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
-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
posted by brucio at 12:46
5 Comments:
I think we spooked the Wizards. They didn't win a game after our epic visit--and they came into that game on a five-game winning streek, and were 7-1-1 in their previous nine. Crazy.
RSL currently doesn't sell beer at their games as they play on the campus of the University of Utah. University of Utah policy doesn't allow alcohol on campus.
thanks devfalse
u of minnesota does not sell booze on campus either, but they do at their sponsored events or when their teams play off campus (ie. final 4 at the metrodome or target center in minneapolis, and frozen 4 at xcel center in st paul)
i'm utterly baffled by the lame ne attendance. despite having shit teams for much of their existence they have always drawn respectably. I thought maybe since the Red sox were dead attendance would pick up this weekend. But no. Hopefully they'll draw better for the playoffs.
Overall it was a disappointing year attendance-wise for Mls, about 15,000 per game. And that is schewed by the special events, with epl or mexican 1st teams, that balloon stats.
Kudos to the rsl fans. It seems like a real sweet market for mls. Hopefully they will get a better product on the field next year.
I'll also point out that DC drew a weird 23,000 for the meaningless game against Columbus the other night. I can't figure out MLS crowds. Must have more to do with marketing gimmicks and giveaways than we season-ticket holders would admit.
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