Some News for Thu Dec 10, 2009

STARTERS

Not good news from the Schalke website: "Jermaine Jones' return to team training is still uncertain. Last week he was back on the training ground, but the comeback was short-lived." See Americans In Europe section for all the details.

dN

The New York Times reports that the loss to Algeria in World Cup qualifying has flamed civil unrest in Egypt.

dN

Here are the 16 teams that have advanced to the knock out stage of the UEFA Champions League: Stuttgart, Barcelona, Inter & Olympiacos join Bayern Munich, CSKA Moskva, Real Madrid, Milan the teams that are through: Arsenal, Bordeaux, Chelsea, Fiorentina, Lyon, Manchester United, Porto & Sevilla.

MLS

Simon Evans of Reuters ponders what could be behind Landon Donovan's potential temporary move to Europe.

dN

Steve Davis of the Daily Soccer Fix hands out a real zinger to the Landon Donovan doubters.

dN

Sam Stejskal of Chicago Now talks to Fire tech director Frank Klopas about what his teams to accomplish this off season.

dN

My Suburban Life.com has an article on Real Salt Lake general manager Garth Lagerway.

MLS RUMORS

Real Madrid goal scoring legend Raul is talking about coming to MLS.

dN

Down The Byline has word that two Kansas City Wizards players could be leaving - Kei Kamara - and - Santiago Hirsig.

dN

Does former Dallas fullback Chris Gbandi want to come back to MLS?

MLS COACHES MERRY-GO-ROUND

Has RSL assistant coach Robin Fraser been to Chicago to talk about becoming the new Fire coach? My friends in the Windy City say yes, he has.

MLS EXPANSION

The Montreal Gazzette reports on commish Don Garber making a visit to Montreal to talk turkey.

MLS STADIUM BUILDING

The Guardian takes a video tour of Red Bull Arena in Harrison.

SOCCER IN AMERICA

The US National Soccer Players Association gives us 10 American players to watch in '10.

USA WORLD CUP 2010 SOUTH AFRICA

Jere Longman of the New York Times talks to Walter Bahr about the famous USA team in 1950 that beat England in the World Cup.

AMERICANS IN EUROPE

I checked in on the Schalke website this morning for progress on the return to the field for Jermaine Jones, and the outlook is not good (in German). Last week we all got excited when it was reported that he had returned to practice. But the pain from a hair line fracture in his left shin returned immediately. No word now on what the plan is. Stay tuned.

dN

The Telegraph reports that contrary to reports yesterday DaMarcus Beasley has not "shut the door" on Rangers just yet.

dN

Game Action: (only those that played are listed)

UEFA - Champions League
DaMarcus Beasley - Rangers - started and went 45 minutes as they lost 1-0 at Sevilla.

MEXICO

Primera Division Liguilla

All playoff rounds are 2 Legs.

Final Matches & Scores:
1st Leg
-Thu Dec 10
Monterrey v Cruz Azul
2nd Leg
-Sun Dec 13
Cruz Azul v Monterrey

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

The group stage is now over.

dN

Here are the 16 teams that have advanced to the knock out stage: Stuttgart, Barcelona, Inter & Olympiacos join Bayern Munich, CSKA Moskva, Real Madrid, Milan the teams that are through: Arsenal, Bordeaux, Chelsea, Fiorentina, Lyon, Manchester United, Porto & Sevilla.

dN

And here are the 8 that will move down to the Europa League: Juventus, Wolfsburg, Marseille, Atletico Madrid, Liverpool, Rubin Kazan, Unirea Urziceni & Standard Liege.

dN

Juventus joins Liverpool on the list of big names out of the Champions League knock out stage.

dN

Matchday 6
Matches & Scores:
-Tue Dec 8
Juventus 1-4 Bayern Munich - Juv goal by David Trezeguet. BM goals by Hans Jorg Butt(PK), Ivica Olic, Mario Gomez & Anatoliy Tymoshchuk.
Maccabi Haifa 0-1 Bordeaux - Bor goal by Jussie.
Besiktas 1-2 CSKA Moskva - Bes goal by Bobo. CM goals by Milos Krasic & Evgeni Aldonin.
Wolfsburg 1-3 Manchester United - Wol goal by Edin Dzeko. MU goals all by Michael Owen.
Zurich 1-1 Milan - Zur goal by Milan Gajic. Mil goal by Ronaldinho(PK).
Marseille 1-3 Real Madrid - Mar goal by Lucho. RM goals by Cristiano Ronaldo(2) & Raul Albiol.
Chelsea 2-2 APOEL - Che goals by Michael Essien & didier Drgoba. APO goals by Marcin Zewlakow & Nenad Mirosavljevic.
Atletico Madrid 0-3 Porto - Por goals by Bruno Alves, Falcao & Hulk.
-Wed Dec 9
Liverpool 1-2 Fiorentina - Liv goal by Yossi Benayoun. Fio goals by Martin Jorgenson & Alberto Gilardino.
Lyon 4-0 Debreceni - Lyo goals by Bafetimbi Gomis, Michel Bastos, Miralem Pjanic & Aly Cissokho.
Inter 2-0 Rubin Kazan - Int goal by Samuel Eto'o & Mario Balotelli.
Dynamo Kyiv 1-2 Barcelona - DK goal by Milevsky. Bar goals by Xavi Hernandez & Lionel Messi.
Stuttgart 3-1 Unirea Urziceni - Stu goals by Ciprian Marica, Christian Trasch & Pavel Pogrebnyak. UU goal by Antonio Semedo.
Sevilla 1-0 Rangers - Sev goal by Frederic Kanoute.
Olympiacos 1-0 Arsenal - Oly goal by Leonardo.
Standard Liege 1-1 AZ Alkmaar SL goal by Sinan Bolat. AZA goal by Jeremain Lens.

dN

Final Group Standings

dN

The draw for the knockout rounds will be on Fri Dec 18, the day after the Europa League group stage ends.

dN

The first leg of the first round of knockout games begins Tue Feb 16.

ARGENTINA

Just 1 round left now in the Primera Apertura, and 2 teams want the crown. The final round is on Sunday!

dN

Standings, Matches & Scores - after 17 of 19 games played:
41 Banfield - Last: Wed Dec 9 W 1-0 v Tigre - Finale: Sun Dec 13 at Boca Juniors
39 Newell's Old Boys - Last: Wed Dec 9 W 0-2 at Gimnasia La Plata - Finale: Sun Dec 13 v San Lorenzo
- - OUT - -
33 Velez Sarsfield - Next: Thu Dec 10 at Chacarita Juniors - Finale: Sun Dec 13 v Rosario Central
33 Independiente - Last: Tue Dec 8 D 1-1 v Argentinos Juniors

CLUB WORLD CUP

The tournament is being played in Abu Dhabi, and began on Wednesday.

dN

-Wed Dec 9 - Match 1
Al Ahli FC 0-2 Auckland City FC - Auc goals by Adam Dickinson & Chad Coombes.
-Fri Dec 11 - Match 2
TP Mazembe v Pohang Steelers FC
Sat Dec 12 - Match 3
winner Match 1 v Atlante FC
-Tue Dec 15 - Semifinal
Winner Match 2 v Estudiantes de La Plata
-Wed Dec 16 - Semifinal
Winner Match 3 v FC Barcelona
-Sat Dec 19
Final

PODCASTS

I made an appearance on Tuesday night on The Orange Slice from Houston with Brian Balboa and his crew. Download or listen here.

ENDERS

Gabriel Pellizzon has put together a fantastic video montage of Flamengo's triumphant winning of the Brazilian Championship last weekend. All power to the Red & Black.

Some News for Wed Dec 9, 2009

STARTERS

The Guardian is reporting that Everton is in the final stages of signing Landon Donovan on a loan deal in January.

dN

Not a single home team won in the 8 UEFA Champions League games yesterday. What are the odds of that going down?!?! The road teams got 6 wins and 2 ties. Amazing! See UEFA Champions League section for details.

dN

The Kartik Report has an article on the USL filing a lawsuit against 3 teams that have fled their First Division in the recent weeks to join the breakaway NASL.

THIS IS MY DEAL ABOUT HOW TEAMS SHOULD BE NAMED IN AMERICA

Several folks from St Louis emailed me about dogging their new team's name, AC St Louis, and countered me by saying the Missouri Athletic Club is a well known name of a sports organization in their area. The team even included that justification in their press releases. OK, thats cool.
But I say this: If there wasn't a world-wide-ultra-popular team called AC Milan would they ever in a million years come up with AC St Louis on their own? Nope.

dN

As a follow up to that.....
I sent this note about team names to my friend Brian, and thought it was appropriate to share here:
I have no problem with SC, cuz its a soccer club and we call it soccer.
The name of my blog at times bugs me too - futbol - how pretentious.
But it was meant more in fun originally, because the name du Nord is French, so why not mix it up even more with Spanish.
-FC - we dont call it football, its soccer.
-AC - its not an athletic club, its a soccer team.
-Real - an appointment from the King in a Spanish speaking country.
-United -you have brought two clubs or more together.
All those Euro names have actual meaning, they were NOT done to sound authentic.
You either are authentic or you are not.
But you can't declare yourself to be authentic with a name.
That's as un-authentic as you can get.

dN

As for AC St Louis, I am over it. It's their name, they picked it and thats that. Just like I moved on from hating the names of DC United, Real Salt Lake, FC Dallas, Miami FC, Toronto FC, Seattle Sounders FC......

MLS

Peter Wilt of Pitch Invasion does a Q & A with DC United VP Stephen Zack. Very good stuff.

dN

Jonathan Tannenwald of Philly.com has video interviews with several new Philadelphia Union players. (Scan down the right hand column)

dN

Keith Gabriel of the Philadelphia Inquirer with an article on the introduction of the new Union players.

dN

Sam Stejskal of Chicago Now does a Q & A with former Fire centerback Bakary Soumare.
-Soumare calls for Chris Armas to become the teams new head coach.

MLS COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENT

The current deal expires on Jan 31, 2010.

dN

Beau Dure of the USA Today on the negotiating messiness within MLS, and the USL.NASL fued.

USA WORLD CUP 2010 SOUTH AFRICA

The Mirror says that the USA & England are fighting over the same training location, and the USA may have the upper hand.

USA WORLD CUP 2018/22 BID

Here is the promo video that the US Soccer Federation has put together are the opening of their bid.

AMERICANS IN EUROPE

The Evening Times of Glasgow talks to DaMarcus Beasley about his need to leave Rangers.

dN

The Daily Mail reports that Fulham are going to sell players in January, and Eddie Johnson is supposedly on their list.

dN

Soccer 365 talks to Clint Dempsey.

Game Action: (only those that played are listed)

ENGLAND - FA Cup Round 2
Mike Grella - Leeds - came on as a sub to start the 2nd half of Added Extra Time and immediately scored the game winner as they finally cruised 5-1 over Kettering Town. Next round (Jan 3) they travel to Manchester United.

ENGLAND

Fanhouse UK looks at England's most glaring weakness - goalkeeper.

EUROPE

The New York Times talks to a player who is involved in the German match fixing scandal.

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Here we go for the final group stage matches!

dN

Three quarters of the teams are already advanced to the knock out stage, while the other 4 will be known by the end of Wednesday.
-Bayern Munich, CSKA Moskva, Real Madrid & Milan join the teams that are through: Arsenal, Bordeaux, Chelsea, Fiorentina, Lyon, Manchester United, Porto & Sevilla.

dN

Juventus joins Liverpool on the list of big names out of the Champions League.

dN

Jonathan Wilson of the Guardian on the Romanian club trying to make the big time - Unirea Urziceni.

dN

Matchday 6
Matches & Scores:
-Tue Dec 8
Juventus 1-4 Bayern Munich - Juv goal by David Trezeguet. BM goals by Hans Jorg Butt(PK), Ivica Olic, Mario Gomez & Anatoliy Tymoshchuk.
Maccabi Haifa 0-1 Bordeaux - Bor goal by Jussie.
Besiktas 1-2 CSKA Moskva - Bes goal by Bobo. CM goals by Milos Krasic & Evgeni Aldonin.
Wolfsburg 1-3 Manchester United - Wol goal by Edin Dzeko. MU goals all by Michael Owen.
Zurich 1-1 Milan - Zur goal by Milan Gajic. Mil goal by Ronaldinho(PK).
Marseille 1-3 Real Madrid - Mar goal by Lucho. RM goals by Cristiano Ronaldo(2) & Raul Albiol.
Chelsea 2-2 APOEL - Che goals by Michael Essien & didier Drgoba. APO goals by Marcin Zewlakow & Nenad Mirosavljevic.
Atletico Madrid 0-3 Porto - Por goals by Bruno Alves, Falcao & Hulk.
-Wed Dec 9
Liverpool v Fiorentina
Lyon v Debreceni
Inter v Rubin Kazan
Dynamo Kyiv v Barcelona
Stuttgart v Unirea Urziceni
Sevilla v Rangers
Olympiacos v Arsenal
Standard Liege v AZ Alkmaar

dN

Group Standings

dN

The draw for the knockout rounds will be on Fri Dec 18, the day after the Europa League group stage ends.

dN

The first leg of the first round of knockout games begins Tue Feb 16.

SOUTH AMERICA

Peru Championship
1st Leg
-Tue Dec 8
Alianza Lima 0-1 Universitario Lima
2nd Leg
-Sun Dec 13
Universitario Limav Alianza Lima (0-1)

BRAZIL

Tim Vickery at Sports Illustrated writes about 'Mengo finally winning a Brazilian title.

ARGENTINA

Just 2 rounds left (1 now for Inde) in the Primera Apertura, and 4 teams want the crown. First next round is mid-week and the final round is next Sunday!

dN

Standings, Matches & Scores - after 17 of 19 games played:
38 Banfield - Next: Wed Dec 9 v Tigre - Finale: Sun Dec 13 at Boca Juniors
36 Newell's Old Boys - Next: Wed Dec 9 at Gimnasia La Plata - Finale: Sun Dec 13 v San Lorenzo
33 Velez Sarsfield - Next: Thu Dec 10 at Chacarita Juniors - Finale: Sun Dec 13 v Rosario Central
- - OUT - -
33 Independiente - Last: Tue Dec 8 D 1-1 v Argentinos Juniors

WORLD CUP 2010 - SOUTH AFRICA

Greg Lalas at Sports Illustrated makes the case for an African teaming winning the World Cup.

dN

Our man Bora will a scout for Serbia in preparing for the Cup.

CLUB WORLD CUP

The tournament is being played in Abu Dhabi, and begins on Wednesday.

-Wed Dec 9 - Match 1
Al Ahli FC v Auckland City FC
-Fri Dec 11 - Match 2
TP Mazembe v Pohang Steelers FC
Sat Dec 12 - Match 3
winner Match 1 v Atlante FC
-Tue Dec 15 - Semifinal
Winner Match 2 v Estudiantes de La Plata
-Wed Dec 16 - Semifinal
Winner Match 3 v FC Barcelona
-Sat Dec 19
Final

ENDERS

Another spot to watch soccer on TV in Twin Cities - The Nomad World Pub - say hi to Bjorn behind the bar for me.

Some News for Tue Dec 8, 2009

STARTERS

Portfolio has done a very interesting study of the top American markets available for expansion, and those that are over saturated. Click on the MLS logo to see what the study says. One thing I find every interesting about all of this is how few "major markets" they feel are available.
-And here is the full article it comes from.

dN

In a post entitled "We're getting the band back together" our pal Luis Arroyave of the Chicago Tribune has relaunched the papers soccer blog The Red Card. This is fantastic news. In the time he did the blog Luis became one of the great unique voices in our little corner of the world. (Especially his travel reports.) I am very happy about this.

dN

The FIFA Club World Cup begins tomorrow with the minnows facing off. See section near the end of today's post.

MLS

Ives Galarcep of Soccer By Ives does a Q & A with new NYRB tech dir Erik Stoler. Good stuff.

dN

The Philadelphia Inquirer with an article on the Unions search for a shirt sponsor.

dN

New England has signed new contracts with Kheli Dube, Kenny Mansally & Sainey Nyassi.

dN

Charlie Corr of ESPN Chicago writes about the desire of former players to get the Chicago Fire back to their proud standing.

MLS RUMORS

TFC is chasing Scottish forward Kevin Kyle of Kilmarnock.

MLS COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENT

The current deal expires on Dec 31, 2009.

dN

Nigel Reed of the CBC with his thoughts on the squabbling/negotiating.

dN

You can read the entire Collective Bargaining Agreement right here. (thanks to Beau for the link)

MLS STADIUM BUILDING

Dan Girard of the Toronto Star on the new grass field being installed at TFC's BMO Field.
-The bad news in this article is that the actual sod will not be put down until late March, leaving little time to get it right before the season opens.

USL-1/NASL MESS

The team from St Louis will be called AC St Louis. Oof! Here is their badge:











Can someone remind me - Which athletic club are they part of again? And what are their other sports?

dN

Ryan Johnston of Sports Net reports that fall out from the new/old leagues could affect Montreal and Vancouver's participation in the Canadian Championship tournament that places that winner in the CONCACAF Champions League.
-The Canadian Soccer Association has said that they will wait for the US Soccer Federation to make their decisions before making their own.

US SOCCER NEWS

Mike Woitalla of Soccer America looks at the biggest benefit of American youth clubs forming partnerships with foreign professional clubs - Money.

AMERICANS TRAVELING TO SOUTH AFRICA

Nick Green of the Daily Breeze begins his look at traveling to the World Cup next summer.

USA WORLD CUP 2010 SOUTH AFRICA

Jeff Carlisle of ESPN Soccernet looks at the USA draw and warns, be careful what you wish for.

AMERICANS IN EUROPE

Jay DeMerit took to the field again after 3 months out with an eye injury. Great to see him back out there.
-Here's the match report from the team's official website, including high praise for their returned captain.

dN

Game Action: (only those that played are listed)

ENGLAND - Championship
Jay DeMerit - Watford - came on as a half time sub and they rolled over QPR at home 3-1.

DENMARK - Superliga
Benny Feilhaber - AGF Aarhus - went the full 90 as they drew 1-1 at home against Esbjerg.

dN

Coming Up:

ENGLAND - Championship
Frank Simek - Sheffield Wednesday - Tue Dec 8 at Doncaster Rovers

ENGLAND - FA Cup Round 2
Mike Grella - Leeds - Tue Dec 8 v Kettering Town

MEXICO

Primera Division Liguilla

All playoff rounds are 2 Legs.

Final Matches & Scores:
1st Leg
-Thu Dec 10
Monterrey v Cruz Azul
2nd Leg
-Sun Dec 13
Cruz Azul v Monterrey

CANADA

The Canadian Press reacts to the hiring of new national team head coach Stephen Hart:
-Daniel Girard of the Toronto Star.
-Stephen Brunt of the Toronto Globe & Mail gives the hiring the thumbs up.
-Paul James of the Toronto Globe & Mail gives the hiring the thumbs down.
-The Vancouver Province
-The Toronto Sun
-The Vancouver Sun

ENGLAND

John Molinaro of the CBC on diving/cheating and how its perceived when "good guy" players do it.

SPAIN

Sid Lowe of the Guardian writes about the magician on the bench at Mallorca, and the rest of the week in La Liga.

GERMANY

Don't look now, but despite all the gnashing to teeth Bayern Munich are up to the 4th place in the league, and just 4 points behind first place Bayer Leverkusen.

EUROPE

AZ Alkmaar who have been surprising contenders the past few seasons in Netherlands are struggling this season and have now fired coach Ronald Koeman. They are said to be chasing Dick Advocaat.

dN

Panathinaikos has fired coach Henk Ten Cate even though they are in 2nd place in Greece and on the verge of advancing in the Europa League.

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Here we go for the final group stage matches!

dN

2 defenders from CSKA Moscow have been suspended from today's game because they took Sudafed, which is deemed a performance enhancing drug. You gotta be kidding me.

dN

Half the teams are already advanced to the knock out stage, while the other 8 will be known by the end of Wednesday.
-Here are the team that are through: Arsenal, Bordeaux, Chelsea, Fiorentina, Lyon, Manchester United, Porto & Sevilla.

dN

Either Juvenus or Bayern Munich will be out after today.

dN

Matchday 6
Matches & Scores:
-Tue Dec 8
Juventus v Bayern Munich
Maccabi Haifa v Bordeaux
Besiktas v CSKA Moskva
Wolfsburg v Manchester United
Zurich v Milan
Marseille v Real Madrid
Chelsea v APOEL
Atletico Madrid v Porto
-Wed Dec 9
Liverpool v Fiorentina
Lyon v Debreceni
Inter v Rubin Kazan
Dynamo Kyiv v Barcelona
Stuttgart v Unirea Urziceni
Sevilla v Rangers
Olympiacos v Arsenal
Standard Liege v AZ Alkmaar

dN

Group Standings

SOUTH AMERICA

Ecuador Championship
Deportivo Quito win the Primera A league 4-3 on aggregate. Hooray Depor!
1st Leg
-Sun Nov 29
Deportivo Cuenca 1-1 Deportivo Quito
2nd Leg
-Sat Dec 5
Deportivo Quito 3-2 Deportivo Cuenca

dN

Chile Championship
1st Leg
-Sun Dec 6
Colo Colo 2-2 Catolica
2nd Leg
-Wed Dec 9
Catolica v Colo Colo

dN

Peru Championship
1st Leg
-Tue Dec 8
Alianza Lima v Universitario Lima
2nd Leg
-Sun Dec 13
Universitario Limav Alianza Lima

BRAZIL

Fernando Duarte, who is one cool dude, of the Guardian tells us all about Flamengo and their huge Brazilian championship win. Their first title in 17 years.

ARGENTINA

Just 2 rounds left in the Primera Apertura, and 4 teams want the crown. First next round is mid-week and the final round is next Sunday!

Standings, Matches & Scores - after 17 of 19 games played:
38 Banfield - Last: W 0-1 at Huracan - Next: Wed Dec 9 v Tigre - Finale: Sun Dec 13 at Boca Juniors
36 Newell's Old Boys - Last: L 1-2 at Arsenal de Sarandi - Next: Wed Dec 9 at Gimnasia La Plata - Finale: Sun Dec 13 v San Lorenzo
33 Velez Sarsfield - Last: W 3-1 v River Plate - Next: Thu Dec 10 at Chacarita Juniors - Finale: Sun Dec 13 v Rosario Central
32 Independiente - Last: W 1-2 at Boca Juniors - Next: Tue Dec 8 v Argentinos Juniors - Finale: Sun Dec 13 at Lanus

CLUB WORLD CUP

The tournament is being played in Abu Dhabi, and begins on Wednesday.

-Wed Dec 9 - Match 1
Al Ahli FC v Auckland City FC
-Fri Dec 11 - Match 2
TP Mazembe v Pohang Steelers FC
Sat Dec 12 - Match 3
winner Match 1 v Atlante FC
-Tue Dec 15 - Semifinal
Winner Match 2 v Estudiantes de La Plata
-Wed Dec 16 - Semifinal
Winner Match 3 v FC Barcelona
-Sat Dec 19
Final

Some News for Mon Dec 7, 2009

STARTERS

Flamengo has won the Brazilian Championship!

dN

There's a new DaMarcus Beasley interivew today from Yanks Abroad. See it in the Americans In Europe section.

dN

Cruz Azul & Monterrey have advanced to the Mexican Primera finals, with the later knocking off current champs Toluca to get there.

dN

Canada will wisely announce Stephen Hart as their full time head coach.
-The reason it seems like a pretty good choice is that he has had better success running the team then anyone else in the past decade, during in his 2 stints as interim.

dN

Amy Lawrence of the Observer writing about Team USA: "There are some natural differences between the US-based players and those who earn their living in Europe. The contrast in everyday coaching and facilities is marked, and sometimes manifests itself in friction." Where is she getting this from? There has never been the slightest hint of friction from this team. See entire article in World Cup Draw section.

dN

The National of the UAE with an article that says North Korea is only going to show positive highlights of their own team from the World Cup and nothing more. If they lose, it will not be reported! Nice!

USA - GROUP C - WORLD CUP 2010 DRAW

It could have been a lot worse for our team thats fore sure, but this group is a lot tougher than most people's first reaction to it seems to be.

dN

GROUP C (with FIFA rank #)
England - #9
USA - #14
Algeria - #28
Slovenia - #33

dN

Here was Beckman's reaction when the USA was drawn into position C2, thus facing England in the first match, "It figures."









dN

US Soccer gives us plenty of quotes from USA players after the draw.

dN

US Soccer also has quotes from USA coach Bob Bradley and England coach Fabio Capello also after the draw.

dN

FIFA.com has Group C analysis.

dN

Many pundits are saying that the USA got drawn into the easiest group, but to my way of thinking its Italy who have by faaaaaaaaaaaaar the easiest group.

dN

Group Matches:
-Sat Jun 12
USA v England - in Rustenburg at 20:30
-Sun Jun 13
Algeria v Slovenia - in Polokwane at 13:30
-Fri Jun 18
USA v Slovenia - in Johannesburg/Ellis Park at 16:00
England v Algeria - in Cape Town at 20:30
-Wed Jun 23
USA v Algeria - Pretoria at 16:00
Slovenia v England - Port Elizabeth at 16:00

dN

Many of du Nord's favorite writers have chimed in with their opinions on the draw:
-George Vecsey of the New York Times.
-Steve Davis at ESPN Soccernet.
-Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune.
-Martin Rogers of Yahoo Sports.
-Tim Vickery of the BBC.
-Grant Wahl of Sports Illustrated.
-Chros McDougall at TeamUSA.org.
-Henry Winter of the Telegraph.
-Kevin McCarra of the Guardian.

dN

Jonathan Wilson of the Guardian on Slovenia.

dN

Amy Lawrence of the Observer on the importance and meaning of the draw for the USA.

dN

FIFA.com talks to Landon Donovan.

dN

Greg Seltzer of Soccer 365 gives us 10 keys to beating England.

dN

Kyle McCarthy of the Boston Herald on the USA draw.

dN

Stephen Brunt of the Toronto Globe & Mail on the draw, with emphasis on USA 1-0 England in 1050.

dN

Reuters with words from the North Koreans on their draw.

dN

The Telegraph talks to our own Jay DeMerit!

dN

England are trying arrange a game with Mexico in prep for the WC. And if not them, then Honduras.

dN

Dan Wetzel of Yahoo Sports on the awakening of the mass numbers of American soccer fans.

dN

Richard Snowden of Soccer 365 is fired up about this draw for the USA.

dN

Former France great Marcel Desailly for ESPN Soccernet looks at the draw.

dN

Mark Zeigler of the San Diego Union Tribune on the USA draw and thoughts on others.

dN

Jack Bell of the New York Times collects some notes from outside the USA, and looks at the psychology of Tim Howards big PK save this weekend.
-Is this a sign of the apocalypse?: Wal-Mart will carry official World Cup merchandise.

dN

Here are some reactions I picked up from the English press:
-Daily Mail: Dream draw for England as they face USA, Algeria and Slovenia in South Africa next summer.
-The Sun (who loves bad puns): Yanks a lot! Fab draw glee
-England manager Fabio Capello: "The most difficult part is the first, with the United States."
-Former England manager Terry Venables: "We could have hand-picked that draw"

dN

Algerian English language newspaper Ennahar with words from all 4 managers in Group C.

dN

Ennahar with a second article full of quotes from those involved in Group C, but with a fiery headline calling the Americans arrogant. Of course I am biased but the only one who comes off arrogant in these quotes is Englishman Alan Shearer. Everyone else is very respectful. So politics has its say in the headline.

dN

Algeria's previous trips to the World cup were in 1982 and 1986.

dN

The Guardian on Algerian reaction to the draw.

dN

All Africa calls it a tough draw for all the African teams.

dN

Football 365 with a few words from Slovenian coach Ivan Simic.

dN

John Ashdown of the Guardian analyzes the draw using the FIFA rankings.

dN

The Wall Street Journal did a Q & A with US Soccer Federation president Sunil Gulati, the day before the draw. (thanks to JJ for this one)

MLS

New York has made it official with the hiring of Eric Soler as technical director. Here is the official press release.
-And the teams official blog has video of an interview with Stoler.
-The team he ran in Norwary, Start, has 2 American players as their starting centerbacks, Clarence Goodson & Hunter Freeman. So he knows something about American players.

dN

Keep up with all the best Red Bulls news and rumors at Metrofanatic.

dN

Adam Spangler of This Is American Soccer [corrected] writes all about his trip to Seattle for MLS Cup weekend. Loads of photos too!

dN

Noah Davis at Goal.com does an interview with now retired DC great Ben Olsen. What comes next?

dN

FC Dallas has launched a new website call We Are Not Spectators to attract season ticket holders. One word: inane.
-Why not go with the more obvious: We Have No Spectators?
-And moved into first place ahead of WeWinTrophies.com.

dN

A group of MLS youngsters are in South Africa playing friendlies under the Generation Adidas moniker. They have one game left to go.
Matches & Scores:
-Sun Dec 6
Ajax Cape Town (reserves) 0-2 MLS-GA - MLS goals by Patrick Nyarko & Roger Espinoza.
-Michael Lewis at MLSnet reviews the team's trip to South Africa, and says it "surpassed [the players] wildest dreams."

MLS COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENT

The current deal expires on Jan 31, 2010 [corrected].

Kristian Dyer of ESPN Soccernet with the latest on negotiations between management and labor over a new work contract.

USL-1/NASL MESS

Jeff DeVeronica of the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle reports that after US Soccer met on Sunday with representatives from both USL and NASL that they have imposed a Wednesday deadline for both leagues to submit their plans for the 2010 season. US Soccer needs to sanction the NASL before they would be allowed to play in a FIFA legal league.
-Inside Minnesota Soccer on the lead up to that meeting.

NCAA MEN'S SOCCER CHAMPIONSHIP

Akron goes to 23-0-0 and moves into the Semifinals.

But North Carolina and Wake Forest will both have huge home field advantages with the games being played in nearby Cary.

The tournament concludes next weekend with the Semifinals and Final on Friday and Sunday respectively at WakeMed Park in Cary NC.

Quarterfinal Matches & Scores:
-Fri Dec 4
North Carolina 2-1 Drake - NC goals by Alex Dixon & Kirk Urso. Dra goal by Kenan Malicevic.
Virgina 3-0 Maryland - Vir goals by Jordan Evans, Will Bates & Neil Barlow.
-Sat Dec 5
Akron 1-0 Tulsa - Akr goal by Kofi Sarkodie.
Wake Forest 2-0 Duke - WF goals by Andy Lubahn & Zack Schilawski.

Semifinal Matches & Scores:
-Fri Dec 11
Akron v North Carolina
Wake Forest v Virginia

Final
-Sun Dec 13

dN

Here is the full official bracket for the tournament.

AMERICANS IN EUROPE

Arch Bell of Yanks Abroad has a big interview with DaMarcus Beasley. Its a pretty important time in his career.

dN

It looks like Marcus Hahnemann has now won the starting job at Wolverhampton, and bagged another win this weekend. Fantastic for him!

dN

Tim Howard was a savior for Everton stopping a Penalty Kick in the 90th minute to hold a 2-2 draw, which for them is practially a win right now.

dN

Even though he didn't play, Jay DeMerit was on the bench for Watford this weekend. Great news for him.

dN

Game Action: (only those that played are listed)

DENMARK - Superliga
Michael Parkhurst - Nordsjaelland - played the entire match and won 3-0 at home over Midtjylland.
Marcus Tracy - AaB - started and played 77 minutes but lost at Sonderjyske 2-0.

ENGLAND - Premiership
Jozy Altidore - Hull City - started and played 54 minutes of a 3-0 drubbing at Aston Villa.
Clint Dempsey - Fulham - played the entire match as they won 1-0 at home over Sunderland.
Brad Friedel - Aston Villa - went the distance and earned another clean sheet dropping Hull 3-0 at home.
Marcus Hahnemann - Wolverhampton - in goal again(!), saw the Yellow Card, and got the win at home 2-1 over Bolton.
Tim Howard - Everton - went the full match, saving a PK in the dying seconds and drew 2-2 at home against Tottenham.
Jonathan Spector - West Ham - played all 90 miserable minutes as they lost at home 0-4 to Manchester United.

ENGLAND - League One
Jon-Paul Pittman - Wycombe - came on as a sub in the 77th minute as they won 2-1 at home over Stockport County.

FRANCE - Ligue 1
Carlos Bocanegra - Rennes - played all 90 winning at home 1-0 over Lorient.

GERMANY - Bundesliga
Michael Bradley - Monchengladbach - started and played 79 minutes, getting a Yellow Card, and losing 2-1 at Bayern Munich.
Steve Cherundolo - Hannover - went the full 90, got a Yellow Card, and got a point going 0-0 at home against Bayer Leverkusen.

GERMANY - 2 Bundesliga
Matt Taylor - Frankfurt - came on as a sub in the 85th minute but they lost 2-0 at Augsburg.
David Yelldell - Koblenz - in goal the whole game unfortunately as they got beat 1-5 at home by St Pauli.

NETHERLANDS - Eerste Divisie
Charles Kazlauskas - Helmond Sport - went the full 90 but lost 2-4 at home against MVV Maastricht.

SCOTLAND - Premiership
DaMarcus Beasley - Rangers -
hey hey! came on as a sub in the 62nd minute as they won 1-3 at Falkirk.

Coming Up:

ENGLAND - Championship
Jay DeMerit - Watford - Mon Dec 7 v QPR

DENMARK - Superliga
Benny Feilhaber - AGF Aarhus - Mon Dec 7 v Esbjerg
Jeremiah White - AGF Aarhus - Mon Dec 7 v Esbjerg

MEXICO

Primera Division Liguilla

#5 seeds Monterry pulls off the huge upset of top seeded Toluca in the Semifinals.

All playoff rounds are 2 Legs.

Semifinal Matches & Scores:
1st Leg
-Wed Dec 2
Morelia(3) 0-0 Cruz Azul(2)
-Thu Dec 3
Monterrey(5) 2-0 Toluca(1) - Mon goals both by Jesus De Nigris.
2nd Leg (with first leg scores included)
-Sat Dec 5
Cruz Azul(2) 2-1 Morelia(3) (0-0) - CA advance 2-1 on aggregate. CA goals by Javier Orozco & Emanuel Villa. Mor goal by Miguel Sabah.
-Sun Dec 6
Toluca(1) 1-1 Monterrey(5) - Mon advance 3-1 on aggregate. Tol goal by Issac Brizuela. Mon goal by Dario Carreno.

dN

Final Matches & Scores:
1st Leg
-Sun Dec 13
Monterrey v Cruz Azul
2nd Leg
-Sun Dec 20
Cruz Azul v Monterrey

BIG EUROPEAN CLUB MATCHES THIS WEEKEND

The 2 biggies this weekend were both from Italy. I bet that really pleased the majority of you. Hahahahahahaha.

Matches, Scores & Notes:
-Sat Dec 5
Juventus v Inter - Inter got hacked by an offside goal that was allowed to stand and caused their manager Mourinho to be Red Carded, and ended up losing 2-1 at Juventus in the Derby of Italy.
-Sun Dec 6
Roma v Lazio - the Capital Derby was won by Roma and left Lazio on a couple points out of the relegation zone.

ENGLAND

Barney Ronay of the Guardian gives us Five things we learned from the Premier League this weekend.

SPAIN

Phil Ball of ESPN Soccernet ponders - would you like to be bottom of the first division or top of the second division? Plus a round up of the weekend in La Liga.

dN

Simon Kuper of the Financial Times on the relationship between Barcelona and their precious Lionel.

GERMANY

Raphael Honigstein of the Guardian on the disaster at Stuttgart, where the hardcore fans are threatening violence, and the rest of the Bundesliga from the weekend.

ITALY

Milan won their 5th game in a row to move within 4 points of first place Inter who lost at Juventus! I guess Leonardo has learned how to manage a team after all.

dN

Paolo Bandini of the Guardian looks at 3 derbys, one of them at the top of the Serie A table, and all the other news from the weekend in Italy.

EUROPE

The New York Times with an article on the ever growing fear of rampant match fixing going on in Europe.

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Here we go for the final group stage matches!

Matchday 6
Matches & Scores:
-Tue Dec 8
Juventus v Bayern Munich
Maccabi Haifa v Bordeaux
Besiktas v CSKA Moskva
Wolfsburg v Manchester United
Zurich v Milan
Marseille v Real Madrid
Chelsea v APOEL
Atletico Madrid v Porto
-Wed Dec 9
Liverpool v Fiorentina
Lyon v Debreceni
Inter v Rubin Kazan
Dynamo Kyiv v Barcelona
Stuttgart v Unirea Urziceni
Sevilla v Rangers
Olympiacos v Arsenal
Standard Liege v AZ Alkmaar

dN

Group Standings

BRAZIL

The Big Finish - Flamengo have won the Campeanato Brasileiro! It is their first big title in 17 years!!

Standings, Matches & Scores - after 38 of 38 games played:
67 Flamengo (GD: 14) - W 2-1 v Gremio
65 Internacional (GD: 21) - W 4-1 v EC Santo Andre
65 Sao Paulo (GD: 15) - W 4-0 v Sport
62 Palmeiras (GD: 13) - L 2-1 at Botafogo

ARGENTINA

FIFA.com has a Q & A with Lionel Messi.

dN

Just 2 rounds left in the Primera Apertura, and 4 teams want the crown. First next round is mid-week and the final round is next Sunday!

Standings, Matches & Scores - after 17 of 19 games played:
38 Banfield - Last: W 0-1 at Huracan - Next: Wed Dec 9 v Tigre - Finale: Sun Dec 13 at Boca Juniors
36 Newell's Old Boys - Last: L 1-2 at Arsenal de Sarandi - Next: Wed Dec 9 at Gimnasia La Plata - Finale: Sun Dec 13 v San Lorenzo
33 Velez Sarsfield - Last: W 3-1 v River Plate - Next: Thu Dec 10 at Chacarita Juniors - Finale: Sun Dec 13 v Rosario Central
32 Independiente - Last: W 1-2 at Boca Juniors - Next: Tue Dec 8 v Argentinos Juniors - Finale: Sun Dec 13 at Lanus

WORLD CUP 2010 - SOUTH AFRICA

Yahoo Sports with an article on 10 Players to watch at the World Cup.
-Here is a photo slideshow of the players.
-It's a little too early for this kind of article, isn't it?
-Former USA youth international Nevin Subotic makes the list.

dN

La Gazzetta dello Sport of Italy reflect on the draw for their country.
-To my way of thinking Italy got the easiest group.

dN

Deutsche Welle looks at Germany's very tough group.

dN

The Wall Street Journal on the refereeing of the tournament.

CLUB WORLD CUP

The tournament starts next Wed, Dec 9.

ALL AROUND THE WORLD

Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune on a real showing of what fair play is all about.

FIFA WORLD PLAYER OF THE YEAR

FIFA has announced the names of the 5 finalists for their big award:

Xavi Hernandez - Spain & Barcelona
Andres Iniesta - Spain & Barcelona
Ricky Kaka - Brazil & Real Madrid
Lionel Messi - Argentina & Barcelona
Cristiano Ronaldo - Portugal & Real Madrid

The winner will be announced on Dec 21.

ENDERS

WTF is this? Seems to be some sort of team mascot. I shit you not.














-Actually, its a Desert Fox painted in Algerian national colors. The team is known colloquially as Les Fennecs.

World Cup 2010 Draw Results

Draw Results:
Group A
-South Africa
-Mexico
-Uruguay
-France

Group B
-Argentina
-Nigeria
-South Korea
-Greece

Group C
-England
-USA
-Algeria
-Slovenia

Group D
-Germany
-Australia
-Serbia
-Ghana

Group E
-Netherlands
-Denmark
-Japan
-Cameroon

Group F
-Italy
-Paraguay
-New Zealand
-Slovakia

Group G
-Brazil
-North Korea
-Ivory Coast
-Portugal

Group H
-Spain
-Switzerland
-Honduras
-Chile

dN

This 2010 World Cup group has great images from the day.

dN

Does it really get any better for the USA? Although each team is dangerous, the USA has a great chance of advancing to the knockout stages now.

dN

Who's cursing the draw? How about Group G: Brazil, North Korea, Portugal and Ivory Coast.

dN

I'm sure Bruce will be hittin' yall with a full updated soon.
-Graham

Some News for Thu Dec 3, 2009

STARTERS

Live With Landon - Join Landon Donovan & some of his teammates tomorrow afternoon to discuss the World Cup draw. You will be able to submit question and comment. The live streaming event is on Fri Dec 4 at 3pm Central on Nike Soccer's Facebook page.

dN

FIFA announces that they will show some World Cup games in 3D! A!M!A!Z!I!N!G! Just wow-o-wow how cool would that be to see! (Thanks to John at Gilt Edge for the heads up)

dN

Scoreless draw last night between Morelia & Cruz Azul in the Mexican Liguilla first Semifinal first leg match. Tonight is Monterrey v Toluca.

WORLD CUP 2010 DRAW

My whole body is nearly shivering with nervous energy about the draw. This might be worse than day before big game jitter for me.

dN

Michael Lewis of Big Apple Soccer is in South Africa this week and fills us in on a new plan by FIFA to pay clubs for using their players at the World Cup. How much money do they have to throw around?

dN

Lewis also gives us his Day 2 report of the trip.

dN

Reuters reports that the winners of the tournament stand to get paid $30 Million by FIFA. All the other participating countries will get a minimum of $9 Million.

MLS

The official Real Salt Lake blog has an open letter from head coach Jason Kreis to all of the team's fans.

The Chicago Fire made another very positive move today in buying the contract of their midfielder Marco Poppa from his team in Guatemala, Municipal. He had been on load to the Fire. Great move!

dN

Real Salt Lake has signed forward Fabian Espindola to a new 4 year contract extension.

dN

The MLS Insider gives us a 10 minute docu-promo-music-video of some behind the scenes from the entire MLS Cup weekend in Seattle.

dN

Paul Kennedy of Soccer America reports that Dallas striker and Golden Boot winner Jeff Cunningham is training this offseason at Auxerre of French Ligue 1. But, its not a loan deal where he would be playing.

dN

Mark Young of MLSnet with an always great round-up of recent activity from a long list of former MLS players.
-This is the way I get my Dedi Ben Dayan fix every week or two.

dN

Max Bergmann at the Huffington Post gives a nice recap of all the latest Philadelphia Union news.

dN

Toronto FC's BMO Field is part of a plan to try and lure an outdoor NHL game to the city featuring their Mapleleafs team.

dN

The youngsters of MLS who are in South Africa playing games under the Generation Adidas moniker have lost game #2.
-Thu Dec 3
Santos (reserves) 2-1 MLS-GA - MLS goal by Patrick Nyarko.
They have 1 more game to go:
-Sun Dec 6
Ajax Cape Town (reserves) v MLS-GA

MLS COACHES MERRY-GO-ROUND

Here is a very smart move - Kansas City has hired former LA & NY head coach Octavio Zambrano as an assistant to their new head coach Peter Vermes.
-What took so long for someone in MLS to hire this successful coach again.

USL-1/NASL MESS

The Waiting for Gaetjens podcast has audio of an interview with Andrew Nester, CEO of the Tampa Bay Rowdies, talking about his rejuvenated club and the new NASL. Download or listen here.

NCAA

The list of 15 nominees for the NCAA Player of the Year (The MAC/Herrman Award) has been released: (Thanks to BQ for the list)
Andre Akpan - Harvard
Anthony Ampaipitakwong - Akron
Corben Bone - Wake Forest
Teal Bunbury - Akron
Ryan Kinne - Monmouth
Zach Loyd - North Carolina
Danny Mwanga - Oregon State
Kyle Nakazawa - UCLA
Conor O'Brien - Bucknell
Ike Opara - Wake Forest
Colin Rolfe - Louisville
Toni Stahl - Connecticut
Tony Tchani - Virginia
Bobby Warshaw - Stanford
Garrett Webb - Drake

USA WORLD CUP 2018/22 BID

World Football Insider with an article on John Skipper of ESPN joining the US bid committee.

dN

Still no fan representative on the bid committee yet. But we will get one dammit.

dN

The Kansas City star with a moronic opinion piece on that cities bid to be a USA World Cup host city. In reality though, the beatdown of article is all about the mayor of KC who was front and center, and who the writer seems hell bent on destroying. Sure the mayor's a bit of a clown when it comes to talking about soccer, but the vast majority of politicos in America are. Honestly I am not sure what the purpose of the column is, besides taking a poke at the city leader and getting a few facts wrong. (Maybe the KC Star "downsized" their fact checkers.) And they wonder why less and less people read their crappy paper every day. Oh, and other this, the paper ignored the whole rest of the real story, which was to try and bring a World Cup game to Kansas City, which would blow that towns minds.

AMERICANS IN EUROPE

Ravi Ubha at ESPN Soccernet gives us a round up of our players across Europe.
-Including this smashing picture of Clint Dempsey with Bono (and some other dudes)!













dN

Game Action: (only those that played are listed)

UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE
-Wed Dec 2
Tim Howard - Everton - went the full 90, getting a Yellow Card, and a huge road win 0-1 at AEK Athens.

dN

Coming Up:

UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE
-Thu Dec 3
Bryan Arguez - Hertha Berlin - at Ventspils
Clint Dempsey - Fulham - v CSKA Sofia
Eddie Johnson - Fulham - v CSKA Sofia

MEXICO

Primera Division Liguilla

All playoff rounds are 2 Legs.

Semifinal Matches & Scores:
1st Leg
-Wed Dec 2
Morelia(3) 0-0 Cruz Azul(2)
-Thu Dec 3
Monterrey(5) v Toluca(1)

UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE

Matchday 5 is being played this week on Wed Dec 2 & Thu Dec 3. Here are those matches & scores.

SOUTH AMERICA

Liga de Quito have won the Copa Sudamericana! This is the continents 2nd biggest tournament, behind Copa Libertadores. Kinda like the NIT to NCAA tournies in college hoops.

BRAZIL

Roberto Carlos has signed a deal to join The Original Cheeseburger Ronaldo at Corinthians in their homeland.

Some News for Wed Dec 2, 2009

STARTERS

Dan Califf appears to be headed to Philadelphia. See the MLS Rumors section below for the full story from Greg Seltzer.

dN

Mexican Liguilla moves into the Semifinals starting tonight. See the Mexico section below for all the details.

dN

FIFA announced that nothing will change with the way referee's work for next summers World Cup.

dN

Martin Vasquez has officially been named head coach of Chivas USA

WORLD CUP 2010 DRAW

Jeff Carlisle of ESPN Soccernet on what the USA can hope to get in the group stage draw.

MLS

Now here is a step in the right direction: No Fan Alone has announced that the hardcore supporters of the Colorado Rapids are back on the upswing after some "rocky" times dealing with the club, and will have their own true supporters section in the stadium (in the north end where the players enter the field) upon which to build a more passionate scenario. (thanks to TJ for sending the link)

dN

The National Post writes about Toronto's Amado Guevara getting unsuspectingly caught up in the Honduran presidential mess.

dN

Jay Heaps of the New England Revolution stepped up to a microphone today and told us his playing days were over. The Rev's website has video of the event.
-Some of us will miss Heaps more than others will. Right DC fans?
-And did you know that he played basketball at Duke University?

MLS RUMORS

Greg Seltzer at Soccer365 reports that Dan Califf has gotten out of his contract a Midtjylland and will be signing with the Philadelphia Union.

MLS COACHES MERRY-GO-ROUND

With Martin Vasquez getting the Chivas USA job, their are now 3 jobs open - Chicago, DC, New York.

USL-1/NASL MESS

Brian Quarstad of Inside Minnesota Soccer looks for a positive in the chaos that is the 2nd level of soccer today.

AMERICANS IN EUROPE

It's funny, I have been checking the Schalke website everyday for weeks looking for any word on the health of Jermaine Jones to no avail. Then when I checked this morning an update was their top story, and I got all crazy giddy. What weird things this game does to me.
-The official Schalke website reports that Jones has finally returned to practice after being out since mid-Summer with a hairline fracture in his lower left leg that required 2 surgeries to repair.

dN

Game Action: (only those that played are listed)

ENGLAND - League Cup
Brad Guzan - Aston Villa - went the full 90 as they won 4-2 at home over Portsmouth, and now advance to the Semifinals.

ENGLAND - League One
Mike Grella - Leeds - came on as a sub in teh 86th minute and they won on the road 0-2 at Oldham Athletic.

dN

Coming Up:

UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE
-Wed Dec 2
Dominic Cervi - Celtic - v Hapoel Tel-Aviv
Tim Howard - Everton - at AEK Athens
-Thu Dec 3
Bryan Arguez - Hertha Berlin - at Ventspils
Clint Dempsey - Fulham - v CSKA Sofia
Eddie Johnson - Fulham - v CSKA Sofia

MEXICO

Primera Division Liguilla

All playoff rounds are 2 Legs.

Semifinal Matches & Scores:
1st Leg
-Wed Dec 2
Morelia(3) v Cruz Azul(2)
-Thu Dec 3
Monterrey(5) v Toluca(1)
2nd Leg
-Sat Dec 5
Cruz Azul(2) v Morelia(3)
-Sun Dec 6
Toluca(1) v Monterrey(5)

UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE

Matchday 5 is being played this week on Wed Dec 2 & Thu Dec 3. Here are those matches & scores.

ALL AROUND THE WORLD

FIFA.com gives us a pretty cool statistical wrap up from the past week on leagues all around the world. Cool feature.

World Cup 2010 Draw Rules

Here are the groupings for Friday's World Cup draw. Seeding for the top 8 were strictly set on the top teams from the October 2009 FIFA World Rankings. Only the top 7 will be included, as the host South Africa gets the 8th top seed. One team will then be drawn from each pot to make up the 8 groups of 4 teams each. There are also going to be zonal considerations taken into effect when pairing teams up. Here is the note from FIFA on how that will work: "Geographical criteria will also be respected, meaning that no two teams from the same confederation will be drawn in the same group (except European teams, where a maximum of two will be in a group). For example, South Africa cannot play the African teams from Pot 3 and Argentina and Brazil cannot be drawn against the three remaining South American teams."

The pots:

1: Argentina, Brazil, England, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, South Africa, & Spain

2: (Teams from Asia, CONCACAF & Oceania) Australia, Honduras, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, North Korea, South Korea & USA

3: (Teams from Africa & CONMEBOL) Algeria, Cameroon, Chile, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, Paraguay & Uruguay

4: (Teams from Europe) Denmark, France, Greece, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia & Switzerland

Sadly my prediction (see very bottom of the site for all my bold predictions) of the USA & North Korea being in the same group now cannot come true. So much for the possibility of me being Brustradamus.

Field Trip Report - Slovakia v USA

Got a great post for you from regular reader Anthony Ives who lives in Glasgow Scotland. I love these kind of stories!


Two weekends ago, 15 other US soccer fans and I travelled from London, Cambridge, Prague, Vienna, and even Illinois to Bratislava to cheer on the US in their friendly v Slovakia. While it doesn’t show up on most travelers’ hit list, Bratislava turned out to be a great place to spend a weekend as it has an interesting mix of old world charming churches and former Habsburg palaces, lots of graffiti covered socialist era cinder block buildings, and really tasty and cheap beer and gut warming food. We took full advantage of the latter as we all met up before the game at the Slovak Pub in the city center to enjoy a few litres of pilsner, garlic soup, and pierogis and get ready to cheer on the Yanks. After some lively debates of who should replace Charlie Davies and whether John O’Brien was better than Claudio Reyna, it quickly became apparent that most of the group would be earning their first cap. The few of us veterans of World Cups, Gold Cups, qualifiers in Central America, and Barra Brava had some good laughs trying to come up with just a few chants that everyone could follow and away we went.













With little coordination and even less ability to hold a tune, we sang a few chants on the way to the stadium and were welcomed by the local fans that seemed a bit surprised at what the hell we were doing there. The ticket takers were even more surprised and insisted that we all be led in together by a security team to a safe section where we were surrounded at all times be a team of six big security guards. The extra caution turned out to be completely unnecessary as were seated in a family section right behind the US bench, and given that only 7000 people turned up for the game we had the first several rows all to ourselves.

The small crowd gave us a chance to give some good shout outs to many of the players, especially during the run of play as the Slovaks were a pretty quiet bunch. It was great getting an up close look at Spector - solid in his US debut at center back, Cunningham - my pick to replace Davies, Cherundolo - active up and down the field, and McCarty – scrappy and hard working as a late sub in his first cap. It was less great seeing Casey’s lead foot and heavy legs, Dempsey out of place on the left flank, Bradley always dropping back as far as the centerbacks to start the play, and Feilhaber almost complete invisible and useless in the middle of the field. In the end, the Slovaks deserved the victory as we just didn’t look sharp and seemed to miss the creativity and spark of guys like Donovan, Davies, and perhaps even a Torres or Adu. But it was not a loss for those of us who made the trip as we had a great time before, during, and after the game, once again reminding ourselves what a great experience it is to be a US soccer fan.

Highlights of the Day:
-The bartender at the Slovak Pub playing Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” on our way out the door.
-Our Barra Brava friend’s recount of being at the team’s hotel the night before and watching Jozy trying to find a way to crash the high school prom taking place there.
-All of us cheering loudly for Charlie Davies during the entire 9th minute of the game.
-Shouting “show us your Clint!” to Deuce (even though it’s an old Clint Mathis cheer) and watching one of our security guards bust a gut laughing and then his buddies laughing when he translated it into Slovak

Lowlight of the Day:
-We were absolutely pissed that no one from the team walked over to us after the game to acknowledge all the cheering we did for them. I’ve never been to a game, especially an away game, where at least a few of the players don’t come over to acknowledge the fans for their support. They knew we were there as a few waved to us before the game and before the 2nd half, yet no one made any effort to thank us after it finished. I felt especially bad for the newbies among us who seemed really let down as they thought that thanks from the players was a tradition they would get to experience. I’m going to write to the Federation as I really hope this never happens again.

See you in South Africa.

Anthony

- - - - - -

Editors Note: Anthony sent me this cool souvenir from the game!

Some News for Tue Dec 1, 2009

STARTERS

Here is video of the interview that ESPN's Jeremy Schaap did with Charlie Davies. Thanks to Sundust17 for posting this, and Graham for sending us the link.

dN

AND THEN TONIGHT - Brian Ching & Stuart Holden talk with Charlie Davies on The Orange Slice at 8-9pm Central on 1560thegame.com, followed by another hour of the regular weekly show starring Brian Balboa.

dN

Just 3 days to go until the World Cup draw, and FIFA is supposed to tell us on Wednesday how the teams will be seeded.

BALLON D'OR






Lionel Messi of Argentina & Barcelona has been awarded the 2009 Ballon d'Or, given annually by France Football, and recognized as the true player of the year award.




















MLS CHAMPIONS REAL SALT LAKE

My last piece of coverage for the champs is video that I shot of Real Salt Lake fans about 3 hours BEFORE the game even started. The RSL fans were out in force, and took over Pioneer square. The energy was electric. Big shout out to Real Barra!



MLS

Michael C Lewis of the Salt Lake Tribune looks at how RSL goes about keeping their team intact for next season. They are going to have to negotiate new deals with some of these guys.
-On his blog Lewis also reports that 3 RSL players, Morales, Olave & Espindola, are all having knee surgery during the offseason.

dN

Kyle McCarthy of the Boston Herald told us yesterday that New England fullback Jay Heaps was going to retire, and today he verifies that story. The official announcement will come on Wednesday.

MLS RUMORS

Greg Seltzer of Soccer 365 gives us a little more on the possible move of young American Vincenzo Bernardo to MLS.

dN

Polish Soca with a rumor that Ebi Smolarek may be coming to play in MLS. Chicago?

dN

Is former DC head coach Tom Soehn headed to Vancouver in a managerial role?

MLS COACHES MERRY-GO-ROUND

Is Martin Vasquez going to get that Chivas USA job? Or are they really going to hire that stiff Steve Sampson.

dN

Is RSL assistant Robin Frazer a candidate for the top spot in DC?

dN

Michael Lewis of Big Apple Soccer on some whispers and speculations for the next New York Red Bulls head man.

USL-1/NASL MESS

Jeff Diveronica of The Rochester Democrat & Chronicle with the full story on the Rhino's defection from USL-1 to NASL.

dN

Do you smell pending legal action on all of this or what?

dN

The Edmonton Sun reports that their city will have a NASL team when Vancouver moves to MLS in 2011.

USL FIRST DIVISION

As of today the league only has 4 teams for the 2010 season: Austin, Cleveland, Portland & Puerto Rico.
-And Cleveland is very suspect.

NCAA MEN'S SOCCER CHAMPIONSHIP

Inside Minnesota Soccer has an interview with #1 seed and undefeated Akron's leading goal scorer Teal Bunbury. The sophomore has 17 goals this season. Download or listen here.

SOCCER IN AMERICA

Hector Tobar of the Los Angeles Times writes about the joy he has found in the AYSO leagues of Southern California. Great article, showing yet another side of the beautiful game in our country and how it can make changes for the better. (Thanks to Joe for the link)

AMERICANS IN EUROPE

Coming Up:

UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE
-Wed Dec 2
Dominic Cervi - Celtic - v Hapoel Tel-Aviv
Tim Howard - Everton - at AEK Athens
-Thu Dec 3
Bryan Arguez - Hertha Berlin - at Ventspils
Clint Dempsey Fulham - v CSKA Sofia
Eddie Johnson Fulham - v CSKA Sofia

ITALY

The National of the UAE looks at the pressure piling up on those who run Juventus as their game against Inter approaches on Saturday.

UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE

Matchday 5 will be played on Wed Dec 2 & Thu Dec 3. Here are those games.

WORLD CUP 2010 - SOUTH AFRICA

Michael Lewis of Big Apple Soccer arrived in South Africa today and gives us the first of hopefully many reports leading up to and including the World Cup draw.

dN

Tim Vickery of the BBC wonders if a European team can finally win a World Cup not played on European soil. It's never happened before.

dN

Al Jazeera looks at the host nations team. Could they be the worst host team ever?

ALL AROUND THE WORLD

Even tech magazine Wired thinks its time for international soccer to embrace technology to assist the referees. (thanks to JJ for this link)

ENDERS

Got these 2 very interesting facts from EA Sports about their FIFA Soccer 10 video game:
-North America is the No. 2 market for the EA SPORTS FIFA Soccer franchise, second only to the U.K. and surpassing other football-crazed countries such as Spain and Germany.
-FIFA Soccer 10 sold more than 4.5 million units in its first 5 weeks at retail, making it the biggest sports videogame launch in history.

And those of you that know me personally know I am not a video game guy, so I am not out pimping here, I just thought those numbers were quite interesting.