I Have Created A New Post Just For Posting This News

-Steven Goff of the Washington Post is reporting that Brian Carroll and Santino Quaranta have been called up for USA duty. The boys will get a chance to make the game day roster for the two upcoming World Cup Qualifiers in Costa Rica on October 8, & v Panama on Oct 12. Another rumor has 42 players being called in for the camp! 42! Here are other players on the rumor list: Ricardo Clark of San Jose, Oguchi Onyewu of Standard Liege, Bobby Convey of Reading (but no Marcus Hahnemann - does this open the door for Tim Howard? - another rumor says Yes to that), Taylor Twellman, Steve Ralston, Pat Noonan, Clint Dempsey, Matt Reis, Jay Heaps & Michael Parkhurst all from New England, Wade Barrett, Danny Califf & Brian Ching also of San Jose (why no Eddie Robinson is waaaaaaaaaay beyond me). Stay tuned for more.
-Glorious all new Jimmy Conrad column: Jimmy's screenplay
-Great lil artifact posted on Big Soccer by member Justin O: ....at the San Siro Bar in Almaty, Kazakhstan, the menu has several meals with soccer-related names. A hamburger and a Pepsi is called a "DC United".
-Another great Big Soccer tidbit today comes from our very own Zathras aka the Turkish Zath. He scrounged up the USA XI from the last time we played at Saprissa against Costa Rica in World Cup Qualifying (2001?):
Friedel
Sanneh - Pope - Llamosa - Agoos - Vanney
Williams - Armas - Stewart
Jones - Kirovski
Subs: 56' Moore for Vanney, 71' Preki for Kirovski, 73' Donovan for Williams
-The U17 World Championship is all set for Sunday. Its gonna be Brazil v Mexico. Should be a good one. Brazil beat Turkey 4-3 after blowing at 3-0 lead, and Turkey was reduced to 8(!) players. Mexico beat the Netherlands 4-0 (what does that say about our boys losing 2-0 to the Dutch?).
-Andrea Canales at Soccer365 on the US Open Cup Final: Reporter’s Notes (Soaked in Champagne)
-Another Soccer365 column by Neil from The Young Ones: Are the Earthquakes Getting Signs from Above?
-There were a lot of crazy stories from the UEFA Cup matches yesterday. Being that these were all second-leg matchups, it became D-Day for half the teams. Here are the big surprises and news on the biggest teams:
Feyenord bumped off by Rapid 2-1
Hertha are thru
Roma are thru
Monaco are thru
Galatasaray are out, losing to Tromso 2-1
Middleborough are thru
Bolton are thru
Everton are out, losing to Dinamo Bucuresti 5-2 (the year of ugly misery continues for Ev)
Leverkusen are out, losing to Sofia 2-0
Sorry if I skipped your team (it wasn't intentional, or was it?). Read the whole deal here.
-Taylor Twellman of New England was named MLS September Player Of The Month.
-MLS Schedule for this weekend (all games played on Saturday):
Columbus v Chivas
Metrostars v DC United*
New England v San Jose
Kansas City v Chicago*
Colorado v Real Salt
Los Angeles v Dallas* live on FSC at 9pm central
*These 3 games all have huge playoff implications. Mets have to win to stay alive. KC has to win to stay ahead of Mets. And LA & Dallas are both already in, but fighting for home field advantage in the first round. Speaking of fighting, this will be the third time LA & FCD have met in the past two weeks, and the games seem to get more heated every time, so we can truly expect moronic behavior (something I happen to be well acquainted with)!!!

Is This Candy Free For The Taking? How About This News?

-My love/hate with the LA Galaxy continues in overdrive as they won the US Open Cup last night for the second time. The 1-0 victory over Dallas was deserved. The mythological Herculez Gomes scored the winner on a total Golazo! (You get the bonus of hearing Ray Hudson on the highlight too!) Chris Albright looped in a perfect cross that Herc side volleyed into the net. Dallas played particularly hard, but without Eddie Johnson or Carlos Ruiz they just didn't have the magic touch. I am very happy for LA fans and players, but my loathing for coach Sampson grows more each day! He looked so pathetic on the bench last night. His discomfort was written all over him. He looked like he was bathing in a old moldy can of Dinty Moore stew. Not pleasant. Good job to the team though. Somewhere Sigi was smiling last night. Footballs Are Round! maestro and rabid Dallas fan Dave Walker shares his grief in real time via 3rd Degree.
-His Royal Highness Sir Grahame L. Jones of Lumpy Gravy pontificates on the state of Steve Sampsons mighty Galaxy. And Steve goes down in a heap of bloody rags with bits of brain strewn about. Touche Sir G, touche!
-According to the St Paul Pioneer Press, there are 6 finalists for the head coaching position of the Minnesota Thunder. Here is that list:
Amos Magee - Current Thunder assistant player, and legendary former Thunder player
Tony Peszneker - another former Thunder player with coaching credentials
Ian Barker - director of coaching for the Minnesota Youth Soccer Association
Tim Hankinson - former Rapids and Mutiny coach
Omid Namazi - coach of the Cleveland Force of the Major Indoor Soccer League
Constantine Konstin - a USASA national men's select team coach
If you know anything about some of these guys, please drop me a note.
-Reading, starring Bobby Convey and Marcus Hahnemann, drew 0-0 at Southampton. Hahnemann made great save after great save to keep the clean sheet and be named Man Of The Match. It was a bad night for Southampton and their Bobble-head Doll coach Harry Redknapp, as this was their 6th consecutive draw! I would hate to be a fan of that team! They are so mediocre.
-Watched Inter v Rangers Champions League match. It was very odd. Inter are serving a 4 game ban on fans at home games, stemming from last years debacle v Milan when people threw dozens of road flares onto the field as Milan were winning. So the stands are empty, and you can hear the players yelling to each other very clearly. Its like watching a Metrostars game at Giant Stadium.
-There are literally 40(!) UEFA Cup matches today across Europe. They are second-leg matches. See the full listing here.
-Champions League scores from Wednesday half of Matchday 2:
Schalke 2-2 Milan
Fenerbahce 3-0 PSV
Rosenborg 0-1 Lyon
Real Madrid 2-1 Olympiacos
Liverpool 0-0 Chelsea
Anderlecht 0-1 Betis
Inter 1-0 Rangers
Porto 2-3 Artmedia
-Ugly beating that PSV took. The guy with the best name on the team, Jan Venegoor of Hesselink got the red card in the first half and really sealed the deal for PSV. He is their only true striker, the other guys like Farfan and Beasley are wingers playing outside forwards. I did not see the game, but reports showed PSV having plenty of chances to make this a real game, but no go!
-Artmedia (what kinda hilarious name is that anyway?) winning AT Porto was huge, and Schalke drawing with Milan was almost as huge, even though they had the home field.
-Here are the group standings for the Champions League after 2 (of 6) rounds:
Group A
6 Juventus
6 Bayern
0 Club Brugge
0 Rapid
Group B
6 Arsenal
3 Thun
1 Ajax
1 Sparta
Group C
6 Barcelona
3 Udinese
3 Panathinaikos
0 Bremen
Group D
4 Man United
3 Benfica
2 Villarreal
1 Lille
Group E
4 Milan
4 Fenerbahce
3 PSV
1 Schalke
Group F
6 Lyon
3 Rosenborg
3 Real Madrid
0 Olympiacos
Group G
4 Liverpool
4 Chelsea
3 Betis
0 Anderlecht
Group H
6 Internazionale
3 Artmedia
3 Rangers
0 Porto
-Some more analysis: Arsenal with 6 big points looking good in a very weak group. Villareal with no goals after 2 games is kinda shocking, they are supposed to be an offensive powerengine. Group E is proving to be the group of death. Lyon are for real this year, and after last years semi-final run they are now my darkhorse favorite! Porto has no points after 2 losses, one coming at home to a very small team. (And to think they won it all 2 years ago with Jose at the helm.)
-Matchday 3 takes place on Oct 18 & 19.
-Steven Goff, the great writer who covers DC United for the Washington Post held a live on-line Q&A with the punters. Read on ya bastard.
-Eddie Lewis had another great match for Leeds in their 3-1 win over Derby County (not to be confused with Bunky County). Eddie had some walloping shots, and got assists with great crosses on 2 of the goals. He is really setting himself up well for the World Cup.
-Mexico's Club America beat Toluca 1-0 last night to extend their loss-less streak to 27 straight games.
-Here are the other scores from the Mexican League last night:
Atlante 4-3 Morelia
Chiapas 3-3 Tecos
Dorados 1-3 Monterrey
Pumas 1-0 Atlas
Necaxa 2-1 San Luis
Guadalajara 1-1 Veracruz
Tigres 2-2 Pachuca
Santos 3-2 Cruz Azul
And the games coming up this weekend:
Toluca v Chiapas
Cruz Azul v Guadalajara
Monterrey v Santos
Morelia v Tigres
Veracruz v Necaxa
Atlas v Atlante
Pachuca v Dorados
America v San Luis
Tecos v Pumas
The MFL Single Table:
26 America
22 Cruz Azul
20 Monterrey
18 Necaxa
18 Pachuca
17 Toluca
14 Tigres
14 Santos
13 Pumas
13 Guadalajara
11 Morelia
11 Veracruz
9 San Luis
9 Chiapas
8 Atlante
8 Tecos
8 Dorados
7 Atlas
-Diamond Dave Checketts who owns the MLS team in Salt Lake, has just bought the St Louis Blues NHL hockey team.
-Yesterday in Denver they had the big ceremony to kick off the building of the new stadium for the Colorado Rapids. It was called a "Ground Breaking". But from the looks of this photograph, they literally broke ground quite some time ago. Also in the picture we see Diego Serna kicking balls around. Its Diego's finest moment in years.
-Six months ago Sports Illustrated wiped out their on-line Soccer section, and grouped all the soccer stories in with the "Other sports. Today the section RETURNS! A definite win for us good guys! Hooray SI. Hooray Beer!
-Soccer 365 Q&A with San Jose's Sideburn Expert Wade Barrett, by Lars Lifrak.
-In a revolutionary (aaaaaaahahahahahahahahahahahaha) move, New England are dropping ticket prices for next year, AND they are not going to charge for parking in their lots!
-Here's a nice lil insult: The International Federation of Football History and Statistics recently rated each domestic soccer league in the world. Not surprisingly, Spain’s was No. 1, followed by England. And MLS? No. 71, just behind the United Arab Emirates, but one slot ahead of India.
-Next Wednesdays Colorado v Chivas USA match has been turned into a double header, with the second game being a Mexican League match - Guadalajara v Cruz Azul. That could prove to be a very good match to attend.

So, Over There, That Would Be The News Then, Huh?

-There are certain types of players I would never want on MY team. By MY team I mean a team that I got to run with no one looking over my shoulder. Here is a perfect example of the type of player that I am not the least bit interested in: Alan Smith! Here's why: I am sitting here watching the Champs Lg match - Man U v Benfica - and a Benfica player has smashed into MU keeper Van Der Sar and knocked him to the ground, earning a yellow card. But that is not enough for Alan Smith. He is screaming at the player and the ref and looks like he wants to kill. Eventually play resumes and about a minute later Smith comes in hard for a vicious retaliatory tackle on a Benfica player just outside the top of the MU box. Smith gets a yellow. Benfica gets a free kick from a very dangerous spot. Of course Benfica scores with a beauty of a curling free kick. And now Benfica is fired up and MU are back to feeling all nutty in the head. Good job Alan!! Did you learn that crap from yer old buddy Lee Bowyer when you guys sucked together at Leeds?? So, to anyone who likes Alan Smith and his type of play, you can have him!
-Copa Sudamericana second-leg games tonite:
Banfield v Fluminense (Flumi leads 3-1)
River Plate v Corinthians (tied 0-0)
Cruzeiro v Velez Sarsfield (Velez leads 2-0)
And on Thursday night its:
Internacional v Rosario Central (Inter leads 1-0)
Boca Juniors v Cerro Porteno (tied 2-2)
-Via the Turkish Zath and his Fool's Prerogative comes a message for Minnesota Thunder fans written by the radio announcer for Real Salt Lake after the Thunder's US Open Cup win over RSL: Apart from the score I have good memories of the Thunder. Calling the game was so funny, we actually called the game from outside on the side of the scoring booth, (it simply wasn't going to work in that heat in a place with no ventilation or air) and we were right next to the loudest fans I have heard outside of RSL and Kansas. But without question they were the funniest, they had the best chants I have ever heard, I was laughing so hard (not as hard as watching The Office, but still hard) I could barely focus on the game - which with hindsight wasn't a bad thing. Yer welcome dude!
-Speaking of the US Open Cup. The final is tonite. Los Angeles v Dallas from the Home Depot Center in Carson. See it live on GolTV at 10pm central time. If yer in the Twin Cities, we will be watching downtown Minneapolis at the Local.
-Yesterday started off Matchday 2 in the UEFA Champions League. The star of the show was Ronaldinho for Barca who nailed 3 goals in a easy win over Udinese. The two other stories were Arsenal winning at Ajax, and Swiss unknowns Thun getting a win against Sparta from Prague. Here are the scores, and today's matches:
Bayern 1-0 Club Brugge
Juventus 3-0 Rapid
Ajax 1-2 Arsenal
Thun 1-0 Sparta
Panathinaikos 2-1 Bremen
Barcelona 4-1 Udinese
Man U 2-1 Benfica
Lille 0-0 Villarreal
Fenerbahçe v PSV
Schalke v Milan
Real Madrid v Olympiacos
Rosenborg v Lyon
Anderlecht v Betis
Liverpool v Chelsea
Porto v Artmedia
Inter v Rangers
-My current fave new MLS player Dedi Ben-Dayan will not play for Colorado in their last regular season match (Oct 13) against Salt Lake cuz the game date is the same as Yom Kippur. Stand up for your rights.
-If LA's magic-goal-scoring-boy Herculez Gomez was not named Herculez (say maybe, Jose) would he be developing such a rabid cult following? I don't think so. He is decent though.
-Soccer America has a look back at the 2003 USA U17 World Championship squad and asks: Where are they now?
-Huge news out of Denver today. This from MLSnet: Kroenke Sports Enterprises, which owns the Colorado Rapids, will hold a groundbreaking ceremony for a new soccer-specific stadium that is to be built at the Prairie Gateway Complex in Commerce City, Colo., on Wednesday. The complex, which will include a 20,000-seat stadium as well as additional fields for training and community use, is scheduled to open in time for the 2007 MLS season. Colorado Governor Bill Owens, Commerce City Mayor Sean Ford and Denver Councilman Michael Hancock will join KSE executive VP Paul Andrews, Rapids general manager Charles Wright and Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber at the event, which is set for 12:30 p.m. ET. Read the rest of the press release here.
-Top Goal Scorers in European Leagues:
La Liga: Samuel Eto'o of Barcelona & David Villa of Valencia with 5 each.
Serie A: Luca Toni of Fiorentina with 5, and Andriy Shevchenko of Milan, Enrico Chiesa of Siena, Emiliano Bonazzoli of Sampdoria, & Christian Terlizzi of Palermo all with 4.
Bundesliga: Miroslav Klose of Werder Bremen & Halil Altintop of Kaiserslautern both with 7, Ivan Klasnic of Werder Bremen & Roy Makaay of Bayern Munich both with 6, and Ebi Smolarek of Borussia Dortmund & Dimitar Berbatov of Bayer Leverkusen both with 5.
Ligie 1: Pedro Pauleta of PSG with 6, Mamadou Bagayoko of Nice of 5, and Sebastien Grax of Troyes & Frederic Piquionne of St Etienne each with 4.
Eredivisie: Shota Arveladze of AZ Alkmaar with 9, and Dirk Kuijt of Feyenoord Rotterdam, Rick Hoogendorp of RKC Waalwijk & Kenneth Perez of AZ Alkmaar each with 6.
Premier League: Ruud van Nistelrooy of Man Utd & Darren Bent of Charlton with 5 each, Frank Lampard of Chelsea, Marlon Harewood of West Ham & Geoff Horsfield of West Brom with 4 each.
-We are down to the final 3 weeks of the regular MLS season. And I think the teams have sorted themselves into three distinguishable groups. Here is my break down:
TOPS: New England & San Jose
DECENT: DC United, Chicago, Kansas City, Metrostars, Dallas, Los Angeles & Colorado
NEXT: Columbus
AWFUL: Salt Lake & Chivas

Enjoy The News, Cut Into Even Squares

-Quick and painful. That is how you would describe the USA U17 teams ouster from the World Championship quarterfinals yesterday. They had a few moments of sporadic quality, but all in all they were outplayed. Especially as the match wore on. The entire second half belonged to Holland (with the exception of a couple half-decent USA free kicks) and the final score of 2-0 didn't reflect that, as the Dutch missed several great chances to run it up. I am sorry to say that no one for Team USA shined in this one. Not that they are bad, just still a little more behind the worlds best then we think we are. But it gets better all the time, and some of the kids on this team have true potential. Netherlands will play Mexico in one Semifinal, while Turkey plays Brazil in the other, on Thursday. The Final is on Sunday. US Soccer has a whole page of post-game quotes from players and coaches.
-Dawayne DeRosario's two goals against Chicago helped him get named MLS Player Of The Week.
-Champions League mania - Matchday 2 (here's today's 8 matches, with 8 more tomorrow):
Juve v Rapid
Bayern v Brugge
Ajax v Arsenal
Thun v Sparta
Panathinaikos v Bremen
Barca v Udinese
Man U v Benfica
Lille v Villarreal
-Estimates have the winner of the Champions League claiming about $21 million in tv, ticket and prize money.
-I hope you are not an Arsenal fan (of course for all the obvious reasons) because they are really hurting for this weeks Champs Lg match: Gilberto, Dennis Bergkamp, Thierry Henry, Robin van Persie & Jens Lehmann are all out due to injury or stupidity. While Robert Pires is questionable with the questionable injury the English insist on calling "dead leg". What the fuck is that anyway? I mean, if it's actually dead, don't you have to cut it off?
-El Guzano, The Worm, Brad Guzan has had a brutal first year in MLS as keeper for the hideous Chivas USA. But he has also been their bright spot. Sadly, his season is over. Late in Saturdays game against Colorado his face collided with Diego Serna's knee (Yes you saw that correctly, Diego Serna! - What is he doing back in MLS anyway?). Guzan suffered a fractured cheekbone and crushed sinus, but of course he didn't come out of the game. Nope! He finished the match. He now has to have surgery. See you next year Worm. And good luck man.
-Frankie Hejduk has also decided to hang up his boots for the year and have surgery on his wrist, which has been in a cast nearly the entire season.
-The country of Spain has given Argentinian Lionel Messi citizenship so he can play for Barcelona and not count against their foreign player limit. How exactly does that work when you are about 17 and have lived in the country for about a year? Magic beans maybe.
-A Clint Mathis tidbit in the Salt Lake Tribune today: Clint Mathis was replaced at halftime by Seth Trembly on Saturday, leading to questions about whether Mathis had already given up on the season and is already looking forward to next year. RSL coach John Ellinger replied: “I hope not, because there might not be a next season.”
-Michael Lewis, who runs the fantastic Big Apple Soccer, is pimping Shalrie Joseph as MLS MVP. I would have a tough time arguing that call, but I also think there are several deserving others to consider, like: Dawayne DeRosario, Landycakes Donovan (I am gonna get killed for this one.... but he makes his team twice as good as they are without him), Taylor Twellman, Youri Djorkaeff, and Jaime Moreno (who was robbed last year). Demko likes Ricardo Clarke as a darkhorse.
-It was great to see Edson Buddle play well and score twice for Columbus. I always wish the very best to anyone fighting the demons.
-Richmond's top scorer McColm Cephas will not play in the USL First Division final against Seattle on Saturday because of a red card he got in extra time of the semifinal win over Rochester. Cephas got into a scrap with Rochester's resident punk-ass-bitch John Ball (huge surprise that someone would take a poke at Ball). Too bad for the Richmond Shitkickers. But I still want them to beat the Seattle Facekickers badly.
-Rob Hughes on the Man U stumbling saga: Ferguson needs some new silver
-Yesterday I think I kind of foolishly dismissed Simon Kupers article about lessons to be learned playing soccer. That was a mistake. I should never count him out. He is a great writer. And this story is a great one as well. It's got lessons on life as much as football. Thanks Simon. (And it sure wouldn't hurt me to heed some of your advice these days too.) Spare a minute to take in the wisdom of 30 years
-The Houston Chronicle Week In Review by Bernardo Fallas.
-I wanna thank all the people who regularly leave comments here on the site, and encourage the rest of you to read them. They are almost always of excellent quality! Keep up the good work everyone.

I Know This Isn't Exactly The News You Were Looking For, But.....

-In two huge upsets this weekend, Seattle & Richmond knocked off defending champs Montreal and perennials Rochester to reach the USL First Division Cup title match, which will be played in Seattle, next weekend!!! Seattle tied the champs in Montreal 2-2 Friday and won 2-1 at home on Sunday, while Richmond won 3-1 at home Friday and drew 1-1 at Rochester on Sunday. I was fully expecting to see Montreal and Rochester battle for the title, but now I have to watch the hated Seattle try for it. Go Richmond!
-Here we see it in all its ugly glory: Jeff Cunningham the little whiny baby making a fuss and disrupting a whole team. No surprise really, is it.
-Many people have questioned why Chivas coach(?) Hans Westerfhof didn't bring on defensive help late last week with Chivas 1-0 up on San Jose. San Jose scored 2 in the final 10 minutes for the win. Westerhof said this about his three man back line: "I was satisfied with Orlando Perez, and Ezra Hendrickson. They did their job well. You can play with one defender more, but you will lose in the midfield. We didn't need one more defender." His own words suggest he did though. Remember I said three man back line, and he only mentioned that two were playing good. No mention of the quality displayed by Mr Douglas Sequira who has been, frankly, bad most of the year, and a massive disaster many many games.
-There are a ton of big games this week including:
U17 World Championship quarters, semis, & finals
Matchday 2 of Champions League
Copa Sudamericana round of 16 second legs
US Open Cup Final
-Today its USA v Netherlands at the U17 World Championship in Peru. See it live on FSC at 4pm central.
-Yesterday at the U17WC Mexico beat Costa Rica 3-1 & Turkey beat China 5-1 in the quarterfinals. Mexico will play the USA/Netherlands winner, and Turkey will play the Brazil/N Korea winner in the semis.
-MLS score sheets from Sat & Sun:
NE 1-0 Mets - James Riley ninjas home a goal in the 85th minute for the win. NE totally dominated the entire match, but barely won it.
RSL 1-2 Columbus - Melvin Tarley missed about 5 more chances for his new team in Salt Lake
Chivas 1-3 Colorado - Its getting beyond "really bad" when a team with "inner turmoil" beats you by 2 at home
San Jose 1-1 Dallas - FCD makes Danny Callif eat his words about stuffing Dallas and gaining the psychological upper hand heading toward the playoffs
LA 2-1 KC - The Galaxy bring back Marcelo Saragosa at the last moment and he scores the winner in his first match for them (by the way, he was a Sigi Schmid guy, so Sampson doesn't get the credit for him)
DC & Chicago had the weekend off
-As for the upcoming MLS playoffs (which start in one month): In the West, San Jose has clinched the chance at home field for the semifinal, Dallas, LA and Colorado are all in but still need to sort out seeds 2, 3 & 4 amongst themselves, leaving Salt Lake & Chivas out (not surprising seeing as they are both brand new teams this year, and something would have been completely wrong if they had made the post-season). In the East: New England is the only team officially "in", while the other 5 battle for 3 spots (DC - 47 points with 4 matches left, Chicago - 45 points with 4 matches left, Kansas - 43 points with 3 matches left, Mets - 40 points with 4 matches left & still on the outside, and Lumbus - 34 points with 4 matches left & barely on life support).
-Do you realize that three rookies, Scott Sealy at KC, Michael Parkhurts at NE, James Riley at NE all came to MLS from Wake Forest this year!?!
-Oguchi Onyewu got tossed out of his teams (Standard Liege) 2-2 tie with Germinal Beerschot this past weekend. Here is the offending action as reported by Yanks Abroad: The game became passionate with Onyewu’s foul on Josemar Gil; the US defender saw a straight red after leaping a tackle and landing one foot on the chest of the sliding attacker.
Onyewu was stunned by the snap decision, and argued that he did not act with malice - an excuse backed by replays.
"The ball came out of the back and one of their players tried to tackle it away," he later told YA. "To avoid his tackle, I touched the ball in front first and I had to jump over his legs. And, you know... when you go up you have to come down."
"I had no intentions of coming down on his leg. I don’t even think there was a foul, but that’s how the referee saw it."
-Lyon extended their lead to 4 points in France over PSG as du Nords favorite player Fred scored in the 1-0 win. Lyon has won the French Ligue 1 title 4 years in a row. Even without Essien it looks like nothing has changed.
-Jeff Rusnack of the South Florida Sun Sentinel with a long remembrance of his beloved Fort Lauderdale Strikers of the NASL, and a dude's dream to revive the Strikers has possibilities. And even an old crabby sports guy from the Sun Sentinel chimes in with Strikers memories. What the hell is up with Strikers mania all of a sudden.
-The Pasadena Star News covers the smartest guy in MLS - Jimmy Conrad.
-The MFL weekend scorecard looked like this:
Cruz Azul 2-2 Dorados
Monterrey 2-1 Tigres
Veracruz 2-2 Santos
Morelia 2-2 Pumas
Atlas 0-0 Chiapas
San Luis 1-2 Guadalajara
Pachuca 3-2 Atlante
Tecos 1-2 Toluca
America 4-1 Necaxa
-HEY! Sunderland won an EPL game! 2-0 over Middlesborough. They had not won in 26 games prior to this. Do you think they will win again this season? I predict 2 more wins, and then relegation.
-Long time MLS veteran (of many teams, currently Salt Lake) Brian Kamler, has announced he will retire at season end and go to work for RSL in some sort of management position. Youth development maybe?
-A lot of nasty and near nasty cheap shots and retaliations went down in the San Jose - Dallas 1-1 draw.
-I don't remember the last time a team other than Celtic or Rangers fought for the Scottish League title. But Hearts are making an early season run. They are 8-0-0 for 24 points after beating Rangers 1-0 on Saturday. This leaves them 8 points ahead of Celtic, and 11 ahead of Rangers. Not bad boys. Not bad at all.
-Andrea Canales of Soccer 365 tells us how to become a real fan, and a real player.
-The next round of the Carling English League Cup will be played the week of Oct 24. Here is the draw:
Chelsea v Charlton
Sunderland v Arsenal
Everton v Middlesbrough
Fulham v West Brom
West Ham v Bolton
Grimsby v Newcastle
Manchester United v Barnet
Doncaster v Gillingham
Crystal Palace v Liverpool
Wigan v Watford
Birmingham v Norwich
Aston Villa v Burnley
Blackburn v Leeds
Reading v Sheffield United
Cardiff v Leicester
Mansfield v Millwall
-Dedi Ben Dayan scored for his second game in a row for Colorado. See, I told you he was good.
-The big scores from the Bundesliga (including bummers and upsets):
Schalke 2-0 Hannover
Hamburger 2-0 Bayern Munich
Werder Bremen 2-1 Leverkusen
Bielefeld 0-2 Moenchengladbach
Cologne 0-1 Hertha
The Big English Premier League Matches (I am not kidding when I say its over already!):
Birmingham 2-2 Liverpool
Chelsea 2-1 Aston Villa
Everton 0-1 Wigan
Manchester United 1-2 Blackburn
Newcastle 1-0 Manchester City
West Ham 0-0 Arsenal
-Phil Ball is: Keeping the folks happy (with a pig-out)
-After 6 rounds of play, here are the Dutch Eredivisie top 5 standings:
18 Feyenoord
15 Alkmaar
15 Waalwijk
13 PSV
10 Ajax
-In Serie A over the weekend we had these scores:
Reggina 2-0 Udinese
Parma 1-2 Juventus
Cagliari 0-0 AS Roma
Empoli 1-0 Lecce
Lazio 4-2 Palermo
Livorno 2-0 Ascoli
Sampdoria 1-2 Chievo Verona
Siena 4-2 Messina
Treviso 0-2 AC Milan
Inter Milan 1-0 Fiorentina
-I am talking to someone about getting an actual Italian perspective on the Serie A season. I hope it happens. That would be very cool, and exactly what I had in mind when du Nord started.
-Next weekend is the first major clash of the Serie A season when first place Juventus takes on second place Inter! WooooHoooo!
-Simon Kuper takes time, for some reason, to tell us all how to be a good sport during the heat of the battle. OK?!?!?!
-And Rob Hughes yawns at Chelsea's success (me too, cuz while immensely talented, they play dull ass football): Ho-hum, Chelsea wins another one
-Big scores from Spain:
Espanyol 1-2 Villarreal
Real Betis 1-4 Barcelona
Alaves 0-3 Real Madrid
-The Bulgarina Genius, Hristo Stoichkov will not be coaching his national team for its next 4 games after being suspended for nasty remarks he made about UEFA President Lennart Johansson. Hristo insisted the Sweden-Bulgaria match was fixed for Sweden to win because Johansson is Swedish and he left the game early. Turns out Johansson's wife is in a wheel chair and needed to leave. Smooth move dude, you not only look dumb as hell, but you insulted the guys wife.

U17 World Championship Quarterfinals Are All Set

The Quarterfinals from Peru:
Sun Sept 25 Costa Rica v Mexico
Sun Sept 25 Turkey v China
Mon Sept 26 USA v Netherlands - live on FSC 4pm central
Mon Sept 26 Brazil v North Korea
The Semifnal bracket sets up this way:
Fri Sept 29 Costa Rica/Mexico v USA/Netherlands 4pm central
Fri Sept 29 Turkey/China v Brazil/North Korea 7pm central
The Final will be:
Sun Oct 2 in Lima at 6pm central

Is This The Fiscally Conservative News?

-You know who must be the most lost man in the soccer universe these days? Frank Yallop, that's who. What do you think he does all day? Study tapes of Montreal Impact matches, or the Tomasz Radzinski highlight reel. Maybe he drives around Saskatchewan looking for young prospects with skills to thrill in the youth leagues. Who knows. Maybe he is in training to becoming the next Scrabble King. Or maybe he runs the painting company that many USL & MLS Reserve Team players work for cuz they get paid so little by their clubs. I sure would like to see him back coaching in MLS. We miss you Frank. Drop us a line and let us know how its going.
-From the World U17 Championship, its USA v Cote d'Ivoire at 330pm central today. USA has already advanced and d'Ivoire is out, but seeding is still to be determined for the knockout stages. So this game means a lil sumthin' after all.
-Fans Q&A with Benny Feilhaber, star of the USA U20's, via Yanks Abroad.
-A Real Heartbreaker. No ladies, I'm not talking about me. DC United. They took a 2-0 lead down in Chile but then gave up 3 as Catolica poured on the pressure for the 4-3 aggregate win. What a crushing loss, but you could feel it building for the last 60 minutes of the match. Better luck next time, but I bet the people who run the Cup will make a USA team play in an earlier round of qualifying. By the way, Catholica has some awesome attacking players in Rubio, Quinteros and Conca! They are a very fun team to watch. They will play Fluminese or Banfield (who play at Banfield on the 28th with Fluminese up 3-1) in the Quarterfinal round next. Two last thoughts on DC: 1. I can't help but feel Bobby Boswell (CORRECTION: I called the poor kid "Bosworth", but Oscar M was kind enough to set me straight. That leads me to this thought: Maybe they should sign Brian Bosworth(!) as an ass kicker, cuz I bet he needs work and he was a supposed ass kicker and they need an ass kicker.) might have been able to help down the stretch & 2. Freddy Adu was awful, he gave two or three passes away easily, didn't hold the ball at all, and committed the bad foul that Conca converted on the free kick. Damn.
-A couple questions for Capitan America Claudio Reyna at USNSTPA.
-Similar treatment for Taylor Twellman from the same site.
-Hooray for Real Madrid. They won a game. Beat Bilbao 3-1. Kinda-Hooray for Dirty Stinky Hippy Jonny Woodgate. He finally played in a match, after being out a year and a half with injuries, and growing, but not washing, his hair. So what does Woodgate do with his big chance? He gifts Bilbao the first goal with a nice tidy diving header own goal!! Then he gets sent off with his second yellow card in the 66th minute! Spectacular! He will probably get a game grade of around 1, just for showing up. But Raul scored 2, and Robinho the other to stop their 3 game losing skid! Hooray Beer!
-La Liga (Spain) scores from the last two nights:
Villarreal 1-2 Celta Vigo
Sevilla 0-0 Cadiz
Zaragoza 3-1 Osasuna
Deportivo La Coruna 1-1 Real Betis
Barcelona 2-2 Valencia
Real Sociedad 3-2 Atletico Madrid
Getafe 1-1 Mallorca
Malaga 0-0 Alaves
Racing Santander 1-0 Espanyol
Real Madrid 3-1 Athletic Bilbao
Top 10 of the table (notice no Barca):
9 Celta Vigo
8 Getafe
8 Deportivo La Coruna
6 Real Zaragoza
6 Real Madrid
6 Valencia
6 Racing Santander
6 Espanyol
6 Osasuna
6 Real Sociedad
-It was all looking so good for Johnny O'Brien who made his first return to Ajax as his new team Den Haag drew 2-2. JOB started in the midfield and played a really active game before being subbed out for a third striker with his team still trailing. But....... and of course with JOB there is always a "But", he strained his groin at practice today. What the f......?
-Kasey Keller was named Player Of The Week in Die Bundesliga!
-Ives Galarcep, in his ESPNSoccernet MLS weekend preview starts off with this sentence: "Somewhere, Sigi Schmid is staring at his MLS Cup 2002 ring, wondering why he still isn't coaching the Los Angeles Galaxy." In some ways I agree with Ives, but deep down Sigi knows he is better off not working for that nit-wit Doug Hamilton anymore. Plus Sigi will be too busy to think about this stuff next year when he is beating the Galaxy and their new coach with his new team.
-So Karel Poborsky of Sparta rips his coach after yet another disappointing match and they take away his team captains arm band, then suspend him, and now loan him out a 2nd Division Czech team Budejovice. I guess they really didn't like his attitude. I always thought he was pretty good.
-Ridge Mahoney has two thoughts at Soccer America: No meat in Revs' beef & More cameras, please!
-Cruz Azul's coach Ruben Romano, who was just freed from his kidnappers had this to say about them: "They were always eager for me to have my cigarettes; they were very well aware of my cigarettes." (He had three cigs during the news conference.)
-Jeff Cunningham is going to get fined but not suspended for storming off the field when he got subbed out in the 53rd minute v Salt Lake on Wednesday.
-Big Games From Around The World this weekend:
Inter v Fiorentina
Werder Breman v Leverkusen
Le Mans v PSG
-And this weekends MLS match-ups:
Saturday
New England v Metrostars - live at 630pm central on FSC (Demko says this will probably be a 0-0 snore after we get all excited following the 5-4 shootout last weekend between these two teams.)
Salt Lake v Columbus
Chivas v Colorado
San Jose v Dallas
Sunday
Los Angeles v Kansas City
-Barca, The Arse & Man U are all chasing after a young Mexican player named Giovanni Dos Santos who is supposed to be fantastic. I have never heard of him. Does anyone out there know who this player is?
-ADDITION: Kenny Arena checked in again, just to say that he is looking for a job......

Email The Boss And CC The News

-Police raided a house on the outskirts of Mexico City and freed Cruz Azul head coach Ruben Romano. He had been kidnapped over 2 months ago outside the teams practice facility. Fantastic news! The cops arrested 7 people thought to be responsible.
-The Chicago Daily Southtown has a One On One with Peter Wilt.
-The finalists for USL First Division post-season awards have been announced. Minnesota Thunder coach Buzz Lagos has been nominated for Coach Of The Year (this after the team had one of their worst years ever - go figure).
-Another of my favorite daily newspaper soccer writers is Mark Zeigler of the San Diego Union-Tribune. He writes about the eccentric man who founded and still runs the USL here in America: Farsighted Vision
-A good travelogue from Chicago & Honduras defender Samuel Cabellero on his journeys this past month: From Miyagi to Milwaukee and beyond. This is a great read. No sports cliches or the usual athlete crap.
-Now these people are real soccer fans. I think FIFA should give them a special award as "Fans Of The Year". And if FIFA won't, then I will. Cheers to the Fans Of The Year. I love you all.
-Great games in MLS last night as the season really gets down to the nitty gritty. Some recaps:
Colorado 2-0 Salt Lake - The Israeli defender Dedi Ben Dayan, who looked fantastic the one time I saw him play, scored along with Jean Philippe Peguero. Jamie Watson got yellow carded for RSL, probably for diving.
Columbus 1-1 New England - Knox Cameron scored again for 'lumbus, he is on a roll right now, and Taylor Twellman onion-bagged his 16th for the desperate draw in second half stoppage time. It was nice to see Edson Buddle back on the field as well. He is gonna need a lot of support to keep his life on track. Good luck man.
Dallas 4-1 Los Angeles - LA could just be the worst team in league history on the road. I really really wish that Open Cup game could have been played here in St Paul. LA start off the match 1-0 down by giving away an horrendous own goal (you MUST see the video to believe how bad it was), but Dallas give that one back with an own goal..... of their own. Roberto Mina slammed in two more, and Abe Thompson finished off the bbq for Dallas.
San Jose 2-0 Chicago - Chicago still are not a top notch club, but San Jose certainly are. Wow. I did not see this coming. I had SJ coach Dom Kinnear on my pre-season short list to be fired during the season. Dewayne DeRosario is also proving to be quite a fearsome midfielder, and he scored both goals. Scoring machine Chris Rolfe did not play for Chicago due to a groin strain. No thank you.
-DJ Walker of Footballs Are Round & 3rd Degree as usual provides his personal minute by minute "Stream Of Consciousness" match report for Dallas in the demolition of LA.
-Dewayne DeRosario profile at ESPNSoccernet.
-So here's the MLS single table:
56 San Jose
52 New England
47 DC United
45 Chicago
43 Kansas City
42 FC Dallas
40 Metrostars *
39 Los Angeles
34 Colorado
31 Columbus *
19 Real Salt Lake *
14 Chivas USA *
(*would be out if playoff started today)
Chivas is out officially, and Salt Lake is only a salt grain away from being out. So the real playoff battle is between DC, Chicago, KC & Metro who are within 7 points of each other and fighting for 3 spots. KC & Metro are the two really sitting on the brink of disaster.
-DC are in Chile to take on Catholica in the Copa Sudamericana tonite. 7pm central of FSC. Don't be rude, tune in dude.
-Last night in Copa Sudamericana it was (see all the tournament matches and scores here):
Cerro Porteno 2-2 Boca Juniors
Club America 3-3 Atletico Nacional (the game was played in LA at the Coliseum)
-Another big upset & a thrilling winner in English League Carling Cup last night:
Doncaster 1-1 Manchester City (Doncaster wins 3-0 on penalties after extra time). Full match report at Man City page.
Fulham 5-4 Lincoln (in extra time) Brian McBride (who came on in the 72nd minute) got the winner in the 120th minute! Fulham squandered leads of 2-0 in regulation, and 4-2 in extra time. Read the full game report and SuperMac's comments from the Fulham FC home page.
-Serie A scores:
Chievo Verona 0-1 Inter Milan
Empoli 3-1 Cagliari
Lecce 1-3 Fiorentina
Messina 0-0 Livorno
AC Milan 2-0 Lazio
Palermo 1-0 Reggina
AS Roma 4-1 Parma
Treviso 0-2 Sampdoria
Udinese 0-1 Juventus
Ascoli 1-1, Siena
Top of the table:
12 Juve
10 Fiore
10 Palermo
9 Inter
9 Sampdoria
8 Livorno
7 Roma
7 Milan
7 Lazio
-Colorado striker Jeff Cunningham featured in USA Today: Cunningham makes shift to Colorado, boosts career. But Cunningham also showed his still strong sense of immaturity last night when he stormed off the field and into the locker room, not to the bench, after being subbed in the 73rd minute. It's tough to cure a bonehead, trust me, I am one.
-The long lost Marx Brother, Campo Marx, who has been playing English football under the alias Ivan Campo, has broken his foot and will miss two months. We will miss his hair, and his zany footballing style.
-Bob Luder, who does a great job writing for the Kansas City Star has a story today on Rookie Of The Year candidate & Trinidad native Scott Sealy: Wizards’ Sealy finds success in MLS after exiting pool
-Glenn Davis on those pesky USA U17's.

It's Cold News Jack

-According to that total piece of crap newspaper The Mirror of London: "Manchester City played pre-recorded crowd chants at Sunday's game against Bolton in a bid to rouse their fans and improve the atmosphere at their stadium." - To which I say, welcome to the world of sports, American style, bitches.
-Grant Wahl, the esteemed soccer writer for Sports Illustrated, has apparently taken to blowing me sugar kisses in hopes of getting on my good side. Hahahahaha. Not actually. But he does have a new column out listing his favorite soccer blogs, and (not to gloat too damn loud and long) du Nord is listed first! Thats right sucka's. Number one. Means. Nothing. Thanks Grant. I met him several years ago while watching a World Cup Qualifier (Honduras v USA 2001). He is really nice, and I appreciate the bump.
-Andrea Canales from Soccer365 interviews former Minnesota Thunder coach and legend Buzz Lagos who has just retired after 16 years.
-There is a good chance that both Jamil Walker & Santino Quaranta could miss the Copa Sudamericana match for DC United on Thursday night in Chile against Catholica due to injury. Final word is still with the jury. You can see the match at 7pm central on FSC.
-Did you see those feisty USA U17 kids at the World Championship yesterday. They showed the Italianos a thing or two about playing hardnosed defense. The Italians showed their world class flopping and writhing skills. And how about all the retaliation Italy wasted time with. 7 yellow cards and almost all of them for cheap shots. Hilarious. The USA kids kept their noses clean and played their asses off. They still need to learn about possession. Other thoughts about the game: The USA goalkeeper, Bryant Rueckner, is terrifying for me as a fan. Can he hold a ball with an opponent within 10 yards of him? I kinda doubt it. He gave up one of the worst goals I have ever seen. (Scenario: Italy has a free kick from about 40 yards on the left side. The wild card Russotto pounds the ball toward the deep far side of the box with some nice curve. Rueckner decides its going wide and lets it go. What happens? The ball bounces straight into the goal untouched.) The game had been all USA until that moment (2-0). Suddenly Italy are right back in the match and the game becomes weird & wooly until the final moment or so when the USA scraps a third goal and wins it 3-1. A pushing and shouting match broke out after the game between the teams. Italy had a player and the head coach sent off during the match as well. Gotta love the crazy stuff. It was also fun seeing the two USA forwards, David Arvizu & Preston Zimmerman, torture the Italian defenders for the full 90. The only real bad thing was that powerful defender Nik Besagno went off with an ankle injury and could be seen later with ice and crutches. Here is a whole page of post game quotes from the USA coach and some of the players. Team USA play their third and final group match against Cote d'Ivoire (who lost 4-3 to Italy and 3-0 to North Korea and have been eliminated) on Friday. See it live on Fox Soccer Channel at 330pm central.
-In that same tournament, Brazil lost 3-1 to Gambia in their first match. See all the results and stories via Fifa.
-The worlds biggest and ugliest baby, Wayne Rooney, got a 2 game suspension after his red card tantrum vs Villareal in the Champions League last week. It was funny to watch it go down. I have a 1 & 1/2 year old niece who behaves better than he does on a regular basis.
-Luis Bueno attempts to sell us on the quality of San Jose's Alejandro Moreno: Unsung Hero
-Last nights Bundesliga scores:
Borussia Moenchengladbach 2-1 Werder Bremen
Borussia Dortmund 2-0 Arminia Bielefeld
Eintracht Frankfurt 0-1 Bayern Munich
Hannover 96 2-4 VfL Wolfsburg
-2nd round English League Cup games took place last night. And as always there were some big upsets:
Gillingham 3-2 Portsmouth
Grimsby 1-0 Tottenham
-Soccer America had an interesting little story on ticket prices around the world. Here is a sample of the CHEAPEST ticket prices from some select clubs (in US dollars):
$86 - Chelsea
$45 - Sunderland
$24 - Real Madrid
$24 - Juventus
$16 - DC United
$14.50 - Bayern Munich
No wonder German teams draw such massive crowds every week.
-After MLS officials saw video tape, Brian Dunseth of Salt Lake got a 2 game suspension for smacking Dallas forward Roberto Mina in the head with a forearm shiver.
-Brian Ching will get his first start for San Jose tonight since his surgery in early June. I had heard he was done for the season at one point. That was wrong. He is replacing Ronald Cerritos in the first 11.
-Undoubtedly the fans most popular Metrostar of all time, Kraut Lothar Matthaeus, is the new head coach of Greek club PAOK Thessaloniki. Good luck you greasy lump.
-Guus Hiddink sees no problem in coaching PSV & Australia at the same time: The Man With Two Jobs

My Finger Is Not In My Nose, And I Am Not Picking The News

-If you are in the Twin Cities you really ought to come out Wednesday night and join fans of the Minnesota Thunder for their annual post-season banquet. Awards are given out to the Player Of The Year & Newcomer Of The Year as voted on by fans at Blue Sky Soccer. The party begins at 7pm at the Local in downtown Minneapolis. There will also be video highlight and an auction benefiting Grass Roots Soccer (check those details at Blue Sky). Be there for a great time.
-BQ sent me this article about the chip in the ball at the U17 World Championship. The article is good at explaining some of how the technology works, but it does not tell how the ball knows it is completely over the line.
-I don't remember if I said this yesterday or not, but the USA U17 team beat North Korea 3-2 at the World Championship. They play Italy today (who beat Cote d'Ivoire 4-3). While the USA scored three good goals, I was amazed at how little possession they kept. Almost every pass, was long and forward, hoping to connect. How many games can you win like that?
-With defenders Sergio Ramos suspended and Ivan Helguera injured, will Jonathan Woodgate finally play his first match for Real Madrid on Thursday against Athletic Bilbao?
-Youri Djorkaeff was named MLS Player Of The Week. He is still that good!
-In other Metrostars analysis: I wanna mention Tim Ward. I think he has a bright future. He looks really good going forward, still needs lots of work defensively, but seems to have all the skills needed to make it. Having Youri Djorkaeff as captain was a great move for this team. It must be pretty amazing to be a young guy like Mike Magee, Michael Bradley or Eddie Gaven and have Djorkaeff with you everyday at practice and on the field in games. And Youri seems to really enjoy these young guys too. So after last weeks 5-4 lunatic match, we get the rematch this Saturday - New England v Metrostars at 630pm central on FSC. Tune in or be a fool.
-MLS Golden Foot standings:
15 Taylor Twellman
13 Jaime Moreno
11 Landycakes Donovan
11 Jeff Cunningham
11 Carlos Ruiz
-After a 2 goal game and 2-1 victory by Chicago, Chris Rolfe is right at the top of the list for Rookie Of The Year, along with Michael Parkhurst and Scott Sealy. I am not sure who I would pick just yet. That's why I pick after the season.
-From a few days ago - Stephen Goff at the Washington Post writes about DC United midfielder Brian Carroll: Carroll's Play Shows a Lot of Hard Work. Carroll is an interesting character for DC. He arrived at the team when Ray Hudson was still coaching and didn't see one single minute on playing time. A year later Peter Nowak took over the club and Carroll has barely left the pitch. Some coaches just see things different ways I guess, but how did Ray miss the mark that bad? Don't answer that.
-John Harkes wants to be a head coach (what will he tells his players? "Look at this!", "Watch this!", "Did you see that?!" etc etc cuz that all he ever seems to say when he is on TV analyzing the game), and he wants the Metrostars job. He told the Newark Star Ledger: "The MetroStars need a shot in the arm. They haven't had success. They need some changes." Aaaaaaaaah, we have our own Hugo Sanchez now.
-Ives Galarcep in the North Jersey Herald lobbies in favor of Bob Bradley keeping his job: Barring collapse, Bradley must stay
-Phil Ball talks about: Partying in the Suburbs
-Everton lost again yesterday, 2-0 to Arsenal. They have 3 points from 5 games in the EPL, got knocked out of the Champions League in their first round, and got pulverized in their first UEFA Cup match. Could it all be too much for them, or is this just the down spin of the yo-yo.
-Did you wonder where Clint Mathis was last week as Salt Lake lost down in Dallas? He was away from the team all week attending to "personal affairs". No word on if he is back yet.
-I saw an article refer to Dallas' new home Pizza Hut Park as The Hut. Now that is funny! (Say it out loud a few times.) And I will use it from now on.
-Manchester United and Argentina have lost a great left back for many many months to come: Gabriel Heinze has blown out the ACL on his left knee.
-Rob Hughes tells us all about the new awards that players are giving themselves: World players choose their own Dream Team
-The Houston Chronicle's excellent Week In Review
-Roberto Baggio is going to take an unnamed position with Inter Milan. Very cool.
-Glenn Davis says adios to El Tri at ESPNSoccernet: Make way for the new king
-Big tip of the hat toward regular reader and world class keeper Ken. You should watch his squad Fiorentina take on Lecce live at 130pm central on Wednesday via FSC (with a re-showing at 7).

That's Not A Snack, That's A News

-This was the first weekend in many months that I saw no games on TV at all. Maybe its cuz I have been so damn busy at work, and seen so many other matches lately that I just needed a break. Plus I spent two days with my family at a house that is still in the cable dark ages, so I couldn't watch if I wanted to, and I really didn't feel like seeking out a watering hole that might show me a game or two. The following is everything I could find out about the weekend. (I still haven't finished my story of the trip to LA for the Open Cup yet, but maybe today.)
-USL First Division playoffs got underway with Portland v Seattle & Richmond v Vancouver in home and away aggregate goal series. Winners meet the top two teams, Montreal and Rochester.
Friday scores: Portland 0-1 Seattle & Richmond 0-0 Vancouver
Sunday scores: Seattle 2-0 Portland, Seattle win series 3-0 & Vanvouver 0-0 Richmond, Richmond win series 5-4 on PK's.
So now its the semi finals Fri Sep 23 Seattle v Montreal & Richmond v Rochester, & Sun Sep 25, with Montreal & Rochester both having the second game at home.
-Chelsea is all alone now at the top of the EPL (6-0-0), beating fellow unbeatens Charlton 2-0 on the road. Liverpool & Man U drew 0-0. Reading 1-0 Crewe Alexandra. Inter 3-0 Lecce. QPR 0-1 Leeds. Groningen 1-0 PSV. Fulham 1-2 West Ham. Blackburn 0-3 Newcastle. Man City 0-1 Bolton. Cologne 2-1 Moenchengladbach. Bayern Munchen 1-0 Hannover. Schalke 0-0 Hertha. Juventus 2-1 Ascoli. Sampdoria 2-1 AC Milan. ADO The Hague 0-0 FC Twente. AZ Alkmaar 4-2 Ajax. Feyenoord 5-1 SC Heerenveen. Espanyol 1-0 Real Madrid. Atletico Madrid 2-1 Barcelona.
-MLS scoreboard:
Metrostars 5-4 New England - this must have been one wild-assed game.
Columbus 1-2 Chicago - Robert Warczyka's head coaching stint is about to end.
Kansas City 2-2 Los Angeles - Steve Cronin was in goal for LA cuz at the end of the Open Cup match last Wednesday I noticed Kevin Hartman hurt his ribs pretty bad stretching to make a save.
Chivas USA 1-2 San Jose
Dallas 2-1 Salt Lake - Mina scores both with Pescadito out, and Dallas secures their spot in the postseason playoffs.
DC 2-0 Colorado - I heard that the coaches almost got in a fight!
Several games on the sched for Wednesday:
Columbus v New Eng
Dallas v LA
Colorado v Salt Lake
San Jose v Chicago
-USA beat North Korea 3-2 in the first match of the U17 World Championship taking place down in Peru. Ryan Soroka, Kyle Nakazawa & Preston Zimmerman scored the goals for our boys.
-Remember after the USA v Mexico match when it was announced that they were auctioning off the game jerseys worn by players from both teams for a Hurrican Katrina fund? The Auction raised $135,000! Amazing! Oguchi Onyewu drew the biggest fee at $6260. Keller & Donovan shirts sold for $6010 each. See the full list here.
-Mexican Football League scores:
Toluca 2-1 Atlas
Chiapas 1-0 Morelia
Atlante 0-2 Monterrey
Dorados 1-0 Veracruz
Tigres 1-2 Cruz Azul
Guadalajara 1-2 Necaxa
Pumas 1-3 Pachuca
Santos 3-1 San Luis
Tecos 1-2 America
-A triple shot of my babies love from Rob Hughes from the International Herald Tribune: Brazilian dazzles fading 'galacticos', Moments of beauty are mixed with ugliness, & In the melting pot of soccer, LuaLua stands out
-ESPNSoccernet article on Jonathan Spector.
-Rudi Voeller has taken over as temporary coach of Bayer Leverkusen.
-There's actually a soccer book reviewed in the Sunday New York Times. It's called 'National Pastime' and is a look at the start of the real birth of soccer in America (now) to the birth of baseball. Very sociological and all. I was surprised to see it. You can read the first chapter of the book too.

I Am Damo Suzuki With The News

-We frickin lost. Thunder 2-5 to LA. Damn. No one was at the game either. We tried. At least the fans did. I will question the players efforts, but not in this column. I will save that for another day, when I recap the season.
-LA resigned midfielder Marcelo Saragosa from Sao Paulo. He played with the Galaxy on loan from his Brazilian club last year, but they wanted a lot of money to sell him. Now that he is no longer under contract with Sao Paulo he was free for LA to snap up. I think its a good inclusion. The team also shitcanned always-overrated striker Jovan Kirovski. Jovan proved what a gentleman he is by calling Sampson names on his way out the door. (I wonder if the door hit him in the ass?) Then again, I call Sampson names almost everyday here, and dog on Hugo Sanchez for ripping LaVolpe, so what does that make me? We are all lame!
-The Clean Sheet: Alas, poor Thunder By Tino Palace - The dude who (supposedly) used to live in Minnesota writes about the Thunder and losing to LA in the Open Cup semifinal the other night. Did he come talk to me? Noooo! And I was the one who emailed him and told the boy we were coming in the first place (an email he didn't respond to!)
-A recap of all the MLS roster additions as the deadline for International transfers closed yesterday.
-Looks like Fast Eddie Johnson is gonna miss the rest of the MLS regular season and probably the last two World Cup qualifiers cuz that broken foot of his just won't heal properly. Get it fixed dude! We need you in Germany.
-Will Jon Spector get his first start this weekend for Charlton?
-DMB curled in a corner that Jan Venegoor Of Hesselink slammed home for PSV's 1-0 Champions League win over Schalke.
-More Champs Lg stuff: Seeing Real Madrid get pounded 3-0 by Lyon was pretty damn funny! So was seeing Wayne Rooney, Patrick Viera and Robin Van Persie get red cards for being total idiots. Match Day 2 is Sept 27 & 28.
-Landycakes will be belatedly happy to know that Leverkusen booted their coach, Klaus Augenthaler, after their worst season start ever. A tad bit too late to be of any actual use for Landy though.
-On Tap in MLS with 6 weeks left:
Columbus v Chicago
DC United v Colorado
Metrostars v New England
Kansas City v Los Angeles
Chivas v San Jose Earthquakes - on FSC at 9pm central time Saturday
Dallas v Salt Lake - on ESPN2 at 1pm central time Sunday
-In UEFA Cup action this week....... ah forget it. About 1000 teams are in the damn thing. Talk to me about it in April.
-The big Euro matches this weekend:
Schalke v Hertha on Sunday
Bordeaux v Lyon on Saturday
Alkmaar v Ajax on Sauturday
Charlton v Chelsea on Saturday (who would have ever thought this would be a big September game)
Liverpool v Manchester United on Sunday

I Will Be In LA For Two Days!

US Open Cup fever gripped me good, so I booked a plane ticket for Los Angeles to cheer my Mighty Minnesota Thundering Thunderers on to semi-final victory & glory. Demko may be dropping a line here, and you will like it. Good luck with your Champions League team. Good luck with the ladies. Good luck with that comb-over buddy. Eat Lucky Charms. Drive a Cadillac. Rest In Peace R.L. Burnside.

At 11:11 Pacific Time This Evening, I Arrive At The News

-Tonight DC United becomes the first MLS team to try its hand at the Copa Sudamericana. I have no idea how serious they are taking this, or how tough the competition will be, but it is pretty cool that they are even participating. Success in this tournament could be a door into Copa Libertadores. They play Universidad Catolica of Chile home and then away on Sep. 22. You can catch the match on Fox Soccer Channel at 7pm central. Steven Goff, the great Washington Post writer gives a preview: United Still Getting International Feel
-I will be in LA on Wednesday night for the US Open Cup. My Minnesota team will try to beat their 4th MLS team in a row (6-4 over Salt Lake, 4-1 over Colorado, 3-1 over Kansas City - the cup holders). USA Today has a story on our heroes: USL's Thunder roaring past MLS foes in Open Cup
-At the Open Cup game, my seats are right behind the Thunder bench at HDC, so if you happen to be at the game please stop by and say hello. I will be wearing my blue Thunder jersey, with the number 3 and my name BRUCE on the back. The giant red beard is hard to miss too.
-Luis Bueno from The Press-Enterprise in So Cal writes about how the Galaxy are taking the Open Cup match against the Thunder seriously. I am not bragging here (cuz I thought our team would lose the last two Cup matches), but all three previous MLS victims have said this exact same thing to the press.
-I guess South Korea thinks they need a Dutchman to lead their team to more World Cup glory. They named Dick Advocaat (Claudio Reyna's all-time favorite coach) as their new coach.
-Some honest words from a very slippery fellow: "One thing I would have changed (in my tenure) was I would not have brought in David Regis." Steve Sampson, to the Newark Star-Ledger, talking about the failure of France '98. He does not regret the Harkes decision though.
-Last weekends Serie A results:
Saturday
Palermo 3-2 Inter Milan
AC Milan 3-1 Siena
Sunday
Chievo Verona 1-0 Parma
Empoli 0-4 Juventus
Lecce 0-0 Ascoli
Messina 2-2 Fiorentina
AS Roma 0-1 Udinese
Sampdoria 3-2 Reggina
Treviso 0-1 Livorno
-Yesterday someone (anonymously) left this comment: "How about Claudio Reyna and his performance with Man City who now sit third in the Premiership." You are right on the money. Claudio was named Man Of The Match in the big 1-1 derby draw with Man U on Saturday. I watched that game with quite a few Man U fans, and I must admit to snickering when City tied it up.
-Cuddly Don Cuddy engages in some Q & A with Daniel Hernandez of the Rev.
-Michael Lewis (a guy with a great ear for the early story) says Sigi Schmid is the front runner for the head coaching job in Columbus, and has already interviewed for that job. When I was in Columbus last week for USA v Mex I talk with some Crew fans who didn't even have Sigi on their short list of desirable coaches. I had him as #1 on the list in my mind for that job.
-There is a good chance that Jason Kries is done for the year after injuring his knee. He had blown out the other one a couple years ago, had major surgery, and is back in form. Looks like he may have done the same thing to his other knee now.
-The Houston Chronicle has been doing a nice little weekly review of MLS, MFL & EPL, with highlights, player of the week, game of the week etc. Smart people are doing it right in Houston with newsprint.
-Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune on Diego Forlan: Forlán reborn in Spanish soccer
-The Phil Ball column: Galicia on the up?

Stop In Whenever You Need Help And We Will Get You All The News That You Could Ever Need

-I have discovered the problem with Chivas USA. All it took was looking to Guadalajara Chivas for the answers, seeing as they are the mothership and all that crap. And I got an answer quickly. For starters, they can't send anyone very good north, cuz they aint got much down south. And second, actually worst of all, the south team has seriously insulted the soccer gods. I don't mean some minor namby pamby insult either. A death blow should be in order from the gods for this one. Here is the offense: Guade employs a clown to play for them. Yes a literal clown. The circus type. Have you seen their midfielder named Bofo? What a name for a clown. Brilliant. He is bald, so he paints his head. I'm not kidding. He flops around a lot, and has that sad clown face most of the time. And wearing the red and white stripes with the blue shorts has clown uniform written all over it. Best of all, he wears the number 100! Here is pic of Bofo The Clown (it's not very good, but its the best I could find, and you can kinda see the paint on his head). Wouldn't it be cool if he wore oversized bright red shoes?! So having pissed off the soccer gods completely, we now know why Chivas USA is so bad, and why they will surely set the low points record and be named the new "worst" MLS team of all-time once this year ends.
-U17 World Championship begins this week in Peru. Here are the Team USA details (games and roster).
-Our man McBride scored again for Fulham as they tied Newcastle 1-1. Michael Owen did not score, but Carlos Bocanegra tackled him really hard and earned a yellow for his efforts.
-Brian Ching story/history update thingy.
-MLS Weekend Burners (scores, table, goal leader):
Week 24 winners & losers:
New E 3-1 Columbus
KC 0-1 Metro
Dallas 1-2 DC
San Jose 3-0 Chivas
LA 4-1 Colorado
Single table:
51 New England
50 San Jose
44 DC United
42 Kansas City
42 Chicago
38 Los Angeles
37 Metrostars
36 FC Dallas
31 Colorado
30 Columbus
19 Real Salt Lake
14 Chivas USA
Golden Foot:
14 Taylor Twellman
12 Jaime Moreno
11 Landon Donovan
11 Jeff Cunningham
11 Carlos Ruiz
-Glenn Davis lays down the boogie in the Houston Chronicle on how Coach Arena finalizes a team for the World Cup next summer.
-Chelsea is 5-0-0. Damn!
-Looks like Thierry Henry has a pretty bad groin injury and could be out a month to six weeks. Damn again! Les Arse & Les Bleu could be in trouble.
-My Mighty Minnesota Thunder have just finished their worst ever season in professional football. Sad. The coach called it quits after 16 years at the helm too. They finished 10th in a 12 team league. Rough. Here are the 6 teams in the USL First Division who are going to now vie for the league crown. (Montreal are the reigning champs, and they are very good):
Montreal - first round playoff buy
Rochester - first round playoff buy
Vancouver
Seattle
Portland
Richmond
-Tony Meola still gets his haircut by his dad. No wonder he looks like that.
-Dema Kovalenko and Dallas don't like each other. Shocker! Here is what Dema had to say about Dallas after playing them last Saturday: "I hate this team, man." And what does Dallas coach Colin Clarke think of Kovalenko?: "We've got a history. Mostly because of one player...." Excellent.
-MFL scores & table:
Cruz Azul 5-3 Atlante
Monterrey 1-1 Pumas
Morelia 3-1 Toluca
Veracruz 0-5 Tigres
Necaxa 4-3 Santos
Atlas 2-1 Tecos
San Luis 4-1 Dorados
Pachuca 5-1 Chiapas
America 0-0 Guadalajara
Single Table:
18 Cruz Azul
17 America
13 Tigres
12 Necaxa
11 Pachuca
11 Toluca
11 Monterrey
10 Morelia
9 San Luis
9 Guadalajara
9 Veracruz
9 Pumas
7 Tecos
7 Santos
6 Atlas
5 Atlante
4 Dorados
4 Chiapas
-Rob Hughes on Real Madrids supposed woes & technology: Beep of the future, too late for Real
-The UEFA Champions League group stage kicks off tomorrow. Should be some great matches taking places. Here is this weeks line up and tv viewing in the US (thanks to the legendary soccertv.com):
Champions League Match Day 1
Tuesday:
PSV v Schalke
Milan v Fenerbahçe
Lyon v Real Madrid
Olympiacos v Rosenborg
Betis v Liverpool
Chelsea v Anderlecht
Artmedia v Inter
Rangers v Porto
Wednesday:
Brugge v Juventus
Rapid v Bayern
Arsenal v Thun
Sparta v Ajax
Bremen v Barcelona
Udinese v Panathinaikos
Benfica v Lille
Villarreal v Man United
On TV:
Real Betis v Liverpool - Tue Sep 13 01:30PM Central ESPN2
Villarreal vs Manchester United - Wed Sep 14 01:30PM Central ESPN2
-ADDITION: Taylor Twellman of New England scored 3 in the win over Columbus on Saturday and was named MLS Player Of The Week.

UEFA Fantasy Champions League

I attempt to keep my total geekness to a minimum, and had never been involved in any fantasy sports league ever, until last year. Someone I go to Minnesota Thunder games with got me into the Champions League fantasy stuff, and I am hooked. By the end of the season I was a super-pro. #1 in our league, #3 in USA, top 50 in the world. That will all come to a crashing end this season, cuz I am a dude with massive amounts of beginners luck. Once I start to "think" about something, I am sunk. Sunk. Sunk. Sunk. Still, I am gonna give it another shot. My sophomore effort. And I think you should join us. Its really pretty easy, and you can pick any old stupid name you want for your team. Just follow this link, go to Fantasy Football, use this league name: Blue Sky Soccer, and this pass code: 7894-1770. See you at the starting gate, which begins next Tuesday with Matchday 1 of group play.

Wig Wam Bam News

-More and more people are making a big deal out of this new statistical quality compilation that is going on in England. Did that make sense? Let me try this again. Some company in England is compiling stats on all players in the EPL and then ranking them individually. The shocker is, that after 4 weeks, Claudio Reyna is ranked as the number 1 player. Interesting. I have always felt he does a lot more than the few stats that people dwell on, and this sorta verifies that. On the other hand, its just frickin statistics, and his whole team is playing really well which makes him look great too.
-30 US players will vy for the Honda Player Of The Year. Here is that list:
Goalkeepers: Kasey Keller
Defenders: Chris Albright, Gregg Berhalter, Carlos Bocanegra, Steve Cherundolo, Jimmy Conrad, Cory Gibbs, Frankie Hejduk, Chad Marshall, Oguchi Onyewu, Eddie Pope, Greg Vanney
Midfielders: Chris Armas, DaMarcus Beasley, Bobby Convey, Clint Dempsey, Eddie Lewis, Pablo Mastroeni, John O'Brien, Ben Olsen, Santino Quaranta, Steve Ralston, Claudio Reyna, Kerry Zavagnin
Forwards: Brian Ching, Landon Donovan, Ed Johnson, Brian McBride, Pat Noonan, Taylor Twellman, Josh Wolff
-Do you dig Bayern Munchen? Or German fussball in general? Then you need to be reading this Big Soccer thread where they talk about seeing some classic matches on dvd.
-Alexi Lalas interview at FIFA.com
-I am going to watch the Man U v Man City match on Saturday morning. Its the pay per view game. Several of us tend to meet downtown Minneapolis for breakfast and EPL (cover is $5). See you at The Local. Of Course. ADDITION: I will be staying for Palermo v Inter starting at 11.
-Kuper on Weah in London Financial Times. (I was gonna go with "Kuper weighs in on Weah" and pretend I was a bad newspaper editor, but then I realized its not even much fun to take shots at newspapers cuz soooo many are soooo lame.)
-MLS this weekend (Chicago and Salt Lake have the weekend off):
New England v Columbus Crew
Kansas City v Metrostars
Dallas v DC 730pm central Saturday on FSC
San Jose v Chivas
Los Angeles v Colorado
-MFL this weekend:
Cruz Azul v Atlante
Monterrey v Pumas
Necaxa v Santos Laguna
Veracruz v Tigres
Morelia v Toluca
Atlas v Tecos
Pachuca v Jaguares
San Luis v Dorados 12noon central Sunday on Univision
America v Chivas 5pm central Sunday on Univision
-Mr Morbo himself, Phil Ball, on Spain, via ESPNSoccernet: A defective collective

Peace & News My Little Lovelies

-A rather dull game from Guatemala City last night ended Guate 0-0 USA. A couple bright spots and blight spots. Bright: Marcus Hahnemann - some very nice saves; Jimmy Conrad & Chad Marshall center back combo - Conrad works his ass off, and Marshall is the future. Blight: Marcus Hahneman - what in the name of Sam Hell was up with those punts and goal kicks?? I counted at least 7 that went the full length of the field and directly to the other teams keeper; Chris Albright & Greg Vanney, the outside backs - Albright was too erratic ala Hejduk (simple, man, simple) and Vanney has lost it as an outside back cuz he is waaaaay toooooo sloooooow; Clint Dempsey still can't find a position to be effective from, with New Eng he does great in the 3-5-2 where he can stay in the middle and roam freely but in a 4-4-2 he needs to be much more creative and not just a great garbage man, then he totally got lost out on the right wing.
-Nice article by Michael Rand in today's Minneapolis Star Tribune about the Mighty Minnesota Thunder coach Mighty Buzz Lagos who coaches his last ever regular season home game on Saturday against Atlanta (after 16 years at the helm): Heading out
-Mexico wins 5-0 over Panama (in front of only 35,000 in Azteca) and are now in the World Cup along with 9 others: Germany, Argentina, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, South Korea, Ukraine, United States, Brazil
-And Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune writes about it: Without bombast, Mexico qualifies for World Cup
-And and and and our man Glenn Davis asks a lot of questions about the Mexi-melts: Mexico's effort, tactics in question after defeat
-England lost to Northern Ireland. Hahahahahahahahahaha. Oh my god this is funny! Hahahahahahahahahahaha! Coach Svenie (a Rico Suave of sorts) says he is not going to resign. Of course he is not, what fool would walk away from all that money. If they fire him, they have to pay him.
-Here is another vid clip of the Beasley goal for USA v Mexico, taken from the stands on the far side of the net, and pretty close to the pitch. Its equally as insane as the one I posted yesterday.
-Yesterday I was bitching about Chivas USA stupidly benching Brad Guzan. Today Fred Robledo of the Long Beach Press Telegram asks why: Keeper Guzan benched, at least for now
-SI's Grant Wahl gives his view of what the USA World Cup team might look like: Up next, the world
-And then Wahl gets to spend a few minutes of precious "quality time" with Landycakes: First Person
-Soccer America's regular column MLS Confidential is always packed with goodies: Reis remains unrepentant
-According to Soccer 365: Fox Soccer Channel and 12 Division I men's soccer programs have reached an agreement to broadcast a "College Soccer Game of the Week" on Friday nights this fall. So? I like this less than watching USL on FSC. Could the production values be any lower?
-I don't know if any of you guys ever read columns written by Richard Snowden over at Soccer365, but he IS Neil from the Young Ones.

The Cinnamon News

-According to various British tabloid news outlets.... "Brian McBride will quit international football with the USA to concentrate on playing Premiership football with Fulham." Yeah right! AFTER the World Cup! Although I doubt he will play for the USA anymore this year. They don't need him right now. (PS. He was amazing in the air against Mexico. Every single long ball, goal kick, and set piece etc were directed at him.)
-Here's a link to a little video ditty posted by a BigSoccer.com Member who goes by "jameseyla". A huge thumbs up to him for posting it. This will give you the feeling of exactly what it felt like to be in the Sams Army section during the USA v Mex match!!! You will see a clip of DMB scoring that classic second goal! (Quicktime needed for viewing.)
-The DC United faithful are all weeping hard this morning with the news that David Stokes is going to miss the rest of the season to have ankle surgery. The rest of us are still wondering how he is even on the team.
-Down Mexico way: Ricardo LaVolpe & Hugo Sanchez are both firing nasty shots at each other over the Mexican loss to USA.
-Put a big red circle around December 9 on your calendar. That's the day the World Cup Draw takes place.
-Why is Chivas USA giving El Guzano the bench again. Sure they are giving up a ton of goals. But it's not his fault. They have the Three Stooges and Herman Munster playing in front of him. So now a second keeper from Guadalajara gets a chance in the net (and gives up 3 in his first game, at home!)
-Justin Mapp is the MLS Player Of The Week.
-You can vote for the MLS All-Time Best XI.
-The USL First Division regular season ends on Sunday. Here is the league standings and playoff scenario (courtesy of ESPNSoccernet), followed by the remaining game schedule:
USL First Division standings
x-Montreal 58
x-Rochester 48
x-Vancouver 45
x-Seattle 41
x-Richmond 39
Portland 33
Charleston 32
Minnesota 31
Atlanta 30
Puerto Rico 29
Virginia Beach 28
Toronto 17
x-Clinched playoff berth (top six qualify, top two receive first round bye)
Playoff Picture Update: The defending champion Montreal Impact have clinched the regular season title and a first round bye along with the second-place Rochester Rhinos. Positions three through six are still to be settled with four teams fighting for the last remaining playoff spot. Vancouver, Seattle and Richmond have clinched while Portland, with two games left, is in the driver's seat for sixth. Chasing Portland is Minnesota, Atlanta and Puerto Rico. Minnesota is two back with one game left. Atlanta is three points back with two games left, including one a showdown with the Timbers. Puerto Rico is four points back with three games remaining.
Games Ahead:
Thu Sep 8
Portland v Atlanta
Fri Sep 9
Puerto Rico v Toronto
Seattle v Montreal
Sat Sep 10
Rochester v Virginia Beach
Minnesota v Atlanta
Portland v Richmond
Sun Sep 11
Puerto Rico v Toronto
Vancouver v Montreal
-Walter Samuel of Inter got a 3 match suspension for spitting on Pavel Nedved of Juve. His appeal is tomorrow in Rome. And here is an interview with him about the situation.
-I would guess that with Carlos Ruiz being a Hooters pitchman and all, we could presumably go to our local Hooters to see him play tonight?
-Every once in a while US Soccer comes up with a very interesting stat. Here is today's: During Bruce Arena's tenure, the USA holds a 44-0-2 record when leading at halftime. The draws came against Korea during the 2002 World Cup and Guatemala in a qualifier on July 16, 2000. Conversely, the team is 2-14-4 overall when trailing at the half.

The News Is Going To Germany Baby

-As you damn well know, the USA is going to the big dance! Can it start next week, or do we have to wait?
-USA Roster for the Guatemala match on Wed Sep 7 - shown live on ESPN2 at 9pm central time. (For those of you in the Twin Cities, we will be watching the match at THE LOCAL in downtown Minneapolis - 10th & Nicollet)
G: Marcus Hahnemann, Matt Reis
D: Chris Albright, Jimmy Conrad, Nick Garcia, Frankie Hejduk, Chad Marshall, Greg Vanney
M: Chris Armas, Bobby Convey, Clint Dempsey, Pablo Mastroeni, Santino Quaranta, Steve Ralston
F: Jeff Cunningham, Landon Donovan, Eddie Johnson, Taylor Twellman
-Oguchi Onyewu was named Man Of The Match vs Mexico. I can't disagree with that at all, but I have to say, I think DaMarcus was pretty damn great too.
-Steve Cherundolo is hoping to be back in action sooner than expected (MCL sprain during Gold Cup). He could play this coming weekend when his Hanover take on Frankfurt.
-The Australians are getting all excited cuz new coach Guus Hiddink led the team to a 7-0 home win & a 2-1 road win over the Soloman Islands. To that I say: So What! The Aussies will now play the 5th place South American team on Nov 12 & 16 for a spot in the World Cup.
-Ukraine & Brazil are going to Germany too.
-MLS scoreboard:
Metrostars 2-2 Kansas City
Salt Lake 0-1 New England
Dallas 0-2 San Jose
Chivas 0-3 Columbus
Colorado 1-0 DC
Los Angeles 1-2 Chicago
Single Table:
48 New England 25 games played
47 San Jose 25gp
42 Kansas City 26gp
42 Chicago 26gp
41 DC United 26gp
36 FC Dallas 24gp
35 Los Angeles 26gp
34 Metrostars* 25gp
31 Colorado 24gp
30 Columbus* 24gp
19 Real Salt Lake* 25gp
14 Chivas USA* 26gp
(* would be OUT if playoffs started today)
-Dallas just played their 4th game at the new Pizza Hut Park and drew 8,023 - man that is sooooooooo lame! Come on people of Dallas! Get off your ass and jam!
-Scott Sealy is officially your August MLS Player Of The Month. (And he has been on MY fantasy team since day 1!! I AM A GENIUS!)
-More Spike Lee news! He bought Inter Milan season tickets for the second year in a row! Yowza. (To continue my own bragging...... Spike Lee and I both have brilliant taste in football clubs. Forza Nerazzurri!)
-Ives Galarcep takes Mexico's LaVolpe to task (and tells Landycakes that maybe HE ought to be the one shutting up): Donovan fuels the fire
-A hilarious comment left on a message board at Goal.com. I lifted it in its entirety just so you could get a good laugh along with me (the writer is from Venezuela - what is going on down there?):
"So very US Soccer, to thrive on the work of foreigners, like Oguchi Onyewu, Claudio Reyna and Adu were so American to begin with. If you only relied on US born players then you would get thrashed."
-From last Friday: Grant Wahl of Sports Illustrated talks to Claudio Reyna: Captain America - Reyna talks about the U.S.' World Cup prospects
-Germany lost to Slovakia 2-0 and some tabloids are reporting that a few players are panicking. I don't believe that for one minute. They play South Africa on Wednesday. We shall see then. Bad news for South Africa though, as they were eliminated from the WC-06 on Saturday when they lost 3-1 at Burkina Faso.
-Simon Kuper on Les Bleus: A comeback too far for ‘les anciens’
-Andrea Canales of Soccer 365 gives us some insight into the Mexican chaos following the USA loss on Saturday: U.S. Win Creates Mexico Aftershock
-Rob Hughes of International Herald Tribune gives us more, more more (with his Rebel Yell): Ukraine and U.S. head to Germany & FIFA discards Rule No. 1

Last night I went to see Neil Diamond at the Targer Center and he told me this news

El Brucio is en route to Columbus. i will attempt to enlighten you, but please don't expect much.

MLS and U.S. Soccer and others are combining forces to raise money for hurricane relief efforts. Details here.

The big news is, of course, U.S.-Mexico on Saturday. The suddenly indispensable U.S. Soccer site has all kinds of goodies. There's a delicious video montage of U.S. goals against Mexico to get you juiced up for Saturday. (Roy Wegerle!) Frank Dell'Apa sizes up the rivalry at ESPN. Kasey Keller took questions at the USA Today site yesterday afternoon. Leeds on Lewis. Good news: Cherundolo could be back in action next weekend. (Damian Stewart is a thug!) Twin Citians will be gathering at The Local to watch.

Huge day of World Cup qualifying with scads of game. Here's a complete list. The most intriguing scrums are in Africa. All kinds of teams that nobody expected to do a damn thing are in the mix. (Go Togo!) Paul Doyle has an excellent breakdown in The Guardian. Wish I could see some of these games.
Israel may be without key defender Tal Ben-Haim for their big bust up with Switzerland

MLS is the only league silly enough to be playing this weekend. Here's what's on tap:
Metros-Wizards
Dallas-San Jose
Colorado-D.C.
Salt Lake-New England
Goats-Columbus

Other MLS news:
Drunk driver Edson Buddle has been cleared to play.
Beloved former Thunder defender Mark Schulte has nailed down a starting spot for Columbus.
Love for Andy Dorman.

Middlesbrough wunderkind Stewart Downing is out for at least three months.
Cruz Azul and Morelia drew a paltry 14,000 for their friendly at The Coliseum last evening. Cruz Azul won, 2-1.
Simon Barnes: good f***ing god!
Lyon has signed another Brazilian striker--Barney.

That is all the news I can find.