Dynamo Daily - September 9, 2010
It’s a big day in Houston
soccer history, with the official FIFA delegation arriving this afternoon to
visit our fine city as part of the United States’ bid to host the 2018
or 2022 World Cup. The Chronicle’s Richard Justice writes that Houston
is an international city well deserving of playing host to the world’s
biggest sporting event. Jesus Ortiz details the red-carpet (orange-carpet?)
treatment that will be rolled out to the delegation and some of the
reasons Houston makes sense. He also ranks
Houston as the No. 2 soccer city in the U.S.,
behind Los Angeles.
The Dynamo are off from training on Thursday, but will welcome
Jamaican international Lovel Palmer back to the field on Friday. You can’t tell
from this article, but he played in Jamaica’s
2-1 loss to Peru on Tuesday. However, Palmer will still be suspended for
the September 18 match against
Toronto.
In a cross between international and Dynamo Academy
news, home-grown midfielder Francisco Navas Cobo won his sixth cap for the
United States U-20 national team yesterday, playing 90 minutes in a 2-0
loss to Colombia, the country where Navas Cobo spent some of his childhood.
The Colombian squad included several former teammates at Deportivo Cali for the
Dynamo’s 18-year-old.
While local Dynamo Academy players are getting
some extra off-field training in preparation for January’s Copa Chivas in
Mexico, one Academy standout – goalkeeper Fernando Piña – continues to be in
line for the No. 1 goalkeeping spot in next year’s FIFA U-17 World Cup, training
in Madrid with the U.S. U-17s (a mix of residency and foreign-based
players) this month.
In MLS last night, Chicago
and Toronto played
to a scoreless tie that included chances (two controversial handballs and a
breakaway) but no goals and served only to hurt both teams’ playoff chances. Seattle and RSL meet tonight on national TV.
At the national team level, the Washington Post’s Steve Goff reports the U.S. men could
be making a fourth trip to South Africa in the last four years for a
November friendly, but it’s a 50-50 proposition. Sports Illustrated’s Grant Wahl, meanwhile, has an intriguing
proposal for an expanded Copa America.
The United Soccer Leagues announced a general restructuring concept
but no specifics to go with it – could we be headed for another NASL-USL
offseason scramble?
Finally, could we see another must-watch soccer documentary?
There may be a video
version of Finn McCool’s Football Club,
the book about a New Orleans
pub devastated by Hurricane Katrina.