Well, heck. These second leg games were pretty darn good. D.C. United had it in the bag, being up 4-1. They played sloppy on a slip-n-slide field in the first half, but morphed into the Unstoppable (wish it was) Ugly we all know so well in the second. Luciano Emilio looks like the signing of the season, with all due respect to The Acquisition. And he was so reserved in his goal celebrations - this was his former team! Good manners or fear for his family? You decide.Houston had it a little tougher. Costa Rica's Puntarenas had them down a goal and a man in the first leg. Eddie Robinson's red card kept him out of the second and Brian Ching's fitness kept him out of the first match and all but the final 20 of the second. His fitness. I thought (and I swear I read it somewhere on the trash-strewn information highway) he was injured, so I was ok with that. Then I learn that he was given an extra long off season due to the World Cup. The World freaking Cup. He didn't even play. 
Riding the bus is so exhausting? But anyway, I digress. They played on Texas A&M's soccer field, which was beautiful. Not much in the way of "stadiumness", but the grass was gorgeous. Probably a disadvantage to Puntarenas, who play in a dried up cow pasture. To be honest, Houston looked fat and slow, all man-tits and potbellies. Dalglish's goal in the first half turned them into sharks. Fat slow sharks with man-tits, but sharks nonetheless. And Puntarenas reciprocated by strapping on their SCUBA gear and diving with gusto. Yellow cards were given for lip, but none for fouls. Kelly Gray poked in a rebound (off a Ching header - guess he'll be *resting* the next leg) and the fat slow man-titted sharks held on to win 2-1 on aggregate. Stunningly, there seem to be no synonyms for "aggregate." More stunningly, two, count-'em-two, MLS teams are in the semifinals.
D.C. United vs. Chivas, Houston vs. Pachuca, March 14. Be there for the Tex-Mex Clasico.
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