superliga semifinals day 1

tonight i watched houston vs pachuca in the semi-finals of the superliga. for those of you who are unfamiliar, the superliga is a tournament between mls and mexican league teams. the winner of this match will face the winner of the galaxy vs dc united.

anyway, the scoring got underway quickly, as dwayne derosario scored an ugly goal. it was a great cross to the canadian international with the spanish sounding name, but he totally muffed it. i think it hit off his shin. fortunately, it took the weirdest bounce i've ever seen. straight up to his head and then into the goal.

then, in the 16th minute one of houston's players got ejected. i thought it should have been a card, but was surprised it was actually a red, especially since it wasn't like it had been a particularly rough game in the first 15 minutes.

at some point in the half, pachuca equalized. nice goal. but overall, it seemed that houston really dominated play despite being man down.

the second half was a different story. houston came out very flat, or perhaps were tired. the rarely had the ball and were constantly giving up chances. it was no surprise to me when they gave up the go ahead goal. good set up, nice shot, keeper a bit screened, defense didn't do enough, back of the net.

what did surprise me was when houston equalized with about ten minutes left. free kick from quite a ways out, sent in to around 8 yards, header goal. beautiful stuff.

then, with about 5 minutes left, one of the pachuca players got his 2nd yellow (red). sides equalized, score equalized, let's see what happens.

overtime. five minutes in, pachuca bends a really nice ball around the wall on a free kick, and it skips just wide.

eleven minutes into the first overtime, on a very odd play, houston gets a second player ejected. it also resulted in a pachuca guy getting a yellow. the houston player was lying down, injured somehow. the pachuca player came over and grabbed his leg, maybe to stretch him out, or to tell him to get up. and the houston player kicked him. gonzo. so, now, it's 9 vs 10. should be plenty of open space on the field now. and a lot of tired guys. and, despite several penalties and an ejection, there was no stoppage time added to this overtime. you have to love referees.

six minutes into the 2nd overtime, a houston guy about rips off the jersey of a pachuca player. yellow card. man, if houston manages to make it through, they're going to have a lot of guys with accumulated yellows. of course, it would be the final so i'm not sure how much that matters.

something odd/funny to note, every time they said brian ching's name, they really emphasized the nature of the word, as if ringing a bell. these spanish announcers sure are interesting.

it looks like houston is playing for pk's. or maybe just a perfect counter-attack opportunity. they really aren't trying to do anything but defend. with 9 men, i can't say i blame them.

and time runs out. pk's.
barret takes the first for houston and buries it. 1-0 houston
pachuca doesn't have names on the back of their jerseys but their guy buries his, too. 1-1
houston's second ricochets off the crossbar but drops in 2-1.
pachuca slides in their next, 2-2.
mulrooney hits, 3-2 houston.
pachuca equalizes 3-3.
brian "ching" doinks it off the woodwork. he had the keeper beat terribly, and just missed it. still 3-3.
ching is redeemed because his keeper just came up with a phenomenal stop. still 3-3.
but ngwenya can't do any better and chips it softly right to the keeper. still 3-3.
onstad must be hating his guys right now, because he's got to come up big again.
and can't. pachuca hammers it home for the victory in pk's 4-3.

tomorrow night: galaxy vs. united. and guess who's coming to dinner: beckham. and, it sounds like he thinks he'll be playing around a half (which is twice as much as last game he played)