Size Matters In News

USA has announced their roster for the March 22 match v Germany in Dusseldorf:
G:
Marcus Hahnemann
Kasey Keller
D:
Gregg Berhalter
Steve Cherundolo
Jimmy Conrad
Cory Gibbs
Frankie Hejduk
Heath Pearce
Eddie Pope
M:
Bobby Convey
Landon Donovan
Chris Klein
Pablo Mastroeni
Ben Olsen
Kerry Zavagnin
F:
Brian Ching
Eddie Johnson
Taylor Twellman
Josh Wolff
Editors note: It's really great to see Cory Gibbs on that list!
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New England headed south to train today in Costa Rica without Clint Dempsey. Because of his fight with teammate Joe Franchino, Dempsey was suspended 2 weeks by the club. He will rejoin the team on March 27 in Boston for the final week of training before the MLS season kicks off. While in CR, the team will play 3 matches versus Costa Rican sides: the Costa Rica U21's, LD Alajuelense Reserves, & CS Herediano. In another note about the fight, Franchino had one eye swell shut & was taken to the hospital for x-rays that came up prognosis negative.
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Andrew Hush of Soccer New England reported accurately that Clint Dempsey was NOT called in to the USA squad for next week, probably because of the suspension.
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Bayern Munich midfielder, and my favorite German player, Seba Deisler will not play against the USA due to a right knee injury.
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In an incredible gesture, Saprissa & Chivas USA owner Jorge Vergara used his personal private jet fly to Doug Hamilton's body back to Los Angeles from Costa Rica last week. That is very cool of Jorge. Thumbs up to him.
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Nick Green of the Daily Breeze has a very nice article on Hamilton, including some Galaxy players quotes.
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Mark Zeigler of the San Diego Union Tribune with his usual column, plus Red Cards, Trophies & Sidelines.
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New York's new stadium in Harrison will officially be called Red Bull Park.
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In some exciting New York news, the team has announced a BAN on plastic horns at all RBNY games! I love noise, but I hate those things.
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This weeks First XI with Jeff Bradley features USA & New England striker Taylor Twellman.
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Paul Caliguiri will receive a very special honor commemorating his "Shot Heard Round The World" in May. FIFA will stage a pre-World Cup Legends of the Game match in Greece, and Caliguiri has been invited to participate. Very cool for him. I met him in Dallas last fall for the MLS Cup, and he was damn nice.
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Soccer 365's Lars Lifrak talks to Salt Lake striker Jason Kries, MLS's all time leading scorer.
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Pete Grathoff of the Kansas City Star says that KC is very close to signing Dutchman Dave Van den Bergh from Utrecht in the Eredivisie. How they will sign him outside the international transfer window I don't know.
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In the Champions League last night it was Inter 1-0 Ajax - a second-half bomb from Dejan Stankovic gave Inter a 3-2 aggregate win. They will now host Villareal in the first leg of the quarterfinals on Wed Mar 29. Second leg in Villa is on April 4.
Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune reviews the match: Inter does enough to dispatch Ajax
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Demko sends us this hot & cynically funny item: A poll conducted by the Stern newspaper has revealed only 3% of Germans believe their country will win the World Cup.
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From Reuters: Serbia and Montenegro could play in the Euro 2008 qualifiers as two separate teams if the state splits, the country's FA said on Wednesday. Montenegro, the smaller of the two republics, is scheduled to hold a referendum on May 21 to decide whether to remain a part of the union or become an independent nation.
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There are 2 FA Cup Fifth Round Replays (of matches that ended in draws) this week:
Last night - Aston Villa 1-2 Manchester City - red hot Georgios Samara scored again for City in the 16th minute, with Darius Vassell socring in the 48th for the win. Steve Davis got a late one for Villa to make it interesting. Claudio Reyna did not play, but was on the bench. City next play the winner of Bolton v West Ham on March 20.
Today - West Ham v Bolton
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Copa Libertadores Group stage!! This week’s matches and scores:
Mar 14
Cienciano 2-1 Caracas FC - Grupo 1
Vélez Sarsfield 4-3 Universitario - Grupo 5
Cerro Porteño 1-5 Atlético Nacional - Grupo 7
Mar 15
Bolívar - Sporting Cristal - Grupo 2
Goiás EC - Newell's Old Boys - Grupo 3
Palmeiras - Rosario Central - Grupo 7
Mar 16
Liga Dep. Universitaria - Rocha FC - Grupo 5
UA Maracaibo - Nacional - Grupo 6
River Plate - Paulista FC - Grupo 8
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Tuesday's Libertadores match recap from Soccernet. Velez pulled off one of the all time great comebacks, after going down 3-1, they lost a man, and still roared back to win 4-3!
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It's Deportivo La Coruna v Espanyol in the 2nd leg of the 2nd semifinal for the Spanish King's Cup aka Copa Del Rey. Esp leads 2-1 from first leg. The winner faces Zaragoza for the title on April 12.
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UEFA Cup Round of 16, 2nd leg knockout matches tonight (with previous leg scores listed):
Schalke v Palermo (0-1)
Hamburg v Rapid Bucuresti (0-2)
Sevilla v Lille (0-1)
Betis v Steaua (0-0)
Roma v Middlesbrough (0-1)
Levski v Udinese (0-0)
Zenit v Marseille (1-0)
Strasbourg v Basel (0-2)
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From our pal BQ: I happened to be doing a little channel surfing tonight and was breezing by Univision. Evidently there was this tabloid TV show on. It was showing this soccer match. I couldn't tell the teams but the match was evidently televised (several camera angles) and looked to be playing in a pretty big stadium. Anyway, what transpired was pretty amazing. A player was fighting with another player and after they broke it up the ref. who was a big solid guy pulled out a red card for the player. The player unexpectedly landed a solid left hook to the side of the face of the ref. What was amazing and totally unexpected was that the ref. more or less in self defense and almost before you could realize what happened countered with a right, left, right to the players face, totally shocking the player. One of the other scenes showed the ref chasing the player around the field with the other players and refs. trying to break it up. I of course don't condone that behavior but with all the shit that refs take these days it's amazing this sort of "postal" behavior doesn't happen more often.
I am looking for video footage, but have not found it yet. Let me know if you come across it so we can get it posted.
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Today's Michael Ballack watch: he got up this morning, did the Three S's (shit, shower, shave), styled his hair, smiled at himself in the mirror, sat down, ate some dry toast, then got out the world atlas to see where he would like to play next fall.