Breakfast Links - March 20, 2023
(image via Billy Mears)
Happy Monday everyone!! What an incredible weekend to be a Dynamo fan! Here are your links to kick off this new exciting week.
Houston
What a win! The Houson Dynamo get their first win of the season in the home opener against Austin FC. After losing to Violette in Concacaf Champions League it seemed there was no way Austin were going to beat the Dynamo. Houston compiled on their misery by dominating the second half of the game to the point where they did not even stand a chance. Both first time goal scorers, Hector Herrera and Amine Bassi, sealed all three points for the Dynamo. To make the weekend even sweeter, Tom Bogert reported the Dynamo are signing Danish center back Erik Sviatchenko from FC Midtjylland. Erik has played over 300 games for Midtjylland and another 50 plus games for Celtic. Sviatchenko is the captain for Midtjylland, so not only does he have loads of experience but he will also be a leader for the team.
Just one more week until the season opener for the Dash! Everyone get your tickets and get there early for another chance at the new Shell Energy Stadium replicas. Ithould be an incredible weekend for Houston soccer with Dynamo 2 opening their season against Austin on Friday, Dynamo hosting NYCFC on Saturday, and the Dash opening their season on Sunday. Let’s support all three any way we can!
Major League Soccer
Now that was a better week of games then last weekend. There were loads of goals scored all around the league. Five of those goals came from Atlanta United in their 5-1 demolition of the Portland Timbers with two goals coming from Thiago Almada, who is having the best start to a season in league history now with eight goal contributions in four games. That free kick was absolutely beautiful and it should not be too long before some massive clubs start sniffing around him.
We saw two massive comebacks this week. The first one being Montreal coming back from 2-1 down, scoring two goals in stoppage time to defeat Philly. Montreal was aided by a Julian Carranza red card shortly after they made it 2-1. Forward Nnamdi Offor scored the equalizer in the 90th minute with former Dynamo Romell Quioto burying the winning goal in the 98th minute to earn Montreal a dramatic three points.
The other wild comeback came in Chicago where FC Cincinnati came back from 3-1 down to tie the game late on. Cincinnati came out firing to open the game with Junior Moreno scoring within the first ten minutes of the game. Chicago quickly answered through Polish striker Kacper Przybylko, then scored the go-ahead goal from a Rafael Czichos penalty. Right at start of the second half Chris Mueller went ahead and made it 3-1 and it looked like Chicago were cruising to their first win. Cincinnati then went on too ruin Chicago’s night by scoring back to back goals in the 84th and 87th minutes to secure a point and drop two points for Chicago.
Around the World
Let’s start this week talking about one of the matchups everyone circles when the league schedules come out every season. This match being El Clasico. As always, El Clasico has massive title implications with Barcelona nearly securing this year’s title by now going twelve points clear of Real Madrid with this weekend’s win. The game was incredibly tight with both clubs scoring a goal in the first half. This was definitely a game of defense where both Lewandowski and Benzema were kept relatively quiet throughout. The winner came in dramatic fashion with substitute Frank Kessie scoring in the 92nd minute to all but secure Barcelona the title.
Over in Germany the title race just continues to heat up every week. Saturday morning saw Borussia Dortmund put six past Koln to put all the pressure on Bayern Munic for Sunday. The pressure proved too much for Bayern with them having a massive stinker on the road to Bayer Leverkusen. Bayern scored early on through Joshua Kimmich, but then proceeded to give away two penalties that Exequiel Palacios buried to secure all the points. Dortmund are now one point ahead of Bayern with nine games left in the season. Maybe this can be the first time since 2012 they can hold onto the lead.
Italy hosted two of the biggest rivalries of the weekend with Lazio hosting Roma and Inter Milan hosting Juventus. In typical Rome Derby fashion, we saw a very physical game between the two sides. We saw Roger Ibanez get sent off in just 32 minutes giving Lazio a massive edge. Lazio took full advantage of this scoring through Mattia Zaccagni halfway through the second half. Lazio held on until the end. Both Adam Marusic and Bryan Cristante where given red cards as the final whistle was blown as the occasion of the Derby got the best of them. Juventus managed to defeat Inter on the road through a terrific Felip Kostic strike. Both teams played incredible defense throughout the game with the score ending 1-0 in favor of Juventus.
