Thursday, March 09, 2006

Harmless Coughing News

Red Bull has been approved by the Major League Soccer owners to purchase Metrostars from AEG. Or as Michael Lewis of Big Apple Soccer put it: "It's Done!" This should certainly throw a lot of new sparks into the kickoff of the 06 season! The real question becomes - Will Red Bull give the boot to the Lalas-Johnson braintrust who only recently took over running the club. I would guess, yes! One of Red Bull's new principals Giorgio Chignalia told Lewis: "Get rid of everybody. You're going to bring in new blood, new ideas and new coaches. Players who can win games." WOW! Bold. If you go to the MLS website, the name Metrostars is already gone from the top of the page, replaced by New York.
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All 4 CONCACAF Champions Cup return leg matches were last night. And boy oh boy did it stink if you were an LA or New Eng fan. Really really stunk the place up:
Saprissa 3-2 Los Angeles - Sapri wins 3-2 on aggregate. LA went up 0-2 in the first half in really nice build ups and shots for Joshua Gardner & Dandy Donovan. But you could smell the fear, and in the second half the home side stormed back with 2 goals on free kicks and absolutely embarrassing defense. The game went to extra time and the exact same thing happened! Painful to watch. Saprissa pummeled LA the entire second half. At the break both teams had 5 shots on goal. At the end of regulation Saprissa had 16 shots to LA's 6. That would make it 11-1 in the second half. Then of course Sapri flopped around on the ground near death to kill off the match. They were pathetic.
Alajuelense 1-0 New England - Ala wins 1-0 on agg with a free kick goal in the 89th frickin minute. The two teams went nearly 180 minutes with no goals between them. Then it all ended quickly. As Max Bretos said on TV after the match, "You gotta score goals at home to win these series!"
Toluca 2-1 Olimpio - Toluca wins 4-1 on agg
America 5-2 Portmore - America leads 7-3 on agg
So the semifinals are both Costa Rica v Mexico, and look like this:
Alajuelense v America on March 23 & 29
Toluca v Saprissa on March 22 & 29
Note: They do NOT use the "away goals count double to break ties" rule. So all ties are settled with PK's after extra periods are played.
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Marc Connolly talks to former New England and current Aalesund goalkeeper Adin Brown for the US Players Assoc.
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Michael Ballack is going to be on trial with Iranian club Ghandi with hopes to sign with them for next season. Mamoud Akbar Hashemi, manager of Ghandi is quoted in today's edition of the Iran Daily as saying, "We know of Ballack from the television. His skill seems good, but we really need to get him in here to test his physical attributes against our own great players before we can tender him an official offer. We hope to make that happen before the weekend."
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Glenn Davis ponders the Dynamo Hum in today's Houston Chronic.
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And get a podcast of Davis's Soccer Hour radio show from last night featuring Brian Ching of Houston Dynamo & Bob Jenkins, U18 USA coach.
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Rob Hughes examines the Arse's win over the Galacticraps: Young guns halt fading Galacticos
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NYNJ Soccer has "Six On His Mind: With Alexi Lalas". (These 6 questions were asked before the Red Bull deal.)
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You wanna take a look at a group of 30 unanimously stupid people? Here are the 30 Caribbean Football Union members who voted in unison to support completely corrupt Trinidad & Tobago President Jack Warner. Do you know why they all support this criminal? Because he is a FIFA Vice-President (all pun intended), and along with Sepp Blatter and all the other corrupt lil bitches in charge of FIFA they could crush those little Caribbean nations dreams of ever succeeding in world football. Sad isn't it.
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The 2nd leg of Champions League Knock Out Action with previous leg scores listed:
Drama Everywhere Last Night-
Lyon 4-0 PSV - Lyon wins huge on 5-0 aggregate
Milan 4-1 Bayern - Milano thrash Bayern 5-2 on agg
Arse 0-0 Real - the upset is complete as The Arse hang on for 1-0 agg
Liver 0-2 Benfica - and another upset as the title holder go out 3-0 to Benfica on agg
Delayed until Tuesday March 14
Inter v Ajax (2-2)
The next round draw will be held Friday.
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Copa Libertadores Group stage!! This week’s matches and scores:
Mar 07
Chivas Guadalajara 1-1 Caracas FC - Grupo 1
Universitario 0-1 Vélez Sarsfield - Grupo 5
Rocha FC 3-2 Liga Dep. Universitaria - Grupo 5
Mar 08
São Paulo FC 4-1 Cienciano - Grupo 1
Sporting Cristal 2-1 Bolívar - Grupo 2
Pumas UNAM 1-2 Internacional - Grupo 6
River Plate 4-3 El Nacional - Grupo 8
Mar 09
Independiente Santa Fe - Estudiantes LP - Grupo 2
Nacional - UA Maracaibo - Grupo 6
Tigres UANL - Corinthians - Grupo 4
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Wednesday's Sports Illustrated Libertadores match recap.
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Coming up on today, it's UEFA Cup Round of 16 (2 legged knockout - Mar 9 & 15):
Palermo v Schalke
Rapid Bucuresti v Hamburg
Lille v Sevilla
Steaua v Betis
Middlesbrough v Roma
Udinese v Levski
Marseille v Zenit
Basel v Strasbourg

6 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

The evidence supporting the overwhelming idiocy of Chignalia seems stronger that that against it. I think Jack bell is indulging in misplaced nostalgia. He just likes chignalia because, as a reporter, the dude made his job easy. I can't claim any significant knowledge of the NASL, but there's one fact that's pretty persuasive: it's not longer in business.

MLS, for all its strange foibles (is that a word?), has steadily built an entertaining, fiscally promising league. I'd rather see that progress continue than have them spending millions to bring over beckham or some other overpaid jackass.

12:06 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The possibility of Giorgio Chingalia taking over the team seems less likely today than it did yesterday. Ives Galarcep in his article today that major changes wheren't expected. Also, the Logan's Revenge blog says that Chingalia comments are basically saying "I want the Job." He also said that Lalas and Johnson would stick around atleast in the short term.

Ultimately I think this is a good move for MLS as long as they don't have a Cosmos ideal for the team.

12:21 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I also doubt Lalas is going anywhere. The press release on the purchase on RedBull's website talks about Lalas as GM.

matthew

12:35 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

the galaxy looked like a team of 12 year olds against saprissa. Is the level of quality really THAT different?

1:32 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Red Bull New York sounds so much better than New York Red Bulls.

3:46 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey, let's have some love for Tean Shock & Awe in the UEFA Cup, a.k.a. FK Zenit Sankt-Peterburg! Check out the sweeeeeeet goal past a helpless Barthez yesterday:

http://zenitonline.ru/video/91/91_50.avi

That's Andrei Arshavin, and you'll be seeing him in England next year...of course AFTER we win the UEFA Cup! ЗЕНИТ ВПЕРЁД!!!

9:51 AM  

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