Monday, Monday

Is it Monday already? The Solar-Powered Soccer Blog is not ready for the week to start, so instead let’s take a short break to admire this bit of car darts from Top Gear, perhaps the best show on BBC America right now. The video can’t be embedded here, but the Blog will wait while you watch — it’s about five minutes.

Ah, you’re back. Pretty cool, eh? (And no, Monday morning is not the time to discuss the philosophical inconsistencies inherent in advocating for green power while simultaneously admiring the utterly pointless destruction of used cars by launching them from a cannon into a quarry.)

Now then, on to the news. The WPS had their inaugural game yesterday in Carson, and the L.A. Sol, whose shirts also bear the Amway Global logo now so familiar to Earthquakes fans, beat the Washington Freedom 2-0. The Blog is happy to watch Marta play soccer anytime, so bravo to the league for that. One quibble: Watching on TV (highlights online here), the opening goal looked like it should have been called back for a foul on goalkeeper Brianna Scurry, and seeing Andy Mead’s photo of the moment in question (scroll down a bit — it’s the first photo in the pink section of the page) reinforces that opinion. A tainted goal is not the way you want to enter the history books.

Just a couple items from the news today.

- Our own Embele Awipi covers the Earthquakes’ first win of 2009 in his weekly column in the Salinas Californian.

- The San Mateo Daily Journal also has a match report from Saturday’s match.

Post-game press wrap, Houston edition

Wow — four goals in seven minutes. If that’s not enough to overload the senses of a soccer fan, nothing is. Read more…

Earthquakes/Dynamo post-game interviews
March 28, 2009

Center Line Soccer was on hand after San Jose’s exciting 3-2 win over the Houston Dynamo. Click on the headline or on “Read More” to hear comments from head coach Frank Yallop and goalkeeper Joe Cannon of San Jose, and Dynamo defender Richard Mulrooney. Read more…

Weaver’s goal lifts San Jose to 3-2 win over Houston

Houston’s Wade Barrett lunges in an attempt to block this shot from San Jose’s Darren Huckerby. Photo by Joe Nuxoll, centerlinesoccer.com.

Center Line Soccer’s complete coverage includes:
- a match photo gallery
- Post-game video interviews with San Jose’s Kelly Gray and goal scorers Ryan Johnson, Arturo Alvarez, and Cam Weaver
- Post-game audio from Earthquakes head coach Frank Yallop and goalkeeper Joe Cannon as well as Houston defender Richard Mulrooney

(Santa Clara)  Cam Weaver’s goal in the 44th minute capped a wild first half and proved to be the difference as the San Jose Earthquakes earned their first win of the 2009 season, 3-2 over the Houston Dynamo Saturday night at Buck Shaw Stadium.

All the scoring came in the last fifteen minutes of the first half. San Jose surged to a 2-0 lead thanks to goals by Ryan Johnson and Arturo Alvarez scored three minutes apart, only to see Houston tie the game in the next three minutes through goals by Chris Wondolowski and Brad Davis, setting the stage for Weaver’s heroics.

“Give Cam a lot of credit,” San Jose goalkeeper Joe Cannon said. “After last week (when Weaver hit the cross bar from close range in a frustrating 1-0 loss to New England) he comes in tonight, and keeps plugging away, and gets the game-winning goal for us.”

“I liked that our guys didn’t lose focus from last week,” Earthquakes coach Frank Yallop said. “We worked hard on our finishing, all types of finishes. The three goals we got were decent goals.” Read more…

Arturo Alvarez v Houston Dynamo Post-Game

Kelly Gray v Houston Dynamo Post-Game

Cam Weaver v Houston Dynamo Post-Game

Ryan Johnson v Houston Dynamo Post-Game

Quakes vs Dynamo

San Jose Earthquakes defeat the visiting Houston Dynamo 3-2 on March 28, 2009. Photo gallery by Joe Nuxoll.

Pre-game press wrap, Houston edition

The first thought that comes to mind here at the Solar-Powered Soccer Blog when we look at today’s press round-up is that everything is a bit mixed up today. So, for right now, anyway, welcome to the Blog-Powered Soccer Solar at Soccer Line Center. Read more…

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