Old Letters In A Box News

It's been 200 days now since Adriano scored a goal for Inter or Brazil! How much are they paying this guy?
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The regular season comes to an end in MLS with last weekends games:
New England 1-0 Columbus - Khano Smith scored the only goal from a great passing sequence.
New York 3-2 Kansas City - Dave Van Den Bergh opened the scoring for KC, but Amado Guevara got a hat trick (2 on PK's) to lead his team into the playoffs. Scott Sealy scored late for KC in a very tough loss.
Houston 3-3 Colorado - The game yo-yo-ed from Houston lead to Colorado tie all game long. Craig Waibel scored first for Houston. Thiago Martins tied it for Colo. Paul Dalglish for Hous. Martins again for Colo. Then Waibel again for Hous. But Jacob Peter scored in the 88th minute for Colorado's tie and 1 point which got them into the playoffs! What the hell kind of game has a brace from both Thiago Martins and Craig Waibel?
Los Angeles 5-2 Dallas - Dallas barely even tried after their Abe Thompson scored first. LA roared back with 5 unanswered goals: 2 by Landon Donovan (who also should have gotten two PK's), Herculez Gomez, Cobi Jones & Santino Quaranta. Arturo Alvarez got a second one for Dallas. Where was this LA offense the last month when they really needed it?
DC 2-3 Chicago - Gonzalo Segares & Nate Jaqua scored first for Chicago. Christian Gomez got one back for DC, but Andy Herron got a third for Chi. Gomez again scored for DC, but it was not enough. And it was the previously invincible DC's third loss in a row!
Chivas 1-1 Salt Lake - Brent Whitfield scored his first MLS goal for the Goats, but Jafet Soto got the equalizer in the 89th minute for RSL.
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So next weekends MLS playoff first leg line-ups look like this:
Saturday-
New York v DC - 1pm central on HD Net & Direct Kick
Colorado v Dallas - 8pm central on Fox Soccer
-Brian Forbes of the Denver Post looks ahead to the series.
Sunday-
Chicago v New England - 12 noon central on ABC
Chivas v Houston - 3pm central on ESPN2
-Second legs will be played Oct 28 & 29.
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Jeff Cunningham of Real Salt Lake wins the 2006 Golden Boot with 16 goals. He also tied for the league lead in assists with 11. That is one hell of a season for JC!
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Houston striker Brian Ching has been experiencing troubles with his right knee for the last 8 or 9 days and did not play against Colorado. It's the same knee he had artho-surgery on in August. Not good.
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The end to a second brutal season for Salt Lake, from the Deseret Morning News. There were some distinct highlights too, especially in September, just not enough of them.
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Average MLS attendance in the 6 games this weekend past was 20,268. Only 3 or 4 leagues in the whole world can draw that many. The league now has to make this the norm instead of the triumph.
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Frank Dell'apa of the Boston Globe says New England midfielder Shalrie Joesph will be ready to go for the playoffs. Joseph got knocked to the ground in a bar about a month ago and severely cut his hand on a bottle requiring surgery for nerve, tendon and ligament damage.
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Andrea Canales at Soccernet profiles DC United's newest Argentine Matias Donnet.
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Canales also talks to LA Galaxy players for LA Soccer News, and asks them to look back at the season that was and wasn't.
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Part 1 of a chat with New York Red Bulls coach Bruce Arena, from Jason Endres of NYNJSoccer.com
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You can add Atletico Madrid to the teams chasing after the signature of Clint Dempsey. The Deuce has been amazing the past 6 weeks. Can't wait to see him in the playoffs.
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Columbus coach Sigi Schmid does a post-season reflection with the Columbus Dispatch.
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Ian Plenderleith leans his shoulder into DC United again this week for his post Chicago match report at the Mid-Atlantic Soccer Report. It's not been a good way to end a prolific season for DC.
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Soccernet writers Jeff Carlisle & Kristian Dyer debate who should win the MLS MVP award. Some would say that Jeff Cunningham deserves the award because of his great stats, but I could never give a "Most Valuable" award to a player on a team that doesn't even make the playoffs. I could vote him "Player Of The Year" no problem, but MVP? No way. Others say Ante Razov is the man. No way again, too selfish. My vote goes to Christian Gomez.
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The San Francisco Business Times with an article on the potential future return of the San Jose Earthquakes to the Bay Area. In case you didn't know, the guys who own the Oakland A's baseball team are behind this deal.
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Two more people weighing in on the problems with youth development in America:
-Glenn Davis of the Houston Chronicle: Youth leagues drop ball on development
-Paul Oliu at Soccernet: The Undiscovered American Maradona
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Chivas USA is looking into build another big soccer facility in the greater LA area, this time teaming up with Cal State Poly Pomona and former USA & Galaxy star Paul Caliguri who runs that college's soccer programs. Could be interesting.
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Several of the Americans in England had a fairly horrible weekend, but others did just fine as we's check out how some of our boys in Europe did:
DaMarcus Beasley - Manchester City - Some sites reported that he would get the start, when in reality his still gimpy ankle kept him off the squad completely. His team drew 0-0 with Sheff United.
Carlos Bocanegra - Fulham v Charlton - game is today.
Michael Bradley - Heerenveen - Made his first start of the season but lost 1-0 to Heracles Almelo.
Steve Cherundolo - Hannover - Played the full 90 in a 1-1 draw with Eintracht Frankfurt.
Bobby Convey - Reading - Was scratched from the team due to an injury suffered at practice late in the week. The team lost 1-0 to Chelsea.
Jay DeMerit - Watford - Jay got burned for a goal by Henry (who hasn't) in a 3-0 loss to Arsenal.
Benny Feilhaber - Hamburg - Made his German debut in the second half, but his team lost 2-1 to Schalke.
Brad Friedel - Blackburn - Brad played his usual solid game but could not keep the clean sheet in a 1-1 draw at Liverpool.
Marcus Hahnemann - Reading - Had no chance to stop the own goal in a 1-0 loss to Chelsea as Frank Lampard's free kick caromed off TWO Reading players and into the net.
Tim Howard - Everton - Committed a bad foul on a Middlesbrough's Joseph Yakubu and gave up the PK which Yakubu converted, but later saved a second PK from Yakubu. They still lost 2-1.
Kasey Keller - Monchengladbach - Gave up the games first goal, but held strong for a big rally in a 3-1 win over Wolfsburg.
Eddie Lewis - Leeds - Played the full 90 but got smoked by Stoke 4-0. Ouch.
Brian McBride - Fulham v Charlton - game is today.
Oguchi Onyewu - Standard - Played the full 90 in a 2-1 win over Roeselare.
Claudio Reyna - Manchester City - Came on in the 58th minute of a 0-0 draw with Sheffield United.
Jonathan Spector - West Ham - Got schooled by Portsmouth's Andy Cole in a 2-0 loss.
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USA U17 1-2 Argentina - they lost in the last minute of stoppage time in the game last Friday in San Luis Argentina. Ellis McLoughlin scored in the first half for a USA lead, but the home team equalized in the 74th and won it very late. Game recap and post game interview via podcast are here.
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The incredible Charlie Davies now has 14 goals in 13 games for Boston College this season after they went down to Maryland and won 3-1 (2 goals and 1 assist to Davies) handing the Terps their first home loss in over 2 years!
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Champions League Matchday 3 on Tues & Wed:
Tues Oct 17
Dynamo Kyiv v Lyon
Steaua v Real Madrid
Celtic v Benfica
Man United v Kobenhavn
CSKA Moskva v Arsenal
Porto v Hamburg
Lille v AEK
Anderlecht v Milan
Wed Oct 18
Chelsea v Barcelona
Bremen v Levski
Inter v Spartak Moskva
Sporting v Bayern
Bordeaux v Liverpool
Galatasaray v PSV
Valencia v Shakhtar
Olympiacos v Roma
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It was quite an awful weekend for Chelsea goalkeepers. In the first minute of play v Reading, Petr Cech got hit in the head by the knee of Reading's Stephen Hunt. It knocked Cech out and it was later determined to be a serious skull fracture. He had immediate surgery. Cech could be out for a very long time. This is really sad. Then late in the game the teams second keeper Carlo Cudicini was leveled during a cross by a shoulder to the head from Reading's Ibrahima Sonko. The blow also knocked him out cold, and has been determined to be a concussion. Since all three subs had been used by that time, John Terry finished the last minute of the game in goal. Chelsea will face Barcelona this week in the Champions league with their third keeper, Hilario of Portugal, getting his shot.
-Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune on the sad affair: Danger! Goalies at work
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Simon Kuper of the Financial Times previews the massive Chelsea v Barca match by looking at their young stars: Rejoice as the world's two best teens remind us how to dribble
-Greg Lalas of Sports Illustrated will be in the house for Chelsea v Barca, and he is bragging about getting a ticket!
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Euro League weekend match highlights:
-PSV trailed Roda 0-1 for most of the match but scored 4 in the final 15 minutes for a 4-1 win. They are in third place, 2 behind Ajax who beat 4th place Gronigen 3-2, while 2nd place Alkmaar beat Sparta 2-0 to stay on pace, one point back.
-Barcelona took the top spot in Spain after getting two from Ronaldinho and a golazo from Messi to beat red hot Sevilla 3-1. 2nd place Valencia lost to Celta Vigo 3-2. Real Madrid continued their wretched ways losing 1-0 to Getafe and seeing Ronaldo get two yellow cards after coming on at half time. Real Madrid play Barca next Sunday.
-Road wins for England's top two - Man United 1-3 at Wigan & Chelsea 0-1 at Reading.
-Inter beat Catania 2-1 to retake the Serie A lead over Roma who lost to Reggina 1-0.
-Milan drew 1-1 with Sampdoria for their 3rd draw in a row. But at least they scored. The previous two were 0-0. They started the season with that 8 point hole but have lost 2 more points to Inter since then and trail by 10 now.
-Going into the weekend Herta, Bayern, Nurnberg, Schalke & Bremen were tied at the top of Die Bundesliga, but Bremen demolished Bochum 0-6 on the road, Herta was stomped 4-2 by Bayern, Schalke won 2-1 at Hamburg, and Nurnberg drew 1-1 with Bielefeld, leaving Bayern, Bremen & Schalke still tied on top with 13 points. Bremen & Bayern face off next weekend!
-French leaders Lyon beat St Etienne 2-1, while second place Marseille drew 1-1 with Lens to fall 5 points back already.
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Phil Ball examines who is the top new surprise player in La Liga so far this season: Beware The Quiet Men
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Reuters is reporting on a possible administrative showdown between FIFA and the EU & UEFA on how international soccer should be run. Could be very interesting to follow.
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Looks like Jamaica may finally have a new coach - none other than Bora Milutinovic!