Top Stories

Thursday West Coast Roundup

Brian_ching_isiphotoscom

                                                                      Photo by ISIphotos.com

(On a night when the LA Galaxy and Chivas USA meets in a battle for first place in the West, here is the second installment of SBI’s new segment, the West Coast Roundup. SBI correspondent Odeen Domingo shares a few news nuggets from the West Side of the country with us.)

Ching to Seattle expansion team?

Brian Ching might be heading to Seattle and he may bring Dynamo teammates Craig Waibel and Mike Chabala (former Washington Huskies) with him.

Ching, who played collegiately at Gonzaga in Spokane, Wash., was a Sounder for two seasons (in 2001 and 2002) as Seattle’s top scorer before signing with San Jose.

Could he go back to play in the rain?

Well, he didn’t say no.

A Sebastien Le Toux-Brian Ching combination would be fun to watch.

Don’t rule it out with the Dynamo likely to see several departures at the end of the season. Dwayne De Rosario, Ricardo Clark, Brad Davis and maybe even Pat Onstad could be leaving the club for another (MLS or abroad) after the season. Or the next.

Real Salt Lake to host 2009 MLS All-Star Game

With Real Salt Lake’s Triple-S (Soccer Specific Stadium. Yeah, you saw it here first.) set to open in October, The Mormon State has been awarded the 2009 MLS All-Star Game.

Hopefully the sparkling, brand new 20,000-seater will be host to an international club a little more prestigious than West Ham United.

Like maybe these guys.

Yes, Green Street Hooligans, we know the Hammers aren’t a trash team and have a celebrated history slightly better than MK Dons, but here’s hoping the MLS is able to lure a more world-renowned club for the 14th rendition of the MLS All-Star Game.

Otherwise, what’s the point?

BMO Field will be filled to the heavens in this season’s version of the mid-summer classic no matter which non-MLS team steps on the field. But if West Ham was to play at another Triple-S, say at Commerce City or even at the HDC, it’s doubtful the stadium would illuminate the “no” on its vacancy sign.

In other RSL news, Real Salt Lake lost something called the Xango Cup to Santos Laguna, 4-1, on Wednesday at Rice-Eccles Stadium.

A mostly reserve squad, led by young goalkeeper Chris Seitz and even younger winger Alex Nimo (who scored in the 69th minute), couldn’t hold off the Mexican Clausura champions.

RSL, which leads the league in funny-named friendlies, will host another international exhibition on July 23 against Costa Rica’s Deportivo Sparissa in something called the Pioneer Day Fireworks Festivities.

What do you think of the MLS All-Star Game heading to Sandy, Utah? Does the MLS need to make up for this year’s matchup and bring in a team like ManU?  Will Brian Ching succumb to the lure of living near 10 Starbucks coffeeshops within a 100-foot radius?

Comments

  1. Thanks for the sources, Tom, but the Trib article is severely outdated and the LDS church is of course going to skew their numbers (The % jumped up 10% from the trib article in 3 years? How’s that?) The church claims those numbers based off of attributing people to church who are no longer active or was never involved in the first place. It could be their parents were/are active or they were baptized and a young age but haven’t attended in their adult life.

    I’m living in Utah, and I can tell you that the LDS faith is not the majority, and least in Salt Lake City.

    Reply
  2. I can’t say its the LAST thing I want, but I am not a huge fan of having Jaqua come to our expansion team. I can’t put too fine a point on why I don’t like him, I just don’t like his style of play and I hope that the Sounders decide to play a more attractive style.

    That being said, Ching isn’t the most graceful attacker either. I would like to see a few wings with pace and creativity, and then use a DP on an attacking mid. Is that too much to ask?

    Reply
  3. sorry frank. was just stating that it’d be a big blow for houston, not necessarily saying they deserve more/less sympathy, compared to other teams.

    for what it’s worth, i was disappointed that SJ lost a shot at mcbride’s rights over peguero.

    Reply
  4. So essentially, you are saying that one (or maybe a few) of Ching, Waibel, Chabala, DeRosario, Clark, Davis, and Onstad might or might not be playing with Houston in the next few years.

    In other breaking news, an Eastern Conference team might make the MLS Cup final, a top 4 EPL team will probably win the 2008-09 league title, and David Beckham quite possibly will be asked to sign autographs during the MLS All-Star game.

    Reply
  5. javier- ’bout houston who cares?! as a quakes fan try having a team w/ none of those players. oh , that’s right we do and we’re last! they will finally have to follow a team built from average players. oh i can’t wait!!!!

    Reply
  6. I know this may cause severe shock and awe to all of those who have never taken the time to actually learn about or, god forbid, visit Utah. But I actually take a pretty big exception to the phrase “The Mormon State” as people of the LDS faith are around 46% of the state’s population. Additionally, downtown Salt Lake is actually known for being liberal and non-Mormon – it just happens to be the outlying cities that still maintain majority faith. No, no, it’s cool… keep stereotyping an entire state. We’re used to it.

    Reply
  7. ouch. is Triple-S up for vote? i vote no.

    anyway, brazilian midgets are awesome. on the other hand, Houston in danger of losing those 4 guys would not be awesome for them. they’re a smart organization, but losing 3 or 4 of those guys in a short period of time (especially if one is DeRose), would be hard to bounce back from.

    Reply
  8. My hopes for the ASG are that they cancel that retarded injury waiting to happen cash grab even and just give the players a week off instead.

    If they wanna name a league ‘Best XI of the first half’ fine but dump the game it’s dumb especially with the boring and often underachieving clubs coming out to play.

    Reply
  9. It’s called the Xango Cup because Xango is RSL’s sponsor. They are a juice company. Pioneer Day is July 24th in Utah, the day Utah got statehood. Santos played their top squad as they are preparing for the Superliga. RSL played their 2nd and 3rd string players. The stadium isn’t even 20 minutes from SLC. More like 15 at most. There’s transit via rail that’s only a few minutes walk to the stadium. The stadium now has it’s grass and is over 80% completed.

    Reply
  10. Jaqua to Seattle = probable

    Ching to Seattle = Ching/DeRo/Davis/Clark/whole team to San Jose

    or if you didn’t catch that, laughable without some huge move going down

    Reply
  11. Haha, nice Death Cab reference in there. But seriously, West Ham? Not a top six club? Not even Newcastle and the obvious beer tie-in? Oh well, at least we get to watch Spector.

    Reply
  12. So happy the “All Star” game is approaching so I can watch my club get bashed for the next few weeks.

    Good times!

    Reply
  13. To David –

    Sandy is 20 mins south of downtown and the stadium is about a 10 minute walk from an above ground mass transit line called TRAX. That walk is comparable to much of the non-premium parking planned for the stadium.

    The field at Rice Eccles stadium has football lines in the fall and spring for the University of Utah football games and spring practice, respectively.

    Reply
  14. And Arkansas is so proud of their native son that they’re still trying to decide what they can name after him. I’ve heard that they haven’t found a trailer park willing to be named after WJC

    😉

    Reply
  15. Where is Sandy in relation to Salt Lake City? Can fans get there by mass transit?

    As someone who only relates to RSL home games by television, I’m just glad that they’ll soon be playing on grass without gridiron lines and graphics (though when RSL first came into existence, they didn’t always have gridiron lines on the field, did they?).

    Reply
  16. btw: the Houston airport is named after Bush the Greater, not Bush the Lesser. even texas wouldn’t name something after mr. 25%

    Reply

Leave a Reply to Graeme Cancel reply