Houston's Seller's Remorse

If you're a Dynamo fan you have to feel slightly ill about your stable of forwards. Houston's leading scorer is Brad Davis - a midfielder by trade who's bagged just four goals this season. No forward on the roster (including Brian Ching) has scored more than two goals. To make matters worse, two players that were recently wearing the Houston orange are the leading scorers for other teams.

Last year the Dynamo dealt Chris Wondolowski and a draft pick to San Jose for Cam Weaver. Wondo leads the Earthquakes with six goals. Weaver has scored just one in 316 injury-plagued minutes. In 2009 the Dynamo also traded Kei Kamara, getting Abe Thompson and allocation money in return. Thus far Houston has gotten nothing from their end of the deal. Thompson did nothing significant and joined second division Miami FC this season. Including a tally at the end of last season, Kamara has scored seven goals for the Wizards.

Not long ago, it seemed like Houston had the golden touch when it came to forwards. Now it seems that King Midas has left town.

The Lure of Easy Money Has a Very Strong Appeal

In 2006 Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber famously said "We don't want the local bail-bonds company on the front of the Columbus Crew jersey." Were multi-level marketing companies like Amway, who just signed on as the shirt sponsor of the San Jose Earthquakes truly what he had in mind that day?

Sure, the FTC officially ruled that Amway isn't a pyramid scheme, and nobody has been able to prove that they constitute a cult. But do you really want your team/league associated with a company that's had to defend itself from such allegations, as well as lawsuits from a number of governments?

You might note that MLS is not the first American sports league to be associated with Amway. Co-founder Richard DeVos owns the Orlando Magic. Is this good or bad? I'll leave that to you to decide.

Now THAT'S a Nickname

There have been some rumors about Scottish striker Kevin Kyle being brought in by the San Jose Earthquakes. Normally I wouldn't care the least about a journeyman striker with tenuous claims of interest from MLS. In mister Kyle's case however, I must make an exception because of his most excellent nickname. Here's the details, courtesy of the wonders of Wikipedia:

In 2006 Kyle received the dubious nickname of "Scaldin' Balls" from the Daily Mirror, a parody of David Beckham's "golden balls" nickname, after Kyle missed one of Sunderland's matches after scalding his testicles with boiling water

You've got to love the British media. I can only imagine the heated editorial discussion as the Mirror's staff chose between scaldin' balls, boilin' balls and hunka hunka burnin' junk.

Remaking the San Jose Earthquakes

Before losing this weekend, the San Jose Earthquakes were riding a nine-game unbeaten streak which has them on the verge of leaving the Western Conference basement. The team has turned over a fair percentage of its roster during the season, trading for proven MLS vets such as Arturo Alvarez, Kelly Gray and Scott Sealy.

However the biggest spark has been provided by two foreigners that might not have been on the radar of MLS fans -- Darren Huckerby and Francisco Lima. Acquired within days of each other in July, these two players have put up a total of six goals and six assists in the last nine games, breathing life into a toothless San Jose attack. So just who are these players?

Huckerby is the better known of the two stateside. He spent the last five seasons playing for Norwich City in the English Championship and Premiership, where he made roughly 200 appearances for the Canaries. In May of this year he was named as part of the club's "greatest ever line-up."

Brazilian midfielder Lima came to the 'Quakes from Brescia in the Italian second division. Prior to that he travelled Europe, playing in Russia, Switzerland, Turkey and Italy. During four years with Roma, he played nearly 90 games, including almost 30 appearances between the Champions League and UEFA Cup tournaments.

I guess it just shows that you don't have to bring in big name stars to have a major impact on the quality of your team.