MLS Cup 2007: Houston Dynamo vrs New England Revolution

In the United States, one of the most prominent professional soccer leagues is Major League Soccer (MLS). MLS is an internationally recognized professional league by FIFA. In 2007, the MLS lineup had a total of fourteen teams from the United States and Canada. At the end of the season, the top teams from the eastern and western divisions competed for the MLS Cup. While the MLS Cup is nowhere near as big as something like Major League Baseball's World Series or National Football League's Super Bowl, the MLS Cup is a big event for soccer players and this match was particularly of interest.

For the MLS Cup 2007, the two teams competing were New England's Revolution (east) and Houston's Dynamo (west). These were the same two teams that competed for the cup in 2006. For followers of MLS, this game was a pretty big deal. The 2006 game was pretty intense, with the entire game scoreless. During overtime, both teams scored a goal. With the match tied, they went into penalty kicks and Dynamo came out on top with the win -- their first MLS Cup.

Both teams return for the MLS Cup 2007, which was held on November 18, 2007 in the RFK Stadium, Washington, D.C. As the match played out, things started off pretty even. However, New England showed that they really wanted the win and gave Houston a real run for their money early in the game. Of course, it meant nothing as Houston was able to comeback and take the win. This win is Houston's second time winning the championship title.

This DVD contains two cuts of the match. There are broadcast versions from ABC (English) and TeleFutura (Spanish). The two versions have different announcers, pre- and post-game talks, etc. It is nice you can see both versions (I guess), but I don't speak much Spanish and really only care for the English version. On that note, the two versions (about an hour and forty-five minutes in length) are crammed onto a single-layered, single-sided DVD. That is bad news for the picture quality.

For those who enjoy soccer, this DVD would be worth picking up if it had a better presentation. Visually, it looks like crap. I was very disappointed when the match started and I was stuck looking at a video transfer with noticeable compression artifacts and a blocky picture. The picture gets especially bad during quick motion (which happens a lot in a soccer match). I was also disappointed because the match was available in high definition and I was expecting a clean widescreen presentation. Needless to say, it was an exciting match, but the DVD just looks awful.

The DVD

Video:
The presentation is given in 1.33:1 ratio full frame color. It is a shame it was not presented in widescreen, as the MLS Cup 2007 was available on ABC HD. The picture quality is not very good. The transfer is heavily compressed and it is very blocky and pixilated. Refer to the body of the review for more details.

Audio:
The audio is given in 2.0 Dolby digital stereo and sounds average. The announcers are easily heard, as well as shouts from the teams. The match can be watched in either English or Spanish.

Extras:
There are no extras included with this release.

Final Thoughts:
The MLS Cup 2007: Houston Dynamo vrs New England Revolution match was a pretty exciting game and had some pretty big twists and turns as the control of the game shifted from New England to Houston. However, this DVD release looks awful. The video transfer is ugly and based on that fact alone it is not worth wasting your time with it.