Hammer Time News
From today's edition of the Guardian (of England): London is on a shortlist of five cities being considered to host an NFL game next year. Nail-biting, isn't it? Shall we send them Watford v Charlton in return?
After all the huffing and puffing the house has fallen down with Juergen Klinsmann on the outside looking in. He will NOT be the next USA coach. Allen Hopkins of Soccernet breaks the story.
~ ~ ~ ~
And now for a correction: Yesterday I wrote that Josh Wolff could return to KC & MLS next June - Wrong em boyo! That would be June 08! Good luck at 1860 Mr Wolff, I hope your new teams wins promotion and next season is spent playing the big boys of the Bundesliga.
~ ~ ~ ~
US Soccer has a fluff Q & A with USA U17 forward Abdusalam Ibrahim, who is currently at the USA Residency school in Florida and hails from a suburb (Richfield) of my town - Minneapolis. Even though this piece says little of anything about the boy, I am still excited for him.
~ ~ ~ ~
American striker Charlie Davies is on trial at Ajax.
~ ~ ~ ~
A Young MLS Select-Team is playing a series of exhibition throughout England this week. Here is the game schedule:
-MLS 2-0 QPR Reserves - Colorado's Jacob Peterson & New York's David Arvizu got the goals.
-MLS 0-1 Coventry City Reserves - no scorers
-MLS 3-0 Watford Reserves - goals by Chicago's Chad Barrett, Columbus's Kei Kamara & Salt Lakes's Nik Besagno. Soccer New England with a quick game recap.
-Dec 8 v Chelsea Reserves - canceled
~ ~ ~ ~
Ridge Mahoney of Soccer America with some fascinating insight into the hiring process of the new coach for Dallas.
~ ~ ~ ~
Chivas USA has dumped expensive risk John O'Brien from their roster. He is free to join whoever he wants. Sad news, but not surprising seeing as he was injured the whole time he was with them. I really hope he gets fixed.
~ ~ ~ ~
Steve Goff of the Washington Post writes today that DC United is renegotiating the contract of league MVP Christian Gomez to give him a raise.
~ ~ ~ ~
Word is going around that Bodo-Glimt of Norway have signed Colorado forward Thiago Martins.
~ ~ ~ ~
Kansas City did not pick up the contract option year on keeper Bo Oshoniyi. So who does KC have that LA might want?
~ ~ ~ ~
The Toronto Star is wondering when and where TFC will find its Canadian star players.
~ ~ ~ ~
USA Space Shuttle astronaut Joan Higginbotham is taking her Houston Dynamo "Men In Orange" scarf with her into space today!!!
~ ~ ~ ~
Michael Lewis of Big Apple Soccer gives us an update on construction at Red Bull Park.
~ ~ ~ ~
Luis Arroyave of the Chicago Tribune comes up with his own top 10 hit list of Designated Players for the Chicago Fire to chase.
~ ~ ~ ~
The LA Times tracks all the David Beckham rumors swirling around the globe.
~ ~ ~ ~
A couple of Americans in England took ugly stumbles in league games last night, but a youngster in Germany helped his team do something right for a change:
-Benny Feilhaber - Hamburg - In a crazy Champions League match his team trailed 2-1 when Benny came on in the 69th minute at Left Back! His team then rallied for a 3-2 win over CSKA Moskva to finally get a win on their last day in the competition (they were eliminated early in the group stages). They really needed this win.
-Marcus Hahnemann - Reading - Played in goal as usual and took a 2-1 lead only to surrender 2 more road goals and lose 3-2 at Newcastle. A big step back after some great defensive performances recently. Teammate Convey is still out with the knee injury.
-Jonathan Spector - West Ham - Another loss. Spector played as always in defense but was credited with an own goal that deflected off his side in a 0-2 home loss to Wigan. An ugly season so far for West Ham.
~ ~ ~ ~
Here is the full text of the Q & A Jonathan Spector did with Jack Bell of the New York Times. Good reading.
~ ~ ~ ~
Todd11 at Big Soccer is translating a German newspaper article that says American forward Conor Casey wants out of Mainz as soon as possible. Could he be MLS bound.
~ ~ ~ ~
Paul Gardner of the New York Sun is not impressed with play in the Premiership these days, and says the biggest problem is relegation, and the massive amount of money that vanishes when it happens to your team!
~ ~ ~ ~
UEFA CL M6 scores from yesterday (the last round of the group stages.):
Dynamo Kyiv 2-2 Real Madrid* - DK's Maksim Shatskikh scored 2 goals in the first half hour and they looked to be cruising to a nice win when Ronaldo strolled on the pitch and scored 2 in the last 5 minutes for a draw. I love Ronny! And I am wearing a t-shirt with his face on it today in his honor!
Lyon* 1-1 Steaua - Nicolae Dica scored in the 2nd minute for Steaua, but Alou Diarra tied it up less than 10 minutes later.
Man United* 3-1 Benfica - Benfica got on the board first with a huge goal from Nelson. But this only seemed to anger Man U instead of scaring them (like in previous years) and Nemanja Vidic, Ryan Giggs & Louis Saha all scored to steam roll the Portuguese team.
Kobenhavn 3-1 Celtic* - Atiba Hutchinson, Jesper Gronkjaer & Marcus Allback gave the home team a 3-0 lead before Jiri Jarosik got one back for Celtic.
Porto* 0-0 Arsenal* - I can't believe I watched that crap, but both teams advanced so I am sure they are happy. Can they give me 2 hours of my life back now please?
Hamburg 3-2 CSKA Moskva - Ivica Olic gave CSKA the lead 23 minutes in on a PK, only to see Besart Berisha tie the game moments later. Just after the hour mark CSKA again got the lead on a goal by Yuri Zhirkov. But Hamburg finally woke up and started playing like many thought they would, but haven't, all season long. Rafael van der Vaart hit a giant blast for a goal with only 5 minutes to play, and then assisted on the game winner by Boubacar Sanogo in added time.
Anderlecht 2-2 AEK - Ander led 2-0 on goals by Anthony Vanden Borre & Nicolas Frutos, only to see AEK grab 2 back by Vassilios Lakis & Bruno Cirillo for the draw.
Milan* 0-2 Lille* - the French team scored two enormous road goals, by Peter Odemwingie & Kader Keita, to win and advance!
-Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune reports on the nights events: Self-appointed elite has its way in Champions League
-So here is the list of teams who are moving on (in the next round teams who finished first in their groups will only play teams who finished second). Third place teams move on to the UEFA Cup:
First Seeds-
Chelsea
Bayern
Liverpeople
Valencia
Lyon
Man U
Arsenal
Milan
Second Seeds-
Barca
Inter
PSV
Roma
Real Madrid
Celtic
Porto
Lille
UEFA Cup bound-
Bremen
Spartak
Bourdeaux
Shakhtar
Steaua
Benfica
CSKA
AEK
~ ~ ~ ~
Mexican Apertura Finals kick off tonight (& finishes Sunday):
1st Leg Thursday Dec 7th-
Guadalajara v Toluca - live at 9pm central on TeleFutura.
2nd Leg Sunday Dec 10th-
Toluca v Guadalajara - live at 12noon central on Univision.
~ ~ ~ ~
Andre Shevchenko says he is ready to bail on Chelsea. Chelsea deny it. But how do you deny what he said. Maybe it was out of context, or a really really poor translation. We shall see.
~ ~ ~ ~
Yesterday I ran a blurb on T & T squad Joe Public winning the country's club title. Then good friend KJ drops a note raining on our parade by informing us that Joe Public are owned by Public Enemy #1 - Jack Warner. Aint that a bitch. No more Hooray's for you Joe, or Jack. Boo creepy foot doctor!
~ ~ ~ ~
Arsenal striker extraordinaire Thierry Henry has launched his own charity organization, THe One 4 All Foundation, to fight racism. Good job man! I am with you all the way. Tommy Hilfiger will also be launching a line of clothing to go with this.
~ ~ ~ ~
How do you celebrate after scoring a goal?
~ ~ ~ ~
FIFA are in big trouble with the law. A US district court judge has issued a ruling finding them in breach of contract with Mastercard. At first it doesn't seem like it would be that big of a deal, but as our friend-of-du-Nord Justin Fox at CNNMoney-Fortune mag points out in his article, there is some really harsh stuff in this ruling. That's not good news for FIFA. What I think the judgement really finds is the overall lack of morals at FIFA. Thanks Justin.
After all the huffing and puffing the house has fallen down with Juergen Klinsmann on the outside looking in. He will NOT be the next USA coach. Allen Hopkins of Soccernet breaks the story.
~ ~ ~ ~
And now for a correction: Yesterday I wrote that Josh Wolff could return to KC & MLS next June - Wrong em boyo! That would be June 08! Good luck at 1860 Mr Wolff, I hope your new teams wins promotion and next season is spent playing the big boys of the Bundesliga.
~ ~ ~ ~
US Soccer has a fluff Q & A with USA U17 forward Abdusalam Ibrahim, who is currently at the USA Residency school in Florida and hails from a suburb (Richfield) of my town - Minneapolis. Even though this piece says little of anything about the boy, I am still excited for him.
~ ~ ~ ~
American striker Charlie Davies is on trial at Ajax.
~ ~ ~ ~
A Young MLS Select-Team is playing a series of exhibition throughout England this week. Here is the game schedule:
-MLS 2-0 QPR Reserves - Colorado's Jacob Peterson & New York's David Arvizu got the goals.
-MLS 0-1 Coventry City Reserves - no scorers
-MLS 3-0 Watford Reserves - goals by Chicago's Chad Barrett, Columbus's Kei Kamara & Salt Lakes's Nik Besagno. Soccer New England with a quick game recap.
-Dec 8 v Chelsea Reserves - canceled
~ ~ ~ ~
Ridge Mahoney of Soccer America with some fascinating insight into the hiring process of the new coach for Dallas.
~ ~ ~ ~
Chivas USA has dumped expensive risk John O'Brien from their roster. He is free to join whoever he wants. Sad news, but not surprising seeing as he was injured the whole time he was with them. I really hope he gets fixed.
~ ~ ~ ~
Steve Goff of the Washington Post writes today that DC United is renegotiating the contract of league MVP Christian Gomez to give him a raise.
~ ~ ~ ~
Word is going around that Bodo-Glimt of Norway have signed Colorado forward Thiago Martins.
~ ~ ~ ~
Kansas City did not pick up the contract option year on keeper Bo Oshoniyi. So who does KC have that LA might want?
~ ~ ~ ~
The Toronto Star is wondering when and where TFC will find its Canadian star players.
~ ~ ~ ~
USA Space Shuttle astronaut Joan Higginbotham is taking her Houston Dynamo "Men In Orange" scarf with her into space today!!!
~ ~ ~ ~
Michael Lewis of Big Apple Soccer gives us an update on construction at Red Bull Park.
~ ~ ~ ~
Luis Arroyave of the Chicago Tribune comes up with his own top 10 hit list of Designated Players for the Chicago Fire to chase.
~ ~ ~ ~
The LA Times tracks all the David Beckham rumors swirling around the globe.
~ ~ ~ ~
A couple of Americans in England took ugly stumbles in league games last night, but a youngster in Germany helped his team do something right for a change:
-Benny Feilhaber - Hamburg - In a crazy Champions League match his team trailed 2-1 when Benny came on in the 69th minute at Left Back! His team then rallied for a 3-2 win over CSKA Moskva to finally get a win on their last day in the competition (they were eliminated early in the group stages). They really needed this win.
-Marcus Hahnemann - Reading - Played in goal as usual and took a 2-1 lead only to surrender 2 more road goals and lose 3-2 at Newcastle. A big step back after some great defensive performances recently. Teammate Convey is still out with the knee injury.
-Jonathan Spector - West Ham - Another loss. Spector played as always in defense but was credited with an own goal that deflected off his side in a 0-2 home loss to Wigan. An ugly season so far for West Ham.
~ ~ ~ ~
Here is the full text of the Q & A Jonathan Spector did with Jack Bell of the New York Times. Good reading.
~ ~ ~ ~
Todd11 at Big Soccer is translating a German newspaper article that says American forward Conor Casey wants out of Mainz as soon as possible. Could he be MLS bound.
~ ~ ~ ~
Paul Gardner of the New York Sun is not impressed with play in the Premiership these days, and says the biggest problem is relegation, and the massive amount of money that vanishes when it happens to your team!
~ ~ ~ ~
UEFA CL M6 scores from yesterday (the last round of the group stages.):
Dynamo Kyiv 2-2 Real Madrid* - DK's Maksim Shatskikh scored 2 goals in the first half hour and they looked to be cruising to a nice win when Ronaldo strolled on the pitch and scored 2 in the last 5 minutes for a draw. I love Ronny! And I am wearing a t-shirt with his face on it today in his honor!
Lyon* 1-1 Steaua - Nicolae Dica scored in the 2nd minute for Steaua, but Alou Diarra tied it up less than 10 minutes later.
Man United* 3-1 Benfica - Benfica got on the board first with a huge goal from Nelson. But this only seemed to anger Man U instead of scaring them (like in previous years) and Nemanja Vidic, Ryan Giggs & Louis Saha all scored to steam roll the Portuguese team.
Kobenhavn 3-1 Celtic* - Atiba Hutchinson, Jesper Gronkjaer & Marcus Allback gave the home team a 3-0 lead before Jiri Jarosik got one back for Celtic.
Porto* 0-0 Arsenal* - I can't believe I watched that crap, but both teams advanced so I am sure they are happy. Can they give me 2 hours of my life back now please?
Hamburg 3-2 CSKA Moskva - Ivica Olic gave CSKA the lead 23 minutes in on a PK, only to see Besart Berisha tie the game moments later. Just after the hour mark CSKA again got the lead on a goal by Yuri Zhirkov. But Hamburg finally woke up and started playing like many thought they would, but haven't, all season long. Rafael van der Vaart hit a giant blast for a goal with only 5 minutes to play, and then assisted on the game winner by Boubacar Sanogo in added time.
Anderlecht 2-2 AEK - Ander led 2-0 on goals by Anthony Vanden Borre & Nicolas Frutos, only to see AEK grab 2 back by Vassilios Lakis & Bruno Cirillo for the draw.
Milan* 0-2 Lille* - the French team scored two enormous road goals, by Peter Odemwingie & Kader Keita, to win and advance!
-Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune reports on the nights events: Self-appointed elite has its way in Champions League
-So here is the list of teams who are moving on (in the next round teams who finished first in their groups will only play teams who finished second). Third place teams move on to the UEFA Cup:
First Seeds-
Chelsea
Bayern
Liverpeople
Valencia
Lyon
Man U
Arsenal
Milan
Second Seeds-
Barca
Inter
PSV
Roma
Real Madrid
Celtic
Porto
Lille
UEFA Cup bound-
Bremen
Spartak
Bourdeaux
Shakhtar
Steaua
Benfica
CSKA
AEK
~ ~ ~ ~
Mexican Apertura Finals kick off tonight (& finishes Sunday):
1st Leg Thursday Dec 7th-
Guadalajara v Toluca - live at 9pm central on TeleFutura.
2nd Leg Sunday Dec 10th-
Toluca v Guadalajara - live at 12noon central on Univision.
~ ~ ~ ~
Andre Shevchenko says he is ready to bail on Chelsea. Chelsea deny it. But how do you deny what he said. Maybe it was out of context, or a really really poor translation. We shall see.
~ ~ ~ ~
Yesterday I ran a blurb on T & T squad Joe Public winning the country's club title. Then good friend KJ drops a note raining on our parade by informing us that Joe Public are owned by Public Enemy #1 - Jack Warner. Aint that a bitch. No more Hooray's for you Joe, or Jack. Boo creepy foot doctor!
~ ~ ~ ~
Arsenal striker extraordinaire Thierry Henry has launched his own charity organization, THe One 4 All Foundation, to fight racism. Good job man! I am with you all the way. Tommy Hilfiger will also be launching a line of clothing to go with this.
~ ~ ~ ~
How do you celebrate after scoring a goal?
~ ~ ~ ~
FIFA are in big trouble with the law. A US district court judge has issued a ruling finding them in breach of contract with Mastercard. At first it doesn't seem like it would be that big of a deal, but as our friend-of-du-Nord Justin Fox at CNNMoney-Fortune mag points out in his article, there is some really harsh stuff in this ruling. That's not good news for FIFA. What I think the judgement really finds is the overall lack of morals at FIFA. Thanks Justin.
posted by brucio at 14:23
2 Comments:
no klinsmann??!! merde!
Hola Bruce ... I can't say I'm devastated by the news about Juergen, but Mon Frere tells me the favorite is now Bob Bradley .. if that's the case, what the hell was the purpose of firing Arena in the first place?
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