Old Groupie News
US Soccer has accepted an invitation to play in the Copa America next summer!
MLS Quarterfinals, 2nd-leg match scores (with first leg scores included):
-New England 2-1 Chicago (0-1) - A 2-2 aggregate final score, with New Eng winning 4-2 on PK's as Matt Reis saved shots from Thiago & Ivan Guerrero. NE played without two huge stars - Shalrie Joseph suspended & Clint Dempsey bad ankle. Chicago scored first in this game, but Twellman got a great goal, and Pat Noonan practically limped in to tie it all up.
Match reports:
Frank Dell'apa of the Boston Globe
Colin Reed of New England Soccer News
Lacy Banks of the Chicago Sun-Times
Luis Arroyave of the Chicago Tribune
-Dallas 2-3 Colorado (2-1) - An insane series ends 4-4 on agg with the road team Colorado winning 4-5 on PKs. Greg Vanney hit the post and Dario Sala was saved by Joe Cannon for Dallas, while Aitor Karanka was saved for Colorado. Dallas defender Chris Gbandi made one of those horror tackles and got red carded early making the whole rest of the game very interesting. The second half started great for FCD with Pescado Ruiz scoring his 15th goal in 15 playoff games, but then Dallas coach Colin Clarke pulled out attackers Abe Thompson & Kenny Cooper to try and defend the lead. No go! Niko Hernandez (2 goals) was awesome for the Rapids who never quit.
Match reports:
Bill Nichols of the Dallas Morning News
Tobias Xavier Lopez of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Brian Forbes of the Denver Post
-DC 1-1 New York (1-0) - A 2-1 agg win for DC. NY came to play. Too bad they had so little talent on their squad. The 16 year old Jozy Altidore got yet another goal for NY to tie the series, but very late it was yet another Christian Gomez miracle goal for the win! An amazing dude.
Match reports:
Steve Goff of the Washington Post
Ives Galarcep of the North Jersey Herald
Michael Lewis of Big Apple Soccer
-Houston 2-0 Chivas (1-2) - 3-2 win on agg for Houston, with a wild scrambled home goal by Brian Ching to win it in stoppage time. Chivas played at times with abandon, and at other times like children. Too bad, cuz they got some skills. But Houston has more. DDR got tackled in the box for a Brad Davis PK and a series tie. Then Paco Palencia lost his mind and was served up two yellow cards in a coupla seconds to put the Goats down a man on the road. Bad move amigo. Chivas went nuts after that, while Houston stayed cool and got it done.
Match reports:
Bernardo Fallas of the Houston Chronicle
Matt Zimmerman of the LA Daily News
Grahame Jones of the LA Times
~ ~ ~ ~
The MLS Cup Semifinals match ups on Sun Nov 5 look like this:
DC United v New England Revolution - at 3pm on ESPN2
Houston Dynamo v Colorado Rapids - at 6pm on FSC & HDNet
~ ~ ~ ~
Pablo Mastroeni was at it again. After Colorados win in Dallas he taunted the home fans, much like he did in Salt Lake after winning the Rocky Mountain Cup last month. In Salt Lake the team owner went after Pablo, this time it was Dallas keeper Dario Sala. Things got a little crazy behind one goal. Sala has apologized to the league, the referees, his own team & fans, and even Colorado for his actions. Not that it will keep him from being suspended for at least the first game next season. Now, I don't mind at all what Mastroeni did, but you gotta admit that Sala is one cool dude for sticking up for his own fans. I like the wildshit. Buzz at 3rd Degree with the whole story.
~ ~ ~ ~
Mike Wise of the Washington Post takes DC coach Peter Nowak apart.
~ ~ ~ ~
Dylan Butler of Big Apple Soccer reports on Youri Djorkaeff's final match ever. Youri sat on the bench with a bad achilles and saw his team lose 2-1 on total goals to DC.
~ ~ ~ ~
The Boston Globe with an article on New England keeper Matt Reis's amazing PK saving skills.
~ ~ ~ ~
The Denver Post has a chat with Colorado coach Fernando Clavijo about his next opponent - Houston.
~ ~ ~ ~
Jeff Carlisle of Soccernet reviews the Houston-Chivas & Dallas-colorado matches.
~ ~ ~ ~
Matt Zimmerman of the LA Daily News with a feature on the Chivas USA coaching staff: An American, a Mexican, a Serbian & an Egyptian. Wow!
~ ~ ~ ~
Luis Bueno of LA Soccer News says lack of experience let Chivas USA down.
~ ~ ~ ~
The latest roundtable discussion from LA Soccer News is on who the USA & Mexico should hire as coaches.
~ ~ ~ ~
And Andrea Canales also of LASN gloats about her love for MLS playoffs. And considering the wild finishes to all 4 series this weekend I could not agree more. I say gloat all you want.
~ ~ ~ ~
Grahame Jones of the LA Times reports on one of the few true elder statesmen of soccer in America - Manfred Schellscheidt at Seton Hall.
~ ~ ~ ~
Let's check in with our favorite American's in Europe and see how their weekend matches went:
-First off a note from our friend Ethan Fawley - For what it's worth, two Americans made the Soccernet EPL team of the week - Jay DeMerit and Tim Howard! By nationality, the Yanks were only topped by 3 Englishmen this week. Not too shabby.
-DaMarcus Beasley - Manchester City - His team plays today v Middlesbrough. DMB should be ready to play today after too many little injuries.
-Carlos Bocanegra - Fulham - Went the whole game to no effect as they lost 0-1 to Wigan.
-Michael Bradley - Heerenveen - Lost 0-2 to Ajax, and Michael watched the whole match from the bench. Note to Heerenveen coach Gert Verbeek: You will not win many with Michael on the bench!
-Danny Califf - Aalborg - Playing as usual at center back, they beat Silkeborg 1-0.
-Steve Cherundolo - Hannover - Drew 0-0 with Hamburg. Of course Stevie played the whole thing.
-Bobby Convey - Reading - Started and played 73 minutes. But after a good start to the season, have they hit the Premiership wall? Lost 3-1 at Portsmouth.
-Jay DeMerit - Watford - Went the full 90 in a 0-0 draw with Tottenham. The problem continutes to be the fact that Watford have still not won in the Premiership yet. You don't stay up with constant draws.
-Benny Feilhaber - Hamburg - Benny went the full 90 again, but his team drew 0-0 at home against Hannover. At least it wasn't another loss. I think they are unbeaten when Ben plays.
-Brad Friedel - Blackburn - Lost to West Ham 2-1. Brad played the whole game as usual.
-Marcus Hahnemann - Reading - Not pretty. Started in goal as usual, but got beat 3-1 by the surprise team of the season so far, Portsmouth. For some reason I fear for his job.
-Tim Howard - Everton - Held Arsenal 1-1 at Emirates, and almost pulled off the win.
-Kasey Keller - Monchengladbach - Started as usual but lost 0-2 to Bayer Leverkusen. Not good.
-Eddie Lewis - Leeds - Played the full 90 at the position USA coach Bruce Arena used him at, left back, in a 2-0 over Southend. Hmmmmm, new coach & new position at Leeds for Eddie. Interesting.
-Brian McBride - Fulham - Also played the entire match in a 0-1 loss to Wigan.
-Oguchi Onyewu - Standard - Won 0-3 at Beveren to climb up to 5th in the standings.
-Heath Pearce - Nordsjaelland - Played at left back as usual, in a 1-0 loss to Esbjerg.
-Claudio Reyna - Manchester City - his team plays today v Middlesbrough. Is healthy and should be either in the first 11 or on the subs bench.
-Johann Smith - Bolton - Came on in the 85th minute of a 0-4 beating at the hands of Manchester United. Hey, he played.
-Jonathan Spector - West Ham - Whew! Played all 90 and finally helped his team get their first win of the season, after 8 consecutive losses, 2-1 over Blackburn.
~ ~ ~ ~
And Jay DeMerit debuts his own column/weblog at Soccernet! Check it out now.
~ ~ ~ ~
American striker Conor Casey played for his Bundesliga club Mainz this weekend for the first time since who knows when (aka a long time). He had been out with a bad knee injury. Sadly they were destroyed 1-6 by first place juggernaut Werder Bremen.
~ ~ ~ ~
Young American keeper Quentin Westberg made his first ever start for Troyes, and they won big, 3-1 over St Etienne. Congrats to Quentin!
~ ~ ~ ~
Chivas beat Atlas 3-1 in the Guadalajara derby.
~ ~ ~ ~
Here's the standings in Mexico's 2006 Apertura, with 2 rounds remaining before the playoffs:
Group 1
26 Cruz Azul
23 Chivas
23 Atlas
22 Chiapas
20 Queretaro
17 Necaxa
Group 2
24 Pachuca
23 Monterrey
22 San Luis
21 Atlante
20 Veracruz
12 UADG Tecos
Group 3
26 Toluca
25 America
23 UNAM Pumas
17 Morelia
11 UANL Tigres
10 Santos
~ ~ ~ ~
The biggest Euro matches last weekend:
-Milan 3-4 Inter - the Milano derby - woooohooo, what a frickin doozie. Stankovic was, again, unreal for Inter!
-Porto 3-2 Benfica - the old feud continues, and the win puts Porto at the top of the table in Portugal.
-Bolton 0-4 Manchester United - #3 v #1 - Not even close! Rooney broke thru his long daze with a hat-trick.
~ ~ ~ ~
Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune takes in the Milan Derby and calls it the changing of the guard: Bad news for Berlusconi
~ ~ ~ ~
One of the hot young stars of tomorrow, Porto's Brazilian midfielder Anderson, broke his leg in his teams 3-2 win over Benfica.
~ ~ ~ ~
Tampere United have won the Finnish Veikkausliiga.
~ ~ ~ ~
UEFA Champions League Matchday 4 is this week, Tue Oct 31 & Wed Nov 1! Get ready.
~ ~ ~ ~
The appeal verdict has come down in Italy for the 4 clubs punished for match fixing. And not surprisingly there were massive reductions to almost all the sentences. Juventus who were demoted to Serie B had their point deduction reduced from 17 to 9 points, making their chances of being promoted back to Serie A next season almost a guarantee. Fiorentina's 19 point deduction was reduced to 15 points, but said they will try for yet another appeal. Lazio had their 11 point deduction reduced to just 3 points! But the big losers in this round of never ending litigation remained Milan who got nothing reduced from their 8 point deduction. You know it's not over yet though, right?
~ ~ ~ ~
Alex Del Piero scored his 200th goal for Juventus!
~ ~ ~ ~
Simon Kuper of the Financial Times looks at those kooky Italians: Another kicking for southern Italy’s football
~ ~ ~ ~
Phil Ball celebrates his 5th year covering Spanish football at Soccernet!: Chocolate or Rioja?
MLS Quarterfinals, 2nd-leg match scores (with first leg scores included):
-New England 2-1 Chicago (0-1) - A 2-2 aggregate final score, with New Eng winning 4-2 on PK's as Matt Reis saved shots from Thiago & Ivan Guerrero. NE played without two huge stars - Shalrie Joseph suspended & Clint Dempsey bad ankle. Chicago scored first in this game, but Twellman got a great goal, and Pat Noonan practically limped in to tie it all up.
Match reports:
Frank Dell'apa of the Boston Globe
Colin Reed of New England Soccer News
Lacy Banks of the Chicago Sun-Times
Luis Arroyave of the Chicago Tribune
-Dallas 2-3 Colorado (2-1) - An insane series ends 4-4 on agg with the road team Colorado winning 4-5 on PKs. Greg Vanney hit the post and Dario Sala was saved by Joe Cannon for Dallas, while Aitor Karanka was saved for Colorado. Dallas defender Chris Gbandi made one of those horror tackles and got red carded early making the whole rest of the game very interesting. The second half started great for FCD with Pescado Ruiz scoring his 15th goal in 15 playoff games, but then Dallas coach Colin Clarke pulled out attackers Abe Thompson & Kenny Cooper to try and defend the lead. No go! Niko Hernandez (2 goals) was awesome for the Rapids who never quit.
Match reports:
Bill Nichols of the Dallas Morning News
Tobias Xavier Lopez of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Brian Forbes of the Denver Post
-DC 1-1 New York (1-0) - A 2-1 agg win for DC. NY came to play. Too bad they had so little talent on their squad. The 16 year old Jozy Altidore got yet another goal for NY to tie the series, but very late it was yet another Christian Gomez miracle goal for the win! An amazing dude.
Match reports:
Steve Goff of the Washington Post
Ives Galarcep of the North Jersey Herald
Michael Lewis of Big Apple Soccer
-Houston 2-0 Chivas (1-2) - 3-2 win on agg for Houston, with a wild scrambled home goal by Brian Ching to win it in stoppage time. Chivas played at times with abandon, and at other times like children. Too bad, cuz they got some skills. But Houston has more. DDR got tackled in the box for a Brad Davis PK and a series tie. Then Paco Palencia lost his mind and was served up two yellow cards in a coupla seconds to put the Goats down a man on the road. Bad move amigo. Chivas went nuts after that, while Houston stayed cool and got it done.
Match reports:
Bernardo Fallas of the Houston Chronicle
Matt Zimmerman of the LA Daily News
Grahame Jones of the LA Times
~ ~ ~ ~
The MLS Cup Semifinals match ups on Sun Nov 5 look like this:
DC United v New England Revolution - at 3pm on ESPN2
Houston Dynamo v Colorado Rapids - at 6pm on FSC & HDNet
~ ~ ~ ~
Pablo Mastroeni was at it again. After Colorados win in Dallas he taunted the home fans, much like he did in Salt Lake after winning the Rocky Mountain Cup last month. In Salt Lake the team owner went after Pablo, this time it was Dallas keeper Dario Sala. Things got a little crazy behind one goal. Sala has apologized to the league, the referees, his own team & fans, and even Colorado for his actions. Not that it will keep him from being suspended for at least the first game next season. Now, I don't mind at all what Mastroeni did, but you gotta admit that Sala is one cool dude for sticking up for his own fans. I like the wildshit. Buzz at 3rd Degree with the whole story.
~ ~ ~ ~
Mike Wise of the Washington Post takes DC coach Peter Nowak apart.
~ ~ ~ ~
Dylan Butler of Big Apple Soccer reports on Youri Djorkaeff's final match ever. Youri sat on the bench with a bad achilles and saw his team lose 2-1 on total goals to DC.
~ ~ ~ ~
The Boston Globe with an article on New England keeper Matt Reis's amazing PK saving skills.
~ ~ ~ ~
The Denver Post has a chat with Colorado coach Fernando Clavijo about his next opponent - Houston.
~ ~ ~ ~
Jeff Carlisle of Soccernet reviews the Houston-Chivas & Dallas-colorado matches.
~ ~ ~ ~
Matt Zimmerman of the LA Daily News with a feature on the Chivas USA coaching staff: An American, a Mexican, a Serbian & an Egyptian. Wow!
~ ~ ~ ~
Luis Bueno of LA Soccer News says lack of experience let Chivas USA down.
~ ~ ~ ~
The latest roundtable discussion from LA Soccer News is on who the USA & Mexico should hire as coaches.
~ ~ ~ ~
And Andrea Canales also of LASN gloats about her love for MLS playoffs. And considering the wild finishes to all 4 series this weekend I could not agree more. I say gloat all you want.
~ ~ ~ ~
Grahame Jones of the LA Times reports on one of the few true elder statesmen of soccer in America - Manfred Schellscheidt at Seton Hall.
~ ~ ~ ~
Let's check in with our favorite American's in Europe and see how their weekend matches went:
-First off a note from our friend Ethan Fawley - For what it's worth, two Americans made the Soccernet EPL team of the week - Jay DeMerit and Tim Howard! By nationality, the Yanks were only topped by 3 Englishmen this week. Not too shabby.
-DaMarcus Beasley - Manchester City - His team plays today v Middlesbrough. DMB should be ready to play today after too many little injuries.
-Carlos Bocanegra - Fulham - Went the whole game to no effect as they lost 0-1 to Wigan.
-Michael Bradley - Heerenveen - Lost 0-2 to Ajax, and Michael watched the whole match from the bench. Note to Heerenveen coach Gert Verbeek: You will not win many with Michael on the bench!
-Danny Califf - Aalborg - Playing as usual at center back, they beat Silkeborg 1-0.
-Steve Cherundolo - Hannover - Drew 0-0 with Hamburg. Of course Stevie played the whole thing.
-Bobby Convey - Reading - Started and played 73 minutes. But after a good start to the season, have they hit the Premiership wall? Lost 3-1 at Portsmouth.
-Jay DeMerit - Watford - Went the full 90 in a 0-0 draw with Tottenham. The problem continutes to be the fact that Watford have still not won in the Premiership yet. You don't stay up with constant draws.
-Benny Feilhaber - Hamburg - Benny went the full 90 again, but his team drew 0-0 at home against Hannover. At least it wasn't another loss. I think they are unbeaten when Ben plays.
-Brad Friedel - Blackburn - Lost to West Ham 2-1. Brad played the whole game as usual.
-Marcus Hahnemann - Reading - Not pretty. Started in goal as usual, but got beat 3-1 by the surprise team of the season so far, Portsmouth. For some reason I fear for his job.
-Tim Howard - Everton - Held Arsenal 1-1 at Emirates, and almost pulled off the win.
-Kasey Keller - Monchengladbach - Started as usual but lost 0-2 to Bayer Leverkusen. Not good.
-Eddie Lewis - Leeds - Played the full 90 at the position USA coach Bruce Arena used him at, left back, in a 2-0 over Southend. Hmmmmm, new coach & new position at Leeds for Eddie. Interesting.
-Brian McBride - Fulham - Also played the entire match in a 0-1 loss to Wigan.
-Oguchi Onyewu - Standard - Won 0-3 at Beveren to climb up to 5th in the standings.
-Heath Pearce - Nordsjaelland - Played at left back as usual, in a 1-0 loss to Esbjerg.
-Claudio Reyna - Manchester City - his team plays today v Middlesbrough. Is healthy and should be either in the first 11 or on the subs bench.
-Johann Smith - Bolton - Came on in the 85th minute of a 0-4 beating at the hands of Manchester United. Hey, he played.
-Jonathan Spector - West Ham - Whew! Played all 90 and finally helped his team get their first win of the season, after 8 consecutive losses, 2-1 over Blackburn.
~ ~ ~ ~
And Jay DeMerit debuts his own column/weblog at Soccernet! Check it out now.
~ ~ ~ ~
American striker Conor Casey played for his Bundesliga club Mainz this weekend for the first time since who knows when (aka a long time). He had been out with a bad knee injury. Sadly they were destroyed 1-6 by first place juggernaut Werder Bremen.
~ ~ ~ ~
Young American keeper Quentin Westberg made his first ever start for Troyes, and they won big, 3-1 over St Etienne. Congrats to Quentin!
~ ~ ~ ~
Chivas beat Atlas 3-1 in the Guadalajara derby.
~ ~ ~ ~
Here's the standings in Mexico's 2006 Apertura, with 2 rounds remaining before the playoffs:
Group 1
26 Cruz Azul
23 Chivas
23 Atlas
22 Chiapas
20 Queretaro
17 Necaxa
Group 2
24 Pachuca
23 Monterrey
22 San Luis
21 Atlante
20 Veracruz
12 UADG Tecos
Group 3
26 Toluca
25 America
23 UNAM Pumas
17 Morelia
11 UANL Tigres
10 Santos
~ ~ ~ ~
The biggest Euro matches last weekend:
-Milan 3-4 Inter - the Milano derby - woooohooo, what a frickin doozie. Stankovic was, again, unreal for Inter!
-Porto 3-2 Benfica - the old feud continues, and the win puts Porto at the top of the table in Portugal.
-Bolton 0-4 Manchester United - #3 v #1 - Not even close! Rooney broke thru his long daze with a hat-trick.
~ ~ ~ ~
Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune takes in the Milan Derby and calls it the changing of the guard: Bad news for Berlusconi
~ ~ ~ ~
One of the hot young stars of tomorrow, Porto's Brazilian midfielder Anderson, broke his leg in his teams 3-2 win over Benfica.
~ ~ ~ ~
Tampere United have won the Finnish Veikkausliiga.
~ ~ ~ ~
UEFA Champions League Matchday 4 is this week, Tue Oct 31 & Wed Nov 1! Get ready.
~ ~ ~ ~
The appeal verdict has come down in Italy for the 4 clubs punished for match fixing. And not surprisingly there were massive reductions to almost all the sentences. Juventus who were demoted to Serie B had their point deduction reduced from 17 to 9 points, making their chances of being promoted back to Serie A next season almost a guarantee. Fiorentina's 19 point deduction was reduced to 15 points, but said they will try for yet another appeal. Lazio had their 11 point deduction reduced to just 3 points! But the big losers in this round of never ending litigation remained Milan who got nothing reduced from their 8 point deduction. You know it's not over yet though, right?
~ ~ ~ ~
Alex Del Piero scored his 200th goal for Juventus!
~ ~ ~ ~
Simon Kuper of the Financial Times looks at those kooky Italians: Another kicking for southern Italy’s football
~ ~ ~ ~
Phil Ball celebrates his 5th year covering Spanish football at Soccernet!: Chocolate or Rioja?
posted by brucio at 18:17
3 Comments:
loved the mls playoff games this week. one thing, though, the dallas colo game was not on TV here in NYC. why not show both games LIVE and in succession? even if it were on TV, the dallas game started at halftime of the red bulls/dc game. how could they screw that up?
having playoff games not on tv is big mistake
i have the mls direct kick package so i got to see it
but i agree
this year will be the end of that mess though
next year they will have enough channels to cover em all
I gotta slightly disagree with ya Wolf over the Colo/Dal. mess. I agree I don't mind what Pablo and the other Rapids players who gloated/celebrated infront of the Inferno. It may not be the most sporting thing to do but meh what are ya gonna do? I know if I give some verbal abuse to a player who then does something good on the field I may hear or see something from that player. Fine by me, just affirms to me that the player heard me. But I gotta say Sala crossed the line. He could have tried to get the Rapids players to move away or just got in their face and yelled at them but he threw punches. Not cool at all.
Have ya seen the youtube video of the event yet?
Besides that it was really a great weekend of playoff matches.
smatthew
Post a Comment
<< Home