for 20 Fundraiser for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society

Last week Houston Dynamo Defender Geoff Cameron announced that he would be working with Dynamo Charities to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. The fundraising will include an upcoming celebrity pour, campaign T-shirts, a FIFA Street tournament, and a special ticket package for the Dynamo’s match against the Portland Timbers on May 15th. Cameron and Dynamo Charities has established an initial goal of raising $20,000.00.

The celebrity pour event will take place on April 18th at Bar Munich, and the FIFA Street video game tournament will take place at the Microsoft store in the Galleria on April 26th. Click here to register for the video game tournament.

The Dynamo are also offering a special ticket package for the Dynamo's May 15th match against the Timbers, the second match to be held at BBVA Compass Stadium. This package, which costs $49.99 and includes two tickets, two 20 for 20 t-shirts, and a chance to win a pair of cleats autographed by Geoff Cameron. To order tickets, call 713-276-GOAL.

Click here in order to donate directly to Cameron's 20 for 20 campaign.

Dominic Kinnear, Geoff Cameron, & Eddie Robinson Featured on Dynamo All Access

With the Houston Dynamo's preseason well under way, it's not surprising that last night's Dynamo All Access with Glenn Davis on Sports Talk 790 in Houston featured interviews with Geoff Cameron, Dominic Kinnear, and Eddie Robinson. If you missed last night's show, you can catch up via the podcast:

Dynamo all access 1 30 2012 Hr 1: Geoff Cameron joins Glenn on the show to talk about the National team and his performance.

Dynamo all access 1 30 2012 Hr 2: Tony Dicicco, Dominic Kinnear and Eddie Robinson are this hour of Dynamo All Access

Houston Dynamo Players React to Advancing to the 2011 MLS Cup Final

Photo by Chris Canetti

Following Sunday afternoon's 2-0 victory over Sporting Kansas City in the 2011 MLS Cup Eastern Conference Final, members of the Houston Dynamo shared their thoughts on the win and the upcoming MLS Cup Final with Simon Borg of MLSSoccer.com.

The Houston Dynamo will be facing the Los Angeles Galaxy in the 2011 MLS Cup Final on Sunday November 20th at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California. The match, which starts at 8:00 pm central time, will be broadcast on ESPN and Galavision.

Episode 33 of The Zygo Soccer Report: Houston Dynamo 3-1 Seattle Sounders

The Houston Dynamo beat Seattle Sounders 3-1 on Saturday night here in Houston thanks to goals from Colin Clark and Brian Ching.

Featured music by El Général, Public Enemy, and Little Dragon.

-Photo by Katy Umaña

Episode 32 of The Zygo Soccer Report: Houston Dynamo 2-0 Toronto FC

The Houston Dynamo hosted Toronto FC this past Saturday, winning this Eastern Conference match-up 2-0.

Episode 30 of The Zygo Soccer Report: Dynamo 2 - 1 Chivas USA

The Houston Dynamo finally picked up their first win last Saturday, after going 7 matches without a win, when they beat Chivas USA 2-1. On the other hand, the United States National Team has managed to win two of their group stage matches in the 2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup, but they've looked unimpressive in the process and have to get past a dangerous Jamaica this Sunday.

Featured music from R.L. Burnside, Kermit Ruffins, Gil Scott-Heron, and The The.

photo by Katy Umaña

[Video Highlights] Luck Shines on the Houston Dynamo in 2-1 Victory over Chivas USA

- Photo by Katy Umaña

Prior to Saturday night's match against Chivas USA at Robertson Stadium in Houston, Texas, the Houston Dynamo had gone seven matches without a win. After losing the lead to RedBull New York three weeks ago and losing badly to the San Jose Earthquakes last weekend, Dynamo fans were starting to get very impatient with the Dynamo's seeming inability to hold onto a lead or shut down inferior offenses.

Since May 25th, when the Dynamo lost to the Los Angeles Galaxy at the Home Depot Center, the Dynamo had played Dallas (tie) and San Jose (loss), with Chivas USA being the last of the Dynamo's run of playing Western Conference teams. Dynamo needed a win, especially a win at home, to change their momentum before having to face two of its biggest Eastern Conference rivals in the next couple weeks, Columbus Crew and D.C. United.

The match appeared to start on the right foot for the Houston Dynamo when Bobby Boswell put the ball into the net during the first five minutes:



Unfortunately, the goal was disallowed because of a foul committed by Dynamo defender Hunter Freeman.

Things quickly went from bad to worse for the Dynamo in the 7th minute when Marcos Mondaini tricked Dynamo keeper Tally Hall and scored for Chivas USA:



Twenty-two minutes later, Geoff Cameron, off of a Brad Davis free kick, scored for the Dynamo on this lovely header:



When halftime rolled around, the score was tied at 1-1 and Geoff Cameron was the star of the moment:



The Dynamo sealed up the match in the 56th minute when, on a Brad Davis free kick, the ball deflected off of Chivas USA's Heath Pearce and into the goal:



Not surprisingly, the mood in the Dynamo locker room after the match was one of relief, especially when you consider that not only did the Dynamo pick up 3 points but that Brian Ching finally got back on the pitch.

Despite their seven match streak without winning, the Dynamo find themselves tied with Columbus Crew at 2nd place in the Eastern Conference, at 18 points, while both New York and Philadelphia Union are tied in first place with 22 points.

Audio from the Houston Dynamo locker Room will be forthcoming on this week's episode of The Zygo Soccer Report.

Houston Dynamo Lose 2-0 at San Jose: A Sloppy Night on a Sloppy Pitch

On Saturday June 4, 2011, in a homecoming of sorts, the Houston Dynamo's lack of offense resulted in a 2-0 loss to the San Jose Earthquakes in Santa Clara, California. Steven Lenhart and Simon Dawkins stepped up for San Jose in the absence of Chris Wondolowski, who was on national team duty, giving the Earthquakes the win. Lenhart scored his goal in the 69th minute while Dawkins sealed up the San Jose victory with a goal in second half stoppage time.

The majority of players who made the move from San Jose in 2006 are no longer with the Houston Dynamo, but the San Jose fans still remember the departure and the match still had a rivalry feel, at least from the San Jose perspective. The Earthquakes have struggled mightily this season, sitting down near the bottom of the Western Conference table, but Saturday night they stepped up in a way befitting a team with a better record.

Although the Dynamo came out attacking during the first half, they were never able to capitalize on any of their chances. While there are plenty of excuses for the Houston loss - missing regular starters due to national team call-ups, a sloppy pitch, a still recovering Danny Cruz, etc. The reality is there is no excuse for the Dynamo's now seven (7) match winless streak, especially considering how solid they had looked during their early season unbeaten streak. An away draw last night would have kept the Dynamo fans a little more content, but the manner in which the Dynamo lost, combined with their recent inability to hold onto leads, is not sitting well in Houston, a city that is currently experiencing a serious sports slump, save the minor league Houston Aeros who are playing in the Calder Cup.

Not surprisingly, last night's loss has the Dynamo fans grumbling louder than normal, and even the once unheard of notion that maybe it is time that longtime Coach Dominic Kinnear should move on has been uttered. While I'm not close to saying it's time for Kinnear to move on, I do think that it is time for an Assistant Coach step up and fill the void that was left by John Spencer, who took over the coaching job at Portland Timbers last summer.

Two pluses that Dynamo fans can take away from last night's match is that Geoff Cameron is back in central defense where he excelled in the 2009 season, and Colin Clark, who continues to look solid, picked up his first start with the Dynamo.

Up next for the Dynamo is a home match against Chivas USA on June 11th. The Dynamo need to take this week to get focused, work on the mistakes, work on communication, and end their current streak. There's plenty of time in the MLS season for the Dynamo to make up this lost ground, but they need to start the forward progress now if they want to ensure a return to the MLS Playoffs after missing out last season.

Breaking Bones in Major League Soccer - What do You Think?

For the third team in the two plus month old 2011 MLS Season a player has suffered a broken bone as a result of a tackle. This weekend it was Javier Morales of Real Salt Lake who broke his ankle during this tackle by Chivas USA's Marcos Mondaini:



This tackle induced injury comes on the heels of two other high profile incidents where tackles resulted in broken bones.

First there was Brian Mullan's tackle on Steve Zakuani on April 22nd:



And then 2010 MLS MVP David Ferreira broke his ankle on April 23rd when he was tackled by Jonathan Leathers:



We know that Mullan was suspended for 10 games and that Leathers, who was not carded for the tackle, was not disciplined for his tackle. Mondaini received a red card but, as of this posting, the MLS disciplinary committee has yet to rule on whether he'll receive an any additional punishment for the tackle.

It's also important to point out that while Dejan Jakovic's recent tackle on Geoff Cameron did not result in any broken bones, the tackle was not all that different from Mullan's tackle on Zakuani, but Jakovic was not disciplined by the committee.



Not surprisingly, this recent string of tackles has resulted in a large amount of chatter amongst MLS fans and journalists who cover MLS, but nobody seems to have a good idea as to what MLS should do about these tackles.

So now it's your chance to use the comments section of this column to explain what you think MLS should do to prevent reckless tackles that result in broken bones in the future. Or, maybe you don't think MLS should do anything about this issue, if so, use the comments section to explain why you feel that way.

I'll wait about a week, see what people say, and then do a column about your responses and my thoughts on the matter. Please type freely and let's not get into flaming wars. All opinions are valid, because they are opinions.

Will Bruin Hat Trick Gives Houston Dynamo 4-1 Victory Over DC United

The Houston Dynamo managed to keep their six match unbeaten streak alive on Friday April 29th when they beat DC United 4-1 at Robertson Stadium in Houston, Texas. Much of the Dynamo victory was due to rookie forward Will Bruin picking up a hat trick, with Geoff Cameron and Brad Davis each picking up a couple assists on those goals. Cam Weaver picked up a 4th goal for Houston on a throw-in from Hunter Freeman.

DC United got it's lone goal in the 39th minute, but that goal was scored by Marc Burch, not Charlie Davies, who was all but invisible during the bulk of the match.

Here's Will Bruin's Hat Trick:

Episode 27 of The Zygo Soccer Report - Dynamo 1-0 Revolution

The Houston Dynamo beat the New England Revolution 1-0 on Sunday night. Here's some post match audio from Cam Weaver, Danny Cruz, Geoff Cameron, & Coach Dominic Kinnear.

Music by Johnny Cash, INXS, and Mimi Page.

Episode 22 of The Zygo Soccer Report

The Houston Dynamo closed the season on a positive note by beating the Seattle Sounders 2-1 at Robertson Stadium on Saturday October 23, 2010. This episode includes post match audio from Cam Weaver, Geoff Cameron, Tyler Deric, and Coach Dominic Kinnear.

Landon Donovan & The Needless Markup League

I was still scratching my head over the events, or, more appropriately, lack of events, leading up to Monday night's announcement that US Soccer and Bob Bradley had agreed to a four year contract extension when I heard that, according to Martin Rogers of Yahoo! the retail price tag Major League Soccer had apparently affixed to Landon Donovan's head was $16 million. Since I have four years to express my opinion on keeping Bob Bradley around for another World Cup cycle with no evidence of US Soccer testing the waters of the international coaching market, the greed of MLS owners is a more immediate concern and priority in my opinion.

Anyone who is familiar with my opinions on labor issues in the world of professional sports knows that 99.99% of the time I'm on the side of labor; therefore, it should not be surprising that I'm outraged by the King's Ransom of a transfer fee that MLS has apparently placed on Landon Donovan, arguably one of the best American soccer players of his generation. Not only does this price tag show the blatant hypocrisy of MLS, which loathes having to pay transfer fees to bring players from other leagues to MLS, but should also serve as a bright red warning flag to young, talented players who are currently playing in MLS.

For almost ten years now, the fact that Landon Donovan was one of the best American Soccer players has been apparent. While his difficulties finding his true form in Germany are well documented, Donovan has proven to be a top tier player for MLS and the US National Team. It wasn't until this past Spring that the soccer world got to witness Donovan turning on his magic in a top flight foreign league, and the fact that this occurred at Everton in the English Premier League only gave Donovan a global stage on which to excel as he prepared for South Africa 2010.

In order to get MLS to agree to a loan deal with Everton, it appears that Donovan had to cave into MLS's demand for a four year contract extension, thereby preventing him from heading to Europe on a free transfer while still at the peak of his playing career. In the end it appears that by agreeing to the contract extension, Donovan made a Faustian deal that allowed him a small window of glory in the EPL, but a deal that will ultimately keep him in MLS until the owners no longer have any use for him. The amount of interest from top flight foreign clubs in the 28 year old Donovan will dwindle exponentially over the next four years, to the point that MLS will likely sell him off to the highest bidder after the 2014 World Cup finals in Brazil. So long as MLS overprices Donovan on the transfer fee market, the most he can hope for is one or two more short loan stints in Europe.

I hope that MLS proves me wrong and Donovan secures a good transfer before he turns 30, but more importantly, I hope that young, talented players in MLS have followed the Donovan situation closely and have taken it seriously. I suspect that it is my latter hope that will prove more realistic, in fact, based on recent Houston Dynamo history, I know that many of the younger players wised up to the MLS transfer situation long before I had.

In recent years, Houston Dynamo fans have seen players like Bobby Boswell, Nate Jaqua, and Joseph Ngweyna explore options in Europe following the expiration of their respective MLS contracts. More recently, Dynamo fans have seen Stuart Holden and Ricardo Clark, core Dynamo players, chose to follow their soccer dreams in Europe instead of signing new MLS contracts. As it stands, Dynamo fans are already debating whether Geoff Cameron will head to Europe when his contract expires after the 2011 MLS season or sign a contract extension.

My advice to Geoff Cameron, one of the most underpaid players in MLS, is: "Head East across the Atlantic young man!"

In fact, that's my advice to pretty much any young player in MLS with dreams of playing in Europe. If a MLS player believes he has the talent to play in Europe, he should always check out his options there after his MLS contract expires. Choosing to go on trial in Europe does not close the door on signing a new contract with MLS, but signing a new MLS contract before checking out Europe could result in MLS quashing the dream and the player left asking himself, "What if?"

Zygo Soccer Report Episode 16

The 2010 MLS Season is back into swing after taking a break for the Group Stage of the World Cup finals. Saturday night the Columbus Crew came to Houston to face the Dynamo in a match that became a 0-0 draw. This episode has post match audio from Brian Ching, Geoff Cameron, and Dominic Kinnear. Additionally, some thoughts on Spain's 1-0 overtime victory over Netherlands in the World Cup final. Featured music from K'naan, Robert Earl Keen, Joan Jett, Public Image Limited, and Everlast.

Episode 11 of The Zygo Soccer Report: Dynamo 3-0 Chivas USA

The Houston Dynamo got a solid victory over Chivas USA this past Saturday. On this pod, I give me thoughts on the match and include Coach Dominic Kinnear's entire press conference. I wanted to include our interview with Lovel Palmer from this past week's Orange Slice Show on 1560 The Game here in Houston, but the audio was not synching correctly, so I'll upload that separately later this week. This week's music includes Club Dogo, Danzig, and Black Kids.

Zygo Soccer Report Episode 11: Dynamo 3 - 0 Chivas USA

The Zygo Soccer Report