Texas Beats Italy 1-0: The United States Finally Beats Italy on Italian Soil

It might have only been a international friendly in a non-World Cup finals year, but history was made today at the Stadio Comunale Luigi Ferraris in Genova where the United States beat Italy 1-0 thanks to a Clint Dempsey goal in the 55th minute. While the United States has played the four time World Cup champion Italy on several occasions, including in the World Cup finals, this marks the first time that the US has beaten the Italians. Not only did the US beat Italy, but they beat them on Italian soil.

Today's victory marks the 4th straight victory in the Jürgen Klinsmann era of US Soccer. Klinsmann replaced Bob Bradley as coach in September of 2011, following the US's failure to win the 2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup. After losing four of his first five matches, signs of US fans losing their patience with Klinsmann were evident. With these recent victories, Klinsmann may not have won over all US fans yet, but he's pretty much secured the position for the rest of the 2014 World Cup finals cycle.

While one of the biggest differences between Klinsmann and Bradley appears to be Klinsmann's focus on bolstering the US's attacking creativity, the fact that the last three victories were clean sheets evidences a quiet revolution in the US's defense, an area that was always suspect during the Bradley era. One of the biggest defensive highlights today was the play of second half sub Jonathan Spector who proved crucial in keeping Italy off the scoreboard.

The US schedule is quiet until May, when it will host friendlies against Scotland, in Jacksonville on May 26th; Brazil, in Washington, D.C. on May 30th. The US will play Canada in friendly in Toronto on June 3rd and then begins World Cup Qualifying with matches against Antigua and Barbuda, on June 8th in Tampa, and Guatemala, on June 12th in Guatemala.

Sports Crossover: Mike Piazza Attended the United States - Italy Friendly, In Italy

-via @thatsonpoint

American baseball player Mike Piazza was in the stands at the Stadio Comunale Luigi Ferraris in Genoa, Italy today for the international friendly between the United States and Italy. From 1992 through 2007, Piazza played catcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Florida Marlins, the New York Mets, the San Diego Padres, and the Oakland A's. Piazza may not yet be in Baseball's Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, but has been inducted into the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame in Chicago.

Own Goal Sinks Bosnia-Herzegovina's Shot at Draw with Brazil

Yesterday, Bosnia-Herzegovina took on world powerhouse Brazil in an international friendly in St. Gallen, Switzerland. The Brazilians took an early lead when Marcelo scored in the 4th minute. The early goal suggested that Brazil might ultimately overpower the Balkans side, but in the 13th minute Vedad Ibisevic picked the equalizer for Bosnia-Herzegovina. The match staid at a 1-1 scoreline through the rest of regulation time, and when it looked like Bosnia-Herzegovina was going to hold the Brazilians to a draw, Sasa Papac managed a stoppage time own goal, giving Brazil a 2-1 win - one of those perfect Southwest Airlines 'Gotta Get Away' moments.

Speaking of own goals, here's one scored by Galatasaray's Semih Kaya in this past weekend's match with Besiktas, an own goal that got Deadspin to bring up the issue of match-fixing:

Roosevelt Bar Allegedly Discriminates Against Dynamo Players, Dynamo Players Get Arrested

On Saturday evening, Houston Dynamo goalkeeper Tyler Deric and midfielder Warren Creavalle were arrested outside of the Roosevelt Bar on Washington Avenue in the Heights. The various reports indicate that Deric and Creavalle as well as Will Bruin and Alex Dixon were denied entry and they believed that the grounds for said denial were based on the bar's apparent racist policies. The Houston Police Department ended up arresting Deric for assaulting a public servant and Creavalle for interfering with public duties.

HPD claims that Deric punched Ramon Perez, an off-duty Houston Police Officer who was working security at the Roosevelt. Knowing the propensity of law enforcement to circle the wagons whenever one of their own is involved in an incident, I for one don't really believe the HPD's claims of what all occurred outside the Roosevelt on Saturday.

Here are some well detailed news stories concerning the incident involving the Dynamo players and the Roosevelt's history of racial discrimination:

Two Dynamo players arrested after altercation - Houston Chronicle

Dynamo players arrested after scuffle outside Washington Avenue bar - KHOU

Video Shows HPD Shocking Dynamo Player - Fox 26

Attorney: ‘Sad’ that Tyler Deric has to go through this - Houston Chronicle

Deric and Creavalle Arrested: What We Know and a Couple Thoughts - Dynamo Theory

Report: Houston's Deric arrested for assaulting officer - MLS

Rappers Accuse Washington Avenue Club of Racism - Fox 26

Getting Past the Bouncer: Local nightclub door policies aren't always black and white - Houston Press

Yelp reviews of the Roosevelt Bar seem to have running theme concerning the club and racism.

Dozens of People Killed as Al-Masry & Al-Ahly Fans Flood Pitch in Egypt

Tragic news is coming out of Egypt following today's match between Al-Masry and Al-Ahly in Port Said. After Al-Masry won the match, 3-1, its fans invaded the pitch, forcing Al-Ahly players to flee to the locker room, where they became trapped. Apparently, Al-Ahly Ultras took to the pitch too, and the long, violent history between the two clubs was extended as fans from the opposing clubs fought with each other, as well as with security forces. The violence was spurred by political conflict steaming from the events in Egypt last year.

The most recent report from the BBC places the number of dead at 73.

I'm sure that Al Jazeera will continue to update its stories as more information comes out.

In the wake of the Arab Spring and the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak, professional football matches in Egypt have seen an uptick in violence as Ultras take advantage of the decreased amount of security in the stadiums.

Meanwhile, in Cairo a match between Al-Ismailiya and Zamalek was called off, either to mourn those who were killed or to prevent the violence from spreading. The decision to call off the match was not well received by fans who managed to set sections of the stadium on fire.

While today's events in Egypt are extreme, it does highlight the potential for danger whenever "fans" invade the pitch. While yesterday's pitch invasion at Goodison Park in Liverpool ended up proving harmless, the intent of the pitch invader was unknown when he exited the stands and the potential of a threat to players, coaches, officials, etc. existed. I'm not sure what more stadiums could do to increase the response time to pitch invaders, but now is a good time for the officials that run stadiums to take a hard look at the problem and see if they can come up with some new, reasonable solutions.

Updated at 9:00 pm:

Here's the latest from the New York Times - Riot in Egypt Kills More Than 70, and Many Blame Military

Handcuffed to a Goalpost at Goodison - With Video

Photo via @TheKeogh

Late in the first half of today's Everton - Manchester City match at Goodison Park in Liverpool, an individual invaded the pitch and handcuffed himself to a goalpost. Not sure why this man was handcuffing himself to a goalpost, but it only took a few minutes to get some bolt cutters and remove the man from the pole.

Everton ended up winning the match, 1-0, with thanks to Landon Donovan who helped set up the goal.

Updated 2/1/2012

Turns out, the man who handcuffed himself to the goalpost at Goodison yesterday is John Foley, who was protesting Ryanair's staff training methods. Manchester City is the favorite team of Michael O'Leary, CEO of Ryanair.

<a href="http://msn.foxsports.com/foxsoccer/video?vid=9c161911-4bb5-4c60-beed-756c08421845" target="_new" title="">Handcuffed fan stops the match</a>

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

David Beckham Will Be In The Super Bowl - Well In A Super Bowl Ad

In recent years, Swedish clothing retailer H&M has made strides in growing its brand in the United States, and it seems they've decided to take a major step in brand recognition by paying $3.5 million to air a commercial during Sunday's Super Bowl. What better way to make a splash in your first Super Bowl commercial than by having it star one of the world's most recognizable football players, David Beckham?

This looks like one commercial that the women (and some men) will be looking for on Sunday:

"Camp Cupcake" Wins Two

Last night the US Soccer's "Camp Cupcake" Team followed up Saturday night's 1-0 win over Venezuela with a 1-0 win over Panama. I admit that the "Camp Cupcake" moniker is not my favorite for the annual US Soccer winter camp that primarily gives numerous MLS players and some European journeymen an extended audition for the US National Team, but I think it's important to use this moniker in light of the apparent "every match is a live or die match" attitude that seems to dominate the most vocal of the US Soccer fan base.

My favorite comment last night though came from outside that extreme portion of the US fan base, and is a comment that best sums up the whole concept of Camp Cupcake:

While it was nice that Ricardo Clark managed to pick up a late goal to beat Venezuela and while it was nice that the team managed to maintain the early lead that Graham Zusi's goal gave them against Panama, despite going down to ten men for over 35 minutes, the important thing about these matches and the winter camp in general is that they gave US Coach Jürgen Klinsmann and his coaching staff a rare opportunity to work directly with players who caught their eye and then evaluate these players when they're tossed into the semi-deep portion of the USMNT pool.

The primary thing that I take from the fact that both of these matches were victories is that there is finally a glimmer of potential USMNT roster depth. The Venezuela and Panama squads, while clearly not the best in the world, contain enough talent to provide tests for a large number of American players who, if called up for meaningful matches, would spend a substantial amount of time on the bench; therefore, the fact that these raggedy squads of players straight out of off season break managed to pull off these two, rather ugly, victories is a testament to the slow but surely improving world of American soccer.

Even if the team had lost both of these matches, I still think the 2012 Camp Cupcake would have been a success in that we are not getting a sense of the core second team, and potential future first team, that is developing in this new chapter of US Soccer history. Many US Soccer fans might not have recognized the team that played these last two matches, but in the next couple years some of the players on the 2012 Camp Cupcake team will become regular fixtures in US kits.

Houston Dynamo Reload for 2012 MLS Season

The Houston Dynamo have always seemed to have a love-hate relationship with the MLS SuperDraft. In the franchise's early years in Houston, Dynamo Coach Dominic Kinnear seemed to have no qualms about trading away a top draft pick in order to obtain a player who filled a need or role right away for his squad. The result of this was that the Dynamo often picked late in the draft. Additionally, the Dynamo had no qualms about using draft picks on players like Marcus Tracy and Euan Holden, despite the fact that those players were clearly going to skip MLS for opportunities in Europe.

Despite this somewhat casual attitude towards the draft, the Houston Dynamo were fairly decent at picking up quality players like Corey Ashe, in 2007; Geoff Cameron, in 2008; and Danny Cruz, in 2009. After a rather dismal 2010 draft, the Dynamo seemed to take a new attitude towards the 2011 draft where they managed to pick up Will Bruin and Kofi Sarkodie.

This year the Dynamo showed signs that their 2011 approach was not a fluke, not only making serious use of the SuperDraft to pick up talent but also using the Supplemental Draft as a means of trying to address the team's weak spots, primarily, it's midfield and offense.

With their first pick of the 2012 draft, which was the 18th overall pick, the Dynamo drafted a forward, Colin Rolfe, who played at Louisville, the Big East conference champion. Then, in the second round, the Dynamo drafted midfielder Warren Creavalle, who played for the University of Central Florida.

In the 2012 Supplemental Draft the Houston Dynamo picked five players: Brian Ownby (forward); Karo Okiomah (forward), Eder Arreola (midfielder), Philip Aseweh (forward), and Daniel Roberts (home-grown midfielder).

The fact that the Dynamo are taking a look at four new forwards suggests that the team is doubtful that it will be able to trade for Brian Ching and has chosen to focus on trying to find the team's next generation of strikers. I know that many Dynamo fans really want to see Ching dressed in orange on May 12th when the new stadium opens, but fans need to ask themselves are they willing to ransom the team's future for one, aging player?

The Dynamo start preseason training camp on Monday January 23rd and have their first scrimmage on January 28th, against the Dynamo Academy. Additional preseason games in Houston include scrimmages against San Jac College (Feb. 1), HBU (Feb. 4), and SMU (Feb. 18). The Dynamo will spend a few weeks training in Carson, California, where they'll scrimmage against the Montreal Impact, L.A. Galaxy, Portland Timbers, and San Jose Earthquakes (in Venture). The Dynamo will close out the preseason by participating in the Disney Pro Classic in Orlando, where they'll play Sporting Kansas City, the Vancouver Whitecaps, and the Montreal Impact.

The Houston Dynamo start their regular season on March 11th when they play Chivas USA at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California.