Loyola gets a new name

Little Loyola College grew up this past weekend when the school officially changed its designation to Loyola University Maryland. After many conversations with lots of alums and friends, the concensus is that the change is a great one.
Through the years, my college roommates have always said that their degrees were worth more due to the great strides Loyola was making on the academic side.
The one place these same people were a bit disappointed was the athletic side. A few have said that the Hounds haven't change much since the early '80s. Now that is an exageration since the school has increased grant in aid, coaches salaries and operations budgets. The next step is to put some trophies in the trophy case.
The level of support for the teams has remained constant and the need to market the programs has never been more apparent with the growth of many of the Maryland schools going full speed ahead with their marketing programs. Now is the perfect time for Little Loyola to step up and make some noise.

U20s and DC Disaster

Not a great weekend. DC United crashes at home to San Jose. Yeah, San Jose, a team that has not one a road game in two years. The team looked totally unmotivated and ready for the season to be over. They better pick it up or they will only have a thrashing at Toluca to look forward to in the near future.

Kocic had no chance on the classy free kick taken by Ramon Sanchez, clipped it right over the wall and found the upper corner to tie the game at one. Poor clearance from the DC back line gave San Jose an opening and after a clearance that hit the cross bar, Ryan Johnson pounced on the rebound to head the winner in for the Earthquakes. Extremely frustrated by the San Jose defense for the balance of the game, United saw several chances just miss, along with a desperation clearance off the line on a bicycle kick by Chris Pontius. The team has only a few games left and this was a golden opportunity to stay in the hunt for the postseason. It isn't over yet but it sure is close.

The US Boys U-20 team dropped a 3-0 decision in Egypt to world power Germany. Germany showed their class and never allowed the US team to get going. The US team really never had a chance against the UEFA champs. Cameroon is next up and they are looking like a super fit and physical team that will give Yanks very little time to play. Difficult but not impossible. US must win to have any chance of advancing to the quarterfinals.

So what do you think, can DC make the post season? Can the USA make the round of 16? Let me know your POV...