Player of the Week
Jeff Cunningham, FC Dallas
Major League Soccer’s ultimate journeyman forward found the back of the net twice in two minutes during the first half last weekend to give Dallas all the scoring it needed in a 2-1 win over New York. The goals were Cunningham’s 106th and 107th of his career in regular season matches, moving the 33-year-old Jamaican to within one goal of Jason Kreis for third all-time in MLS history. Cunningham spent his first seven seasons in MLS with Columbus, but bounced around to four different teams the last seven years.
Story Lines
1. “The U.S. will never win at the World Cup level because it doesn’t have any players on the world’s best teams.” » So much for that argument, as Olney, Md.-native Oguchi Onyewu has signed with Italian giant AC Milan, becoming the first U.S. national team player in Serie A in more than a decade (Alexi Lalas parlayed his 1994 World Cup performance into a season with Padova in 1994-95, and remember, Guiseppe Rossi plays for the Italians). Onyewu, an imposing 6-foot-4, 210-pound central defender, was a standout at Standard Liege the past five seasons, leading the Belgian club to a pair of league championships. After finishing his contract this season, Onyewu had been linked with clubs ranging from Fenerbahce to Ajax to Real Madrid, before finalizing a deal with AC Milan on Monday.
2. Real crazy in Madrid » First, Cristiano Ronaldo trumped Kaka’s $91 million signing with Real Madrid by moving to the club himself for $131 million. Then, on Monday, Ronaldo made Kaka’s unveiling last week in front of 50,000 fans look like child’s play, as nearly 80,000 diehards filled the Santiago Bernabeu, welcoming the 24-year-old Portuguese midfielder who appeared before the capacity crowd wearing the No. 9 jersey, the same number of Real Madrid’s arguably most famous player, Alfredo Di Stefano. Ronaldo told the crowd he had achieved his childhood dream.
3. A double dose of women’s soccer scheduling debacles » In its inaugural season in Women’s Professional Soccer, the Washington Freedom scheduled three doubleheaders with D.C. United at RFK Stadium. Yet the team’s biggest star, Abby Wambach, will miss two of those matches when she is absent for the Freedom’s match vs. St. Louis on July 18. She instead will be with the U.S. women’s national team for a pair of meaningless exhibition matches against Canada on July 19 and 22. For the good of WPS — and since the next Women’s World Cup is two years away — the U.S. national team should’ve shut it down this summer.
Key Game
Dynamo at Sounders FC, Saturday, 4 p.m. » This is the first meeting but promises not to be the last between these two clubs, as they sit in first and third place in the Western Conference and likely must go through one another to reach MLS Cup. Led by Fredy Montero (8 goals), Seattle has the third best offense in MLS, but Houston boasts a superior defense, including league-leading goalkeeper Pat Onstad (0.63 goals against average, 8 shutouts).
