Southern California youth powerhouse Arsenal FC's bid to reach the semifinals of the 2007 Dallas Cup's Super Group ended when it fell to English club Chelsea, 5-1, on Wednesday.

Arsenal, the three-time US Youth Soccer national champion, had beaten Japanese club Takigawa Dai-Ni, 3-1, and Mexico's Guadalajara, 2-0, to set up a showdown with the Bracket B title at stake.

But the Blues were too much for Arsenal with 17-year-old Ben Sahar scoring twice to give him five goals in three games. Only last week Sahar scored twice for Israel in a 4-0 win over Estonia that helped Israel move into a tie for second place in its Euro '08 qualifying group.

Unlike the Texans, who were the first American team to win the Super Group, Solar, this year's Dallas area representative, fell flat on its face, dropping all three games in this year's Super Group: 4-0 to Real Madrid, 3-0 to Saprissa of Costa Rica and 4-2 to Southampton, which joined Chelsea, Real Madrid and Sao Paulo in Friday's semifinals. Solar had players competing this week in the Texas high school tournament.

MLS clubs are represented at the Dallas Cup. FC Dallas edged Red Bull New York for first place in Bracket D and reached the quarterfinals of the Under-19 Group along with the Houston Dynamo, which advanced as one of the two second-place teams with the best records. The FC Dallas U-17s also won their group on Wednesday with a 1-0 win over the De Anza (Calif.) Force Blue, while the Red Bull U-17s finished third in their group. The Chicago Fire had affiliated teams from Michigan and Mississippi competing in the U-17 and U-15 brackets, respectively.