My vacation is ending. I'm not laughing

Maybe these will help.

This one is weird, - but true.

The main character of the Get Fuzzy comic strip is a rugby fan - it shows.

And the following were e-mailed to me a couple of months back and I've been looking for an excuse to blog them ever since:

After a visit to the doctor, the local team's striker dropped in to his local pub for a quick one. "What's up mate?" asked his friend Brian, "you look worried."
"I am," Alan replied. "I've just been to the doctor and he told me I can't play football."
"Oh, really?" said Brian. "He's seen you play too then, has he?"

An American visitor to England watched his very first football match in the middle of winter and was struck by the differences between English and American football.
After the match he struck up a conversation with one of the English players and said, "You know, over in the States, our players wear thick protective clothing. You guys must be frozen stiff in those light clothes."
"It's not so bad," said the Englishman. "Sometimes the ground is covered in snow."
"Wow!' exclaimed the American. "What do you do about the balls? Paint them red?"
"Oh, no," said the player. "We just wear an extra pair of underwear."

The top scorer of a Premier League team was tragically killed in a car accident. Seeing an opportunity for glory, the reserve striker went to see the manager.
"How about me taking his place?" he asked.
"Well, I'm not sure about that," said the manager, "we'll have to speak to the undertaker first."

The Devil was constantly challenging St. Peter to a game of soccer, but St. Peter refused, until one day while walking around heaven he discovered that quite a number of international footballers had entered the "pearly gates".
"I think I'll arrange to play that soccer game," said St. Peter to the Devil. "We have a great number of international soccer stars in heaven at the moment from which to select a winning team."
"You'll lose, you'll lose!" taunted the Devil.
"What makes you so sure we'll lose?" enquired St Peter.
"Because," laughed the Devil, we have all the referees down here."

A woman in Van Nuys was reading the Daily News one morning and said to her husband - "Look at this, dear. There's an article here about a man who traded his wife for a Galaxy season ticket. You wouldn't do a thing like that, - would you?"
"Of course I wouldn't!' replied her husband. "The season's almost over!"

Quotable:

"Soccer is a game in which a handful of fit people run around for one and a half hours watched by millions of others who could really use the exercise." - Anonymous.

Full disclosure: I did not attend the game, opting to stay at home and watch on TV since I was technically on vacation.

Notable:
*The final score was 2-2.
*Bryan Jordan, recalled earlier this week from the USL Portland Timbers, scored in his first MLS start.
*The Galaxy winless streak hit 11 games, a team record.
*The Galaxy slumped to dead last in MLS.
*Salt Lake City striker Fabian Espinola scored a goal that was disallowed and broke a bone in his leg while spectacularly flipping during his celebration.

Galaxy beat writer Phil Collin kindly sent along some quotes that did not make it into the print edition.

Here's Real Salt Lake Coach Jason Kreis on the disallowed goal:

It was a little bit mind-boggling there. I'm not exactly sure how it went down. We all kind of thought he may have been in an offside position and we were all looking at the linesman and everybody on the field was as well. The linesman was running back indicating a goal and there was some discussion there between (Galaxy Coach) Bruce (Arena), the linesman and the fourth official and the referee. They came to a collective agreement that it was offside.

My initial indication from upstairs was that it was offside so I can't complain too much about the call. I wish it had been a little quicker because then my player wouldn't have celebrated the goal and broken his leg.

Here's Kreis on whether he has seen injuries from overly-exuberant goal celebrations before:

"Yeah I have. I used to do the same thing and came very close to injuring myself one time and I know there was another player in Dallas who did a flip after a goal one time and hurt his back and had to miss the next match," yet he added he won't curtail them. "No, absolutely not. That's what the fans come to see. They come to see the goals, they come to see the passion and the emotion the players have after they score a goal. It's a fluke accident and he could just as well could have broken his leg walking down the stairs this morning."

Actually, Jason fans come to see healthy players playing to their potential for their team so they get to see the best possible game of soccer they paid good money for. They don't come to see some flashy foreigner stupidly injure themselves.

At least Espinola was embarrassed by his dumb move even if Kreis wasn't: as far as I could tell he spent the rest of the game hiding behind his towel no doubt hoping the ground would open up and swallow him.

By the way, Kreis sounded like a coach who knew this result was a missed opportunity:

"I think in our locker room we're a bit disappointed with that result. We came into this game knowing they're missing a lot of key players, a lot of important players. We were confident enough to come in here and think we could take away the full three points. Having said that, we haven't been very good on the road this season so I think we do have to take some positive stuff out of tonight."

Here's Arena on the ever-lengthening 0-5-6 run:

"Am I worried about the streak or the length of it? No. I can't worry about that. I guess if they wouldn't have that streak, I probably wouldn't be here either."

Fair enough.

Here's Arena on Jordan:

Certainly he had a great effort tonight. I don't want to single out any one two or three particular players - it sticks out in my mind right now that the performance of Bryan Jordan was excellent.

"In terms of Bryan getting continued minutes we'll have to wait and see, but that performance tonight certainly doesn't hurt his cause at all," Arena added. "We were thin at a bunch of positions tonight and Bryan was having a good year at Portland and I'm aware of him from our coaching staff from preseason and he had a good week of training. We had not a whole lot of choices. Bryan certainly showed that he's a player that belongs on the field."

Arena sounded considerably less convinced about the latest contribution from Eduardo Dominguez:

"He did OK. He hasn't done much here and we knew the position would be challenging. By trade he's more of a center back. We put him in a new position and we knew fitness would be a problem as well. He gave us 55 minutes we needed because Brandon McDonald just came back from injury."

Finally, here's Jordan on the likelihood of getting back on the field once the likes of David Beckham and Landon Donovan return:

"I've been waiting for the opportunity and now that I got it I feel I did very well. I know we do have key players missing who might take over my role again but I'll still be fighting hard and trying to get out there."

Game story.

Highlights:

A Clint Dempsey goal was enough for the U.S. to beat Cuba 1-0 Saturday, while Mexico beat Jamaica, 3-0.

David Beckham started on the bench for England in the win over Andorra and Croatia downed Kazakhstan, 3-0.

Up next for Mexico Wednesday: a likely dispirited Canada.

The U.S. takes on Trinidad & Tobago, which moved into second place in the group with a 1-1 draw with Guatemala.

All the scores are here.

Chivas USA beat a severely depleted Toronto FC 3-1 Saturday afternoon.

Daniel Paladini, briefly a Galaxy player, scored his first-ever MLS goal for Chivas USA just before half time and Los Alamitos' Jonathan Bornstein added the second half winner. Ante Razov got the third in stoppage time. Goalkeeper Zach Thornton was carted off injured.

Notable:
*The win was Chivas USA's second victory in two weeks over Toronto; it was the club's first-ever come-from-behind victory on the road.

*The win improves the team's record to 8-9-6 and ties Chivas USA for second place in the Western Conference with Real Salt Lake, which plays the Galaxy later tonight.

* Next for Chivas USA - A game against the New England Revolution Thursday on ESPN2; the team will stay on the East Coast between games. Sacha Kljestan is suspended for the game.

Quotable:

*"[The result] is incredibly important," Coach Preki said. "I think right now we put ourselves in a really good spot to push in last seven games for a playoff spot."

*Dan Paladini on his first goal as a pro:

"Unbelievable feeling. ... I didn't even see it go in. I turned, shot, it went in and my teammates crowded around me, it was fun."

Game story.

Highlights:

Before we get started, it's worth noting that Deputy MLS Commissioner Ivan Gazidis announced on the commissioner's blog on the league Web site Friday that the issue of scheduling will belatedly be reviewed.

About time. And why couldn't Garber blog about that himself? He's in Cuba for the U.S. World Cup qualifier. Let's hope that irony hasn't escaped Garber et al.

Still, that doesn't help Chivas USA or Toronto FC. Both teams spent the week scrounging for warm bodies to put on the field for today's 1 p.m. game in Canada that's live on Prime.

The U.S.-Cuba game is live at 5 p.m. on ESPN Classic and Galavision.

The political implications of the game have overshadowed the sporting ones, but on paper Cuba have little chance against the U.S. Cuba hasn't beaten the U.S. on a soccer field since 1976.

Notable:
*Defender Steve Cherundolo is suspended for the game.
*Michael Bradley leads the U.S. in 2008 in minutes played (647).
*Leagues from eight different countries are represented on the U.S. roster: Belgium, Denmark, England (4), France, Germany (3), Mexico, Scotland (2), and the United States (7).

Standings so far:
GROUP 1 W D L GF GA Pts.
Trinidad & Tobago 1 0 0 3 1 3
United States 1 0 0 1 0 3
Guatemala 0 0 1 0 1 0
Cuba 0 0 1 1 3 0

BTW, Hurricane Ike isn't expected to hit Cuba until later in the week, but the weather sounds brutal to play soccer in.

Finally, the Galaxy plays at 7:30 p.m. against Real Salt Lake live on Prime.

Here's what former RSL midfielder Chris Klein had to say about the transformation in Utah:

"It's a completely different team. (Coach) Jason (Kreis) has completely over-hauled them and done a good job of getting them to play better as a team. They've got good players at every position and they're very organized when they come out to play.

They've struggled on the road a little bit, but I don't think that's any indication of the team we're going to see Saturday night.

The real engine of their team is (Javier) Morales in the middle. He's a guy who provides their service and creativity. Obviously they're very sound defensively, but offensively they have Morales and (Fabian) Espindola scored their two goals last week (in the 2-0 RSL victory over the Rapids) so those are two of the guys we can key on Saturday night."

Since I am in vacation, a barbecue beckons and there is plenty of soccer on TV, I'll skip the Galaxy game tonight.

For those of you going, there's a T-shirt and towel giveaway, while L.A. band Under the Influence of Giants plays a pre-game concert.

Check them out:

Almost forgot:
Here is a brief college soccer roundup of Friday scores.

In other games it was:
Long Beach State 3 Harvard 0
Pepperdine 1 Iowa 0
Cal State Northridge men 1 UNLV 0
Cal State Northridge women 2 UC Irvine 1
LMU men 1 Cal Poly 0
LMU women 3 UC Irvine 1

With MLS blithely carrying on with a regular schedule this weekend despite the heavy World Cup qualifying fixture list around the world, criticism is mounting about the harm the domestic league is doing to its credibility at home and internationally.

Coaches hate it, players hate it, fans hate it, but the MLS suits don't appear to understand the harm they are doing to the league. Soccer is a global game. MLS needs to get with the rest of the world and at least - the very least - honor FIFA international dates.

By this point it's a bit of an old saw, but it's worth talking about just to keep it in the public eye and keep the pressure on MLS.

Toronto FC Coach John Carver fired the first salvo last weekend after the game against Chivas USA, observing he will be without nine or 10 players who are on World Cup qualifying duty this coming weekend:

"We asked the MLS, because we thought it's an extreme circumstance, if we could postpone the (return) game (this weekend against Chivas USA). They turned us down. ... On this occasion I don't think common sense has prevailed.

"I'm going to have to get kids and put kids in. It's that embarrassing. I may even have to go get kids who play in amateur teams.

If I'm a fan of Toronto FC, I don't think I'm getting value for money because I've paid good money for my season ticket - we've got fantastic support up there - yet we're not putting the product on the pitch.

"It's something they have to look at. I don't think there's another league in the world that would ask a team to play in these circumstances."

He's right and Galaxy midfielder Chris Klein piled it on:

"It's a disgrace. ... (MLS) Commissioner (Don) Garber came out and said a few things about scheduling problems and all I can say is we have to figure those out. You play a game on Thursday night when you're missing David Beckham and Landon Donovan and Cuauhtemoc Blanco and (Gonzalo) Segares and the list keeps going. And these are games that are at the most important time of the season. For us, come Saturday night, we're missing four guys - four very important guys and that doesn't help the league. We need to make this league about the product on the field first."

(The Galaxy are without Donovan, Eddie Lewis, Beckham and Canadian Ante Jazic, who are all on international duty).

Galaxy Coach Bruce Arena is similarly unimpressed with MLS scheduling:

"That needs to be again reexamined by the people who make the decisions in MLS. I've spoken about that for years. I don't think it's the way to go, but I'm a non-voting member, so-to-speak. You look at our team this weekend and we lose four players in our first XI. That's a factor and it is for other teams. Obviously there needs to be a reexamination of the schedule. You look at (Tuesday) night - you have two MLS teams eliminated from the (CONCACAF) Champions League by clubs from Panama and Trinidad (& Tobago) and that tells me the schedule is catching up with everybody. ... Of course I believe you honor (FIFA) fixture dates."

Boston-based soccer writer Frank Dell'Apa agrees with Bruce about the CONCACAF Champions League.

And it's humiliating for the U.S.

Meanwhile, Galaxy striker Edson Buddle has the last word (and best quote) on the issue in regard to Saturday's game against second-place Western Conference team Real Salt Lake:

"Hopefully we'll put them to sleep not having four good players here. So hopefully they'll go to sleep and they won't think it will be a tough game and we'll steal some points."

Not a bad hope.

I'll be back in the morning with previews of the Galaxy, Chivas USA and U.S. games.

Kidding themselves it was somehow bright to continue with a full domestic league program when most others around the world are suspended this weekend, MLS officials are trying to ignore what the rest of the planet is focusing on: the dozens of World Cup qualifiers scheduled this weekend (and next week).

The action begins at 11:30 a.m. today with England playing Portugal in a Under-21 qualifier on Fox Soccer Channel.

Here's a sampling of what other games are on when and where this weekend (and, as always, consult your local listings for the complete run-down):
*7 a.m. Saturday - Azerbaijan at Wales on GolTV.
*10:30 a.m. Saturday - Denmark at Hungary on Fox Soccer Channel.
*Noon Saturday - Germany at Liechtenstein on GolTV.
*1 p.m. Saturday - Iran at Saudi Arabia (delayed) on Fox Soccer Channel.
*2 p.m. Saturday - Bosnia-Herzegovina at Spain on GOLTV.
*3 p.m. Saturday - Jamaica at Mexico on KVEA.
*5 p.m. Saturday - U.S. at Cuba on ESPN Classic, Galavision.
*8 p.m. Sunday - Japan at Bahrain on Fox Soccer Channel.

The U.S. arrived in Havana Thursday night.

BTW, FIFA released the latest version of its always suspect rankings Thursday. Spain remains atop the table, England and Scotland are 15th and 16th respectively, Mexico is 24th (up eight places) and the U.S. 28th (up three spots).

Complete rankings.

I think there's a couple of MLS games involving the Galaxy and Chivas USA Saturday, too. More on that later.

Which reminds me: former Galaxy forward Herculez Gomez is on the move again and now he really is a wizard on the field.

In other MLS news, Rolling Hills Estates' John Thorrington still intends to play for the Chicago Fire Saturday against the New York Red Bulls despite suffering a nasty broken nose last weekend.

In Chicago Thursday, Chivas beat bitter rivals Club America 2-0 in an exhibition game.

And finally, given the dominant topic in this post it's perhaps an apt time to note the documentary on the Homeless World Cup ESPN was plugging during Thursday's MLS game that will air next week was dismissed with this cursory review in Variety.

In any event, here's the trailer for "Kicking It":

The UCLA men (1-1) are on the road this weekend playing No. 1-ranked Wake Forest Friday and North Carolina Sunday.

UCLA bounced back from a wrenching 2-1 overtime to Maryland at Home Depot Center last Friday to hand Coach Jorge Salcedo his 50th college victory Sunday in a 3-0 win over UC Riverside.

Goalkeeper Brian Perk, who recorded the shutout, said UCLA will rely more this year on contributions from its freshman class, which includes 16-year-old Eder Arreola of Chino Hills, who has already played for the U.S. Under-20 National Team:

"The talent level is a little bit lower just because we had the first (MLS draft) pick (in Chance Myers) and the third pick (in midfielder Tony Beltran), who are tough to replace, but surprisingly the freshmen are going to do a good job. It's going to be similar to my freshman year when we got to the final (of the national championship)."

Three other Bruins also went in the MLS draft.

With the talent level lower, other intangibles have assumed greater importance, said playmaker Kyle Nakazawa of Palos Verdes Estates:

"I feel l like our team chemistry is definitely a lot stronger than we had last year. We had some different personnel last year - guys that went big in the MLS Superdraft. ...But I feel our team chemistry is a strong point as we move forward in preseason."

Perk said he has no individual goals this season after last year's disappointing 9-9-3 season:

"I just want to win games. Last year I was a little bit selfish and had some ambitions of my own. This year, to be honest, I could care less about what happens to me. I want to win before everything else. Last year was so miserable. It doesn't matter if you play well or not. When you're not winning, it's not fun. I want to have fun."

Nakazawa, a junior, conceded he had one eye on his post-collegiate career:

"(My) goals are to help our team win Pac-10, go on to the national championship and put myself in a good position to get offered a Generation Adidas contract (with MLS)."

Incidentally, UCLA has started a light-hearted Q&A with players on its Web site. Up first: Nakazawa.

In other college games:
*The No. 2-ranked UCLA women (3-0) face UC Irvine (1-2) at 1 p.m. Sunday at Drake Stadium.
*The top-ranked USC women (2-1-0) take on No. 12 Santa Clara (2-1-0) at 3 p.m. Friday and then the Trojans host Alabama (1-0-1) at 1 p.m. Sunday (Sept. 7) both at McAlister Field.
*Defending Big West champions Long Beach State (2-0-1) is looking to match its best start in school history, when they host Harvard (0-0-0) at 4:30 p.m. Friday at the beginning of a four-match home stand. Undefeated UNLV (3-0-1) visits at noon Sunday.
*Off to the best start in program history, the Cal State Northridge women (3-0-0) hosts UNLV at 4:30 p.m. Friday at the Matador Soccer Field.
*The LMU men (0-2-1) host No. 24 Cal Poly at 1:30 p.m. Friday and seventh-ranked UC Santa Barbara Sunday, while the LMU women play immediately preceding the men's game against UC Irvine (1-2) at 1:30 p.m. Friday and Harvard (0-0) Sunday.
*No. 11 Cal State Dominguez Hills defeated Seattle Pacific 3-0 Wednesday in the Pacific Northwest for the Toros' third straight win.

Goalkeeper Jake Wright, of Rancho Palos Verdes, will blog for 100 Percent Soccer this season providing an inside look at the Cal State Northridge men's soccer program. Wright was a two-year starter at Peninsula High and is entering his sophomore year at Cal State Northridge. This summer Wright played for Orange County Blue Star of the United Soccer Leagues Premier Development League.

In his second post Jake looks back on the first week of the college soccer season:

Coming into our first regular season game against Georgetown last Friday afternoon, it looked like from practices, and our scrimmage at Cal, that we were ready to go.

However, it turned out quite the opposite. With the searing valley heat beating down at kickoff, it seemed as if things were looking up for us as we had a few good looks at goal within a few minutes.

But, the momentum quickly changed in favor of Georgetown via a fluke goal. A quick turnover in our back line led to a quick chipped ball over the top towards a Georgetown forward. As our keeper Kevin Guppy came out to get it, it took a bad bounce off his chest right into the back of the Georgetown forward and into the goal.

It seemed as if there really wasn't any energy on the field after the goal although right after half time, our best chance of the match came from a great through ball that resulted in a 1v1 breakaway for our central midfielder Milan Radovic. Unfortunately, the keeper came up with a huge save to keep the score 1-0. Despite out shooting the Hoyas 8-1, we suffered our first loss of the season.

Not only did we lose a tough game, but we lost two great players to injury in the first half. Both senior Devin Deldo and sophomore Rafael Garcia went down with knee injuries and were on crutches by the end of full time; a huge loss for us and both are doubtful for the two games this weekend.

As most sports fans know though, it's how you respond to a rough game that defines a team, and that is exactly what we did Sunday against Alabama A&M.

We came out with a lot more energy and dominated play right from the get go. Senior Ben Cox found the back of the net just before half time and junior Sung Kim put the game away in the 70th min. A great effort by the whole team gave us our first win of the season to put us 1-1-0 on the year.

Hopefully we can get the job done this weekend also as we take on Cal State Bakersfield on Friday night at Titan Stadium at Cal State Fullerton, and then on Sunday afternoon we meet UNLV.

Go Matadors!

Husky-voiced Josh Wicks, the self-described Barry White of goalkeepers, who played just two halves in Hawaii, and another half in Shanghai in preseason before coming on after 45 minutes last weekend for injured starting goalkeeper Steve Cronin, talked to the assembled media today (well, OK, all two of us) about his expected start Saturday:

Q: How did coming in at half time in the New England team help before your first MLS start Saturday against Real Salt Lake?
A: It got my feet wet a little bit, it took a little bit of the nerves off, coming in at the middle of the game rather than the start - the game was already rolling - so all I had to do was get on the bus and continue to ride. It kind of helped as far as shaking loose some nerves and getting rid of some of the cobwebs.

Q: What's the difference between the USL (Wicks was the 2007 USL Goalkeeper of the Year) and MLS?
A: It's sharper. Talent's better - I wouldn't say it's extremely better - but it's better. The players are a lot smarter and a lot quicker on the ball and it's not as direct. ... And the finishing - as a goalkeeper - is a lot more clinical in MLS than it has been in the USL.

Q: I'm sure when you came in at half time last weekend you didn't have a chance to be nervous. Are you nervous (ahead of this weekend)?
A: I actually got a chance to be nervous coming in at half time against New England. The whole time I was warming up I was OK, but the 10 seconds from the rest of the meeting to running on the field ... I had to get rid of my nerves. I'm looking forward to Salt Lake. I think if you don't get nervous, there's something wrong, it's part of the game. Everyone wants to do well, everyone wants to play well and not make a mistake - so a little butterflies here and there there's nothing wrong with it, but it's what you do with it and how you perform on that day that's going to determine how you play.

Q: As far as the goalscoring threats for Real Salt Lake, who are you going to be most keeping your eye on?
A: My goal - make sure it doesn't go in the goal. I don't want to fixate on one person, I'd rather fixate on my back line, make sure they don't allow them any chances.

Q: Talk about your goalkeeping style with the defense. Are you louder than Steve or quieter?
A: I'm loud anyway, on and off the field. As far as me talking you'd probably have a harder chance getting me to shut up.

If you're like me and subscribe to DirecTV for its unsurpassed soccer options (Dish has dropped Gol TV and cable TV customer service is abysmal) you'll be heartened to learn that DirecTV and TiVo have renewed a once deteriorating relationship and will offer TiVo DVR's as an option again.

Ever since my TiVo died I've been forced to use the clunky, not particularly intuitive DirecTV DVR. Good to see a corporation essentially admit it needs to stick to doing what it does best and leave "other stuff" to a more experienced company in that area.

And yes, the Josh Wicks Q&A is coming. My attention has been diverted by the U.S. Open Cup final on FSC.

With the Galaxy down to one healthy goalkeeper in Josh Weeks after Charles Alamo and now Steve Cronin suffered what Coach Bruce Arena effectively regards as season-ending injuries, he is calling in reinforcements in the shape of former Colorado Rapids draft pick Mike Graczyk, a former University of New Mexico standout now in the MLS pool of goalkeepers retained for just this purpose (so no Kasey Keller on loan then, I guess).

Arena knew nothing about Graczyk, who was on the Dallas roster earlier this season and has also played for the PDL Des Moines Menace.

But at training today Arena said he believes Wicks is ready to start his first-ever MLS game Saturday at home against Real Salt Lake:

"He's trained hard and my understanding is he's done well in preseason and throughout the year. I think he's prepared to play. I thought he did a good job on Saturday for his first taste, so it's good he had 45 minutes against New England.

I chatted with Wicks at training today and will be blog later today with a Q&A of that conversation.

The Galaxy have also recalled three players on loan from the USL Portland Timbers - defender Scott Bolkan, defender Varden Adzemian and Bryan Jordan, who has played in one Galaxy and nine Timbers games this season.

A reminder to the dozen or so of you out there still paying attention to the sadly ignored U.S. Open Cup (this is our F.A. Cup, after all) - the 95th annual final between D.C. United and the USL's Charleston Battery is live at 4:30 P.M. on Fox Soccer Channel.

The Battery are seeking to become the first USL team to lift the trophy since the Rochester Rhinos in 1999. Also at stake: a place in the 2009 CONCACAF Champions League.

Battery basics:
Head Coach: Michael Anhaeuser
2008 U.S. Open Cup Record: (3-0-2, 2-0 in PK shootouts)
2008 Open Cup Leading Scorer: Darren Spicer (4 goals, 1 assist)
All-Time Open Cup Final Record: First Appearance
2008 USL-1 Record: 10-9-7 (37 pts., Third Place, single table)
2008 League Leading Scorer: Randi Patterson (8 goals)
Last Outing: 0-0 draw on 8/29 vs. first-place Puerto Rico Islanders

Finally, several Southern Californians were among the 40 selected today to attend the fall U.S. Under-17 Residency Program in Bradenton, Fla. There are 17 new players and 23 who are returning.

Southern Californians to attend include: midfielder Luis Gil of Garden Grove; defender Emilio Orozco of Oxnard, who plays for Rampage FC; and defender Alberto Rosas of North Hollywood, who plays for Real So Cal.

The excuses:
Preki:

"Very difficult to lose like this. The game should have been over in the first half, we had so many opportunities, penalty kick. Don't understand why the goalkeeper wasn't sent off after pulling Roberto (Nurse) down (on the penalty kick decision). As far as I know the rule says last guy - red card. Instead of that in the beginning of the second half we get a soft goal and then (Jonathan) Bornstein a red card against us. ... Very, very, very disappointing and we had difficulties dealing with the referees and I don't want to complain about the referees, it's difficult when we go outside our country, but you would think when we play here we would at least get an even call. Right now we can't catch a break."

On Chivas USA's inability to score:

"Right now we have an incredibly tough time finding the net. Finally we squeezed one in tonight. We've got to find a way to score goals."

On where the game was lost:

"I think the game was lost first of all, we lost down in Panama. ... We should have won this game by four or five goals. I wish them good luck in the next round, but even with the lineup and the injuries that we have we should have scored four or five goals tonight and the game is over. At the moment we're just having a tough time scoring goals and in the last I would say seven games we've scored four or five goals and that's not good enough, I'm sorry. ... we're creating chances, it doesn't really matter unless you put them in the goal."

On Subbing Sacha Klejstan:

"I don't think he was good. I thought he was already with the national team or wherever he was because tomorrow he's leaving. I don't think he was playing good so nobody is untouchable.

Sacha Klejstan on his poor game:

"I didn't do my best in order to help the team win tonight and so it's very disappointing and I feel very bad for the rest of the guys who fought their asses off tonight."

Goalscorer Roberto Nurse on the result:

"We are really disappointed with this result. We should have won this game. We couldn't do it. I'm a little bit happy because finally I could score, but it wasn't enough."

Game story.

Roberto Nurse celebrates his goal - but it was't enough.

Photo by Bruce Hazleton

The end of Chivas USA's participation in the inaugural CONCACAF Champions League effectively came in the 62nd minute when Luis Moreno equalized to tie this game 1-1.

But that put the score 3-1 on aggregate, meaning Chivas USA needed not two goals (because away goals count double in the event of a tie), but three more goals within a half hour to move on.

And they would have had to do it with 10 men because Jonathan Bornstein foolishly got himself a second yellow card in the 52nd minute for unnecessarily holding an opponent in the middle of the field when the Chivas USA goal was under no danger.

Preki perhaps was suggesting there was plenty of stupidity on display this evening by subbing penalty misser Sacha Kljestan after 65 minutes.

Moreno's goal was excellent, BTW, with the defender beating several Chivas USA defenders (including Jim Curtin twice), before seeing his shot hit the inside of the near post and just bounce across the goal line.

It could have been more - Jim Curtin saved the ball from going over the goal line after an 83rd minute shot beat goalkeeper Dan Kennedy.

Just to rub things in, Panchito Mendoza missed with the goalkeeper down and the net yawning in the 85th minute, his shot just hitting a defender's legs to go wide.

In the end, Chivas USA only had themselves to blame for the early cup exit, despite a Tauro FC goalkeeper who seemed incapable of holding onto the ball, especially in the first half.

Back with the excuses later.

Chivas USA ended the half one up courtesy of a Roberto Nurse goal to put the series 2-1 on aggregate, but if they go out of the CONCACAF Champions League they'll be ruing three easy missed chances in the opening 45 minutes.

Sacha Kljestan missed a penalty with a weak shot he sent almost straight at the goalkeeper in the 23rd minute after Nurse ran onto a Panchito Mendoza ball and was brought down by goalkeeper Willington Dominguez.

Justin Braun's short-range header in the 12th minute from a corner kick beat the goalkeeper, but was headed off the line by Tauro defender Leonel Parris.

And Atiba Harris headed off the bar from inside the six-yard box in the 36th minute.

Nurse, who turned and fired home from about 10 yards despite the close attention of a Tauro FC defender, collected his first goal for Chivas USA.

Chivas USA lead the game - but they should be leading the series.

Still, Tauro FC hung back in the first half often playing with nine men behind the ball and with only one goal now separating the two teams can't afford to play so defensively in the second half.