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Welcome to The Daily for Monday, October 31st. It is Halloween with Greg Lalas.
I'm Jason Saghini. Sorry, no costumes here, but plenty of soccer
to talk about. Lets start with the New York, LA matchup from
Sunday. A lot to talk about coming out of this game.
The storylines going into this one were all about the hype and the dp's.
Thierry Henry, David Beckham, Landon Donovan, Rafa Marquez, and the match lived up to the
billing. David Beckham with a beautiful ball over the
top that leads to Mike McGee's goal. It ended up being the winner.
1-nil for LA at Red Bull Arena. The talk coming out of this is really what
happened after the final whistle. There was a little scuffle at midfield after
Rafa Marquez threw the ball at Landon Donovan, then Adam Krismann gets involved, Adam Kiel,
Juninho throws an elbow. In the end, the fallout is Rafa Marquez and
Juninho both with red cards. They will not be in the 2nd leg this week
in Los Angeles. You really have to look at this and say New
York had several chances to get back into this one.
To get the equalizer. They weren't able to put it away.
Josh Saunders was amazing in the Galaxy net. It was interesting, Bruce Serena had the choice
to keep either Donovan Ricketts or Josh Saunders. Apparently he made the right choice.
The next leg of this series is Thursday at 11pm eastern time on ESPN2 or TSN2 if you
are in Canada. We're going to move on to Philadelphia Union
yesterday were hosting the Houston Dynamo in their first leg of the matchup.
Houston gets a result on the road. I think coming into this one, there were a
lot of people that thought Philly were going to come out and get the win at home.
Obviously a big crowd at PPO Park. They were going to be rocking.
It was the first playoff game in the Philadelphia Union's history.
Then it just didn't happen. Houston came out and played their game set
pieces. Big guys crashing the net.
Then Kalin Carr, the speedy little guy was still able to do some damage up top as well.
They get a 2-1 victory at PPO Park. It sets them up beautifully to go back to
Robertson and finish off this series pretty cleanly.
The 2nd leg of this one, Thursday at 8:30pm eastern time on ESPN2 and also TSN2 in Canada.
Moving on, another road victory. Kansas City over the Colorado Rapids, 2-0.
This was 3 for 3 for the road teams on Sunday. A complete performance from Sporting Kansas
City. Teal Bunbury with the goals.
He gets a penalty. He also finishes one off very well.
The story out of this one is actually what happened to Colorado.
For one, they didn't play well. They weren't able to keep posession.
They looked a little bit tired maybe from that midweek match.
Number two, their backline is now decimated. Kosuke Komora came out with an injury.
Drew Moore came out with an injury. Tyrone Marshall picked up a red card, so he
will be suspended for the 2nd leg. We're sitting here now thinking who is going
to start in the back for Colorado in that 2nd leg at Sporting when they go back to Kansas
City. Of course, at LiveStrong, Kansas City very
difficult to get a result from. That game at LiveStrong will be Wednesday
night, 8pm eastern time on Fox Soccer Channel and also TSN2 in Canada.
The other game was saturday night. This might have been the most comprehensive
victory we have ever seen in a first round playoff game.
There was some question marks about Real Salt Lake coming into the playoffs.
Well you can erase those question marks now because they looked phenominal.
On the other side, the Seattle Sounders did not look good at all.
They were not able to get anything going. They were missing Mauro Rosales' ability to
unlock defenses. Even just to hold the ball, for some reason,
the Sounders looked nervous and they were not able to hold the ball.
RSL took advantage. Sobario with 2 goals, including that incredible
back heel flick that he finished off. A terrific result for Salt Lake going up to
Seattle. Many people believe it was that Ned Grabavoy
goal that third goal in that matchup that wrapped up this series for Real Salt Lake.
Some of the Seattle fans can take heart. In 2003, the San Jose Earthquakes overcame
a 4 goal defecit against the LA Galaxy, so it has been done before.
They only had 77 minutes to do that too, not 90 minutes.
You can see the return leg of that series Wednesday night at 10pm eastern time on ESPN2
and TSN2 in Canada. One more note, ExtraTime Radio with our friend
Alexei Lalas will be out later today. You can get it on iTunes or BuzzSprout.