New Kids on the Block

In US Open Cup action last night, eight teams were whittled down to two. The remaining teams will match up on September 14:

LA Galaxy v. Minnesota Thunder
Chicago Fire v. FC Dallas

The Galaxy's victory demonstrated a few very valuable lessons for Earthquakes head coach Dominic Kinnear. First, he now knows that he has no depth, anywhere. In Brian Ching's absence, his only real option up top other than Alejandro Moreno and Ronald Cerritos is Brian Mullan. In the midfield, he was very wise to pick up Mark Chung, but with Davis battling injury (he re-injured his groin last night), he has no one who can come off the bench for either Chung or Mullan. He has very little depth in defense outside of Kevin Goldwaithe, Ryan Cochrane, and Chris Aloisi, and backup goalkeeper Jon Conway gifted LA with one goal last night and was beaten badly on the second. Second, Kinnear realized how vital Ricardo Clark is to this team's success. Not only is Clark proving he's matured into an excellent defensive midfielder, but without him in center midfield, DeRosario's game falls off considerably. Clark outlets the ball to Dwayne and vice versa. When O'Rourke was in midfield last night, this just wasn't happening, and as a consequence, DeRosario had little impact on the game.

The Earthquakes need to pick up another forward or midfielder to add depth. This player doesn't even have to be a starter, but this individual would have to be speedy and a definite improvement (skill-wise) over the likes of Julian Nash and Ian Russell. In addition, Kelly Gray's production has fallen off. If Davis was available for Saturday, it would be expedient and possible to bench Gray (he may just need a rest), but with Davis now out, that's unlikely. However, if Davis were healthy, I'd love to see Chung move to right mid and Mullan move to the right fullback position. The move would not be unprecedented, as Mullan has played right back with the Earthquakes before.

The Minnesota Thunder of USL-1 pulled off yet another big victory over an MLS club in Open Cup competition last night, defeating the Kansas City Wizards (away!) 3-1. This team, which has been a borderline playoff club in the USL all season, seems incredibly hungry. I would not be surprised if they made it to the Open Cup final.

Other soccer news:

Colorado going back to green?

Chelsea and Liverpool to rematch in group stage of the Champions League

Collina screws Everton against Villarreal

MLS Officials to blame for Madrid "debacle"