To the Gentleman who cheap shotted me from behind as I went up for a header in the 90th minute, thanks for the AstroTurf burn on my back fat.

Appreciated.

Last night was the final game of our 7-Aside league out at the Santa Monica Airport fields.

From L to R Top - Frank Lebouf, Ed, Myself (Dunny), Jacques Vroom, Ari Friedman, Pete

From L to R Bottom - Brian Burdue, Sergio Parreira, Donal Logue, Gilles Marini and Jimmy Jean-louis

Missing - Anthony LaPaglia, Ronny Turiaf

Brian taking the piss as usual with Donal.

You really couldn’t ask for a better group of guys to know the ball around with once a week.

More pics to come.

Former Kansas City Wizard, Chivas USA and Hollywood United striker Matt Taylor has signed with 2. Bundesliga side TuS Koblenz, who last year finished in 10th place.

Koblenz is the 3rd largest city in the western Rhineland province behind Mainz and has a population of 106k.

Taylor’s first match of the season will be at home this weekend against Rot-Weiss Oberhausen at the Stadion Oberwerth, and will line up with goalie and fellow American David Yelldell.

image via TuS Koblenz 

So last night I was out playing with the Boys / Girls of Hollywood United down for our 7-aside league (which isn’t Co-Ed, we just have a couple of damn good ladies playing with us) in Santa Monica. Nothing crazy beyond getting our asses handed to us (since most of our crew disappeared after winning the league last week with a few games left), but something did get under my skin.

Now I’ve got nothing against anyone who goes out and plays hard, BUT don’t be THAT GUY, the weekend warrior out there looking to relive his high school championship days, complains when he knocks the ball out of bounds because of pressure, pisses / moans at the opposing team, talks shit when he’s obviously the worst player on his team and ruins what should be a fun time for everyone involved.

Chill out… It’s for fun… And it’s a 7-aside league..

Worst Tackles of All-Time after the Jump…

(more…)

I’m actually surprised this hasn’t gotten A LOT more press as the Los Angeles Galaxy’s Carlos Ruiz finally received his Green Card.

After 6 years in the MLS and countless trips (both stateside and to Guatemala) to the appropriate offices, El Pescadito will no longer be counted as a foreigner.  While this is a blessing for the Galaxy, it could be a curse for Ruiz as his trade value will certainly rise along with the long running rumors of his movement to another team in MLS earlier in the 2008 season.

Big props to my Hollywood United brother Mike Munoz on earning himself a well deserved contract with the Galaxy.

image via TbWreck

The view from the Comfort Inn (they should change it to the Nightmare Inn) yesterday before our Lamar Hunt Open Cup match against the Seattle Sounders and my boy Leighton O’Brien.

Not much else to say other than we were totally outclassed by a team that was well prepared and tactically superior from the 1st minute to the 90th.

And while the boys do feel they did themselves no favors whatsoever and are obviously not happy with the result considering they are much better than the scoreline shows, they are proud of making it as far as they did.

Seattle will face Chivas USA next week at the Starfire complex for what should be a great game.

Josh Hakala, over at USOpenCup.com has a great article about the boys over on Hollywood United and the story behind its beginnings. The game against the Seattle Sounders will be live at 8pm (West Coast) on USLlive.com.

Hopefully we’ll have some of the Timber Army make their way up here and back us for the 90 minutes.

Check out all second round previews that take place tonight.

The view from Gate 22 at the Long Beach Airport.

Lamar Hunt US Open Cup - Hollywood United at Seattle Sounders.

UPDATE - Central Defender Nas Koubourous, the #13 who went out injured in the second half was diagnosed with a torn ACL and MCL in his right knee this morning.

Once again, big thanks to Micheal Janosz for his photos from last nights Lamar Hunt Open Cup match against the Portland Timbers.

Great glancing header on the goal by Portland’s Arsene Oka.

Junior cutting it back against Portland’s Dombrowski.

I never could keep my mouth shut.

Earl Alexander scoring the winner off a deflection with his second touch of the match.

While it’s a heartbreaking and frustrating result for the Portland Timbers (especially with 6 games in 9 days), if you knew the guys on this team, you’d be pretty amazed by their stories.

The players that make up Hollywood United come from all walks of life. From well off to struggling, from guys who’ve had a few opportunities to guys that had none, these guys show up twice a week to train and on for games on the weekends because they love the game.

They don’t play for money and to be honest, they lose money by making the sacrifice to be a part of this team to play.

Last night we lost our defensive leader Nas Koubourous to either a torn ACL or PCL when Takayuki Suzuki bungled into him just outside the 18 yard box. This morning at 4am, Nas headed to the airport to wait standby for a flight, caught it and by 8am was on site working this morning as a high rise welder.

I can’t even imagine..

I can never truly find the right words to express the admiration I have for these guys and I can’t even begin to tell you what that game meant to them. It was their one chance to play at the highest level, if only for one match.

For this group to come from behind twice and pull out a victory showed how bad the players wanted to prove themselves against a much higher standard.

They will always know that Portland didn’t field their first 11, but when they pulled that gold shirt over their heads last night before kickoff, they were pros for that 92+ minutes.

Matty Taylor, Jayson Boyce, Alex Bengard and myself headed over to the Kells for a few bevvies after the match.

I think that Voodoo Doughnut might just be the best idea ever put to use.  I killed the apple fritter while the boys knocked down peanut butter - oreo cookie doughnut.

Heaven..