Eight Eleven Oh Four

Colorado's Carrierror?

Looking at some A-League stats for this season, I found a very telling one. Chris Carrieri is tied for second in the league in assists with 7 in 23 games played.

And Colorado is not very rapid when it comes to scoring this season -- an MLS low of 0.80 goals per game.

Could it be that no one is passing the ball? Well, let's put it this way. The Rapids leading assist man this season is defender Antonio de la Torre. He has four assists in 19 games played. Last season it was, who else, Carrieri with eight in 30 games played.

Someone pass the Hanki, please.


It's August, but I don't know about April.

Heinrichs that is.

I would really like to see the last five of the old ladies take the gold in Athens. That would be a great way for those that are retiring from international play to say goodbye to that part of their careers. Mia Hamm will be missed on the big stage. Here's hoping the WUSA gets back up and running and starts to build a little success so we can see Mia play some more. Maybe Chicago should have a team now since Nomar is a Cub.

But at the same time, I would like to see April Heinrichs fail again and get terminated from her post as coach of the US Women's National Team. And it's not just that she has lost a World Cup and an Olympic already.

It has to do with the style of play. We no longer take advantage of each player's strengths to attack the other team's weaknesses. It's all power and set pieces. As we saw in the last World Cup, you can't score everything on set pieces. And we were not prepared to play Germany.

Heinrichs is a great trainer. Those ladies will be in great shape. But she is not a great manager or tactician.

It's August. April has come and should be gone in my opinion.


What's going on in the EPL?

The campaign starts Saturday and it seems players are still going here, there and yon before the transfer window closes. Fans of every club should be abuzz.

Will Vieira go to Real? Will Owen go to Real or Barcelona? Will Fergie get some money and buy Fernando Morientes or Wayne Rooney for Man U? And will Spurs, who are desperately trying to sign just about anyone they can get their hands on, actually sign Owen Hargreaves away from Bayern Munich?

I must say I am excites as my club, Charlton Athletic, have acquired Danny Murphy from Liverpool and Francis Jeffers from Arsenal. And Alan Curbishley has plans to get at least one more -- maybe two. Go Addicks!


Seismic activity detected in the Houston area.

Though it's only about a 2 on the richter scale at this time, the rumbles are growing that Club American is going to purchase the Earthquakes and will most likely move the team to Houston. If a Houston accommodation cannot be acquired, the team may shake down in San Antonio.

In a related rumor, MLS is supposed to be working on a lucrative deal to keep Landon Donovan in the league. If the Quakes are moving to Texas, will Landon don a ten-gallon hat or a European jersey?


And from the substitutes bench -- Are you sure that attendance figure is right?

Being kinda goofy, I sometimes check the attendance figures for certain games. So, after the Dallas-Colorado match, I took the time to look up the box score. There was no attendance figure listed.

My first thought was -- was attendance so bad the stats guys didn't want to list it? With Dallas only averaging over 9,000 per game at the Cotton Bowl, this certainly seemed a possibility.

But on Monday I checked again. Then I stared and stared hard. Can that be right? The box score lists 17,792. Wow! Over 17k and this wasn't even an Adu match. In fact, when Freddy and United played in Dallas on July 24, the attendance was only 11,088.

So, what gives?

Yep. Chivas played Santos following the MLS match.