Wednesday, April 05, 2006

The Peoples News

KC defender Jimmy Conrad may have seen his slim chance of going to the World Cup with the USA slip away as he just had surgery for a DOUBLE hernia. Ouch!
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I also forgot to mention yesterday that Meola wasn't the only surprise name on the USA roster for next Tuesday's match v Jamaica. That other name belongs to Nick Garcia, Conrad's replacement on the roster & his own Kansas City teammate.
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Colorado are set to sign Spanish center back Aitor Karanka from Athletic Bilbao. He spent the first part of his career with Bilbao before 5 years at Real Madrid, and then back to Bilbao since the 02 season. Another foreign signing for Colorado slipped past most of us, it's Argentine Nicolas Hernandez from Chilean club Cobreloa. Aaaaaaaand, I swear this is the last bit of Colorado news for a while, my guy Dedi Ben Dayan strained a hamstring in the first half of Sunday's match v Houston and was replaced at the 35 minute mark by young Haitian Fabrice Noel. Dayan's status is not known at this time. (But Clint Mathis who was also hurt will be fine.)
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UEFA Champions League Quarterfinal 2nd leg matches:
Barca 2-0 Benfica - after a scoreless first leg Barca wins 2-0 at home to clinch it. Goals were scored by Ronaldinho and Eto'o, of course!
Juve 0-0 Arsenal - And The Arse go thru by virtue of the 2-0 win in the first leg. Pavel Nedved took a red card for Juve.
Milan 3-1 Lyon - Milan get the 3-1 win on aggregate as well after a scoreless first leg. It looked for a long time like Lyon was gonna go thru at 1-1 with the away goal tie breaker, but in the dying moments Milan pulled a rabbit out of a thimble (as usual) with 2 strikes to win it. It would have been fun to see Lyon move on, but they didn't get it done where these 2 legged series are almost always won: At Home. Inzhagi got the first two and Shevchenko sealed it for Milan, with Diarra scoring for Lyon.
Villa 1-0 Inter - Villa got the one home goal they needed to go along with their away goal and knock out the always choking Inter 2-2 on aggregate. The away goals are always used as the first tie breaker and Villa got one by Diego Forlan less than a minute into the first leg last week. Defender Arruabarrena got the winner today.
-Now Villarreal will play Arsenal, with Milan facing Barcelona in the semifinals.
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Jeff Bradley's First XI is with Jesse Marsch of Chivas USA this week at MLSnet.
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I failed to mention this the other day, but the MSL reserve season is already off to the races with one whole match played last Monday. It was a 2-2 draw between Chivas USA & Salt Lake. The real news of that match though is that Jason Kreis played the second half for RSL in his return from knee surgery.
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Several fine people have sent me this link over the past two weeks, and for some dumb reason I have not sent it to you yet - Claudio Reyna, Captain America, talks with IGN.com (the video game website).
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Lance checks in with a St Pauli update: St Pauli defeated Karl Marx Stadt FC (currently known as Chemnitzer FC) 3:2. The game was marred by some of the Chemnitzer traveling fans who apparently burned things and tried to provoke a fight with Neo-Nazi behavior. The polizei were called by the club who wanted the fans gone at the half. The authorities, however, decided to hold the Chemnitzers until after the game was over and all of the St Pauli fans had left. This led to their bus being pelted by rocks and garbage on the way out. Anyway, FC St Pauli is still in 5th place, but within three of second and all the 2nd-4th teams are down to 1 game in hand.
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One of my very favorite soccer web log fellow freaks is Donovan & the DCenters. (They were a dynamite band too.) I read it nearly every day, and yet I couldn't care either way about his beloved DC United. Well, the log is now 1 year old. So Happy Birthday DCcenters. Long may you reign.
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Celtic claimed the Scottish Premier League title last night after a 1-0 home win over Hearts. (It was their 40th league title.)
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Inter Toronto FC huh? Horrible name!! Awful! Fools!
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From US Soccer: U.S. Manager Bruce Arena visited a long-time friend Thursday (March 30) when he coached the International Stars as part of Bolivian legend Marco Etcheverry's testimonial match at the Estadio Tahuichi Aguilera in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. The match featured members of the Bolivian squad that qualified for the 1994 FIFA World Cup against an international select team that included former Colombian international Carlos Valderrama, famed Paraguayan goalkeeper Jose Luis Chilavert, Chilean stars Ivan Zamorano and Fabian Estay, and a host of others. "El Diablo" served as team captain during Arena's three-year tenure at United when the duo collected two consecutive MLS Championships and the 1998 Interamerican Cup.
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New York is serious about chasing after Ronaldo! Really. Read about it at Big Apple.
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ESPN's Soccernet has a feature look at Ante Razov and his chances of returning to glory with Chivas USA.
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The International Herald Tribunes Peter Berlin: Worried? Not in Barcelona. Well, maybe a little
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First year player Matt Groenwald made a stellar debut for KC last Saturday. The KC Star writes about him today.
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Soccer America with their always quality MLS Confidential.
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Columbus have lost promising young defender Jed Zayner for most if not all of this season when he tore his ACL at practice Tuesday. That stinks. I was really looking forward to seeing what he could do in the league.
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Jamaica announced their roster for the match against the United States next Tuesday:
G:
Donovan Ricketts - Bradford
Shawn Sawyers - Portmore United
D:
Claude Davis - Preston North End
Omar Daley - Portmore United
Garfield Reid - Waterhouse
Damion Stewart - Bradford
Demar Stewart - Portmore United
Oneil Thompson - Boys Town
M:
Jamal Campbell-Ryce - Rotherham
Fabian Dawkins - Harbour View
Jermaine Hue - Kansas City
Jason Morrison - Portmore United
F:
Ryan Johnson Salt Lake
Teofore Bennett - Village United
Newton Sterling - Village United
Khari Stephenson - GAIS
Jermaine Johnson - Tivoli
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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 - Corinthians - Grupo 4
Liga Dep. Universitaria - Universitario - Grupo 5
Cerro Porteño - Rosario Central - Grupo 7
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Wednesday Libertadores recap from Sports Illustrated - The biggest news was Sao Paulo losing at home to Chivas, and it was the first home loss in the Libertadores for Sao Paulo since 1987! 30 matches without a loss until last night! Wow. River Plate lost too.
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The UEFA Cup quarterfinals are all set for the deciding 2nd leg matches on Thursday (first leg results included):
Zenit v Sevilla (1-4)
Schalke 04 v Levski (3-1)
Steaua Bucuresti v Rapid Bucuresti (1-1)
Middlesbrough v Basel (0-2)
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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

2 Comments:

Blogger D said...

Aw, shucks man...Thanks.

2:53 PM  
Blogger D said...

PS: It is entirely unfair that MES and the rest look to be playing MN, but not DC.

http://www.visi.com/fall/news/fallnews.html

3:14 PM  

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