Hot Times On Campus News

ADDITION: Grant Wahl of Sports Illustrated has a classic Q & A session with the New York Red Bulls coach, and one of my heroes, Bruce Arena! As they used to say in old time wrasslin': No holds barred!
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The Deseret(!) Morning News from Salt Lake City says Real Salt Lake is making a strong play to buy USA midfielder DaMarcus Beasley from PSV Eindhoven in Holland! But it won't be an easy deal to get done.
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Ok, here's a little sumthin' that will not surprise many of you regular readers:
There is a "fact" out there that I have consistently been getting wrong for ages, yet no one pointed it out to me until today. JF wrote in to tell me that I have been incorrectly refering to the Salt Lake City newspaper as the "Desert" Morning News. That's DESERT, as in - dry barren sandy landscape. All my mental efforts always go in to not refering to this paper as the "Dessert" Morning News. With DESSERT clearly being America's favorite meal. But it turns out that the paper is in fact called the "Deseret" Morning News, a completely different animal all together. As JF pointed out DESERET is a term from the original Book Of Mormon! It means "honeybee" in the language of the Jaredites. (Thanks Wikipedia) Wow. Completely different, yet perfectly logical name for the newspaper, with Salt Lake being such a huge Mormon area, and Utah being the beehive state. Maybe all of you already knew this, but I learned something new & interesting today! Thanks JF.
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There was a make up game played last night in the US Open Cup:
Chicago 2-0 Kansas City - goals by Calen Carr & Andy Herron. Both teams played a lot of their reserves.
-Match report from the Chicago Daily Southtown.
-Match report from the Kansas City Star.
-Two weeks ago the match was rained & lightninged out. The same two teams play again on Wednesday night, also in Chicago, in regular MLS action. Odd how it all works out isn't it.
-The best news for Chicago fans is that central defender Jim Curtain made his return from a broken foot. He missed over 3 months of games.
-Chicago have also signed midfielder Pascal Bedrossian from French team Lorient. He has played for the Armenian national team.
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Jeff Cunningham of Salt Lake has been named MLS Player Of The Week for the 4th time this season. He also leads the league in goals scored. If his team was playing better he would be a clear leader for Player Of The Year.
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MLS Top goal scorers:
13 Jeff Cunningham
12 Ante Razov
10 Jaime Moreno
10 Brian Ching
9 Taylor Twellman
8 Carlos Ruiz
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New England midfielder Clint Dempsey has been suspended by MLS for 2 games after throwing an elbow that broke the jaw of KC defender Jimmy Conrad.
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To be officially announced shortly: DC United will sign Argentine midfielder Matias Donnet from Boca Juniors. He follows the line of recent mid-season Argentine signings by DC of Christian Gomez, Facundo Erpen, and Lucio Filomeno. From the Washington Post.
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Dema Kovalenko is back in MLS, joining the New York Red Bulls, and tells Michael Lewis of Big Apple Soccer that his bad reputation is undeserved.
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Could we be seeing the end of the 3 year run for New England? Frank Dell'apa at the Boston Globe thinks it's possible. Dempsey, Twellman & Noonan could all be gone soon.
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Ives Galarcep of the North Jersey Herald on what the Red Bulls can take from their shellacking at the hands of mighty Barca.
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Dan Loney gets all Barca Crazy at American Soccer News.
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The Fort Worth Star Telegram's Tobias Lopez with a story on new Dallas keeper and Trinidad & Tobago World Cup star Shaka Hislop. (From last weekend.)
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The Houston Chronicle's Week In Review
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3 MLS midweek games on Wednesday:
Columbus v Salt Lake - 6:30pm central on FSC
New York v DC United - 6:30pm central on Direct Kick
Chicago v Kansas City - 8pm central, no TV
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When the English Premier League kicks off the 06/07 season this weekend, there will be 12 Americans on the teams ready for action:
Carlos Bocanegra - Fulham
Bobby Convey - Reading
Jay DeMerit - Watford
Brad Friedel - Blackburn
Cory Gibbs - Charlton
Marcus Hahnemann - Reading
Tim Howard - Everton
Jemal Johnson - Blackburn
Brian McBride - Fulham
Claudio Reyna - Manchester City
Johann Smith - Bolton
Jonathan Spector - West Ham
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Don't know how I managed to miss this one, but the Guardian had a feature story a couple weeks ago on Watford's surprising American defender Jay DeMerit!!
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USA U20 & Maryland forward Robbie Rogers has signed a deal with Heerenveen in Holland. This is the same club that signed 19 year old American Michael Bradley last year. Bradley ended up as a key starter by seasons end.
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Andrea Canales of Soccer 365 with a feature on the rise in world football fortunes for Ghana. And will it affect Freddy Adu?
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Yesterday I linked to a book that J Hutcherson of the US Players Assoc had refered to in his column. ("Soccer in a Football World" - A soccer book by an American, about the game in America, that is not available in America!) Today a lovely reader sent a note pointing out that you can get it from Amazon in Canada for possibly less money than from the UK. Good idea. Although it will cost you about $US25 plus shipping from CAN, while UK cost is about $US16 plus shipping.
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Second leg of the Copa Libertadores final this Wednesday (The away goal rule does NOT apply in this tournament.):
Internacional v Sao Paulo (2-1)
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West Ham striker Dean Ashton had just been called into the England team for the first time this week for the friendly against Greece, but he broke his ankle while practicing today. Not good for him, club or country.
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Czech Republic star midfielder Pavel Nedved has announced his re-retirement from international matches after tomorrow's friendly v Serbia.
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Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune on the national team coaching carousel: New coaches try to get up to speed