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Editor's Notes: Garrido, Las Vegas, broken records and more

The Beast shows up big for the Dynamo in his first game in Houston. Las Vegas continues to push to become the next MLS team as Sacramento looks to make moves as well.

By Alicia Tolar
Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

The Beast

It was only one game, but Luis Garrido spent much of it living up to his nickname. Like most Houston Dynamo fans I knew nothing of the Honduran before he signed with the Dynamo. Fans who watched the Honduran national team at the World Cup may have noticed him in the midfield for the teams short stay in Brazil.

But back to last night. The Dynamo got their first win and first shutout since May 17. A few weeks ago they brought in USMNT player DaMarcus Beasley and Luis Garrido. Both players brought a much needed change to the Dynamo. While the overall energy of the team felt different Garrido brought a needed physicality to the midfield last night. He made a number of key tackles and was great at feeding the ball up the field. All things the Dynamo have been lacking this season. He was able to do this after only being in Houston for a few weeks. It's hard not to wonder what he will be able to do after more time with his teammates.

Oh and Beasley? Well he may not yet have given blood for the team but he did give up part of his tooth.

Vegas or Bust

Last week's public meeting on the proposed downtown soccer stadium in Las Vegas was postponed. The city is trying to build the stadium in hopes that they would land a successful bid for an MLS expansion team. The city and land developers are currently working out a plan to get the stadium built, but there is a $29 million funding gap with the current plan. The city would own the land and stadium while the developers would rent it back. The stadium would cost $201 million with the city coming up with $128 million and the other $44 million from the developers. The financing plan will have to be approved by the City Council on Aug 20 for the plan to continue to advance. The stadium would have 24,000 seats as proposed as well as a retractable roof and air-conditioning ducts every three rows.

However, Las Vegas hasn't been guaranteed a MLS team even thought heads from MLS flew to Vegas to meet with developers and heads of the city. There is just one expansion slot left with Minneapolis, San Diego, Austin, Sacramento and San Antonio all the in the running with Las Vegas for that spot. Las Vegas doesn't have a team in any of the major professional sports leagues in America. The fact that Nevada lacks pro sports may help the city. While Austin and San Antonio already have strong fan bases with their lower division soccer teams Texas already has two MLS teams-the Houston Dynamo and F.C. Dallas. Sacramento faces a similar problem in that California already has three teams. Minnesota lacks a MLS team but has a team in four of the pro leagues-NFL, NHL, NBA and MLB.

There have also been issues getting a stadium built for the team awarded to Miami and David Beckham. If that were to completely fall through another expansion slot would open up.

Kings owners eye SRFC

Owner's of NBA team Sacramento Kings are reportedly looking to buy Sacramento Republic F.C. A minor league team that plays in Sacramento, California the team constantly sells out their 8,000 seat field. Their interest in the team has MLS implications as the team is looking to snag the last expansion spot.  The team has already drawn over 118,000 fans this season.

With MLS in Portland this week for the All-Star game, the group will be meeting with MLS officials there to see what sort of deal could be done.

109,318

That number ladies and gentlemen is the new attendance record in America for a soccer match. Manchester United and Real Madrid faced off at Michigan Stadium on Saturday in front of a record breaking crowd. Madrid lost the game 3-1 to United. The Rose Bowl held the previous record of 101,799 from the 1984 Olympic game between France and Brazil. If you have been one of the people attempting to argue that soccer isn't growing in America..well..your wrong.

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