Photo by ISIphotos.com
Major League Soccer’s winless streak in CONCACAF Champions League is finally over after Dwayne DeRosario played the role of hero for the Houston Dynamo yet again.
DeRosario blasted a 25-yard shot in the 88th minute to give the Dynamo a 2-1 victory against San Francisco FC in CONCACAF Champions League action on Wednesay night.
DeRosario broke the 1-1 tie just 10 minutes after coming on as a substitute for the Dynamo, which remained unbeaten after three group matches with the victory. Houston is now tied with UNAM Pumas in the Champions League Group B with five points.
Here are some other soccer stories to get your Wednesday started:
USA moves past Mexico in FIFA world rankings
THe U.S. men’s national team moved up seven spots in the most recent FIFA World Rankings, climbing past Mexico into 21st place. Mexico is No. 24.
The seven-point climb was the highest in the Top 25, tied with Ukraine’s seven-spot jump to 19th.
Spain expanded its lead at No. 1, ahead of No. 2 Italy.
The biggest tumble in the top 50 was suffered by Scotland, which dropped 10 spots to 26th. Lithuania rode its impressive World Cup qualifying start to a 17-point climb to 37th.
Honduras moved up 10 places to become the third CONCACAF team in the Top 50 with a 50th-place ranking.
West Ham faces another financial crisis
Just a month after seeing its shirt sponsor go bankrupt, West Ham is facing another financial crisis as its chairman, Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson, faces trouble as the Icelandic government has taken over a bank he chaired and was a major investor in.
Gudmundsson has insisted that the crisis involving Icelandic bank Landsbanki will not force him to sell West Ham, but there is growing speculation that the financial troubles, coupled with a recent ruling that could force the club to pay Sheffield United for the Carlos Tevez fiasco, has the London club in danger of slipping into a full-blown financial meltdown. That is unless Gudmundsson steps up and uses the wealth he still has left to keep the Hammers operating in a healthy manner.
Liverpool get good news on Skrtel
The injury to Liverpool defender Martin Skrtel suffered against Manchester City is not as serious as first feared and now it looks as if Skrtel wont need surgery.
Skrtel injured his right PCL, but the injury will be able to heal on its own and he could be back by Christmas. It was first feared that Skrtel would be out for the season.
These are just some of the stories from this morning and last night. Please feel free to share your thoughts on any of these stories, or any other stories from this morning and Tuesday, in the comments section below.
Share your thoughts below.
Montreal wins again in the CCL, dumping Joe Public 4-1.
http://www.setantaus.com/upload/SetantaDotComNA/documents/Pree%20Releases/Setanta_Sports_to_Launch_Soccer_Focused_Channel_on_Cox.pdf
The other possibility with the rankings jump is that some bad losses by the US or some good wins by Mexico may no longer count towards the ranking.
It’s not just recent results that get factored in each time. Older results get taken out of consideration, too.
Which is why teams that haven’t played since the last ranking can have their points change.
Caleb
ummm head to head records aren’t taken into account by FIFA for these rankings and if they were, Mexico would be ranked ahead of Brazil.
I wish people knew what they were talking about before posting.
US played more qualifying games on the road then Mexico has…that will obviously even out over the next month.
Mexico’s loss to Chile is what prompted, in some part, the US jumping up to 21st.
Doesn’t really matter tho, I’d be happy with both the US and Mexico in the top 20.
I think they deserve it.
Guys,
The worst that happens is BG sells the Hammers. Why are people going nuts? There is interest in the club. I can say AS FACT the Birmingham FC owners (Sullivan & Gold) would buy the Hammers (or try to) if they were ever put up for sale. When Terry Brown (OUT!) was owner, they were pretty big shareholders. Gold has openly talked about one day owning the Hammers.
Ummm Is everyone forgetting the U.S.’s record against Mexico as of late???
Ives, you gotta put together a bailout package for the Hammers. The U.S. NEEDS the hammers!
Northax,
Another option is that BG “sells” the club to his son…
northzax,
At this point I’m going to take him on his word. What other choice do I have? The Premiere League wont let him strip the Hammers, just wont happen. They will force them to sell.
Good news for Hammers:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/7659887.stm
At this moment right now, 60% of DC’s salary under the cap is in injured players (Gallardo, Emilio, Fred, Olsen, and as of today Moreno too), three of whom (Gallardo, Fred and Olsen) won’t be seen in any of the three remaining games. So DC’s moving forward with a roster taking up 40% of the cap. DC will be lucky not to get destroyed in every remaining game; but that doesn’t mean they’re not taking anything (MLS season *or* CCL) seriously. They’re just a team that would have serious holes even if everyone were OK, compounded with the second roughest schedule in the history of the league (Houston’s this year is first) and large chunks of the season with 1/4 to 1/3 of the roster out with injury — all three put together makes them a really poor team.
Danny: what’s unclear is just how rich Björgólfur really is today. his single largest asset, Landisbank, was just seized by the government. sure, he owns other things (a brewery, for instance) but how liquid is he at this point? You are talking about an estimated ten percent of his net worth (before this morning) to save the Hammers. Remember, what took down AIG and the others is not that they didn’t have assets, it’s that they didn’t have cash.
and given that he’s already been sentenced to a jail term in Iceland for cooking the books (oh, sorry, ‘irregular accounting practices’) on a previous failure…Iceland isn’t happy that they are begging for money from Russia to save Landisbank, someone’s going to pay for it.
on the US jumping Mexico. that seems strange as they are both perfect in their qualifing groups. Mexico’s group is the more difficult of the two. So unless they are just now figuring in the England, Spain and Argentina games which would seem odd. Not much else has changed.
Glad to see houston is representing the MLS well.
well said, silent e.
Agree….DC is so injury plagued that they are having a difficut time fielding a team and they still have to try and get into the playoffs until they are officially eliminated.
On the other hand, I imagine there is a lot of second guessing the Boswell trade in Kevin Payne’s office…..
I don’t think it is a matter of DC not taking it seriously, they just have fallen apart. They are injury ridden, and are just trying to make the play offs.
I don’t get the FIFA rankings either. Not that I disagree that the US is better than Mexico, but how in the world did they jump Mexico like that? I guess I should just stop paying attention to them like everyone else.
Northax,
We’ll see. The owner is pretty rich, so far just says we’d have to sell in Janurary before we buy. For now I have to trust him, or I’ll cry!
Just because they prioritize the league doesn’t mean the Dynamo don’t take the CL seriously. When playing this many games in this short a time period there is no team in the world that wouldn’t institute some form of player management system. Even Man U doesn’t play the same 11 for every game, and not just because of injury or suspension. Nobody accuses them of not taking the CL seriously. It is, frankly, one of the most important roles of a coach in modern football: crafting the proper lineup for each match, taking into account one’s players’ conditions, the current opponent, future opponents, and goals for the season.
I admit I have yet to watch the second half but certainly during the first half they were playing for the win; there were at least 4 or 5 good chances on goal that didn’t go in.
Northzax, sweeter words have never been uttered.
Sevy – The Dynamo reserves look nothing like this:
Tony Caig, Mike Chabala, Bobby Boswell, Patrick Ianni, Wade Barrett, Brian Mullan (Kyle Brown 56), Ricardo Clark (Richard Mulrooney 46), Stuart Holden, Corey Ashe, Chris Wondolowski, Nate Jaqua (Dwayne De Rosario 78).
I would hardly say Houston took it seriously with the line up they played last night. It looked like their reserves team with a few starters here and there. They did not start playing for the win until DeRo came in.
it’s nice to see one MLS team taking this seriously. good on Houston for carrying the standard. be interesting to see what they will do if they get through and have games during the MLS playoffs.
oh, and Wast Ham is screwed.
Those FIFA rankings are weird. How are we ahead of Paraguay, or.. for that matter how are they way down at 22nd? How is Bulgaria 15th??
Craziness.