In ever-evolving Major League Soccer, the league's history could be split almost evenly in half. There was the first stage, from 1996 to 2004, when MLS was a fledgling, young and small league. Then, from '05 through the present -- the Expansion Era might be an appropriate name -- the league has gotten some solid footing and grown a bit.
Having ties to a rich and powerful foreign club seemed like a built-in advantage for Chivas USA.
For just the second time in MLS history, a team won the Supporters' Shield while compiling less than 50 points during the regular season. Columbus' 13-7-10 record was good enough to lock down the league's best regular-season record, but such a mark doesn't exactly compare well to previous Supporters' Shield winners.
The group stage of the 2009-10 CONCACAF Champions League is over, and there are a handful of strange lingering sensations. The tournament won't resume until next year, and there's a sense of longing and impatience with that. It was an enjoyable spectacle for fans throughout CONCACAF; that the quarterfinals won't get underway until March is a bit disappointing.
In its most trying year since 2001, Mexico survived and came out stronger at the end because of it. By the midway point of the CONCACAF Hexagonal, El Tri had lost three World Cup qualifiers and fired its coach as panic was entrenched in the country. But Mexico went 4-0-1 down the stretch and wound up qualifying with relative ease after all was said and done.
Mexico is back, or so the Hexagonal table says. El Tri needs just one win to get into South Africa 2010 and complete its remarkable comeback. A win over El Salvador on Saturday (6 p.m. ET, Telemundo), combined with other results, could catapult Mexico into first place, and it could remain there until the final round of CONCACAF qualifying ends on Oct. 14.
While a wave of Hispanic players, namely Mexican-American athletes, has not exactly plowed through the United States national team, the numbers now in the U.S. national team pool are growing by the year.
While a wave of Hispanic players, namely Mexican-American athletes, has not exactly plowed through the United States national team, the numbers now in the U.S. national team pool are growing by the year.
June 6 was so long ago. On that night in San Salvador, a team wearing white, calling itself Mexico, went down to hosts El Salvador 2-1. The result slid Mexico into fifth place in the Hexagonal, and the possibility of missing out on South Africa seemed real.
It seemed if any Major League Soccer club were poised to claim the league's first-ever win over a Mexican club on Mexican soil in a competitive match, it was the Columbus Crew.
CARSON, Calif. -- For Jesús Padilla, life in Mexico was splendid. Since joining Chivas de Guadalajara as a 14-year-old, he said he was well-liked and got along great with everyone.
MEXICO CITY -- The CONCACAF Gold Cup is long over, and Mexico's 5-0 drubbing of the U.S. last month was left in the past well before the two teams met again here in Wednesday's World Cup qualifier. But the tournament's impact not only has steered the U.S.-Mexico rivalry in a different direction, it also has seemed to awaken the Mexican national team.
Mexico has put its cards on the table. There are less than two weeks until the most important game in CONCACAF this year, as El Tri gets set to host the U.S. in World Cup qualifying on Aug. 12.
In a tournament that screamed for a new champion, the status quo won out. The U.S. and Mexico once again are facing each other in the CONCACAF Gold Cup final, and for the second consecutive time, the two hated rivals will battle it out for regional supremacy.
Although the U.S. went through the CONCACAF Gold Cup group stage relatively unscathed, the team might not be adequately prepared to face the knockout stages.
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