Standing Water News

Sports Illustrated explodes with soccer today in their World Cup features and magazine cover story. Donovan, Beasley, Onyewu and Convey grace the front!
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2 MLS games tonight
DC United v Columbus Crew at 6:30pm central on Direct Kick
Colorado Rapids v Los Angeles Galaxy at 8:30 central on Direct Kick
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Jaime Moreno of DC United was named MLS Player of the Week.
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Big feature story on the life of DC United striker Alecko Eskandarian in today's Washington Post by Mike Wise.
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And the same papers Steve Goff writes about the return to the DC lineup of midfielder Clyde Simms.
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Beau Dure unleashed this gem today at Soccer Sweep: Tonight is the LA Galaxies last chance to do something in the month of May that they have yet to accomplish - score a goal!
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Besides missing Landon Donovan, Chris Albright and Cornell to the World Cup, LA will also be without injured regulars Cobi Jones and Peter Vagenas. Colorado will be without striker Nico Hernandez, and could miss defender Aitor Karanka (ankle) and goalie Joe Cannon (groin) who have been struggling but are really close to being healthy.
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Frank Giase of the Newark Star Ledger with a look at father son combo of Bob and Michael Bradley. Bob coaches Chivas USA and Michael starts in the midfield for Heerenveen in Holland.
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A nice Bobby Convey story from the BBC.
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And a big old Jimmy Conrad feature story in the Kansas City Star!
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From Luke: Yanks Abroad USA Fan World Cup parties in German host cities.
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I have never seen this feature before (sheer ignorance?) but Sam's Army allows fans to rate the players after the USA matches and then compiles them into an average score. Here are those ratings from last Sunday's Latvia match.
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Flashback to Sunday when the USA wore those special red shirts just for that match. Well US Soccer is auctioning off the actual game worn shirts for charity. But the opening bids are $1000. Yes, you read that right, 3 zeros. So, not too surprisingly only 3 of the 23 shirts even have bids. Two for Donovan's shirt and one each for Keller's and Pope's. Pretty sad. If they had started at something realistic like $100 the bidding would be wild. Instead we get this weird silence.
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USA and Colorado midfielder Pablo Mastroeni answers kinda corny questions for US Soccer about his life style, and pop culture tastes.
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The Czech Rep beat Costa Rica 1-0 last night, and their big striker Jan Koller played 70 minutes for the first time since last September. Interestingly, the man who replaced him, Vratislav Lokven, scored the winner in the 82nd min.
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It looks all but done for Andriy Shevchenko to join Chelsea. His club AC Milan gave him permission to negotiate with them.
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I predict that German midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger who plays club football for Bayern Munich is going to have a great World Cup.
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One of America's longest standing soccer writers Paul Gardner writes in Soccer America that if you lose your first game at the World Cup then you are going home and if you win you move on. It's that simple.
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The LA Daily News lists a handful of soccer books that you should read. I have a tough time arguing with this list. I have read most of them and agree. (Except maybe that Franklin Foer book which I am not so hot on.)

Blue Green Black Jack Mary News

I am glad to be back after the nice long 3 day holiday weekend. We flew past 60,000 visitors to du Nord while I was relaxing in the sun! So thanks so much to all of you for reading the ranting!
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Let's start with something classic from Ken The Keeper: Soccer players in Chile play an exhibition game with a magnolia tree planted in the middle of the stadium as part of an art project.
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Cimmy Jonrad has another great self-praising-deprecating article at ESPN's Soccernet. (I have to admit it's not his best effort though.)
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Two nice wins for Team USA this past weekend. 2-0 over Venezuela and 1-0 over Latvia. I thought all three games last week were real tough challenges. Ahead of time many people questioned the quality of the competition, but I think it turned out to be just fine. I don't have much to add as far as over all analysis, but I will find you some links. The team now has yesterday, today and tomorrow (Wednesday) to themselves before reconvening Thursday to travel as a group to Hamburg and begin the World Cup training at their home base.
USA 2-0 Venezuela on Friday in Cleveland with goals by Brian Ching and Clint Dempsey
-Match report from Steven Goff of the Washington Post
-Match report from Akron Beacon Journal
-Player ratings from Soccer America
USA 1-0 Latvia on Sunday in Hartford with the goal by Brian McBride
-Match report from Jere Longman of the New York Times
-Match report from the Hartford Courant
-Players ratings by Soccer America
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After Deuce Dempsey scored against Venez he did a new dance. Many, myself included, were wondering what it was all about. A dude on Big Soccer fills us in.
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The US Players Assoc talked to Michael Bradley, who somehow was training with Team USA and got two caps during the Send-Off Series.
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From Sherri: Here’s a picture of the official giant USA jersey that was hanging from the parking garage next to the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford from May 27 –30. It's made of heavy nylon and measures 80 feet across and is 71 feet tall. Very cool, thanks for sending the link!
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There is a very good video feature on Landon Donovan that looks like it was created by Nike. This link is hosted by Google.
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Clint Dempsey did not play (or even suit up) for the Latvia match after suffering from muscle spasms in his back. I have had this problem and it can be mind-bendingly painful. I hope his is mild and over quickly.
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The newest member of the USA WC squad Gregg Berhalter left his long time German club Energie Cottbus last week, and has now signed a contract to join 1860 Munich. I find that a bit of an odd move though, seeing as Cottbus just got promoted to the top flight Bundesliga while 1860 are still stuck in the 2nd division.
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Frank Giase of The Newark Star Ledger focus's on local boy and USA Captain Claudio Reyna and his injury habits.
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For the last few months Grahame Jones of the Los Angeles Times has been subdued and even-handed about the state of the beautiful game in America. Today he is back to his old high and mighty bullshit though, dwelling on the negative and speaking his brilliant mind from his amazingly lofty perch. Sure America is not nearly as futbol crazy as we would all like it to be, but it's far from horrible. Here is a bit of his wisdom to suck on: The U.S. attracted a total of 80,522 fans to its three World Cup send-off games during the last week. Australia's send-off game, against European champion Greece on Thursday at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, drew a crowd of 95,103.
Good for you Grahame. Pointing out our deficiancies! What else was going on in Australia this weekend? I would bet not much! But here? Well let's see: 16 Major League Baseball games each day; the NBA Semi-finals; and a little car race called the Indianapolis 500. I would guess that paid attendance at those events combined would be somewhere approaching 1.5 million. Not to mention a huge 3-day holiday weekend. How does that stack up against 95,000. Not bad you pompous ass.
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A great piece of World Cup news for players and fans alike: Jamaican referee Peter Prendergast has pulled out of the World Cup finals after injuring a knee. Hooray knee injuries! Hooray Beer! Hooray Jamaica! He is a terrible referee, as bad as I have ever seen. How he got on the initial list is beyond me.
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Yanks Abroad has an interview with America's heroic flavor of the month Jay DeMerit who starred for Watford in their charge to the English Premiership.
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Ronaldo has reportedly turned down a 10 year $120 million contract to play for the New York Red Bulls. Wow, he turned it DOWN! That is an awful lot of money to walk away from. He won't get that offer a couple years from now.
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New England will play a friendly against Celtic in Foxboro on July 17th.
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Simon Kuper of the London Financial Times: World Cup ‘facts’ that miss by a mile
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See the movie trailer for "Once In A Lifetime" - the documentary film about the New York Cosmos. What I like most about the trailer is that they allude to the fact that Giorgio Chinaglia is to blame for the team's downfall. Hahahaha! I love it. It appears to have footage of my childhood team - Minnesota Thunder too.
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MLS matches last weekend:
Salt Lake 2-2 Colorado - 3 goals in the last 15 minutes saved this one from being an absolutely unwatchable mess. Do these teams have any clue how to pass a ball, and does John Ellinger have any clue how to coach a team? His substitution pattern was downright weird. He moves Attiba Harris from the lone striker position back to the defensive midfielder role, then watches Harris make 2 hideous tackles in which he gets yellow cards and thus a red card. That was all on Ellinger. Somehow the team nabbed a goal a man down to salvage the draw. Ellinger and Harris both owe the team an apology for that one.
New England 1-1 Houston - New England holds Houston down for nearly 90 minutes and gives up the late one to lose 2 points at home. How come Houston nearly gets in a fight every game?
Kansas City 1-3 DC - Jaime Moreno and Freddy Adu were really magnificent in this game. Gorgeous passes and timing! I thought Kansas City was going to have a full team melt down at one point after some hideous refereeing decisions that went against them.
Chivas USA 1-0 Chicago - Clinker City. That's what I would name this game. Chivas scored 1 minute 4 seconds into the match, and then for the next 88 minutes and 54 seconds little or nothing happened, except maybe Tony Sanneh getting hurt again for Chicago.
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League Single Table:
21 FC Dallas
18 DC United
14 Houston Dynamo
13 Kansas City Wizards
11 New England Revolution
11 Colorado Rapids
11 Columbus Crew
10 Chicago Fire
8 Real Salt Lake
8 New York Red Bulls
7 Los Angeles Galaxy
7 Chivas USA
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On Saturday New York beat Bayern Munich 4-2 in a friendly. Bayern were without many stars who are preparing for the World Cup, but they still had plenty of fire power on hand, including Roy Makaay & Claudio Pizarro (who scored both of his teams goals) starting up top. Jean-Philippe Peguero got 2 for NY, with Amado Guevara (actually playing for his team and scoring on a pk) and Edson Buddle getting the other two goals. Bayern spent 10 days in the US and their media director kept an online diary that is pretty good.
-NYNJ soccer talked to long time Bayern Munich & France defender Bixente Lizarazu (who retired from the game after this match).
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Former hated Milwaukee Rampage goalkeeper Dan Popik has been signed by Columbus as their back up to Noah Palmer, making him the teams 6th keeper this season after all those awful injuries.
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The LA Galaxy will play a friendly against Crystal Palace Wednesday July 19 in, of all places, Richmond VA. Why Richmond? I have no idea.
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While the supposed genius newspaper writers up in San Jose are busy ripping MLS and their plans to come back to the Bay Area, the leagues head man Don Garber gives a hefty dose of medicine to the Bay Area about what will be needed from the teams fans if they are to have any chance of a team returning and thriving. This is actually from the Kansas City Star which feels (and I totally agree) that their town needs to wake up to this reality as well.
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Buzz Carrick of 3rd Degree has a Q & A session with Dallas's Argentine keeper Dario Sala.
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My Minnesota Thunder team was dreadful again this past Saturday. It was their second home game of the season and they failed to show up in the first half! It made me mad. The second half effort was much better, but outside of a few moments the quality was not there at all. Sure they battled hard, but with little or no imagination on how to break down a defense. They just sent every one long and lumped it forward hoping to get a flick. But when you are surrounded by a forest of defenders packed into their defensive third you are only really hoping for sheer luck. Wretched. And painful to watch. I think the biggest disappointment was the fact that they had no outside midfielders or wingers providing service. I think I could go on and on, but I am gonna stop right now and think about Vancouver coming to town next weekend. My pal Andy wrote up a great game report for the beloved Blue Sky Soccer Thunder fans site.
-I guess there is another thing about the game that has me scratching my head. The game was not played at the teams usual home field (The Jimmy in St Paul), but rather it was moved to the teams old home, the National Sports Center, in the northern suburb of Blaine, supposedly to take advantage of the huge number of players and families participating all weekend long in the NSC Cup tournament taking place at the same facility. From what I could tell though, they got little or no attendance bump from this event. On the other hand they seemed to lose a ton of fans from the inner city who had no interest in heading the 15 or so miles up to the hinterlands. And worst of all, that awful stadium in Blaine just seemed to suck the life out of the fans who did attend. Sadly the team has scheduled 2 more games there this season. Why? I have no idea. But I will say on the record again that I think it's a huge mistake.
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USL First Division matches last weekend:
Toronto 0-1 Miami
Vancouver 2-2 Seattle
Charleston 0-0 Atlanta
Virginia Beach 0-0 Rochester
Minnesota 0-1 Portland
Seattle 1-0 Vancouver
Montreal 0-0 Miami
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First Division Table:
17 Rochester
12 Miami
12 Vancouver
10 Portland
10 Puerto Rico
10 Virginia Beach
8 Charleston
8 Montreal
8 Seattle
4 Minnesota
2 Atlanta
0 Toronto
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Jesse has posted the new First Division Power Rankings at Blue Sky Soccer.
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The London Times sends a writer to America to check in on Romario and his Miami days.
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2 MLS games midweek on Wednesday, May 31
DC United v Columbus Crew at 6:30pm central on Direct Kick
Colorado Rapids v Los Angeles Galaxy at 8:30 central on Direct Kick
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Butt Ugly Iain Dowie has taken over as new manager of Charlton in England. But his old boss at Crystal Palace has filed a lawsuit against his former coach who resigned just last week under what the owner now calls false pretenses.
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In other Crystal Palace news, they have sold their great striker Andy Johnson to Everton for 8.6 million Pounds, a record price for Everton.
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Regular starting Italian right back Gianluca Zambrotta has injured his thigh and will probably not play in the team's first WC match against Ghana. Will he be fit to face the USA whose best position on the whole field seems to be the left wing which would be his responsibility?
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Chelsea have signed Ivorian striker Salomon Kalou from Feyenoord.
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The International Herald Tribune with a triple shot: 2 from Rob Hughes: Angola finds identity in its national team - and - No masking the fading Bleu, & Christopher Clarey: Close up of Zidane during a day's work

Depositing The '06 News

Gibbs out, Berhalter in. So it's not good news for Team USA as defender Cory Gibbs injured his right knee bad enough in the game v Morocco that he has been dropped from the squad and replaced by former Energie Cottbus captain Gregg Berhalter. This really bums me out personally cuz I am a big fan of Gibbs and I had picked him as the Du Nord Player To Watch for this World Cup. My faith in Gibbs was high, whereas by faith in Berhalter is really low. Can you spell A-G-O-O-S? Damn, I hope not. So who becomes the break out player to watch now?
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Saturday evening Minnesota Thunder action, and the Free Beer Movement will be in full effect! Join us for Minnesota v Portland at the National Sports Center in Blaine (north metro). 7:30 kickoff. 3pm start on the tailgating, cuz the women's team, Minnesota Lightning, make their debut at 5pm. Here is where the tailgating will take place. And here is where our seating section is.
-If you are here in or near the Twin Cities and don't attend the match I am going to become very upset with you.
-I posted a Q & A that I conducted with Thunder coach Amos Magee over at the Blue Sky Soccer.
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The USA Send-off Series matches continue Friday night from Cleveland.
I will be over in St Paul watching this one at the Sweetwater (in the Kelly Inn), so please come and join up in the rabble-rousing!
Friday May 26 v Venezuela - at Cleveland Browns Stadium in Cleveland at 6pm central on ESPN2
-2 articles from the Cleveland Plain Dealer ahead of tonight's match: U.S. men chasing a World Cup of riches - AND - Guiding U.S. 'a blast' for Arena
-The Akron Beacon Journal on Landy Cakes: Happy To Be Kicking
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Then catch the final Send-Off Series match:
Sunday May 28 v Latvia - at Rentschler Field in Hartford at 6pm central on ESPN2
-The One-Time-Only USA Don't Tread On Me Jersey will be unveiled next Sunday in Connecticut when our boys take on Latvia. US Soccer is taking pre-orders for this very limited edition shirt right now, and promise to have them to you before the World Cup! (Thanks to Sasha for finding us an image of this shirt.)
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US Soccer has three new video clips and an audio interview with Kasey Keller leading up to tonight's game.
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The only known starter for the USA tonight is goalkeeper Tim Howard. The other 10 spots are a mystery to all of us plebes, but you can be fairly accurate in guessing that it will be a lot of different players from last Tuesdays match v Morocco.
-Ives Galarcep of the North Jersey Herald on Howard's turn in the nets tonight.
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Jere Longman of the New York Times on Eddie Johnson's search for his once awesome scoring touch.
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ESPN began their 5 day series of short new reports on Team USA called All Access, and can be seen at the Soccernet USA page. To find the video clip must scroll down the right side of the page to "Motion Video".
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We haven't heard from Beau Dure in quite a while, but he has a feature on USA & DC United's own Captain Caveman. Midfielder Ben Olsen in USA Today.
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And speaking of Beau Dure and USA today - they have a soccer weblog called Soccer Sweep.
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That same weblog has a great link to a World Ranking that in my opinion looks a lot more like reality - The World Football Elo Ratings. Designed by the people who do the World Chess Rankings. In this set up the USA and Mexico are tied for 14th. Sounds about right to me.
-I just did a pretty unscientific thing, but its interesting none the less. I took those Elo ratings and lined up the 8 groups by average ranking to see which group looked to be the toughest. By this system, the USA is not only NOT in the Group of Death, they aren't even in the second Group of Death. They are in the third. Here they are:
Group C average 16.25
2 Netherlands
8 Argentina
26 Serbia & Montenegro
29 Cote d'Ivoire
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Group F average 17
1 Brazil
16 Croatia
24 Australia
27 Japan
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Group E average 22
5 Czech Republic
7 Italy
14 USA
62 Ghana
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Group D average 24.75
9 Portugal
14 Mexico
18 Iran
58 Angola
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Group A average 26.5
11 Germany
21 Poland
35 Costa Rica
39 Ecuador
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Group B average 26.5
3 England
12 Sweden
31 Paraguay
60 Trinidad & Tobago
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Group H average 33.25
4 Spain
33 Ukraine
40 Tunisia
56 Saudi Arabia
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Group G average 37.25
6 France
28 Switzerland
35 South Korea
80 Togo
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Luis Beuno of Sports Illustrated gives us an update on Mexico's preparations.
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The New York Times on World Cup security.
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MLS matches this weekend (all times central):
Salt Lake v Colorado - 3pm on ESPN2
New England v Houston - 6:30 on HDNet
Kansas City v DC - 7:30pm on Direct Kick
Chivas USA v Chicago - 10pm on Direct Kick
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MLS Single Table
21 Dallas
15 DC
13 Houston
13 Kansas City
11 Columbus
10 Chicago
10 New England
10 Colorado
8 New York
7 Salt Lake
7 Los Angeles
4 Chivas USA
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Frank Dell'apa of the Boston Globe has news on New England forward Pat Noonan's return to the team's starting line up this weekend v Houston.
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The KC Soccer Journal has a Q & A with Wizards midfielder Davy Arnaud.
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The Bayern Munich team that plays Red Bull New York on Saturday is not their full team, but when you look at this roster you can see that they are still a very formidable lineup:
Goalkeeper: Bernd Drehe
Defenders: Bixente Lizarazu, Georg Niedermeier, Stephan Fuerstner
Midfielders: Sebastian Deisler, Jens Jeremies, Andreas Ottl, Hasan Salihamidzic, Mehmet Scholl, Markus Steinhofer,Rainer Storhas
Forwards: Roy Makaay, Claudio Pizarro, Paulo Guererro
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The rest of the USL First Division matches this weekend:
Friday
Toronto v Miami
Vancouver v Seattle
Saturday
Charleston v Atlanta
Virginia Beach v Rochester
Minnesota v Portland
Seattle v Vancouver
Sunday
Montreal v Miami
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Simon Kuper of the Financial Times with a long and powerful piece on Germany, the Nazi's and football: The dutiful game
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Brazil at practice. (from Lance)
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I stole this map from another site (That's On Point) with a highlight showing where Togo is in Africa. What I did not realize was that 3 World Cup qualifiers Togo, Ghana, and Ivory Coast are all side by side. Kinda cool for them.
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Valencia have signed Liverpool striker Fernando Morientes. I can't imagine too many in the Northwest of England are disturbed by this as Morientes delivered nothing on his hefty promise in his year and a half at the club.
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JS Kabylie have won the Algerian league title. That's who I had my money on!
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And, Andriy Shevchenko has really left AC Milan (this article is from the teams website). He has not signed yet with Chelsea, but we all know it's inevitable.

Deep Sea Fishing/Netting News

From Michael Lewis at Big Apple Soccer: Ronaldo could be a New York Red Bull sooner than reported. The Brazilian National Team star and Real Madrid striker is close to finalizing a deal to play for the Red Bulls after the World Cup, according to sources close to the MLS club and throughout the league. According to two league-wide sources, "it is a done deal," although that could not be confirmed from the Red Bulls.
-The article goes on to say that French legend Zinedine Zidane & Dutch tough guy Edgar Davids are also on this teams list of pursuee's. I don't know how I feel about all of this. On one hand of course it's exciting, but it's also more of the same old crap with dudes coming here to play out the string under little or no pressure. I guess it could be worse, the player being named could be Cauhtemoc Blanco!
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Last night in MLS action:
New York 1-2 Dallas - After seeing New York play the first 30 minutes about as good as they could play them and take a 1-0 lead, Dallas grabbed their opponent by the throat and slowly choked the life out of them, getting two brilliant goals in the last 15 minutes to win on the road for the first time this season. Dallas's big stars, Ronnie O'Brien, Greg Vanney, Kenny Cooper and especially Carlos Ruiz led their team to victory like they are supposed to. Young defender Drew Moor also played really well. The biggest hole for New York ended up being central defender Taylor Graham. He was just playing his first minutes after a hernia surgery, and Ruiz took him apart, first drawing a yellow card and they frying Graham alive for the winning goal! Some New York players had quality games as well: Seth Stammler, Youri Djorkaeff, Carlos Mendes, Mark Lisi and Jeff Parke could play on my team any day. On the other hand New York is still a good distance away from being a real winner.
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New York Red Bulls next match on Saturday will not be a league game, but rather a friendly v Bayern Munich. Obviously Bayern will not have their stars, as those players are with their countries preparing for the World Cup. In some ways this is almost a better test for NY to see how they match up against players who are more on their level.
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Jeff Bradley's First XI with USA & KC defender Jimmy Conrad at MLSnet.
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Looks like Big Sig will not have to suit up and man the nets for his Columbus Crew, as they nabbed goalkeeper Noah Palmer from Real Salt Lake. Palmer will get the old "baptism by fire" routine, seeing as he is their only healthy keeper right now and will have to take to the field immediately.
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More Columbus news as Soccer Capital Times talks to Crew defender Ezra Hendrickson.
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More info on the MLS return to San Jose (or the Bay Area in general), with an emphasis on stadium talk, from the San Jose Mercury News.
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That same paper let's their writer Ann Killion blow off steam with a sarcastic look at the potential deal.
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And where does St Louis sit in their bid to join the league? The St Louis Post Dispatch has an update.
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The One-Time-Only USA Don't Tread On Me Jersey will be unveiled next Sunday (corrected, thanks Chris) in Connecticut when our boys take on Latvia. US Soccer is taking pre-orders for this very limited edition shirt right now, and promise to have them to you before the World Cup! (Thanks to Sasha for finding us an image of this shirt.)
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The USA Send-off Series matches continue Friday night from Cleveland.
I will be over in St Paul watching this one at the Sweetwater (in the Kelly Inn), so please come and join up in the rabble-rousing!
Friday May 26 v Venezuela - at Cleveland Browns Stadium in Cleveland at 6pm central on ESPN2
Sunday May 28 v Latvia - at Rentschler Field in Hartford at 6pm central on ESPN2
-Bob Roberts of the Cleveland Plain Dealer begins the Friday game previews.
-The Akron Beacon Journal's game preview.
-Frank Dell'apa also previews the match for Soccernet.

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ESPN began their 5 day series of short insider news reports on TEAM USA called All Access. Last nights first edition was about the loss to Morocco and can be seen at the Soccernet USA page. To find the video clip you must scroll down the right side of the page to "Motion Video", then locate the one about USA v Morocco (it's easy to find).
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US Players Assoc's Marc Connolly has a Q & A with USA & Houston striker Brian Ching.
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A small town Flordia newspaper, the Treasure Coast Palm, looks at their towns newest resident, USA U20 coach Thomas Rongen.
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MLS matches this weekend (all times central):
Salt Lake v Colorado - 3pm on ESPN2
New England v Houston - 6:30 on HDNet
Kansas City v DC - 7:30pm on Direct Kick
Chivas USA v Chicago - 10pm on Direct Kick
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The MLS All-American XI for week 8.
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Our man Jesse has started a new USL First Division Power Rankings over at Blue Sky Soccer. This is week 2 of his rankings with Rochester in the top spot, no surprise, and sadly our Minnesota squad in 10th.
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If you are here or near the Twin Cities and don't attend the Minnesota v Portland match on Saturday night I am going to become very upset with you. 7:30pm kickoff at the National Sports Center in Blaine. The tailgating kicks off at 3pm with the debut of the Thunders women's club, The Lightning, playing a match at 5pm.
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The rest of the USL First Division matches this weekend:
Friday
Toronto v Miami
Vancouver v Seattle
Saturday
Charleston v Atlanta
Virginia Beach v Rochester
Minnesota v Portland
Seattle v Vancouver
Sunday
Montreal v Miami
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The latest news on Brad Friedel's Premier Soccer Academy.
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Arsenal's long time midfielder Robert Pires has left the club and signed a 2 year contract with Villarreal in Spain. The Arse would only offer him a 1 year deal.
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Inter Milan have lost Italian midfielder Cristiano Zannetti to rivals Juventus on a free transfer.
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In a stunning move, Steven Gerrard has left Liverpool to join Shitkicker United in exchange for 6 hogs, 8 sheep, a ram, an emu, and 2 border collies. He has already begun training with his new team who play in the Greater UK Rural Sporting Division. (thanks Lance)
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Finally, some news from FIFA on their silly rankings. They claim they have a new system for culling their world rankings that they will put in place on July 12. The article also has some nice facts for your next USA-Mexico argument. Over the past 20 matches USA has 9 wins, Mexico 7 and 4 draws. And - during the past 10 meetings it is USA 7, Mexico 2 and 1 draw. YES!

Sam Malone's Underwear News

The Send Off Series began last night at The Coliseum in Nashville. And we got stuck with a lousy 0-1 loss to Morocco.
-Uh, what would you like me to say? Dull, is the first word that comes to mind. I watched the match with several people, a couple of whom were fairly upset with the performance. I was not upset, but disappointed for sure. I would also like to be frickin entertained dudes! Who was inspiring that team we had out there - Steve Sampson?
-I don't want to let them off the hook for playing like crap, but on the other hand, I fully expected nothing from this match.
-I guess Convey looked good. Johnson had some moments.
-Reyna gets hurt again! Go figure. He tweaked his hamstring after just 17 minutes on the field. Team doctors performed a scan today to see the extent of the injury. The results came back as a mild strain, which needs rest and therapy, but nothing major. Good news.
-How about O'Brien? Did he make it thru unsoiled? It would seem so.
-Beasley and Donovan seemed particularly ineffective to me. So did Gibbs.
-On the other hand the game was little more than the first of the pre-season, and the real deal needs to happen on June 12 - opening day!-Give Morocco credit for playing really good team defense. They packed it in, and won late on the counter when the USA was pushing forward going for the victory themselves.
-Mohamed Madihi of WAC Casablanca scored the goal for Morocco.
-US Soccer's Sights and Sounds page has photos, audio and video to check out. Many are excellent post game comments.
-What did the local newspaper, The Nashville Tennessean, have to save.
-Match report & player ratings - Jeff Carlisle at Soccernet
-Match report - Jere Longman of the New York Times
-Match report - Steve Goff of the Washington Post
-Match report - Andy Gardner of USA Today.
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Todays surprise news has MLS lined up to head back to San Jose already!
-The always quality Dylan Hernandez of the San Jose Mercury News has quotes from MLS's newest potential team owner Lew Wolff of the Bay Area.
-Here is the official press release from MLS HQ.
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Tonight in MLS action:
New York v Dallas - see it live on Direct Kick at 5:30pm central time.
-Amado Guevara will not suit up again tonight for New York. He has not been practicing due to a muscle strain. Not to mention his bizarre attitude toward the coach and team for which he was suspended for last weekends game.
-Guevara wants out of New York and is interested in playing in Dallas, but they are not interested in trading for him. Could the Galaxy or Chivas be? Doubtful. Especially not LA whose president Alexi Lalas & Guevara do not get along. Lalas had some pretty strong word to say to the LA Daily News about Amado coming to LA: "I don't think it would be appropriate. ... He brings an incredible amount of baggage. I think it would be counterproductive. ... I'm not sure Amado Guevara is what this organization is striving to stand for."
-Dallas Morning News soccer writer Steve Davis takes a look at New York's new owners and what they mean to the game in America.
-Kristian Dyer for Soccernet: Red Bull is flat on and off-the field
-NYNJ Soccer with a feature story on New York midfielder Seth Stammler.
~ ~ ~ ~
MLS honchos Don Garber and Ivan Gazidis were in Dallas the other day to talk about the future of the league. 3rd Degree has a capsule of the topics discussed.
~ ~ ~ ~
With Kansas City strikers Josh Wolff and Eddie Johnson away at the World Cup, the teams young strikers have an excellent chance to stake their claim.
~ ~ ~ ~
Next Sunday (correction, thanks Chris) in Connecticut for the match v Latvia the USA will wear a very special limited edition "Don't Tread On Me" jersey! USA Soccer is taking pre-orders for this one-off shirt now, and promise to have them to you before the World Cup!
~ ~ ~ ~
The USA Send-off Series continues Friday night in Cleveland.
I will probably be around the Twin Cities watching somewhere, but I haven't figured it out yet. So when I do, I will post it here, then you can join up for the rabble-rousing!
Friday May 26 v Venezuela - at Cleveland Browns Stadium in Cleveland at 6pm central on ESPN2
Sunday May 28 v Latvia - at Rentschler Field in Hartford at 6pm central on ESPN2
~ ~ ~ ~
John Powers of the Boston Globe with a feature story on massive USA defender Oguchi Onyewu.
~ ~ ~ ~
Dutchman Johan Boskamp who had been coach at Stoke City in England's Championship Division was named new coach at USA defender Oguchi Onyewu's Standard Liege in Belgium.
~ ~ ~ ~
Jack Bell at the New York Times writes about the lunatic Dmitry Piterman today. This is the guy who has done all kinds of stupid things as owner of Racing Santander and Alves in Spain, and now wants to bring this same "mentality" to the USA with a Bay Area team in the Second Division next year. In my opinion, this is exactly what we DON'T need. Will the MLS back to San Jose announcement have any effect on his plans?
~ ~ ~ ~
The Rochester Democrat & Chronicle has a front page story on the soon to open PaeTec Park, home of the First Division Rochester Raging Rhinos. Opening day is June 3. This is awesome!
~ ~ ~ ~
From our main man Zach in DC: Tell me you've seen this.... Super sweet!
~ ~ ~ ~
Arash Markazi of Sports Illustrated got to meet his, and many of ours, idol Pele. It was as good as he had hoped.
~ ~ ~ ~
Former Mexican coach Javier Aguirre was named new coach at Atletico Madrid after leaving Osasuna.
~ ~ ~ ~
Two days ago Jose Luis Trejo led Pachuca to the Mexican Clausura championship. Yesterday he resigned to become the coach of their rivals UANL Tigres. Not surprisingly, the owners of Pachuca are none too pleased. What an insane league they have down south.
~ ~ ~ ~
France & Juve man Patrick Vieira has a weird story to tell. He and his family were gassed in their own home via the air conditioning unit and knocked unconscious. Then their home was burgled of all the valuables and their car was used as the getaway vehicle.
~ ~ ~ ~
The New Odd Couple: Two legends will work together in running (ruining?) Austrian team Salzburg Red Bull. Italian Giovanni Trapattoni will become the clubs Director and German Lothar Matthaeus will be the coach.
~ ~ ~ ~
Czech (and former Liverpool) midfielder Vladimir Smicer may be out of the World Cup after a blood clot formed in his long injured right thigh.
~ ~ ~ ~
Lastly, Ken the Keeper sent us a link to a video clip of one of the great own goals of all time! Phenomenal! "Ronaldinho, watch and learn."

Hot To Trot News

The Send Off Series begins tonight:
Tuesday May 23 v Morocco - at The Coliseum in Nashville at 6pm central on ESPN2
I will be rocking at The Blue Nile bar as some of my pals taste the newest brew from Surley. Come and join us won't you?!
~ ~ ~ ~
Don't forget that the USA Send-off Series continues Friday night in Cleveland.
-I will probably be out & about somewhere watching, and I will post it here, so you can join up in the rabble-rousing!
-Friday May 26 v Venezuela - at Cleveland Browns Stadium in Cleveland at 6pm central on ESPN2
-Sunday May 28 v Latvia - at Rentschler Field in Hartford at 6pm central on ESPN2
~ ~ ~ ~
Next Sunday (correction, thanks Chris) in Connecticut v Latvia the USA will wear a very special limited edition "Don't Tread On Me" jersey! USA Soccer is taking pre-orders for this one-off shirt now, and promise to have them to you before the World Cup!
~ ~ ~ ~
The law of averages says that in these three friendly's someone is going to get hurt badly enough that they will not go to Germany and that an alternate will be called in. I am not making an predictions, but it's a reality the team will most likely have to face. 4 years ago Chris Armas and Greg Vanney were replaced during this week.
~ ~ ~ ~
From ESPN: Get another view inside the locker room of the U.S. Men’s National Team when ESPN’s SportsCenter kicks off a series of behind-the-scenes features that will air nightly from May 24-29. SportsCenter’s World Cup reporter Shelley Smith will deliver the 90-second segments that will be shot and aired the same day, showing scenes from training, team meetings, locker rooms and wherever else the cameras might make their way during the five-day window.
~ ~ ~ ~
US Soccer Presents: Ben Olsen's American Football Academy!
~ ~ ~ ~
Lars Lifrak of Soccer 365 does a Q & A with USA & New England midfield star Clint Dempsey.
~ ~ ~ ~
The New York Times Jere Longman looks at the USA's mystery injury man and potential X factor John O'Brien.
~ ~ ~ ~
USA Today has a brief look at Nike's USA World Cup marketing push.
~ ~ ~ ~
And that same paper's Kelly Whiteside has a feature on the amazing duo of Beasley and Donovan!
~ ~ ~ ~
Jean Philippe Peguero of New York Red Bulls was named MLS Player Of The Week after poking in 3 goals v Chivas.
~ ~ ~ ~
A quote from the Columbus Crew goalkeeper coach in today's Columbus Dispatch: "Today, we don’t have a single healthy goalkeeper." Not looking good for them as both starter Jon Busch and his back up Andy Gruenebaum went down with injuries in the game v DC last Saturday. Sadly for Busch the news is real bad, as he blew out the same knee that he tore up almost exactly one year ago now. And Gruenebaum broke his wrist, which is slightly vital to a keeper. The team had other experienced keeper in Johnny Walker but he is out all season with a back injury that needed surgery. So who do they turn to? Can you say dregs? This could be a real disaster for a team that was just starting to click. Some big help could be on the way though as Sigi says he may suit up!!
~ ~ ~ ~
Wednesday night MLS game
New York v Dallas - 530pm central time on Direct Kick
~ ~ ~ ~
AC Milan and Portugal star Rui Costa is heading to Benfica next season. Will it be his last?
~ ~ ~ ~
Newsweek gets in on the World Cup action too now! An article on the young hopeful's of the tournament.
~ ~ ~ ~
Ives Galarcep tries to figure out how the USA will play it against the Czech's, for Soccernet.
~ ~ ~ ~
Big Soccer poster Cyberthoth gleaned some "Interesting Tidbits" from Monday's Team USA practice at the Coliseum in Nashville.
~ ~ ~ ~
Luis Bueno of the Inland So Cal Press Enterprise looks at some of the most talented players who will NOT be playing at this World Cup.
~ ~ ~ ~
Pete Grathoff of the KC Star looks in-depth at our big boss man Bruce Arena.
~ ~ ~ ~
Soccer America has a feature story on the USA's biggest supporters club, Sam's Army. Of which I am, and you should be, a dues paying member.
~ ~ ~ ~
The Newark Star Ledger takes a look inside the company that has bought and now runs the Red Bull New York soccer team.
~ ~ ~ ~
The tiny island nation of Bermuda is looking very closely at entering a team in the USL Second Division for next year, lead by that countries biggest ever star player Shaun Goater who played for many seasons in the upper divisions in England.
~ ~ ~ ~
Phil Ball delivers his Spanish review for Soccernet: End of season thoughts
~ ~ ~ ~
Earnie Stewart's first job at his new club NAC Breda is to find a coach, and his first choice is former England & Arsenal captain Tony Adams. Will it happen?
~ ~ ~ ~
The Soccer Times has the full World Cup TV viewing schedule with dates, matches, times and channels (all times listed are eastern).
~ ~ ~ ~
Kelly sent me an article from Big Apple Soccer about the new Veterans Committee picks for the US Soccer Hall Of Fame. Being selected is Al Trost. But what Kelly really wrote to me about was.... maybe somebody can explain how the hell Kyle Rote Jr. is only pulling down 35 %. I mean the guy was the first American to lead the NASL in scoring and had a better than respectable career when that league was still stocked with foreign talent. Christ he even had his own poster on a promotion with 7Up - along with Mike Schmidt. And he's also been an owner and announcer since. I can see the modern day sports writer being in the dark, but the veterans committee has no excuse... I fully agree. Rote was the first American soccer player I knew of, and is in the Hall of Fame that resides in my brain.
-Big bucks MLS investor Phillip Anschutz is also being inducted into the Hall of Fame as a special honoree.
~ ~ ~ ~
Miroslav Klose of Werder Bremen was named Bundesliga Player Of The Year.
~ ~ ~ ~
Another good Jay Demerit article from Charles Gardner at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
~ ~ ~ ~
And our man Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune gives Jay Demerit some love too: Ball is round, but the spirit is pure Lombardi
~ ~ ~ ~
And lastly, Happy 1st Birthday to Kali's Real Salt Lake Blog, who are trying to make a star out of Bob The Janitor.

Cabin On The Lake Up North News

Last Saturday - MLS Week 8
Houston 0-1 Chicago - match report by Bernardo Fallas of the Houston Chronicle. Chicago is finding ways to get those valuable road points while waiting for their new home to open in less than 3 weeks. The home team Houston just could not get it done even though they had the chances.
New York 5-4 Chivas USA - match report from Ives Galarcep of the North Jersey Herald, who not surprisingly dogs the suspended Amado Guevara.
Columbus 1-1 DC - match report from the Columbus Dispatch by Shawn Mitchell, who gives the other new arrival from LA the man of the match - Joseph Ngwenya. (Ned Grabavoy won it last week the day after he was traded from LA to Columbus along with Ngwenya.) Sigi wins round 2 over Sampson!
Dallas 4-0 New England - match report by Steve Davis of the Dallas Morning News - the New England riddle got a lot more confusing with this ass kicking. And Dallas got a lot more legit!
Salt Lake 2-1 Kansas City - match report by Lauren Gustus of the Salt Lake Tribune, which starts off with a bit about one of the master mathematicians of all time Pythagoras! You do know the Pythagorean theorem don't you?
Los Angeles 0-1 Colorado - match report by Grahame Jones of the LA Times. He calls the Galaxy loss, "Futility at it's finest"!
~ ~ ~ ~
Some very interesting news from Michael Lewis at Big Apple Soccer: Spanish sports newspaper Marca reported on its front page Sunday that Real Madrid and Brazilian star striker Ronaldo would prefer to play with either the New York Red Bulls or a team in Qatar.
~ ~ ~ ~
From the sounds of this article, my Thunder team could not have played much worse last night losing 4-0 to Montreal.
~ ~ ~ ~
USL First Division scores from this past weekend (check out all the road wins):
Portland 0-1 Rochester
Charleston 0-1 Puerto Rico
Seattle 0-2 Toronto
Montreal 4-0 Minnesota
Miami 0-1 Virginia Beach
Portland 2-1 Toronto
Monday Night
Vancouver v Rochester
-After just 3 home games it's pretty clear that Romario is not going to draw crowds the way his team, Miami FC, thought he would. Their match last night only drew 1,852.
~ ~ ~ ~
6 new player interview podcasts by US Soccer from the end of training camp in Cary NC. Claudio Reyna, Eddie Johnson, Steve Cherundolo, Oguchi Onyewu, Carlos Bocanegra and Pablo Mastroeni.
~ ~ ~ ~
The final story from the Raleigh Observer on the Cary NC US Soccer training camp.
~ ~ ~ ~
Gregg Berhalter has captained Energie Cottbus for the past 4 seasons and lead them back to the Bundesliga this season, but has announced to Yanks Abroad that he is leaving the team. Where he is headed has not been revealed, but he is staying in Germany.
~ ~ ~ ~
I want to link over to Marc Connolly's blog at the US Soccer Players Association site. He has some great insights from his days at the USA training camp last week. Excellent stuff.
~ ~ ~ ~
Steve Davis of the Dallas Morning News wonders if Clint Dempsey will be that latest American to introduce himself to the world next month.
~ ~ ~ ~
A self answered editorial stadium Q & A from the Salt Lake Tribune.
~ ~ ~ ~
The following players are generally considered the front runners for MLS Rookie of the Year (What do you think? Did I miss or overrate someone?):
Mehdi Ballouchy, Salt Lake
Jonathan Bornstein, Chivas
Jason Garey, Columbus
Matt Groenwald, Kansas City
Kei Kamara, Columbus
Sacha Kljestan, Chivas
Brandon Moss, Columbus
Jacob Peterson, Colorado
Dasan Robinson, Chicago
Lawson Vaughn, Chivas
Kyle Veris, Los Angeles
Marvell Wynne, New York
-Myself, I don't like the whole rookie of the year thing because of the different stages of development some of these players enter the league at. I prefer the "Young Player of the Year" where you pick a date and everyone born after that is eligible, no matter how many years you have been in the league.
~ ~ ~ ~
The USA Send-off Series begins Tuesday night in Nashville.
-I will probably be out on the town somewhere watching the game, and I will post the location here as soon as I know it so you can join up in the rabble-rousing!
-Tue May 23 v Morocco - at The Coliseum in Nashville at 6pm central on ESPN2
-Fri May 26 v Venezuela - at Cleveland Browns Stadium in Cleveland at 6pm central on ESPN2
-Sun May 28 v Latvia - at Rentschler Field in Hartford at 6pm central on ESPN2
~ ~ ~ ~
Maybe I should start taking this debacle in Italy more seriously. Last week I posted the article by Grahame Jones from the LA Times which seems to be the best one of boiling down ALL the problems. And believe me when I say, it's not just a referee assignment scandal. It's way way more. Here it is again.
-And Italian newspapers over the weekend were saying that national team coach Lippi was being pressured to resign! Despite what this and other articles are saying, his job is safe for now.
-Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune calls it the... Soiling of The Beautiful Game
~ ~ ~ ~
Our mustachioed friend from the Boston Globe, Frank Dell'apa, reviews three new soccer books for the Sunday edition of his paper. One of them is a look at American soccer in the roaring 20's!
~ ~ ~ ~
The Kansas City Star continues with some of the best Pre-World Cup coverage of any US daily newspaper. Big hats off to them!
~ ~ ~ ~
George W Bush should take note - This is the way to lead a country: The Costa Rican government declared June 9 a national holiday so that employees can watch the World Cup opener between Germany and Costa Rica.
~ ~ ~ ~
Barcelona's Samuel Eto'o scored his team's only goal in a season ending 3-1 loss to Athletic Bilbao, but claimed the coveted El Pichichi as Spain's top goal scorer for the season! He finished with 26 goals, narrowly beating out Valencia's David Villa who had 25.
~ ~ ~ ~
English Championship Division Playoff final was yesterday in Cardiff at the Millennium Stadium.
Leeds 0-3 Watford - American defender Jay Demerit scored the first and winning goal for Watford on a very powerful header off a corner kick.
-So he and his virtually unknown Watford teammates will join Reading and Sheffield United in the Premiership next season, but not Eddie Lewis and his Leeds teammates who looked quite awful in the game.
-I saw the game at the cozy Highbury Pub in Milwaukee, with a whole bunch of Jay Demerits friends who went nearly insane when he scored that goal. Lot's of fun for them, but a huge bummer for the nice Leeds fans I was chatting with.
~ ~ ~ ~
Butt Ugly Iain Dowie has resigned as manager of Crystal Palace. I am sure he won't be out of work for long.
~ ~ ~ ~
Mexican Clausura Final:
Pachuca 1-0 San Luis - after the first leg ended in a goalless draw, the home side took the match by the narrowest of margins and now claim the 2006 Clausura Championship!!! The series only goal was scored on a PK by Uruguayan Richard Nunez. This was Pachuca's 4th title. FYI, the teams nickname is the Tuzos or Gophers! I can dig that.
~ ~ ~ ~
Manchester United owner Malcom Glazer has suffered a second stroke.

Cloud Gum News

Who will win Spain's El Pichichi? It's the award given to La Liga's top goal scorer every year! Barca's Samuel Eto'o or Valencia's David Villa? Both are sitting on 25 goals. But Villa's season has ended while Eto'o still has one game left to play, against Athletic Bilbao on Saturday.
~ ~ ~ ~
Breathe easy little Arse babies. Your daddy has signed a new contract. Thierry Henry will stay in London for 4 more years.
~ ~ ~ ~
Columbus has signed young Brazilian midfielder Ricardo Virtuoso from Chiasso in the Swiss second division. What a name. That is going to be a hard one to live up to.
~ ~ ~ ~
Tobias Xavier Lopez of the Fort Worth Star Telegram says FC Dallas has no room or time for the likes of NY's Amado Guevara.
~ ~ ~ ~
The Icon Venue company is behind the buidling of Red Bull Park in Harrison NJ. They have new info and renderings of the stadium.
~ ~ ~ ~
Lots of new video at US Soccer from the training camp including Media Day, Drew Carey on Jimmy Kimmel Live, and USA v Charleston.
~ ~ ~ ~
Listen to New England Revolution owner Jonathan Kraft with a 30 minute radio interview on the big sports talk station in Boston. Very in-depth, even though the beginning is inane.
~ ~ ~ ~
Frank Dell'apa of the Boston Globe on Clint Dempsey and the death of his hip hop friend Big Hawk.
~ ~ ~ ~
Soccer America's ongoing series "Life In The Pros", where they talk to the pro's about their day to day life.
~ ~ ~ ~
Robert Wagman of the Soccer Times examines the USA roster from the inside out.
~ ~ ~ ~
The nominees for the World Cup Best Young Player award are out. (Open to all players those born on or after the 1 January 1985.) There are no American's on the list:
Mario (ANG), Lionel Messi (ARG), Oscar Ustari (ARG), Mark Milligan (AUS), Luka Modric (CRO), Christian Benitez (ECU), Luis Valencia (ECU), Aaron Lennon (ENG), Wayne Rooney (ENG), Theo Walcott (ENG), Marcell Jansen (GER), Lukas Podolski (GER), Haminu Dramani (GHA), Asamoah Gyan (GHA), Hossein Kaabi (IRN), Ji Hoon Baek (KOR), Jin Kyu Kim (KOR), Chu Young Park (KOR), Andres Guardado (MEX), Guillermo Ochoa (MEX), Ryan Babel (NED), Hedwidges Maduro (NED), Jose Montiel (PAR), Lukasz Fabianski (POL), Cristiano Ronaldo (POR), Mohammed Al Anbar (KSA), Cesc Fabregas (ESP), Sergio Ramos (ESP), Tranquillo Barnetta (SUI), Valon Behrami (SUI), Johan Djourou (SUI), Blerim Dzemaili (SUI), Philippe Senderos (SUI), Johan Vonlanthen (SUI), Toure Assimiou (TOG), Karim Guede (TOG), Yassine Chikhaoui (TUN), Dmytro Chiggrynskiy (UKR), Artem Milevskiy (UKR), Bogdan Shust (UKR)
~ ~ ~ ~
English Championship Division Playoff final
Leeds v Watford
The 3rd & final promotion spot to the Premiership is at hand.
And there will be another American in the top league as both teams still battling have one in their regular 11. Eddie Lewis for Leeds and Jay DeMerit for Watford.
Good luck boys!
Sunday May 21 in Cardiff at the Millennium Stadium - See it on TV in America, live at 8am central time on Setanta.
-USA Today has a feature story on USA & Watford defender Jay DeMerit.
~ ~ ~ ~
Mexican Clausura Playoff finals:
Last night
San Luis 0-0 Pachuca - the goalless draw can only help Pachuca for the last match of the season.
Sunday - return leg
Pachuca v San Luis - see it live at 5pm central on Azteca America
~ ~ ~ ~
Coming up on Saturday - MLS Week 8
Houston v Chicago - 3pm on ESPN2
New York v Chivas USA - 630pm on DK
Columbus v DC - 630pm on DK
Dallas v New England - 730pm on HDNet
Salt Lake v Kansas City - 8pm no TV
Los Angeles v Colorado - 930pm on DK
~ ~ ~ ~
USL First Division matches this weekend:
Friday
Portland v Rochester
Saturday
Charleston v Puerto Rico
Seattle v Toronto
Sunday
Montreal v Minnesota
Miami v Virginia Beach
Portland v Toronto
Monday
Vancouver v Rochester
~ ~ ~ ~
And don't forget that the USA Send-off Series begins next Tuesday night in Nashville.
Tuesday May 23 v Morocco - at The Coliseum in Nashville at 6pm central on ESPN2
Friday May 26 v Venezuela - at Cleveland Browns Stadium in Cleveland at 6pm central on ESPN2
Sunday May 28 v Latvia - at Rentschler Field in Hartford at 6pm central on ESPN2

Flattering Image News

The 2006 UEFA Champions League winner is Barcelona. 2-1 over Arsenal.
-Once the game was 30 minutes old it seemed inevitable didn't it?
-Arsenal keeper Lehman had to come out and try to stop Eto'o, and when he got sent off for taking Eto'o down I knew it was over.
-The Arse worked hard for a long stretch of the match with just 10 men & got a great goal. (However, I have to say that the deliberate dive that earned the free kick that Henry put on target that Sol Campbell headed home was completely embarrassing. The guy who flopped like that, Emmanuel Eboue, should be totally ashamed of himself. I really really hate that crap. I wish the leagues would start using video replay to punish those guys. A retroactive yellow card, or a fine would stop this garbage.) -Once Barca settled down and began their surgery on the Arse defense it was only a matter of time. But I must say that both goals would have been better defended by Lehman too. Oh well. It was a really good game for about 70 minutes.
-As for Arsenal's chances of pulling off a near miracle, if Henry had put away at least one of his 3 excellent chances on goal who knows what might have happened.
-One sad thing I have seen in reading the newspapers this morning is that Henry is blaming the refereeing for his teams loss. Lame.
-The man who made both great passes for Barca's goals was Henrik Larsson a late game sub. Larsson is leaving the club after this season to go play in his Swedish homeland.
-In the end the biggest difference makers for Barca were the 3 substitutes they made: Larsson of course, Belliti who scored the 2nd goal, and Iniesta who made some great passes in that siege on the Arse's goal. Iniesta also was replacing Van Bommell who did not have such a hot match.
-Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune was at the match: Lehmann reaches out and hands Barça the cup
-Dale Johnson of Soccernet with a match report from the stadium.
-The Guardian's match report.
-Jonah Freedman at Sports Illustrated recaps the final and gives us his latest World Club Rankings.
-Josh over at the excellent ThroughBall comments on the surprising half time guest appearance of Anthony Lapaglia to the broadcast. A couple years ago when FSC was doing their MLS Wrap show AL was a guest of John Harkes. He obviously knows a lot about the game and is a fan of the US team and league. I like it.
-And ESPN has announced the signing of a new expanded deal to show even more Champions League matches on TV and broadband next season.
~ ~ ~ ~
Marc Connolly has a Q & A with USA & Everton keeper Tim Howard for the US Players Assoc.
~ ~ ~ ~
Three new podcasts from US Soccer: Coach Arena, Brian McBride, and Tim Howard. Download and listen!
~ ~ ~ ~
A very exciting press release was sent out from Univision and TeleFutura yesterday regarding more soccer viewing choices for next season (see the middle of the pr page). They will be showing a MLS game of the week all season long, and they will also be showing the much talked about, but not formally announced tournament between MLS and MFL! Fantastic news!
~ ~ ~ ~
The Palm Beach Post has a feature on the sad story of Colorado's very young Haitian striker Fabrice Noel. Excellent read, especially if you don't know his story.
~ ~ ~ ~
Released yesterday, it's the All-American XI for MLS week 7. A panel of "experts" pick the 11 best Americans in the league for each and every week of the season. Always an excellent reading experience.
~ ~ ~ ~
Ethan G dropped a note to say that the potential owners of MLS Philadelphia are looking for input into team name & colors. Give yours here.
~ ~ ~ ~
Peter Wilt posted his own panoramic picture of Bridgeview at Big Soccer! At night with the lights on!
~ ~ ~ ~
Columbus officially announced that they will play a friendly v England's Everton on Wednesday, July 26, at Crew Stadium.
~ ~ ~ ~
What does Columbus General Manager Mark McCullers think of DC United: "I hate DC. DC is the team that I want to beat worse than any other team in this league. Our staff knows that because we talk about it all the time. It is my own personal vendetta." Ouch.
~ ~ ~ ~
Larry Morgan of the LA Daily News spends more time quoting Alexi Lalas who again says that coach Steve Sampson is not to blame for LA's awful team.
~ ~ ~ ~
Jeff Carlisle at Soccernet with a feature story on the rejuvinated career of DC United striker Alecko Eskandarian.
~ ~ ~ ~
Frank Dell'apa, also at Soccernet, writes about the possibilities of using New England's Portugese favorite son Eusebio as a pipeline to foreign talent.
~ ~ ~ ~
Lance dropped me a note to say that the Gatorade-US Soccer ad is now on Gatorade's website.
~ ~ ~ ~
Chicago striker Andy Herron is finally going to get to see the pitch for the first time in '06. He has now completed his 6 game ban for pushing and screaming at the referee, then not leaving the field in a timely manner, in last years playoff loss to New England.
~ ~ ~ ~
Mexican Clausura Playoff finals begin tonight with the first of 2 legs.
Thursday - first leg
San Luis v Pachuca - see it live at 8:30pm central on TeleFutura
Sunday - return leg
Pachuca v San Luis - see it live at 5pm central on Azteca America
~ ~ ~ ~
Lance also sent me a funny link to an article where Togo's German coach Otto Pfister talks trash about the German team. Come on dude, you coach Togo! Did you get passed over for the German job and are now bitter? Or was it the fact that they never considered you a real candidate in the first place? You are funny though. I bet German TV could use some more humor. Like this.
~ ~ ~ ~
Demko sent me a link to a new soccer book that Harper Collins just published: The Thinking Fan's Guide to the World Cup by Matt Weiland and Sean Wilsey. The book contains a Dave Eggers piece that ran in the Guardian about a month ago. I linked to it at the time so some of you may have read it. But if not, then here it is again.
-And a dude at the Guardian's sister paper, The Observer, talks about his favorite football books. Some interesting stuff here.
-Lastly, their is a new edition of Simon Kuper's fantastic book Football Against The Enemy. Retitled for America as Soccer Against The Enemy. It predates by almost 10 years Franklin Foer's look at the world, culture and politics thru the eyes, ears and throats of soccer.
~ ~ ~ ~
My man Jesse has done a team by team look at the USL First Division, and his own league rankings. Check it out now. I will link to it every time he updates.
~ ~ ~ ~
Another addition to the Fellow Freaks doing soccer weblog's is the fantastically titled Eleven Devils, complete with excellent prose.
~ ~ ~ ~
Coming up on Saturday - MLS Week 8
Houston v Chicago - 3pm on ESPN2
New York v Chivas USA - 630pm on DK
Columbus v DC - 630pm on DK
Dallas v New England - 730pm on HDNet
Salt Lake v Kansas City - 8pm no TV
Los Angeles v Colorado - 930pm on DK
~ ~ ~ ~
USL First Division matches this weekend:
Friday
Portland v Rochester
Saturday
Charleston v Puerto Rico
Seattle v Toronto
Sunday
Montreal v Minnesota
Miami v Virginia Beach
Portland v Toronto
Monday
Vancouver v Rochester
~ ~ ~ ~
And don't forget that the USA Send-off Series begins next Tuesday night in Nashville.
Tuesday May 23 v Morocco - at The Coliseum in Nashville at 6pm central on ESPN2
Friday May 26 v Venezuela - at Cleveland Browns Stadium in Cleveland at 6pm central on ESPN2
Sunday May 28 v Latvia - at Rentschler Field in Hartford at 6pm central on ESPN2

The Official Website Of Pet Rock News

Today is UEFA Champions League Final day in Paris!
Arsenal v Barcelona
You can watch it live on ESPN2 at 1:30pm central time
-Some people call this the Super Bowl of World Football, and while I don't want to insult people with pure Americanism, I nearly agree. The difference being that the importance of this for everyone (teams, fans, leagues, etc) is on the game purely, where with the Super Bowl the game is only the pure focus of the teams who are playing and their most die hard fans, for the rest of us it's is all spectacle. So being a snob I give the Champions League final the top thumbs up!
-One of the two linesman refereeing the match today was fired last night after his picture showed up in the newspapers wearing a Barcelona shirt. That's a good one.
~ ~ ~ ~
The Raleigh News Observer has been covering the Team USA World Cup training camp with stories every day. Today they feature long-time star defender Eddie Pope from nearby High Point NC.
-Anyone know of other newspapers from that area that are covering the camp?
-The TriSoccerFan weblog dedicated to that area of NC has obviously also been covering the camp very seriously. Great stuff to read from Jarrett.
-Jarrett also linked (and I am stealing) to a video clip of that unbelievable Champions League cup final that Manchester United won over Bayern Munich in the dying seconds back in '99. It is quite incredible to watch again. I remember sitting at my house watching the match with a Man U fan who was nearly devastated by the 1-0 defeat that seemed inevitable, when out of nowhere the magic happened. Watch it now.
~ ~ ~ ~
The AP has a story on Claudio Reyna's roll on the US squad.
~ ~ ~ ~
FIFA.com chats with Bobby Convey.
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John Henderson of the Denver Post on the USA World Cup security detail.
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The Houston Chronicle checks in to see how the training camp is going for Dynamo striker Brian Ching.
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Marc Connolly of MLSnet looks at the quiet environment North Carolina gives the USA players for their WC preparations.
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All new, and fairly crass, to be updated whenever I feel like it......
The du Nord rankings for the first MLS coach to get the boot in 06:
1 Steve Sampson
2 Mo Johnston
3 John Ellinger
4 Colin Clarke
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MLS top goal scorers
7 Brian Ching
4 Alecko Eskandarian
4 Jovan Kirovski
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New York has slapped midfielder Amado Guevara around a little for his inappropriate actions in last Saturdays game v Chicago. After being subbed off in the 55th minute, Guevara slowly walked off the pitch, past the coach & bench, into the dressing rooms to shower and then went up into the stands to sit with his wife and friends. His fellow players are pissed off, mainly cuz this has now become an ongoing attitude. He was fined a chunk of change and suspended for the next match. Big Apple Soccer has the whole debacle story.
-This oughta be good: Ives Galarcep at the North Jersey Herald actually talks to Amado Guevara - who of course doesn't know what all the fuss is about.
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LiberianSoccer.com has a nice story on Salt Lake's new kid Willis Forko who is getting his shot the past few games at the teams left back spot and is succeeding with fine aplomb! Huzah Willis!
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The Columbus Dispatch has an article on Sigi & the Crew's new game winner Ned Grabavoy. (What a great name that kid has!)
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Real Madrid will be in Utah in August to play a friendly with their namesakes Real Salt Lake. More details soon.
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Andrea Canales of Soccernet talks to the newest Galaxian, Kyle Martino, who is in desperate need of a second chance to make his career happen.
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The KC Star looks at the ongoing, slow moving mess that has the Kansas City Wizards dealing with another summer not knowing if they will still be a team next year, and who will own them, and where they will play. Most people assume this same uncertainty is what crushed them late last season when they did not win in their final 8 matches and missed the playoffs entirely.
-What actually crushed KC last year was the 3-1 home loss to my beloved Minnesota Thunder in the US Open Cup. After that thrashing, KC never won another game all season in any competition! As Justin Timberlake would say, "Cry me a river."
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One of my soccer obsessed brethren here in Minneapolis, Anthony, has a piece in today's Minneapolis Star Tribune on our Thunders defensive centerback brother combo Dustin & Brett Brannan! Nice going Zath.
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The Guardian reviews the Cosmos documentary film, Once In A Lifetime.
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Jack Bell at the New York Times looks at the player decisions national team coaches had to make on World Cup roster submission day, and a couple other topics in his weekly column.
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Goal.com talks to American's Kasey Keller and Oguchi Onyewu about alleged sports corruption in Europe.
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Mexican Clausura Finals
Thursday (first leg)
San Luis v Pachuca - see it live at 8:30pm central on TeleFutura
Sunday (second leg)
Pachuca v San Luis - see it live at 5pm central on Azteca America
-Armando Perez of Soccer365 previews the final.