Blinded By The Mice News

I am gonna re-post this today at the top of the page and strongly suggest that every one of you fans of US Soccer take some time and listen. It's the press conference Sunil Gulati held to announce Bob Bradley as the new USA manager. It dispells 98% of all the rumors floating around. It will also show you that Bradley is clearly an interim coach, yet at the same time a major candidate for the full time job. Many people have been dogging Gulati's methods of hiring the coach. I think he is doing a great job and needs to be given every opportunity to do it right. Yes, I have drank the kool-aid.
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Steven Goff at the Washington Post has as good a grip on the Freddy Adu trade as anyone.
-The Salt Lake City papers chime in too: Deseret Morning News with two, Checketts perfect in his timing - AND - RSL makes trade for Adu, and another from the Salt Lake Tribune, D.C. deals teenage star Adu to RSL.
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Andrea Canales at Soccernet with her thoughts on Adu to RSL.
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Frank Dell'apa also at Soccernet says maybe the Adu expectations in Salt Lake will be more realistic.
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Dallas and Columbus owner Lamar Hunt is in a Dallas hospital fighting for his life, From AP.
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Stories on the hiring of Steve Morrow at FC Dallas from both the Dallas Morning News, Old hand sees a new day for FCD, and the Fort Worth Star Telegram, Morrow plans aggressive style for FC Dallas.
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Video of an interview with Bob Bradley on ESPN News.
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Ives Galarcep of the North Jersey Herald with his very positive thoughts on the hiring of Bob Bradley by Team USA.
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Steve Davis at Soccernet says the interim coach route is the way to go right now.
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The cover story of the new issue of Soccer America is - The Great Dynamo -written by Ridge Mahoney, celebrating the 2006 MLS Cup winners. I am also told that there is a very cool plug for du Nord in a year end wrap up story. So a huge du Nord thanks to those awesome folks at Soccer America, and a thanks to Kevin A. for tipping me off to the mention!
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Kansas City is definitely searching for a place to build their new stadium, but did you know that in the meantime their former home Arrowhead stadium is not going to be available to them, due to renovations? Yes they are currently beating the bushes looking for a temporary home field. Here is the latest news on the search from the KC Star. (Let's just hope they don't pick that awful place where I got maced a couple years ago after my Thunder beat the Wiz in the Open Cup.)
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Grant Wahl at Sports Illustrated talks to Freddy Adu about his trial at Manchester United.
-One long time American soccer writer said to me in an email that he felt that The Swoosh played a big role in making that trial happen.
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In other Real Salt Lake news, Are You Loyal? is reporting that the team will sign Panamaniac striker Luis Tejada, who currently plays for Plaza Amador in his home country. This dude sounds like a handful in more ways then one - his nickname is el Gordito (fatty) and he supposedly got the boot this year from Columbian team Once Caldas for disciplinary reasons. Good luck to Ellinger with this guy. He better be a hot shit striker.
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AYL? also has pictures of Freddy's arrival in Salt Lake last night. And even though they say he was all smiles, he is only smiling in 1 of these 7 pics.
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Watford manager Aidy Boothroyd has said that American defender Jay Demerit is next in line to become captain of the team!!
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The FIFA World Club Championship from Japan. Here is the schedule/scores:
Sun Dec 10
Auckland City 0-2 Al Ahly - goals by Flavio & Mohamed Aboutrika.
Mon Dec 11
Jeonbuk 0-1 America - the lone tally by Ricardo Rojas.
Wed Dec 13
Al Ahly v Internacional (CONMEBOL)
Thur Dec 14
America v Barcelona (UEFA)
Fri Dec 15
game 1 loser v game 2 loser - 5th place game
Sat Dec 16
semifinal 1 loser v semifinal 2 loser - 3rd place game
Sun Dec 17
semifinal 1 winner v semifinal 2 winner - championship game
-See all the matches on Fox Soccer Channel
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A reader named JB left a note yesterday about an amazing goal scored against Tim Howard lst weekend. He said we needed to find it, cuz it was amazing! Well I found it, and it is amazing. The goal was by Matt Taylor of Portsmouth, who has been on a real tear lately. Check it out now. Thanks JB.
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Nice to see FIFA take some action on something they are doing negatively - They fired the top 4 executives involved in the Mastercard dealings and subsequent lawsuit.
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Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune reports that the amount of money rolling into the English games these days is staggering. What will this really mean for the game on the pitch itself (the only thing that really matters)?
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Former Charlton coach Alan Curbishley has been hired by West Ham to replace the fired Alan Pardew.
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File under Huh?: Wayne Rooney was in New York City yesterday and went to the Knicks v Celtics NBA game at MSG last night!