Me & Bobby Boswell Both Have Pharyngitis News

(This is the best I can muster right now. Sorry the posts have been so sporadic, but I have been up and down and around for the past week with what I now know to be Pharyngitis - and it stinks. DC defender Bobby Boswell has it too, but we didn't get it from each other, in case you were wondering.)
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Reading wins 5-0 and clinches the English Coca Cola Championship Division crown! They got promoted last week and now win their league with 5 games left to play. What a performance. Congrats to the two Americans on the team Bobby Convey and Marcus Hahnemann, they played a big role in the season's success. Bobby Convey also won the leagues Player of the Month award for March and the team Player of the Month award for March. Wow! He has started all 41 league games for his team this year. It sure seem like he is in prime position to have a great World Cup. Could he be the guy to unexpectedly step up?
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I was in KC to see Kansas City really put it to Columbus 3-1 on Saturday night. Davy Arnaud, Nick Garcia and rookie right back Matt Groenwald all played outstanding for the winners. Jose Burciaga, Eddie Johnson, Jack Jewsbury, Kerry Zavagnin and Scott Sealy also played really well in victory. The only guy that looked out of sorts for KC was Sasha Victorine, which could be a bad sign down the road since he is supposedly their central offensive midfielder. The home teams two biggest stars Josh Wolff and Jimmy Conrad were both out with injuries, making the win look even better. On the other side of the fence, Columbus played almost completely awful. Apart from a few moments of real skill from Eddie Gaven, Kei Kamara & Tim Ward (who are all teenagers and shouldn't have to carry the damn team), plus at least one great save from keeper Jon Busch, this club was very hard to watch. New Chilean signing (one of two from that country) Sebastian Rozental in particular was virtually non existent out there. He is supposed to be the play maker, but he looked more like a silent referee whose only job was to keep out of the way. In the second half he had a few touches, but he seemed to have no idea what the word "defend" meant. Rusty Pierce was nearly as useless in the back line (and he has played defender in the league for several years), first at left back and then moving to the center when Chilean defender Marcos Gonzalez was subbed off at half time (injured right hip). By my count Rusty was directly responsible for two of the three goals, with Gonzalez guilty on the other. I think Sigi shoulda subbed both of them plus Rozental out at halftime and put in three new players - any three - cuz they woulda had an easy chance of doing better. The good news for Columbus is that they have some quality players out injured that will return and help: Duncan Oughton, Frankie Hejduk & John Wolyniec (and maybe even rookie Jed Zayner who is very talented). As the teams left the field we sang a little song to Lumbus coach Schmid about his 437 month long pregnancy entitled "Do You Want A Pickle?" I was told it was an old German birthing song.
Game report from the Kansas City Star
Match report from the Columbus Dispatch
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Before going to Arrowhead Stadium in KC we watch Dallas v Chicago in our hotel room while chowing down on Arthur Bryants legendary barbeque. While after the KC v Colum game we headed to Gentleman Jim's nightclub where all the eyes were on dancing ladies, but all the TV screens were tuned to Los Angeles v New England.
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Here are the scores from all the MLS games on Week 1 of the leagues 11th season:
Dallas 3-2 Chicago
Kansas City 3-1 Columbus
Los Angeles 0-1 New England
Houston 5-2 Colorado
DC 2-2 New York
Chivas 3-0 Salt Lake
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Tobias Xavier Lopez of the Fort Worth Star Telegram on Dallas' win.
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Dellapa on NE over LA
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Goff on DC's drew with Red Bull
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In Chivas' dumping of fellow newcomers Salt Lake, Ante Razov cleaned off his dust cover shoes and scored two. Jonesy with the LA Times match report.
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Bernardo Fallas in the Houston Chronicle on Brian Ching's massive 4 goal performance in the win over Colorado.
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MLS first weekend attendance:
25,462 in Houston
18,143 in KC
27,000 in LA for the Galaxy
20,379 in LA for Chivas USA
23,028 in DC
19,377 in Dallas
22,232 average - not bad
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Despite Max Bretos' claim last week that John O'Brien would be joining Los Angeles, it now looks like he will be signing on with Chivas USA. But will he get traded after he signs? ADDITION: Word on the street has the team introducing JOB at 3pm central time today!
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UEFA Champions League Quarterfinal 2nd leg matches (with previous leg scores):
Tuesday April 4
Milan v Lyon (0-0) - live at 1:30pm central time on ESPN2
Villa v Inter (1-2) - live at 1:30pm central time on Setanta
Wednesday April 5
Barca v Benfica (0-0) - live at 1:30pm central time on Setanta
Juve v Arsenal (0-2) - live at 1:30pm central time on ESPN2
-Villarreal sits in the best spot for an upset having scored the away goal. But all four really could go either way.
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UEFA.com with one of their seemingly endless raves-articles on Argentine & Barcelona wonderchild Lionel Messi.