Driving My Drizzle News

Real Salt Lake owner Dave Checketts held a ground breaking ceremony for his new stadium, then said: "It's not absolutely done, it's still a big act of faith."
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Liverpool and England midfielder Steven Gerard in his new book looks back at the World Cup: "We are not as good as we think we are. England were guilty of over-confidence. Me and the other players constantly claimed we could win the World Cup - it was stupid."
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Frank Dell'apa of Soccernet talks to US Soccer Federation president Sunil Gulati about the coaching search to replace Bruce Arena. It appears as though there is no hurry.
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MLS Soccer Saturday:
Houston 1-0 Dallas - The least handsome man in MLS, Craig Waibel, scores on an unmarked header off a corner kick. Houston played great team defense.
-Houston striker Brian Ching suffered a slight tear in the ligament of his right knee requiring surgery right away. He will miss at least a month.
Kansas City 4-0 Columbus - Looks like Sigi's miracle machine really is a mirage. This Columbus team stinks, and that's after getting pulverized by Kansas City who stink as well. Great game for KC, but brutal for Columbus. Both teams were desperate for a win, and the one with the newest coach, Brian Bliss, got it going. KC goals scored by Davey Arnaud, Scott Sealy, Sasha Victorine & Ryan Pore. Still no Eddie Johnson or Josh Wolff on the score board.
Chicago 1-2 Chivas - With reportedly half the stands filled with Chivas fans it ended all wrong again for the home team Chicago with a late penalty call that many Chicagoans disputed. The Emperor Claudio Suarez (corrected) scored the PK and nabbed his teams first road win of the season.
Colorado 1-0 Los Angeles - Colorado got their goal with awesome team defense and slick Niko Hernandez finishing off a Kyle Beckerman cross. When Colo scores first they are 7-0-1 this season. Not bad at all.
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And more MLS internationals from last Saturday:
New York 1-4 Barcelona - It was close for a while, even tied at 1-1 at half time after Ronaldinho scored on a PK and Youri Djorkaeff scored on a great team-effort goal, but then the Barca reserves (who were better than the starters) took over. End of story.
-Dema Kovalenko made his return to MLS with New York and did well for himself springing his team for their only goal.
-Tony Meola was simply awesome in goal during the 45 minutes he played.
-Match report from Big Apple Soccer.
-Two stories from the North Jersey Herald, one on the fans, and another on Ronaldinho by Ives Galarcep.
-Match report from Frank Giase of the Newark Star Ledger.
-Match report from the New York Times.
-And the Times reporter & du Nord pen pal Jack Bell chats very briefly with NYRB man Bruce Arena.
-Filip Bondy of the New York Daily News looks at Arena's debut.
-Lastly, I am gonna state this right now: Lionel Messi is better than Ronaldinho, and will very shortly prove how amazing he is! I am not saying more entertaining, I am saying that he is a bigger impact player.
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Real Salt Lake 0-2 Real Madrid - Ruud Van Nistelrooy and Robinho scored Madrid's goals in a game that was very tight and hard fought until Salt Lake sub and total goon Attiba Harris hacked down Madrid's Sergio Ramos to earn himself a nice red card. That player has done this same crap over and over since pre-season and should be cut from his team and never heard from again! On the other hand, the first Madrid goal off the pk was a complete joke. The referee wanted to show the stars that he too was a star and awarded the penalty for something that was barely even contact in the box. Not surprising then that Italian Antonio Cassano flopped down and got the call. Disgraceful.
-They say Tom Cruise was at the game.
-By far the most surreal moment of the weekend was an official ground breaking ceremony in Salt Lake City suburb Sandy for a new stadium. This is a deal we all thought was dead, even on Friday. How it got done, and if its really done, are two separate stories. The literal ground breaking was caught on film. Here you will see the owner Dave Checketts digging some dirt (like rich guys love to do - especially when they start a new project with someone else's money). The best part is that several Real Madrid players are in the picture too! Roberto Carlos, David Beckham, Julio Baptista and coach Fabio Capello got a shovel going! Like I said, surreal.
-The two local Salt Lake newspapers again put all others to shame with their massive game day & stadium issue coverage of their team! It's very impressive indeed. The Desert Morning News - AND - The Salt Lake Tribune. I would guess there are at least 20 articles here between the two.
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In other league stadium news, New York Red Bulls have set Sept 19 as the date they will break ground on their home in Harrison NJ. I think that the latest design image is great. Red Bulls players and coaches react.
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After breaking the jaw of Kansas City defender Jimmy Conrad with an elbow in a match last Wednesday, New England star Clint Dempsey could find himself in a whole lot of trouble now. In preseason Dempsey got into a nasty fight with teammate Joe Franchino and ended up with a two week suspension. Then a few weeks ago he took a swipe at Chicago defender Gonzalo Seagares, catching him in the eye, and got a two game suspension (reduced to one on appeal). And now this! Conrad will miss at least a month with his mouth wired shut. (Should make for a great column for ESPN Soccernet.) No word yet from the league on if there will be any punishment, but if there is you can bet it won't be light.
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Reuters syndication news service with a story on the supposed humbling of Freddy Adu. I say supposed because he says he is growing up etc, but mostly still acts 17, which is a totally fine but usually very delusional age.
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Glenn Davis of the Houston Chronicle looks back at Barcelona's visit to his town.
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Old Man Jones wants to know why MLS can't just go buy all the big stars. From the LA Times.
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Chivas USA win 100 hour charity soccer game 437-429!!!!! This is way too cool!
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Kyle McCarthy of the US Players Assoc with a feature on a du Nord favorite player, Kansas City defender Jose Burciaga.
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And the excellent J Hutcherson, also of the US Players Assoc, writes about a great looking book on the history of soccer in America, that is not available in America (of course).
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USL First Division weekend matches:
Fri
Rochester 1-0 Montreal
Seattle 5-1 Virginia Beach
Sat
Atlanta 1-1 Puerto Rico
Sun
Miami 2-0 Charleston
Minnesota 1-0 Rochester
Vancouver 3-0 Virginia Beach
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Minnesota Thunder forward Melvin Tarley is now headed to Colorado on loan for the rest of the season.
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Michigan Bucks beat Laredo 2-1 Saturday night to claim their first ever PDL title!
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A round-up of some Americans playing in Europe:
-Kasey Keller, the new captain of Monchengladbach, led his team to a 2-0 win over newly promoted Energie Cottbus in the Bundesliga.
-Eddie Lewis could only hit the post as his team Leeds lost 1-0 to Crystal Palace in the English Championship Division.
-Steve Cherundolo & Hannover lost 4-2 to Werder Bremen. Cherundolo had the ball stolen off him and coverted directly into the first Bremen goal, also in the Bundesliga.
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Second leg of the Copa Libertadores final this Wednesday:
Internacional v Sao Paulo (2-1)
-But the away goal rule does NOT apply in this tournament.
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Simon Kuper is back from a post World Cup break, and writes about Chelsea's new man Michael Ballack.
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Aston Villa in England has been sold to Cleveland Ohio business man Randy Lerner (who also owns the Cleveland Browns NFL team) for 63 million pounds. Story from the BBC. Formal details will take about 3 weeks to finish.
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UEFA.com with an article on German team Werder Bremen who are making a strong push to join the elite.
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So do you think Inter Milan have improved much in the off season? Here are two very big reasons to think they might be.
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From our resident Serb fan Sasha: The 'Plavi' (Blues) are no more. Serbia goes red, and adopts a more 'patriotic' look for their uniforms. I was a little worried when I heard Nike was commissioned to do the job, but I have to say on this uniform, Nike did a very, very good job. (the news release and photos on the front page in Cyrillic, but if I switch to English they disappear, but it's all about the pictures anyway). They will be debuted in Prague before the EC qualifying begins, and the Czechs have been gracious enough to let Serbia wear their new primary colors even though the Czechs have the same color.
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Liverpool beat Chelsea 2-1 for Community Shield on Saturday. John Arne Riise scored first for Liverpool. New signing Andriy Shevchenko tied it for Chelsea. But super-string-bean Peter Crouch got the winner for Liverpool in the 80th minute.
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From the International Herald Trib - Hughes on Grinsi: Klinsmann's legacy rolls on undimmed