Brian Straus Posts

David Beckham will spend the spring in Milan and Tom Soehn preemptively dumped Kevin Payne and D.C. United. The timing on each announcement may have been a bit surprising, but the end result certainly was not. So with those issues out of the way, it's time to focus on the second legs of the MLS Cup quarterfinals, and what we learned last week that may have been a little less inevitable.

The most intriguing developments certainly occurred in Utah, where Real Salt Lake's 1-0 defeat of Columbus left the champion Crew with 90 minutes to save their season and raised serious questions about coach Robert Warzycha's sanity.

Leave it to deceptive diva Cuauhtemoc Blanco (right) to steal a bit of the spotlight from the Seattle Sounders and Houston Dynamo, who opened the MLS Cup playoffs Thursday night in an ill-tempered 0-0 game that, unfortunately, did not feature finishing worthy of the atmosphere or occasion.

As Seattle and Houston were battling at Qwest Field, news broke that the Fire's playmaker had abandoned his "hope" of another season in Chicago and opted instead to spend next spring with Veracruz, the third-placed club in Mexico's second division. The episode marks yet another hurdle for a Fire team that was the league's preseason favorite and will serve an additional subplot in its annual postseason confrontation with the New England Revolution. In the other Eastern Conference semi, the Columbus Crew will begin their title defense against hard-to-read Real Salt Lake. Here is a short preview:

Four clubs separated by just three points in the standings, Seattle's raucous crowd, Houston's thirst for redemption, the league's only genuine derby and the first postseason appearance by David Beckham: They add up to produce the most compelling quarterfinal quartet in MLS history. The Western Conference playoffs begin Thursday night as Houston visits Seattle (10PM ET, ESPN2) in the first game of their two-game, total goals series. The Los Angeles Galaxy and Chivas USA kick off their Southern California Superclasico on Sunday. Here is a short preview:

Watching MLS Commissioner Don Garber try to answer questions about the league's competition format on Monday night's Fox Football Fone-in felt like watching an art teacher give painting lessons to the color blind.

To his credit, Garber maintained his composure as hosts Nick Webster and Eric Wynalda and a few inarticulate callers threw out terms like "single table" and "European calendar" without ever explaining what it was they were after. Every year at this time, MLS faces cliched criticism from "hard core" fans who insist "our" league should be just like those in Europe, without ever explaining how or why. The truth, however, is this (and Garber knows it): Playoffs are the fairest and most exciting way to determine a champion, and this year's MLS Cup tournament promises to be one of the most balanced in some time.

Maurice Edu made news not for playing, but for running across a couple of racist idiots in Glasgow. The Houston Dynamo lost to previously winless and goalless Isidro Metapan on Wednesday night and was eliminated from the CONCACAF Champions League. Oguchi Onyewu had surgery on his torn left patella tendon and will be out an estimated six months--50 percent longer than originally thought.

Thankfully, a lousy week for American soccer is about to get better. On Thursday night, the Chicago Fire will host Chivas USA (8PM ET, ESPN2) in the first of a half-dozen games that will impact the MLS playoff picture. The competition for postseason spots is unprecedented, with seven clubs vying for three berths on the final weekend. We'll save the criticism of the league's ridiculous playoff format for another time, and instead will enjoy the fact that with 14 relatively even-matched teams (and New York), MLS at last has produced a meaningful regular season.

BUDAPEST -- The photo above was taken from my seat at the Debrecen-Olympique Lyon UEFA Champions League game three weeks ago. I was not credentialed as a member of the press. In fact, I wasn't even in the stadium legally, and this seat was never sold for reasons that are pretty apparent.

The U.S. national team's stirring comeback against Costa Rica last week will be remembered for Bornstein's header, Davies' tragedy, Bradley's hustle and Onyewu's injury. But it also should be remembered for the contribution of Columbus Crew midfielder Robbie Rogers, whose entry in the 69th minute changed the match.

Playing in his first World Cup qualifier, the nimble winger added an obvious spark to a team trailing by two goals. He hit the cross that led to Michael Bradley's 72nd-minute goal, came close twice to tying the game himself, then delivered the corner kick that Bornstein finished in stoppage time. A key member of this summer's CONCACAF Gold Cup squad and a regular camp participant, Rogers certainly made his case for South Africa when presented with the opportunity.

This weekend, Rogers sat down with FanHouse and offered some interesting insight into a young player's path to the national team, his famous mentor, the Davies accident and the curfew culture that likely played a role.

WASHINGTON -- Playing a man down following Oguchi Onyewu's knee injury, the U.S. national team continued to press as it faced its first World Cup qualifying defeat on home soil in eight years. With seconds remaining in the 95th and final minute, defender Jonathan Bornstein raced unmarked onto Robbie Rogers' corner kick and powered home a sharp header that set off celebrations in both Washington D.C., and Honduras, while sending Costa Rica into sudden mourning.

The Ticos, up 2-0 at half and apparently on their way to the South Africa, surrendered their lead in the second half and settled for a 2-2 draw in Wednesday night's match at RFK Stadium. The result consigned them to a two-game playoff against Uruguay and lifted the Hondurans, who won in El Salvador, to the finals for the first time in 28 years.

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Already rendered anticlimactic by last Saturday's clinching victory in Honduras, Wednesday night's World Cup qualifier between the United States against Costa Rica in Washington now will be played in the shadow of the car accident that claimed the life of a Maryland woman and likely cost forward Charlie Davies the opportunity to play in next summer's tournament.

The game means everything, however, to both the visitors and Honduras, which trails Costa Rica by two points for the region's final automatic berth. For that reason, and because of the "great deal of pride in the ongoing competition to be the best team in CONCACAF," according to U.S. coach Bob Bradley, the Americans claimed they will play to win on Wednesday night (8 PM ET, ESPN2).

U.S. national team forward Charlie Davies will be hospitalized "for at least a week" following surgery to repair numerous fractures and a lacerated bladder suffered in a one-car accident early Tuesday morning in Arlington, Va.

A federation doctor said that "injuries of this nature usually require a recovery period of 6-12 months and extensive rehabilitation," making it likely that the 23-year-old will miss next summer's World Cup.

A 22-year-old Maryland woman was killed in the crash, which occurred at around 3:15 AM. The identity and condition of the third passenger still hasn't been released, and the relationship between the pair and Davies is unclear. The NBC affiliate in Washington posted pictures of the mangled SUV on its Web site, while The Washington Post's Steven Goff reported that Davies was indeed in violation of a national team curfew.