From Aloha to Alamo in two short weeks

Amid all the hubbub today over the new CONCACAF Champions league, Nate Jaqua heading to Europe and other news, this little nugget from Bernardo Fallas' blog caught my attention. Dynamo's preseason schedule is taking shape. Just two weeks after the Pan-Pacific Championships, and two weeks before the CONCACAF Champions Cup (which dies this year, meaning that if Dynamo win that tourney, they will be CCC holders forever!), Dynamo will be playing in a little round-robin tourney in my other hometown of San Antonio. You can check out the mention on the Express-News' site here, or read it below.

This is awesome news and I plan on making it to San Antonio for at least some of these games. Looks like fun.

(Or maybe this is just the long offseason blahs catching up with me. I HATE this time of year with the only things to see domestically are the Super Bowl and the interminable NBA. No MLS. No spring training. I have had enough, and not even watching Celtic win yesterday is lifting me out of my funk. If the prospect of this little tourney in SA is enough to get my jazzed, you know how bad off I am. Please. Someone. Kick a damn ball!)

Soccer: San Antonio to host 4-team MLS event

Terrence Thomas
Express-News staff writer

The two-time defending Major League Soccer champion Houston Dynamo will train and play three exhibitions this spring in San Antonio.

The MLS club will participate March 3-9 in the Texas Pro Soccer Festival, said Lester Gretsch, Dynamo director of communications.

A news conference is scheduled for 11 a.m. Tuesday in San Antonio to announce the event, said Steve Arters, a board member for the San Antonio Metropolitan Youth Soccer Institute and a co-founder of the Texas Pro Soccer Festival.

Houston Dynamo CEO Chris Canetti and head coach Dominic Kinnear are scheduled to attend the news conference.

"This is a special event for San Antonio," Arters said.

The Dynamo are scheduled to train at Pepsi Soccer Texas, a 12-field complex in Schertz, and will play the exhibitions at Steele High School.

Houston will play exhibitions against D.C. United, Toronto FC and Chivas USA.

Each team will participate in a round-robin, double-header format, with games on March 5, March 7 and March 9.

Among the players expected to play are Houston's Brian Ching and Dwayne De Rosario, Toronto FC's Maurice Edu and Marvell Wynne, D.C. United's Christian Gomez and Jaime Moreno, and Chivas USA's Ante Razov and Francisco "Panchito" Mendoza.

Edu was the 2007 MLS Gatorade Rookie of the Year.

The exhibitions will mark the second time in four years that San Antonio has hosted MLS soccer.

In March 2004, Colorado and New York/New Jersey played to a 2-2 tie before 4,204 spectators at the Blossom Soccer Stadium.