MLS Major League Soccer

This Week in MLS

Published on August 30, 2011 under Major League Soccer (MLS) News Release


International date: 51 MLS players called into national teams

Before the season, Major League Soccer reduced its slate of action for this week because of the two FIFA fixture dates. A total of 51 players representing 19 countries have been called into their respective national teams.

While Jurgen Klinsmann has called in 11 MLS players for his squad's friendlies against Costa Rica and Belgium, Canada and Jamaica are also well-represented. Stephen Hart has seven MLS players in his squad as Canada begins its World Cup qualification campaign, while Jamaica's Theodore Whitmore has called in six MLS players for a friendly in Ecuador.

A complete look at the MLS players on international duty this week:

CANADA (vs. St. Lucia, Sept. 2; at Puerto Rico, Sept. 6)

- Ante Jazic (CHV); Dwayne De Rosario, Dejan Jakovic (DC); André Hainault (HOU); Will Johnson (RSL); Julian de Guzman, Terry Dunfield (TOR)

COSTA RICA (at USA, on Sept. 2; at Ecuador, Sept. 6)

- Michael Umaña (CHV); Roy Miller (NY); Rodney Wallace (POR); Alvaro Saborio (RSL)

CURACAO (vs. Antigua & Barbuda, Sept. 2; vs. Haiti, Sept. 6)

- Javier Martina (TOR)

EL SALVADOR (vs. Dominican Republic, Sept. 2; at Cayman Islands, Sept. 6)

- Steve Purdy (POR); Arturo Alvarez (RSL)

THE GAMBIA (at Namibia, Sept. 4)

- Sanna Nyassi (COL); Kenny Mansally (NE); Mustapha Jarju (VAN)

GUATEMALA (vs. St. Vincent & Grenadines, Sept. 2; at Belize, Sept. 6)

- Marco Pappa (CHI)

HAITI (vs. U.S. Virgin Islands, Sept. 2; at Curaçao, Sept. 6)

- Steward Ceus (COL); James Marcelin (POR); Jean Alexandre (RSL)

HONDURAS (vs. Colombia, Sept. 3; vs. Paraguay, Sept. 6)

- Andy Najar (DC); Carlo Costly (HOU)

IRELAND (vs. Slovakia, Sept. 2; at Russia, Sept. 6)

- Robbie Keane (LA)

ISRAEL (under-21 vs. England, Sept. 5)

- Orr Barouch (CHI)

JAMAICA (at Ecuador, Sept. 2)

- Omar Cummings (COL); Jermaine Taylor, Je-Vaughn Watson (HOU); Shavar Thomas (KC); Dane Richards (NY); Ryan Johnson (TOR)

MEXICO (at Poland, Sept. 2; vs. Chile, Sept. 4; vs. Cameroon, Sept. 7)

- Rafa Marquez (NY)

PUERTO RICO (at St. Kitts and Nevis, Sept. 2; vs. Canada, Sept. 6)

- Terry Boss (SEA)

SENEGAL (vs. DR Congo, Sept. 3)

- Bouna Coundoul (NY)

SIERRA LEONE (vs. Egypt, Sept. 3)

- Kei Kamara (KC)

TANZANIA (vs. Algeria, Sept. 4)

- Nizar Khalfan (VAN)

TRINIDAD & TOBAGO (vs. Bermuda, Sept. 2; at Barbados, Sept. 6)

- Julius James (CLB); Chris Birchall (LA); Keon Daniel (PHI)

USA (vs. Costa Rica, Sept. 2; at Belgium, Sept. 6)

- Heath Pearce (CHV), Jeff Larentowicz (COL), Robbie Rogers (CLB), Bill Hamid (DC); Brek Shea (DAL), Zach Loyd (DAL), Teal Bunbury (KC), Landon Donovan (LA), Tim Ream (NY); Juan Agudelo (NY), Kyle Beckerman (RSL)

VENEZUELA (vs. Guinea, Sept. 6)

- Alejandro Moreno (CHV)

U.S. Open Cup semifinals set for Tuesday

Defending champion Seattle Sounders FC and four-time winners Chicago Fire enjoy home-field advantage when the semifinals of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup are played Tuesday. The matches are not televised, but will be streamed live on www.Chicago-Fire.com (8:30 p.m.) and www.SoundersFC.com (10 p.m.), respectively.

The Fire, who won their most recent of four Open Cups in 2005, meet the Richmond Kickers of USL PRO at Toyota Park. The Fire are coming off back-to-back wins for the first time this season, after a 2-0 win against Colorado last weekend. The Kickers lost 3-0 to Orlando City in the USL PRO semifinals over the weekend; they are bidding to join the 1999 Rochester Rhinos as the only lower-division side to win the Open Cup since the inception of MLS.

Sounders FC, who last year became the first team in nearly 30 years to repeat as Open Cup champions, meet FC Dallas at Starfire Sports Complex in Tukwila, Wash. The teams met in league play just 10 days ago, Mauro Rosales scoring the game's only goal in Seattle's win at CenturyLink Field.

D.C. United vs. Portland Timbers rescheduled for Oct. 19

Because of Hurricane Irene's effect on the East Coast last week, D.C. United will host the Portland Timbers on Wednesday, Oct. 19 at 8 p.m. at RFK Stadium. Tickets from the originally scheduled contest, bearing the date of August 27, will be valid on Oct. 19.

Quotables

"I'm excited about it. It's very difficult to score goals in this league. I don't really mind that it was a penalty kick. A goal's a goal. You ask any of the best players in the world if they would take it and the short answer, I'm sure, would be yes. It's no different for me."

-- Columbus Crew forward Jeff Cunningham, after becoming Major League Soccer's all-time goalscoring leader

"That's why Brek's the man, right? He can win you a game, save you a game any moment. That's why he's Brek Shea right now. When Brek gets the ball, you know he's going to do special things, you work hard, get in the box and hopefully a good thing happens."

-- FC Dallas midfielder Bobby Warshaw, on teammate Brek Shea, after he had two assists in FCD's comeback win at Sporting Kansas City

"Maybe I've stepped on the black cat, or however the saying goes, but we don't seem to get any kind of fortune in games. The last few games, we've played well, but we keep tying."

-- San Jose Earthquakes manager Frank Yallop after his team's winless streak reached 13 games in a 1-1 tie at Toronto FC

"Finally. This year I've had a lot of chances. I've hit the post a few times, missed wide a few times, even in the first half [Saturday]."

-- Vancouver Whitecaps FC midfielder Shea Salinas after scoring his first goal of the season in the 1-0 win vs. Houston

Sweet Tweets

@alexilalas22 - August 23

We can argue about the name, but The North American Soccer Almanac on mlssoccer.com is fun to peruse. bit.ly/pPTI1W

@jonahfreedman - August 24

Not a bad strategy here by Toronto FC in tournament play this year. Negate first-half goal by visitors by staging rain dance at halftime.

@Peter_Nowak - August 26

All right , got to do something useful and start preparing and moving the furniture, lol You all be safe out there .#DOOP

@SoccerByIves - August 27

Has an MLS team ever had a better 12 days than Seattle just had? 4 wins, 2 home blowouts, 2 tough road wins in Dallas & Mexico, 2 CCL wins

@BrekShea - August 28

Can't say more about the KC fans and LIVESTRONG park it was a great experience.... #MLS

@dwaynederosario - August 29

Congrats to Cunningham as he is now MLS' all-time leading scorer...

According to the Elias Sports Bureau: Getting hot at crunch time

When sports fans talk of great closers, Mariano Rivera and John Elway come to mind. But MLS has its own version of a closer, and with less than two months remaining in the regular season it's worth noting some current players who have perennially increased their goal-scoring rate as they approach the finish line.

Topping that list is Dwayne De Rosario, who happens to lead MLS in goals over the past two months. De Rosario has scored 25 goals in 55 games during September and October, more than 50 percent higher than his career scoring rate through the end of August (61 goals in 210 matches). Conor Casey has scored 17 goals in 28 regular-season games from September 1 on, compared to 31 goals in 75 games earlier in the season. And keep an eye on Dane Richards of the Red Bulls, who has found the back of the net seven times in 26 matches in Sept./Oct., an average comparable to the overall career strike rates of Fabian Espindola (23/87) and Amado Guevara (41/153).

Week 25 match previews: Sept. 3-5, 2011 (all times ET)

Saturday, September 3

Real Salt Lake vs. Philadelphia Union, 9 p.m.

- Real concluded a three-game road swing with a 1-0 win at Chivas USA last weekend, stopping a two-game losing skid.

- While the Union did not have a chance to put a stop to their five-game winless run over the weekend, they did play last week - a hard-fought 5-3 win in a friendly against USL PRO affiliate Harrisburg City Islanders on Wednesday, after trailing 2-0 at halftime.

- Real will have influential midfielder Kyle Beckerman available for the match. Called into the U.S. national team, Beckerman will now miss Saturday's friendly against Costa Rica, joining the U.S. for next week's game in Belgium.

- In the first meeting this season, Fabian Espindola's second-half goal canceled out a Keon Daniel strike as the teams shared the points in a 1-1 draw, June 11 at PPL Park.

Monday, September 5

Sporting Kansas City vs. LA Galaxy, 6 p.m.

- Sporting lost for just the second time in their new stadium last weekend, a 3-2 defeat by FC Dallas. Both losses have come with the winning goal being scored in second-half stoppage time.

- While the Galaxy had the weekend off thanks to Hurricane Irene, the visit to Kansas City kicks off a stretch of 24 days where the club will play eight matches, including trips to Costa Rica and Mexico in the CONCACAF Champions League.

- With the weekend league match already postponed before kickoff, Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena was able to play David Beckham and Omar Gonzalez in the Champions League match against LD Alajuelense of Costa Rica - and they combined on the opening goal in the 2-0 victory.

- In the first meeting this season, Landon Donovan scored twice to lead the Galaxy to a 4-1 victory May 14 at The Home Depot Center.

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Major League Soccer Stories from August 30, 2011


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