GENERAL TRANSACTIONS
Toronto fired Preki and Mo Johnston. Nick Dasovic replaces Preki as the interim head coach. No word on who replaces Mo Johnston in trading everyone on the team and generally misguiding the club into missing the playoffs. (Missing the playoffs is truly a great Toronto sports tradition, isn't it? Did we really only get one point against TFC?) One last note on this, Toronto must have a GREAT lead on a new coach/general manager/technical director combo or solo. Why fire Preki when he isn't even done with his first year? If it is because the players didn't like him, well that just makes it better.
Colorado traded Mehdi Ballouchy to the NY Red Bulls for Macoumba Kandji. The deal makes a lot of sense for the Red Bulls who are having trouble moving the ball up to Thierry Henry and Juan Pablo Angel at times but it seems like a risk for the Rapids. Colorado has less leeway in the playoff race and I would think they would want some consistency over potential here. Kandji is still very raw and his soccer IQ strikes me as quite low (go back to the Red Bulls @ Chicago game when the ball was right in front of him and he couldn't get in position to make a simple tap in). Ballouchy has started 19 of Colorado's 23 games and was tied for 5th on the team in games played before being traded. Perhaps it is my own desire for more consistency from the Fire Starting XI coming through but seems like a gamble in crunch time.
CONCACAF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
Columbus Crew took down Joe Public 3-0 in CONCACAF Champions League action. They played to a draw in the first half but C-bus proved to be too much after halftime. Leandre Griffit (47'), Jason Garey (51'), and Steven Lenhart (79') provided the goals.
The Sounder's Leo Gonzalez got a red card in the 38th minute of the match and the final result went as you would expect for a 10-man team on the road. Deportivo Saprissa took three points in San Jose, Costa Rica finishing off Seattle 2-0.
Columbus is in fairly good position to advance to the next round while Seattle is all but out of the tournament now. Take a look at the standings for a better perspective. Real Salt Lake and TFC face-off tonight in more MLS related CONCACAF Champions League action.
MLS FRIENDLY
Chivas USA and CD Guadalajara faced off to a 0-0 draw. The game doesn't count and the teams have the same name. How do you not give the fans at least one goal?