Thursday, July 27, 2006

Drinks Will Flow And Blood Will Spill News

The unfortunate words of Salt Lake coach John Ellinger after another team choke job: "There's something that goes in a jock strap, and I guess you got to have that to play this game, and we're missing it."
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LA Soccer News is reporting that Los Angeles star Landon Donovan was injured in pre-game warm ups for a friendly last night v Cruz Azul. He pulled his left hamstring. The extent of the injury is not yet known. I am guessing that this will leave him out of the All Star Game v Chelsea on Aug 5 (and will open the door for Terry Cooke of Colorado to be added to the squad).
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Real Madrid have announced that they have bought Rutgerus Johannes Martinius van Nistelrooij aka Ruud van Nistelrooy from Manchester United.
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Frank Dellapa of Soccernet looks at the future of New England's Clint Dempsey in MLS - How much longer till he is sold to a Euro team.
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MLS games last night:
Salt Lake 3-3 Chivas USA - the Goats got the tying goal from Claudio Suarez in the 3rd minute of added time. Salt Lake played well and still couldn't win, because mentally they had already gone to the locker room to celebrate the win. Ante Razov scored his league leading 12th goal of the year only 78 seconds after the opening kickoff. Jeff Cunningham, Carey Talley and Andy Williams scored for Salt Lake, while Jonathan Bornstein, who is playing out of his mind right now, scored the 2nd Chivas goal. Match report from the Salt Lake Tribune.
Colorado 1-0 Houston - Niko Hernandez continues to improve for Colorado and got the games only goal. Joe Cannon stopped several late Houston attempts to preserve the clean sheet. Match report from the Denver Post.
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MLS Single Table:
45 DC United
36 FC Dallas
31 Houston Dynamo
28 Colorado Rapids
26 Chivas USA
25 New England Revolution
23 New York Red Bulls
21 Chicago Fire
20 Los Angeles Galaxy
20 Kansas City Wizards
19 Columbus Crew
17 Real Salt Lake
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MLS international friendly's last night:
UANL Tigres 2-0 Dallas - The Burn won the first leg 2-0 also, so with the aggregate knotted at 2-2 the game was decided by penalty kicks. Clarence Goodson had a chance to win it for Dallas on the 5th kick after Aldo de Nigris had hit the cross bar, but the Tigres keeper made the save on Goodson sending it to sudden death pk's. Dallas keeper Dario Sala made a saved on the 6th attempt from Tigres, then stepped up himself to boldly score the winner and the Plate for FC Dallas in the inaugural Rio Grande Plate! Match report from FC Dallas & MLSnet.
Columbus 1-1 Everton - Not the prettiest match to watch, but a deserved tie with both teams going for the winner. Match report from the Columbus Dispatch, and a match report from Evertonfc.com.
-As more and more Columbus players get healthy you can see that they do have some skill and will make Sigi Schmid look like he knows what he is doing. And Sebastian Rozental, who last Saturday showed a couple flashes of his old brilliance, was at it again last night and scored an awesome goal.
-USA & Everton keeper Tim Howard is keeping a diary for the Everton team site about the teams travels in the US. Here is Day One and Day Two (about his return to an MLS stadium & meeting fans and media after the game.) Very cool. Note: Howard hilariously refers to the MLS Commissioner as Don Gormer.
-Columbus coach Sigi Schmid talks to Soccer Capital News post game.
LA 1-4 Cruz Azul - It was 0-1 at half time and 1-1 shortly after that on a goal by Kyle Martino, then Cruz Azul unleashed the hounds and won it going away. Match report by Andrea Canales for LA Soccer News.
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After the game in Columbus last night a forum was hosted by MLS Commissioner Don Garber, Columbus upper echelon management, coach Schmid, and players Eddie Gaven & Jacob Thomas. It was open to the public. Several quality Bigsoccer.com posters give their views on what was said by the VIP's at the event: POdinCowtown, pjguldan, TimD & HardestWorkingFan. MLSnet also has an article on the evening.
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Glenn Davis of the Houston Chronicle reviews the documentary film Once In A Lifetime, about the New York Cosmos heyday. Don't forget that this movie opens in my town, Minneapolis on Friday night.
-While I did see Pele play in his only trip to Minnesota, my fondest NASL and hometown Minnesota Kicks memory, by far, was the 1978 playoffs 9-2 demolition of the mighty post-Pele Cosmos. It pouted down rain that night, but in huge victory it never seems like a bad thing, but rather, another reason to party wildly. And I believe Alan Willey scored 5 for my heroes! Here's the Minneapolis Star Tribune story from that game.
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NYNJSoccer with some words after a Red Bulls training session this week, and a chat with forward Mike Magee, who is starting to show-off some of that early career promise that had disappeared.
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Andrea Canales at Soccer365 with her cure for a World Cup hangover. And yer damn right it's MLS baby. I agree.
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Jonah Freedman is back with his World Power Rankings at Sports Illustrated. And DC United makes the list of teams bubbling under the top soil.
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Copa Libertadores Semifinals!
First legs last night and tonight:
Guadalajara Chivas 0-1 Sao Paulo - SP keeper Rogerio scored on a late PK for his team and grabbed the precious road goal. Match report by Luis Bueno for Sports Illustrated.
Libertad v Internacional on Thur July 27
Second legs next week:
Sao Paulo v Guadalajara Chivas on Wed Aug 2
Internacional v Libertad on Thur Aug 3
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A few of the bigger names start to arrive for the 06-07 UEFA Champions League Second Qualifying Round matches (1st leg)-
Ekranas 1-4 Dinamo Zagreb
Sheriff 1-1 Spartak Moskva
Debrecen 1-1 Rabotnicki
Gorica 0-2 Steaua
Kobenhavn 2-0 MyPa
Mlada Boleslav 3-1 Valerenga
Djurgarden 1-0 Ruzomberok
Hafnarfjordur 0-1 Legia
Zurich 2-1 Red Bull Salzburg
Fenerbahce 4-0 B36
Hearts 3-0 Siroki Brijeg
Metalurgs 1-4 Dynamo Kyiv
Cork 0-1 Crvena Zvezda
Levski 2-0 Sioni
-2nd leg matches will be played next week - Aug 1 & 2
-The 3rd qualifying round draw will be held Friday with the matches taking place Aug 8/9 and Aug 22/23 to be followed by the group stages launching in mid-September
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First Division matches midweek and thru the weekend:
Last night
Montreal 1-0 Seattle
Thur
Minnesota v Charleston
Fri
Atlanta v Montreal
Miami v Puerto Rico
Rochester v Seattle
Sat
Toronto v Portland
Virginia Beach v Charleston
Sun
Miami v Puerto Rico
Toronto v Seattle
Minnesota v Atlanta
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Lazio and Fiorentina have decided to join Juventus in pursuing yet another appeal to their match fixing verdicts.
-In more Italy news - UEFA have announced that Milan will be included in the draw (this Friday) for the Champions League, but will hold a meeting next Wednesday to determine if the team will actually be allowed to enter the competition or be replaced by another Italian team.
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Mexico & Cruz Azul striker Francisco "Kikin" Fonseca transferred to Portuguese team Benfica on Wednesday, making him the 4th big name Mexican player to bolt across the Atlantic since the World Cup. Great move.
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Copa Brasil final-
Flamengo 1-0 Vasco da Gama - winning 3-0 on aggregate

2 Comments:

Blogger Zach Dundas said...

Spartak can only manage 1-1? I guess there's a "new Sheriff in town" or something like that.

Thanks for not commenting on the Timbers' pathetic freefall.

2:39 PM  
Blogger brucio said...

hell man, my thunder make your timbers look great
so i will not be commenting any time soon

3:39 PM  

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