Thursday, March 16, 2006

Sugary Cabbage Treats News

US Soccer has confirmed that Clint Dempsey was left off the team roster for next weeks match in Germany because he had been suspended by his club, New England, for his brawl with teammate Joe Franchino.
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There is a rumor floating around that the USA will play Tunisia in Tunis on June 2.
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Yes! At 4:22:50pm central time yesterday, someone from the Pentagon visited du Nord! Which was about two hours after someone from the US House of Representative, and someone from the US Senate visited within minutes of each other. I wonder if the Pentagon visit had something to do with my comments last week about Alexi Lalas and his jihadist quality video tape.
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Preposterous! So FIFA sends out their stupid little ratings for March and the USA goes to #5 on the countdown. Insanity. Asinine. Wholly False. And to make it worse, now all the non-soccer people in America (most Americans) will get their expectations cranked up very high for the World Cup and when their idea of success doesn't happen they will call the team a failure. There is no way the USA is #5! I would say more like #15. And how does Italy destroy Germany and not leap up the charts while Germany plummets.
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Larry Morgan of the LA Daily News on the memorial service held yesterday for LA's Doug Hamilton.
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So Cal Soccer News was there too. This page also has a link to an online guest book with comments from many amazing people in the soccer world.
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And Luis Bueno rembembers Hamilton at MLSnet.
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Andrew Hush of Soccer New England has Part 1 of 2 of an interview with Red Bull Pres Alexi Lalas who apparently can't shut up these days.
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Empire Supporters Club, the Metrostars biggest fan group, have issued a press release regarding their feelings toward the Red Bull purchase of their team. (Hilariously this press release is nowhere to be found on the ESC website, so I got it from NYNJ Soccer.)
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NYNJ Soccer is also reporting that Red Bull is putting together a package for their fans to attend the season opener in DC for FREE! Yes FREE! No other details yet, but this is huge.
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The team at Big Apple Soccer has two stories on the quick changes going on in New York: New owner, new name, new locker room - and - Why Red Bull bought the Metros
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BAS also has a story on top league & NY draft pick Marvell Wynne who is just returning from surgery but has charged straight into the team. Said Wynne: "I haven’t felt as good as I do right now in two years."
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One last thing on New York today - Pres Alexi Lalas has been quoted several times lately as saying how much he loves "the circus" atmosphere. That is fine, but its still soccer, and if he loves the circus so much then he can join one, cuz they are everywhere.
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Andrea Canales previews the Chicago Fire for Soccernet.
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Frank Dell'apa steps back to ponder how MLS teams can capitalize on the CONCACAF Champions Cup in future years, for Soccernet.
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Steven Goff reports on the findings from the investigation regarding supposed racial comments made by DC coach Peter Nowak.
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I would have to say that this comes as a bit of surprise to me: Umbro now owns 94% of the USL.
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The crazed race for the cash is on! How can Man U & The Arse keep pace with Chelsea in England. They are gonna try. The Financial Times looks at the situation - and - so does the Guardian.
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Soccer America has 3 Questions for Chivas USA boss Bob Bradley.
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US Soccer asks retarded questions of KC defender Jimmy Conrad and he gives them equally retarded answers (along with some genius answers too).
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AFP talks to USA & Charlton (on loan from Man U) defender Jonathan Spector about his chances of making the USA World Cup team.
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From our man Lance - some very good video of the recently passed Celtic great Jimmy Johnstone (aka Wee Jinky) via the BBC site. It's got some vintage footage of Johnstone doing some mad dribbling and the Lisbon Lions celebrating. Rest In Peace Jimmy! Jimmy Jimmy Jimmy Oi Oi Oi!
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There were 2 FA Cup Fifth Round replays of matches that ended in draws.
Tuesday: Aston Villa 1-2 Manchester City - red hot Georgios Samara scored again for City in the 16th minute, with Darius Vassell scoring 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.
Yesterday: West Ham 2-1 Bolton - Marlon Harewood nails the winner in the 96th minute (extra time)
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And here are the 6th Round/Quarterfinal matches slated for next week:
FA Cup Quarterfinals
Mon Mar 20
Manchester City v West Ham
Tue Mar 21
Birmingham v Liverpool
Wed Mar 22
Chelsea v Newcastle
Thu Mar 23
Charlton v Middlesbrough
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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 1-2 Sporting Cristal - Grupo 2
Goiás EC 3-0 Newell's Old Boys - Grupo 3
Palmeiras 0-0 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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Wednesday's Libertadores recap from Sports Illustrated. I forgot to mention yesterday that with Velez Sarsfields win they became the first team to qualify for the next round. The top two teams from each group advance.
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Deportivo La Coruna 0-0 Espanyol in the 2nd leg of the 2nd semifinal for the Spanish King's Cup aka Copa Del Rey. Esp wins 2-1 on aggregate by means of goals from the first leg. Esp now faces Zaragoza for the title on April 12.
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UEFA Cup Round of 16, 2nd leg knockout matches last night & tonight (with previous leg scores listed):
Wed:
Roma 2-1 Middlesbrough - 2-2 on aggregate, but Middlesbrough win with the away goal
Hamburg 3-1 Rapid Bucuresti - 3-3 on agg, but Rapid win with the away goal
Sevilla 2-0 Lille - Sevilla win it 2-1 on agg
Thur:
Schalke v Palermo (0-1)
Betis v Steaua (0-0)
Levski v Udinese (0-0)
Zenit v Marseille (1-0)
Strasbourg v Basel (0-2)
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Today's Michael Ballack watch: He was seen in the States last night dining at an undisclosed location with the entrepreneurs behind new sensation Bunky County.
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After a rare round of midweek games last night, here is how things are stacked down in Mexico:
21 Pachuca
21 Chiapas
18 Cruz Azul
15 Toluca
14 America
14 Atlante
14 Necaxa
14 UNAM Pumas
13 San Luis
13 Atlas
13 Guadalajara
13 Monterrey
12 UANL Tigres
12 Sinaloa Dorados
12 UAdG Tecos
9 Veracruz
9 Morelia
5 Santos

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

If you look at the Doug Hamilton guest book in the So Cal Soccer news article you will see that some stars like Landon Donovan and Jaime Moreno were smart enough not to put their e-mail.

Kevin Hartman and Paul Caligiuri were not. I wonder if they are going to get flooded.

1:02 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

If the FIFA ranking gets a bunch of Americans to tune in, I'm all for it. Many of those people will get hooked on the game via the world's greatest sporting event, even if the U.S. does crash out.

The ones who will only watch if the U.S. is winning... well, those people aren't my friends anyway.

1:47 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The unstoppable march to UEFA Cup continues for FK Zenit SPb...where will be the next stop on the Neva Gang Victory tour?

2:00 PM  

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