Friday, April 07, 2006

Bullfish Catchers Daily News

All 6 MLS games this weekend are on Saturday:
DC v Chivas - see it at 3pm central time on ESPN2
New York v New England
Houston v KC
Dallas v Salt Lake
Colorado v Columbus
Los Angeles v Chicago
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Claudio Reyna is expected to make his return for Manc City v Tottenham on Saturday.
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The LA Galaxy signed Brazilian forward Thiago De Souza from Borussia Dortmund. Let's hope this dude is about 500% better then their last Brazilian forward Naldo who is about as worthless as hard driving rain in to the sea. De Souza looks to me like a little speedy guy. They are going to need another forward badly too, not just cuz Lando will be gone during the World Cup, but because there is a good chances that Hercules is going to flop this year.
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Llew Llewellyn from American Soccer News has a good indepth look back at LA's opening game blunders including excellent quotes from players.
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The US Players Assoc has a chat with the ABMOD - Ankle Biting Midget Of Death - Richie Williams, who is now a coach with New York.
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FIFA.com with a story on Reading's American super-duo Convey & Hahnemann.
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Giant midfielder Papa Bouba Diop has signed a contract extension with Fulham thru 2009.
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Guatemala have hired a new coach for their national team. He is Hernan Dario Gomez who formerly coach both Colombia and Ecuador.
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Soccer America talks to USA assistant Mooch Myernick.
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Don't know if you caught all this during the week, but Youri Djorkaeff smashed home an awesome freekick for New York last Sunday v DC United. The next day the league made a big stink about two NY players being in an offside position when the ball was struck and the referee let it go saying that the players were passively offside. The league disagreed and has now ordered referees to call this an offside play. Is it or isn't it? The passive offside thing to me is a giant bucket of worms because it is left up to interpretation which always gets ugly. Even Djorkaeff is now pissed off about the league stepping in. Big Apple has his remarks. But Youri was not so angry that he didn't end his statement with style: "I am very sorry for DC, but my goal was beautiful."
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I saw part of a Guatemalan league match the other night and the mighty Pando Ramirez scored for his club (oh hell, I can't even remember their name right now! Is it Municipal?). It was his 8th goal already this winter. What is this all about? This is coming from the supposed "hitman" who only managed to score from a lame PK during the entire season last year with LA. Oh, and of course he also scored that goal in overtime to win MLS Cup in November!
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Ethan dropped me a note from Philadelphia about a story in the Kansas City Star the other day. The second part of the article is about a rumor on relocating the KC team to South Jersey.
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But there is also news from a local KC TV station that the deal to sell to locals in KC is nearly done. Watch this video.
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The Denver Post with a little somethin' on Colorado's newest striker Nicolas Hernandez. Nic enjoys the sounds of Metallica.
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Frank Giase of the Newark Star Ledger on what the locals can expect from Red Bull come game day.
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Soccernet with a look at the USA developmental programs.
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Il Tino & his Clean Sheet from MLSnet
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NYNJSoccer has interviews with two of MLS' young & explosively talented defenders: Marvell Wynne of New York - and - Tim Ward of Columbus.
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And Sir Sigi, Coach of Columbus talks to Soccer Capital News.
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The Guardian's The Fiver, brought to you by Demko's Live Nude Weblog.
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Dipsy-mania breaks out in South Africa.
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Not-Doug Logan is saying that Toyota has pulled out of the deal to name Bridgeview Stadium.
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Inter Toronto FC. Now that's a dumb name. Did I say that before? Well, get used to it, cuz I will say it many more times.
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This dude has brutally bad luck: (from Reuters) Real Madrid defender Jonathan Woodgate is likely to miss the rest of the season because of sciatic pain linked to a succession of thigh injuries.
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Copa Libertadores Group stage!! This week’s matches and scores:
Apr 04
Sporting Cristal 2-2 Estudiantes LP - Grupo 2
Nacional 0-0 Internacional - Grupo 6
Atlético Nacional 1-2 Palmeiras - Grupo 7
Apr 05
São Paulo FC 2-1 Chivas Guadalajara - Grupo 1
The Strongest 1-0 Goiás EC - Grupo 3
Paulista FC 2-1 River Plate - Grupo 8
Apr 06
Universidad Católica 2-3 Corinthians - Grupo 4
Liga Dep. Universitaria 4-0 Universitario - Grupo 5
Cerro Porteño 1-3 Rosario Central - Grupo 7
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Thursday Libertadores recap from Sports Illustrated. Palmeiras has joined Velez Sarsfield as the only two teams already qualified for the round of 16. But with most teams only have 1 qualifying game left (a few still have 2 to play) the number of team eliminated will pile up quickly.
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Those UEFA Cup quarterfinals are complete (first leg results included):
Zenit 1-1 Sevilla (1-4) - The Russians are out after that first leg disaster.
Schalke 04 1-1 Levski (3-1) - Schalke stifle Lev and their 3 road goals steal the show.
Steaua Bucuresti 0-0 Rapid Bucuresti (1-1) - Steau go thru with the away goal from the first leg.
Middlesbrough 4-1 Basel (0-2) - The Middles storm back to win 4-3 on agg. The strikers Viduka (with two), Hasselbaink & Maccarone (one each) led the comeback!
-The Semifinals now line up like this on 4-20 and 4-27:
Steaua v Middlesbrough
Schalke v Sevilla
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Big games around the planet this weekend:
Aston Villa v West Brom - not a great match by any stretch, actually a horrible match, but a good old Birmingham derby is always worth checking out
Man Utd v Arsenal - this years great pretenders clash with nothing really on the line except pride. Both are on a real roll, but neither have a chance of catching Chelsea at the top.
Juventus v Fiorentina - #1 v #4
Werder Bremen v Bayern Munich - #3 v #1
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The chase for Eredivisie title in Holland is coming to a close too. PSV can win the Eredivisie title on Sunday at home v Groningen with a draw or win or loss by second place Alkmaar (who play at Ajax on Sunday). PSV lead by 9 points with 3 matches to go.

5 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Umm...Bruce...I think that Arsenal is playing for a little prize called Champions League football next year. Obviously the game against Man United will not seal their fate either way, but every point is important in their race against Spurs.

4:05 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Pando did nothing for L.A. because he played left wing for Steve Sampson. It was the first time in his soccer life that he wasn't the center mid

4:25 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Aston Villa v West Brom

The derby will have added interest because of the relegation fight.

12:54 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The US development programme? Woah. How much of that is actually true, not just sweeping generalisations?

7:17 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

After the NY-DC game last weekend, a reporter asked Djorkaeff how he scored that goal (perhaps implying that it may have had something to do with the two offsides guys obstructing the view of Troy Perkins).

The response: "Because I am Youri Djorkaeff."

Unbeleivable! This guy is like the second coming of Lothar Mattheus for NY/NJ fans. Except this time, he's good.

11:57 AM  

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