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.

Here’s why: The Earthquakes pre-game story on MLSnet.com, written as usual by our own Jeff Carlisle, says that Carlisle writes for MLB.com — i.e., Major League Baseball’s web site. Congrats on the new position, Jeff — and what are your thoughts on why Barry Zito can’t win a game for the Giants but couldn’t lose with the A’s?

Similarly, Elliott Almond of the Mercury News has turned in a nice interview with Quincy Amarikwa, but it’s not (at least right now) available on the Merc’s web site. Instead, it’s turned up on at the MarinIJ web site.

Fortunately, almost everything else is straightforward. There’s a pre-game story from the AP and Bernardo Fallas of the Houston Chronicle, who was also a guest on this week’s CLS podcast, has a piece on former Earthquake and Bay Area native Chris Wondolowski and a note on Kei Kamara’s suspension.

Looking beyond tonight’s match at Buck Shaw, Tom FitzGerald of the S.F. Chronicle talks to WPS commissioner Tonya Antonucci about the league’s debut season, which begins tomorrow with a match between the Washington Freedom and the L.A. Sol. The league kick-off also wins a mention in the blog of London’s Guardian newspaper, although the writer may have been more interested in the news that some players will be using Twitter during the match than in the football.

Finally, a story in today’s New York Times focuses on former Earthquake Landon Donovan, identifying him as the pre-eminent soccer player in the U.S. but also discussing fans’ love/hate relationship with him. Perhaps the most unusual element of the story is writer Paul Oberjuerge’s attempt to uncover the derivation for Donovan’s derisive nickname “Landycakes,” a moniker that longtime soccer journalist Scott French ascribes to the player’s tenure in San Jose.

French suggested that the nickname Landycakes could be traced to Donovan’s years in San Jose, where he played from 2001 to 2004. He helped the Earthquakes win the M.L.S. title in 2001 and 2003 before Leverkusen recalled him. When Donovan maneuvered out of Germany in March 2005, he returned to his native Southern California; married the actress Bianca Kajlich; and joined the Galaxy, San Jose’s archrival.

This is accurate as far as it goes, but Oberjuerge is missing out on a key element of the story. Donovan was loved in San Jose when he played here, as any player would be who scored 9 goals and 4 assists in the two playoff runs that led to the Earthquakes’ MLS Cup championships. The name “Landycakes” came from the people who hated him most at that time, Galaxy fans — the very same people who support him now.

So, yeah, everything is mixed up today. The word “Landycakes” appeared in the New York Times and the Solar-Powered Soccer Blog issued a correction. It’s no wonder the newspaper business is in trouble.