A footy Fourth

Real Salt Lake and the Houston Dynamo presented the Quakes with a nice present for the Fourth of July last night by holding each other to a scoreless draw, ensuring that the tightly packed Western Conference remains, well, tightly packed.

Onto Earthquakes news, and specifically, the quest for former Norwich City star Darren Huckerby. The Toronto Globe and Mail has a story today about Huckerby’s visit to Hogtown. (Yes, apparently that’s a legitimate nickname for Canada’s largest city. Hardly flattering, though.)

(Toronto GM Mo) Johnston said nothing has been decided yet as negotiations begin with both (Huckerby and Paul Dickov, who spent last season at Manchester City and Blackpool).

“We’ll take it from there,” Johnston said. “It’s not a done deal, it’s not a gimme that [Huckerby] will go to San Jose and it’s not 100 per cent that he will come here. But we’re interested in both players.”

The story also notes that Huckerby “has some ’slight concern’ about the FieldTurf considering his injury history.” Ronnie O’Brien, that’s your cue. If you get a chance, please enlighten Mr. Huckerby as to the joys of TFC’s fake field.

Our question is this: assuming Huckerby decides that he’s willing to put up with the pounding from the artificial turf and the hummingbird-sized mosquitoes of the Great Lakes, how is Toronto going to fit him under their salary cap? Looking at the payroll information made public by the MLS Players Union, it’s clear that TFC is already pushing its limits. Considering July 1 was the last day MLS teams could cut a player and not be responsible for his entire year’s salary, Johnston is going to have to pull off a prodigious amount of wheeling and dealing if he has any hopes of bringing in either Dickov or Huckerby. Which, happily enough, may leave the door open for San Jose. Good timing, as our colleague Tim Hanley would say.

The Mercury News has a story on the potential signing of Francisco Lima, who apparently impressed all around during his week-long trial with the Quakes.

We had a chance to discuss Lima with Quakes GM John Doyle earlier this week. (The full story from that hour-long conversation will be going online later today.) Here’s what he had to say about the AS Roma veteran:

Doyle: Always with an older player you ask, “Oh, man, is he old?” So how do you determine if someone is old? Well, their look – what does he look like? Does he limp? And then physically, see if they can run. Sometimes that goes quickly, sometimes it doesn’t go. Valderrama, Preki, guys like that in our league who were successful…

CLS: Well, Blanco’s what – 35, 36?

Doyle: Yeah, and he plays old, but he’s smart. He looks terrible — physically, he’s not a specimen. He takes his shirt off and you go, “Ooh, OK.” So Lima, when he came in, physically? Excellent. And someone who has a pedigree of Roma, and even Brescia last year, he played 36, 37 games. Those are the type of players that we’re looking for.

If Lima comes in, he’s 37 years old. Hopefully he’ll teach players around him, with the great work ethic of a winner, and you get him in here and he comes in for a while, but during that time someone else is developing. It gives you time to find the next player.

Finally, since it is Independence Day, we’ll leave you with this amazing display of musical dexterity from a 1978 episode of the old PBS show “Soundstage,” this one featuring legendary guitarist Chet Atkins. Enjoy, and careful with those fireworks. There’s too much California on fire already.