Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Hey everybody, welcome to another edition of The Daily.
It's Wednesday, August 31st here with Jason Saghini.
I'm Nick Firchau. Lets start with the US Open Cup semifinals
from Tuesday night, and the Seattle Sounders, two-time defending champions, and they're
headed back to the final. They get a big win over FC Dallas.
Freddy Montero with a goal. A great goal.
Came right after he attempted a bicycle kick that went just wide.
Great game to watch. It was back and forth.
Both teams had opportunities. FC Dallas had an opportunity.
Marvin Chavez skied his shot after some sloppy defending by Seattle, but the Sounders hold
on and they move on to the final. The Sounders doing what they do best, which
is playing at home at the US Open Cup. At home, that's where they're going to face
the Chicago Fire, the winners on the other side of the bracket.
The Chicago Fire, you talk about 4 US Open Cup championships.
This will be their 6th appearance in the final. A lot of history going into this final when
you look at these 2 teams. It was Grazzini and Oduro getting the goals
for Chicago in what they called a sloppy victory. They ended up giving up a goal in the 2nd
half. Grazzini had to leave early with an injury
which kind of offset the balance for Chicago in that 2nd half.
They'll take it. They move on to the final.
They've been there more than anyone. They're looking to get an unprecidented 5th
victory. Gutsy performance of the Richmond Kickers
up against the Chicago Fire, but not enough. That puts the Fire up against the Sounders
on October 4th. The US Open final up at Sentry Link Field
in Seattle. I'm looking forward to that.
You mentioned a lot of history, and that should be a good match.
Lets move on to some MLS news. The latest injury news for a couple of teams
in the Eastern Conference. Jason, some playoff spots.
The Houston Dynamo and the New York Red Bulls. These teams have switched places.
Houston was on the outskirts of the playoffs. Now they're in the automatic spot.
There's still plenty of games left to go. Houston looking to get some guys back out
on the field. Will Bruin and Danny Cruz wanna help them
with depth as they get through the stretch run.
They have 7 games left in MLS. They expect both those guys back out on the
field for reserve league games and friendlies within the next 2 weeks.
Then you look at the New York Red Bulls. We've talked about the slide that they've
had in this season. They're going to get Luke Rogers and Frank
Rothe back within the next 2 weeks. They're not sure if it will be for their September
10th game or their September 17th, but they expect them back for the stretch run of the
season. A lot of teams taking advantage of this week
off to get some healthy bodies back. One healthy body that is back is Stuart Holden,
the US international playing with Bolton. Playing in Tuesday night action with the Bolton
reserves. A lot of US fans happy to see Stuart Holden
back after such a long delay. He was in 78 minutes.
He got out there and played most of the game. He came off the field saying, I could have
kept going. Some other international news on the transfer
market, Clint Dempsey reportedly interested, they're out.
Some other teams interested in him, Aston Villa, and Valencia all after Clint Dempsey.
The arsenal here is one that US fans are interested in the most.
They want to see him go to a major club. That said, it's not a club who's in a great
position right now. The interesting fact I think that we've noticed
is that Fulham has actually gone out and brought in several attacking players.
That kind of maybe clues you into the fact that they expect him to be gone.
We'll have to stay tuned today to figure out what happens.
A couple of other notes, Mike Orello, the 24 year old American striker, on his way out.
Michael Bradley set to be debut for Chievo out in Italy on Wednesday.
Should be a nice day to debut for Michael Bradley.
A new team for him. One last thing before we go.
The Wednesday Water Cooler is back. That's at 1:30 pm Eastern.
That's a live chat with the armchair analyst and the MLS Insider.
You can hear out all your grievances. Talk about Open Cup, everything.
All the fans can get on there. Once again, 1:30pm Eastern.
For all the latest news in MLS and the US Open coverage, log onto mlssoccer.com