Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Hello everyone welcome to The Daily for Friday June 17th, I'm Greg Lalas.
Flying solo here as we head into the big weekend for the U.S. National Team.
Quarterfinals of the Gold Cup starting on Saturday.
Mexico will be playing Guatemala on Saturday in New York before the U.S. take on Jamaica
on Sunday. Those are the two big games, there are of
course two other Quarterfinals. Before we get to that, though, let's talk
about tonight's game in MLS. Sporting Kansas City hosting the San Jose
Earthquakes at Livestrong Sporting Park. And KC, of course, still looking for their
first goal. Their first win in their new home stadium.
They did get the win last week in Dallas. That was huge for them.
A 4-1 victory over FC Dallas. But the Earthquakes coming in feeling good
after their 4-2 victory against D.C. last week.
Steven Lenhert was the man in that one with the hat trick.
He's in great form and will be very difficult to stop for Sporting Kansas City.
Kansas City, some roster concerns of their own.
Will Ryan Smith be healthy? Then again, he might be sold to Atlas so he
might not even be around. But Graham Zusi, the man in form for Sporting
Kansas City. He played very well in their first home game
and he got two goals in their victory against Dallas last week.
The game is at 8:30PM tonight on Fox Soccer. We will also have a live chat here on mlssoccer.com
so join us for that. Moving onto the Saturday games.
There's a full slate going on, but the big one the Colorado Rapids hosting the LA Galaxy
at ***'s Sporting Goods Park. That game you can watch online at 9PM/ET.
We spoke to Pablo Mastroeni just yesterday on Extra Time Radio and he's going to be going
for his 300th game in MLS. Hard to believe that he's been around that
long considering the form he is still in. But they have a big task against the LA Galaxy,
who are obviously the top team in the West right now.
The Galaxy, though, without Landon Donovan or Donovan Ricketts, both of them off in Gold
Cup duty. On Sunday, another big game.
The Portland Timbers will be hosting the New York Red Bulls.
We spoke to Robbie Earle, the broadcaster for the Portland Timbers, on Extra Time yesterday
and he said he's looking forward to a great match.
Obviously, Thierry Henry and Luke Rodgers one of the top striking partnerships in MLS.
They'll be very difficult. The Timbers, on the other hand, they've lost
2 in a row at home after having that great start at JELD-WEN Field.
Can they get it back? That remains to be seen.
They need to start working to get a couple more set pieces.
Because that's their bread and butter. So a full slate of games in MLS all weekend
long. There's other action as well, though.
The Gold Cup Quarterfinals. The big game on Saturday night at 8PM.
It's Mexico/Guatemala. For Mexico, the New York Red Bulls Star Rafa
Marquez has not been training with the team in full.
We're not sure yet whether he will be in the starting line up and be ready to go.
For Guatemala, it's all about Marco Pappa. He had a goal and involved in three others
for Guatemala in their big win against Grenada in their final game in the group stage.
Again that game is at 8PM and it's on on Univision. On Sunday is the big game for the U.S.
3PM/ET, they take on Jamaica on Fox Soccer. The game is at RFK Stadium down in Washington
D.C. Lots of questions around the U.S. team right
now. Their performance against Guadeloupe.
Although they got the win It was not the best performance we've seen
from them. Clint Dempsey did not seem on form.
Missed that sitter from about two feet away. And there's a big storyline coming out regarding
Clint Dempsey and Landon Donovan. Both of them were allowed to leave the team
to go to their sisters weddings. They will return late Saturday night/early
Sunday morning. The question still is will they be ready to
play at 3PM/ET? Will Bob Bradley put them in the starting
line up? All of that remains to be seen when the U.S.
takes on Jamaica. Again, that's at 3PM/ET on Fox Soccer, Quarterfinals
in the Gold Cup. We will have a live chat here on mlssoccer.com
so join us for that. A little bit of other news coming out of MLS.
Pavel Pardo, was rumored that he was going to be going to Chicago, not going to happen.
The Fire have denied the rumors that Pavel Pardo, the Mexican legend, will be joining
the Fire. But there is some news maybe going the other
way. Pachuca have come out and said they are actively
pursing American players. We of course know that Jose Francisco Torres
is with the Gophers. What other Americans might go?
We'll see if they actually do go out and maybe spend some money to buy some American players.
Don't forget, Extra Time Radio came out yesterday. We spoke with Robby Earle from the Portland.
We spoke with Pablo Mastroeni from the Colorado Rapids.
And even Shea Salinas from Vancouver telling us about the riots that took place after the
Stanley Cup Final. You can catch that on iTunes or on Buzzsprout.
And another thing, the All Star Twitter ballot is out.
So if you want to tweet your vote for the fan vote for the MLS All Star Game, go onto
mlssoccer.com, check out the twitter ballot and you can start to tweet your votes around.
That runs from today all the way through Monday June 20th.
That's it for The Daily. We'll talk to you on Monday.