Like Marlon Brando In Last Tango In Paris I Have A Stick Of Butter And I Want To Put It Up Your News

-Gold Cup actions: USA 4-1 Cuba - it was not pretty, but at least lively, and as the real talent subbed on to the field late in the game everything changed in a quick hurry. And, Canada 0-1 Costa Rica, Jafet Soto (who seems to be pretty damn good - and he was a great actor in Homicide) scored on a pk for the win.
Tonite its Mexico v South Africa on Univision at 9pm central, and Guatemala v Jamaica.
Saturday at 330pm central time its the next USA match, this time versus the road cones of Canada.
-Also on TV tonite its the North Pacific derby - Seattle v Portland live on Fox Soccer Channel at 10pm central time.
-MLS games on TV Saturday too (all time central): at 5pm its DC vs KC on ESPN2, at 730pm its Chicago vs New England on FSC, & at 11pm see the review show MLS Wrap on FSC.
-This story from the Denver newspaper - Rocky Mountain News - has potential to be totally sappy, but it turns out to be a decent story with some cold hard reality behind it all. Colorado Rapids teenage high school goal scoring phenomenon Noel Fabrice tells his story.
-Benny Olson's brother tells stories about young Ben's soccer beginnings at the US National Team Players Association site (which is always quite good).
-Problem child Craig Bellamy is gonna play for Blackburn next. His former coach from Wales Mark Hughes runs Blackburn so maybe he can tame the idiot.
-So I finally got to see that Copa Libertadores first leg final match last night (a day late for us English speakers) and it was worth it. Paranaense scored 1st, but Sao Paulo outplayed them and gained a 1-1 draw. This was supposed to be the home leg for Para but because their stadium "ONLY" holds 27,000 it was deemed too small for such an important match, and it ended up being played in Porto Alegre which is over 300 miles from Para. What a joke! 2nd and final leg next Thurs in Sao Paulo at the fabled and totally intimidating Morumbi. This neutral site business is about as dumb as the year New England agreed to play both of their legs of the Champions Cup in Costa Rica.
-Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink, the man with the best name in world football today (especially when zzzzzzung out by the public address announcer at PSV Stadium after a goal), signed a two year extension to his deal with PSV.
-New England has snapped up the Brazilian midfielder Gilberto Flores who was recently booted by Metrostars.
-Jaime Moreno of DC United chatted online with fans via ESPN yesterday.
-ADDED NEWS: Every year at the MLS All-Star game they get some shitty "musical act" to perform. This year they have hired someone called Bowling For Soup. I am not shitting you. What is that? A band? A TV sketch comedy show on WB? Cable Access? 80's humor? If they are musical are they ska or something? Maybe swing? You gotta be kidding me. As if the game itself is not already distasteful enough. The year I saw the game in LA they had a band, but I have no recollection of who it was. I was "busy" at half time. But it was time when Drew Carey "discovered" socccer. He was the MC that day. And no one gave a hoot. Rightly so.
-MORE JUST ADDED NEWS: The tickets for LA Galaxy v Real Madrid went on sale this morning at 10am local time and are all but gone already. Just proves that if the game looks interesting that people really will want to be there. So now MLS needs to step and spend some real money on real players if they want fans! On the other hand, I was just at Ticketmaster and I can get amazing seats for the FC Dallas stadium opener on Aug 6. Dead-center mid-field 9th row! For LA all that is left is the last couple rows behind the goal and then up the grassy knoll aka Lalas Hill.