Monday, January 09, 2006

The Moon Is In The Seventh News

-A coupla USA tough guys!
-Some notes on Team USA practice sessions from posters at Big Soccer: TrickHog - Jan 4 training session impressions. & The Manwich - (short note Jan 6 practice) Chris Klein hit the post several times. Today's scrimmages were fast paced with a lot of scoring. I didn't keep track of goals and what not, but I know EJ and Twellman had a good share of goals. These scrimmages would have about 6 or so players on the inside and 8 on the outside. The inside players would pass to the outside players, then outside players would cross or center the ball into the box. 4 players on the sides, and 4 players on the goal sides. I was impressed by Twellman and Rolfe. Depressed by Ching. Rolfe is quick and has great ball control, I think he scored a couple. Ching didn't do much, he is just a tall body out there. Didn't connect with headers, and was slow. Twellman scored a nice scissor kick off of a nice cross by Santino. Jaqua scored a beauty of a header, cross coming from Dunivant. Chris Albright didn't train, don't know why. Adu is doing a good job, but just seems like a kid out there. He gets pushed off the ball pretty easily. Today he was playing kind of left mid. He'll improve with the time he gets here. But he's not scared to push forward. Reis and Hartman were great between the sticks today. Guzan looks good.
-You can try and browse through these two threads to glean more, Week 1 - and - Week 2, but be warned that they are chock full of idiots spouting completely uninformed opinions (just like this weblog), and only 1 in every 20-25 posts is worth reading (unlike this weblog).
-Notes from US Soccer on the training camp, including 4 new videos, one each with Landycakes, Freddy A, The Bruce, and a training camp scrimmage.
-Chris Albright & Pablo Mastroeni have both been out of the USA training camp with injuries. Albright has knee trouble, but no word on Mastro. I bet if Pablo grew those dreadlocks back, his injuries would go away.
-His Royal Highness Grahame L Jones of the vaunted Los Angeles Times has a nice story on the USA training camp.
-Eddie Johnson bends the ear of Soccer365's Andrea Canales.
-Soccer365 also has the list of the American youngsters enrolled at US Soccer's U17 Residency Program in Florida for the spring school semester.
-The 3rd Round of the English FA Cup took place this weekend. Here is the tally (with comments on the Americans in the matches):
Blackburn 3-0 QPR - Brad Freidel with the shut out
Wigan 1-1 Leeds - Eddie Lewis served in the cross for Leeds that got headed home for his teams goal
Millwall 1-1 Everton - Zak Whitbread played the full match for Millwall (he is on loan from Liverpool)
Burton 0-0 Man Utd - Tim Howard with the shut out for Man U
Sheff Wednesday 2-4 Charlton - Jonny Spector played the full 90 in the win
Fulham 1-2 Leyton Orient – One of the biggest upsets of the round, Fulham played with no Carlos Bocanegra or Brian McBride in the line up. But Simon Elliot did make his debut, and it was a disaster. He was the player who was most responsible for both Leyton goals. Ouch! (That's nearly a Woodgate-esque debut.)
West Brom 1-1 Reading - Covney & Hahnemann both watched their Reading teammates from the stands. Will they play in the rematch?
You can see all the other scores here.
-Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune: FA Cup proves oldest is still best
-Michael Lewis of Big Apple Soccer has talked to Metrostars coach Mo Johnston who says Amado Guevara is "100 percent" coming back to the Meadowlands to play next season.
-Big Apple is also reporting a RUMOR that Polish international midfielder Piotr Swierczewski will be training and trying out with the Metrostars. The 34 year old currently plays for Lech Poznan.
-Jason Garey of Maryland won the 2005 Hermann Trophy as expected.
-Andrew Monfried profiles Pat Noonan for the US National Soccer Players Assoc.
-The Oregonian has a story today on the lack of a top flight team in Portland, even though they have a top notch fan base. You wanna know the reason? It's called "Ownership".
-The latest news from San Jose on the stadium bullshit there.
-I watched the Barcelona derby with Demko (go to his site and tell the lazy bastard to write something new) on Saturday (Espanyol v Barcelona). I like derby matches alot, and despite being out-talented by a mile, Espanyol hung in there with Barca losing 1-2. In the match Barca midfielder Deco smashed his head into the shoulder of teammate Motta and was knocked out, receiving a concussion. That is a very serious matter. Our regular reader and growing contributor BQ sent me this follow up on Deco's health.
-Should we change the name of Columbus Crew to Fulham? The team from London is now chasing Danny Szetela, which could make 3 Crewsers at Fulham. Doesn't FFC coach Cookie Coleman know that if he wants his team to get better that he has to get GOOD players. McBride was the only person on that club worth wasting money on. I guess there is a chance that he forgot about the other 11 MLS teams, and all their players who kicked his teams ass last summer.
-According to a very insidery Logan's Revenge, the Houston team name choice is Houston 1836. It's not final though, with some debate continuing. Can I say how much I love Logan's Revenge, and the scoops afforded us by Not-Doug Logan who writes it. There are several really juicy tidbits to read there right now.
-KC Star Editorial Page on the soccer stadium issue.
-3rd Degree is reporting that Trinidad & Tobago left midfielder Brent Rahim will be in preseason camp with FC Dallas trying to win a spot on the team.
-The American striker Conor Casey who plays for Mainz in the Bundesliga has been spending his winter break in Utah rehabbing his surgically repaired knee, AND talking to Salt Lake about the possibility of coming to play for them. If you are a fan of either I wouldn't start holding your breath quite yet, but it could happen.
-Yanks Abroad has a joint interview with Readings American stars Bobby Convey & Marcus Hahnemann.
-Looks like Christian Vieri's short run at Milan is over, and he will sign with Monaco. It's kind of a disaster for him, cuz he blamed all his problems in Inter, yet Milan couldn't revive him either. Good luck Bobo.
-Glenn Davis at the Houston Chronicle writes about MLS v Mexican Primera.
-Interliga kept on rocking this weekend. Here are those scores:
Necaxa 2-3 UNAL Tigres
Guadalajara 2-2 Cruz Azul
Morelia 1-2 Pachuca
Veracruz 1-2 Monterrey
The last group stage games are Tue & Wed, with the top 4 teams playing off for the 2 Libertadores spots.
See standings here, and game video highlights here.
-Tobias Lopez covered the Interliga action at Pizza Hut Park for his Fort
Worth Star Telegram both Saturday and Sunday.
-Chivas USA has announced that they re-signed their 3 biggest name players, Paco Palencia, Ramon Ramirez and Juan Pablo Garcia, for 2006. The team also announced that this Saturday they will launch their new weekly TV show, "Somos Chivas USA" to be shown locally in LA on Azteca 54. Lastly, Chivas is trying to sign 73 year old, sorry, 37 year old Mexican & Tigres veteran defender Claudio Suarez too. I think Suarez has just over 1000 caps for Mexico.
-Steve Staunton is going to be named the new manager of Ireland.
-Ives Galarcep of Soccernet wonders who runs the ship for Team USA on the field at Germany 06.
-And Jeff Carlisle looks at who will be the top picks in this years MLS Superdraft.
-Lubos Reiter was a big flop last year for Chicago and has sign with Artmedia back in his native Europe.
-The Hunt Park Insider is reporting that 2 Chilean newspapers are reporting that Chilean National Team central defender Marcos Gonzalez will be signing with the Columbus Crew. (Maybe as soon as next week.) He has been playing for Palestino in his countries top division.

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Don't know if you noticed Mig but Abdus Ibrahim from (Richfield, Minn.) made the list of forwards. Very cool. Also saw this in MYSA Soccer Times
http://www.mnyouthsoccer.org/publications/stimes.cfm

8:36 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

shockingly it sounds like simon elliot was at least partially culpable for both goals in his debut. Nice work Fulham!

12:26 PM  
Blogger brucio said...

yes demko, we covered that here today. do you read du nord, or just come here to post comments and look cool?

3:57 PM  

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