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SuperLiga semifina: Pachuca vs. Houston Dynamo (Your Running Commentary)

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Good evening folks. Tonight is the night the Houston Dynamo takes on Pachuca in the SuperLiga semifinals. Can the Dynamo finally beat their rivals from Mexico? Will Miguel Calero work his magic yet again?

If you will be watching tonight’s match (10pm, Telefutura), please feel free to share your thoughts, opinions and some play-by-play in the comments section below. I will try to do some running commentary on the match but can’t promise it yet.

Enjoy the match.

Comments

  1. Re: the offsides

    I do agree the call was close. And I agree with Colin the game may have been very different if Pachuca goes up 1-0. But officiating goes both ways. Linesmen blow offsides calls all the time [in fact I think a British magazine did a study showing it’s basically not humanly possible to always get the call right (too many moving variables involved)]. But I’m still not sure that the refs didn’t get it right this time. It was very close and really hard to tell from the TV replays because the camera angle wasn’t quite right, and they didn’t add that line like they sometimes do. Regardless, Pachuca should have been professionals, ignored the call, and scored a real goal. Instead they pouted and got their a$$es handed to them. They’ve got no one to blame but themselves.

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  2. I think i understand why Cristian is so mad because im black and we experience classless acts of racism regularly but (and i cant believe im saying this) ill try to give houston the benefit and say they didnt mean it. However if of yall played any sports and lost a game like that youd probably do the same thing. Thats why baseball players get thrown out of games all the time cause they feel they have been wronged. And Pachuca knew they were wronged. For all the people saying that Houstons win is confirmed cause they won by 2 thats bull. If that goal counted, houston would have probably been really flustered because they outplayed them and were still losing and from experience you would start flashing back to all the losses to Pachuca ,and think what do we have to do to win? However nobody knows what would have happened then.

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  3. “Torres made the comments after the game yesterday, on live TV.”

    Huh? You mean on Telefutura or somewhere else? I didn’t hear anything in any of the post-game interviews on Telefutura indicating that the Houston players made any racist comments.

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  4. Christian –

    I saw/heard the Torres post-game interview too, and I thought he was talking about having to overcome the racism of the refereeing crew, not the Dynamo; he was saying that “Central Americans” always have it in for Mexican teams. I don’t doubt that both teams were busy talking smack to one another the entire game (every team does), but you’d assume that if it crossed the line into clear racism, there would have been a formal complaint, like Eto etc putting up with monkey chants in La Liga, black English players dealing with the same in Poland, etc. Also, it’s hard to take Torres seriously as a champion of racial justice when he talks about how Central Americans have it in for Mexicans, or when Calero later said the reffing was “typical of Central Americans” (even though the ref here was from T&T, and the linesman Canadian). Implication being that Central Americans are either too stupid/clueless (or shifty) to referee games featuring exalted Mexican teams.

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  5. typical classless mexican losers and whiners. as the game draws to a conclusion, they start fouling the crap out of the dynamo players. how many cards did they pick up in the final five minutes? then, immediately after the game, at least one pachuca player tries to start sh!t, while his teammates and coaches surround the ref. then in a mexican tv interview, the excuses come fast and furious: it was the officiating, it was racism, etc. pura mierda

    what a bunch of losers! i had respect for pachuca before this game. guess they have class when they win, but like most mexicans, they cannot stomach losing to the gringos. well, get used to it, pendejos! hahahahaha

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  6. I watched “Nimo” play in the U-17s and he was pretty quick but he is very slight. Who knows what he will actually be when he is fully grown-up. He is very good on the ball in tight spaces, especially on the by-line but he looks even smaller than Freddy.

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  7. Torres made the comments after the game yesterday, on live TV.

    For all intents and purposes, he’s an american, he’s bilingual, and he experienced racial slurs first hand during the game.

    He didn’t go into much detail but his statement had some weight behind it.

    I’d like to know how MLS/Houston fans feel about this and how they would react if the tables were turned.

    I’m sure you’d have something to say after the game as well.

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  8. I’m trying to find any report of what Torres said. Want to help me? The only thing relatively close to being related to racism that I’m finding is that the team President accused the referee of hating Mexico.

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  9. Zungazan, in all the desperate hand-wringing we Dynamo fans have been engaged in regarding our lack of forwards and our terrible back-up keeper Geoff Cameron’s rookie year has slipped under the radar. Cameron has been a revelation, and each week Dom seems to put him somewhere else surprising and each week he just does the needed work. He won’t win, or even be much considered a candidate for, rookie of the year, but he does deserve that consideration. Also slipping under the radar is how improved Craig Waibel has been, especially in the quality of his long balls and the intelligence of his plays.

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  10. Haig, the Mexican teams were not misled into thinking this tournament’s choice of location would be fair. They knew what the situation was going into the tournament and they accepted the invitations.

    Personally, I have very mixed feelings about the tournament. It is indeed a particularly crass money grubbing tournament (much like the InterToto cup), from the lack of fairness in venue to the time the games are played (9pm on a weeknight? Come on!), to the lack of English language TV coverage. On the other hand, all the games I’ve watched have been great.

    Honestly, in my perfect world the SuperLiga (and InterLiga) would disappear, and the CONCACAF Champions League would be a huge success, with fair venues and passionate play. But I’m not sure that’s possible; I’m not sure that there isn’t too wide a gulf in the quality of club teams in the region. But I plan to cross my fingers and hope for the best. And, most importantly, I plan to attend the games.

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  11. I’m surprised that no one mentioned how well Geoff Cameron played at center back. He did a fine job. At one point I said to myself, “A center back that can shoot?” Now that’s the sh*t. This is a guy to watch for the future. He can play well anywhere.

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  12. Good game to watch and as always everyoen argues from the poles afterward.

    I guess I have to root for Atlante tonight so the final will have any entertainment value whatsoever.

    But, if the Revs do win and they choose toplay this thing in Foxboro someone should lose their job. Sorry Revs fans but if you can’t get more people to turn out you don’t deserve to host.

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  13. It’s “grammar”, grammer. yadda yadda something about throwing rocks and glass houses.

    (Nice girlfriend joke though)

    On a serious note, I think people are wrong to dismiss SuperLiga as a mere marketing ploy. Although it started as a contrived competition, it still has the two best federations in North and central America facing off against one another, raising awareness and passion on both sides. The mediotiempo take is here: http://mediotiempo.com/noticia/61629/dynamo-20-pachuca-el-campeon-fuera/ and the cliff notes are: The ref blew it.

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  14. Any chance of Jose Francisco Torres playing for the US went out the window last night thanks to the Houston players.

    The kid is an american, he’s bilingual, he heard everything the Houston players were saying. He went on TV and said what happened, I’m not making this up or even care really since I’m not a Pachuca fan but some of you guys are really naive.

    When Houston lost against Chivas, Waibel and his thugs went out of their way to kick, push, and yell at Chivas players. THey were frustrated because they were losing, fair enough, but when it’s a Mexican team that is losing and acts like that all the noobs around here want to start classifying them as “classless” or whatever other Euro wanna-be terms you want to use.

    A bit of a double-edge sword eh?

    I’m not disagreeing about the racial slurs going both ways but I’d take Paco Torres’s word over any of you couch-potato, Football Manager playing goons. The thing about it is, Houston was already winning and they STILL kept up with the racial stuff, I mean, what’s the point? They must’ve been trying to instigate something….but NOOOO, MLS teams would never do such a thing. I mean Ricardo Clark didn’t kick Carlos Ruiz like a football, Carlos Bocanegra didn’t lunge in a wild two-footed tackle last year and almost broke Julian DeGuzman’s neck, right?

    Don’t be hypocrites and if you want to criticize bad behavior then do it objectly, not because it’s a “rivalry”.

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  15. Any chance of Jose Francisco Torres playing for the US went out the window last night thanks to the Houston players.

    The kid is an american, he’s bilingual, he heard everything the Houston players were saying. He went on TV and said what happened, I’m not making this up or even care really since I’m not a Pachuca fan but some of you guys are really naive.

    When Houston lost against Chivas, Waibel and his thugs went out of their way to kick, push, and yell at Chivas players. THey were frustrated because they were losing, fair enough, but when it’s a Mexican team that is losing and acts like that all the noobs around here want to start classifying them as “classless” or whatever other Euro wanna-be terms you want to use.

    A bit of a double-edge sword eh?

    I’m not disagreeing about the racial slurs going both ways but I’d take Paco Torres’s word over any of you couch-potato, Football Manager playing goons. The thing about it is, Houston was already winning and they STILL kept up with the racial stuff, I mean, what’s the point? They must’ve been trying to instigate something….but NOOOO, MLS teams would never do such a thing. I mean Ricardo Clark didn’t kick Carlos Ruiz like a football, Carlos Bocanegra didn’t lunge in a wild two-footed tackle last year and almost broke Julian DeGuzman’s neck, right?

    Don’t be hypocrites and if you want to criticize bad behavior then do it objectly, not because it’s a “rivalry”.

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  16. The games are played in the U.S. so that Mexican teams can make American cash.

    That’s all there is to it.

    If you want home and away then wait for the CONCACAF Champion’s League.

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  17. “for those who claim that the tournament was unfair because the game was played in the US”

    Well, it doesn’t make it an unfair tournament, just a meaningless joke. Real competitions play home and away, or at a neutral site, or have an equal chance of either team playing at home (random draw).

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  18. Pachuca got screwed, badly. Had that happened to my team I would have been so pissed off I wouldn’t have slept last night.

    That said, Houston played a good game.

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  19. didn’t take long for someone to pull out the race card. Why is it that everytime a Mexican team loses to an American team the Mexicans resort to thug tactics. Maybe it’s a cultural thing? You know humans versus barbarians. Maybe it’s envy.

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  20. I’m a Houston fan; the game was extremely exciting. I can well recognize that the first goal was incorrectly ruled offside, but I have two questions for those who claim that the tournament was unfair because the game was played in the US with American/MLS referees (yes I’m talking about you alexandre).

    1. Is anything ever truly fair? Pachuca’s stadium is at an altitude of 8000 ft. That’s hardly fair for visitors. Mexican teams have a much higher player budget than MLS teams. Is that fair? Nate Jaqua is 6’3″. Is that fair?

    2. Who is Neil Brizan, the ref for tonight’s game? He is not an MLS referee. He’s not even an American referee–he’s from T&T. I don’t think he was trying to help the Dynamo.

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  21. Pachuca seemed different from the typical Mexican squad . . until they lost.

    I was at the game and the Superliga games are great but I figure this is probably the last year since the Mexican teams are starting to lose in games that are clearly NOT exhibitions to the participants.

    As such, I expect the FMF teams to take their ball and go home.

    By the way, Pachuca escalated the situation greatly after the game and kept after the refs and basically wouldn’t leave the field.

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  22. Christian,

    I had no problem with Torres. His post-match interview was fine. But you’re naive if you think insults weren’t traded back and forth between both teams. I highly doubt that they were just going one way. And in any case, I’m going to rely on what I can see with my own eyes before hearsay. What happened after the match ended was pretty clear. If you still want to call the whole Pachuca team classy after that, that’s fine. I’m just not going to take you seriously. There is racism on both sides of this rivalry. It’s silly to argue otherwise.

    I usually am sympathetic to you when you defend Mexican soccer, but you’re not doing yourself any favors tonight.

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  23. As a Red Bull fan, it’s nice to dream about our team playing in a game like this one day. Of course, 12 years of dreaming gets a little old…

    Congrats Houston. Frankly it was predictable to see the whining and crying at the end of the game. The best part of Houston scoring first is I didn’t have to watch Pachuca players “cramping” up on the field for the remainder of the game. They actually had to continue playing.

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  24. The fact that Mexican teams (club and national) are bad losers is what makes each victory over them that much sweeter.

    If only Eddie Johnson were running by Oswaldo Sanchez . . . ah, the memories.

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  25. Christian,

    I would like to see a press link to Chacho’s comments because he seemed to be pretty cordial with Dom Kinnear after the game.

    I thought he played an excellent game and hope he comes home to play in the MLS one day.

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  26. I’m about 65-35 in favor of the Revs tomorrow over Atlante.

    Which would actually make for a pretty boring final, honestly, what with both the finalists being American clubs.

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  27. Just got back from a great game! I am not too familiar with Pachuca’s team. We dominated the first 20 mins or so and then Pachuca made a switch (was it to the 4-5-1) and then controlled possesion and the run of play. Once Ashe came on Dom switched to a 3-5-2 and controlled the game from then on. Nice adjustment in the last fifteen minutes. I can’t remember the Arg. strikers name for Pachuca (Gimenez?) but seems that was probably the difference between the two sides today.

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  28. I just wanted to mention that it was Bruno Marioni who started the altercation and his teammates stepped in because it’s what teams do but it doesn’t make it right.

    Now all the idiots are going to go on rants about the “dirty” Mexican teams and how “classless” they are.

    Ives if you speak spanish then I’m sure you could’ve read some lips and figured out some of the things Waibel was saying.

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  29. Joamiq:

    Francisco Torres mentioned that the Houston players used racial slurs against Pachuca all game, would you not be pissed not only about the refs but some thugs hurling racial slurs at you through-out the entire game.

    If any of you know anything about Mexican soccer you would know that Pachuca is one of the classiest organizations in Mexico, from the waterboy up to the President. Ricardo Clark went out of his way to shove Enrique Meza, who might just be the nicest guy in the world and has never had an altercation with anybody. Pachuca don’t fight people but when racials slurs and bad refs ruin your chances to win a title, you’re going to be mad.

    What you guys consider physical football sometimes borders on the criminal and I know you guys wouldn’t know the difference because it’s what you’re used to but this is a big reason why nobody outside on this country respects MLS and it’s a shame because it overshadows the growing quality of the league.

    Maybe you should write a story about the Houston players hurling racial slurs at Pachuca Ives but I know you wont because you have to put your own MLS spin on it and if you did, Houston would lose at least half of its fan base.

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  30. I can’t say that Houston didn’t deserve to win. Pachuca controlled possession for a good stretch, but by no means the entire game, and Pachuca could only put away one goal (which of course was disallowed) despite having numerous chances. Meanwhile, the rest of the game Houston had at least as many chances, and put away two.

    Anyway, the field was bad, the reffing was bad, but the competition was excellent. Is it just me or is SuperLiga just much, much, MUCH better than plain old MLS matches?

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  31. Nick, USA-Germany five years ago was tainted, because that game had a 1-0 margin.

    In fact, how the hell could you possibly think otherwise?

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  32. Christian, there’s nothing wrong with being frustrated by officiating. It’s starting altercations like the one at the end of that game which is classless.

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  33. So it’s OK for American/MLS fans and players to be frustrated by bad refs but when the mexican teams do it, it’s a lack of “class” right Ives?

    I mean, at least try to not show your bias Ives, I know it’s your blog but you always have smartass comments regarding Mexican teams and in turn all your fanboys take off and run with said comments, you should show a bit more respect for your Mexican/Mexican-American readers.

    Julio, seriously, it’s bad enough you’re a DC fan but as a Mexican, I don’t appreciate your blatant racism. I don’t care if you’re rooting for your team(even though Houston isn’t really your team but that’s another issue), you don’t have to be such an ass about it.

    The win isn’t tainted by the offside call because Houston still scored more goals but the refs have been pretty bad during the SuperLiga and more often than not, they have done more harm to the Mexican teams. Whatever though, Houston is a great team and they know how to hold down their house and I had a feeling they would pull out a result.

    Good luck to Houston in the final and I have a feeling Atlante will pull out a result tomorrow although that remains to be seen.

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  34. Sounds like it was a good game. I hope then next time we play mexico that it will be as exciting as this one.except without the bad calls and the teams are more evenly matched

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  35. Of course it’s not a tainted win. Greece was outplayed every minute of their euro championship campaign, but nobody calls that title into question. Regardless of who had the better play, Houston won and deserved it.

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  36. As a Dynamo fan, that offsides rule was clearly riduculous and that Pachuca goal should have remained. As for the skirmishes, they were all started by that worthless Marioni (who hasn’t been part of previous Pachuca-Dynamo matches). The rest of the players respect each other and aren’t sore losers. You could see the senior Dynamo and Pachuca players shaking hands while the skirmish was ending after the game. I still respect Pachuca, win or lose, and welcome the rivalry (sans that whiner Marioni).

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  37. I commented that Houston had the upper hand at about the 20 minute mark. I agree that Pachuca controlled minutes 45-70 though and really dominated possession during that stretch.

    I don’t think this is a tainted win, though. Houston had 3 more shots on goal than Pachuca and was the better team for most of the game.

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