He Who Knows New News
FIFA President Sepp Blatter is proposing that all the worlds leagues should play their matches February to November. Aha! Looks like MLS are geniuses after all.
Eurosport says Real Madrid is showing interest in our main man Oguchi Onyewu. Oh shit, that would be phenomenal.
~ ~ ~ ~
Huge MLS trade sees Joe Cannon of Colorado sent to Los Angeles for struggling striker Herculez Gomez (who will NOT helping Colorado's empty offense) and young defender Ugo Ihemelu (who could be a great one or an average one - the jury is still out). Wow, I didn't see this coming. Why does LA now have three keepers? What are they planning on doing with long time starter Kevin Hartman? Hartman must be pissed off right now. Why would Colorado part with a great keeper like Cannon? How is Colorado going to score any goals? The list of questions is long. This is one baffling exchange of players.
-Andrea Canales at LA Soccer News talks to Gomez in depth about being traded.
-Canales also poses tons of questions, like me, about what the Galaxy are up to. And if you go strictly on her lines of questioning, this looks like one of the worst trades ever for LA. I say it's lousy for both teams.
-The Rocky Mountain News covered the story in Colorado.
~ ~ ~ ~
A Young MLS Select-Team is playing a series of exhibition throughout England this week, starting with a 2-0 win over QPR Reserves today. Here is the game schedule:
-MLS 2-0 QPR Reserves - Colorado's Jacob Peterson & New York's David Arvizu got the goals.
-Dec 5 v Crystal Palace Reserves
-Dec 7 v Watford Reserves
-Dec 8 v Chelsea Reserves
~ ~ ~ ~
Chivas USA lost 3-1 to Necaxa on Friday night in Mexico at the Hugo Sanchez testimonial match. Matt Taylor scored Chivas's only goal. That dude scored? I am not sure I have ever seen him put a shot on net, let alone get it past the keeper. Good for him, maybe he has a future as a right back. Surprisingly both Paco Palencia and Juan Pablo Garcia played for Chivas even though we have been told time and again that they are both leaving the team. Odd. Amado Guevara's name was not on the score sheet, so I guess he didn't travel with his new team.
~ ~ ~ ~
Goal.com talks to new Kansas City coach Curt Onalfo.
~ ~ ~ ~
Looks like the first Sunday night Univision game of next years MLS season will see defending champs Houston at home v Los Angeles. Sunday April 8. Story from the Houston Chronicle.
Other opening weekend games include:
-Columbus Crew v Red Bull New York on Saturday April 7.
-Colorado Rapids v DC United on Saturday April 7th. It will be the grand opening of Dick's Sporting Goods Park. I am going to assume this game will be on ABC. You know, with the afternoon kickoff and the stadium debut and all.
- Chivas USA v Toronto FC on Saturday April 7
~ ~ ~ ~
Glenn Davis of the Chronicle on Houston's youth development program.
~ ~ ~ ~
Steve Davis writing for MLSnet tries to look at the off season from a General Managers point of view.
~ ~ ~ ~
A great reader named Doug sent us a link to this hilarious story from the Washington Post's "Sports Bog": Here in DC the Post sports “bog” has been chronicling a local rock radio station’s “water wars” contest, where the winner is the person who shoots DC Keeper Nick Rimando with a water pistol first. Crazy stuff! Thanks Doug, and keep us posted!
~ ~ ~ ~
Here is the FULL text of Andrew Dixon's Q & A with former MLS striker Roy Lassiter, from Gol Noir.
~ ~ ~ ~
Completely contrary to everything you may have read in the English tabloids, Jack Bell of the New York Times says Freddy Adu's trial at Manchester United was a very positive one.
~ ~ ~ ~
But forget the old Freddy Adu, we already have a new Freddy. Charles Renken! Freddy is dead, long live Freddy. Renken is the next 11 year old superstar headed for the US Soccer Residency Program in Bradenton Florida. He is from suburban St Louis, and was born in Zambia.
-One of the internet's great American youth soccer writers who goes by the name GersMan on Big Soccer wrote about this kid 15 months ago for Top Drawer Soccer.
~ ~ ~ ~
Columnist George Gross of the Toronto Sun with an article on TFC's biggest name player, Ronnie O'Brien.
~ ~ ~ ~
The Sunday Times of London looks at the growing legitimacy of MLS.
~ ~ ~ ~
If you go to the US Soccer "video" page you can see a really nice tribute to Glenn Myernick's playing days. I don't remember ever seeing him, but he sure looks like he was one hell of a tough defender.
~ ~ ~ ~
NCAA Finals:
Santa Barbara upset UCLA 2-1 on a snow covered Sunday afternoon in St Louis. Nick Perera scored very early for UCSB who poured on the pressure, then grabbed a 2-0 lead in the second half on a goal by Eric Avila. Jason Leopoldo got a goal back with about 10 minutes to play for UCLA but they never got another great chance to tie it up. Congrats to the mighty Gauchos of Santa Barbara!
-Soccernet with a match report.
-Grahame Jones of the LA Times with a match report.
-Post game quotes from players and coaches from NCAA.com.
-Another note I want to make about the game: There was one disturbing moment in the game when UCLA's Brad Rushin & UCSB's Andy Iro were pushing and shoving before a corner kick and the sideline microphone picked up Rushin yelling "What's yer problem you fucking faggot" at Iro. I would have decked that little macho prick if he said that to me. Who let's this stuff go on? The ref was right there and did nothing. NOTHING. Rushin should have been thrown out. If it had been a racial slur instead of sexual slur it would be the top story on Sports Center. But nothing happened. Figures.
~ ~ ~ ~
Joseph Lapira, forward from Notre Dame, was named the winner of the 2006 Hermann Trophy as college soccer's best player. No offense to Lapira, but he has nothing on Charlie Davies.
~ ~ ~ ~
3 Americans started in goal in England this weekend, and all three pitched a shutout! Let's check in with our favorite Americans in Europe and see how their weekend matches went:
-DaMarcus Beasley - Manchester City - may be healthy enough to play today v Watford.
-Gregg Berhalter - 1860 Munich - started and played the whole match, but probably wished he was anywhere else as they got hammered 5-1 by Unterhaching.
-Carlos Bocanegra - Fulham - did not play in 0-2 loss at Blackburn due to the thigh injury.
-Michael Bradley - Heerenveen - did not leave the bench in a 4-3 loss at Feyenoord.
-Steve Cherundolo - Hannover - Huge game for Stevie as he started at his usual right defender spot and headed home the games only goal in a 0-1 road win at Energie Cottbus. They needed that one bad.
-Bobby Convey - Reading - did not play due to his knee injury for which he had surgery late last week.
-Jay DeMerit - Watford - his team plays Manchester City today.
-Benny Feilhaber - Hamburg - back in the starting line up, but lost again, 2-1 at Bochum. Benny will see more action after fellow midfielder and team captain Rafael Van Der Vart got a 4 game suspension for an ugly tackle from behind.
-Brad Friedel - Blackburn - Played the full 90 and shut out Fulham 2-0. Play Charlton on Tuesday.
-Marcus Hahnemann - Reading - Started as usual and posted yet another clean sheet in a 1-0 win over Bolton. They are really playing well in defense now.
-Tim Howard - Everton - With Tim-may back in goal they beat West Ham 2-0.
-Kasey Keller - Monchengladbach - KK was back in the lineup after that shoulder injury and helped his team earn a big 1-1 draw at Bayern Munich.
-Eddie Lewis - Leeds - played the full 90 and hit the post in his teams 2-2 draw with Barnsley.
-Brian McBride - Fulham - Came on as a 69th minute sub but made no difference in a 0-2 loss at Blackburn.
-Oguchi Onyewu - Standard - played the full 90 in a 3-0 win over Westerlo.
-Claudio Reyna - Manchester City - his team plays Watford today.
-Jonathan Spector - West Ham - Started as usual but was subbed out for more offense in the 84th minute of a 0-2 loss at Everton.
~ ~ ~ ~
Yanks Abroad checks in with Watford defender Jay DeMerit ahead of the game v Man City today.
~ ~ ~ ~
Mexican Apertura semifinal scores:
First leg scores-
Pachuca 1-1 Toluca - Bruno Marioni scored in the 55th minute for Toluca, but the home team managed to tie it up in the 71st on a goal by Luis Angel Landin.
Guadalajara 2-0 America - Chivas scored both goals in the 2nd half for win that will set up one hell of a second leg. Ramon Morales & Omar Bravo scored the goals.
2nd leg scores-
Toluca 1-0 Pachuca - Toluca advances on 2-1 aggregate. Goal by Vicente Sanchez.
America 0-0 Guadalajara - Guada hangs on for 2-0 agg win.
-Soccernet with a review of the two 2nd leg matches.
-FMF Finals are now set:
1st Leg-
Guadalajara v Toluca - live at 8:30pm central, Thurs Dec 7th on TeleFutura.
2nd Leg-
Toluca v Guadalajara - live at 3pm central, Sun Dec 10th on Univision.
~ ~ ~ ~
UEFA CL M6 Games:
-The last round of the group stages. The 10 teams with an * are already through to the knock out stage. That leaves 6 spots open.
Tuesday-
Barcelona v Bremen
Chelsea* v Levski
Sporting v Spartak Moskva
Bayern* v Inter*
Galatasaray v Liverpool*
PSV* v Bordeaux
Olympiacos v Shakhtar
Roma v Valencia*
Wednesday-
Dynamo Kyiv v Real Madrid*
Lyon* v Steaua
Man United v Benfica
Kobenhavn v Celtic*
Porto v Arsenal
Hamburg v CSKA Moskva
Anderlecht v AEK
Milan* v Lille
-A day of destiny for Barcelona. From UEFA.com.
~ ~ ~ ~
Boca Juniors could have won the Argentine title yesterday, but choked on the road at Belgrano losing 1-0, while second place Estudiantes drew 2-2 at Argentinos Junior, setting up a huge final weekend of games. Boca leads by 2 points and play at home v Lanus. Estud play at home v Arsenal. Should be some great viewing next Sunday. I also want to go back to the Boca game and point out that their highly touted star-in-the-making Gago was fairly awful in this match. He took about 6 long shots with only one on target. You could clearly see his teammates screaming at him to knock it off, but he kept shooting wildly. Dear boy has already let it go to his head that Real Madrid want to make him a Galactico.
~ ~ ~ ~
Thierry Henry's neck injury is worse than first thought, but in customary English fashion we have no idea what that injury actually is. He will miss about 6 weeks! Ouch.
~ ~ ~ ~
Gabriel Marcotti of Sports Illustrated writes about one of my very very very very (not to go all Ray Hudson on ya or anything) favorite players - Hernan Crespo!
~ ~ ~ ~
Phil Ball at Soccernet says Real Madrid are sharing some of Fabio Cannavaro's spotlight, & other La Liga news: Real's new Golden Balls
Eurosport says Real Madrid is showing interest in our main man Oguchi Onyewu. Oh shit, that would be phenomenal.
~ ~ ~ ~
Huge MLS trade sees Joe Cannon of Colorado sent to Los Angeles for struggling striker Herculez Gomez (who will NOT helping Colorado's empty offense) and young defender Ugo Ihemelu (who could be a great one or an average one - the jury is still out). Wow, I didn't see this coming. Why does LA now have three keepers? What are they planning on doing with long time starter Kevin Hartman? Hartman must be pissed off right now. Why would Colorado part with a great keeper like Cannon? How is Colorado going to score any goals? The list of questions is long. This is one baffling exchange of players.
-Andrea Canales at LA Soccer News talks to Gomez in depth about being traded.
-Canales also poses tons of questions, like me, about what the Galaxy are up to. And if you go strictly on her lines of questioning, this looks like one of the worst trades ever for LA. I say it's lousy for both teams.
-The Rocky Mountain News covered the story in Colorado.
~ ~ ~ ~
A Young MLS Select-Team is playing a series of exhibition throughout England this week, starting with a 2-0 win over QPR Reserves today. Here is the game schedule:
-MLS 2-0 QPR Reserves - Colorado's Jacob Peterson & New York's David Arvizu got the goals.
-Dec 5 v Crystal Palace Reserves
-Dec 7 v Watford Reserves
-Dec 8 v Chelsea Reserves
~ ~ ~ ~
Chivas USA lost 3-1 to Necaxa on Friday night in Mexico at the Hugo Sanchez testimonial match. Matt Taylor scored Chivas's only goal. That dude scored? I am not sure I have ever seen him put a shot on net, let alone get it past the keeper. Good for him, maybe he has a future as a right back. Surprisingly both Paco Palencia and Juan Pablo Garcia played for Chivas even though we have been told time and again that they are both leaving the team. Odd. Amado Guevara's name was not on the score sheet, so I guess he didn't travel with his new team.
~ ~ ~ ~
Goal.com talks to new Kansas City coach Curt Onalfo.
~ ~ ~ ~
Looks like the first Sunday night Univision game of next years MLS season will see defending champs Houston at home v Los Angeles. Sunday April 8. Story from the Houston Chronicle.
Other opening weekend games include:
-Columbus Crew v Red Bull New York on Saturday April 7.
-Colorado Rapids v DC United on Saturday April 7th. It will be the grand opening of Dick's Sporting Goods Park. I am going to assume this game will be on ABC. You know, with the afternoon kickoff and the stadium debut and all.
- Chivas USA v Toronto FC on Saturday April 7
~ ~ ~ ~
Glenn Davis of the Chronicle on Houston's youth development program.
~ ~ ~ ~
Steve Davis writing for MLSnet tries to look at the off season from a General Managers point of view.
~ ~ ~ ~
A great reader named Doug sent us a link to this hilarious story from the Washington Post's "Sports Bog": Here in DC the Post sports “bog” has been chronicling a local rock radio station’s “water wars” contest, where the winner is the person who shoots DC Keeper Nick Rimando with a water pistol first. Crazy stuff! Thanks Doug, and keep us posted!
~ ~ ~ ~
Here is the FULL text of Andrew Dixon's Q & A with former MLS striker Roy Lassiter, from Gol Noir.
~ ~ ~ ~
Completely contrary to everything you may have read in the English tabloids, Jack Bell of the New York Times says Freddy Adu's trial at Manchester United was a very positive one.
~ ~ ~ ~
But forget the old Freddy Adu, we already have a new Freddy. Charles Renken! Freddy is dead, long live Freddy. Renken is the next 11 year old superstar headed for the US Soccer Residency Program in Bradenton Florida. He is from suburban St Louis, and was born in Zambia.
-One of the internet's great American youth soccer writers who goes by the name GersMan on Big Soccer wrote about this kid 15 months ago for Top Drawer Soccer.
~ ~ ~ ~
Columnist George Gross of the Toronto Sun with an article on TFC's biggest name player, Ronnie O'Brien.
~ ~ ~ ~
The Sunday Times of London looks at the growing legitimacy of MLS.
~ ~ ~ ~
If you go to the US Soccer "video" page you can see a really nice tribute to Glenn Myernick's playing days. I don't remember ever seeing him, but he sure looks like he was one hell of a tough defender.
~ ~ ~ ~
NCAA Finals:
Santa Barbara upset UCLA 2-1 on a snow covered Sunday afternoon in St Louis. Nick Perera scored very early for UCSB who poured on the pressure, then grabbed a 2-0 lead in the second half on a goal by Eric Avila. Jason Leopoldo got a goal back with about 10 minutes to play for UCLA but they never got another great chance to tie it up. Congrats to the mighty Gauchos of Santa Barbara!
-Soccernet with a match report.
-Grahame Jones of the LA Times with a match report.
-Post game quotes from players and coaches from NCAA.com.
-Another note I want to make about the game: There was one disturbing moment in the game when UCLA's Brad Rushin & UCSB's Andy Iro were pushing and shoving before a corner kick and the sideline microphone picked up Rushin yelling "What's yer problem you fucking faggot" at Iro. I would have decked that little macho prick if he said that to me. Who let's this stuff go on? The ref was right there and did nothing. NOTHING. Rushin should have been thrown out. If it had been a racial slur instead of sexual slur it would be the top story on Sports Center. But nothing happened. Figures.
~ ~ ~ ~
Joseph Lapira, forward from Notre Dame, was named the winner of the 2006 Hermann Trophy as college soccer's best player. No offense to Lapira, but he has nothing on Charlie Davies.
~ ~ ~ ~
3 Americans started in goal in England this weekend, and all three pitched a shutout! Let's check in with our favorite Americans in Europe and see how their weekend matches went:
-DaMarcus Beasley - Manchester City - may be healthy enough to play today v Watford.
-Gregg Berhalter - 1860 Munich - started and played the whole match, but probably wished he was anywhere else as they got hammered 5-1 by Unterhaching.
-Carlos Bocanegra - Fulham - did not play in 0-2 loss at Blackburn due to the thigh injury.
-Michael Bradley - Heerenveen - did not leave the bench in a 4-3 loss at Feyenoord.
-Steve Cherundolo - Hannover - Huge game for Stevie as he started at his usual right defender spot and headed home the games only goal in a 0-1 road win at Energie Cottbus. They needed that one bad.
-Bobby Convey - Reading - did not play due to his knee injury for which he had surgery late last week.
-Jay DeMerit - Watford - his team plays Manchester City today.
-Benny Feilhaber - Hamburg - back in the starting line up, but lost again, 2-1 at Bochum. Benny will see more action after fellow midfielder and team captain Rafael Van Der Vart got a 4 game suspension for an ugly tackle from behind.
-Brad Friedel - Blackburn - Played the full 90 and shut out Fulham 2-0. Play Charlton on Tuesday.
-Marcus Hahnemann - Reading - Started as usual and posted yet another clean sheet in a 1-0 win over Bolton. They are really playing well in defense now.
-Tim Howard - Everton - With Tim-may back in goal they beat West Ham 2-0.
-Kasey Keller - Monchengladbach - KK was back in the lineup after that shoulder injury and helped his team earn a big 1-1 draw at Bayern Munich.
-Eddie Lewis - Leeds - played the full 90 and hit the post in his teams 2-2 draw with Barnsley.
-Brian McBride - Fulham - Came on as a 69th minute sub but made no difference in a 0-2 loss at Blackburn.
-Oguchi Onyewu - Standard - played the full 90 in a 3-0 win over Westerlo.
-Claudio Reyna - Manchester City - his team plays Watford today.
-Jonathan Spector - West Ham - Started as usual but was subbed out for more offense in the 84th minute of a 0-2 loss at Everton.
~ ~ ~ ~
Yanks Abroad checks in with Watford defender Jay DeMerit ahead of the game v Man City today.
~ ~ ~ ~
Mexican Apertura semifinal scores:
First leg scores-
Pachuca 1-1 Toluca - Bruno Marioni scored in the 55th minute for Toluca, but the home team managed to tie it up in the 71st on a goal by Luis Angel Landin.
Guadalajara 2-0 America - Chivas scored both goals in the 2nd half for win that will set up one hell of a second leg. Ramon Morales & Omar Bravo scored the goals.
2nd leg scores-
Toluca 1-0 Pachuca - Toluca advances on 2-1 aggregate. Goal by Vicente Sanchez.
America 0-0 Guadalajara - Guada hangs on for 2-0 agg win.
-Soccernet with a review of the two 2nd leg matches.
-FMF Finals are now set:
1st Leg-
Guadalajara v Toluca - live at 8:30pm central, Thurs Dec 7th on TeleFutura.
2nd Leg-
Toluca v Guadalajara - live at 3pm central, Sun Dec 10th on Univision.
~ ~ ~ ~
UEFA CL M6 Games:
-The last round of the group stages. The 10 teams with an * are already through to the knock out stage. That leaves 6 spots open.
Tuesday-
Barcelona v Bremen
Chelsea* v Levski
Sporting v Spartak Moskva
Bayern* v Inter*
Galatasaray v Liverpool*
PSV* v Bordeaux
Olympiacos v Shakhtar
Roma v Valencia*
Wednesday-
Dynamo Kyiv v Real Madrid*
Lyon* v Steaua
Man United v Benfica
Kobenhavn v Celtic*
Porto v Arsenal
Hamburg v CSKA Moskva
Anderlecht v AEK
Milan* v Lille
-A day of destiny for Barcelona. From UEFA.com.
~ ~ ~ ~
Boca Juniors could have won the Argentine title yesterday, but choked on the road at Belgrano losing 1-0, while second place Estudiantes drew 2-2 at Argentinos Junior, setting up a huge final weekend of games. Boca leads by 2 points and play at home v Lanus. Estud play at home v Arsenal. Should be some great viewing next Sunday. I also want to go back to the Boca game and point out that their highly touted star-in-the-making Gago was fairly awful in this match. He took about 6 long shots with only one on target. You could clearly see his teammates screaming at him to knock it off, but he kept shooting wildly. Dear boy has already let it go to his head that Real Madrid want to make him a Galactico.
~ ~ ~ ~
Thierry Henry's neck injury is worse than first thought, but in customary English fashion we have no idea what that injury actually is. He will miss about 6 weeks! Ouch.
~ ~ ~ ~
Gabriel Marcotti of Sports Illustrated writes about one of my very very very very (not to go all Ray Hudson on ya or anything) favorite players - Hernan Crespo!
~ ~ ~ ~
Phil Ball at Soccernet says Real Madrid are sharing some of Fabio Cannavaro's spotlight, & other La Liga news: Real's new Golden Balls
posted by brucio at 16:05
5 Comments:
I don't believe it's classy to yell anti-gay slurs at people, but do you really believe that a display of violence is the appropriate way in which to react to someone who offers you an anti-gay slur ?
My favorite part of the LA-Colorado deal was this Lalas quote: "With this move we now have three world-class goalkeepers in the Galaxy organization." First off, he has a different idea of "world class" that I do. I must say that I have never thought of Petr Cech and Steve Cronin at the same moment before and I doubt I ever will again. Then again, maybe Lalas thinks of himself as a "world-class" GM.
Secondly, last time I checked you only play one 'keeper at a time. Shouldn't Lalas be looking to find a "world-class" field player rather than making sure that he has that oh-so-important third-string 'keeper.
i was way over exaggerating a reaction to make a point
for the mooch tribute
go to this page
http://www.ussoccer.com/sights/video/index.jsp.html
and look on the far right side below the black box, you should see "A Tribute to Glenn 'Mooch' Myernick" listed amoung the choices
(Sorry there is no direct link available)
My guess is Hartman or Cannon will at some point be traded off for some other player the Galaxy has their eyes on.
Loved the NCAA title game (missed the audio that Bruce refers to, though I remember seeing the incident). I'm just glad we didn't get double-overtime and PK's for a final.
Post a Comment
<< Home