Breakfast Links - March 13, 2023
(image via Houston Dash/Twitter)
Hope y’all enjoyed your weekend! There was no Dynamo game this time, unfortunately, but there was plenty of great soccer to be watched. Here are links to kickoff this new week.
Houston
It is home opener week for the Dynamo! As there was no game this week there was not much news. We were able to celebrate the birthdays for midfielders Artur and Brooklyn Raines. Saturday the Dynamo open up the new and improved Shell Energy Stadium to play rivals Austin FC. Let’s fill up that stadium and bring a great atmosphere to open the year!!
The Dash held an inter-team scrimmage on Saturday that was open for fans to attend. An own goal gave the Dash a 1-0 victory over the Dash in a 45 minute match. Head coach Sam Laity spoke after the match about takeaways from the scrimmage. “The blue team did a good job of stretching out the orange team, that's for sure. Ryan Gareis especially was a huge threat. In fact, the whole frontline competing on the blue team were very dynamic and were always a threat, looking to get in behind, looking to get in the sides of players and that impacts them,” Laity said. “That massively impacts the game. That's how I see our group performing. Dynamic, devastating, being a bit more ruthless around the box. We want to be getting in behind teams, we want to get down the sides of teams and we want to be creating chaos in the opponent's box.” It was great to have fans back in the stadium. Just two more weeks until the season kicks off against Racing Louisville on the 26th!!
Major League Soccer
MLS opened this week with an early game between Charlotte and Atlanta United. Atlanta played one of the most dominant games from any club this season, destroying Charlotte 3-0. Two of the goals came from teenage wingback Caleb Wiley. The third goal came from Luiz Araujo to cap off an incredible victory to put them top of the East.
St. Louis have been the biggest shock of the season so far. They now join Seattle as the only teams to win their first three games. Portland scored early on Saturday night, but St. Louis were very dominant for the rest of the game. They turned their dominance into goals from Jared Stroud and Kyle Hiebert to get a shocking win at Providence Park. St Louis now sit top of the Supporters’ Shield table.
LAFC look unbeatable right now. The current champs hosted the team that just destroyed the Dynamo last weekend, the New England Revolution, and smashed them 4-0. This result came with Carlos Vela, Jose Cifuentes, and Giorgio Chiellini all starting on the bench. This team is deep and looking like they can ease their way to another Supporters’ Shield and possible MLS Cup.
Around the World
One of the games of the week came in Germany when league leaders Bayern München hosted mid table Augsburg. The game saw eight goals scored between the two. Bayern somehow had four of their five goals scored by their defenders with Benjamin Pavard scoring two of them. Augsburg had two goals from Mergim Berisha to keep it competitive in a 5-3 loss. Dortmund of course failed to keep the title race as interesting as it could be by drawing with an awful Schalke team.
The English Premier League continues to give us excitement at both ends of the table. Two relegation candidates Everton and Bournemouth came up with massive victories to try and keep them in the division. Bournemouth managed to beat Liverpool of all teams who were coming off a 7-0 win. Even with Bournemouth’s victory they are still in the bottom three on goal difference. Both title favorites Arsenal and Manchester City had comfortable wins to keep the title race alive.
Mexico saw two of the biggest games of the weekend with both Tigres playing America and Monterey playing Pachuca. America managed to beat Tigres on the road 2-0 with goals from Jonathan Rodriguez and Leo Suarez. Monterey also were victorious on the road winning 2-1 with goals from Jesus Gallardo and Jordi Cortizo. These results now put Monterey top by seven points as they look unstoppable this season.
