Tuesday, August 22, 2006

You Stole My Money News

USA & Reading goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann: "I've got a lot of guns because I like to shoot. I love it! I get the same sort of enjoyment out of them as I do when I go and play golf. It is relaxing for me."
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I have been having a ton of conversations over the past two weeks with people on many levels of soccer in America - fans, players, owners, gm's, newpaper journalists, web columnists & readers of this weblog etc - and the main theme we keep returning to is the state of MLS (and professionally soccer as a whole) at this exact moment in time. We have almost universally agreed the league is at some sort of teetering point. Success is evident. Soccer viewership/fandom in America is real. Quality is on the rise. The money is out there to be had. But how does the league take steps quickly to capitalize on all of this, without making bad steps that could be costly. It's pretty obvious that more talent is needed, and more money needs to be spent on the talent already here. I think this is a very long topic, but I will end it for today with an article by Frank Dell'apa of the Boston Globe, who writes a really good column about this situation from a New England perspective. (He has written several similar stories in the past weeks as well, so go track em down in earlier edition of du Nord.)
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Another example of MLS growing pains are the ultra-complex rules of player acquisitions. Columbus and New York are embroiled in a fight over former Blackburn player Matt Jansen right now. Metrofanatic calls it idiotic. Agreed.
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It looks like Mo Johnston will be named the first coach of Toronto FC. Johnston starred in Scotland for both Rangers and Celtic (therefore is hated by fans of both teams), helped KC win their MLS cup in 2000, and briefly coached New York at the end of the Metrostars era, and beginning of the new Red Bulls era.
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Right midfielder Chris Klein of Real Salt Lake has been named MLS Player Of The Week.
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Speaking of RSL, Jeff Cunningham is suddenly making a very strong run at league Most Valuable Player. You usually don't get a shot at this award when your team stinks, but if they can retain their form and climb up the standings he has a real shot at it. (Right now they are still out of the playoffs.) Cunningham has stormed past Ante Razov to currently lead the league in goals scored with 14, and sits second in assists with 9, behind Terry Cooke of Colorado's 10. He also leads in shots on goal, 37, but more importantly has 3 game winning goals and 3 game winning assists (really huge considering his team only has 8 wins). Most telling for a striker though, he has scored or assisted on 23 of his teams 34 goals. Those are MVP numbers.
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Bob Holtzman of the Daily Breeze with a feature story on one of Chivas USA's two contenders for MLS Rookie of the Year, Jonathan Bornstein. (The other player is Sacha Kljestan.)
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Luis Bueno at Sports Illustrated with a feature story on the potentially very talented Juan Pablo Garcia (corrected, thanks AC). And Luis has a continuation/follow-up at LA Soccer News. Bueno has said many times that he thinks JPG is one of, if not the, most talented players in MLS. (These stories are more detail and opinion on the story of JPG supposedly saying he wanted to go back to Mexico, that broke last week.)
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Brian Ching of the Houston Dynamo writes in his weblog about his rehab following knee surgery.
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The Houston Chronicle's world football Week In Review.
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Jeff Carlisle at Soccernet with a feature story on DC United winger Josh Gros.
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Frank Giase of the Newark Star Telegram with his weekly column focused on the New York Red Bulls Open Cup match in which coach Bruce Arena visits his old home at DC United. (How will those very creative fans react?)
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Ives Galarcep of the North Jersey Herald also on the Red Bulls - he examines the teams many flaws.
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US Open Cup Quarterfinals!
Wednesday August 23:
DC v New York
Chicago v New England
LA v Colorado
Houston v Dallas
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The USA U20 roster has been announced for the upcoming Busan Tournament (Aug 29 - Sept 2) in South Korea. Team USA plays hosts SK on the 29th, Slovakia on Thursday Aug 31, & finishes with Argentina on Sept 2.
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Josh Blue who won the TV show Last Comic Standing this season is a huge soccer fan, even wearing a USA shirt on the show a couple times, but I just found out the he is also a great player who has been a member of the USA Paralympic Team. Blue has Cerebral Palsy, and is pretty frickin funny.
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I don't know how many of you Twin Citians know this, but USA Women's coach Greg Ryan played for our Minnesota Kicks in 1979.
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Kristian Dyer at Soccernet does a Q & A session with awesome young American midfielder Benny Feilhaber who plays for Hamburg in Germany.
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American defender Jay DeMerit & his team Watford play West Ham at home today - see it at 1:30pm central time on FSC.
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Yanks Abroad is reporting that USA & Nordsjaelland left defender Heath Pearce has multiple transfer offers on the table and a move may yet happen this month before the transfer window ends.
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Pearce has also penned his own article about life & playing in Denmark for the US Players Association.
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Soccer365 is reporting that former Dutch national team keeper Ronald Waterreus wants to play in MLS. Ok, fine. Whatever. He was with Rangers last year, but is currently unemployed.
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UEFA Champions League - Third Qualifying Round second leg matches this week (first leg scores included):
Today:
Benfica v Austria Wien (1-1)
Crvena Zvezda v Milan (1-0)
Valencia v Salzburg (1-0)
Osasuna v Hamburg (0-0)
Wednesday: Steaua Bucuresti v Standard Liege (2-2) - American defender Oguchi Onyewu is back and fully healthy for this match.
Arsenal v Dinamo Zagreb (0-3)
Spartak Moskva v Slovan Liberec (0-0)
Legia Warszawa v Shakhtar Donetsk (1-0)
Chievo Verona v Levski Sofia (2-0)
AEK Athens v Hearts (1-2)
Ruzomberok v CSKA Moskva (3-0)
Mlada Boleslav v Galatasaray (5-2)
Ajax v Kobenhavn (1-2)
Fenerbahce v Dynamo Kyiv (3-1)
Maccabi Haifa v Liverpool (2-1)
Rabotnicki v Lille Metropole (3-0)
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Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune writes about the new president of Real Madrid who is trying to get the team back to glory: Real's president puts team first
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Mexican team Santos has been fined $25,000 after their fans made monkey noises every time Monterrey's Panamanian defender Felipe Baloy touched the ball. What the hell is wrong with people?
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The despicable (& unrepentent) man behind the match fixing scandal at Juventus, Luciano Moggi, who was given a five year ban from the game, has had his civil court appeal rejected. Yes!
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Euro-centric transfer market news:
-Juventus have signed French defender Jean-Alain Boumsong from Newcastle.
-Blackburn will sign Dutch defender Andre Ooijer from PSV.

3 Comments:

Blogger Zach Dundas said...

Single-entity, at least in its pure form, needs to go. Surely there must be away to keep teams from going out of business or spending the league into oblivion without this kind of dictatorial control from NYC. Revenue-sharing and a salary cap would seem to offer plenty of safety.

7:45 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

What the hell is wrong with people?

Do you recall the Memin Penguin episode about this time last year. If so, then this should not suprise you...

8:29 AM  
Blogger brucio said...

golnoir
it doesnt surprise me, it totally baffles me & royally pisses me off

11:15 AM  

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