Sounders advance to USOC final

Riding on a first half goal by Fredy Montero, the Sounders managed to hold off FC Dallas and book their spot in a third consecutive US Open Cup final. Both clubs fielded full strength squads, but the Sounders had the best of the play in the first half. The Sounders kept pushing on FC Dallas, creating chance after chance and finally in the fortieth minute they broke through. Fredy Montero faked a shot to shake off Ugo Ihemulu, switched the ball to his left foot and unleashed a curling shot that found it's way neatly inside Kevin Hartman's near post.

FC Dallas brought on George John to bolster their defense at the half, and while they did apply early pressure to the Sounders (culminating in a Marvin Chavez shot ringing off of the post) they ultimately couldn't find a way through the Sounders' stingy defense. The Sounders face the Chicago Fire October fourth at Century Link in the final.

Neagle's hat trick earns top honors

I don't think that there was any doubt that Neagle's hat trick would earn him top honors, and indeed it has. First of all two of his goals are nominees for week twenty four's Goal of Week. Check out the video below and cast your vote here.

Not only is Neagle a contender for Goal of the Week, he's also earned himself Player of the Week honors. Apparently only three out of twenty two available votes by the North American Soccer Reporters were for players other than Neagle.

Devastating Football

The Sounders perpetrated absolute devastation on the Columbus Crew this afternoon at Century Link field. Not only that, history was made within both clubs. Jeff Cunningham took the title as all time leading scorer of Major League Soccer and the Sounders scored six goals in one match for the first time in club history. After historic victories over conference rivals FC Dallas and CCL group mates Monterrey the Sounders confidence was definitely at an all time high, and the club's confidence and swagger showed brilliantly with every single attacking move against the Crew.

Lamar Neagle started the scoring off early on into the match in the fourth minute, tying for the claim of earliest goal scored in club history with both Steve Zakuani and Blaise Nkufo. Mike Fucito received the ball off of a quick throw in by Lamar Neagle, and touch the ball back to Neagle as he was holding off a defender. Neagle continued his run up the left side of the pitch, holding off the defensive efforts by Rich Balchan. As he reached the edge of the penalty area Neagle unleashed a shot that Columbus keeper Will Hesmer was able to get a piece of, but unfortunately not enough and it trickled over the goal line. In the fourteenth minute brilliant build-up play by the Sounders led to a hand ball situation, as Fucito maneuvered around Balchan and the ball came into contact with both of the defender's hands. The referee called a penalty without hesitation and Mauro Rosales stepped up to the spot and cooly buried it past a reaching Hesmer. The Sounders got on the board a third time in the twenty first minute through even more brilliant build-up play. Osvaldo Alonso made the pass to Rosales just outside the penalty area, who spotted the overlapping run by James Riley and slipped it to the right back, who sent in a beautiful  cross that found Neagle waiting at the far post for a side-footed volley into the back of the net. The Sounders weren't even finished yet. In the forty first minute, Rosales received the ball in the penalty area and slipped over to Fucito who gathered up ball and fired it into the empty net from a tight angle for his first of the season and second of his MLS career.

With four goals being scored in the first half alone, you'd probably think that that was all the match had to offer. If you'd have thought that, you'd have been dead wrong. The second half saw another four goals, this time, however, the Crew finally joined in on the scoring. The Crew got their opportunity in the the fifty ninth minute on a penalty call on a dangerous challenge by Jhon Kennedy Hurtado on Emilio Renteria in the penalty area, on watching the replay however, Hurtado makes little to no physical contact with Renteria. Jeff Cunningham stepped up to the spot and made league history, taking the league lead in total number of goals scored by sending Kasey Keller the wrong direction and easily knocking the ball into the back of the net. That goal didn't go unanswered however, Lamar Neagle firing home an absolute blast in off the crossbar much like his game winning goal earlier in the season down at Rio Tinto against Real Salt Lake in the seventieth minute. The goal was his third of the match, marking the first time that a Sounder scored a hat trick in front of a home crowd. Columbus were able to notch another goal just three minutes later, through an absolutely fantastic free kick that found it's way through the wall and fizzed past Kasey Keller's fingertips by midfielder Josh Gardner. That goal only had meaning for a single minute, as the Sounders immediately shifted back into attack and a cross by Lamar Neagle forced an own goal by the goal scorer Gardner or else the ball would have fallen to the feet of Fucito who was lurking on the far post.

That own goal capped off the highest scoring and one of the most exciting matches in Sounders FC history. Next up the Sounders face FC Dallas once again in the semi-finals of the US Open Cup.

Notes

• In this match the Sounders scored three goals in the shortest amount of time in club history, in the space of just seventeen minutes.
• All three goals tied for quickest goal scored in Sounders club history were scored against the Columbus Crew
• The Sounders have only managed two hat tricks in their three year history, one last season by Blaise Nkufo and this afternoon's by Lamar Neagle. Both were against Columbus in four goal victories.
• Columbus was unable to score a goal in this afternoon's match during open play. Both goals came through dead ball situations.

MLS Week 24 Predictions

Saturday, August 27th
Seattle Sounders FC - Columbus Crew: This is definitely one of the weekend's best matches, the best in the east faces one of the best in the west. Seeing the Sounders latest victories, both 1-0 results against FC Dallas and Mexico giants Monterrey, their confidence is without a doubt on a high. The same could be said of Columbus, who have been quite hot recently, winning four out of their last five matches. While they may be number one in the east, Columbus' road record doesn't exactly reflect a top of the table team at a measly 3-6-3. One other thing to note is the Sounders' domination over the Crew, having gone 2-0-3 in all competitions against them. With those facts in mind, I'd say the Sounders get all three points. Considering Columbus' road record and the fact that the Sounders' defense has only conceded two goals in their past six games, the Sounders should have this one no problem.

Sporting Kansas City - FC Dallas: Along with the match up between the Sounders and the Crew, this one to watch. Since having the home advantage of Livestrong Sporting Park SKC has definitely been the team to beat, and only one has managed that feat so far (the Sounders). Also noteworthy with this match-up is SKC's 4-1 drubbing of Dallas at Pizza Hut Park earlier this season. Dallas will definitely be on the hunt for redemption against SKC. This is a tough one to call, both have been fantastic sides as of late. I'm gonna settle with a draw.

Chivas USA - Real Salt Lake: Out of their last five matches, Real Salt Lake have lost a whopping four of them. After a strong start to the season it seems that RSL is beginning to sputter and fall short. Head coach Jason Kreis even went so far as to guarantee wholesale changes next season if things don't turn around before it's too late. RSL's primary issues seem to the absence of key playmaker Javier Morales and the inexperience of younger players. While RSL has been on a down turn lately, they're still in contention for a spot in the play-offs. And a spot in the play-offs is exactly what Chivas is hunting for. They could have made great progress last week, but their lack of consistency haunted them and ultimately saw them fall to the Portland Timbers. While both teams have had their struggles lately, I'd say that RSL gets all three points in this one.

Sounders acquire Sammy Ochoa

Earlier this week it was announced that former US youth national team player Sammy Ochoa had signed a deal with Major League Soccer, and that he would go through the allocation rankings much the same as a returning US international. Notably, this has been quite the season for returning US players, seeing the return of Kenny Cooper (to the Timbers), Jay Demerit (to the Whitecaps), Charlie Davies (to DC United), Benny Feilhaber (to the Revolution), and excluding Ochoa most recently Freddy Adu (to the Union). The Sounders managed to trade their way up in the rankings, trading their 2012 Super Draft third round pick to the Chicago Fire to move from sixth position up to fourth.

The Sounders have somewhat of an idea of what they're getting with Ochoa, having had the young striker on trial and given him play time in a Reserve League match, in which he netted a goal, earlier in the season. This acquisition isn't all that surprising seeing how the Sounders recently saw two deals on strikers playing over in Europe fall through in the last couple of days before the transfer window officially closed. According to Adrian Hanauer, the Sounders took a part in bringing Ochoa to the MLS. Hanauer also stated that the failing of the two deals wasn't a direct motivation for picking Ochoa up, the Sounders apparently maintained interest in picking him up after he had finished up his trial (source). Whatever the case, Ochoa will provide much-needed depth up top. In Schmid's words:

"He's a good back-to-goal player and a good finisher around the box, those are qualities that he's had. In all his time in Mexico he was in and out of the lineup because they had so many head coaches. So it was tough to establish a rhythm."


It will be great to see what sort of impact that Sammy can have up top, seeing how much the Sounders have struggled this season in scoring from strikers.

Steve Jobs Resigns as Apple CEO

It was announced today that Steve Jobs would step down as the CEO of Apple. In his letter to the board of directors, that can be read in full below, he appointed Tim Cook as his replacement.

"To the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community:


I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come. I hereby resign as CEO of Apple. I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chairman of the Board, director and Apple employee. As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple. I believe Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role. I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you.


Steve"


In 2004 Jobs was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and since then has taken three separate leaves of absence in relation to his ongoing health issues. These health issues are more than likely the primary motivating factor to his stepping down as CEO.

Sounders hold on for historic win over Monterrey

FC Dallas, it seems, opened the door for MLS success down in Mexico with their historic victory against Pumas UNAM last week. The Sounders followed their example, defeating the defending champion Monterrey on a lone goal by Alvaro Fernandez. Leading to the match's lone goal in the thirty eighth minute, the match was a fairly even affair with no clear scoring opportunities for either side. That changed in the thirty eighth minute, as the Sounders got possession of the ball on a breakaway opportunity and they certainly made the most of it. The build-up down the midfield lead to Pat Noonan slipping Fernandez a perfectly weighted ball into the box, who easily and cooly finished it hammering the ball over the keeper and into the roof of the net. Through the rest of the match the Sounders endured massive pressure by Monterrey, but no matter how many times they got the ball into the box the Sounders' defense just would not crack and when they failed to prevent a shot on frame, Terry Boss was there to keep it out. Next up in CCL play for the Sounders is Leo Gonzalez's former club down in Costa Rica, Herediano.

Sounders earn crucial victory over FC Dallas

It was far from easy, and certainly demanded a superb performance by the Sounders' back line, but the Sounders are leaving Pizza Hut Park tonight with all three points and sole claim for the second place spot overall in the MLS. The story of the match, past the herculean effort that the Sounders back line put in to preserve the shut out, was the defensive error by Dallas defender Ugo Ihemulo that gifted the Sounders the match's lone goal. In the fifteenth minute Lamar Neagle received the ball in the attacking half of the field, he makes an attempted pass to Fredy Montero that Ihemulo breaks up but the ball bounced straight into Montero's path who proceeded forward with it, laid it of to Mauro Rosales who was making a parallel run down the right side of the field who fired it into goal past a reaching Kevin Hartman from about eighteen yards out. Afterwards the game was essentially commanded by FC Dallas, who ended up with a whopping  twenty five shots. The key, however, is that only four of those shots were actually on frame and threatening to sneak their way in. Seeing how much pressure that FC Dallas placed upon the Sounders for the remainder of the match, it's miraculous that the Sounders were able to keep a clean sheet. It may not be so miraculous considering the effort put in by the Sounders' back line, Jeff Parke a constant presence in the box blocking shot after shot, and Kasey Keller, who made a key double save right at the death. It may not have been by any means pretty, but this is by far the Sounders' biggest victory so far this season.

Notes

• This is the second time that the Sounders won a match when being outplayed by a team that was down a man.
• Once the final whistle was blown, this match had a grand total of forty one fouls. Seems that the ref blew the whistle at almost any sign of physical contact.
• Real Salt Lake, who fell 3-2 at the hands of the Houston Dynamo last night, have now last four out of their last five matches.
• Galaxy newcomer Robbie Keane had quite the debut, scoring the Galaxy's first goal of the night. The Galaxy went on to win 2-0 over the San Jose Earthquakes.
• Speaking of fantastic debuts, Juan Pablo Angel, who was moved over to Chivas from the Galaxy to make room for new DP Keane, coincidentally scored Chivas' first goal of the night as well
• New York is clearly trying their hardest to tie Chicago's record number of ties, recording their fourteenth last night in a 2-2 draw against the new England Revolution.

MLS Week 23 Predictions

Saturday, August 20th
New England Revolution - New York Red Bulls: Previously I would have easily sided with the Red Bulls for the victory, but in the past couple of months they have become a completely different complete. While they are still higher in the standings than the Revolution, they are no longer at the top of the table and that's a result of their struggles recently. I don't see the Revolution pulling out a win, so I'm gonna side with yet another draw for the Red Bulls.

FC Dallas - Seattle Sounders FC: This has without a doubt got to be the weekends largest game. Only one point separates these teams, Dallas with forty three and the Sounders with forty two, and a victory for either hands them second place in the western conference and the standings overall. Also possibly at risk here is the battle to catch the LA Galaxy in the race for the Supporter's Shield, with so few games left in the season this could be make or break for either team in their push to get past the Galaxy. Two elements complicating the matter is the sweltering heat (predicted ninety six degrees at kick off) and the fact that both teams are coming off mid-week Champions League matches. Dallas clearly has the advantage when it comes to heat, but the Sounders may have the advantage when it comes having all of their key players rested up and ready, having played mostly reserve players in their match against Comunicaciones while Dallas elected to field all of their starters against Pumas UNAM down in Mexico. This is definitely a close and highly contested match, but with the advantage of having rested starters and a incredibly strong bench once exhaustion becomes a factor,  think that the Sounders can do it.

Portland Timbers - Vancouver Whitecaps: The competition for the Cascadia Cup is beginning to heat up.  Unlike the Sounders, who at this point have pretty much guaranteed themselves a spot in the play-offs, the Timbers (7-12-5, 26 Pts) have just the slightest of chances of making it into the play-offs and the Whitecaps (3-12-9, 18 Pts) have no hope at all of making it into the post season and thus have only the Cascadia Cup to fight for, as well as their pride. And in this match pride is certainly one of the major motivating factors for victory, the rivalry between the two dates all the way back to the NASL days in the seventies. As is customary with rivalry matches, all previous form can be taken and thrown out the window. Despite that, I have a strong feeling that the Timbers are gonna win this.

LA Galaxy - San Jose Earthquakes: One of the leagues strongest versus one of the leagues weakest. The Galaxy recently held a fourteen game unbeaten streak, while the Earthquakes currently hold an eleven game winless streak. Each have new strikers that they are certainly hoping will make a difference, the Galaxy with Robbie Keane and te Earthquakes with Edmundo Zora. All things considered, unless the Earthquake can pull off some miraculous the Galaxy have these three points in the bag.

The Sounders open the group stages with a bang

After conceding a goal in the second minute, the Sounders fought back against Guatemala's Comunicaciones to open up Group D play of the CONCACAF Champions League with a resounding scoreline of 4-1. Comunicaciones managed an early lead, through a cross by Bryan Orroz into the box that Jairo Arreola. The Sounders fought their way back into the game in the thirty fifth minute, Mike Fucito serving the ball into the box off a corner kick and Brad Evans heading it in off the crossbar on the near post.

At the half the Sounders were absolutely dominating the match, with just over seventy percent of the possession. That trend continued on into the second half, as the Sounders proceeded in steamrolling the Guatemalan side. They would go down a man first, however. In the fifty fifth minute Lamar Neagle was shone a straight red for a rash kick to the shins of Juan Marquez. The ejection seemed to have the exact opposite effect one would have expected. Six minutes later Fucito received a brilliant pass from Fredy Montero into the box, which he took past the last defender and easily finished inside the far post. Fucito struck again another six minutes later, gathering the ball off of fantastic build-up by Brad Evans and Alvaro Fernandez and bending a sizzling shot into the back of the net.

Comunicaciones nearly got back into the game in the eightieth minute, after some chaos inside the Sounders' penalty area found the ball deflecting off of Patrick Ianni's thigh and apparently just over the goal line before being cleared by Ianni. The ref clearly missed it, and in the process of arguing with the ref Comunicaciones lost the man advantage Edgar Martinez receiving a second yellow and the resulting ejection.

Fuctio nearly capped the night off with a hat trick, but Rosales pass was cut off by a sliding Comunicaciones defender and knocked in for  an own goal.

Next up in CCL play the Sounders face reigning champs Monterrey away.

Eddie Johnson Returns to MLS

It was announced in a conference call this morning that US national team forward Eddie Johnson will be returning to Major League Soccer after a rather unsuccessful stink over in Europe. Now, returning US internationals sign with the league and clubs are presented with the opportunity to sign the player through order of allocation, which is currently as follows:

1. Chivas USA, 2. Houston, 3, Toronto FC, 4. Chicago, 5. Sporting KC, 6. Sounders FC, 7. Columbus, 8. New York, 9. Real Salt Lake, 10. San Jose, 11. LA Galaxy, 12. FC Dallas, 13. Colorado, 14. Vancouver, 15. Portland, 16. D.C. United, 17. New England, 18. Philadelphia.


It's no secret that the Sounders have been on the search for a consistent goalscorer up top, recently having two potential deals with players in Europe fall through as the summer transfer window closed.

Sounders cursed by missed opportunities

Chivas rode incredible luck, incredible defense, and a botched penalty cal by the ref to earn a nil nil draw against the Sounders in front of a sold out crowd at Century Link. The Sounders had the best of the chances, including a penalty call in the eighteenth minute. Alvaro Fernandez orchestrated the play, and forced Umana into making the handball play. Fernandez stepped up to the spot, but couldn't slot the ball in. He struck the post instead, the ball rebounding off of Dan Kennedy's back and out for a corner kick. From then on the Sounders had the majority of the chances, but simply could not put them away. The match's frustrations culminated in the eighty ninth minute, when Lamar Neagle made his way into the box and was bowled over by Chivas defender David Junior Lopez. Referee Kevin Stott deceivingly initially pointed to the spot, but then apparently changed his mind and signaled for a goal kick. That makes twice in a row now that Stott has botched a penalty call in the Sounders' favor, when the Sounders travelled to Houston last season Steve Zakuani was tripped up in the box and Stott handed Zakuani a yellow card for diving instead of calling the penalty. Coincidentally a yellow was involved this time around as well, being handed to Erik Friberg for dissent over the ref's deceitful call. Next up the Sounders face Communicaciones to open up the group stages for the CONCACAF Champions league.

MLS Week 22 Predictions

Saturday, August 11th
Sounders FC - Chivas USA: While Chivas USA aren't exactly among the best in the league, they're definitely not among the worst. Head coach Robin Fraser has definitely really turned things around since last season, when Chivas finished in the basement of the standings. The two threats to be wary of are recently returned Alejandro Moreno who is on goal scoring form, and recent MLS All Star Nick LaBrocca who is having a career season with seven goals and four assists so far. Only two teams have been able to leave Century Link field this season with all three points, those two teams being the LA Galaxy and FC Dallas who happen to be the only two teams currently above the Sounders in the standings. Not only that, both also only won on a 1-0 scoreline. The Sounders may have been faltering as of late, but they have found their winning form once again with two straight wins against San Francisco and a brilliant late comeback against the formerly 14-match undefeated Sporting kansas City. With the possible return of three starting-quality players (Brad Evans, Jhon Kennedy Hurtado, and O'Brian White), this match is looking very good for the Sounders. The Sounders should have no problem winning this one.

Toronto FC - Real Salt Lake: When Toronto made the visit to Rio Tinto earlier this season, Real Salt Lake had very little trouble in leaving the match with a win. Recently RSL has endured two straight losses, and while they snapped that with a 3-0 victory over the Red Bulls, a victory over the Red Bulls these days doesn't exactly say as much as it used to. Not only that, Toronto has been looking much stronger and much more dangerous in the past couple of weeks. Granted they have only been recording draws, but those draws certainly say a lot. Aron Winter has been rebuilding TFC, and seeing these recent improvements I'd certainly say he's close to finishing. Whether or not that makes a difference against a very strong RSL is the question. I'm gonna play it safe and side with RSL on this one.

New York Red Bulls - Chicago Fire: Lately the Red Bulls have been in a nose dive. They certainly started the season strong, but with their serious lack of depth and creative ability at times in the midfield they're starting to look more than a little lackluster. Their complete disregard for the US Open Cup is looking pretty foolish at this rate, as their no longer guaranteed a place in the play-off's if they continue on the track that they're on and if they do make it, they're certainly not going to make it very far. The results haven't been going Chicago's way throughout the season, but that figure can be deceiving. Regardless to the number of wins that they have, Chicago is a very good team and will certainly give a struggling Red Bulls a very good challenge. i think this one will end in a draw.

Philadelphia Union - FC Dallas: The second best in the east faces off with the second best in the west. There are two keys to this match-up: new Philadelphia signing Freddy Adu and FC Dallas' Brek Shea. It's no secret that the Union have been experiencing scoring woes, and could Adu be the remedy for these woes? His recent return to favor with the US national team syas that it just might be. Speaking of the national team, Brek Shea had a fantastic recent performance in the recent friendly against Mexico. There is no doubt that he is one of the best that the MLS currently has to offer, but he's been kinda quiet lately in the MLS. If he pick up his scoring form once again, FC Dallas should have little trouble in leaving PPL Park with all three points.

Nintendo Under Fire

It's no secret that Nintendo hasn't been doing very well as of late. The 3DS hasn't been selling at all at the pace that Nintendo had anticipated that it would, though they shoulder most of the blame with the system's lackluster selection of launch titles. They've even gone so far as to drop the price of the system a full eighty dollars ($169.99 down from 249.99) in an attempt to raise more interest. Now it seems that Nintendo's investors are urging them to begin developing titles for competing consoles and platforms. There are some out there that predict that Nintendo is on the verge of transitioning into a strictly software business and completely drop the hardware side of it.

As a friend of mine says, if this is the future of gaming then I simply will no longer be a gamer. A future in which Nintendo doesn't offer a dedicated handheld and develops only for other consoles like (god forbid) iOS and Android is one that I hope never comes to fruition. A completely touch screen oriented platform like iOS simply isn't viable when it comes to more than just casual gaming, developers attempts at imitating physical controls like analog sticks on a touch screen is just laughable. That would essentially kill off gaming as we know it.

According to this article Satoru Iwata, president of Nintendo, shares those sentiments. Stating that Nintendo would only produce titles for their owns platforms as long as he's the one in charge. While many may think that it is, the 3DS certainly isn't out of it yet.

What are your thoughts on the subject? Will the recent 3DS price drop encourage an increase in sales and cast aside these thoughts? Answer in the poll below:

Game Review - Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story

Story
Inside Story carries on the tradition of the Mario and Luigi franchise's hilarious writing, the likes of Fawful and his minion Midbus really standing out. In terms of the overall story, however, it's pretty much the same old same old. The Mushroom Kingdom is under attack, Princess peach gets abducted, and it's up to the brothers (and Bowser, the one exception this time around, as he's usual the villain) to fight back and put everything straight. While Fawful took the role as the lead villain's minion in Superstar Saga, and made only a small cameo in Partners in Time, with Inside Story he finally gets the limelight as the lead villain. The game begins with the spreading of an ailment called the blorbs, which balloons the Mushroom Kingdom's citizens to immense sizes and it's up to the brothers to set out and locate a cure. At this point Bowser steps in in an attempt to abduct the princess once again, but the brothers will have none of it and soundly defeat the Koopa King. Angry from the defeat, Bowser comes across a rather shady merchant deep in the woods and without much thought as to any possible negative side effects gobbles up a supposedly "Lucky" mushroom. What ensues is Bowser uncontrollably inhaling anything that comes in his path, and that unfortunately includes the brothers along with most of the castle staff. At this point the adventure kicks off, and finding out the rest is up to you.

Presentation
Inside Story is without a doubt the best looking installment in the series to date, making full utilization of the DS's graphics capabilities. While the game is still strictly two dimensional smoothly animated pixel art, there are nice and flashy transitional effects when entering major battles as well as some nice visuals when you perform and execute special attacks.

Gameplay
This isn't the first installment of the series on the DS, it made the jump six years ago with Partners in Time, but Inside Story is definitely the first one to truly utilize everything that the system has to offer. In Partners in Time, there was only one interactive element throughout the entire game. Inside Story, however, has too many for me to count of of the top of my head. The interactivity ranges from controlling bowser with the touch screen and the microphone in the occasional gargantuan battle between him and some structure, to performing little mini games with the brothers to assist Bowser in his quest to reclaim the kingdom as his (including initiating the aforementioned gargantuan battles). Past this interactivity, the gameplay remains true to the series' past installments. You explore the field, solve various puzzles, and engage enemies in timing-oriented turn-based combat. As usual the bros have their share of complex and timing oriented special attacks to perform, which can definitely take some time to perfect (if you've played the game, I'm sure that you're well aware of that). While some are easy to perfect right of the bat, others take quite a bit of practice, and even some luck, to perform well. While to brothers continue using the face buttons for these attacks, the newly playable Bowser utilizes the touch screen. His attacks vary from lining up and directing Bob-Ombs to tracing a line of Magikoopas to unleash their magic, and each attack is very well executed and really easy to control.

Replay Value
Previously in the series, there was very little reason to return to the game once you made a complete play through. Granted Superstar Saga had mini-games sprinkled here and there throughout the Bean Bean Kingdom, but that offered very little in terms of staying power and creating that urge to pick up the game once again. Inside Story reverses that trend, which saw essentially no real replay value past playing through the game once again in Partners in Time. Now the special moves that Mario, Luigi, and Bowser use in combat are turned into mini-games with lucrative rewards if you reach certain score. And these special moves are no piece of cake either, demanding quick reactions and a quick eye to succeed further on as the pace gets increasingly quick and frantic as you play longer and longer. Also of note, while it may seem odd and a little out of place, located somewhere in the kingdom is a character that offers a puzzle challenge to Mario and Luigi. You get rewarded for initially completing all of the puzzles, but you can come back later on and race against the clock to complete the puzzles as fast as you can.

Overall Score - 9/10
Overall, Bowser's Inside Story is without a doubt the best installment in the Mario and Luigi series. Not only does it bring far more innovation through it's excellent utilization of the DS's features, it brings an good amount of replay value and reason to come back to the game time and time again.

OS X Lion Tips & Tricks

Initially upon firing up OS X Lion you may notice several things to be different, such as the lack of lights below open applications and the font in the Finder sidebar to be a tad bit too large. In light of that, here is a handy list of settings that you may have an interest in tweaking:

Indicator Lights - To become more iOS like Apple made the lights that appear below an application in the dock to signify that it is open an option. If you no longer have these indicator lights, head into the Dock pane of System Preferences and check "Show Indicator Lights…".

Sidebar font size  - When you initially fire up Lion you may notice that the font-size in the sidebar of the Finder and Mail is larger than it was in Snow leopard. This can be easily adjusted by heading into the General pane of System Preferences and selecting "Small" in the Sidebar Icon Size drop-down menu.

Dashboard - Initially Lion sets Dashboard aside as it's own space, accessed by a swipe to the right with the trackpad or Magic Mouse. You can easily reverse this and make Dashboard an overlay once again by heading into the Mission Control pane of System Preferences and unchecking "Show Dashboard as Space".

Clean up Launch Pad - There is a handy little application called LaunchPad Control that easily handles this, allowing you select what you want to see and get rid of what you don't. Head here to download.

Finder Status Bar - To hide the system's complexities from the user, Apple has opted to hide the Finder status bar. To fix this, head into the View menu and select"Show Status Bar"

Hidden Library Folder - Apparently to prevent users from tinkering around in the Libraries folder and potential doing something very bad, Apple elected to hide the folder. For those of us power users out there who know what we're doing and need access to this folder this can be particularly frustrating. Thankfully a Terminal command comes to the rescue. So, fire up Terminal and enter the following command and it will be accessible once again: chflags nohidden ~/Library

Review/Impressions - OS X Lion

Polish - Feels incredibly slick, the animations certainly impress. The new look for the Address Book and iCal are certainly off-putting, being a desktop operating system that isn't exactly a theme that one would expect to see. iCal is bearable with it's smooth animations, but Address book is a little too out there for me.

Features - Mission Control definitely impresses, seamlessly combining Spaces with Expose as well as full screen apps. Now having spaces, along with full screen apps, on a single plane it's easier than ever to switch between apps and spaces. Launch Pad certainly has it's utility, but ultimately comes up somewhat lacking and useless for veteran or power Mac users. It will definitely help ease the transition from iOS to the Mac, but it's usefulness beyond that is debatable with the presence of the dock, Finder, and Spotlight to launch applications. Auto Save, while definitely requiring getting used to due to it's casting aside years upon years of muscle memory pressing command-s, certainly makes a step in the right direction. In this day and age a user should no longer have to worry and obsess over saving and just work without distraction. Going in hand with Auto Save, Versions does to single documents what Time Machine has been doing for your system for years. It allow you to view a timeline of the document that you have been working on and either completely revert to a past version or pull bits and pieces from past versions that you've decided that you want restored. Then there is the increased focus on the utilization of the multi-touch interface of the trackpad and Magic Mouse, which overall lend to making to OS X experience feel even slicker. To simply flip between a space or full screen app with the swipe of two fingers is quite satisfying, and impressively no longer do you have to right click on a word and open up the Dictionary app to get the definition. Now all you have to do is perform a three finger tap and the word selected by the cursor becomes highlighted in yellow and out pops the definition.

Performance - While my MacBook is just over a year old, I'm running at the lowest possible RAM requirements for Lion (2 GB) and thus far everything has run smoothly and without issue.

Shortcomings - The increased utilization of multi-touch gestures means the death of prominent gestures found in Snow Leopard. In SL any application that had some sort of navigation (a web browser, iTunes, or Spotify for example) could easily be navigated forward and back with the usage of the two finger swipe gesture with the magic Mouse. Now that that gesture has been mapped to switching between spaces and full screen apps that fundamental system-wide navigation has been dropped and it certainly feels like a step backwards having to drag the cursor up to the forward/back arrows and click rather than easily swiping. Also worthy of note, as with any new operating system, Lion has it's share of bugs and issues to be ironed out with future updates. Thankfully I've only experienced minor bugs so far.

Overall Impressions - Overall, Lion is quite an impressive operating system. It essentially takes Snow Leopard, adds an infusion of iOS, and sprinkles on some extra polish through a nice step forward in terms of aesthetic and animations. If you're machine is capable and you haven't upgraded yet, trust my word and do it now. The outrageous price of only $29.99 is only the icing on the cake.

Seattle Sounders FC, the Streak-Breakers

After playing the vast majority of the match down a goal, the Sounders rally late and pull of yet another late and dramatic victory of Sporting Kansas City (the third in a row, in fact) and have broken yet another streak held by an MLS opponent. SKC commanded most of the opportunities in the first half, converting one of them in the twentieth minute. They won an incredibly deep throw-in, giving defender Matt Besler a shot at a long throw and it paid off as Kei Kamara shrugged off Zach Scott and headed the ball past Kasey Keller into an open net.

For the rest of the first half and well into the second half the game was well fought on each side, however SKC's rough play got the best of the them in the fifty ninth minute. The Sounders were in the attack and Pat Noonan had received the ball, at which point mexican international Omar Bravo came in with a heavy and reckless tackle into Noonan's ankles. The challenge drew a straight red, but Bravo wasn't finished yet. In an attempt to drag Noonan off with him he got into Noonan's face while he was still down, prompting Noonan to jump up and confront him at which point Bravo attempted to fool the ref into thinking noon an had head butted him, but the ref knew better. That ultimately proved to be the turning point in the match, allowing the Sounders greater freedom to pass and move the ball around and build up their attack and that freedom ultimately paid off.

In the ninetieth minute, Servando Carrasco gathered the ball just outside SKC's penalty box and slipped in to Mauro Rosales who stepped past not one but two challenges and cool fired the ball past Jimmy Nielson to record his third goal of the season. Just two minutes later the Sounders struck again, stealing the game from under SKC. Rosales played a major part in this as well, wading into the penalty area, leaving it off for Mike Fucito who worked it over to Lamar Neagle who easily slipped the ball into the far post. That was Neagle's second of the season, and the second game winning goal that he has scored as well.

MLS Week 21 Predictions

Friday, August 5th
Colorado Rapids - Columbus Crew: After a fairly inconsistent start to the season, and having to bear through several injuries Colorado certainly seems to have found their stride. The loss of Connor Casey is no doubt a potentially crippling one, but putting former-Sounder Sanna Nyassi seems to have done the trick for the struggling team. On the other hand, Columbus has been quietly creeping into the upper ranks all season consistently getting results, and as a consequence they are now currently sitting at the top of the Eastern conference.  Both teams in their current form are not to be underestimated, and thus this is definitely looking to be a hard-fought match. I'll side with Columbus on this one, especially after their 4-1 thumping of Colorado earlier in the season.

Saturday, August 6th
Sporting Kansas City - Seattle Sounders FC: One team, SKC, has been on quite the hot streak. After Wednesday's 2-0 defeat of RSL they have run their unbeaten streak to 14, and their new home Livestrong Sporting Park clearly has had a major hand in that success. The Sounders, on the other hand, recently had their unbeaten streak ended at the hands of the Houston Dynamo after a strenuous and exhausting road trip that involved going all the way down to Panama. Now after having spent some precious time at home and a mid-week CONCACAF Champions League victory over San Francisco FC, the Sounders will definitely be looking to embark on another unbeaten streak. Sure SKC is unbeaten in fourteen games, but keep in mind that the majority of those matches ended in a draw (more often than not in dramatic fashion, as well) so they're far from untouchable. Perhaps it bias, but I call the Sounders for this one.

Real Salt Lake - New York Red Bulls: Leading into this match RSL is on a two game skid, falling to both the Columbus Crew and Sporting Kansas City to two goals and a shutout. Things are starting to look pretty dire for RSL, and head coach Jason Kreis has made it very clear that this match is a must win. Their opponent definitely hasn't had the greatest record lately, only managing to muster a few wins amongst a majority of draws and losses. Despite lacks of success in the league, the Red Bulls managed to win the Emirates Cup over in England with a win over PSG and a draw with Arsenal. While that success certainly will aid in the teams confidence, I think they will need a lot more than just bolstered confidence to leave Rio Tinto with a victory. I heavily favor RSL on this one.

LA Galaxy - FC Dallas: This weekend seems to be chock full of games to keep an eye on, and this is without a doubt one of them. The two tops teams in the West, and in the league overall, are facing off. The factor that really plays into this one are the Galaxy's recent loss and blanking against the Portland Timbers. With the performance they gave at Jeld-Wen they certainly didn't look like the league's best to offer. In light of that, they are certainly going to be looking to redeem themselves though that won't be any easy task against FC Dallas. This is another close one, but if the Galaxy can find their form again they shouldn't have too much trouble in dealing with FCD.

Jurgen Klinsmann reveals Mexico friendly roster

This morning, the new US national team head coach Jurgen Klinsmann revealed his roster for the upcoming friendly against Mexico. This friendly certainly acts as a rematch of sorts of the Gold Cup final that saw the US take an early 2-0 lead, but ultimately fall to Mexico 4-2. Notable inclusions from Major League Soccer are Brek Shea, who's current form certainly makes him plenty deserving of the call-up, and Real Salt Lake's Kyle Beckerman, who become quite the mainstay in RSL's midfield. A notable absence in this roster is Clint Dempsey. While he squandered many great chances during the Gold Cup, he still ultimately performed well, which makes his exclusion quite puzzling.

You can view the entire roster here.

The Sounders Blast Past San Francisco FC

After a fairly even first leg in which a lone penalty kick in San Francisco's favor was the deciding factor, the Sounders entered tonights second leg of the CCL group stage qualifier with their backs against the wall. And considering the circumstances, they responded to the situation excellently. The Sounders absolutely dominated the run of play, and despite that domination it took them until late in the first half (41st minute) to tally their first goal. Fredy Montero rolled the ball into the corner of the box for Gonzalez who made an overlapping run, who crossed it to a waiting Alvaro Fernandez who headed the ball home.

The domination continued through the second half, the Sounders just hammering away shot after shot at San Francisco's goal. To the Sounders misfortune, however, the match had to move into extra time for them to find the clinching goal. In the ninety eighth minute Alvaro Fernandez found his way up the left side of the field, crossing the ball to a completely open Nate Jaqua who had all the time in the world to hammer the ball into the roof of the net. With the clinching goal in hand you would probably have thought the Sounders would do as much possible to drain time off of the clock, but they kept pushing for another goal. The referee blew the whistle straight on the one hundred and twenty minute mark, sending the Sounders on their way into Group D along with last tournament's champions Monterrey.

Notes

• The Sounders ultimately outshot San Francisco an amazing 34-9
• Two of the league's best fell to lesser competition tonight, Real Salt Lake dropping a second game at a 2-0 scoreline in a row to Sporting Kansas City and the Portland Timbers dominating the LA Galaxy 3-0
• Both other MLS teams playing in the qualification round of the CCL, Toronto FC and FC Dallas, also made their way into the group stage

Three future Lion-compatibility updates to look forward to

Microsoft Office
As reported by MacLife, an update for Microsoft's suite of productivity applications is coming that brings full support of the new features that Lion incorporates into OS X. Frustratingly, the update is apparently still a few months away despite the clear amount of time Microsoft had to work on the update prior to the full public release of the operating system. What I most anticipate with this update is the utilization of Auto Save and Versions in Word, also notable is the full screen support in Word. I will certainly get more mileage out of Word's full screen mode with that button in the upper right-hand corner of the window than I ever had previously.

Rockmelt
Having recently been updated to improve Lion stability, it was announced that a further update would follow adding more complete support of Lion features like full-screen mode and the hiding of scroll bars. Also to be looked for in the update is the support of the dictionary look-up gesture, which upon my testing clearly is not supported in the applications current version. This is definitely a higher anticipated update of mine, the thought of having Rockmelt integrate seamlessly with Lion new features and capabilities is definitely a great one.

Last.fm Desktop Client
While the current version of the Last.fm client is compatible with Lion, it is not compatible with the latest version (10.4) of iTunes that brings compatibility with Lion features and full 64-bit and Cocoa support. That transition to 64-bit breaks the compatibility between the two apps as the Last.fm app is strictly 32-bit. Because of this, I and I am sure many other Mac Last.fm users, have used the brilliance of the Time Machine to restore the previous version of iTunes and regain full scribbling ability. This update will allow Last.fm users to update to the newest version of iTunes and enjoy the performance improvements brought by 64-bit and Cocoa support as well as that Lion functionality.

EDIT: The Last.fm update is now live. Go and download it now.