CONCACAF slots; Spencer speaks about the Fire job.

The MLS has released the CONCACAF Champions League format. Here are how the slots are filled (and who filled them this year) for the US:
USA1: 2007 Major League Soccer Champion (Houston Dynamo)
USA2: 2007 Major League Soccer’s Regular Season Winner – AKA winner of the Supporters' Shield (D.C. United)
USA3: 2007 MLS Cup Runner-up (New England Revolution)
USA4: 2007 US Open Cup Champion (slot given to Chivas USA. Since the winner of the US Open Cup – New England – already has a slot, Chivas was given the slot as the next highest team in overall points from the 2007 MLS Regular Season.)

No need to write extensively on the format as Lark's blog has a good look at how this tournament may affect the Dynamo. Basically, the tournament doesn't help the schedule situation for the MLS. We have round-robin play when we're in mid-season form (and due to the squeezing of tournament matches into the already-crowded regular season schedule, we might be in mid-season fatigue), but if we move to the next round, the quarterfinals and semifinals fall into our preseason just like the old CONCACAF format.

US Soccerplayers blog gives the Dynamo some love. In the preview for tonight's match between RSL and Colorado, there is this paragraph: "No offense to tonight's winners, who will take the West lead into the weekend, but Houston remains the class of the Conference. Brian Ching and Dwayne De Rosorio both scored last week, and there's the feeling that the Western order will return to what we expected fairly soon." Indeed, even at the bottom of the standings, we've been the class of the conference on the field. (I won't go as far as to say the "class of the league" yet.) Those who watch the games know this; those who know just the results don't. Here's hoping the Western order does return to orange normalcy.

Rumor was that John Spencer had been offered the Chicago Fire coaching position in the off-season. Here are the first official quotes I've seen from Spencer and Fire players regarding the situation. Spencer says, "I came very close [to accepting the job]. They offered, but we couldn't agree on monetary terms. But that's water under the bridge."

Longtime Fire assistant Denis Hamlett then was offered and accepted the position. The Fire have to be happy with their choice what with the team being off to its best start in franchise history. Let's hope that we put a dent in the Fire's record this weekend, get some quality goals for our team, and reverse the East-over-West trend that we've seen so far this season.

Other links:
The Dynamo website talks about Robinson's recovery. And the fickleness of Lady Luck.