New England comes into town on a fairly hot streak despite the fact they just lost one of their key players Steve Ralston for the rest of the year to a knee injury. The loss of Ralston shakes up their midfield a bit and could put a damper into their offense. Thankfully for Steve Nicol, his club has done well recently defensive wise in slowing down teams like Seattle.

Dallas however will pose a bigger threat offensively that New England hasn’t faced in a few weeks. The hot streak of Jeff Cunningham and company leads many to wonder if Dallas is on the way up even though their playoff hopes henge on going undefeated from here out.

Look for Dallas to press hard in this one early as they cannot afford to even drop points with a draw in this one. New England will have to rely on a swift counter with MVP candidate Shalrie Joseph leading the way.

I think this one ends in a draw tonight with the way New England plays defense and the fact that they always seem to find success against Dallas in Dallas. I don’t know if the Cotton Bowl site will really have any affect on the game but it will be a nice turn back the clock kind of night for the boys in the red stripes.

WVH Prediction: Dallas 1, New England 1

There is still a lot of qualifying left to do. Let’s make that clear, four games may not seem like much but it can certainly change the landscape of how things will finish out here.

First of all the US has gotten it’s hard games out of the way on the road in Costa Rica and Mexico, not to mention getting their home game to Mexico out of the way. They still have Costa Rica at home left to finish out qualifying but as we all know in the Hexagonal, Costa Rica and Mexico (up until the Gold Cup for them at least) don’t win in the US and the US doesn’t win in Mexico and Costa Rica. If that holds to be true we will indeed be fine.

But saying we will be fine isn’t enough for some. The way the standings are right now we pretty much have a sense of who the top four teams will be and who the bottom two are. Trinidad and Tobago and El Salvador aren’t out of the running but they sure have a longer way to go with four games remaining.

At this point the best case for the US would be a first place finish in the group with say 19 points (the two home wins and a win in either T&T or Honduras). Speaking of Honduras they are sort of the wild card team in this for CONCACAF. I still think they could qualify over Mexico here if things go right.

Again, a lot of soccer left to be played. I still feel good about the US here but I know some naysayers out there may disagree.

Time for some extra links though to get you through the rest of the day.

Tough Road for Houston, Columbus and DC

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Excellent discussion over at SBI about the rough stretch of weeks that are coming up for three MLS sides in league play and in the CONCACAF Champions League. The Columbus Crew, the Houston Dynamo and DC United all have full slates ahead of them and DC even has a little more with the USOC final early next month.

Houston has the most favorable schedule out of the group here having already played 22 games this season. I pointed that out a little while back when I looked at the schedules for everyone. DC definitely will feel the lack of depth after a couple weeks here, if not sooner. Columbus has an interesting draw that I am eager to see.

Dallas Heading Back To Cotton Bowl

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Well for one night at least FC Dallas will return to the Cotton Bowl. Reason being is because it will be a double-header as Mexico will play some un-named South American side (probably Columbia or Chile). Steve Davis noted that this is due to SUM’s marketing of Mexico here in the States and not FCD work. The MLS side just has to play host that’s all.

Dempsey Signs 4-Year Deal With Fulham

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Clint Dempsey’s so-so performance against Mexico yesterday didn’t affect getting a contract extension with Fulham. The London-based club announced the four-year deal for the US midfielder.

Good to see Deuce do well in England.