U.S. Men's National Team: June 2008 Archives

The U.S. beat Barbados 1-0 today to advance to the next round of CONCACAF qualifying 9-0 on aggregate.

Game story is here.

Still, if you were like me you were watching the rather dull Spain-Italy Euro 2008 quarterfinal. With that, the semifinals are set.

This is an excellent Sunday read on the trials of minor league soccer team the San Fernando Valley Quakes and its owner.

The Quakes play at 7:05 p.m. today at Calabasas High.

In Barbados, the U.S. Men's National Team is trying to stay focused on the task at hand. The game is at noon on ESPN Classic (opposite the 11:30 a.m. Spain-Italy Euro 2008 quarterfinal on ESPN one should note).

This weekend's World Cup qualifying so far.

In other PDL games, the Ventura County Fusion beat the Fresno Fuego Saturday (and Friday).

Other PDL scores:
San Francisco Seals 2 Los Angeles Legends 3
Orange County Blue Star 2 Lancaster Rattlers 4
San Francisco Seals 2 Southern California Seahorses 0
Lancaster Rattlers 2 Bakersfield Brigade 1

W-League:
Ventura County Fusion 0 Fort Collins Force 2

WPSL
Ajax America Women 1 West Coast FC 3
Claremont Stars 0 Los Angeles Rampage 3

I'm on Barbados time, so late blogging this morning.

The Galaxy face the Crew at steamy Home Depot Center (7:30 p.m. live on Prime) later today. Game previews are here and here.

The U.S. women (narrowly) won the Peace Cup overnight.

On the men's side, CONCACAF World Cup qualifying resumes this weekend. The U.S. is in Barbados for the second leg where the weather is typically tropical.

Back with more tonight from Carson.

Bob Bradley named his squad today for the irrelevant return World Cup qualifying leg in Barbados Sunday (caps and goals are in parentheses): goalkeepers Dominic Cervi (out of contract: 0/0), Brad Guzan (Chivas USA: 1/1 SO), Chris Seitz (Real Salt Lake: 0/0); defenders Carlos Bocanegra (out of contract: 12/1), Dan Califf (FC Midtjylland: 1/0), Jay DeMerit (Watford FC: 0/0), Drew Moor (FC Dallas: 0/0) Oguchi Onyewu (Standard de Liege: 8/0), Heath Pearce (Hansa Rostock: 1/0); mikdfielders DaMarcus Beasley (Glasgow Rangers: 15/4), Michael Bradley (SC Heerenveen: 1/1), Sacha Kljestan (Chivas USA: 0/0), Eddie Lewis (Derby County: 18/2), Danny Szetela (Brescia: 0/0), John Thorrington (Chicago Fire: 0/0; forwards Freddy Adu (SL Benfica: 1/0), Chad Barrett (Chicago Fire: 0/0), Chris Rolfe (Chicago Fire: 0/0).

Out: Tim Howard continues to rehabilitate a lower back sprain suffered prior to the Barbados match. Eddie Johnson is ill.

Even if the lopsided score of the first leg meant Bradley didn't have to name his strongest squad, it was still a huge achievement for John Thorrington to win a recall with his fine form this term after almost quitting the game due to chronic injuries.

The above stats for Thorrington, who grew up on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, are wrong by the way. John played 19 minutes as a sub in a game against Ecuador in 2001, according to my 2008 U.S. MNT media guide (and confirmed by John). He said he had "fond memories of the experience."

"The good times are that much sweeter because a year ago I wasn't even playing. I'm certainly not going to get carried away with it. It is what it is."

Meanwhile, USC's latest NCAA champion teams will visit the White House Tuesday. The USC women's golf and soccer teams each captured NCAA titles in the past year, bumping the total of national titles claimed by USC teams to 108.

U.S. Women's National Team Coach Pia Sundhage will name the Olympic team Monday,

The U.S. Women are playing Canada in the Peace Cup final as I write this: the score is 0-0.

So my wife is taking the day off work to watch the Portugal-Germany Euro 2008 quarterfinal (11:30 a.m. ESPN).

I'm going to work in part because of tonight's Chivas USA-Chicago Fire game at Home Depot Center (7 o'clock ESPN2).

What's wrong with this picture?

A preview of the MLS game tonight is here.

Meanwhile, as U.S. Coach Bob Bradley tries mightily to persuade MLS clubs to release players for the largely pointless second leg of the World Cup qualifier Sunday against Barbados, names are filtering out although the complete squad apparently won't be released until Friday.

There have already been Chris Seitz and Danny Szetela sightings at the U.S. camp in Florida and the Chicago Tribune's Luis Arroyave is now reporting on his blog that a trio of Fire players including John Thorrington (Chadwick School) and Chad Barrett (UCLA) will join the team after the Chivas USA game.

Over in Galaxyland there have been sightings in Carson of the mercurial Clint Mathis, former Dutch international Edgar Davids and um, Brian Perk. More at the official Galaxy blog.

Meanwhile, I had hoped to ignore this one (much as I did the baseless rumors about a certain Brazilian joining the team - I'll let you guess the name).

The only problem with the story?

Galaxy officials told me Wednesday they don't have a player with a Brit wife. Except David Beckham. And he's too busy selling underwear to go to mighty Scunthorpe.

Lastly, as expected, the U.S. women beat Italy 2-0 overnight in Korea and advances to Saturday's Peace Cup final against Canada. More here.

Chivas USA learned Tuesday they will play their third group game in SuperLiga against the New England Revolution at 5 p.m. Sunday July 20 at Cal State Fullerton's Titan Stadium.

If I recall correctly, Cal State Dominguez Hills, upon whose land Home Depot Center sits, restricts the number of games on "week nights" on campus and Chivas USA came up against a number game.

Of course, the Chivas USA SuperLiga game against an American opponent will draw fewer fans than those against Mexican teams.

Chivas USA probably could play the game at the HDC's Track & Field Stadium and comfortably accommodate all fans. But then the lights would bug the neighbors and that's a no-no, too.

From the (edited) Chivas USA press release:

Chivas USA opens its participation in the 2008 SuperLiga on Sunday, July 13, facing Santos Laguna, the current champions of the Mexican First Division, at Home Depot Center. The Red-and-White will then face 2008 CONCACAF Champions Cup winner Pachuca, also at Home Depot Center, on July 16.

Chivas USA hosts Cuauhtémoc Blanco and Chicago live at 7:30 p.m. Thursday on ESPN2.

Meanwhile, the Deseret News caught up with former Real Salt Lake defender Cary Talley (presumably before he was nailed for the lone and winning goal his old team scored against Chivas USA last weekend) here.

After demolishing Barbados 8-0 Sunday in Carson, U.S. Soccer apparently decided not to continue to piss off some MLS teams and released 10 players from the squad ahead of Sunday's return World Cup qualifying leg against Barbados.

From the (edited) U.S. Soccer press release:

The 10 departed players are Brian Ching (Houston Dynamo), Clint Dempsey (Fulham FC), Steve Cherundulo (Hannover 96), Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy), Brad Guzan (Chivas USA), Frankie Hejduk (Columbus Crew), Maurice Edu (Toronto FC), Sacha Kljestan (Chivas USA), Pablo Mastroeni (Colorado Rapids) and Matt Reis (New England Revolution).

Six out of the 10 players started in Sunday's first leg match against Barbados and three players notched five of the eight U.S. goals. Dempsey's goal put his name in the record books, scoring the fastest goal for the U.S. in FIFA World Cup qualifying history, just 53 seconds into the match.

Answer to Monday's trivia question from the (edited) U.S. Soccer press release:

Former president of the U.S. Soccer Federation Werner Fricker was honored during a ceremony on Sunday before the U.S. Men's National Team's World Cup qualifying match against Barbados.

A memorial located at the northeast corner of Mooch Myernick Field at Home Depot Center was unveiled during the ceremony. U.S. Soccer President Sunil Gulati unveiled the bronze bust and presented a commemorative plaque to Werner Fricker's children: Werner Fricker Jr., Marlene Fricker and Janet Malofiy (nee Fricker).

Werner Fricker, who passed away in 2001, served as President of the U.S. Soccer Federation from 1984 to 1990, during which time he led the successful bid to obtain the 1994 World Cup for the United States.

Fricker was born in Yugoslavia and raised in Austria, but emigrated to the United States with his family in 1952. He lived his adult life in Pennsylvania, where he was a star midfielder and captain for the United German Hungarians of Philadelphia soccer club from 1954 to 1969, leading the team to the National Amateur Cup in 1965.

He was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame in Oneonta, N.Y., in 1992.

The opening round of World Cup qualifying last weekend prompted me to take a look at the differences between the U.S. and Mexico given the disparate results the two nations achieved.

Read my weekly column here.

The U.S. Women's National Team, playing overnight in South Korea, notched its second successive victory at the Peace Cup with a 1-0 win over Brazil. USC striker Amy Rodriguez scored the winner just before half time. It was the first game between the two nations since the U.S. lost to Brazil 4-0 at last year's World Cup.

Next up for the U.S. in its final group game in the tournamant: Italy.

Here's a selection of post-game quotes from the U.S.-Barbados World Cup qualifier (and no, none from Coach Bob Bradley - he's a terrible quote):

Brian Ching on the importance of the opening goal in the first minute:

Clint (Dempsey) opened them up in the first minute. ... We capitalized on that the rest of the game."

Landon Donovan on the quick free kick that led to the goal:

"We don't want to wait for the whistle. (The referee) got the ball and makes sure you are set. He said 'you can play if you want.' It's a freebie. We'll take it."

On the progression of the game:

"We felt confident as the game wore on fitness would be an issue. With each goal it gets a little easier because they die a little more. We didn't want to go (to Barbados) having any doubts."

DaMarcus Beasley on the team's progress:

"We're starting to know each other much better. We're not the finished product yet. ... We're supposed to win these games decisively. We're not going to get a false sense of hope."

Clint Dempsey on the same subject:

"We're moving in the right direction as a team, but it's difficult to score against the best teams in the world," he said. "We'd like to score more goals against those kinds of teams.

Quote of the night goes to Dempsey:

"We've got to Barbados and make sure we don't get beat 9-0."

The U.S., by the way, leaves Southern California Monday and travels to Miami where they'll train before leaving for Barbados.

The second leg of the two-game series against Barbados will be played noon Sunday at the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados live on ESPN Classic.

Here's a roundup from CONCACAF of today's World Cup qualifiers.

The U.S. will likely face Guatemala, Cuba and the winner of Bermuda-Trinidad & Tobago in the next round.

Read about what Landon Donovan is celebrating here.

U.S. lineup: 18-Brad Guzan; 6-Steve Cherundolo, 5-Oguchi Onyewu, 3-Carlos Bocanegra, 15-Heath Pearce; 10-Landon Donovan (9-Eddie Jonson, 81), 12-Michael Bradley, 4-Pablo Mastroeni (16-Freddy Adu, 26), 17-DaMarcus Beasley; 11-Brian Ching, 8-Clint Dempsey (7-Eddie Lewis, 72).
Subs not used: 1-Matt Reis, 2-Frankie Hejduk, 13-Maurice Edu, 14-Danny Calif.

The U.S. got its biggest ever win in Carson today, hammering a largely helpless Barbados 8-0, with Brian Ching (almost) netting a hat trick. They gave "his" second goal to an unfortunate Barbados defender for an own goal.

The U.S. must still visit the island nation for the second leg of course, but that will be largely an obligatory exercise and not much more.

Landon Donovan got the fourth (and the 36th of his U.S. career) direct from a quickly taken free kick that took Barbados by surprise in the 59th minute.

Dempsey made it 5-0 four minutes later, sliding home a rebound from 12 yards after Ching had a shot blocked.

The sixth came from an Eddie Johnson header one minute after coming on as a sub for Landon Donovan. He now has 12 goals in 36 games for the U.S.

Brian Ching got the last two, the final goal coming just one minute from the end of regulation time.

More from the dreaded mixed zone later.

The U.S. leads 3-0 after the first 45 minutes and while it's not exactly shooting practice, this can hardly be construed as a competitive game either.

The U.S. went ahead after just 54 seconds, Carlos Bocanegra crossing to Clint Dempsey for the easy goal with Barbados still mentally snoozing on a Caribbean beach.

The U.S. made it two after 13 minutes, a toe poke from Brian Ching being blocked and Michael Bradley following up for the goal.

The third duly followed in the 20th minute, a 21-yard shot from Pablo Mastroeni deflecting off Ching who was in the penalty area. Ching didn't know much about it, but got credit for the goal.

The U.S. eased up after that, playing possession soccer and patiently awaiting the inevitable Barbadan defensive breakdowns.

Mastroeni came off in the 26th minute, apparently with a muscle strain in his left leg and was replaced by Freddy Adu.

The lone "concern" for Coach Bob Bradley: an unnecessary yellow card given to defender Oguchi Onyewu for a bit of argy bargy with Barbados playmaker Norman Forde, who also got a yellow.

For those keeping count at home: the U.S. leads 10-2 in shots.

Gorgeous afternoon and a sparse (but hopefully enthusiastic crowd, observe U.S. Soccer officials) for this afternoon's game in Carson.

Turns out goalkeeper Tim Howard hurt his lower back during practice Friday, which is why Chivas USA goalkeeper Brad Guzan earns his eighth cap.

The rest of the starting line-up for the U.S.: at full back are Steve Cherundolo and Heath Pierce, while Oguchi Onyewu and Carlos Bocanegra are in the middle.

In midfield, it's Pablo Mastroeni, Landon Donovan, Michael Bradley and DaMarcus Beasley.

Up front are Brian Ching and Clint Dempsey.

Coach Bob Bradley has thankfully left the misfiring Eddie Johnson on the bench alongside Freddy Adu.

The Barbados team is littered with the likes of midfielder Jonathan Forte (Scunthorpe United) and Jonathon Nurse (Dagenham & Redbridge) from the lower divisions in England.

The man to keep your eye on for Barbados: playmaker and captain Norman Forde.

Landon Donovan is being honored before the game after collecting his century of caps.

The game is on ESPN2.

It starts here.

Did that get you in the mood for today's U.S.-Barbados qualifier at Home Depot Center?

The game begins at 2 p.m. live on ESPN2 and Galavision.

Here's a game preview from the U.S. perspective and another from the view of Barbados wherein we learn the name of Barbados' playmaker: Norm.

Here's an update on the rest of the CONCACAF World Cup qualifiers this weekend, including four goals by Galaxy striker Carlos Ruiz for Guatemala against St. Lucia.

Meanwhile, Galaxy striker Edson Buddle was similarly pumping in the goals - but for L.A. in Oakland Saturday against the Earthquakes.

Well taken goals, too, judging by the highlights.

Of course, the largest crowd ever to see an Earthquakes game in the Bay Area didn't come to see Buddle - or San Jose for that matter.

Game story here.

Happy Father's Day.

I'll rejoin you later from Victoria Street.

Distracted as I am with Euro 2008 and this morning's compelling Spain-Sweden game, there's plenty of soccer to watch this Father's Day weekend and the difficult part will be taking it all in.

Let's try.

The Galaxy are on the road in San Jose where the Earthquakes will actually play at the Oakland Coliseum, which is much larger than Buck Shaw Stadium.

A large contingent of Galaxy fans took a bus up to the Bay Area, but hopefully won't spend the game playing spot the striker.

Fans who didn't make the bus will meet at Grunions Sports Bar in Manhattan Beach at at 7 p.m. to watch the game.

Meanwhile, on a decidedly more sober (literally) note former Galaxy midfielder Santino Quaranta details the excruciating depths he plumbed while in L.A. (and elsewhere) in this bare-all account.

Sadly, it's clear the pill popping and boozing (which was suspected by most of us in the press box) accounted for his erratic form while with the Galaxy. At least he's alive.

Chivas USA is similarly challenged with its starting line-up, but at least they're facing a team in Real Salt Lake that have a woeful record at Home Depot Center. Goalkeeper Brad Guzan will suit up for two games in two days though, while Jonathan Bornstein returns.

Incidentally, a special Kid's Pack is available that starts at just $14. For each adult ticket purchased, one child aged (16 or under) gets into the match free.

Coverage begins at 7 p.m. on FSN.

Sacha Kljestan is among the missing for Chivas USA, since he is on national team duty and gave this interview to the MNT blog.

What with the Lakers, the U.S. Open, Father's Day and Trucks Cool City Customs 200 (ahem) going on this weekend, an embarrassingly low crowd is expected for Sunday's U.S.-Barbados match at the HDC so let's pander to the huge expat Barbados population locally: here's your team, lads. Meanwhile, Barbados is as short on depth judging by this help wanted ad as the U.S. is on fans.

In women's soccer news, the international class of Tiffeny Milbrett showed Friday night as she pulled out all the offensive stops for the Vancouver Whitecaps in their W-League victory over the Ventura County Fusion.

In the PDL Friday, the Southern California Seahorses lost 2-0 to the San Jose Frogs.

Very quickly this morning:
*With the Galaxy on the road against intrastate rivals the San Jose Earthquakes Saturday (7 p.m. live on Fox Soccer Channel), Chivas USA takes center stage locally with a game against Real Salt Lake at Home Depot Center.

A preview from the official Chivas USA blog is here.

Chivas USA, still seeking to draw fans, has a ticket deal for the game.

*Meanwhile, CONCACAF begins World Cup qualifying this weekend and in addition to the U.S.-Barbados game at Home Depot Center Sunday (plenty of tickets are still available) there's a full slate of action.

Mexico's game against Belize airs at 1:30 p.m. on KVEA.

*In the WPSL there are four local games this weekend with Ajax America Women meeting the San Diego WFC SeaLions at noon Saturday at Nansen Field in Rolling Hills Estates and the Claremont Stars at home at 2 p.m. Sunday.

The Los Angeles Rampage also host a pair of games: West Coast FC at 7. p.m. Saturday in Granada Hills and SD United at 6 p.m. Sunday.

*In the W-League former U.S. Women's National Team star Tiffeny Milbrett and the Vancouver Whitecaps visit the Ventura County Fusion tonight.

The Whitecaps also play the Pali Blues 1 p.m. Sunday at Palisades High School.

*Lastly, in the PDL Saturday, the Fresno Fuego visit Orange County Blue Star at 5 p.m. at Concordia University.

Have a great weekend and if you can't make it out to a game, I'll be blogging from both the Chivas USA and U.S. games so check back for more details.

The 21-man squad for Sunday's game against Barbados is exactly the same as the 19-man squad named for the Argentina game with the addition of Houston Dynamo striker Brian Ching (rewarded for his five goals and three assists in 12 MLS games so far this season) and defender Carlos Bocanegra.

That means goalkeeper Brad Guzan and midfielder Sacha Kljestan of Chivas USA and the Galaxy's Landon Donovan all retain their places, as does Fontana's Maurice Edu.

Unfortunately, that also means AWOL striker Eddie Johnson retains his place, despite the U.S. failing to score in any of its last three games.

The full squad with caps and goals in parentheses: goalkeepers Dominic Cervi (out of contract: 0/0), Brad Guzan (Chivas USA: 0/0), Tim Howard (Everton FC: 3/2 SO); defenders Carlos Bocanegra (out of contract: 11/1), Dan Califf (FC Midtjylland: 1/0), Steve Cherundolo (Hannover 96: 14:0), Jay DeMerit (Watford FC: 0/0), Frankie Hejduk (Columbus Crew: 11/1), Oguchi Onyewu (Standard de Liege: 7/0), Heath Pearce (Hansa Rostock: 0/0); midfielders Freddy Adu (SL Benfica: 0/0), DaMarcus Beasley (Glasgow Rangers: 14/4), Michael Bradley (SC Heerenveen: 0/0), Maurice Edu (Toronto FC: 0/0), Sacha Kljestan (Chivas USA: 0/0), Eddie Lewis (Derby County: 17/2), Pablo Mastroeni (Colorado Rapids: 9/0); forwards Brian Ching (Houston Dynamo: 6/2), Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy: 20/7), Clint Dempsey (Fulham FC: 7/0), Eddie Johnson (Fulham FC: 7/7).

Seven of the players on the roster started the last U.S. World Cup game two years ago against Ghana, but eight players have never played in a World Cup qualifier.

The team began training in Carson today.

Thoughts?

Tuesday's column combines your basic World Cup qualifying primer with a look at the U.S. progress internationally since the last qualifier in the LA area almost 20 years ago.

Read it here.

The U.S. roster for the game will be announced later today by the way.

Just a quick post between Euro 2008 games (and let's hope today's second match between Holland and Italy is a helluva lot more compelling than the drab France-Romania encounter that just ended) to wrap up the weekend.

A 10-man U.S. held No. 1-ranked Argentina to a scoreless draw Sunday in New York in it's last game before World Cup qualifying begins Sunday in Carson.

Notable:
*Argentina was held to zero shots on goal in the second half.
*Pablo Mastroeni was ejected in the 70th minute after receiving a second yellow card for "unsporting behavior" when teammate Maurice Edu was also given a yellow for an aggressive take down.

Quotable:

"I think we're getting stronger," said Coach Bob Bradley. "We are understanding what it takes to play in the better games. The first half we had to deal with a lot tactically, and Tim Howard of course made some very big saves. The second half we showed some real resolve, both handling the red card and adjusting to different things tactically at different times. It means that at the end we feel very good about getting a result tonight. We feel good about the depth that we have and these are things that we are building to put is in the right direction."

The U.S. lineup: 1-Tim Howard; 6-Steve Cherundolo, 22-Oguchi Onyewu (23-Jay DeMerit, 61), 5-Danny Califf, 15-Heath Pearce (7-Eddie Lewis, 78); 4-Michael Bradley (26-Maurice Edu, 46), 25-Pablo Mastroeni; 8-Clint Dempsey (19-Freddy Adu, 61), 10-Landon Donovan (capt.), 17-DaMarcus Beasley (2-Frankie Hejduk, 91+); 9-Eddie Johnson (12-Sacha Kljestan, 74). Subs not used: 18-Brad Guzan.

I'll have more in my weekly column Tuesday about the start of World Cup qualifying, incidentally.

Meanwhile, in local PDL and W-League action, the San Fernando Quakes came from behind to win, while the Ventura County men and women both won.

In other PDL games this weekend it was:
Fresno Fuego 4 Lancaster Rattlers 1
Los Angeles Legends 2 San Jose Frogs 1
Orange County Blue Star 0 Bakersfield Brigade 2

In the W-League:
Pali Blues 2 Fort Collins Force 1
Pali Blues 5 Real Colorado Cougars 1

More than 70,000 are expected at Giant's Stadium for today's game against the world's top-ranked team and wunderkid Lionel Messi in the final test for the U.S. before World Cupqualifying begins next weekend in Carson.

If you can't get up for this, you're not a fan.

But it's a daunting task: Argentina tuned up for the game by thrashing Mexico 4-1 in front of 68,498 fans in San Diego.

Preview here and more details from the U.S. men's National Team blog here.

Kickoff is at 4:30 p.m. on ESPN Classic.

U.S. Soccer noted:
*Kenny Cooper, Landon Donovan, Drew Moor and Chivas USA midfielder Sacha Kljestan are the four additions to the roster from the England match, while Carlos Bocanegra, former Galaxy forward Nate Jaqua and Josh Wolff were released. Bocanegra and Wolff were excused for family commitments. Cooper and Moor were added late, arriving on Saturday and bringing the roster to 21.

*Four-time World Cup veteran Kasey Keller will be recognized prior to the Argentina match to honor the achievement of reaching 100 caps. Currently with 102 appearances to his credit, this is the first match on U.S. soil that Keller has been available to be recognized since reaching the milestone in the USA's 2-1 win against Canada on June 21, 2007, in the semifinal of the Gold Cup.

*Chivas USA goalkeeper Brad Guzan has logged more than 20,000 air miles since May 24 flying back and forth from the U.S. to Europe for club and country duty.

Croatia just beat Austria 1-0 by the way with a suspect penalty call (although Croats will disagree).

David Beckham is back, but Landon Donovan is not for tonight's Galaxy game against the Rapids at Home Depot Center.

Revenge is on some minds.

Kick off is at 7:30 p.m. on FSN.

Televised soccer. Live soccer. European soccer. Domestic soccer. Club soccer. International soccer.

There's something for everyone this weekend and the biggest challenge will be finding time to take it all in. Let's take the plunge.

Euro 2008 begins Saturday with two games: co-hosts Switzerland play the Czech Republic with coverage beginning at 8:30 a.m. on ESPN Classic (and repeated at 1:30 a.m. Saturday on ESPN2); at 11:30 a.m. it's Portugal (with Manchester United's sublime Cristiano Ronaldo) and Turkey on the same channel (repeated at 11:30 p.m.).

No time to watch the games? There's a highlight show at 4 p.m. on ESPN Classic. Game times (if not channels) will remain consistent throughout the tournament, by the way.

I'll be back later today with Chivas USA's Swiss defender Raphael Wicky on his nation's chances in the game and the tournament.

The game with the biggest local interest? The 8:30 a.m. Sunday Austria-Croatia match.

The pick of the weekend's games? The 11:30 a.m. Sunday Germany-Poland encounter, a rematch from the 2006 World Cup you'll recall and what amounts to a derby game between the neighboring nations.

I asked German native Sigi Schmid about Germany's chances when the Crew were in town the other weekend and I'll post that conversation sometime Saturday.

In MLS action, the Galaxy are at home at 7:30 p.m. Saturday against Colorado at Home Depot Center. Your faithful blogger will be there.

The U.S. Men's National Team takes on No. 1-ranked Argentina at 4:30 p.m. Sunday on ESPN Classic in the final tune-up before World Cup qualifying begins.

Tonight in the PDL, the San Fernando Quakes host the Lancaster Rattlers at Calabasas High. Kick off is at 7:05 p.m.

The Quakes need a win; they lost Wednesday to Orange County Blue Star.

In other local PDL games, the Fresno Fuego visit the Lancaster Rattlers at 7 p.m. Saturday at Pete Knight High and the Los Angeles Legends go up against the Ventura County Fusion at 7:30 p.m. at Buena High.

That latter game in Ventura in actually a doubleheader, as the two teams' W-League outfits take to the field at 5 p.m.

Finally, Jorge Flores didn't score Thursday for Chivas USA, but he's still getting noticed.

And in case you missed it earlier this week, here's the Euro 2008 bracket:

Enjoy the weekend.

The U.S. plays fourth-ranked Spain in a couple of hours.

Note to armchair viewers: the game is delayed until 2:30 p.m. on ESPN2 and 4 p.m. on Galavision.

The U.S. will hope to capitalize on Spain's defensive "issues," while keeping a clean sheet at the other end.

In other European news, the BBC took a look inside the head of former MetroStars player (and now Italy coach) Roberto Donadoni ahead of Euro 2008.

Lastly, apologies to ESPN analyst Tommy Smyth, whose name I managed to mangle in Tuesday's column. I owe you a Guinness, Tommy.

Soccer fans will be inviting ESPN's soccer analyst Tommy Smyth into their homes beginning Saturday when Euro 2008 begins so it seemed appropriate to chat with him for today's column in the Daily News, Daily Breeze and Long Beach Press-Telegram..

The colorful Smyth will work with usual booth partner Derek Rae (ESPN have also signed former Scottish pro Andy Gray up as an analyst for the month-long competition, by the way).

I'll have more on Euro 2008 throughout the week including the views of some locals like longtime South Bay resident and now Columbus Crew coach Sigi Schmid.

*In other news, the Galaxy's Landon Donovan pulled out of the U.S. friendly against Spain (as did West Ham's Jonathan Spector, by the way) and is listed as questionable for this weekend's game against the Rapids.

*Chivas USA learned its third and final SuperLiga opponent Sunday when Santos Laguna captured Mexico's Clausura championship with a 3-2 aggregate win over Cruz Azul. Chivas USA also plays Pachuca and the New England Revolution.

*UCLA goalkeeper Val Henderson and midfielder Tina DiMartino have been called into the U.S. Under-23 camp that opens Thursday at Home Depot Center. The team will play scrimmages against the W-League's Ventura County Fusion on June 9 and the Pali Blues on June 11.