BellBivDevoe, Al B. Sure & Jermaine Dupri Re-Comeback Tour News

MLS week 5 results
Salt Lake 2-3 Los Angeles - Landon Donovan is on fire, and Salt Lake coach John Ellinger should be fired. (match report from Michael C Lewis of the Salt Lake Tribune)
DC 1-1 Dallas - Dallas defense held pretty damn strong despite a ton of pressure from DC in the 2nd half. But did you see the 4 or 5 times that Freddy Adu torched Greg Vanney? Awesome! (match report by Steven Goff of the Washington Post)
Columbus 0-1 KC - Josh Wolff with the late winner for the best team in MLS right now. (match report by Shawn Mitchell of the Columbus Dispatch)
Colorado 0-1 Houston - Ick is the only word to describe this game, ugly stuff to try and watch. (match report by Bernardo Fallas of the Houston Chronicle, cuz the two home newspapers in Denver are a total joke.)
Chivas 0-0 New York - Even uglier stuff to watch considering these two teams made big promises that they would be scoring more goals this year. (match report by Grahame Jones of the Los Angeles Times)
New England 1-2 Chicago - I think NE started the season a little high on themselves, and that combined with the key injuries have really slowed them down. Chicago is definitely doing themselves proud on this long away stretch. Hell, Tony Sanneh even looked really good for them when he came on late to help hold the lead. (match report by Frank Dell'apa of the Boston Globe)
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So who is in trouble for the USA World Cup squad? The worst news is that John O'Brien tweaked his left calf in training and did not play Saturday night for Chivas USA v New York. Steve Ralston and Pat Noonan also sat out their New England match v Chicago. And Carlos Bocanegra missed yet another Fulham match (v Man City). I would strongly think that all 4 will get a shot on the regular roster or as alternates, but if they are not 100% they will not go to Germany.
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Steve Goff of the Washington Post has claimed that inside sources have told him DC United midfielder Ben Olsen WILL be on the team. No surprise to me. Goff says that Olsen was told by Coach Arena over the weekend that he was on the squad.
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Remember - 5pm central time Tuesday our coach Il Bruce' will announce the squad on ESPN Sports Center.
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Former USA stars turned TV commentators Eric Wynalda & Marcello Balboa pick their USA 23 for Soccernet. And for some bizarre reason that I can only guess was payola, they both have Chris Klein on their lists. What is that about? I would be shocked to even see Klein on the alternates list.
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The Associated Press with a story on USA & PSV midfielder DaMarcus Beasley's excellent rise in Europe, but also pointing out the tough stuff he encounters with racism & anti-Americanism.
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DJ Walker's Stream of Consciousness - FC Dallas at DC United: One man's love of a certain goaltender.
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Big Apple Soccer has some great quotes from Chivas coach Bob Bradley about his old boss Alexi Lalas and their short time together last year in New York. This must be a very uncomfortable situation when they see each other in the halls of the Home Depot Center every day now! Here's a nice example of exactly how Bradley feels toward Lalas: “[He] didn’t take the time to look, didn’t care, had [his] own agendas, said anything [he] wanted to the press and had you guys write it. I had no respect for that..."
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The latest update on a potential Kansas City stadium from USA Today.
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Speaking of teams and stadiums, someone leaked confidential information about the economic reality and expectations of Real Salt Lake to the Salt Lake Tribune. The team is none too pleased with the perp & the paper.
-The Salt Lake Desert News responds with it's own remarks on the teams finances via the Editorial page.
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Even though it's a totally scurrilous rag, The Washington Times always has the nice soccer coverage, this time on the Screaming Eagles & Barra Brava.
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USL First Division scores from the weekend:
Charleston 3-0 Virginia Beach
Vancouver 2-0 Toronto
Puerto Rico 0-1 Montreal
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The Wash. Post also had a feature article from Saturday on DCU midfielder Josh Gros.
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Italy has named their pre-World Cup training squad, with the official 23 man roster due May 15. (Note: Francesco Totti is NOT on this list, but I bet he will be added by the deadline):
G:
Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus)
Angelo Peruzzi (Lazio)
Marco Amelia (Livorno)
Morgan De Sanctis (Udinese)
D:
Alessandro Gamberini (Fiorentina)
Manuel Pasqual (Fiorentina)
Fabio Cannavaro (Juventus)
Gianluca Zambrotta (Juventus)
Massimo Oddo (Lazio)
Alessandro Nesta (AC Milan)
Andrea Barzagli (Palermo)
Fabio Grosso (Palermo)
Cristian Zaccardo (Palermo)
Daniele Bonera (Parma)
M:
Mauro Esposito (Cagliari)
Franco Semioli (Chievo Verona)
Mauro Camoranesi (Juventus)
Fabio Liverani (Lazio)
Gennaro Gattuso (AC Milan)
Andrea Pirlo (AC Milan)
Simone Barone (Palermo)
Marco Marchionni (Parma)
F:
Francesco Tavano (Empoli)
Luca Toni (Fiorentina)
Alessandro Del Piero (Juventus)
Cristiano Lucarelli (Livorno)
Alberto Gilardino (AC Milan)
Filippo Inzaghi (AC Milan)
Vincenzo Iaquinta (Udinese)
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Phil Ball say it's been a good(ish) week for Spanish football: Campeones everywhere!
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Simon Kuper on the stupendous career of Dennis Bergkamp: Arsenal's artist leaves gallery of memories
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Reading beat QPR 2-1 on Saturday to set a new English Championship Division point mark at 106! Yes that's right, 106 points from 46 games including only 2 losses (2.3 per game). They also scored 99 goals. Amazing.
-Along with Reading, 2nd place finishers Sheffield United are the other Championship team to be automatically promoted to the EPL for next season. The four teams who finished in the 3rd-6th spots will now fight it out in a playoff for the last promotion spot. Here are the matchups:
Friday
#5 Leeds v #4 Preston
Saturday
#6 Crystal Palace v #3 Watford
Monday
Preston v Leeds
Tuesday
Watford v Crystal Palace
Sunday May 21
3-6 winner v 4-5 winner
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Chelsea do-the-do on the grave of Man Utd. It was a pretty thorough ass kicking by the now two time champs. 3-0 at Stamford Bridge, a true celebration. Did you see it? After the match as they handed out medals, Chelsea coach The Special One walked over and tossed his into the stands! The league guy then handed him another (probably figuring he hadn't gotten his yet), so TSO walked over and tossed that one to the fans too. He also tossed his suit coat for some reason. Then he paraded around wearing a Portugal scarf instead of a Chelsea scarf. The tabloids are speculating like wild on what that all meant. Odd dude. Great win.
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Oh the frickin agony of injury! Much worse than all those potential USA World Cup threatening injuries listed above is the devastation for England with Mr Potatohead Rooney re-breaking the same foot he damaged 2 years ago at the Euro Championship. Is he gonna heal in time? It does not look good. It will even be a drag for us non-England-lovers if he fails to make it, cuz he is one hell of player, and we like to see all those top notch guys at the World Cup.
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Then, after being out for 4 months with his own broken foot, Newcastle's Michael Owen plays 30 minutes for Newcastle and comes off the pitch to say "Doctor, my foot hurts!" Not good for England! Will his broken foot be healed in time? They really need him now. Mikey says he will be ready.
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The two team race for the Serie A scudetto did not change over the weekend. Both Juve and Milan won easily keeping Juventus' lead at 3 points with just two games left to play now.
Milan 2-0 Livorno - Super Pippo Inzaghi scored em both.
Siena 0-3 Juventus - Patrick Vieira, David Trezeguet & Adrian Mutu got the goals.
-Also in Italy, Inter lost 1-0 to Empoli taking them out of the race for 2nd place. They are in the Champions League next year though, cuz they cannot finish lower than 4th. The last CL spot is still a dog fight between Fiorentina with 68 points & Roma with 66.
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Barcelona did not clinch La Liga this past weekend even though they beat Cadiz 1-0 because 2nd place Valencia beat Alaves 3-0 and remains 8 points back with now with only 3 games to play, (Barca actually has a 4th game to play on top of that). The next games are on Wednesday with Barca at Celta Vigo (who themselves are trying to grab the 4th Spanish CL spot), and Valencia are at Mallorca (who are only 4 points above relegation). No matter what Val do, if Barca win it's all over.
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In Germany, Bayern still sit on top with 70 points and 3 games left. 2nd place Hamburg are 5 points back, and 3rd place Werder Bremen could still achieve a miracle 9 points back.
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Soccernet's The Insider gets to see Portsmouth finish their climb to the summit of Mt EPL Non-Relegation nearly miraculously.
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The Mexican Primera Division Clausura playoffs are about to begin. Club America did NOT make the last 8, which frankly, is embarrassing for the team who just won the CONCACAF Champions Cup.
Here are the clubs who did make the playoff:
Atlante
San Luis
Pachuca
Toluca (the Apertura champs)
Chiapas
Cruz Azul
Guadalajara
Morelia
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The race for the Argentine Clausura title, with 2 matches left to go, has Boca Juniors on top with 37 points, 4 ahead of Lanus in 2nd, and 6 ahead of River Plate in 3rd.
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Slovan Liberec won the Czech league title on Saturday.
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Alan Curbishley announced on Saturday that he is stepping down as coach of Charlton Athletic. He has been in charge since 91 which in this day and age is astounding. Rumor has it that he will take over Aston Villa.
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Reuters: Celtic striker Shaun Maloney has made history by scooping the Scottish Players' Player of the Year and the Young Player of the Year awards. What? They got no one else who can lay claim to one or the other of these, or is it a one-trick league?
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Lance checks in today with a mention of that Team USA Gatorade advert that has been running all over TV the last couple of weeks: I'm really digging that Gatorade soccer ad. They're running it a lot on any televised games/races/guy shows.. (Editors note: you can see it at You Tube, cuz Gatorade does not have it on their site - as a matter of fact, the picture they have on their site of Landon Donovan (their endorser) is him wearing a San Jose shirt - lame).
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My favorite ad right now is the Adidas Impossible Team. Go to this page, click on ENTER SITE (in the center of the page), then click TV ROOM (center bottom), and then click ENTER IMPOSSIBLE TEAM. Now click on WATCH MOVIE (center far right). You can watch both Part 1 - Equipo (which has been running on TV), and the all new Part II - Partido!
-You can also check out the Pablo Mastroeni v Jaime Lozano ad there too. Complete with the respective USA v Mexico game the2 teams play. I will not tell you who wins, but I will say that some dude off the street playing keeper of the US and stuffs Lozana on a PK!
-And if you go here, and click on ENTER SITE (again in the middle of the screen) you can check out Ashley Cole v Djibril Cisse, Kaka v Riquelme and many more.
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CUP MANIA:
French Cup Final
Paris St Germain 2-1 Olympique Marseille - Bonaventure Kalou & Vikash Dhorasoo scored for the winners, with Toifilou Maoulida scoring for the runners up.
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German Cup Final
Bayern Munchen 1-0 Eintracht Frankfurt - Claudio Pizarro scores the Cup winner
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The Italian TIM Cup Final fist leg this Wednesday:
Inter v Roma - (return leg May 11)