and Ryder Cup. They were aware of these devices. What they

Frisco, TX (SportsNetwork.com) - FC Dallas and Vancouver Whitecaps FC will open the 2014 MLS Cup playoffs on Wednesday when the two sides square off at Toyota Stadium. The winner of the Western Conference play-in game will march on to face Supporters Shield-winner Seattle Sounders FC, but the road to the conference semifinals will not be easy for either club. Toyota Stadium has not see many visitors leave with points this season. Though Dallas suffered a 2-0 defeat to the Portland Timbers in its regular season finale, the club went on a run of eight straight league wins on home soil. Dallas could have avoided Wednesdays play-in game with a victory over the Timbers, but head coach Oscar Pareja chalked up the defeat to Portlands urgency in a must-win situation, rather than potential complacency setting in for a Dallas side that already had a playoff berth secured. No, this team did not relax, Pareja said after the match. This team played against a rival today that made things difficult for us. We werent able to respond, but thats part of the game. Today I have to give credit to a team that did things right even though we could not find solutions on the field that resulted in points on the scoreboard. The day I see it, I will say it, but no, this team was not relaxed tonight. I see them work and run and today they walked into the locker room after having given it all. They didnt get the result, which sometimes you dont get the result youre looking for, but they did not relax. While FCDs home form in the second-half of the season has been impressive, the club may rue its loss to Portland given that it will now face a surging Vancouver side. The Caps concluded the regular season with 13 points put of a possible 15, a run that included three successive wins over Real Salt Lake, Dallas and Seattle. The rich vein of form meant that the club controlled its own destiny heading into Saturdays regular season finale, and with Portland topping Dallas earlier in the day, Vancouver needed a victory over the Colorado Rapids to secure fifth place in the West. The Whitecaps faithful at BC Place on Saturday were made to sweat it out as the winner only came in the 70th minute when Kendall Waston headed home a corner kick for the lone goal of the affair. Weve not been bad over the last few games, Vancouver boss Carl Robinson told reporters after the game. I think today was probably the story of our season in 90 minutes because we played very well at times, we had a few half chances we didnt take, then we started to get edgy a little bit, and then the big man scoring the goal. Robinson also singled out the play of goalkeeper David Ousted, who was called upon to make several key saves in order for the club to hold off the Rapids and collect the win. I think it was fitting that David Ousted kept us in it with two fantastic saves in the last three or four minutes because God knows what I would have done if one of them had gone in, said Robinson. Wednesdays clash figures to be a closely-contested affair as Vancouver and Dallas split the three-game regular season series. After the two sides played to a 2-2 draw at BC Place on July 27, Dallas claimed a 2-1 home win on Sept. 13 while Vancouver ran out to a 2-0 win over FCD on Oct. 18. China NFL Jerseys . It was well worth the wait. Manning and the Denver Broncos waited eight long months, then another 33 minutes to get the season started because of a lightning storm. Wholesale NFL Jerseys China . Dragic was a game-time decision because of a sore right ankle that had kept him out of Wednesdays loss at Utah, but played all but the last 10 seconds of the second half in the first 40-point game for a Phoenix player since Amare Stoudemires 44 on March 19, 2010. http://www.cheapnfljerseyschinateam.com/ . Louis Cardinals. He was 48. The commissioners office said Bell died in his home state of Ohio. Bell had not been feeling well over the weekend and had been scheduled to see doctors later Monday at the Cleveland Clinic. Discount NFL Jerseys .B. -- Canadas Rachel Homan opened the Ford Womens World Curling Championship with a 7-5 win over Russia on Saturday. Authentic NFL Jerseys . -- Darrelle Revis says at least 26 teams called after he was released by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.HOYLAKE, England -- Old Tom Morris would barely recognize the British Open these days. Its one thing for golf to evolve from gutta percha to polyurethane, from niblicks to hybrids, from hickory to graphite. Now the British Open is all about LED screens, apps and routers. Yes, there are wireless routers affixed to every grandstand at Royal Liverpool. Leave it to the Royal & Ancient to be on the cutting edge of digital technology among major championships. The British Open is believed to be the first major golf event to offer wireless in every grandstand, allowing spectators with mobile phone and tablets to watch the BBC coverage, track their favourite player through GPS, and get details through up-to-the minute scoring updates. "The experience for our spectators will, I believe, be the best they have ever received," said Peter Unsworth, chairman of the R&As championship committee. "Using their own smartphones and tablets, and our groundbreaking Wi-Fi network which is available in every grandstand, they will be able to enjoy live BBC television and radio coverage, live scoring and get news and updates without leaving their seat. "The information available to our spectators has never been so readily available." And to think this major only three years ago banned cellphones from the golf course. Now theyre telling spectators theyre missing out if they dont have them. The R&A last year installed wireless signals as an experiment, with the source of streaming capabilities coming from London. It was so pleased with the result that it now has installed its own fiber optic network at most of the links courses where it holds The Open, starting with Hoylake. Malcolm Booth, the R&As communications director, said the signal is strong enough for as many as 20,000 fans to stream video at the same time. A popular theme at the R&A over the last two decades has been finding a balance between tradition and technology. R&A chief executive Peter Dawson always thought that would involve only equipment. Now he is trying to grasp a world of live streaming and second-screen channels. "What it will be 10 years from now I can scarcely imagine," Dawson said. Traditions die hard at the oldest golf championship in the world, which dates to 1860. Tom Watson, a five-time champion who played his firstt British Open before Tiger Woods was even born, couldnt help notice some of the changes during a practice round Monday.dddddddddddd. "What happened to the yellow scoreboards?" he said. For starters, the scoreboards changed from yellow to green years ago, but point taken. For the longest time, there was a manual scoreboard behind each green that showed the cumulative score of the players on that hole, and the scores of the group next to play. Those are gone, replaced by LED screens that now give scores, news updates on the championship, and even a rules quiz during the practice rounds. "Theyre in the modern age," Watson said. Dawson said former championship committee chairman Jim McArthur was a strong advocate for getting up to speed with digital technology, and it then was turned over to Booth and the communications department. Booth said it wasnt a hard sell to the Royal & Ancient, though "there was a lot of explaining to do." "There was a need to explain how this could impact on the experience for spectators," he said. "Having a radio at the Open is not new. People have been doing it for decades. Having a television picture on a hand-held device has been pretty common at big events like the PGA Championship and Ryder Cup. They were aware of these devices. What they werent sure about was how easy it was to take that technology and have it on each persons phones." Oddly enough, it was at Royal Liverpool in 2006 when spectators took so many pictures with their phones that mobile devices were banned the following year. The R&A finally relented on that strict policy in 2012 at Royal Lytham & St. Annes. Now it has Wi-Fi networks, routers, live streaming, geofencing. Is there anything still ancient about the Royal & Ancient? "Me," Dawson said with a smile. He retires next year after 16 years as chief executive, the last few years filled with technology changes he never imagined. He still likes the balance between old and new. The Open still is played on the same turf where Old Tom Morris and Willie Park Sr. vied for championships. The claret jug has been passed around for 86 years. "But I think in the modern era," Dawson said, "the way that people now embrace this technology is something that golf also has to embrace." ' ' '