Sounders Continue Perfect CCL Run

With their victory over CS Herediano tonight, the Sounders continue their perfect run in the CONCACAF Champions League and become the one and only team in the tournament to receive all nine points from their first three games.

Fredy Montero was the key to the match, putting the Sounders on the board extremely early in the third minute. Nate Jaqua got a hold of the ball at the top of the box and sent an excellent pass over to Montero who easily knocked the ball in past the Herediano keeper. The Sounders nearly doubled their lead in the twenty sixth minute, Roger Levesque awkwardly knocking the ball towards Jaqua who attempted the volley only to see it ring off of the post. Herediano managed to draw level heading into the half, drawing and converting a penalty kick.

Herediano started the second half strong, looking plenty threatening, but Montero soon put a damper on their hopes. In the fifty fourth minute Jaqua knocked down a long ball in the penalty area, Levesque gathered the ball and fired, the keeper saving it but letting it fall to Montero who easily tapped it to allow the Sounders to regain the lead for good. For the rest of the match the Sounders dropped off and soaked up plenty of pressure from Herediano, but any attempts to get the ball into a dangerous situation were either promptly cleared out by the defense over saved by Kasey Keller.

Next up the Sounders face Herediano once again, up in at Century Link. Three points there could clinch their spot in the knock-out rounds.

MLS Week 27 Predictions

Wednesday, September 14th
Columbus Crew - Houston Dynamo: Starting with the 6-2 loss against the Sounders at Century Link the Crew have been in a bit of a nose-dive, losing the following match 4-2 to their rivals Toronto FC. The Dynamo have lost their last two matches as well, most recently the fell to Sporting Kansas City 3-0. This is a match with table placement implications, both teams in the top four standing to advance a position if they win. Due to the implications, this will be an interesting match. I think the Crew will continue on their nose dive, you don't concede ten goals in two matches if there isn't a clear issue with the defense. I think that the Dynamo will take advantage of that problematic defense.


Friday, September 16th
Portland Timbers - New England Revolution: Both teams got impressive results last weekend, Portland held the Union to a nil-nil draw and even more impressive, New England defeated one of the league's best (FC Dallas) by two goals to nil. Unfortunately I don't think that big win for the Revolution means very much, their still one of the worst teams in the league. Not only that, they'll be playing in the hostile environment of Jeld Wen. I say the Timbers take this one.

Saturday, September 17th
Philadelphia Union - Columbus Crew: The Union has yet to break it's winless streak, but last week's result against the Timbers can be seen as promising. The managed to play to a nil-nil draw, which seems to indicate that they've managed to patch up their of late leaky defense. The Crew are in a slump of their own, winless in three isn't all that concerning, but twelve goals conceded in three games is. If the Crew's defense doesn't get an adjustment, they'll find themselves less and less a favorite for the post season. I'm gonna go with a draw for this one.

FC Dallas - New York Red Bulls: Last weekend saw a pretty big upset, FC Dallas falling by two goals to one of the league's lesser teams in the Revolution. Their lack of any offensive punch in their midweek CCL match against Tauro doesn't inspire much confidence either. Notably, neither Brek Shea nor Marvin Chavez were in the eighteen on Wednesday, and there lies the problem. Those two account for a vast majority of Dallas' offensive output, and without both of them Dallas will no doubt continue to struggle. To their benefit, they're playing the Red Bulls this weekend, who haven't looked remotely dangerous for a couple months now. Despite being crippled without Shea or Chavez, I firmly believe that FC Dallas wins.

Seattle Sounders FC - DC United: This match has major play-off implications. The Sounders can't afford another loss, otherwise they may quite easily lose their grasp on second place. On the other hand, DC desperately needs another win to maintain their grasp on the last wildcard spot. History says that DC has the advantage, with a 3-3 tie in the Sounders inaugural season which saw them erase a three goal deficit and a 3-1 win last season that Chris Pontius played a major part in. Which brings up DC's main disadvantage, the loss of Pontius to a broken leg in the late stages of last week's match against Chivas. With seven goals and five assists Pontius has accounted for a major percentage of DC's offense throughout the season, and I have a feeling that DC are going to struggle without him despite having other big guns like De Rosario and Charlie Davies on the field. With the midweek 2-1 victory over Herediano I have a strong feeling that the Sounders are quickly bouncing back from last week's fluky loss to Real Salt Lake. I favor the Sounders in this one.

Real Salt Lake - Sporting Kansas City: RSL has been on a bit of a roll lately, recording three straight wins and climbing their way up the Western Conference, now literally breathing down the neck of FC Dallas with only a point's difference between the two. SKC has been on a roll as well, absolutely dominating with their new home advantage of Livestrong Sporting Park. Having just come off of a nine match home stand, I believe this is the first away match they've played in about two months. Seeing how well they've been playing lately I think they're up for it. RSL has the advantage of Rio Tinto, but I think SKC has what it takes.

Iwata Stands Strong

After the announcements that Nintendo made for the 3DS Monday night, their stocks perplexingly fell five percent, investors citing lack of faith that the new announcements will further re-invigorate sales of the system. It's been no secret that investors have been pushing for Nintendo to begin development for mobile phones, and I discussed that in an earlier post (which you can find here). Well, after the conference  Japanese newspaper Nikkei asked Iwata about that very possibility, to which his response was "Absolutely not". His response in full is below:

"This is absolutely not under consideration. If we did this, Nintendo would cease to be Nintendo. Having a hardware development team in-house is a major strength. It's the duty of management to make use of those strengths. It's probably the correct decision in the sense that the moment we started to release games on smartphones we'd make profits. However, I believe my responsibility is not to short term profits, but to Nintendo's mid and long term competitive strength."


Iwata is certainly a breath of fresh air, and a reason to stand by the company even if you aren't a fan of Nintendo and their products. His complete and unwavering conviction in the 3DS and what Nintendo stands for shows he knows what he is doing, and that he is without a doubt the right man to be Nintendo's CEO in these trying times. In fact, he even took a fifty percent pay cut in support of the system. With all the greedy CEOs these days, if that doesn't give you his support I honestly don't know what will.

Of course, the system's success is still in doubt. The two main issues that really held back sales after launch were lacks of games and too high of a price, and with one (price) of those already fixed and the other (lack of games) soon to be fixed, we'll soon find out if the 3DS can be as successful as Nintendo has been hoping that it would be.

CCL Group Stages Round 3

The third round of the group stages of the CONCACAF Champions League begin today. You can view the matches between the Galaxy and Morelia and the Rapids and Santos toccurring tonight, here. Likewise for the matches tomorrow for the Sounders, FC Dallas, and Toronto FC. Expect me to post the occasional update on Twitter about the matches, and I'll post scores and match summaries here later.

Morelia [2-1] LA Galaxy (Highlights)
After a fairly even first half that saw Morelia with the majority of the possession and the Galaxy with the best of the chances, the match broke wide open in the second half. The Galaxy struck first in the fifty second minute, Landon Donovan and Robbie Keane linking up, Keane smashing the ball past the Morelia goalkeeper. Morelia maintained massive pressure, and finally broke through the Galaxy's defense in the eighty third minute, Saunders mishandling a shot and the ball just trickling over the goal line. Morelia sealed the victory in stoppage time, on a header direct from a corner.

Colorado Rapids [1-4] Santos Laguna (Highlights)
From the start the Rapids didn't have much of a chance. Santos struck early in the fourteenth minute, and then doubled their advantage thirteen minutes later. Heading into the second half it had seemed that the Rapids had begun to get a grip on the game, but what grip they had quickly slipped away as Santos re-asserted their dominance on the match, scoring their third goal at the hands of some sloppy defending on a long ball over the top in the sixty fourth minute. Just seven minutes after that Santos added their fourth. The Rapids managed to get a foothold in the match through a goal by second half substitute Mullen, but ultimately they just couldn't claw their way back.

FC Dallas [1-1] Tauro (Highlights)
After getting an early lead on a Danny Cruz goal (the earliest in tournament history at twenty three seconds), the two sides played a fairly even match. A penalty in the forty first minute for the visitors proved to be the deciding moment of them game, Luis Moreno stepping up and converting the penalty. Into the second half, each side continued to pursue a second goal but ultimately couldn't find one.

Pumas UNAM [4-0] Toronto FC (Highlights)
Toronto came out incredibly flat against the Mexican side, conceding four goals in the first half. They managed to hold of any other attempt on goal in the second half, but unfortunately could not make up any ground.


CS Herediano [1-2] Seattle Sounders FC (Highlights)
Read recap here

Other Matches

• Real Espana [1-2] Isidro Metapan (Highlights) (Notably, Metapan get their first ever road win in the tournament, their record now 1-0-7)
• Communicaciones [1-0] Monterrey (Highlights) (The defending champs drop their second in a row)
• Montagua [2-4] Alajuelense (Highlights) (Alajuelense now move into a three way tie with the LA Galaxy and Morelia for first on points)

The MLS MVP Race

The 2011 season of Major League Soccer is just weeks away from concluding, and much like the Supporter's Shield, the race for league MVP is a close and highly contested one. The two primary candidates at this point are Mauro Rosales of the Sounders and Brek Shea of FC Dallas. There are certainly numerous other contenders, Landon Donovan and Brad Davis included, but the sheer impact and importance that both Shea and Rosales have held for their teams in the face of devastating losses of key players to injury is what really makes them shine. Way back in April in just the second minute of the Sounders' match against the Rapids at Dicks Sporting Goods Park Zakuani had his leg broken in two different places by a ill-timed and malicious tackle by Brian Mullen. Only a week later FC Dallas found themselves in the exact same situation, losing Ferreira to a broken ankle as a result of a reckless challenge by Vancouver's Jonathan Leathers. At the time it looked like the loss of such key players for the Sounders and FC Dallas would surely have a negative impact on each team's season. Thanks to Shea and Rosales, that wasn't to be.

Shea picked up the slack once Ferriera got sidelined, and much the same Rosales became the catalyst in the Sounders attack in the absence of Steve Zakuani. Prior to the Ferreira injury, Shea was primarily utilized as a defender, but once the injury happened Shea was placed in the midfield and encouraged to get forward and attack by Schellas Hyndman and that move has certainly paid dividends for FC Dallas. Shea is currently sitting on ten goals (double his output from last season), and three assists (just one below his total number from last season). Seeing his offensive capabilities, I doubt that Shea will see any more play time in the defense after this breakthrough season. Much in the same manner as Ferreira, leading up to his injury Zakuani was leading the Sounders along with O'Brian White (who is also currently out with a leg injury) with two goals and two assists. Alvaro Fernandez has filled in on the left wing providing a goal scoring threat in Zakuani's place (currently second in goals scored for the Sounders at 6), but the real story is Mauro Rosales. The amount of heart and effort that he provides out on the pitch seemingly makes the entire team look better. And with that heart and effort, he has proven to be the offensive spark that the Sounders sorely needed early on in the season. So far Rosales has totaled five goals and a whopping ten assists (which has him tied with De Rosario for third overall in the league).

Both players stepped up and provided an offensive spark when their clubs needed it most, which is exactly why they're the front runners for the MVP award. While I have my bias for the Sounders, this will definitely be an agonizing decision to make.

Nintendo 3DS Conference Details

Yesterday Nintendo held a pre-Tokyo Game Show conference centered around the 3DS, and several major announcements were made, including a November 3DS system update (more details below), new games coming to the system, and concrete release dates for some of their upcoming titles. Following is a list and details of each announcement:

• New 3DS color: pink
• The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords DSiWare update: Will be released September 28th, will include two new levels with unlockable powers, a single player mode, and wireless multiplayer
• November system update: the 3DS will be enhanced with the ability to record 3D video, and the Mii Plaza 
• New games: Monster Hunter 3G, Monster Hunter 4, Fire Emblem, Mario Tennis, Dynasty Warriors
• Nintendo Release Date: Super Mario 3D Land (November 13th), Mario Kart 7 (December 4th)
• Slide Pad Expansion: After the conference, the slide pad expansion was officially announced. It will cost between $15-20, be powered by a single AAA battery, and be compatible with the following titles: Monster Hunter 3G, RE: Revelations, Kingdom Hearts 3D, MGS Snake Eater 3D, Dynasty Warriors, and Ace Combat 3D

Sounders Sign Bryan Meredith

Due to a recent recurring issue with concussions, the Sounders primary back-up goalkeeper Terry Boss has been declared done for the rest of the season. To fill that void, the Sounders have now signed Bryan Meredith.

Initially the Sounders chose Meredith with their fourth pick (picked 29th overall) in the SuperDraft, but couldn't ultimately sign the young keeper. Despite that, throughout the season Meredith and the club have remained connected, Meredith training with them on a regular basis. During that time, he was the starting keeper for Pete Fewing's Kitsap Pumas (and in fact started the USOC third round match between the two teams).