And Now Here's Herman Munster With Today's Top News
-According to Big Stevie Goff of the Washington Post, the #1 villain in MLS has fled the coop. DC United Midfielder Dema Kovalenko is gone baby! Demon says he is going to play in Ukraine, but no team was mentioned. He seems to be mad cuz DCU wants him to take a pay cut. To Dema, we here at Du Nord say: So long you old leg breakin' son of a gun. Oh, yeah, and a happy F*C* Dallas to ya too. (I predict he will be back in MLS before long.)
-The next big news of the day is from newspapers in the Netherlands reporting that Indiana's young Lee Nguyen has signed with PSV Eindhoven! Fantastic for America's first ever true #10. Mark my words, this guy is for real! Him and DaMarcus training together everyday should be exciting. I think this is a great achievement for Lee and US Soccer. If I were a pun master I would call this a "Win-Nguyen situation".
-Yanks Abroad is also reporting that Heerenveen in the Netherlands is going to offer Michael Bradley a deal to play for them. Also excellent in my book. Not surprisingly Michael Lewis at Big Apple is all over this story too, and says Anderlecht of Belgium are also interested, but Heerenveen has the Cash-ola to get a deal done!
-In Interliga action last night, we saw the final 2 matches of the group stage, and here are those scores:
Morelia 0-1 Veracruz
Monterrey 1-1 Pachuca
Sending Veracruz and Monterrey into the last round with 6 & 5 points respectively compared to Pachuca's4 and Morelia's lowly 1.
There will be two final Interliga matches on Sunday, and those winners will go to the Libertadores Cup this year, along with 2004 Mexican Champs UNAM Pumas. Here are those two games (which will be played at the HDC):
Veracruz v Guadalajara
UANL Tigres v Monterrey
-Last night saw the other semifinal 1st leg of the English League Cup:
Blackburn 1-1 Manchester United - Louis Saha scored for Man U, then Morten Gamst Pedersen replied for Blackburn. Tim Howard DID NOT play for Man U, which can't be good for his World Cup team hopes. The return leg is Wed Jan 25. With Man U holding that precious away goal for any tiebreaker situations.
-Italy's TIM Cup is in the second leg of the round of 16. Here were the scores:
Brescia 3-4 Milan - Milan wins 7-4 on aggregate
Sampdoria 2-1 Cagliari - Samp wins 3-2 on agg.
Roma 2-1 Naploli - Roma wins 5-1 on agg.
Udinese 3-1 Altalanta - Udinese wins 3-2 on agg.
2 more matches tonight to finish the round:
Cittadella v Lazio - Lazio lead 2-0
Inter v Parma - Inter lead 0-1
-Columbus has officially signed Chilean defender Marcos Gonzalez, and also Uganda-born English defender Joel Kitamirike from Dundee United in Scotland.
-US Soccer is finalizing plans for a game on April 11 v Honduras at Legion Field in Birmingham.
-Liverpool signed defender Daniel Agger from Brondby in Denmark.
-Frank Dell'apa on next weeks MLS Superdarft via Soccernet.
-These are the young USA players who have left college or chosen to pass up college and go straight to MLS. They are signed under contracts called Generation Adidas, because of funding for these rosters spots coming from Adidas. Here are this years crop:
Josmer Altidore
Patrick Ianni
Kei Kamarn
Sacha Kljestan
Dax McCarty
Jacob Peterson
Willie Simms
Nathan Sturgis
Blake Wagner
Marvell Wynne
Jed Zayner
-US Soccer has posted a "diary entry" by USA player Chris Rolfe, in which he breaks down his day (Mon Jan 9) at the Team USA training camp.
-Remember back to when Chicago's Andy Herron had his full on melt down during his teams final playoff loss to New England in November? A late Chicago goal was wiped out do to an offside call that Herron disagreed with. (It was the right call.) He went absolutely nuts on the assistant referee who called it, and even appeared to push the guy. He got a red card, but kept arguing even after being sent off. He got his punishment today - 6 game suspension. Wow! That must be close to an MLS record. 6 frickin games! I can see the appeal coming already on that one.
-Buzz from 3rd Degree has gathered his thoughts on the Interliga matches that just took place in Dallas.
-Metrostars made it official with the signing of Scotsman Peter Canero from Dundee United as previously rumored. They also took a step toward more experience by acquiring Chris Henderson from Columbus but gave up young talented defender Tim Ward in exchange. I am not sure I understand this at all. We know Henderson works his ass off, but I am not so sure he adds a whole lot on the field, where Ward seems to have all the upside in the world. We shall see, but I would take Ward in that deal. And so would Sigi Schmid.
-Soccer America Confidential wrote this today: Resigned as they are to playing in Houston this season, several former San Jose players have objected to AEG's pronouncement that they wear San Jose Earthquake attire during the preseason until their Houston garb is ready. An AEG executive, dispatched last month to oversee the closing of team offices and make sure nobody snuck out with so much as a paper clip, informed the players that new Houston uniforms wouldn't be ready in time for the preseason, so for the first couple of months in 2006 they would be wearing San Jose Earthquakes gear. WTF???? Can't they just find them some generic gear to wear?
-The next big news of the day is from newspapers in the Netherlands reporting that Indiana's young Lee Nguyen has signed with PSV Eindhoven! Fantastic for America's first ever true #10. Mark my words, this guy is for real! Him and DaMarcus training together everyday should be exciting. I think this is a great achievement for Lee and US Soccer. If I were a pun master I would call this a "Win-Nguyen situation".
-Yanks Abroad is also reporting that Heerenveen in the Netherlands is going to offer Michael Bradley a deal to play for them. Also excellent in my book. Not surprisingly Michael Lewis at Big Apple is all over this story too, and says Anderlecht of Belgium are also interested, but Heerenveen has the Cash-ola to get a deal done!
-In Interliga action last night, we saw the final 2 matches of the group stage, and here are those scores:
Morelia 0-1 Veracruz
Monterrey 1-1 Pachuca
Sending Veracruz and Monterrey into the last round with 6 & 5 points respectively compared to Pachuca's4 and Morelia's lowly 1.
There will be two final Interliga matches on Sunday, and those winners will go to the Libertadores Cup this year, along with 2004 Mexican Champs UNAM Pumas. Here are those two games (which will be played at the HDC):
Veracruz v Guadalajara
UANL Tigres v Monterrey
-Last night saw the other semifinal 1st leg of the English League Cup:
Blackburn 1-1 Manchester United - Louis Saha scored for Man U, then Morten Gamst Pedersen replied for Blackburn. Tim Howard DID NOT play for Man U, which can't be good for his World Cup team hopes. The return leg is Wed Jan 25. With Man U holding that precious away goal for any tiebreaker situations.
-Italy's TIM Cup is in the second leg of the round of 16. Here were the scores:
Brescia 3-4 Milan - Milan wins 7-4 on aggregate
Sampdoria 2-1 Cagliari - Samp wins 3-2 on agg.
Roma 2-1 Naploli - Roma wins 5-1 on agg.
Udinese 3-1 Altalanta - Udinese wins 3-2 on agg.
2 more matches tonight to finish the round:
Cittadella v Lazio - Lazio lead 2-0
Inter v Parma - Inter lead 0-1
-Columbus has officially signed Chilean defender Marcos Gonzalez, and also Uganda-born English defender Joel Kitamirike from Dundee United in Scotland.
-US Soccer is finalizing plans for a game on April 11 v Honduras at Legion Field in Birmingham.
-Liverpool signed defender Daniel Agger from Brondby in Denmark.
-Frank Dell'apa on next weeks MLS Superdarft via Soccernet.
-These are the young USA players who have left college or chosen to pass up college and go straight to MLS. They are signed under contracts called Generation Adidas, because of funding for these rosters spots coming from Adidas. Here are this years crop:
Josmer Altidore
Patrick Ianni
Kei Kamarn
Sacha Kljestan
Dax McCarty
Jacob Peterson
Willie Simms
Nathan Sturgis
Blake Wagner
Marvell Wynne
Jed Zayner
-US Soccer has posted a "diary entry" by USA player Chris Rolfe, in which he breaks down his day (Mon Jan 9) at the Team USA training camp.
-Remember back to when Chicago's Andy Herron had his full on melt down during his teams final playoff loss to New England in November? A late Chicago goal was wiped out do to an offside call that Herron disagreed with. (It was the right call.) He went absolutely nuts on the assistant referee who called it, and even appeared to push the guy. He got a red card, but kept arguing even after being sent off. He got his punishment today - 6 game suspension. Wow! That must be close to an MLS record. 6 frickin games! I can see the appeal coming already on that one.
-Buzz from 3rd Degree has gathered his thoughts on the Interliga matches that just took place in Dallas.
-Metrostars made it official with the signing of Scotsman Peter Canero from Dundee United as previously rumored. They also took a step toward more experience by acquiring Chris Henderson from Columbus but gave up young talented defender Tim Ward in exchange. I am not sure I understand this at all. We know Henderson works his ass off, but I am not so sure he adds a whole lot on the field, where Ward seems to have all the upside in the world. We shall see, but I would take Ward in that deal. And so would Sigi Schmid.
-Soccer America Confidential wrote this today: Resigned as they are to playing in Houston this season, several former San Jose players have objected to AEG's pronouncement that they wear San Jose Earthquake attire during the preseason until their Houston garb is ready. An AEG executive, dispatched last month to oversee the closing of team offices and make sure nobody snuck out with so much as a paper clip, informed the players that new Houston uniforms wouldn't be ready in time for the preseason, so for the first couple of months in 2006 they would be wearing San Jose Earthquakes gear. WTF???? Can't they just find them some generic gear to wear?
posted by brucio at 14:31
5 Comments:
Hey Bruce, seems I need a LexisNexis user ID and password to log in and see the "The Top 20 Players Outside the Premiership. "
That last point is absolutely insane. After Garber's insistence that the Quakes' legacy stay in SJ, forcing Houston players to wear Quakes garb is a massive slap in the face not just to the fans in the Bay Area, but to all MLS fans. Really, really bush league.
Are you sure that the Carling Cup has an away goals rule? For some reason I seem to remember it's got unusual rules and maybe goes straight to penalties if tied after the 2 legs. Although I could be wrong. It's just a weird set up overall though, with single matches throughout until the semis which are 2 legged, and then the final is a one off again.
Given that this is a soccer blog, I half expect the Hermann Munster News...
But I agree with Fish. Bush league. If it is true. And it goes forward.
hey lep
i have no idea what the carling cup rules are, i just make most of this up remember
ken - i had to take it down, cuz i connected through my secret workplace access filter and apparently its a subscription site that most of you cant get to - sorry
this whole san jose-houston thing just continues to be an open wound - will it ever heal? my guess is that houston will have some sort of curse hanging over the team.
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