Fans Of Velcro News

Real Salt Lake forward Jeff Cunningham on himself: "I have no problems with anything that's been said of me. It's been said all my career. I think people fancy me. They can't figure me out. I'm an attractive guy. I make good money and I score goals. I'm the kind of guy I believe people love. And, at the same time, they can't figure out why they love me so much, so they decide to hate me."
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The US Open Cup Semifinals were last night:
Chicago Fire 3-0 DC United - Justin Mapp scored first for Chicago followed by 2 goals by Calen Carr to end it, but a red card to captain Chris Armas (from an altercation with DC's Facundo Erpen) will mean he misses the cup final. Bummer.
Los Angeles Galaxy 3-1 Houston Dynamo - Alan Gordon scored again for LA, but Houston's DDR tied it up. Then Landycakes got the winner, and Santino Quaranta sealed it for LA.
-Chicago will host the final and it will be on television - Wed Sept 27 on FSC.
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DC captain Jaime Moreno missed the game last night due to tendonitis in his knee. No word on his status for this upcoming weekend. DC have also lost back up defender John Wilson for the rest of the season after a knee surgery. Their team will be in even deeper doodoo this weekend v Salt Lake as the following starters are ALL OUT due to yellow card accumulation: Bobby Boswell, Alecko Eskandarian, Christian Gomez & Josh Gros. WOW! Do they have 11 players left?
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'Member that thing yesterday about Salt Lake striker Jeff Cunningham having a meltdown at practice on Tuesday? He says that the press just made it up. From the Deseret Morning News.
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Michael Lewis of Big Apple Soccer talks to coach Bruce Arena about his Red Bulls playoff chances.
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"Not so fast there lil buckeroo's!" says the Mayor of Overland Park Kansas, the proposed new home of the Kansas City Wizards. The Johnson County Sun talks to Mr Mayor & others about the chances of a stadium deal actually getting done.
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A great article at the US Players Assoc by Brian Straus on the "honesty" of American soccer players. He hates diving wankers too.
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Scott French, also for the US Players Assoc., with a feature on LA's newest addition, and former DC wonder boy, Santino Quaranta.
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New England have signed Mexican forward Jose Manuel Abundis from Toluca to try and get some more balls going in the net for them, from Frank Dell'apa of the Boston Globe.
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Andrea Canales looks at who & what has finally kick started LA's season, for Soccernet.
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And Canales has another article for the LA Soccer News on how she became a defender, plus her thoughts on Zidane's sister.
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More Frank Dell'apa, this time at Soccernet, as he examines the type of American players in the English Premiership, and what there future role is with US Soccer.
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My soccer loving pal BQ offers up part one of a thought-out piece on marketing a small First Division team - which happens to be my Minnesota Thunder.
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Fox Soccer Channel expands to Jamaica.
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MLS this weekend:
Saturday, September 9
Columbus v Chicago - 5pm
New England v New York - 6:30pm - Direct Kick & HDNet
DC v Salt Lake - 6:30pm - Direct Kick & FSC
Kansas City v Colorado - 7:30pm
Chivas USA v Dallas - 9pm - Direct Kick
Sunday, September 10
Los Angeles v Houston - 7pm - Direct Kick
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Here are some of the more interesting scores from Euro 2008 qualifying yesterday:
San Marino 0-13 Germany - Yes 13 goals on the road!
France 3-1 Italy - I guess it's a touch of revenge, but not all that much really - Peter Berlin covered the game for the International Herald Tribune.
Macedonia 0-1 England
Northern Ireland 3-2 Spain - huge upset in my book - but Rob Hughes says that the coaches of both teams are under fire.
Netherlands 3-0 Belarus
Russia 0-0 Croatia - the Guus Hiddink home debut didn't go so hot.
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Big Euro matches this weekend:
Saturday Sept 9
Fiorentina v Inter - see it live at 1:30pm central on GolTV
Everton v Liverpool - the Liverpool derby - see it live at 6:30am central live on Setanta
Sunday Sept 10
Sparta v Feyenoord - the Rotterdam derby
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Jonah Freedman's new World Soccer Power Rankings for Sports Illustrated.
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A documentary film was made of the German teams World Cup run, and the first trailer is out. It's in German, but you can see the quality. Should be a fun one.
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Ian Plenderleith's latest: World Class Soccer (Better Late Than Never)
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Brazilian left back Roberto Carlos has announced his retirement from international play. The guy is amazing, but I think he retired about 3 months too late.
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The word from Newcastle is that striker Michael Owen's second surgery to repair his badly injured knee has gone "extremely well." I don't know what that means medically, but this is coming from the country that uses the medical term "dead leg". We wish Mr Owen only the best luck in his recovery. I think we can all agree that he is one of the good guys.
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The story that never ends is still not over as Juventus have now decided to appeal their match fixing relegation sanctions to the Italian Olympic Commission instead of in civil court. Huh? I hope FIFA spanks em. And I don't mean spank in a cute flirty sexy way either.