Cold Hard News

-Unsung Heroes! That was the story of the MLS playoffs this past weekend. Here are the names: Jack Stewart, Ivan Guerrero, Ned Grabevoy, Ritchie Kotschau, Khanu Smith! Who?????? They all played great for their teams as Chicago whomped on DC 4-0, LA kicked out Supporters Shield winners San Jose 4-2, Colorado won 5-4 on PK's in Dallas after going 2-2 in the run of play, and New England stormed back from 2-0 down to win 3-2 over Metrostars.
-And Hound Dogs! The horrible hounds of hell in the MLS playoffs were Carlos Ruiz missing an extra time penalty that would have won the series for Dallas, and DC's Christian Gomez who got red carded for spitting in the face of Chicago's CJ Brown when his team was incredibly desperate for a goal.
-Next Saturday evening its Colorado v LA at Mile High Stadium. And on Sunday afternoon it's New England v Chicago in a seemingly yearly playoff rematch.
-Phil Ball on Gaizka Mendieta, who I have always had a soft spot for, the Buzzcocks, who I always had a hard spot for, and all the rest of the Spanish insanity: From Alloa to Bilbao
-Mexican Primera Division scores this weekend:
Atlante 1-1 Chiapas
Sinaloa 0-2 UAG
Guadalajara 1-2 Morelia
UANL 1-3 Toluca
Veracruz 0-1 Cruz Azul
Necaxa 2-1 Pachuca
UNAM 1-2 America
San Luis 1-2 Monterrey
Santos 2-2 Atlas
Leaving the top clubs looking like this after Round 14:
1. America 32 points
2. Cruz Azul 29
3. Monterey 28
4. Necaxa 28
-Frank Dell'apa feature on Shalrie Joseph in the Boston Globe before the Rev beat Metro.
-Simon Kuper on the history of Soccer movies: Ready for your close-up, Mr Rooney?
-Diego Maradona storms the pages of the New York Times Sunday Arts & Leisure: After an Epic Meltdown, an Argentine Soccer Star Is Remade on TV
-In Italy things got a lot more interesting as Milan stomped unbeaten Juventus 3-1, Inter was drawn 2-2 by Sampdoria, and Fiorentia beat Cagliari 2-1 on two more Luca Toni goals (he has 12 in 10 matches). So the standings now look like this:
1. Juve 27 points
2. Milan 25
3. Fior 22
4. Inter 19
-Reading and Leeds played to a 1-1 draw, but in the process Reading broke a 134 year old club record by not losing for their 18th match in a row.! Now that is a feat. Eddie Lewis, Bobby Convey and Marcus Hahnemann all had great games.
-The Insider goes to Chelsea.
-I'm not sure what "crime" Steve Cherundolo committed, but his coach is not giving him any playing time, and his club lost again. This time 4-1 to Bielefeld
-Rob Hughes of International Herald Tribune on calcio: The giants of Italy overshadowing all
-Beasley and PSV won 1-0 over Twente to stay in first place in Holland. They play a huge home match on Wednesday v Milan in the Champions League.
-According to Big Apple Soccer, Bob Bradley was in the Metrostars locker room after their ouster from the playoffs to thank his former players.
-Gladbach and Kasey Keller lost 2-1 but remain in 5th place in the Bundesliga.
-DJ Walker's usually brilliant Stream of Consciousness Dallas game report leaves him feeling the Nightmare on Frisco Avenue
-Fulham and Wigan were at 0-0 as the game went to added time. Carlos Bocanegra had played the whole match, when suddenly he went down with a hamstring pull. He was subbed off, and immediately his replacement committed a dumb foul, and on the ensuing free kick lost his marker who headed home the winning goal. What a drag!
-Very sadly Chris Armas is out for the rest of the year as he blew out his knee ligaments in Chicago's first leg playoff against DC. This is the opposite knee from the one he tore in 2002 right before the last World Cup. He may now miss this one too.
-Cory Gibbs and John O'Brien are both still hurt too.
-Fans ask Brian West questions via Yanks Abroad. If you remember, West played as a blazing speed winger in Columbus for several years, and now stars for Fredrikstad in Norway.
-Hristo Stoichkov was at the DC v Chicago match on Sunday.
-La Liga looks like this:
1. Osasuna 21 points - beat Espanyol 2-0
2. Barca 19 - destroyed Sociedad 5-0
3. Real Madrid 18 - won at Betis 0-2
4. Getafe 17 - lost at la Coruna 1-0
Bundesliga standings and top results:
1. Bayern Munchen 28 points - won at Koln 1-2
2. Werder Bremen 26 - beat Eintracht badly 4-1
3. Hamburger 24 - beat #4 Schalke 1-0
4. Schalke 18 - see above

In This Colony Of News

-Today's Blogosphere American Soccer Award from Climbing The Ladder is Young Player of the Year.
Here is who I voted for:
1- Clint Dempsey
2- Ramon Nunez
3- Ricardo Clark
-Massive MLS Quarterfinals this weekend (second-leg matches) Watch em and weep!
Saturday
New England v Metrostars 7pm on Fox Soccer Channel (Metros lead 1-0)
Dallas v Colorado 730pm on Direct Kick (Teams tied 0-0)
San Jose v Los Angeles 9pm on Fox Soccer Channel (LA leads 3-1)
Sunday
DC v Chicago 330pm on ESPN2 (Teams tied 0-0)
-According to Yanks Abroad: Claudio Reyna looks set to miss the USA clash with Scotland following the results of a scan on his injured knee and ankle. The midfielder reportedly suffered a 'jarred knee and ankle' (editors note: ya gotta love the English medical terms like this, and my fave, "dead leg"). According to the club, Reyna will be out of action 'for a few weeks', which makes the US skipper a serious doubt for the November 12th friendly at Hampden Park. Man City press officer Vicky Kloss confirmed that the Blues ace will not require surgery and has not sustained ligament damage to his knee as previously thought.
-Did you know: Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich is the Governor of the Russian Region of Chukotka, which is across the Bering Strait from Alaska.
-Chicago rookie striker Chris Rolfe lives in the same building with 9 of his Fire teammates. "Zach Thornton lives on the top floor. Because most of us are rookies and newer guys, we call him Den Mother."
-There was a visitor at du Nord yesterday from Slough, England. I wonder who it was? Could it have possibly been David Brent? Or maybe Tim, Gareth, Keith, or perhaps even Dawn? Holy shit! Maybe it was Finchy!
-EPL Table before this weekends matches:
28 Chelsea (10 games played)
19 Charlton (9 gp)
19 Tottenham (10 gp)
19 Wigan (9 gp)
18 Man United (9 gp)
17 Man City (10 gp)
17 Bolton (10 gp)
16 Arsenal (9 gp)
15 West Ham (9 gp)
14 Blackburn (10 gp)
12 Newcastle (10 gp)
12 Middlesbrough (10 gp)
10 Liverpool (8 gp)
9 Fulham (10 gp)
9 Aston Villa (10 gp)
8 West Brom (10 gp)
7 Portsmouth (10 gp)
6 Birmingham (10 gp)
5 Sunderland (10 gp)
4 Everton (9 gp)
-Hot games to watch in Europe this weekend then:
Tottenham v Arsenal - the North London Derby, the real deal, with actual hatred! But without Thierry Henry who is hurt again.
Milan v Juventus - the biggie of all Italiano biggies!
Hamburg SV v Schalke 04 - #3 v #4
-I saw my high school, Lourdes, play last night in the State Championship Quarterfinals v St Thomas Academy. They lost 2-0. They were 19-1-1 going into last nights match, and their supposed best player had missed the entire season with a broken leg. But this is how it goes. Several of the players cried. Its a brutal world. Especially when you don't convert your excellent chances and the other team does. The two teams seemed about dead even in talent to me. My toes got really cold.
-The most interesting part of the Bruce Arena Podcast from US Soccer is when someone asks him about Jay Heaps and Daniel Hernandez being on the roster for USA v Panama, and whether or not them being New England players and the game being played in Boston was a matter of convenience. Arena's answer was something to the affect of, "You are getting very warm." Which I take to mean that they would not have been selected if not for their proximity to that game, and their future chances are slim for team USA. Go ahead and cross them off your list, if they were ever on it.
-The guest next Monday night on Maradona's TV show La Noche del 10 will be none other than Fidel Castro. Last week on the show Maradona played chess against the old Russian Grandmaster Anatoly Karpov (who played blindfolded!!!!). The match was a draw. Naturally. I mean, you wouldn't expect either one to ever lose at anything, now would you. Not on TV anyway.
-Two English players, J Lloyd Samuel of Aston Villa & Bobby Zamora of West Ham, are putting their names in the hat for Trinidad & Tobago. Both are of Trinidadian decent, and have said they would be willing to play for T&T in the World Cup Playoff next month against Bahrain. Neither had played for T&T before now, cuz they thought they had a chance to play for England. Would you call them in?
-Real Salt Lake plays Chivas USA tonite in a friendly at Rice Eclles Stadium in Salt Lake City.
-Also, 3 RSL players, Jay Nolly, Kenny Cutler & You Dive Like Jamie Watson, are going to head for Germany to train with Steve Cherundolo at Hannover.
-From the International Herald Tribune: Djorkaeff comes full circle by Christopher Clarey
-Ronnie O'Brien feature in the Dallas Morning News by Steve Davis.
-Mexcian First Division games this weekend:
Saturday
Atlante v Chiapas
Tigres v Toluca
Dorados v Tecos
Guadalajara v Morelia
Veracruz v Cruz Azul
Necaxa v Pachuca
Sunday
Pumas v America
San Luis v Monterrey
Santos v Atlas
-ADDITION: They are on the verge of civil war in the Canadian soccer community over the Canadian Soccer Associations backing of Toronto for MLS. The 3 USL teams (Montreal, Toronto & Vancouver) are pissed.

Ultra-Special du Nord Exclusive MLS Bad Hair 11

Here they are ladies and gentlemen. The 11 men with the worst hair in Major League Soccer. Amazingly enough, I did not pick the team based on position, I just wracked my brain for bad hair, and it magically line itself up in a 4-4-2 (totally true)!! Take special notice that all four LA dudes with dreds made my list!

G:
Joe Cannon
D:
Eric Denton
Ugo Ihemelu
Wade Barrett
Danny Califf
M:
Simon Elliot
Pando Ramirez
Cobi Jones
Eddie Gaven
F:
Joseph Ngwenya
Lucio Filomeno

Um, Yeah, Cool, Thanks, News

-Today's Blogosphere American Soccer Award from Climbing The Ladder is Defender of the Year.
Here is who I voted for:
1- Eddie Robinson - San Jose (finished 2nd in the voting)
2- Ty Marshall - LA (finished 3rd in the voting)
3- Brian Namoff - DC (finished 10th in the voting)
I was surprised to see that no one voted for Chad Marshall, but being on a lousy team hurts. My sleeper defender of the year is Jay Heaps. I never notice him on the field except when he creeps into the offensive end (and he is very good in those situations), but no one ever seems to score from the left side against New England either. Heaps is doing something right. He got one vote.
-Last nights Carling Cup matches turned a few surprises:
Chelsea 1-1 Charlton (4-5 on PK's) - Huth gives up horrible back pass for Charlton goal, then has his PK saved.
Man United 4-1 Barnet - Giovanni Rossi scored again for Man U, who had Tim Howard in goal.
Grimsby Town 0-1 Newcastle - Shearer scored, and got a busted lip on a flagrant elbow that was not called.
Bolton 1-0 West Ham - Jared Borgetti to the rescue.
Everton 0-1 Middlesborough - Everton are out of the Champions League, UEFA Cup and now League Cup, plus they are in last place in the EPL. Jimmy Floyd Hasselbank scored.
-Man oh man is the MLS two-legs quarter final round of the playoffs taking a beating from critics. In some ways I like it, but then again I see the negatives. My feeling is that you either have the whole playoffs be two-legs or one-leg. You can't have it both ways. And away goals should count as the first tie breaker in the event of a draw score. I love the insanity that the away goals rule causes.
-Now this is some fabulous shit, and our own Kasey Keller is at the heart of the tale! Here is a link to a match report from the Bundesliga match last weekend between Keller's Monchengladbach and Kaiserslautern. Gladbach won it 4-1. But at the end of the match there was an "incident" featuring Keller, and it is described in words and photos at the very bottom of the page. You will love this!!! And just in case you need another reason to love Kasey Keller - well, him likey the rock n roll. Thanks to BQ for the heads up on this one!
-Dawayne DeRosario feature in the San Jose Mercury News.
-New Columbus coach Sigi Schmidt hosted an online chat with his teams fans yesterday. Read it.
-Why are the Turkish people so mad? I know it's a cliche, but aren't cliches based in some facts, even grossly generalized ones?
-In Copa Sudamericana last night, Velez Sarsfield stunned America 2-0 in Mexico City. After an amazing run, America have now dropped three straight in all competitions. The second leg is next Wednesday in Buenos Aires.
-DFB Cup 2nd Round matches:
Osnabruck 2-2 Mainz (2-4 on PK's)
Hamburger 3-2 Bayer Leverkusen
1860 Munchen 3-2 Duisburg
Arminia Bielefeld 2-1 Energie Cottbus
Hansa Rostock 3-2 Stuttgart
Kickers Offenbach 2-1 Karlsruhe
Hertha Berlin 3-0 Monchengladbach
Erzgebirge Aue 0-1 Bayern Munchen
-Mexico beat Uruguay 3-1 in Mexico City last night. Carlos Salcido, Diego Martinez & Luis Ernesto Perez scored for the Mexi's, while Sebastian Abreu scored for Uru.
-Wednesday night scores from La Liga:
Barcelona 2-0 Malaga
Deportivo La Coruna 3-1 Real Madrid
Mallorca 1-0 Celta Vigo
Osasuna 3-2 Athletic Bilbao
Real Betis 2-3 Villarreal
-An interview with former USA striker Willy Roy (Remember him? No? Me neither! Although I occasionally hear fancy people talk about him.) via US Soccer.
-Wednesday night scores from Serie A (Juve won their 9th straight to start the season - a new Italian record):
Ascoli 1-1 Udinese
Cagliari 1-1 Livorno
Empoli 1-3 Milan
Inter 2-3 Roma
Juventus 2-0 Sampdoria
Lazio 2-2 Chievo Verona
Palermo 3-0 Lecce
Parma 1-1 Messina
Reggina 1-2 Treviso
Siena 0-2 Fiorentina
-Andrea Canales of Soccer 365 has a double today: Q & A with Cobi Jones, and her argument on why the single table is not the thing for MLS.

Ooo Eee Ooo Eee Ooo News

-Oh Reyna Reyna Reyna (shaking my head). He is hurt. Knee AND Ankle. Again. And will be out at least a few weeks. A few details were given by Man City's official site, but expect to hear more soon.
-Last weekend in MLS playoffs we had gridiron painted on 3 of 4 fields used - and those 3 were bad games. The one with no pointyball lines was the good one. Karma? Go figure.
-James Richardson from the Guardian gives us this amazing description of new actions on the pitch by my least favorite Italian Francesco Totti. At least this time Totti was funny: In front of goal the Roma captain Totti tamed a high ball and put it through the legs of his marker. A quick give-and-go with Rodrigo Taddei then put Totti one on one with Lazio keeper Marco Ballotta, off whom his shot bounced into the net. Totti's reaction was something special. For weeks he and the city have been counting down to the birth of his first son. Delirious with joy at having a goal - nay, a derby goal - to dedicate to his pregnant wife in the stands, Totti quickly scooped up the ball under his jersey and ran to the sidelines where his cheering team-mates gathered round. As Totti lay on his back, stomach bulging, a stadium held its breath. Would it be a tribute to John Hurt in Alien? No. With makeshift obstetrician Daniele De Rossi gamely groping between the captain's legs, Totti gave birth to the ball, which Sami Kuffour then lifted aloft for the adoring thousands to cheer. "Miming delivery is certainly a departure from the Rock-a-bye Baby celebration we usually get," mused a less-than-enthusiastic Roman daily paper Republica. "Still, at least he didn't re-enact the conception."
-When Bayern Munchen beat Juventus last week in the Champions league, it was their first win over an Italian team in 15 years!
-Want to read something that is a fucking joke???? In Spain last weekend, pretty boy Becks got a red card for mockingly applauding the referee after he was given a yellow card, and the ref sent his ass to the showers early. But now, the league have taken back the red after an appeal by his team, Mighty Real Madrid. If I was that ref I would be pissed off royally (or in this case "Real-y"). UEFA should step in for crap like this. In my book, if you mock the ref, you pay the price! End of story. Unless of course, you are really really really popular and sell a ton of shirts for your club.
-The 2006 African Nations Cup is being held in Egypt, and starts January 20, ending February 10. The group stage draw for the 16 teams was held over this past weekend. Here they are:
Group A - Egypt, Morocco, Ivory Coast, Libya
Group B - Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Togo, Angola
Group C - Tunisia, South Africa, Guinea, Zambia
Group D - Nigeria, Senegal, Ghana, Zimbabwe
-I have noticed that some of the other voters for the BASA's are posting what their votes were after the winner has been announced. I like that idea. Here are my votes for:
Coach of the Year:
1- Dom Kinnear
2- Steve Nicol
3- Mo Johnston (!)
Goalkeeper of the Year:
1- Matt Reis
2- Pat Onstad
3- Johnny Walker
and todays announced winner
Rookie of the Year:
1- Mike Parkhurst
2- Brad Guzan
3- Chris Rolfe
-FC Dallas has hired Michael Hitchcock as their new GM. The best place to read about it is of course 3rd Degree.
-I can't read any Dutch, but apparently DMB didn't declare some fairly innocuous (clothes, electronics & such) things he brought back from the USA at Netherlands customs, so he is in trouble with Janny Van Law. His court date is Oct 31. What is that all about?? A country where you can smoke weed and poke a hooker legally, but you can't bring an Ipod in with you?
-Tuesday Copa Carling de Inglando scores:
Aston Villa 1-0 Burnley
Blackburn 3-0 Leeds
Crystal Palace 2-1 Liverpool
Doncaster 2-0 Gillingham
Fulham 2-3 West Brom
Mansfield 2-3 Millwall
Reading 2-0 Sheffield United
Sunderland 0-2 Arsenal
Wigan 3-0 Watford
-Four more MLS awards were announced today:
Jimmy Conrad of Kansas City is the leagues Defender Of The Year
Chris Klein also of Kansas City is Comeback Player of the Year
Brian Kamler who retired from Salt Lake at the end of the season is named Humanitarian of the Year
Brian Hall (with Matthew Teff as his Official Fan Club Chairman) is voted Referee of the Year
-Germanys DFB Cup - 2nd Round scores from yesterdays games looked like this:
St. Pauli 4-0 Bochum
Erfurt 2-4 Kaiserslautern
Unterhaching 2-1 Saarbrucken
Bremen 7-6- Wolfsburg (on penalties)
Frankfurt 6-0 Schalke 04 (!!!!!!!)
Nurnberg 3-0 Dresden
Aachen 1-2 Hannover
Freiburg 4-1 Braunschweig
And these games will be played today:
Osnabrück v Mainz
HSV v Leverkusen
1860 Munchen v Duisburg
Bielefeld v Cottbus
Rostock v VfB Stuttgart
Offenbach v Karlsruhe
Hertha BSC v Monchengladbach
Erzg Aue v FC Bayern
-US Soccer has posted an interview with USA Coach Bruce Arena in mp3 format. You can listen to it online, or download it for future listening.
-Santino Quaranta feature from Soccer America's Ridge Mahoney. I would also like to point out that Joe from We Call It Soccer is a huuuuuge fan of Tino, and writes glowing things almost constantly. I could really see the possibilty some day of them getting married, and Joe adopting Tino's kid. Or am I going too far with this?
-Mark Zeigler of the San Diego Union Tribune always writes great soccer stuff. Today he has a story on Dominic Kinnear's great coaching season for San Jose. Don't miss the two sidebars also, "Trophies & Red Cards" and "Sidelines" - both excellent!
-Sir Grayhameh Von Gnosehare of The City Of Angels Times says MLS is still a mess. Is he wrong? Or is he right?
-Games galore in Spain's La Liga today and tomorrow:
Wednesday:
Barcelona v Malaga
Deportivo La Coruna v Real Madrid
Mallorca v Celta Vigo
Osasuna v Athletic Bilbao
Real Betis v Villarreal
Thursday:
Alaves v Espanyol
Atletico Madrid v Cadiz
Real Sociedad v Getafe
Real Zaragoza v Racing Santander
Valencia v FC Sevilla
-And a whole slew in Serie A as well:
Ascoli v Udinese
Cagliari v Livorno
Empoli v Milan
Inter v Roma
Juventus v Sampdoria
Lazio v Chievo Verona
Palermo v Lecce
Parma v Messina
Reggina v Treviso
Siena v Fiorentina
-Lets finish today with something I don't read nearly enough, and that is ESPNSoccernet's The Insider. Always covering great matches, with a clever wit, and great insight. Excellent stuff to read always. Today its a look at The Arse & their moronic PK failure last weekend.

Jump Around News

-The fine & upstanding weblog Climbing The Ladder has started their own MLS awards and asked fellas like myself to join in the voting. The awards known as BASA's (Blogosphere American Soccer Awards) are given out starting yesterday in many categories. Check em out now.
-Carling Cup matches are back again this week in England:
Tuesday
Aston Villa v Burnley
Blackburn v Leeds
Crystal Palace v Liverpool
Doncaster v Gillingham
Fulham v West Brom
Mansfield v Millwall
Reading v Sheff Utd
Sunderland v Arsenal
Wigan v Watford
Wednesday
Birmingham v Norwich
Bolton v West Ham
Cardiff v Leicester
Chelsea v Charlton
Everton v Middlesbrough
Grimsby v Newcastle
Man U v Barnet
-Well, well. Benfica have a goalkeeper named Quim.
-Check out the wild stadium belonging to Braga from Portugal. You can see a prototype image, below that are pics of it being built, and then the finished product. Just click on the thumbnails. Fantastic looking place!!
-Colorado Rapids team awards:
Rookie Of The Year: Fabrice Noel
Black & Blue Player Of The Year: Eric Denton
Reserve Team Most Valuable Player: Sasha Gotsmanov
Playmaker Of The Year: Alain Nkong
Most Improved Player: Kyle Beckerman
Defender Of The Year: Nat Borchers
Humanitarian Of The Year: Nat Borchers
Golden Boot: Jeff Cunningham
Most Valuable Player: Joe Cannon
-Don't know if I ever posted this image from the Colorado stadium mock-up. It's got a very cool looking roof which I hope becomes part of the reality.
-Dalian Shide won the Chinese Super League.
-Dallas will be introducing their new General Manager today.
-Oguchi Onyewu answers questions from fans at Yanks Abroad.
-Partial Transcript of a Bobby Convey interview with Inside Soccer Radio
-Who the hell is Seth Stammler and how did he do such a number on New England last Saturday night? Read what Michael Lewis had to say about him at Big Apple Soccer.
-France Football announced their finalists for European Footballer Of The Year aka The Golden Ball (I guess all you have to do to get on this list is play for a big team and be a popular player, or get a big transfer fee paid for you): Adriano, Michael Ballack, David Beckham, Gianluigi Buffon, Mauro Camoranesi, Fabio Cannavaro, Jamie Carragher. Petr Cech. Andriy Shevchenko, Gregory Coupet, Cris, Deco, Dida, Didier Drogba, Emerson, Michael Essien, Samuel Eto'o, Luis Figo, Diego Forlan, Luis Garcia, Steven Gerrard, Thierry Henry, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Juninho, Kaka, Frank Lampard, Roy Makaay, Claude Makelele, Paolo Maldini, Pavel Nedved, Michael Owen, Park Ji-sung, Andrea Pirlo, Raul, Juan Roman Riquelme, Arjen Robben, Roberto Carlos, Robinho, Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, John Terry, Lilian Thuram, David Trezeguet, Marc Van Bommel, Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Patrick Vieira, Xavi, Zinedine Zidane.
How can some of these guys really be on this list? Half of them don't deserve a mention: Michael Ballack, David Beckham, Gianluigi Buffon, Mauro Camoranesi, Fabio Cannavaro, Jamie Carragher, Didier Drogba, Emerson, Luis Figo, Luis Garcia, Michael Owen, Park Ji-sung, Raul, Arjen Robben, Roberto Carlos, Robinho, Cristiano Ronaldo, Lilian Thuram, Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Xavi, Zinedine Zidane. Are you serious??? Come on! These dudes have had great years before, may have one again, or have the potential to at least. But Euro Player of the Year??? Get outta here.
-Soccer365 Q&A with Chicago midfielder Justin Mapp.
-Houston Chronicle Week In Review
-From todays Salt Lake Desert News: The following eight players, with home country or city in parentheses, will train with RSL over the next month: Hugo Alcaraz-Cuellar (Mexico), Atiba Harris (St. Kitts and Nevis), Hwang Ho-Ryung (Korea), Nathaniel Lamptey (Ghana), Josiah Seton (Libertia), Khari Stephenson (Jamaica), Daniel Torres (Costa Rica) and Joey Worthen (Salt Lake City).

How In The Name Of Great Holy Satan Did I Miss This One?

On Monday in the New York Times, John Eligon reported: United States Soccer is expected to announce Monday that the national team will play an exhibition match in Scotland on Nov. 12, a day before MLS Cup.
And then later in the day it was reported by BBC Scotland: Scotland will meet the United States in a friendly international at Hampden Park in Glasgow on 12 November. USA coach Bruce Arena said, "This is an excellent opportunity to get our group together. Scotland is traditionally a very solid team and we're looking forward to it."
More details were later provided by US Soccer, but no kickoff time, or TV viewing info is available yet.

What Do You Think It Takes To Make Great Looking News?

-MLS Playoff first round first leg action ahoy! Check this out, the #2 & #3 seeds in the East & West both play to scoreless draws, and the two #4 seeds beat the two #1 seeds. All in all it was a sorta upside down and sideways weekend for MLS playoffs. The scores:
Chicago 0-0 DC
Metro 1-0 New England
Colorado 0-0 Dallas
LA 3-1 San Jose
My analysis: The Chic-DC, Met-NE & Colo-Dal games were all fairly dull to watch. Chic & Met seemed to conger up great defensive game plans to stop their very high powered opponents. I still don't know how they did it, but they did. Amado Guevara supplied a really nice goal for Metro who seem to have some life with Mo Johnston behind the wheel of the company truck. Colo & Dal went at it, but Colo was really unlucky with their scoring chances. Dal did not get many tries on goal, and I never really thought they were gonna win it. On the other hand, LA came out ready for blood and took it from San Jose. When 3 or 4 SJ players are off their game like Barrett, Chung and Ching were, they look really ordinary. And LA stymied DDR too. You know I love LA, and hate Sampson, so I almost cheer against them, but Landycakes proved why he is Angel Food in the playoffs!
-After New England loses the first game to Metro, Frank Dell'apa of the Boston Globe writes about what it is that Alexi Lalas is doing right
-The dude DJ Walker gives us Colorado v Dallas Stream Of Conscious game reporting
-Simon Kuper in the London Financial Times ponders the new Russian mega-wealth that is invading world football
-See what Jonesy had to say in the LA Times about Columbus hiring Sigi.
-Logan's Revenge on what the new USA shirts might look like.
-My friend Leperkhan has shown us this fine Q & A with DaMarcus Beasley that turned up in Sports Illustrated.
-The high school I attended, Rochester Lourdes, did not have a soccer team until 10 years ago. But once they got it lined up they have wasted no time in becoming a powerhouse. They have qualified for the state tournament for the 8th time, and have claimed 2 titles already. This year they kick off the 8 team single elimination tournament on Thurs Oct 27. Here are the details:
Rochester Lourdes v Saint Thomas Academy - 7:30pm at Academy of Holy Angels Field. See you there.
-Let's see how all of our favorite American boyz did in Europe this weekend:
DaMarcus Beasley was a late game sub, as his PSV beat Ajaz 1-0 and are #1 in the Eredivisie.
Claudio Reyna & Man City lost to the Arse 1-0. They are now in 6th place behind Man U, Wigan (!), Tottenham, Charlton and Chelsea (who for the first time this season, didn't win, but didn't lose either as they drew 1-1 with Everton - the worst team in the league).
Brad Friedel and Blackburn totally dominated miserable Birmingham 2-0.
Bobby Convey & Marcus Hahnemann led Reading to a 1-0 over Stoke City. They are still #2 in the Coca-Cola Championship of England.
Eddie Lewis - his Leeds team drew 1-1 with CCC leaders Sheffield United.
Kasey Keller's Borussia Monchengladbach sit in 5th place in the Bundesliga after stomping Kaiserslautern 4-1. (Bayern Munich went back to the top of the league after beating Duisburg 4-0, and previous week #1 Bremen drew 0-0 with Hannover.)
Steve Cherundolo did not play again this week for Hannover, he is still returning from his injury, and has not played well when he has seen the field. They are in 12th place of the 18 team league.
Oguchi Onyewu & Standard Liege beat Charleroi 1-0 and sit #1 in Belgium. Onyewu will miss the next 4 games though cuz he got red cards in two games in a row a few weeks back.
Cory Gibbs & John O'Brien are still out injured for Feyenord and Den Haag.
Brian McBride & Carlos Bocanegra beat Liverpool 2-0 to bring their team Fulham out of the relegation zone and up to 14th place. Liverpool are still playing horribly and sit only one spot up in 13th.
Greg Berhalter's Energie Cotbus lead the Bundesliga 2 and beat Saarbrucken 3-1.
Jonathan Spector started his first game for Charlton. They won 2-1 over Portsmouth and miraculously sit at #2 in England!!
-Thee Phil Ball with Lies, statistics and brothers-in-law
-A great story on a great player - Preki - from the US National Team Players Association.
-In Spain's La Liga, Getafe still sit at the top thanks to Real Madrid losing to Valencia 2-1 (both Thomas Graveson and David Beckham got red cards for Madrid!!), and Barcelona being too far off the pace, even though they beat Osasuna 3-0. The top seven teams in Spain are:
17 Getafe
16 Celta Vigo
15 Real Madrid
15 Valencia
15 Osasuna
13 Barcelona
13 Real Sociedad
-Alexi Lalas answers some normal and mostly non-sporty questions.
-Serie A - Juve stayed at #1 beating Lecce 3-0. My guy Super Pippo Inzaghi scored the winner as #2 Milan beat Palermo 2-1. My team Inter stayed 3rd beating #4 Udinese 1-0. And of course all hell broke loose (like it does every single time) when Roma & Lazio played. Another referee got hit in the head with a projectile at the Olympic Stadium. Maybe they oughta just shut the place down for a year or two and see how that works out for the fans who like to throw shit. I supposed they will just go to the away matches and throw shit won't they. Who cares who won or lost that one. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah Italy!
-After not losing for 28 straight matches, America has lost for the 2nd week in a row down Mexico way. They have not lost their top spot in the Mexican Premiera Division though, sitting on 29 points. Cruz Azul are second with 26, and Necaxa third with 25. Here are the weekends scores:
Toluca 1-0 Atlante
Cruz Azul 3-0 San Luis
Monterrey 1-1 Necaxa
Morelia 1-0 Santos Laguna
Chiapas 5-1 Pumas
Atlas 1-2 Dorados
Veracruz 2-1 America
Pachuca 0-0 Guadalajara
Tecos 1-1 Tigres
-Andrea Canales hands out her own special MLS seasons end awards via Soccer 365
-From the New York Times: Bruce Arena, the manager of the United States national team, acknowledged that Freddy Adu could be an asset to the 2006 World Cup squad. "He plays in positions that we're not particularly deep in," Arena said. "So, we'll look at him." Arena said there was a strong possibility he would invite Adu, 16, to a national team training camp in January. But Arena was cautious not to raise expectations about Adu. "It's obviously early for him," Arena said. "He's not ready for the national team, either."
-Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune: Fulham pays tribute to legend from bygone era
-I made a correction to my MLS Best 11 too. I meant to have Dedi Ben Dayan in the first team midfield, and Steve Ralston in the "others" category. It has been corrected in a posting below.

Newsflash: Why Oh Why Has Fro's Brother Forsaken Us

Several of us gathered last evening at Tron's house to watch Chicago v DC United in the first MLS playoff game of the 05 season. As the pregame kicked in, we are shown that DC's Ben Olson is not dressed for the match, and will sit out do to a calf injury. Then we are given the bomb shell news: Young Master Fredua Adu will also not play. He has been suspended by the team!! After all his public bitching this week about not getting enough playing time, is this the teams punishment? The TV coverage then has a shot of Freddy sitting in a press box wearing a nice suit watching the match, and the commentators insist to us the viewer that Freddy has NOT been suspended due to his mouthing off to the newspapers, but they know nothing more. I am damn sure they do, but for some reason they choose not to cough it up. We are all left to speculate as to "What the hell is going on?" We figure it had to be something that happened after they got to Chicago, or else why would they even bring him along. The one thing I did know, was that our man at the Washington Post, who covers the team the best, Mr Steven Goff, would have some secret lil insider knowledge come this mornings edition of his paper. Sure enough, we gives us this little ditty: Adu was given until the pregame meal Friday to apologize to his teammates for his remarks. Adu decided not to address the team. There you have it. A Primadonna is born. Enjoy it if you can folks. It's ugly at best.
By the way, the game ended in a 0-0 draw. The highlight of the game being the Chicago fans in Section 8 tossing tons of streamers on the field all night long, and then busting out the giant road flares late in the match to brilliant effect.

ADDITION (made Sunday October 23rd): I was hanging out with my buddy Donovan last night, and we were discussing the Freddy Adu dilemma (Nowak asking Freddy to apologize to the team, and Freddy refusing). I stated the case I made here yesterday, but he picked it apart by asking, "How can you make up a new rule for Freddy, with severe consequences, and then expect him to abide by it when you back him into the corner. Plus he is a 16 year old kid." Excellent point by Dono!
Steven Goff of the Washington Post has the latest on the whole situtation from Sunday's edition.

Bright Sunshiney Grey Day Sky Blue News

-ADDITION: Will Kasey Keller sign a new deal to extend his contract at Gladbach or will he come play in MLS? That is the question in the article from Sky.
-More on the Freddy Adu cocking off story. Yesterday I spouted off about the Mike Wilbon story in the Washington Post where he didn't so much defend Freddy as rip MLS for hyping Freddy, and then not giving him a chance to deliver. I took some flack for my stance, and now I want to defend what I said.
OK, so I will definitely agree that the gist of Wilbons article is correct. MLS sold the common sports fan a bag of hot air when they marketed Freddy initially. But all of us real fans of the game in America knew Freddy was not gonna play all the time the day MLS said it. We knew it was not true. It's called Marketing. Whether we like it or not, hucksters run the league. Hucksters run every sports league and entertainment enterprise in America.
On the other hand, it's not like the kid has never played in his 2 years. He played in every single game last year and did ok at times. Here are some of Freddy's stats for this year as reported Wednesday in the Wash Post by Steve Goff: Adu played in all 25 regular season game for which he was available this year, starting 16 of them. He is tied for 4th in goals with 4 and is 4th in assists with 6. Of the 22 players who have appeared in a league game this year, he ranks 9th in minutes played.
Not bad at all, especially with Gomez and Moreno ahead of him in the pecking order at Freddy's preferred spots.
My real problem with Wilbon jumping into this fray is this: When was the last time he wrote anything about soccer, especially when it wasn't controversial news (He never just steps up and writes about all the great stuff.)? When? It's a long time between. He can rant all he wants if he covers the game regularly. Otherwise, I say, "Go away dude! I don't want to hear from you."
We all saw Freddy play horribly at the U20 World Championship this past summer, for all we know he still might be too young even for that level. We know he has almost no chance in hell of making the USA World Cup squad next summer, and guys like Wilbon would have no idea if Freddy has the goods to make that team or not, cuz besides the coach and about 3 players, I bet good money Wilbon couldn't name another guy on the whole USA team.
Freddy also showed a huge drop in quality down in Saprissa Stadium when DC played in Libertadores. He came on late and his first effort was a really bad foul that gave Saprissa a great spot for a free kick, and they converted to tie the game late. He blew two more chances with the ball to kill time or take away some momentum. I don't want to blame Freddy for that whole disaster, but he got his chance, and he sure didn't help. The international pressure is still too much for him.
Lastly, my biggest problem with all of this crap is the timing. Support yer team Freddy dude. Deliver when you are called upon, and the rest will sort itself out.
-Columbus post season awards: Jonny Walker (3 awards) - Comeback Player of the Year, Newcomer of the Year, & Defender of the Year. Chris Henderson (2 awards) - Hardest Working Man of the Year, & Coaches Award. Simon Elliott - Most Valuable Player. Robin Fraser - Man of the Year. Jon Busch - Humanitarian of the Year. Edson Buddle - Golden Boot. And Eric Vasquez & Jamal Sutton tied for Goal of the Year.
-MLS Playoff first legs this weekend:
Fri
Chicago v DC United - 8pm - Direct Kick
Sat
Metrotars v New England - 6pm - FSC
Colorado v Dallas - 8pm - FSC
Sun
LA v San Jose - 2pm - ESPN2
-Ives Galarcep with a playoff preview for ESPNSoccernet.
-Sigi Schmid is going to keep Robert Warzycha in Columbus as his new teams top Assistant Coach.
-MLS named DC's Jamie Moreno as the best player to participate in all 10 years of the league. That's not too tough to pick. The rest of the top 5 looks like this: 2. Jason Kries, 3. Eddie Pope, 4. Cobi Jones & Preki. I would pick Pope #2 and drop Kries to a tie with Jones and Preki for third.
-UEFA Cup Matchday 1 scores (see all the group standings here):
Viking 1-0 Monaco
CSKA Sofia 0-1 Hamburg
Maccabi Petah-Tikva 1-2 Palermo
Halmstad 0-1 Hertha
Steaua 4-0 Lens
Dnipro 1-2 AZ
Grasshoppers 0-1 Middlesbrough
Basel 0-2 Strasbourg
Tromso 1-2 Roma
CSKA Moskva 1-2 Marseille
Dinamo Bucuresti 0-0 Heerenveen
Rennes 0-2 Stuttgart
Shakhtar 1-0 PAOK
Zenit 2-1 Guimaraes
Besiktas 1-1 Bolton
-If for some reason you have World Cup tickets that you do not want, FIFA is setting up some thingy where you can re-sell them at face value only.
-Three of the Four first legs were played this week in the Copa Sudamericana. Here are the scores so far (those road goals could come in very handy!):
Fluminense 2-1 Universidad Catolica (Nov 9 return leg)
Corinthians 2-1 Pumas UNAM (Nov 9 return leg)
Internacional1-0 Boca Juniors (Nov 10 return leg)
America v Velez Sarsfield will be played on Wed Oct 26 (Nov 2 return leg)
-Alex Chick covers "The Ammonia Incident" for ESPNSoccernet. I love France. Can you imagine how big this story would be if it happened between major clubs in England.
-Big Games this weekend around Europe:
Arsenal v Man City
Barcelona v Osasuna
Real Madrid v Valencia
Bayer Leverkusen v VfB Stuttgart
VfL Wolfsburg v Schalke 04
-Primera Division de Mexico this weekend:
Saturday matches:
Toluca v Atlante
Cruz Azul v San Luis
Monterrey v Necaxa
Morelia v Santos
Chiapas v UNAM
Atlas v Sinaloa
Sunday matches:
Pachuca v Guadalajara
America v Veracruz
UA de G v UANL
Points Leaders:
29 America
24 Necaxa
24 Monterrey
23 Cruz Azul
22 Pachuca

The 2005 MLS Du Nord Best 11's

BEST 11
G:
Matt Reis
D:
Tyrone Marshall
Bryan Namoff
Eddie Robinson
M:
Shalrie Joseph
Dwayne De Rosario
Christian Gomez
Dedi Ben-Dayan

F:
Taylor Twellman
Landon Donovan
Jaime Moreno


Other Favorites:
Chris Albright
Wade Barrett
Samuel Caballero
Danny Califf
Joe Cannon
Brian Carroll
Mark Chung
Ricardo Clark
Jimmy Conrad
Jeff Cunningham
Brad Davis
Youri Djorkaeff
Ivan Guerrero
Amado Guevara
Jay Heaps
Eddie Johnson
Cobi Jones
Pat Noonan
Ronnie O'Brien
Pat Ohstad
Santino Quaranta
Steve Ralston
Carlos Ruiz
Thiago
Simo Valakari
Johnny Walker
Josh Wolff


Best Young 11
(born 84 or later - or - first or second year professional)
G:
Brad Guzan
D:
Chad Marshall
Gonzalo Segares
Michael Parkhurst
M:
Clint Dempsey
Justin Mapp
Ramon Nunez
Michael Bradley
F:
Roberto Mina
Chris Rolfe
Herculez Gomez


Other Favorites:
Freddy Adu
Chad Barrett
Bobby Boswell
Knox Cameron
Hunter Freeman
Eddie Gaven
Carlos Mendes
Francisco Mendoza
Scott Sealy
Abe Thompson
Eric Vasquez
Tim Ward
Jamie Watson

This Is My Colleagues News

-Metrostars fan site MetroFanatic has a huge interview with coach Mo Johnston. He is a pretty upfront guy.
-Freddy tries to clear the air with Steve Goff of the Washington Post
-And fat-talking-head Mike Wilbon chimes in on a sport he knows nothing about. He and fellow egg-beaters-head Kornheiser went off on DC United yesterday on their bloviation-fest of a TV show - Pardon The Interruption.
-The first official MLS Award for this season has been announced - Pat Onstad of San Jose has been named Goalkeeper of the Year.
-MLS Award Finalists are announced (all the awards will be handed out between now and the Cup Final on Nov 13):
Most Valuable Player: Dwayne De Rosario of San Jose, Jaime Moreno of D.C. United and Taylor Twellman of New England
Goalkeeper of the Year: (see above) Joe Cannon, Colorado; Pat Onstad, San Jose; Matt Reis, New England.
Defender of the Year: Danny Califf, San Jose; Jimmy Conrad, Kansas City; Tyrone Marshall, Los Angeles.
Coach of the Year: Dominic Kinnear, San Jose; Steve Nicol, New England; Peter Nowak, D.C. United.
Rookie of the Year: Michael Parkhurst, New England; Chris Rolfe, Chicago; Scott Sealy, Kansas City.
Comeback player of the Year: Ronald Cerritos, San Jose; Herculez Gomez, Los Angeles; Chris Klein, Kansas City.
Fair Play: Brian Carroll, D.C. United; Ronald Cerritos, San Jose; Justin Mapp, Chicago.
-Michael Lewis of Big Apple Soccer asks Frank Yallop if he is going to be the next coach of Metrostars. Here is a summation of the reply: Canadian national coach Frank Yallop, speculated to be one of the top candidates for the MetroStars coaching position, said he is flattered to be considered for the job. But he said he has had no contact with Metros team president and general manager Alexi Lalas.
-Metrostars gave out a bunch of team awards (see team site for details on awards):
Youri Djorkaeff - Most Valuable Player & Newcomer of the Year
Amado Guevara - Play of the Year Award & Golden Boot
Michael Bradley - Iron Man & Young Player of the Year
Tim Regan - Humanitarian of the Year
Chris Leitch - Defender of the Year
Sergio Galvan Rey - Unsung Hero
-One of my favorite current German players, Christian Ziege, has announced his retirement due to an ankle injury that has not healed after long periods of rest. He has been playing with Kasey Keller at Moenchengladbach. I will miss his high quality nastiness. I will not miss his tendency toward the Mohawk.
-From Soccer America we get to see the 2005 MLS home attendance averages:
1 LA - 24,204
2 Salt Lake City - 18,037
3 Chicago - 17,238
4 Chivas - 17,080
5 DC - 16,664
6 Metrostars - 15,077
7 Colorado - 13,638
8 San Jose - 13,037
9 Columbus - 12,916
10 New England - 12,525
11 Dallas - 11,189
12 KC - 9,691
-You can vote for the MLS Goal of the Year (and see all of the nominee's).
My Fave Golazo's:
Taylor Twellman Week 1
Ronnie O'Brien Week 3
Clint Dempsey Week 5
Josh Gross Week 6
Peter Vagenas Week 8
Carlos Ruiz Week 9
Eric Vasquez Week 16
Clint Mathis Week 17
Amado Guevara Week 21
Alain Nkong Week 21
Justin Mapp Week 23
Jaime Moreno Week 25
My Goal Of The Year - Freddy Adu Week 28
Dwayne de Rosario Week 29
-Well, at least Carlos Ruiz finally showed his face yesterday in Dallas. No word yet on what the discussions were like, but he did practice with the team.
-Ryan Giggs got an elbow to the face as his Manchester United played Lille in the Champs League on Tuesday. He will need surgery to repair a fractured cheek bone.
-Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune piles em up with two more articles today: After the brief drought, a downpour of goals & A night for glory, shared by Henry
-Jonathan Spector of USA/Man U/loaned to Charlton is profiled by ESPNSoccernet.
-My pal KJ dropped this into the comments section the other day and I wanted to further illuminate it. Its his reasoning of "What in the name of all that is good and holy happened to Kansas City this year???": I think we (Minnesota Thunder & fans) spooked the Wizards. They didn't win a game after our epic visit (Thunder went to KC and won 3-1 in the US Open Cup on Aug 24th. KC went 0-4-4 after that night.) --and they came into that game on a five-game winning streak, and were 7-1-1 in their previous nine.
-Top 10 College Rankings
1 Akron
2 Old Dominion
3 New Mexico
4 Virginia
5 Connecticut
6 Indiana
7 St John's
8 Santa Clara
9 Maryland
10 North Carolina
-Champions League analysis: Chelsea's 4th goal, scored by Sean-Wright Phillips dashing to the end line and crossing for a sprinting Hernan Crespo was totally gorgeous! Bravo dudes! Bravo!! What an ass kicking that game was. Shevchenko got hurt for Milan in their 0-0 draw with PSV. And did you see the good news - Johnny Woodgate banged one home for Los Blancos de Madrid in their come from behind win over Rosenborg. Beckham was also huge again providing deadly passing & a classic free kick goal. The Inter Roller Coaster continues as they go to Porto and lose via an own goal and a heavily deflected shot. Lyon are 3-0-0 for 9 big points.
And all the days scores:
Fenerbahce 3-3 Schalke
Milan 0-0 PSV
Lyon 2-1 Olympiacos
Real Madrid 4-1 Rosenborg
Chelsea 4-0 Betis
Anderlecht 0-1 Liverpool
Rangers 0-0 Artmedia
Porto 2-0 Internazionale
-There was a lone match in UEFA Cup (tons more today - see yesterdays post for the full list):
Lokomotiv Moskva 0-1 Espanyol
-I was asked the other day if Landycakes was related to Urinalcakes or Littledebbiesnackcakes. I don't know, but I will look into it.

Pass The Dutchie From The Left Hand News

-Sigi Schmidt checked in to thank me for the advice with his new club (see yesterday). Columbus has called a press conference for Thursday to introduce the Sigger to his new peeps.
-Oh Freddy. Yer timing is impeccable! The playoffs start on Friday and you are still such a lil Mama's boy. With a ton of greedy adults whispering bullshit in your ear. Freddy is whining to Steven Goff of the Washington Post again, about wanting more playing time. He is real mad at the coach. Maybe he wants to play for Chivas USA? Its funny how many times I have read about a star athlete like Freddy making this comment: "... but you've got to swallow your pride and be a team player." Great! Then do it punk! Shut yer mouth and be a team player! Or don't make the statement. You can't have it both ways. And you won't win any sympathy this way either. Bitch.
-DCenters hand out their own post season awards for DC United (of course). Excellent work man! And The Fall is a favorite musical artists at the DCenters too, which is even more awe-inspiring!
-All last weekends goals score by PSV are viewable now at the team website. For many reasons it's always a blast to watch them. 1. The fans go nuts. 2. They play this hilarious techno-polka type song after every goal & 3. The announcer has a great voice and loves to scream the players names after the goal. There is nothing like hearing this guy yell "Jaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan Vennegoooooooooooor of Hesseliiiiiiiiiiiink". If you listen closely, you will also hear that Vennegoor has his own theme song now too!!! Don't miss goal #3 for some of that incredible Beasley magic.
-Brian Kerr is officially done as Ireland coach. Who steps up?
-The names of the nominees for USA Honda Player of the Year have been released. And here they are: DaMarcus Beasley, Landon Donovan and Kasey Keller. Journalists vote for the winner. Here is my ranking: 1. Keller (No doubt about it. Awesome for USA, and saved Gladbach's back bacon.) 2. Beasley (As much for his PSV explosion as his great USA play.) 3. Landycakes (He is on the list cuz he is super-talented, and played great most of the time for USA, but was a baby and subpar for everyone else. My fave Baby Jesus moment of '05 though, was the kids in the parking lot at San Jose taking shots at the Landycakes Pinata! What a beautiful visual.)
-Frank Dell'apa gives us his Look Back At The Regular Season (of MLS) from ESPNSoccernet.
-Dell'apa also writes in the Boston Globe today about the Scots who coach New England and Metrostars. Nicol and Johnston.
-How about Thierry Henry! Wow! (I am stealing this expression from Shep Messing.) The man hasn't played in a month, but is on the bench for the Champs League match v Sparta in Prague. Reyes proceeds to break a rib only 15 minutes into the match, so Henry enters early. What does he do? Connects for a goal about 5 minutes later, then adds a second for a 2-0 win. Savior! Henry! Hooray Henry! Hooray Beer!
-In other Champions League games yesterday: Bayern took out all their frustrations on Juve 2-1, Panathanikos did a brilliant job of keeping Barca off the scoreboard 0-0, and Man U choked down another pound of dirt drawing 0-0 with Lille (and the pinheaded Paul Scholes got a nice lil red card). See the Group Standings here.
All the scores from yesterday:
Bayern 2-1 Juventus
Rapid 0-1 Club Brugge
Ajax 2-0 Thun
Sparta 0-2 Arsenal
Udinese 1-1 Bremen
Panathinaikos 0-0 Barcelona
Villarreal 1-1 Benfica
Manchester United 0-0 Lille
And here are todays matches:
Milan v PSV
Fenerbahce v Schalke
Lyon v Olympiacos
Real Madrid v Rosenborg
Chelsea v Betis
Anderlecht v Liverpool
Rangers v Artmedia
Porto v Internazionale
-There are also a whole skid full of UEFA Cup matches too (one today and the rest tomorrow):
Lokomotiv Moskva v Espanyol
Viking v Monaco
CSKA Sofia v Hamburg
Maccabi Petach-Tikva v Palermo
Halmstad v Hertha Berlin
Steaua v Lens
Grasshoppers v Middlesbrough
Dnipro v AZ Alkmaar
Basel v Strasbourg
Tromso v Roma
CSKA Moskva v Marseille
Dinamo Bucuresti v Heerenveen
Rennes v Stuttgart
Shakhtar Donetsk v PAOK
Zenit v Guimaraes
Besiktas v Bolton
-His Royal Highness, Grahame L. Jones of the Los Angeles Times autopsies the Chivas USA carcass.
-Pete Grathoff of the KC Star on the Zards Plan B.
-FC Dallas fan site, 3rd Degree posts their annual awards - The Thirds.
-Soccer America has a little stat showing how many goals are averaged per game in the some of the worlds top leagues:
3.03 Mexican First Division
2.91 Bundesliga
2.87 Major League Soccer
2.78 Brazilian First Division
2.58 La Liga
2.57 Premier League
2.53 Serie A
2.45 Argentine First Division
2.17 Ligue 1
-I know many of you have been holding your breath waiting for this announcement, so tomorrow I will announce my MLS Best 11, and Best Young 11, plus the list of other players I considered for those two squads.

Can You Please Pass The News

-In the Liberian Presidential election on November 8, George Weah will face off with Liberia's former Finance Minister Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf.
-In the off chance that I will be coaching the USA in next summers World Cup, and I do have the first name for the job, here is the lineup I would go with on a perfect day (the Brazilian 4-2-2-2 is my prefered attack formation):
Keller
Cherundolo - Gibbs - Onyewu - Lewis
Reyna - Mastroeni
O'Brien - Beasley
Donovan - McBride
I think we would win a lot of games like that. What do you think of that, and what would be your line up on a perfect day?
-Thierry Henry will suit up for the Arse in the Champions League match against Sparta Prague.
-Here are todays Champions League matchday 3 games (8 more tomorrow):
Rapid v Club Brugge
Bayern v Juventus
Sparta v Arsenal
Ajax v Thun
Udinese v Bremen
Panathinaikos v Barcelona
Villarreal v Benfica
Man United v Lille
-Tony Meola was named MLS Player Of The Week. And he fully deserved it. Two games in a row he saved his team, and single handedly carried them into the playoffs. Plus, he shaves his legs.
-In Dallas, the team named Ronnie O'Brien as their MVP, and Greg Vanney as their Defender of the Year (I guess they felt they had to give it to someone!?!?)
-Awards were given out by the team in Salt Lake as well. Brian Kamler who retired to take a front office job was named Humanitarian of the Year, Eddie Pope was Defender of the Year, and Andy Williams was named team Most Valuable Player.
-I know for about a year and half people have really dogged Sergio Galvan Rey of Metrostars, but I think the guy has really come on strong at the end of this year, and if I were Alexi Lalas I would resign the guy. He seems ready to burst out of the goalless cocoon. I would negotiate his pay down though. The other factor is that he is almost set to get his Green Card making him a domestic player. Interesting turn of events for the King Of Goals. Mo Johnston obviously thinks the guy has the goods. Who would you rather see start on that team, him or Ante Razov?
-Oguchi Onyewu is still growing up as a player it seems. He got his second red card (not two yellows either, straight red) in three games for his Belgian league leading club Standard Liege. Not good.
-Ives Galarcep on Michael Bradley.
-Bob Luder of the Kansas City Star stares into the darkness that is the Kansas City Wizards.
-And Luder reports on KC's team awards: Josh Wolff - MVP, Nick Garcia - defender of the year, Jimmy Conrad - humanitarian of the year.
-My magical touch is still working, cuz one day after I ask "Where is Rob Hughes?", he responds with a brand new column on Jurgen Klinsmanns battle with the German soccer community over the fact that he still lives in Cali and commutes to Germy. (I bet Jack Bell told Rob I was wondering where he was.)
-The Houston Chronicle's Week In Review
-Glenn Davis goes in search of Cleetus via ESPNSoccernet.
-Why is Paul Gardner writing his new column so stupidly.... You would think he was some idiotic blogger.... or something.... instead of the elder statesmen of American Soccer Writers that he is....

My Mama Sock It To Me Try To Tell Me How To News

-I promise I will never link to another Richard Snowden article again, nor will I ever type his name again. He doesn't just look like Neil from the Young Ones, he thinks and acts like him too. He is now in the same book as that walking meatloaf sandwich named Jamie Trecker. Jamie's dad, Jerry must be embarrassed.
-Frank Dell'apa, the only name you ever need to read for New England Rev's news, writes for the Boston Globe, but this appeared at ESPNSoccernet. Its about Bruce Arenas drive to make team chemistry work for the next World Cup. And its also the only soccer article I have ever read that uses the word "batucada". Brilliant! Do you know the meaning of that word without looking it up? If yes, then give yourself a point. If no, then look it up. Also, Frank lays this info on us about WC06 warm up matches: ....training camp in January and home games Jan. 22, 29 and Feb. 9 or 11; a visit to Europe for games March 1 (undetermined opponent) and Germany March 22; an April home match using mostly domestic players; and three May home matches before setting up camp in Hamburg. Thanks Frank!
-DC United has won the inaugural Reserve Division Title. Jamil Walker won the Divisions Golden Boot. Here is the final standings:
24 DC United
19 Metrostars
19 New England
19 FC Dallas
18 Colorado
18 Chicago
18 Kansas City
18 San Jose
15 Los Angeles
14 Real Salt Lake
13 Columbus
7 Chivas USA
-Another artist rendering of the new Salt Lake stadium. This one from the stands looking at the field. (By the way, there is debate whether or not they will allow beer to be sold at the new place. I don't know if they sell it where they currently play or not. I'm sure one of you readers knows.)
-MLS Playoffs Baby! Here's how they line up:
WEST
San Jose 1 v Los Angeles 4 (Sun Oct 23 in LA, Sat Oct 29 in SJ)
Dallas 2 v Colorado 3 (Sat Oct 22 in Denv, Sat Oct 29 in Dal)
EAST
New England 1 v Metrostars 4 (Sat Oct 22 in NJ, Sat Oct 29 in Bos)
DC 2 v Chicago 3 (Fri Oct 21 in Chic, Sun Oct 30 in DC)
-Below are some of my thoughts (on this game and other things from MLS) after watching LA 1-3 San Jose on Saturday night:
Eddie Robinson is better than Danny Califf.
Where was Landon???? When Donovan came back from Germany he made the big statement that he wanted to be league MVP, what a joke that turned out to be! This game was another in a line of games where he didn't show up on the field even though he was in the starting 11. For example: did he do anything to help his team? No! (OK, he dropped down to his knees and did that inane ritual and then punched home a PK. One that was totally undeserved by the way. LA deserved one 5 minutes earlier that the ref missed, but this one was a dive by Albright.) His teammates should be pissed off at his lack of leadership. If I was Cobi Jones I would take 'cakes out behind the old woodshed, and give him the woodchipper treatment.
How about that lovely little Tyrone Marshall melt down. He stomps Alejandro Moreno for no apparent reason other than spite. For his efforts he gets the automatic red card, and will miss the first playoff game. (And he could get suspended for more games if the league deems his foul to be egregious enough.) Another top notch team player for Steve Sampson's Galaxy!
Dwayne DeRosario is the MVP no doubt!! As far as Twellman & his claim to the crown goes, he is great and his clutch goals are amazing, but his own teammate Shalrie Joseph gets 2nd place from me. Twellman is 3rd. Christian Gomez is 4th, with Jaime Moreno 5th. Youri Djorkaeff 6th.
Twellman wins the Golden Boot though, so he gets his major award, and is the leagues best striker by far.
And the Wiz are out! (What happened to them this year?) Are they gone too? NO one knows yet. Not even old Lamar. Good luck to all involved.
What happened to El Pescadito? He started off so red hot for his new team in Dallas, then he gets hurt and afterward leaves for his National Team games. He follows that up by dicking around and missing the MLS All-Star game while hanging at the grand opening of a Hooters in Guatemala City. His teammates must be baffled by his bullshit. Ok dude, so you are unhappy with your contract! We get it! Now go play your ass off and earn a better one, or get sold to another league. The real kicker is that he was a total NO SHOW this last weekend. He gave no reason as to why he is still in Guatemala. The team are pissed off. My guess is that he had another Hooters grand opening.
Metros tried everything they could to stay OUT of the playoffs on Sunday at Chivas, but the goatmen were not reciprocal. I counted 5 hit posts between the two teams, and Tony Meola had to play out of his mind to keep the Mets in it early. And as Eric Wynalda said: Amado Guevara just shows that you can play terrible for 89 minutes and still be a team hero by scoring to seal the game in extra time. The only guys who came to play for Metro yesterday were: Tim Reagan, Youri Djorkaeff, Sergio Galvan Rey, and Michael Bradley. And how sweet was it for Bradley to get the game winner with the first goal of his career, and save the team his Dad had just gotten fired from as coach. Sweet Sweet Irony.
My votes for the two biggest flops of the MLS season go to The Ramirez Brothers Of Los Angeles, Pando & Ramon!
Colorado deserves a big thumbs up. They looked dead at mid-season, yet somehow have ended up seeded 3rd in the West to avoid San Jose in the first round of playoffs. They can beat Dallas. Hopefully this week we will hear from my old pal Diego Serna and see how he feels about his teams chances.
So what does Columbus do next year when the season kicks off and they have 3 healthy and talented goalkeepers: Jon Busch, Johnny Walker & Matt Jordan? Did you know that since he came to the Crew, Walker has the 2nd lowest goal-per-game in the league. At worst 'lumbus will have some good trade bait.
-Andrea Canales covers all the action of Chivas 0-2 Metrostars in LA for Soccer365.
-Here is my list of (mostly MLS) players that i think deserve a bigger look from USA Coach Arena in WC 06 pre-camps over the winter:
Johnny Walker
Ricardo Clark
Edson Buddle
Eddie Robinson
Richard Mulrooney
Chris Klein
Chad Marshall
Brian West
Herculez Gomez
Kyle Beckerman
-Did you see that Chelsea explosion to start the second half against Bolton??!! Wild shit. They have been pummeled recently for being dull to watch. And they are. But that first 20 minutes of the second half were as good as it gets. Everyone on the team touches the ball, making it fly around the field, until Drogba bulls his way to success. To add to their own misery Bolton gifts Chelsea a free kick goal by building one of the worst walls of all time, giving Lampard three open yards of goal to hit. The Chelsea effort was fantastic to watch. Keep it up fellas and we might stop doggin' ya.
-Another rich-bitch team that people have been pasting lately is Real Madrid. Here are the scores of their last three matches (all wins): 4-0, 4-0, 3-0. Ok?! And for people who say Ronaldo is old and fat and washed up: He has scored 7 goals and leads La Liga already this year. But of course he then went and partially tore a ligament in his ankle (right after scoring 2 in the game), leaving me with little argument to stand on.
-Barcelona is this years Inter. They drew again, for the 3rd time in 6 matches.
-So if Sigi Schmidt is going to be the new Coach of Columbus, I really hope that Robert Warczycha is his top assistant. The guys fully deserves that for the job he did building the team up after Andrulis got fired. I bet they would have been in the playoffs had Warczy had the team all year. It was also great to see Edson Buddle finish so strong, with two more goals, after all the stuff he has been through this year. I still think he is better than Eddie Johnson. Not as fast, but stronger, and more consistent. Maybe those two should team-up together! I sent Sigi an email this weekend telling him just that!
-PSV stomped first place Alkmaar 3-0 to take over the top spot in the Eredivisie! Cocu scored two, And DMB tortured em for the full 90! PSV play at home against their biggest rival Ajax next weekend, but first they get a rematch at Milan in the Champions League on Wednesday. What a week for them.
-The top three in Italy are still Juve, Milan and Inter who all cruised to victories. The biggest being Inter over Livorno 5-0
-Osasuna's loss is Madrid's gain by the Maestro Phil Ball.
-DC United's new Argentine striker Lucio Filomeno has a cute mullet! Did he buy that thing at a Formula One Fan Fair?
-A partial transcript of an interview with Reading & USA keeper Marcus Hahnemann from Inside Soccer Radio.
-MFL weekend - the big news is that America's long unbeaten streak ended at 28 games with a loss to Chiapas. I wonder if Subcommander Marcos was in attendance? America keeps a good grip on first place though cuz 2nd place Cruz Azul also lost. Here are the results:
Chiapas 4-3 America
Atlante 0-1 Tecos
Dorados 2-1 Morelia
Tigres 1-2 Atlas
Guadalajara 2-3 Monterrey
Necaxa 3-1 Cruz Azul
San Luis 1-0 Veracruz
Pumas 0-3 Toluca
Santos 0-0 Pachuca
-In Germany there is a new team at the top. With Schalke drawing 1-1 with Bayern Munich, that left the door open for Werder Bremen to leap to #1 with a 6-2 brutalizing of Nuremberg. Our man Kasey Keller did his part to keep his team Moenchengladbach in 5th with a 1-1 draw at Stuttgart. Rock on Kasey!
-Man City sit in 4th in the EPL with Claudio Reyna playing the entire game and Andy Cole hitting both in a 2-1 winner over West Ham. But to me the real surprise is Wigan sitting at 5th after beating Newcastle 1-0. Tottenham are still hanging at 2nd, but are already 9 points behind Chelsea who have not lost yet. And the best sarcastic laugh of the weekend goes to the Arse who lost 2-1 to West Brom.
-Michael Lewis at Big Apple Soccer does a tremendous job of capping off the Metrostars clinching of a playoff spot. They have no less than 6(!!!!) articles on it today, including one that shows the Metrostars have never won more than 1 game in the month of October during their previous 9 years. This year they won 2 (and the month is not over)! Another story is on Michael Bradley, the former coaches son who scored the playoff clincher! Great stuff.
-After I spilled the beans on Friday to declare Bobby Robson the next Ireland coach, he got cold feet (poor circulation) and dropped out of the running for it. This column is really beginning to put a lot of pressure on people, and we can count Sir Bobby as not only the latest reader of Du Nord, but also the latest casualty.
-Simon Kuper on the social & economic impact of all those new potential World Cup stars of African football: Africa’s cup of new nations overflows.
-What happened to Rob Hughes at the International Herald Tribune??? He was writing a couple of great soccer stories every week, but we suddenly have not heard from him in 3 weeks! Rob if you are out there, please check in with us here at Du Nord and give us the skinny.
-From Dylan Hernandez in the San Jose Mercury News: Midfielder Brad Davis didn't travel with the Earthquakes to Los Angeles on Friday, going instead to St. Louis to get a third opinion on his strained left groin. Thought to be recovered, Davis returned to the field last week from six weeks of inactivity, only to feel discomfort.
-MLS Attendance this weekend (Salt Lake has a really decent average attendance this year, but the final game of the season was only OK. I will cut them slack though cuz the team is terrible and this game was on a Wednesday. Worse yet is New England still sucking wind in the attendance department. The place should always have 20,000. Come On People Of New England! Get It Going On!):
RSL v Colo - 13,813
Dallas v KC - 18,021
LA v SJ - 27,000
Chiv v Met - 17,394
NE v Chic - 11,812
DC v Colu - 22,463

This Is The Three R's: Repetition, Repetition, News

-ADDITION: Japan Today is reporting: Japan will face the United States in San Francisco in an international friendly in mid-February next year ahead of the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
-Heading into the final weekend of MLS regular season play, 3 players have been on the field for every minute of their teams action: Simon Elliott of Columbus, Todd Dunivant of Los Angeles & Michael Parkhurst of New England (as if we needed another reason for him to be Rookie Of The Year).
-Here's the draw for the 6 UEFA teams vying for 3 World Cup spots (2 legs played November 12 & 16 - team named first at home in first leg)
Spain v Slovakia
Switzerland v Turkey
Norway v Czech Republic
-MLS games this weekend, and what the repercussions will be:
Saturday
New England v Chicago - nothing at stake cuz NE has the #1 seed and Chicago #3.
DC v Columbus - nothing at stake cuz DC has the #2 seed amd 'lumbus is out.
Dallas v Kansas City - KC needs to win. Period. If they do, then Metrostars will also need to win, and win by over 6 goals to catch KC on goal differential. If Dallas wins, they claim the #2 seed (or end up 3 or 4 with other results taken into account).
LA v San Jose - the final Cali Derby of the regular season. LA can still finish 2nd, 3rd or 4th. SJ is set at #1. See it live on FSC at 9pm central
Sunday
Chivas v Metrostars - Mets must win to get in if If KC loses or draws on Saturday. If KC wins, then the Mets must win by 6 goals (goal differential lead by KC) plus however many goals KC gets Saturday. It ain't over til it's over. See it live at 4pm on ESPN2
-See Kasey Keller and his team in Bundesliga action Saturday on FSC - VfB Stuttgart vs Borussia Moenchengladbach - 9am central
-San Jose's Brian Ching gets Q&A'd via US Soccer Players Assoc.
-Big matches in Europe this weekend:
Schalke 04 v Bayern Munich
Atletico Madrid v Real Madrid
Hamburg v Wolfsburg
PSV v AZ Alkmaar
Porto vBenfica
Marseille v PSG
-The Mexican Futbal League is back in action this weekend. Here is what we have:
Saturday
Jaguares v America
Atlante v UAG
Dorados v Morelia
Tigres v Atlas
Guadalajara v Monterrey
Necaxa v Cruz Azul
Sunday
San Luis v Veracruz
UNAM v Toluca
Santos v Pachuca
-Looking more and more each day like the Old Narcolept himself, Bobby Robson, will be the new head coach of Ireland. I am gonna miss not seeing Damien Duff and Robbie Keane in the World Cup. They were two of my faves in 02.
-Wonderful people from all over the globe have stopped by for a visit in the last day or two. Here are some of the countries representin':
Canada
Denmark
Germany
Hungary
Jordan
Netherlands
Portugal
We have also had visitors from 32 or the 50 United States, and of course the District of Columbia (bless their little hearts).
A couple more visitors from the business , government, and education world to acknowledge as well:
Gannett News
Environmental Protection Agency
U Pittsburgh
Covington Electric Cooperative
Adobe
-I stumbled across a soccer blog with the best name yet: BRUCE'S BELLY!!!!! Of course referring to our fearless leader's (Bruce Arena) gut. BUT..... the site is written in some crazy language that I don't even recognize. The titles and everything else on the page are in English. Am I missing the joke here?
-And don't forget, Champions League Matchday 3 happens next Tue & Wed starring Bayern v Juventus & Milan v PSV.

Small Town Kid News

-I hope you all had a nice day off yesterday celebrating with Togo on their national holiday that was called after qualifying for the World cup. I sure did. This is how the whole world should be run. Win a game, get a day off.
-From USA Today: The U.S. men's national team will make Hamburg its home base for the 2006 World Cup that runs from June 9 to July 9 at 12 sites in Germany. Hamburg is Germany's second largest city (1.7 million) and a transportation hub with top-flight training facilities and accommodations. Hamburg is the northern-most competition site.
-Post Game Quotes from USA coaches and players on the 2-0 win over Panama last night. It was nice to see Taylor Twellman finally get his first Team USA goal. And of course US Soccer gives us more of that great insider video they have been providing. The attendance in Boston was a pathetic 9,192.
-With all the madness I have been living I somehow missed the updates for Copa Sudamericana. But here are the set ups for the Quarterfinals that start next week (all matches are being shown in the USA on FOX Sports en Espanol):
Oct 18 Fluminense v Universidad Catolica with return match on Nov 9
Oct 19 Internacional v Boca Juniors with return match on Nov 10
Oct 19 Corinthians v Pumas UNAM with the return match on Nov 9
Oct 26 CF America v Velez Sarsfield with return match on Nov 2
-So, Euro recap, Euro recap:
Who is in? Yesterdays qualifiers guaranteed a spot in Germany for Serbia & Montenegro, Croatia, Sweden & France.
Ireland, Denmark, Greece, Russia, Romania and Israel are out.
Spain is into the Euro playoff along with Switzerland, Czech Republic, Turkey, Slovakia & Norway. Three of these teams will go on to Deutschland, and three will go home with nothing.
The draw for the 6 Euro teams going after the 3 spots will be held Friday at noon in the FIFA HQ. Here is a direct quote from the FIFA press release as to how the draw and playoff will work: The six teams will be divided into two pots in accordance with the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking for September 2005 (the three highest placed will be in pot 1 and the other three in teams in pot 2). One team will be drawn from each pot. A second draw will be conducted to determine which team will play the first leg at home. The play-offs will be played on Saturday, 12 November 2005 and Wednesday, 16 November 2005.
-How about South America's CONMEBOL: Uruguay nabbed the 2 game playoff spot v Australia when Inter's highly underachieving Alvaro Recoba scored the only goal of the game against Argentina for the Uru's. A win by Columbia & a draw by Chile then didn't matter, as they were behind on points when the day started.
-ASIA: Bahrain beat out Uzbekistan for a playoff shot at the World Cup. They drew 1-1 on aggregate, but Bahrain had the away goal to advance. The Uzbeki's have to be totally pissed off right now, cuz they won the first game 1-0, then had the game nullified by FIFA and replayed to a 1-1 draw which is what cost them. The game was replayed when the referee made a wrong call against Uzbekistan (NOT Bahrain), and the whole game was scrapped. Sad day in a part of the world I know nothing about.
-CONCACAF: What a night. One of the biggest upsets in CONCACAF history happened with Trinidad & Tobago beating Mexico 2-1 in Port Of Spain. WOW! Stern John scored both of em. T&T now have a World Cup shot in the 2 game playoff v Bahrain. Guatemala gave it everything they had to try and surpass T&T with a 3-1 in over Costa Rica, but they needed a T&T draw or loss to advance and didn't have their dream to come true. This bums me out, cuz I really wanted to see Carlos Ruiz get his shot at the World Cup. Mexi's loss combined with the USA win gives our boys bragging rights as first place finishers in The Hex.
-Our beloved Earnie Stewart has a few words for Yanks Abroad on what he is up to.
-Roberto Mina from Dallas started both WCQ's this week for his Ecuador, and hopes to be on the team next summer in Germany.
-The Asian Cup champion win be decided between UAE's Al Ain and Saudi's Al Ittihad. The games will be played Oct 26 & 31.
-Luis Bueno tells us why Chivas USA was doomed from the start.
-See who made the short list (no, not short people list) of nominees for FIFA World Player Of The Year: Adriano (Inter), Michael Ballack (Bayern Munich), David Beckham (Real Madrid), Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus), Cafu (AC Milan), Cristiano Ronaldo (Man Utd), Deco (Barcelona), Didier Drogba (Chelsea), Michael Essien (Chelsea), Samuel Eto'o (Barcelona), Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), Thierry Henry (Arsenal), Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Juventus), Kaka (AC Milan), Frank Lampard (Chelsea), Paolo Maldini (AC Milan), Pavel Nedved (Juventus), Alessandro Nesta (AC Milan), Jay-Jay Okocha (Bolton), Raul (Real Madrid), Juan Roman Riquelme (Villarreal), Arjen Robben (Chelsea), Roberto Carlos (Real Madrid), Robinho (Real Madrid), Ronaldinho (Barcelona), Ronaldo (Real Madrid), Wayne Rooney (Man Utd), Andriy Shevchenko (AC Milan), Ruud van Nistelrooy (Man Utd), Zidane Zinedine (Real Madrid).
-Andrea Canales on Metrostars v Chivas coming up on Sunday.
-Andrea also has an interview with The Herc via Soccer 365.
-More about the PK failure of Pierre Wome for Cameroon and what it's doing to his life by Mark Zeigler of the San Diego Union Tribune.
-Real Salt Lake have released an artists rendering of what their new home may look like. I say: Very impressive.
-Story on the former Yugoslavia and supporters of their new national teams by the New York Times: Serbian Soccer Loyalties Cross Borders
-Peter Berlin of the International Herald Tribune on the incomparable Zizou and World Cup Qualifying.
-Glenn Davis of the Houston Chronicle talks with Jonathan Spector about Man U & Charlton & USA.
-The best first name of any American Newspaper Soccer writer is Tobias. And Tobias Lopez (a fave writer of mine, as well as the cool name) writes for the Fort Worth Telegram. Today he runs his 2005 MLS Best-Of's.
-ADDITION: While everyone is blathering on and on about Toronto trying to build a stadium and join MLS, its pretty funny that the two other big Canadian teams, Montreal & Vancouver, are not rushing to join MLS. Montreal has their own home and average 11,000 a game. Not to mention that they have a great team that I think could compete in MLS. Vancouver on the other hand have come out today (blowing Toronto's plans out of the water) and announced their plans to build a new stadium that seats 15,000. They have rabid fans and a always at least decent team. Good luck to both of them. I think its a big mistake for MLS to do business with Lame-o's like Maple Leafs Sports & Entertainment who don't care about soccer, just making money.
-ADDITION: Feature story on new Minnesota Thunder coach Amos Magee in the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Where Even Richard Nixon Has Got News

-I wanted to start today by giving a shout to a few of the people who visit regularly from these institutes:
U Georgia
Columbia U
United Airlines
U Minnesota
Housing & Urban Development
West Publishing
Wesleyan College
Government Accounting Office
Best Buy
U Cal Berkley
Boston College
Wells Fargo
Adidas
U Virginia
Lewis & Clark College
Merced College
Thanks for the patronage, I love you all.
-My Minnesota Thunder have named former player and assistant coach Amos Magee as the new head man. Magee was endorsed to take over as coach by the outgoing legendary coach Buzz Lagos. His getting the job was confirmed for me in a funny way. I was out last night at the St Paul watering hole known as the Muddy Pig when who should walk in but Amos himself. We knew he was a candidate for the job, and we knew there was a press conference scheduled for 11am today to name the new coach. One of my pals asked Amos if the job was his. Amos replied that his lips were sealed, which was good enough of a tip off right there. But I decided to take it one step further, so I stuck out my hand for him to shake. I did so with a big smile, and he asked me what that was for. I congratulated him and told him it was fantastic (leaving out any details on what that meant). I was just looking for his reaction. He got a huge smile and thanked me graciously. That confirmed it in my book. Good luck Amos, you are the right man for the job!
-Our most excellent friend Kevin A. of Portland has dropped a note to let us know his town is trying to line up an MISL team. I guess they are to be known as the Portland Campaign. Odd name for a team if you ask me. On the other hand I like odd, so I think the team name is great. Check em out now.
-Getting on to real teams in Portland though, the Portland Timbers have fired coach Bobby Howe, while General Manager Jim Taylor has resigned.
-Tune in tonite at 7pm central on ESPN2 for USA v Panama live from Boston. The game means nothing.
-I think the best game in all of World Cup Qualifying today would have to be Bosnia-Herzegovina v Serbia & Montenegro. That has so many implications its almost surreal. The winner is IN. The loser goes to the playoffs. The politics will remain insane. I hope you get to see it somewhere.
-The other WCQ's that really matter:
ASIA & AFRICA - all places setttttttled
CONMEBOL - Uruguay (22 points), Colombia (21 points) and Chile (21 points) all battling for the final spot and a chance to take on Australia in a 2 game playoff.
Uruguay v Argentina
Chile v Ecuador
Paraguay v Columbia
CONCACAF - Trinidad & Tobago (10 points) and Guatemala (8 points) fight it out for the 4th spot and the chance to play the winner of Uzbekistan v Bahrain in a 2 game playoff.
Guate v Costa Rica
T&T v Mexico
UEFA -
Group 8 has Croatia (23 points) leading Sweden (21 points) for first place.
Sweden v Iceland
Hungary v Croatia
Group 4 has four teams alive. Israel leads with 18 points but are done playing. Ireland (16 points), Switzerland (17 points) & France (17 points) are also still sitting with a chance to win the group and qualify.
Ireland v Switzerland
France v Cyprus
Group 7 has Serbia & Montenegro (19 points) and Spain (17 points) on top battling for #1.
Serbia & Montenegro v Bosnia-Herzegovina
Spain v San Marino
-JB stirring more great insider type USA and MLS juiciness. One thing he talks about is Nikes new USA fans logo. Not bad. Don't Tread On Me. And Definitely Don't Tread On The Beas.
-Here is something that I don't know how I feel about. The two previous links were to images created by Nike for USA soccer fans etc. Which is fine, cuz its marketing for their products. But now they have a "Weblog" too (called This Is American Soccer). They hired a guy to write it, and I am sure he will give us some interesting views on Team USA, but we all know there is no way he will ever criticize them or be derogatory in a funny way, or any of the other stuff that makes weblogs so great. Read it for yourself and see how you feel.
-DC United are in the best position to win the MLS Reserve Division title. Here are the standings & other details with one match left.
-You can be happy that you are not taking penalty kicks for Cameroon.
-USA Today writes Team USA stories about Taylor Twellman and the left back hole.
-US Soccer has a video for the Panama match preview with Brian Carroll and Coach Arena.
-Grant Wahl gives out his MLS 2005 Best & Worst awards. Great stuff as always.
-Here's a man after my own heart. On a personal note: Me and Demko also plan to win the lottery, buy an MLS team, and build our own stadium called Jackass Memorial Coliseum. We are fighting over the placement between Minneapolis and St Paul. It will be settled with a dance contest.
-In a friendly for Real Madrid our hero-hippy Jonathan Woodgate scored another own goal. Two in two matches. He did not get sent off this time though. Not bad duuuude. Now stop bogarting the reefer.

A Spastic Colon Of News

-The Thunder will reveal its new Head Coach at a press conference on Wednesday, October 12 at 11am central at Thunder HQ in St Paul.
-Dreadful, but not surprising performance from Team USA down in San Jose Costa Rica the other night. A 3-0 beating is about what they deserved. Did the CR keeper have to make a real save? And how come the USA didn't win the game with a decent midfield? All mysteries. Hopefully some will be answered on Wednesday night in Boston v Panama. As for changes to the USA roster, Carlos Bocanegra & Eddie Lewis have to sit out due to yellow card suspension, Oguchi Onyewu, DaMarcus Beasley & Bobby Convey were released to their clubs in Europe, and Pablo Mastroeni, Kevin Hartman & Wade Barrett were released to their MLS clubs. Barrett also hurt his hamstring. USA added Matt Reis, Jay Heaps, Chad Marshall, Brian Carroll, Clint Dempsey, Daniel Hernandez, Justin Mapp & Steve Ralston to the team for the match.
-Angola have never won a match in the African Nations Cup - but somehow they have qualified for the World Cup. The Guardian tells how it happened.
-Santino Quaranta profile from US Soccer Players Assoc.
-Salt Lake have a suburban home for their new stadium. It will be in the suburb of Sandy. It's south and a little west of downtown Salt Lake City. Bummer. Downtown Salt Lake City would have been ideal.
-Luis Bueno asks Chivas USA President Antonio Cue what he thought of Year Uno for his club.
-Phil Ball writes about the newest wonderboys in La Liga, Messi y Torres: Prodigies Galore
-More USA Player video interviews - Clint Dempsey (WARNING: Falling Cliches Ahead)
-Who's In?? World Cup kick off is less than 8 months from today. Here is who is in:
Angola
Cote d'Ivoire
Togo
Ghana
Tunisia
Japan
Iran
South Korea
Saudi Arabia
Germany
Ukraine
Netherlands
Poland
England
Croatia
Italy
Portugal
USA
Mexico
Costa Rica
Argentina
Brazil
Ecuador
Paraguay
The big shockers were all in Africa where perennial favorites Nigeria, Senegal, Cameroon, and South Africa were all elmidated. Does this make reigning African Nations Cup holder Tunisia as the continents new supreme soccer power?
A couple more might be added tomorrow after those matches. And then we will set up for the playoffs to determine the last couple of spots.
-There is actual FACTUAL news about a potential MLS team in Milwaukee, as always its sent out by the indomitable Peter Wilt and his organization, Milwaukee Pro Soccer, for those interested. (Sorry about all that nonesense Peter.)
-So it will come down to 2 MLS matches this weekend. Saturday it's Dallas v Kansas City, and Sunday its Chivas v Metrostars. KC & Metro are tied with 44 points each. But KC holds the edge with a better goals for/against average by a +6.
-The real Pele calls Robinho the new Pele.
-If you like to stand while watching your soccer match, then you are no longer welcome at Craven Cottage. Fulham now hates you.
-Freddy Adu was named MLS Player Of The Week. Once again, did you see that goal? Wow!
-Other goals and big action are all here from MLS too.
-MLSnet has a Q & A with the newest member of the AARP, Preki.
-Another quick analysis of last weekends MLS game attendance numbers:
DC v Metrostars 18,751
Kansas City v New England 12,546
Chicago v Columbus 21,097
Dallas v Colorado 13,011
San Jose v Salt Lake 19,407
Those are pretty nice numbers all around, except for KC. What is the deal dudes? Yer team is desperate! Yer whole franchise is desperate! Support Support Support ya bastards. Their diehard fans are commendable. The rest of the people of KC stink as fans. And then there is Dallas. Talk about fans that stink. Come on! What's the excuse this week. (Use GWB voice): "I couldn't make it cuz of a big sale on bedding at JC Penney"? Lame Ass Fans, or LAF's. At least go watch Ramon Nunez fer chris'sakes. And lastly, I was surprised to see DC not hit 20k.
-Can anyone out there tell me why Jaime Moreno's free kick goal against Metro was nominated as a Goal Of The Week? It took a deflection off the wall! It wasn't his shot that scored, it was the deflection. While it was great for his team, it was not a candidate for anything.