Hey all, this is Adam Sedie, the producer of Pitch Pulse, writing to share my experiences during the MLS West Final. Never in my life have I encountered such a sporting event. That being said, lets jump into it!

After parking in what felt like Algeria, my colleagues and I conducted a pilgrimage towards will call to get our tickets. Seriously folks, it was close to a 15-minute walk. Eventually the huge HOME DEPOT CENTER sign became legible as we slowly arrived.

You have no idea how far the paring was from this sign.

I thought surely we had missed a goal due to a loud uproar pouring out of the stadium. After nearly slipping in dim lit mud trails working our way through and around the stadium to reach the will call, we ran into another set back. There was a line around 200 people deep waiting to pick up their tickets from will call.

At this point the grim reality was beginning to set in that we might get tickets and find seats with only a slim chance of witnessing any goals, or with little to any time left in the match.

After handing my ID to a roving Home Depot Center security person, I held my breath, fearing that this could only get worse by never seeing her or my driver’s license again. We fortunately got the tickets as well as my ID (thank god!) and begin charging in.

As we were walking towards our seats, we heard rumblings and buzzing stadium-wide, and the confusion became clearer when a patron searching for the shortest beer line divulged to us that the lights had gone out and the game was still paused while they are fixing it.

All in all, our freaky Friday the 13^th luck had changed and we only missed the first 17 minutes of the match. No goals were scored, and the earlier roar was actually that of the fans screaming as the lights went out. YES!

We nested ourselves in the Houston Dynamo supporters’ section right as the match restarted.

The game was well fought by both sides, but the Dynamo seemed to be more aggressive in the second half. That was of course before the power died for the second time.

The Galaxy fans quickly decided to kill their boredom by taking it to the Dynamo fans.

Chants of “Houston sucks” surrounded and engulfed the Houston fans. That was until Dynamo supporters retaliated with a clever impromptu “We have Lights”song, immediately evolving into a rendition of “Pay-Your-Bills” that puzzled, eventually silencing Los Angeles fans.

Ultimately, it appeared the second power outage cooled the Dynamo’s momentum, and the game basically became a defensive quagmire. The regulation time whistle had blown.

In overtime we saw David Beckham whine to officials about what he thought was a incorrect throw in call awarded to Houston.  Although he swung his arms an almost hit the referee, Beckham was not warned or issued a yellow card. His unsportsmanlike conduct surely deserved one, but Beckham is the golden boy and could do no wrong this night.

Beckham was lucky to not get a yellow for his behavior.

Things got ugly for the Dynamo during overtime, and after Landon Donovan converted the penalty kick to put the Galaxy up 2-0, the writing was pretty much on the wall.

It was a hard fought battle between two teams, and I only wish that it would have been uninterrupted so that match would have been played by two teams playing at their natural rhythm without the distraction of power failure. Looks like Friday the 13th gave the Galaxy a home field advantage.

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Things are getting crazy here in Houston for tomorrows must win match! We battle it out with the Seattle Sounders Sunday night!

Mayor Bill White has named tomorrow “Dynamo Day” and is encouraging everyone to go orange tomorrow!

Mayor BIll White is asking Houston to go Orange!

He said this in his official press release:

“Soccer is one of the fastest growing sports in Houston, so we really appreciate having a team of the caliber of our two-time MLS champions,” White said in a release. “Win this weekend; and let’s make this year championship number three!”

Even if you are not in Houston, please wear some orange tomorrow, and show your support for us in our must win game!!

Show us your support!

One more team will pack their shoes up and leave the locker room for the final time in 2009 tonight in Columbus.  I for one am holding strong and not giving in to the upset talks that have been all over the Internet this week.

I think Columbus is so good at home, and Real Salt Lake have struggled so much on the road that this one will end the way the seeding has it to finish.

I  pick Columbus to win this one by two goals in regulation as they did on July 18th when they beat Real Salt Lake 3-1 right there in Crew Stadium.

The only way I see Real Salt Lake getting it done tonight is by scoring at least two goals on the road, which they have done only twice this entire season(LA in June and Houston in September).

So what I am saying is that I am picking this one based mostly on statistics…..but lets be fair…..the best part about sports is that the stats can always be proven wrong on any given night!

Man I love elimination games!

waibs

Things are getting brutal in the MLS Playoffs!

What a amazing result! Of course, we would have loved to have pulled out the win, but a draw is the next best thing.

Afterall, a draw  is better than a loss. I guess it all comes down to how we do on our home turf.

You know it is a intense battle when our goaltender Pat Onstad receives a yellow card. He nailed Fredy Montero to the ground in front of the goal after a whistle. The MLS playoff atmosphere was incredible, and the Seattle Sounders  have brilliant support base.

Things are heating up, and hopefully our home crowz will help support us to a win on Sunday, November 8th!!!

Thursday we face off against the Seattle Sounders.

This season has been a grind, and we have not had much time to rest with all the traveling between CONCACAF and MLS regular season matches.

The Battle in Seattle live on hursday!

But hey, it’s the playoffs, and we have to suck it up, rest when we can, and play as hard and compete to win.

Coach Kinnear had this to say about it:

“I’m not worried about their fitness. I’m worried about how many games we’ve played.

We play on Thursday and the league didn’t take into account that we played on Wednesday in CONCACAF and I think that’s unfair.”

It would have been nice for the MLS to have considered allowing some time for us to rest.

After all, it is the participation in these competitions that allows the MLS reputation to build upon this exposure.

]]> http://www.pitchpulse.com/2009/10/mls-playoffs-round-1-the-battle-in-seattle/feed/ 0 http://www.pitchpulse.com/2009/10/back-from-el-salvador/ http://www.pitchpulse.com/2009/10/back-from-el-salvador/#comments Fri, 23 Oct 2009 18:44:01 +0000 CraigWaibel http://www.pitchpulse.com/?p=259

Back from El Salvador….and boy am I disappointed. AD Isidro Metapan of El Salvador, got two goals early, and we could not close the gap.

I hate losing….as does every other athlete on earth.  But I am a humble man and as such I would like to wish the Crew the best of luck next year when they continue their journey to try to become the first MLS team to win the modern Champions League  format.

The game is not even worth breaking down but the fact that I can still cheer for an MLS team makes me smile(Yes ,I do wish it were my team).

Look for a new post later today about this weekends games!

I don’t often toot  my own horn but will somebody please pat me on the back for my predictions on the weekend.

The only one I missed was the Chivas USA-San Jose draw which I am pretty sure surprised every one except the a San Jose faithful.

0-0 draw after a hard fought game!

We finally sold out our stadium in Houston and didn’t totally entertain the fans.  In the past a sell out has meant great games and lots of goals down here but Sunday was a zero to zero draw.

I think we out played them but I do think the result was a fair one to both teams.  This week will bring tons of excitement for everyone and after I talk to a few more guys around the league I will get a podcast taped and out to you!  Talk to you all soon.

Keeping our game fresh will help come playoff time

The first-ever Dynamo Charities Cup was announced last month, and the Dynamo will play against Mexico’s CF Monterrey in a friendly match.

Dominic Kinnear enjoys keeping us busy, and wants us staying focused and not to become complacent due to getting idle before the MLS Playoffs begin. I was interviewed and asked about my perspective on this friendly, and you can read the Article here!

With Brian Ching serving his one game suspension, we were already missing our top scorer going into the match vs the Kansas City Wizards.

After Cam Weaver has assessed a red card in the 18^th minute, it was going to be a long night, having to play 72 more minutes with only 10.

Landin netted his first MLS goal in a playoff clinching match.

Luis angel Landin converted on a Brian Mullen cross to give him his first MLS goal, and with it, we took the lead in the 26^th minute. Kansas City equalized in the 73^rd minute, and the match finished a 1-1 draw.

With only 10 men and without our top scorer, we managed to clinch our 4^th consecutive playoff spot since moving from San Jose. Although we wanted the win,  we are now in, and with only 3 matches left, we plan to make the push to separate ourselves atop the West by season’s end.

Not until this past Sunday did the Columbus Crew become the first team in the league to clinch a playoff birth. That is crazy considering how much of a divide in recent years amongst the top and the bottom of the table.

This year is great for the MLS in that with such competition, and with 14-15 teams all in the hunt, it marks that the level of competition is on the raise league-wide, and this is only going to be good for growth of the domestic football product.

The Los Angeles Galaxy’s turnaround success story of a season might be undermined by the severity of David Beckham’s achilles injury.

Players like Kljestan might hold their head if they don't go through. (Credit: picapp.com)

Some teams have turned things around dramatically, while others have hit untimely slumps.

Either way, this last month will be cooking with excitement, and worth watching as the regular season close draws nearer.