The big 5-0-0 and other news

Saturday night, the US Men's National team will take on Sweden in the Stars and Stripes' 500th international match. When last we saw the boys, they managed a nice 1-0 win on the road, on the far, far road that is, at South Africa last November.

Against Sweden at the Home Depot Center Saturday at 7:30 p.m. the squad will attempt to get its record to .500, both overall and against the Swedes. The U.S. is 193-194-112 overall and 2-3 against Sweden. The neat part about all of this is that the first-ever US MNT international game was also against Sweden, a 3-2 road victory on Aug. 20, 1916, in Stockholm.

For the past two weeks, the MNT blog at USSoccer.com has been soliciting input on the top moments in U.S. Soccer history. They’re on to the Top Three games of all-time, so you can enter your thoughts here. Also, the folks at U.S. Soccer went back through the history books to chronicle some of the big moments in the first 92 years of U.S. national team action. That is a fun little read and you can find it here. And there is a nice little collection of pregame media notes here.

And as everyone around here in Houston should know, the Stars and Stripes will play Mexico right here in Reliant Stadium Feb. 6. This blog may just shut down for that game as Playtherapy, Mister3d and yours truly will all be in attendance! If you wish, you can join us by clicking on this link right here.

Also, the US MNT, keeping it loose, celebrated the 25th birthday of Chris Rolfe, aka the best player for the Chicago Fire not named Cuauhtemoc, on Thursday. You can see the video of that below, and, yes, that is our very own Brad Davis sitting at the table and eyeing that ice cream cake.



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If it's possible for me to care less about SuperDraft, I would indeed care less about SuperDraft. For those of you who want to follow it, ESPN2 will broadcast Round 1 live (ESPN2! Has soccer finally arrived or what?) and the rest can be followed at MLSnet.com. Enjoy yourselves and wake me when it's over.

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The countdown for Dynamo's first games is now on. In the first ever Pan-Pacific Championships, a short 33 (or 34, depending on the technicality of time zones) days from today, the Lads l'Orange will take on a team from Australia's A-League at 8:30 p.m. Honolulu time Feb. 20, though that will be 12:30 a.m. Feb. 21 Houston time. Dynamo play the nightcap of a double-header. The first game features Gamba Osaka from Japan's J-League vs. some team from California at 6 p.m. local (10 p.m. Houston). If you're heading that way and want to cheer on Haleiwa native son Brian Ching and the boys, you can buy your ducats here.

At the link to the tournament Web site above, you can also find a nice little Q&A with our Chingaling. Or you can just click to it here.
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And if you want to discuss the SuperDraft, the Pan Pacifics or anything else, the Dynamo and Greater Houston Soccer Coaches Association will host an evening Q&A with Dominic Kinnear Wednesday, Jan. 30, at Silver Eagle Distributors on I-10. Space is limited and the first 150 people to e-mail rsvp@houstondynamo.com will be able to attend.