Nov. 9, 2007

HOUSTON - Former North Carolina standouts and current Major League Soccer rookies Michael Harrington and Corey Ashe will meet Saturday in the MLS Western Conference Final with a trip to the MLS Cup on the line. Ashe's Houston Dynamo are the defending league champions, while Harrington will try to put his Kansas City Wizards into the title game after being chosen with the No. 3 pick in the 2007 MLS SuperDraft.

Harrington and Ashe helped the Tar Heels to four trips to the NCAA Tournament from 2003-06. Harrington has started 27 games this season and has three goals and four assists, while Ashe has four assists in 22 games on the year. Both were recently honored as two of the top 10 MLS rookies by Soccer America magazine.

"It's down to crunch time now," Harrington said in a feature in today's Greenville Daily Reflector, his hometown paper. "These games are really important, and if you lose you go home. So it's kind of throw everything you got out there, because there's nothing really to save. Everybody's trying to win the MLS Cup."

Former Tar Heel Eddie Johnson is also a member of the Houston Dynamo.