Soccer doubleheader at AT&T Park

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Editor's note: The Sporting Green is pleased to introduce a new soccer column that will run every Friday. Follow Alan Black's writing on the international and U.S. soccer scenes in The Chronicle, or on SFGate.com's soccer forum, The Beautiful Blog. It can be found at blog.sfgate.com/soccer/.

AT&T Park is used to the crack of bat on ball and the sight of baseballs plopping into McCovey Cove.

Saturday, the stadium will witness the flight of soccer balls.

For a few hours, San Francisco fans can pull themselves away from the Fox Soccer Channel to catch a soccer doubleheader. The San Jose Earthquakes roll into town for a match with the Houston Dynamo, the losing finalists in last year's MLS Cup. Afterward, Mexico's U-23 team suits up against Senegal in a warm-up for the 2012 London Olympic qualifiers due to start at the end of this month.

The Quakes kick off at 2 p.m., Mexico at 4:30 p.m.

Those willing to brave the elements may see the newly imported tools in the Quakes' box. Fix the Colombian midfielder, Tressor Moreno, as a genuine playmaker. Honduran defender Victor Bernardez has the team leader look, and Simon Dawkins, recently arrived from England, has the glide that makes opponents nervous.

Up front is the Quakes' ace striker, Danville-born Chris Wondolowski, the top scorer in MLS the past two seasons with 34 goals. Nicknamed Wondo by the Quakes' fans, he bagged the winner on the season's opening day last weekend.

SANTA CLARA, CA - MARCH 10: Chris Wondolowski #8, Sam Cronin #4 and Rafael Baca #30 of the San Jose Earthquakes celebrates after Wondolowski scores a goal against the New England Revolution at Buck Shaw Stadium on March 10, 2012 in Santa Clara, California. The Earthquakes won the game 1-0. (Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images) less SANTA CLARA, CA - MARCH 10: Chris Wondolowski #8, Sam Cronin #4 and Rafael Baca #30 of the San Jose Earthquakes celebrates after Wondolowski scores a goal against the New England Revolution at Buck Shaw ... more Photo: Thearon W. Henderson, Getty Images Photo: Thearon W. Henderson, Getty Images Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Soccer doubleheader at AT&T Park 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

The perfect start, and not just for the Quakes, but also for the cause Wondo is championing this season off the field. One Goal at a Time is a program created by Street Soccer USA, a national nonprofit organization that uses soccer programs as a method to lift folks out of homelessness. For every goal Wondo scores this year, he is pledging $100 and is hoping fans will follow his lead and support the program.

"It is for people who may not have had the best of luck or made the right choices, but this helps them get back on the right path," said Wondo in an interview this week. "My life has been lucky and fortunate but, you know, the wrong decisions here and there and I would have been right with them."

The fangs of old dogs: Top English club Chelsea experimented at the start of the season by bringing in a youthful head coach, Andres Villas-Boas, with a mandate to send the club's older players out to pasture. It failed miserably.

The old dogs turned on the new man and bit his head off. He was sacked two weeks ago after a string of lousy results. The old dogs hardly lifted a leg to help him on the field but were quick to lift a leg off it. Their not so quiet whispering campaign about locker-room dissent drooled onto the sports pages. Charges of disloyalty were thrown at the players. The club's Russian oligarch owner was said to be - dare I say it - barking mad at the team's loss of fortune.

On Wednesday, the old pack pounced on their critics. They unleashed a memorable come-from-behind aggregate win over Napoli in the Champions League. Goals by Didier Drogba, John Terry and Frank Lampard proved the old bark to be sound. Bones, please!

Brits loving MLS? Many Americans prefer to look across the pond for their soccer fix. Now, a bunch of Brits are gazing back, aiming to spread the MLS word among the Queen's subjects.

MLS-UK's website covers MLS games from over the pond. It offers leads on the challenging task of finding game coverage in the middle of the UK night.

There may be a little English eccentricity going on here, but you have to admire the commitment. One contributor expressed his jealousy for a concept called tailgating. Another lamented being stuck in England while his heart was in Texas. Never mind that he had never been there.

Perhaps it will catch on. MLS should pack a container of merchandise and send it across the pond. Many Brits live in sportswear. Youth have taken to wearing that most American of expressions, the baseball cap.

Full circle on my inaugural soccer column. See you next week.