Breakfast Links - September 2, 2022

What a week it’s been. Glad to have a 3 day weekend, hopefully you are too! Here are the Breakfast Links to get it kick started.

Houston

The Houston Dynamo pulled off a massive upset against the top dog of the Western Conference in LAFC, midweek. Now the Dynamo will look to build off of that as they will visit the Seattle Sounders on Sunday. Houston has never won in Seattle, could we see the guys change that this weekend? The match is set to start at 8:00 PM from Lumen Field. Vamos Dynamo!

The Houston Dash are off this week. They are still in the hunt to make their first ever playoff appearance, but the competition is getting pretty tight. The ladies only have 4 matches left in the season and they will need to continue to gain points and not get comfortable if they want to make history. DTFO!

Houston Dynamo 2 are home this weekend and are still trying to punch their ticket to the MLS NEXT Pro first ever postseason. The boys will play their third to last match of the season on Saturday versus St. Louis City 2. The soon to be expansion club to Major League Soccer, has a lot of very good players and will give Dos a run for their money. The match will take place at AVEVA Stadium at 7:00 PM Saturday. Come out and support the boys. Dale Dyna Dos!

Make sure you check out the latest episodes of the Dynamo Theory Podcast, available everywhere you get you podcasts.

Major League Soccer

The MLS Team of the Week had a lot of orange yesterday. Head coach Paulo Nagamura got top coaching honors after his Dynamo served Supporters’ Shield-leading LAFC a 2-1 upset. Panamanian international Adalberto Carrasquilla bossed the middle of the park and notched an assist, while goalkeeper Steve Clark made six saves and center back Tim Parker’s heroics earned a bench spot.

Home is where the heart is. For Real Salt Lake, it’s also where the key to the 2022 MLS Cup Playoffs is. That was the message from head coach Pablo Mastroeni following Wednesday night’s clinical 3-0 disposal of Minnesota United FC at Rio Tinto Stadium, which has become a fortress of sorts for the Claret-and-Cobalt this season. While currently sixth in the Western Conference standings with 42 points and an 11W-8L-9D record, RSL have the third-highest point total (28; 8W-2L-4D) at home in the current campaign - equal to FC Dallas and behind only Supporters’ Shield frontrunners LAFC and Philadelphia Union, both with 35.

MLS and Continental Tire are again teaming up to support Childhood Cancer Awareness Month with the ninth annual “MLS Works Kick Childhood Cancer” campaign to raise awareness and funds for pediatric cancer. This year, the Kick Childhood Cancer (KCC) campaign will again benefit Children’s Oncology Group (COG), the world’s largest organization devoted exclusively to childhood and adolescent cancer research.

Around the World

All football matches in Argentina were suspended on Friday after an assassination attempt on the country’s vice president, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. The Argentinian Football Association (AFA) made the announcement on Thursday night after the attack, which took place in Buenos Aires. Fernandez de Kirchner was arriving at her home in the Recoleta neighborhood when a man emerged from a crowd and pointed a gun at her head from close range.

Premier League clubs have broken their transfer spending record for a season in the summer window alone, spending £1.9 billion during the period, according to analysis from finance company Deloitte. The summer transfer window, which closed on Thursday, beat the previous record of £1.86bn spent in a whole season, which was set in 2017-18.

Leicester City manager Brendan Rodgers said “this isn’t the club it was 2 years ago” and claimed the team “hasn’t had the help it needed” in the transfer market this summer after seeing his team remain at the bottom of the Premier League following a 1-0 defeat against Manchester United. The 2015-16 Premier League champions, who offloaded goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel and defender Wesley Fofana, waited until transfer deadline day to make their only senior summer signing with a £15 million deal for Reims defender Wout Faes.