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Yeah, I know I write a lot about soccer and a lot of people don’t care about it, but I’m really into it lately.

Last night was the opening of the first Superliga, which is a competition between 4 MLS teams and 4 Mexican Football League, widely considered the best non-European league, teams.  The winner gets $1,000,000 and the right to call the other country either dirty Mexicans or pig-headed American fascists.  This year the eight teams were invited to participate, however the plan is to have the top 4 teams from each league qualify for the tournament every year from now on.

Group A
Chivas de Guadalajara
LA Galaxy
FC Dallas
Pachuca

Group B
DC United
Houston Dynamo
Club America
Morelia

Last night featured FC Dallas against CD Guadalajara (Chivas) and the Becktastic LA Galaxy against Champions Cup and Copa Sudamericana champions and 22nd ranked club in the world Pachuca.   The games were AMAZING even if I did have to watch them on a Spanish language broadcast on Telefutura.  (For the record, mlsnet.com is showing the games with English commentary but blurry 20 inch picture is not worth being able to understand play-by-play).

FC Dallas 1 – 1 Chivas

The first game kicked off at 9pm EST.  FC Dallas really seemed to control the early part of the game.  Juan Toja was a menace all over the field and new acquisition Ricardinho absolutely proved he was worth the money.  Dallas finally broke through early in the second half on a magnificent chip by Arturo Alvarez.  Beautifully executed play start to finish.

Chivas got the tying goal just 10 minutes later on a horrible no-call handball.  Awful, awful job by the ref missing a play where the player basically reached out with his hand and fisted the ball down to correct for his terrible first touch.  No way he keeps possession and gets a shot off without that bush league move.

Things got interesting in the 72nd minute.  Assclown Chivas captain Hector Reynoso elbowed Drew Moor in the nose as he was running past him.  Of course Moor, being kind of a baby himself, got up and pushed Reynoso in the face.  Bad idea jeans.  A scuffle broke out between about a dozen players, Moor was shown the red and Dallas had to hold on with 10 men to earn a point in the game.

LA Galaxy 2 – 1 Pachuca

Now this was a great game and a very surprising result.  It should be noted that Beckham had nothing to do with this game outside of looking good in his box seats.  Very flowing back and forth action, great saves by both keepers, and Pachuca player Christian Gimenez…Jesus.  That dude’s got a cannon for a leg.  He was crushing shots from all over the field and they always seemed to be on target.

Joe Cannon and Abel Xavier have finally showed in the last 2 games why LA was willing to trade and pay so much money for them, respectively.  Pachuca had 23 shots, 12 corner kicks, and 4 or 5 great free kick opportunities from just outside the box and still only managed one goal.  Tremendous job by the LA defense.

Landon Donovan, on the other hand, seemed to un-pussify himself and notched the first assist of the game and then the game winning goal only 3 minutes after Pachuca had scored to tie it up.

This game featured a fight too!  I told you Mexican and US soccer players hate each other.  Nobody got a red card in this one, but this time at least the teams had enough heart that about 17 of the 22 players on the field got into the action (it was before a corner kick and only the Pachuca defenders/goalie and LA forward didn’t make it down it seemed).

So, now MLS teams have 4 points to MFL’s 1.  Hopefully MLS can keep this up, get some respect, win some money, and keep on improving.