The weekend's Good, Bad and Ugly

THE GOOD
DC United continued their unbeaten streak, extending it to seven games, defeating the Chicago Fire 3-1. The game was never in question as Chicago's injury riddled team arrived in town. The Fire's plan was to bunker and hopefully come out with a point. Rod Dyachenko had a bunker busting goal in the sixth minute and Emilio put one in the net either side of halftime. This Moves DC ahead of Chicago in the standings and just four points behind Division leading New York. The loss will probably escalate the calls for the head of Fire coach, Dave Sarachan.
Notice the pair of Wake Forest University bookends in the picture above. Justin Moose and Brian Carroll are former Deacons.

THE BAD
ESPN primetime Thursday for a dissapointment for the second time in a row. Real Salt Lake versus FC Dallas was one of the ugliest games I have had to watch lately. I suddenly felt I was transported five years into the past. The quality of play was poor and the field Salt Lake plays on is a disgrace. I thought I was finished watching games with painted out football lines. The least they could have done is used a Futsal ball. The old artificial surface was like playing on concrete. A stoppage time goal for a Dallas victory did not make up for the ninety minutes lost from my life. Following are the MLS Goal of the week nominations. The first goal is the strike from Dallas, notice the field and how that ball bounces.


THE UGLY
Hands down it had to be the Gold Cup's Mexico vs. Costa Rico match up. In a game that referee Terry Vaughn let get out of control we saw the worst of CONCACAF soccer. The game saw thirty fouls called against Costa Rica, who ended the game with eight players and 16 fouls for Mexico. The fact that Mexico had to go into over time to defeat the short sided "Ticos" makes you wonder if their Coach will have a job when World Cup qualifying comes around. Following the game the Costa Rican coach didn't mince words:
"The same hits that Mexico gave us, we gave them. But we got the yellow cards and the red cards. This isn't a game of girls. We hit, it's a card. They hit, it's play on. Had Mexico won [fairly], we would accept it. But these things were clear. They were very clear."
Here are some lowlights: