Clint Dempsey and teammates celebrate his goal

June 28, 2011 – I had the pleasure of shooting the Concacaf Gold Cup semi finals at Reliant Stadium in Houston.  I had shot the Mexican national team a few  times before, but had never had the opportunity to shoot the US national team.  I have been a fan of the US team for years, and I must say that it was very cool to get a chance to shoot their game.  It was a sellout, but the stadium wasn’t full during the US game, but once the Mexico/Honduras game started the place was crazy.  The US beat Panama 1-0 in the first game and then Mexico beat Honduras 2-0 to set up the dream matchup of the US v. Mexico in the final at the Rose Bowl.

I hope you like the pictures as much as I enjoyed taking them.

FC Dallas continued their good form at home with a 3-0 victory over Real Salt Lake.  Jeff Cunningham scored two goals to move into a tie with Conor Casey atop the Golden Boot standings at 15 goals a piece.  This is particularly amazing considering Jeff only had 1 goal midway through the season.  Cunningham’s first goal came in the 5th minute with the assist from Dave van den Bergh. 

David Ferreira doubled Dallas’ lead in the 10th minute as van den Bergh put a nice ball through the defense to a charging Ferreira.  The assist marked van den Bergh’s 10th on the season tying him for 2nd in the MLS and marking his career high.

Cunningham scored again in the 87th minute with a blast from about 25 yards out. 

A good performance from FC Dallas from start to finish.  The next game is Wednesday at the Cotton Bowl against the New England Revolution.

Jeff Cunningham earned a penalty for being taken down in the box in the 13th minute only to miss wide left.  That made Cunningham 1 for 3 in penalty conversions in the last three games.  He redeemed himself in the 20th minute with a shot from just outside the box that Houston keeper Brad Onstad was only able to get a finger to as it whizzed past him into the net. 

FC Dallas surprisingly continued to dominate play through much of the first half and created a few more opportunities, but were not able to capitalize.  Houston’s Brian Ching was subbed out at halftime for Kei Kamara, but the Houston offense was not able to create any real chances in the 2nd half as FC Dallas held on for the victory.

It was FC Dallas’ 4th home victory in a row and only the second time FC Dallas had ever beaten the Houston Dynamo in MLS competition.

FC Dallas must have been wondering where the offense was going to come from after the sold striker Kenny Cooper to 1860 Munich earlier in the week, but they didn’t have to wait long for an answer.  Jeff Cunningham scored the first of his four goals in the 39th minute which was followed three minutes later by the first of David Ferreira’s two goals. 

The halftime score was the same as the previous weekend, but in that game FC Dallas conceded four second half goals to lose to the Colorado Rapids.  FC Dallas were out to make sure that would not happen again.  They dominated play in the second half and got three more goals from Cunningham starting with one from the penalty spot in the 66th minute and then again in the 75th minute and 89th minute and one more from Ferreira in the 78th. 

The margin of victory was the largest in club history and the six goals tied for the most in club history.  All in all, a dominant performance by FC Dallas. 

The match went scoreless late into the second half, but both teams had chances.  Franco Di Santo, a second half substitute, scored the first of Chelsea’s two goals on a cross from Florent Malouda.  A couple of minutes later Di Santo assisted Malouda on the second goal.  The final score was 2-0 and Chelsea was the winner of the inagural World Football Challenge.

Columbus took the lead in the 17th minute when Eric Brunner’s header deflected off Pablo Richetti of FC Dallas and past goalkeeper Ray Burse.  FC Dallas mounted a strong comeback and tied the game in the 80th minute when substitute Eric Avila placed a shot into the top corner.  Then, in the 87th minute, FC Dallas’ David Ferreira was taken down in the box and Kenny Cooper calmly converted the penalty  to give FC Dallas the win.