Busy Day

Lots going on today. The Yank’s B+ team takes on a hungry, desperate German side in Dortmund. Without Donovan, Reyna, Beasley, O’Brien, and Dempsey, Marc Connolly has the midfield in the hands of Mastro, Klein, and Zavagnin. Yikes. If the US loses by less than two goals, it’ll be a moral victory for The Bruce, who suffers considerably less pressure than his pal Jurgen Klinsmann.

I’ve sent a note to the tech department at USSoccer.com, asking them if they’ve made any server upgrades since the Poland friendly, when limited bandwidth of the website’s Matchtracker kept many from following the game live at work. If I get a response, I’ll post here. UPDATE: Here's the web team's promising response:

Thank you for writing. We have made some changes to the hosting of MatchTracker(to be separate from the rest of the site) in effort to improve performance. Please let us know if you experience any issues with today's match so that we may look into them, however we expect performance to be dramatically better than it was for the Poland match.

Good show, guys.

Tonight’s the second round of the Carolina Challenge Cup at Blackbaud Stadium in Charleston, where RBNY will take on the host Battery, and DC United will play Dinamo Houston. Red cards to Red Bulls Djorkaeff and Graham won’t carry over from the team’s loss to DC on Saturday.

About those Bulls, Alexi Lalas made a good number of friends last week when he offered free tickets to anyone that wanted to make the trip to DC next Sunday for the home opener. A staggering 750 fans wanted in, which should make the group the largest traveling fan contingent outside of an MLS Cup. A wedding will keep me from making the trip, which should be a great time.

Alexi then made many RB/Metro fans scratch their heads when an offer popped up on the Revs’ site for season ticket holders: a free ticket & bus ride to the Swamp for the 4/8 RBNY home opener. Helping your own fans to travel is one thing, but busing away fans into your house? I’m not so sure. From a business standpoint, the move is solid – giving Rev fans a reason to sign up for season tickets to get the free trip will endear RBNY to the Krafts. From a home-field advantage standpoint, however, bringing in significant Revs fan presence won’t exactly help RBNY on the field.

Tonight, the MLS-less Concacaf Champions’ Cup semis get going, with LDA hosting Club America, and Saprissa visiting Toluca. One of these clubs will be heading to Tokyo this December to represent the region in the World Club Championship. Hopefully the winner will do us as proud at Saprissa did last time, picking up 3rd place.

And as for MLS Glassboro? Let’s talk again in 120 days.