WWTBAM Bored

It's been a while since I posted a soccer update and I know you are all dying for soccer news so here goes.

The Houston Dynamo beat Municipal of Guatemala last night, 3-1, so they win the first round series of the CONCACAF Champions' Cup. This is for the club championship of the North America, Central America and Caribbean region. We next face either Atlante of Mexico or Saprissa of Costa Rica. Pulling for Atlante to win that series since it will mean a trip to Cancun which is their home stadium and Cancun would be much nicer for a road trip than the "Purple Monster" in San Jose, Costa Rica. Saprissa has a bad reputation for crazy stuff happening at their stadium. This was our first home game of the season so it was a lot of fun to get back out to a game and especially fun with a win.

In the other semifinal of the CCC, Pachuca of Mexico will face DC United. DC United advanced with a 5-0 win over Harbour View of Jamaica on Tuesday night. Pachuca beat Motagua of Honduras to advance.

The Major League Soccer season gets underway on March 29 now with 14 teams in the league. San Jose re-enters the league after their team was moved to Houston in 2006. The new San Jose Earthquakes are the third version of the team having also been the Earthquakes in the old North American Soccer League.

The U.S. Under-23 men's team is playing Canada tonight for the right to go to the Beijing Olympics this summer. There are two Houston Dynamo on this team. Olympic men's soccer is open to professionals but most of the team must be under the age of 23. Teams are allowed to add some overage players but basically it will be this U-23 team if we advance. Guatemala is playing Honduras for the other CONCACAF spot in the Olympics. Mexico got knocked out on Sunday despite beating Haiti 5-1 because Canada beat Guatemala 5-0 earlier that day.

The U.S. women's national team starts qualification for the Olympics on April 2nd in Cuidad Juarez, Mexico. Two women's teams will advance from CONCACAF to the Olympics. In women's soccer it is the full national teams that compete in the Olympics.

The international part of the sport is one of the best parts of it for me.

Results from Thursday.

The U.S. men beat Canada 3-0 so they will go to the Olympics.

Saprissa beat Atlante 3-0. That means that the Houston Dynamo will play Saprissa in the semifinals of the CONCACAF Champions' Cup. There were lots of incidents in the game including objects being thrown on to the field, players and coaches. And we're not talking streamers here. Batteries, bottles, can, parts of the bleachers, etc. One Atlante player got hit in the face by something during a play right in front of the goal and was bleeding. One of the Atlante coaches got ejected and was pelted with bottles and cans as he left the field. The "ball boys"(although most appeared to be grown men) that retrieve balls that go out of bounds were refusing to give the balls to Atlante players who were doing throw-ins or goal kicks. The players would have to go track down loose balls to get the game going again. Just ridiculous behavior and it isn't the first time at Saprissa Stadium. And there were no police or security personnel in evidence to help keep order. All this for a game they won, 3-0. l Imagine if they were losing.

Actually we don't have to imagine. In 2006 the fans did the same kind of stuff and Saprissa got a four month ban from hosting international matches.That was while they were winning a match 3-2 but that was not enough to win a series with Toluca of Mexico.

As of right now the Dynamo would have to go there to play the deciding match in the series on April 9. We're guessing that the Dynamo and CONCACAF may be having a meeting to decide if the game can safely be played there.