Taking a brief break from the Euros

Toronto FC were thumped 3-1 by the Houston Dynamo on Sunday, continuing their awful form on the road. Toronto seemed to be struggling without Amado Guevara and Maurice Edu -- both away with their national teams -- and spent most of the game pinned back in their own half. Still, they managed to hold off their opponents until stoppage time in the first half, when Brian Ching set up Dwayne De Rosario for the opening goal. Ching added two more goals for Houston in the second half, and they seemed to be picking holes in the Toronto defence at will. Jeff Cunningham pulled a goal back for TFC in the 71st minute, but apart from that they rarely threatened the Houston goal. They'll be glad to get back to BMO Field for their home game against the Colorado rapids this Saturday.

On a fashion note, I have a feeling I've said this before, but it bears repeating: Those grey away jerseys are awful. Especially with the red shorts. Maybe if they had black shorts it'd look better. (What, are they too cheap to spring for a full away kit?) As it is, it just looks like they forgot to change out of their warmup jerseys before the game.

Also annoying: The local Houston commentators who were calling the game. It's not American football, so please stop talking about turnovers, kthx.

Other red-and-white-related news:

• Canada drew 2-2 with Panama last week in a closed-doors friendly ahead of their World Cup qualifying matches later this month. Canada took a 1-0 lead through Jamie Peters in the first half, before giving up a goal on either side of halftime to go behind 2-1. Ante Jazic scored a late goal for Canada to tie things up.
  
  
• Canada have moved up to 60th place in the latest FIFA rankings, tied with Panama. St. Vincent and the Grenadines, their opponents in the first round of World Cup qualifying this Sunday, are down in 147th.
  
  
• The Canadian women's team is still in 9th place, between France and Japan. The Canadian women's next game is this Saturday versus Argentina, who are also one of the teams that they'll be facing in their group at the Olympics in Beijing.
  
  
• Even Pellerud has announced that he'll be stepping down as the head coach of the women's team after the Olympics in August.
  
  
• And finally, the Footie Fool posted this link to an interview with Julian de Guzman on the FAN 590.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled blogging, i.e., ITALY WTF.