The Houston Dynamo took a hard-fought 2-0 win in the first leg of their CONCACAF Champi­ons Cup semifinal against Pachuca on Thursday. Brian Ching, rounding into form, scored a goal, and overall, the team seemed a lot more composed and focused than in their first-round outings. The return leg is in Pachuca on April 5, three days before the MLS season opener. In the other semifinal, DC United and Chivas of Guadalajara fought to a scoreless draw in Washington.

This is international week, with the weekend and next Wednesday set aside for the national teams. In Europe, that means Euro 2008 qualifiers Saturday and Wednesday, with 20 games each day and every country in action. Full schedule at austinchronicle.com/soccer. Fado will no doubt be showing many of those closed-circuit-only games.

The U.S. men are also in action; they play Ecua­dor on Sunday at 11am and Guatemala on Wednes­day, 8pm. Both games will be shown live on ESPN2.

In the last major action before the international “break,” Chelsea and Manchester United both advanced to the FA Cup semifinals on Monday; the two could conceivably meet in the FA final, the Champions League final, and in a last-week, head-to-head meeting with the Premiership on the line.

Chris Petrucelli and the Lady Longhorns are holding a soccer clinic this Saturday at the Twin Lakes YMCA in Cedar Park; for information, see Sports Listings or call 512/250-YMCA.

This article appears in March 16 • 2007.

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