Monday, September 25, 2006

A Twitchy Little Bastard News

MLS Soccer last Saturday:
DC 4-3 New York - DC's Jaime Moreno took some time off from the club early in the week to heal some injuries, then came into the game in the second half and then proceeded to rip the New York defense to shreds. Carlos Mendes with an own goal gave DC the first lead. Amado Guevara tied the score on a PK after Facundo Erpen handled the ball in the box. In the second half, Jaime Moreno fed Christian Gomez for the DC lead, but then Erpen was sent off for stomping NY forward John Wolyniec right in front of the referee. 10 man DC poured it on though and completed 16 PASSES IN A ROW (!) with Ben Olsen slipping a pass to Moreno for the third goal. But NY came back with a free kick blast and goal #2 for Guevara to keep it close. DC got a killing 4th goal on a huge drive by Matias Donnet for his first ever MLS goal. Jozy Altidore got a late one to make it interesting for NY. Wild wild affair.
New England 1-1 Kansas City - Clint Dempsey scored on a suicide dive header for NE, but KC played decent and got one back from Scott Sealy.
Dallas 2-1 Salt Lake - Dallas come out smokin' and got two great early goals on a header by El Pescadito, and a nice soft chip from Kenny Cooper that should be the goal of the week. All this before RSL was even awake yet. Salt Lake did come on better in the second half and afro-ed Jeff Cunningham got his league leading 16th goal of the year. Unfortunately JC left the game shortly after that with a hamstring strain and that was it for the Salt Lake attack. The win assured Dallas of their playoff spot.
Chicago 2-1 Los Angeles - Again LA has outplayed their opponent and lost down the stretch when they basically had to win. Chicago clinched a playoff spot too. Chris Rolfe (33 seconds in) & Andy Herron (game winning PK) scored for Chicago, with Landon Donovan scoring a scorcher for LA.
Chivas 1-0 Colorado - Francisco Mendoza scored for Chivas. And with the results from other games Chivas, can you believe this, has moved into 2nd place in the West! They are all but guaranteed a post season spot. Mexican veteran player Johnny Garcia made his Chivas debut in the 69th minute. Colorado's attack stinks. Even Melvin Tarley couldn't save 'em.
Columbus 1-1 Houston - DDR scored again for Houston, but Jason Geary got it back for Columbus. Not good enough for either team though who both needed wins for the playoff run - Houston to get a better seed, and Columbus to have any hope of qualifying at all.
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The TV broadcast did not catch this, but injured Dallas keeper Dario Sala was in the stands with the Inferno banging a drum during the match v Salt Lake on Saturday night. That makes him an awesome player! (But the video proof says he's a terrible drummer!!) 'Member Christian Gomez doing the same last year for DC? Hooray Drums! Boo Creepy Foot Doctor!
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Ian Plenderleith of Matchnight with his DC v NY post-match analysis.
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Playoff potential, update - Still no teams are elimidated. Chicago & Dallas both clinched spots in the playoffs & DC clinched home field for both rounds. If the season ended today, New York, Columubus, Salt Lake & Los Angeles would be out.
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KC and their General Manager Curt Johnson will part ways at seasons end. The new team owners and Johnson could not reach an agreement on a new contract. Bob Luder of the Kansas City Star has the full story.
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Our man Jonah Freedman at Sports Illustrated talks to New York's growing potential star right back Marvell Wynne, who has been coming on strong in the past few weeks. I have been waiting for someone out there to write this story.
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Bernardo Fallas of the Houston Chronicle talks to Dynamo star Dwayne DeRosario about the present (playoffs and MVP awards) and the future (Toronto?).
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MLS have finally officially announced an agreement with Univision, Galavision & Telefutura to begin televising league games in Spanish starting next season. Lots of little details in the press release. This sets up the league to be paid fees for TV deals by ABC/ESPN, HDNet, Fox Soccer Channel & Univision. Amazing.
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They seem to be loving Mo Johnston in Toronto. Slam Sports is gaga for the new coach.
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FC Dallas have announced a partnership with another foreign team. Last spring they formed a partnership with UANL Tigres in Mexico, and last Friday finalized a deal to do the same with Paranaense in Brazil. Like the Tigres deal with will play yearly home and away matches with Para and exchange youth players, loan players, coaches and ideas. Great move. They are now looking for a European partner. I think they should find an African and Asian partner too.
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Kristian Dyer of Soccernet writes about the Phoenix-like rising of former Metrostars head honcho Nick Sakiewicz, with the ground breaking of Red Bull Park. "Nick" shows his sense of humor too.
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Dyer also has a great Q & A with USA & Everton keeper Tim Howard, also for Soccernet.
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The city of Fort Lauderdale Florida is contemplating tearing down Lockhart Stadium, former home of the Ft Lauderdale Strikers and Miami Fusion, to build a new facility for the Baltimore Orioles spring training.
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The KC Star says that the supporters and opponents of the newly proposed soccer stadium in suburban Kansas City are beginning to seriously line up their arguments in their a battle for spending public money. Ugliness will ensue.
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Chicago has a bit of a goalkeeper dilemma brewing with both veteran Zach Thornton and fairly recent newcomer Matt Pickens both healthy. From the Chicago Tribune.
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Andrea Canales of LA Soccer News on the pleasure-addiction-bestfriend-countdracula-bringerofjoy-destroyerofhope-mr.ed that is Big Soccer.
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Canales also has a story on Chivas USA President Antonio Cue and whether or not the club has truly been a success yet in the USA, for Soccernet.
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Jeff Agoos looks at the MLS playoff race, for the US Players Assoc.
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The USL First Division Championship Playoff Semifinals:
Friday-
Vancouver 0-0 Montreal
Rochester 1-0 Charleston - goal by Greg Howes. (How come I have never seen this guy play good before? People say he is talented, but I have seen him in at least 5 or 6 games over the years and not once has he done anything. Weird huh.)
Sunday-
Charleston 0-0 Rochester - Rochester advance to the final 1-0 on agg.
Montreal 0-2 Vancouver - Both goals were scored in overtime as both teams failed to score in two 90 minute games. Vancouver now goes for the title.
-The Final will be one game:
Rochester v Vancouver next Saturday - September 30 (Why isn't this a two legged final?)
See it live at 6pm central on Fox Soccer Channel
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How did our favorite Americans do in European club league action over the weekend:
-Kasey Keller - got another shutout for Gladbach as they beat Dortmund 1-0 at home.
-Oguchi Onyewu - his Standard Liege got a 1-0 win over away team Cercle Brugge.
-Claudio Reyna & DaMarcus Beasley - Man City won at home 2-0 over struggling West Ham, with Reyna coming on for the last 10 minutes and Beasley watching from the bench.
-Brian McBride & Carlos Bocanegra - Their Fulham played strong but could not stop the Chelsea steamroller. Boca started and went 77 minutes, and came off when McBride went on to no avail.
-Brad Friedel - kept a clean sheet in a 0-1 at Middlesbrough.
-Steve Cherundolo - played the entire game for Hannover in a 1-1 tie at home against Leverkusen.
-Jay DeMerit - JD played the whole match as his team got a 1-1 draw with Wigan who actually looked like the better team.
-Tim Howard - his Everton was robbed on a clearly offside goal for Newcastle in a 1-1 draw on the road.
-Marcus Hahnemann & Bobby Convey - their Reading played decent for a while and scored the first goal early in the second half, but Man U poured it on and looked like they would win. Somehow Reading gritted it out and got the 1-1 draw. Both our boys played the full 90.
-Michael Bradley - played the last 20 minutes on the road with Heerenveen, but they lost 1-0 to Utrecht on a very late (stoppage time) PK.
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Marcus Hahnemann talks to Yanks Abroad about the USA coaching vacancy.
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UEFA Champions League Matchday 2
Tuesday-
-Real Madrid v Dynamo Kyiv - live at 1:30pm central on ESPN Deportes & delayed at 4pm central on ESPN Classic & delayed to 4pm central on Setanta
-Steaua v Lyon - delayed at 3pm central on ESPN Deportes
-Benfica v Manchester United - live at 1:30pm central on ESPN2 & delayed at 3:45pm central on ESPN Deportes
-Celtic v Kobenhavn
-CSKA Moskva v Hamburg
-Arsenal v Porto - live at 1:30pm central on Setanta & delayed at 10pm central on ESPN Deportes
-AEK v Anderlecht
-Lille v Milan - delayed at 6pm central on ESPN Deportes & delayed to 8pm central on Setanta & delayed to Thurs at 6pm on Fox Soccer Channel
Wednesday-
-Levski v Chelsea - live at 1:30pm central on ESPN2 & delayed at 6pm central on ESPN Deportes
-Bremen v Barcelona - live at 1:30pm central on ESPN Deportes & delayed at 4pm central on ESPN Classic
-Spartak Moskva v Sporting
-Internazionale v Bayern Munich - delayed at 3:45pm central on ESPN Deportes & delayed at 4pm central on Setanta
-Liverpool v Galatasaray - live at 1:30pm central on Setanta
-Bordeaux v PSV - delayed to Thursday at 1pm central on ESPN Deportes
-Shakhtar v Olympiacos
-Valencia v Roma - delayed at 6pm central on Setanta & delayed at 11pm central on ESPN Deportes
-See the Champions League highlight show on Friday at 1pm central on ESPN2
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Holy hell, this is sad - Uruguayan striker Dario Silva who played last year at Portsmouth was in a terrible car accident on Sunday and has had the bottom half of his right leg amputated. The doctors have induced him into a coma to help his body recover from the shock. That is truly horrible.
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Superultraegoloudmouth Hugo Sanchez has taken over as coach of Necaxa in Mexico who fired Enrique Lopez Zarza on Saturday.
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In his weekly La Liga column for Soccernet, Phil Balls goes to see some old pals: Friends United
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Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune on the styles of two elite managers - Arsenal's Arsene Wenger & Real Madrid's Fabio Capello: With finesse or with granite
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Hernan Crespo was AWESOME for Inter on Saturday in their 4-3 win over Chievo. They led 4-0 when he came off the pitch after scoring two mirror image goals from both sides of the 18 yard box from extremely tight angles. I think he is a massively underrated player right now. His teams other two goals by Stankovic and Samuel were also amazing. You should search them out online or watch the GolTV Serie A highlight show.
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US Open Cup final on Wednesday night - Chicago v Los Angeles - live at 7pm central on Fox Soccer Channel.

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