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Hey everybody. Welcome to another edition of The Daily.
It’s Friday, July 8th. Here with Greg Lalas, I’m Nick Firchau.
And before we take a look at the biggest games this weekend, Greg.
Let’s take a look back at some action from Thursday.
Portland Timbers playing host to Club America. The famed Mexican side.
Up at JELD-WEN Field. And Greg, not the result the Timbers were
looking for. No, it’s not.
They lose 1-0. Reyna with the goal for Club América.
But John Spencer, the coach, said. We’ve come a lot farther than the last time
we played an international team. Remember, they played Ajax and lost that one.
This time, they’ve come a lot more. They’ve put a little bit more.
And obviously, they’re playing at JELD-Wen Field.
So they had a great crowd out there. A great atmosphere.
And this is the final tune up before the Sounders game this weekend.
We’ll talk about that shortly. One other bit of news from Thursday.
Jordan Harvey, the left back from the Philadelphia Union.
Traded to the Vancouver Whitecaps for some allocation money.
And Greg, this one’s a little bit confusing. 16 starts for Jordan Harvey this year.
He’s really been a rock for that Union defense. He has.
And it makes you wonder what’s going on in Philly.
As to whether they’re maybe talking to someone else to come in in the back.
As a left back for them. Maybe Gabriel Farfan will play a little bit
further back this time. Rather than in the Midfield.
And, you know, maybe Juan Diego Gonzalez. He’s another guy who could slot into the
defense somewhere in there. So it’s like it’s trying to figure out
what Philly’s doing. On the other hand, Vancouver.
Look what they get. A terrific left back.
It makes you wonder also, though. What’s going on with Jay DeMerit in the
middle? Does Rochat maybe move up into the middle
or something like that? Those are the questions that come out of this.
But I think for Vancouver. I think they get the best out of this.
But then again. Peter Nowak always a little crafty.
So you’re not sure what’s going on in Philadelphia at this point.
Well let’s stick in the East. Where there’s a big game between the New
York Red Bulls and DC United. On Saturday night out at Red Bull Arena.
And Greg, this is Dwayne De Rosario coming back to New York.
And Dax McCarty playing against his former team.
Yeah and McCarty has come out already. And said he feels more comfortable in New
York than he ever did in DC, Nick. And he basically says.
I’ve played these last two games with New York in a way that I’ve been playing in
Dallas. And never did in DC.
And he said. I have something that I want to prove.
That New York got the better of this deal. We’ll see if that actually comes true when
DC comes to town. You know, De Rosario has already given DC
a little bit of a different look in the attack. Can he bring it to Red Bull Arena on Saturday?
That’s what remains to be seen. Some great storylines to an already great
I-95 rivalry. That game is at 7:30 PM/ET on Saturday night.
You can follow along on Match Day Live here on mlssoccer.com.
Moving out to the West. The LA Galaxy playing host to the Chicago
Fire. That’s at 10:30 PM/ET.
You can watch on Fox Soccer’s Soccer Night in America.
Greg, this is a Galaxy team still looking to find their form of late.
David Beckham’s had some injuries. Landon Donovan looking to find his form back
from the Gold Cup. What do you expect from this one?
Well I don’t know. You look at LA.
And every time they seem to play at home. They don’t really play up to the abilities
we know that they have. I think this is the kind of game when Landon
Donovan has to come out big. It’s on national television.
It’s on Fox Soccer. And he’s going to want to come out and really
make a statement in this one, I think. Chicago, on the other hand, they just continue
to stick around. They never really fall totally off the pace.
They also don’t really get that momentum that they want to maybe make a push in the
Eastern Conference. So I think this is an intriguing game in many
ways to see how this one will fall out. Keep in mind for the Galaxy.
They’ve had Landon out, obviously. And David Beckham out.
They’re still on an 11 game unbeaten streak. I think people forget that.
They forget that a lot. Let’s move onto Sunday certainly last but
not least is the Portland Timbers and the Seattle Sounders.
That Cascadia Cup rivalry. 4 PM/ET out at JELD-WEN Field on ESPN.
You can follow along on a live chat on mlssoccer.com Greg, this is one of the biggest games of
the season. That we marked on the calendar when we first
saw the schedule. Timbers struggling a little bit.
The Sounders come in there red hot. What are we going to see.
Well Mauro Rosales from Seattle basically came out.
And said this is a darby that he likens to Boca/River down in Argentina, which he’s
played in. And Ajax/Feyenoor in Holland, which he’s
played in. Which is impressive right there considering
the massive qualities of those rivalries. But look.
This is a game that I think Portland needs to win.
This is one of those times when you have a visitor coming in.
You have built up, all the hype is right there. You went up to Seattle.
You got that 1-1 draw. You need to get the three points at home against
Seattle in this one if you’re Portland. Again, you mentioned that Portland went up
to Seattle and got that draw. So this one’s going to be the decider to
see who wins the series between these two teams.
More coverage of that game. We had Roger Levesque of the Seattle Sounders
on ExtraTime Radio on Thursday. He was talking about the rivalry.
And his role in it. It was very interesting.
And we also had Brek Shea, the rising star from FC Dallas, on to talk about both his
artwork and what it’s going to take to beat Real Salt Lake this week.
A big week for the Hoops against RSL. You can log onto mlssoccer.com.
You can also download it on iTunes and Buzzsprout. That does it for us.
We’ll be back again on Monday with another edition of The Daily.