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(NOTE: If you live fairly close to me *cough*Jonathan*cough*Gabe*cough* and would like to come watch any of these games just call me or come by. Watching soccer on “match tracker” doesn’t exactly do it justice.) 

Week 11 highlights since I missed posting:
- Are you tired of hearing about J.P. Angel? He scored twice again vs. The Wiz, bringing his total up to 9 goals and 2 assists in 7 games. That is just unheard of in ANY league. He freakin’ leads the league (tied with E. Johnson) despite not playing in the clubs first 5 games.
- Lots of multi-goal games in week 11: J.P. Angel (NY), Adam Christman (NE), Luciano Emilio (DC), Yura Movsisyan (KC), and Chris Brown (RSL).
- Two teams with two games this week: FC Dallas squeaked by the worst team in the league but notched their first clean sheet (AFF: Shut out, no goals allowed, etc) in nearly 20 games against Real Salt Lake 7-0*, then were stomped by first year club Toronto FC 28-0*.
- RSL also had two games losing to FCD as mentioned and losing again to the LA Galaxy (21-14*). At the end of week 11, RSL remained winless.
- The US Men’s National Team moved passed Panama 14-7* to reach the semi’s and topped Canada with the same score to notch a place in the Finals of the CONCACAF Gold Cup versus Mexico.
- As they have all tournament, in both games the men played solid first halves and had mental lapses in the second half. Canada was robbed in the 94th minute (just seconds before the final whistle) when a solid strike was called back for offsides. It was a tough call, but clearly, in slow motion and multiple angles, Canada was not offsides.
- AFF:  I’m not going to explain Futbol offsides but its nothing like Football Offsides… Just trust me on this, Canada was robbed, the game should’ve gone into Extra Time.

Week 12:
- FCD notches their second clean sheet in three games with another 7-0* squeaker against Colorado.
- FCD leads the league in points, but have played two more games than any other team. And the truth is, they still haven’t put the whole package together. Defensively they have a lot of holes (namely Alex Yi’s play) and up front they are inconsistent. Their midfield dominates nearly every game, we just can’t put teams away.
- Juan Pablo Angel DID NOT score this week! His team had the week off.
- Multi-Goal games: Brad Davis (Hat Trick: Houston), Andy Dorman (NE), Robbie Findley (RSL).
- Real Salt Lake finally won a game with a 14-7* win over DC United! It only took 12 games to get there! RSL without Robbie Findley - 11 Games, 0 wins. RSL with Robbie Findley - 1 Game, 1 win. Let see if a pattern develops.
- Week 13 Key Game: West #1 FC Dallas hosts West #2 Houston Dynamo on Saturday.

US Men’s Team CONCACAF Final vs Mexico:
- This was by far the best game of the tournament. I guess in a final that’s how it should be. Mexico came out aggressive and nearly caught the US Defense by surprise in the first minute of play and kept the pressure on the whole first half. US matched the intensity  with tough play and strong pushes forward, but neither team could put anything in the back of the net until the 44th minute when Jose Andres Guardado put Mexico on top 1-0. Nery Castillo struck a screaming fast cross along the ground from the right side, blowing by two US Defenders, a central Mexican Striker and putting US GK Tim Howard on his butt before reaching Guardado.
     The US wasn’t going to go silently. The second half was just as intense and fast as the first, but the US midfield really controlled the game. After a handful of great saves by Mexico’s Oswaldo Sanchez, Brian Ching put a quick spin move on in the box which caused Defender Jose Jonny Magallon to react with a knee-trip setting up Landon Donovan’s Penalty Kick. Landon was successful and the game was log jammed at 1 goal a piece in the 62nd minute.
     The US Continued to push forward and 11 minutes later, we took the lead for good. Donovan sent in a Corner Kick from the right side which was headed out of the box. Unfortunately for Mexico it took a direct path to midfielder Benny Feilhaber who struck it on the volley (AFF: The ball never hit the ground) into the far left corner of the net from the top right side and just outside the penalty area.
    Mexico had a few more chances (as did the US), but in the end we came out on top in an extremely high paced, high entertainment game that could’ve easily ended somewhere around the 4-3 mark.

AFF= American Football Fans. Jeremy will breifly make notes and define things that AFF’s might not understand.

Jeremy is going to shove futbol down your throat until you realize why it is rightfully called “the beautiful game,” but i guess if you want to ignore these posts, jeremy won’t mind so much as long as you come back and read his non-futbol posts.

* Jeremy scores futbol like football to show his American friends that soccer isn’t as low scoring as you think. And all of futbol scoring gets done in less than 2 hours, unlike football which often pushes four.

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