New Fork News

German tabloid paper Bild reported that US Soccer has offered Juergen Klinsmann the head coaching job at more that $3 million a year, and with Sigi Schmid as his assistant. Sunil Gulati, President of US Soccer, vehemently denies any of this has happened, and I think he is a very believable person.

MLS has handed out two more post-season awards:
-Jonathan Bornstein was named Rookie Of The Year
-Bob Bradley was named Coach Of The Year
So two awards to Chivas USA. Both well deserved.
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I think the Dallas fans want coach Colin Clarke's head on a stick. They are pissed about losing to Colorado for the second year in a row, at home. They are totally baffled as to why he pulled Kenny Cooper from the game when they clearly needed to hold the lead, yet nearly every time they tried to do just that throughout the season with more defense it backfired. They also don't know what happened that young attacker Ramon Nunez who never saw the field at all (although Nunez showed his massive immaturity by storming off the bench when he wasn't made the third and final sub - lame). They want Clarke gone now!
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Steve Davis at Soccernet goes along with the "Clarke is a goner" theory.
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After seeing some shaky video, and reading many fan accounts of the Colorado v Dario Sala post match brewhaha, I must say that even though Colorado went a little overboard in their celebratorial taunting of Dallas fans, Dallas keeper Dario Sala was way out of line in punching Colorado players. Way out of line. He should and will be suspended for a number of games to start next season. I understand his motives, but he was wrong.
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Ives Galarcep at Soccernet reviews the New England-Chicago & DC-NY games.
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The MLS Cup Semifinal match ups look like this:
Sun Nov 5
DC United v New England Revolution - at 3pm on ESPN2
Houston Dynamo v Colorado Rapids - at 6pm on FSC & HDNet
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The San Bernardino Sun with a feature on young Chivas USA star Jonathan Bornstein.
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FC Dallas fan DJ Walker's season finale - Stream of Consciousness: Signing Off
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Brian Forbes of the Denver Post says Colorado must find ways to stop the Houston offense. Colorado coach Fernando Clavijo says the key man is Ricardo Clark.
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Ives Galarcep at the North Jersey Herald looks for the positives in the Red Bulls season ending loss to DC.
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In his weekly column for the Newark Star Ledger, Frank Giase says Bruce Arena's plan is to turn the New York Red Bulls into a dynasty. Isn't that every coach's plan at every club?
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Ridge Mahoney at Soccer America looks at the idea of MLS's first round home and away playoff series.
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Nick Green of the Daily Breeze with his weekly column looking at the future for US Soccer.
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The Houston Chronicle's Week In Review
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Greg Lalas at Sports Illustrated looks at which MLS players are ripe for the Euro pickings.
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Both Claudio Reyna & DaMarcus Beasley were in the first 11 for Manchester City in their 1-0 win over Middlesbrough. Richard Dunne scored the games only goal. DMB was subbed off in the 71st minute, and Reyna subbed off in the 80th.
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The Associated Press says the USA confirms they are talking to Juergen Klinsmann about the head coach job. There are 4 other, unnamed, candidates.
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And US Soccer has a podcast of Pres Sunil Gulati's press conference yesterday.
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UEFA Champions League Matchday 4 on TV today and tomorrow:
Tuesday-
Bayern v Sporting - ESPN2 live at 130pm central & ESPN Deportes delayed at 6pm central
Liverpool v Bordeaux - Setanta live at 1:30pm central
Spartak v Inter - Setanta & ESPN Deportes live at 11:25am central & ESPN Classic delayed at 4pm central
Barcelona v Chelsea - ESPN Deportes live at 1:30pm central & ESPN Deportes delayed at 8pm central
Shakhtar v Valencia - ESPN Deportes delayed at 3:45pm central
PSV v Galatasaray - Setanta delayed at 4pm central & ESPN Deportes delayed at 11pm central
Wednesday-
Arsenal v CSKA - ESPN2 live at 130pm central
Kobenhaven v Man United - Setanta live at 1:30pm central
Real Madrid v Steaua - ESPN Deportes live at 1:30pm central & ESPN Classic delayed at 4pm central
Hamburg v Porto - Setanta delayed at 4pm central
Milan v Anderlecht - Setanta delayed at 5:45pm central & ESPN Deportes delayed at 10pm central
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Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune with another story of FIFA's Sepp Blatter sticking his finely manicured foot in his mouth: Blatter played fair but accused of foul
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From the Guardian: Why It's Boom Time For Russian Football
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Costa Rica have named former star striker & Suprissa coach Hernan Medford as the new manager of their national team.

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
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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
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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.
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Mike Wise of the Washington Post takes DC coach Peter Nowak apart.
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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.
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The Boston Globe with an article on New England keeper Matt Reis's amazing PK saving skills.
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The Denver Post has a chat with Colorado coach Fernando Clavijo about his next opponent - Houston.
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Jeff Carlisle of Soccernet reviews the Houston-Chivas & Dallas-colorado matches.
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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!
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Luis Bueno of LA Soccer News says lack of experience let Chivas USA down.
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The latest roundtable discussion from LA Soccer News is on who the USA & Mexico should hire as coaches.
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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.
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Grahame Jones of the LA Times reports on one of the few true elder statesmen of soccer in America - Manfred Schellscheidt at Seton Hall.
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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.
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And Jay DeMerit debuts his own column/weblog at Soccernet! Check it out now.
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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.
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Young American keeper Quentin Westberg made his first ever start for Troyes, and they won big, 3-1 over St Etienne. Congrats to Quentin!
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Chivas beat Atlas 3-1 in the Guadalajara derby.
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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
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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.
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Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune takes in the Milan Derby and calls it the changing of the guard: Bad news for Berlusconi
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One of the hot young stars of tomorrow, Porto's Brazilian midfielder Anderson, broke his leg in his teams 3-2 win over Benfica.
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Tampere United have won the Finnish Veikkausliiga.
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UEFA Champions League Matchday 4 is this week, Tue Oct 31 & Wed Nov 1! Get ready.
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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?
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Alex Del Piero scored his 200th goal for Juventus!
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Simon Kuper of the Financial Times looks at those kooky Italians: Another kicking for southern Italy’s football
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Phil Ball celebrates his 5th year covering Spanish football at Soccernet!: Chocolate or Rioja?

Insider Public Transport News

Is Juergen Klinsmann seriously interested in the USA coaching job? “Absolutely I’m interested,” said Klinsmann.

Jack Bell of the New York Times talks to Juergen Klinsmann about the vacant USA coaching position.
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Frank Dell'apa of the Boston Globe says New England coach Steve Nicol is royally pissed off at the league for suspending Shalrie Joseph.
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Jim Dow at RevsNet talks to New England assistant coach Paul Mariner about the Joseph suspension and the second leg match against Chicago this weekend.
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Paul Oberjuerge of the LA Daily News talks to Landon Donovan about what comes next for him and his LA Galaxy.
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Dallas striker Carlos Ruiz has a strained right quad muscle that is really bothering him, but he says no matter what, he is playing Saturday v Colorado.
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US Players Assoc has a Q & A with KC defender Jimmy Conrad.
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Michael Lewis of Big Apple Soccer says New York midfielder Dema Kovalenko wants DC coach Peter Nowak to sit down and shut up. Thems is fightin words.
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Washington DC Style interviews DC United midfielder Benny Olsen about..... his style?
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Lars Lifrak at Soccer365 does a Q & A with New England midfielder Andy Dorman about this weekends second leg playoff game v Chicago.
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And Andrea Canales at Soccer365 does the Q & A with Chivas USA midfielder Jesse Marsch.
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Canales also writes for the same site about Clint Dempsey and his high level of quality over the last couple months. What will that do for his European chances come January?
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Andrew Rogers at Soccer365 talks to Dallas and Trinidad & Tobago keeper Shaka Hislop about his first months in MLS, and Dallas's playoff chances.
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The Chicago Daily Southtown with a feature on the Fire captain Chris Armas.
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And Lacy Banks at the Chicago Sun Times with a feature story on Chicago defender CJ Brown.
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Brain Forbes at the Denver Post says Colorado is going to have to step up big to beat Dallas in Dallas.
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Tobias Xavier Lopez at the Fort Worth Star Telegram talks to Dan Hunt of the FC Dallas owners, the Hunt Sports Group, about the difference between their old home, the Cotton Bowl, and their new home, Pizza Hut Park, (besides giving up a great named stadium for a terrible one), and hot topics being discussed league wise.
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The Houston Chronicle looks at Chivas USA keeper Brad Guzan's preparations for the Dynamo match in Houston..
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And the Houston Dynamo have been practicing their PK's.
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Denver's Rocky Mountain News with a feature on Colorado's 3 contributing youngsters: Hunter Freeman, Dan Gargan & Jacob Peterson.
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With election day quickly approaching, we get the latest on the vote for public money to help with the Kansas City soccer stadium. From the KC Star.
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Tandem talks to Toronto FC coach Mo Johnston.
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MLS Quarterfinals, 2nd-leg matches:
Saturday, October 28
New England v Chicago - 6:30pm on Direct Kick & FSC
Dallas v Colorado - 7:30pm on Direct Kick
Sunday, October 29
DC v New York - 5pm on ESPN2
Houston v Chivas - 7pm on Direct Kick, FSC, & HDNet
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Soccer America previews the 4 MLS playoff matches.
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Yanks Abroad talks to young USA & Bolton striker Johann Smith.
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Two big Euro matches ahead this Saturday:
Milan v Inter - the Milano derby
Porto v Benfica - the old feud
Bolton v Manchester United - #3 v #1
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UEFA Champions League Matchday 4 is next week, Tue Oct 31 & Wed Nov 1!
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We are supposed to hear word on Monday about the appeals in the Italian match fixing scandal.

John Norris Dyed Hair Piece News

From the official FIFA World Cup medical report: “Fifty-eight per cent of the players who were treated on the pitch during the 2006 World Cup eventually turned out not to be injured." I wonder how many of those were Italian?
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Andrew Hush of Soccer New England says the Revs Pat Noonan is still slightly injured and Clint Dempsey is worse off than we think. Will they be ready for Saturday?
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The Chicago Sun Times reports on the suspension of New England's Shalrie Joseph with quotes from Fire players and management.
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Andrea Canales at LA Soccer News looks at the past, present and future of the Los Angeles Galaxy: A Galactic Heritage
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And LA Soccer News give us their latest round table discussion. This one on Chivas USA's chances of advancing past Houston in the MLS playoffs.
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Luis Bueno also at LASN says Chivas winger Juan Pablo Garcia is still steamed about getting yanked from last Sunday's game. The coach is unfazed by this. And I say the kid acted like a little baby. Then the player who replaced him, Sacha Kljesten, immediately swung in a free kick that Paco Palencia headed home for the game winner. Touche Loco.
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The US Players Association follows suit with their own Roundtable discussion. It features the sites main contributors: Marc Connolly, J Hutcherson, Kevin McGeehan and Brian Straus. In this first edition they discuss the first round of the MLS playoffs, between the first and second legs.
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Glenn Davis of the Houston Chronicle looks ahead to Houston v Chivas USA on Sunday and says it should be great show.
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Johnnie Whitehead of USA Today says Houston is in trouble against Chivas USA.
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Jeff Carlisle at Soccernet zooms in on the changes teams will make to their strategy for leg 2.
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Like that Rossi kid from New Jersey wanting to play for Italy, another American is defecting back to his family heritage. Sonny Guadaramma is playing for Mexico's U20's even though he has played youth internationals for the USA. From the AP. Thanks to Shawn for laying this on me.
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Brian Hall was named MLS Referee Of The Year. Isn't that like awarding Best Smelling Dump I Took. Just kidding. Matthew will be very happy - he is President of the Brian Hall fan club.
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Washington Examiner with a feature on DC United midfielder Ben Olsen. (It should be noted that the Examiner is owned by Mr Phil Anschutz who also owns DCU.)
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The Washington Times with a feature on DC keeper Troy Perkins.
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In other DC news, it looks like backup keeper Nick Rimando severely sprained his ankle while taking his dog for a run and will miss the rest of the season!
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Sportsnet in Canada with a story on the new Toronto stadium which it says is more than 50% completed, and on schedule for a May 1 opening. Very Special FIFA VP Jack Warner was on hand to check the place out. Special Jack said the place gives him "goose pimples". When I think about Jack Warner I get "hives".
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Dan Loney's latest from American Soccer News: Twenty Playoff Questions
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MLS Quarterfinals, 2nd-leg matches (with first leg scores included):
Saturday, October 28
New England v Chicago (0-1) - 6:30pm on Direct Kick & FSC
Dallas v Colorado (2-1) - 7:30pm on Direct Kick
Sunday, October 29
DC v New York (1-0) - 5pm on ESPN2
Houston v Chivas (1-2) - 7pm on Direct Kick, FSC, & HDNet
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Two college papers with stories on the state of American soccer that almost work as a debate: Cal State Northridge's Daily Sundial - Future of U.S. soccer still looks uncertain -AND- University of Texas-Austin's Daily Texan - MLS not hindering American players
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USA U20 forward Johann Smith made his first senior appearance last night for Bolton. He came on as a sub, but they lost 1-0 to Charlton.
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When you talk about youth development is America the "experts" always say that high school & college soccer are not the way to the top, yet they always quote both these facts when they discus a players pedigree. I would think they would be more interested in a player's club team. Someone at the US Players Assoc agrees with me, and compiled a list of the clubs that all of the most recent Team USA members played for.
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My school, Rochester Lourdes, won their state championship quarterfinal match 2-1 last night over Hillcrest. Their star player Bayode Adafin scored both goals.
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Yanks Abroad talks to USA midfielder Eddie Lewis about the wretched start to the season for his Leeds team. They currently sit in the Championship Division relegation zone and have had their coach fired.
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Another sign of the impending Apocalypse has made itself known as Honduras have officially offered their coaching job to Diego Maradona. I really hope he takes it. It will make CONCACAF that much more fun.
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I missed this one from last weekend - Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune looks at the current state of Man U: At Manchester United, old values can still ring new
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In the Eredivisie last night PSV beat Sparta Rotterdam 7-0!
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Next year Northern Ireland will issue a limited edition Five Pound bill with George Best's mug on it. I would think that they will limit the bills use to alcohol purchases.
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Two big Euro matches ahead this Saturday:
Milan v Inter
Porto v Benfica
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UEFA Champions League Matchday 4 is next week, Tue Oct 31 & Wed Nov 1! Here are the highlight matches:
Barca v Chelsea
Bayern v Sporting
Benfica v Celtic
Arsenal v CSKA
Hamburg v Porto

What's Up Dude News

Frankly this news stuns me: MLS has suspended New England midfielder Shalrie Joseph for the next playoff game against Chicago. He is being punished for an elbow to the Fire's Ivan Guerrero. I was at the game and saw it go down. It actually happened twice. The second time Joseph was yellow carded. I even went and watched the plays on the DVR when I got home. Yes it was a yellow card. But a suspension? Are you nuts!!!! If the league wants to crack down on this type of play go ahead and implement it from game 1 next season, but you can't start now, there's no precedent for that. It's horrible. And they better hope there are not big repercussions. Everyone seems outraged by this one. Thanks to Chris for the heads up.
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Boston Globe and Soccernet reporter Frank Dell'apa chimes in on the suspension.
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More excellent DC United fan bus trip stories from Dan Steinberg's DC Sports Blog at the Washington Post. Thanks Demko.
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Dallas will have exciting speedster Roberto Mina in uniform and ready for action this weekend for the first time since a knee injury in July. Yes!
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Jack Bell's weekly soccer column at the New York Times focuses on Dallas striker extraordinaire Carlos Ruiz.
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Ridge Mahoney of Soccer America predicts that David Beckham would be a huge bust in MLS.
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Ives Galarcep at the North Jersey Herald with a feature story on highly touted Seton Hall forward Eliseo Giusfredi. Will he go pro 4 months from now?
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Luis Arroyave of the Chicago Tribune looks at the 4 players still around who were on the Fire day 1: Chris Armas, CJ Brown, Zach Thornton & Diego Gutierrez (Thornton and Gutierrez left and came back.)
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Houston's Brian Ching blogs about Round One.
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And the Houston Chronicle's Bernardo Fallas examines the Dynamo defense, which is definitely not as good as last years model without Danny Califf at the helm.
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Michael Lewis of Big Apple Soccer is wondering if New York has it in them to come back and upset DC.
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Andrea Canales of LA Soccer News says the LA Galaxy want David Beckham on their team next season.
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Over at Soccer 365 Canales gives her review of the 06 MLS season, and hints for success next season.
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Jeff Bradley's First XI from MLSnet: Dropping The Second Leg
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The AP with a feature on DC midfield conductor Christian Gomez. He is the MVP, I say!
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Soccer365's Don Cuddy asks, is this our "Last Look At Clint Dempsey?"
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MLS Quarterfinals, 2nd-leg matches:
Saturday, October 28
New England v Chicago - 6:30pm on Direct Kick & FSC
Dallas v Colorado - 7:30pm on Direct Kick
Sunday, October 29
DC v New York - 5pm on ESPN2
Houston v Chivas - 7pm on Direct Kick, FSC, & HDNet
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Manchester City are saying that they hope DaMarcus Beasley will be ready to play next Monday v Middlesbrough. I do too.
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American defender Heath Pearce who plays for Nordsjaelland in Denmark, checks in with his own column at the US Players Assoc.
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Greg Sica of Sports Illustrated looks at the return to Argentine glory for Juan Sebastian Veron with Estudiantes.
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The head medical officer of FIFA has finished a study that says most injuries at the World Cup were faked to gain an advantage. In the immortal words of Gomer Pyle: "Surprise, surprise!" From the London Times.

John R News

Colorado's Thiago Martins on the red card he got against Dallas last Saturday: "I hit him. You can print that. I hit him hard."

DC United defender Bobby Boswell has been awarded MLS Defender Of The Year.
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Bernardo Fallas of the Houston Chronicle looks at the MLS playoff attendance troubles.
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Chicago captain Chris Armas talks about the special "it" that only the Fire have in MLS. From the Chicago Daily Herald. Really good.
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Dylan Butler of Big Apple Soccer says the days of DC striker Alecko Eskandarian having fans in New York, other than his family members, are over.
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Andrea Canales of Soccernet looks at the plight of coach John Ellinger and his Real Salt Lake team in year 2. Will he be around for 07? If I owned the team the answer would be no. But it sounds like the answer is yes.
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Andrew Hush at the Boston Herald looks at what New England has to do in game two to overturn their 0-1 deficit to Chicago.
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And I guess not to surprisingly, Frank Dell'apa of the Boston Globe does the same.
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All Hail! DJ Walker's Stream of Consciousness: FCD vs Colorado, Leg 1
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Colorado is down 1-2 to Dallas and must go on the road for game two. Brian Forbes of the Denver Post looks at what the Rapids must do to pull off the miracle.
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Over the last couple of days its been revealed that Chivas USA's Paco Palencia loves Metallica! Scott French from the LA Daily News.
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Frank Giase of the Newark Star Ledger says that if New York has any chance this weekend in DC that Amado Guevara and Youri Djorkaeff are going to have to be the ones to get the job done.
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Paul Gardner at the New York Sun reviews the first weekend of MLS playoffs. He is not impressed.
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Nick Green of the Carson Daily Breeze with all praise for the Chivas USA keeper El Guzano.
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LA Galaxy striker Cornell Glenn who is rehabbing from a torn ACL wants to be ready for action with Trinidad & Tobago in the Gold Cup next summer.
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Someone sent me a link to a bunch of Youri Djorkaeff photos, some of which were used in a French magazine, taken on the day of the Red Bulls last regular season game. They are both casual shots and on field shots. Good stuff. Thanks Tom.
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The Houston Chronicle's Week In Review.
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Maria Burns at Soccernet looks at all the foreigners pouring in to America for college soccer. The University of Illinois-Chicago is her template.
~ ~ ~ ~
There is a really strange article at the website AllAfrica.com on a Liberian soccer player named Thompson Nagbe who claims to have scored 18 goals in 21 games for the Columbus Crew. Huh? I have never even heard of the dude. And he is definitely not on the Crew roster. The article even claims that he has been in MLS for six years. The story also says that he is on the USA U20 team, of which I can find no trace either. Anybody got anything?
~ ~ ~ ~
Ken Pendleton at the US Players Assoc says he is pleased that more and more soccer can be seen on TV in America. But the product quality is still very low. I could not agree more.
~ ~ ~ ~
Looks like USA & Reading midfielder Bobby Convey has been injured worse than any of us knew. And its not his ankle, its his left knee. Yanks Abroad with the whole story.
~ ~ ~ ~
Tonight and tomorrow night sees tons of League Cup matches all over Europe. If you want details on your favorite countries cup you will have to go searching, cuz I just didn't have time. Sorry.
~ ~ ~ ~
Carlos "Modern Man" Tevez talks to UEFA.com about the horrible start to his West Ham career.
~ ~ ~ ~
Brazil, Lyon & du Nord favorite striker Fred will miss 2 months of action with tear in his right thigh muscle.
~ ~ ~ ~
Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune on the Real Madrid v Barcelona game: Real wins on grit but covets glamour
~ ~ ~ ~
English oddsmakers William Hill have set David Beckham at 4-1 to play in MLS next season, 6-1 to join Arsenal, 7-1 to retire, and 20-1 to return to Manchester United!

Good Time News

Here's an important message from our pal Evan in Dallas who works for FCD: As you know we are hosting MLS Cup November 12th. I can provide priority seating for this huge event. I can be reached directly at 214-705-6752 or emitz@fcdallas.net. Book yer flight, get to Dallas, have a blast, and call Evan NOW! You won't regret it.

MLS playoffs first round first legs are history! Here are scores:
New York 0-1 DC - Christian Gomez executed a perfect give and go with Jamie Moreno and then chipped Jon Conway for the goal. 8630 in attendance.
Colorado 1-2 Dallas - El Pescadito scored first for Dallas with his 14th goal in 14 playoff games! Terry Cooke got a rebound of a Thiago Martins shot and tied it up for Colorado. But Abe Thompson took a long cross from Ronnie O'Brien and bagged the winner for FCD. Thiago Martins was red carded late in the game and will miss the second leg. Sadly, only 4176 in attendance in Denver.
Chicago 1-0 New England - Justin Mapp hit a brilliant free kick from the right side of the penalty area late in the first half for the games only goal. Clint Dempsey slowly walked off the field apparently injured around the 80th minute. Chicago keeper Greasy Pickens stopped NE's best chance on a great Twellman header. 10,217 in attendance.
Chivas 2-1 Houston - Ante Razov scored right at half time for the home side, and Paco Palencia made it 2 shortly after the 2nd half re-start. Brian Ching got one back for Houston in the 75th. But Chivas keeper Brad Guzan saved the win by stopping a Dwayne De Rosario PK in the 85th minute. 15,110 in attendance.
-Second legs will be played Oct 28 & 29.
~ ~ ~ ~
MLS is launching their own online radio show starting tomorrow at 1pm central time. It will kick off with host Jimmy Conrad! Interesting choice. Connect to it via MLSnet.com.
~ ~ ~ ~
Soccer New England has quotes from the Revs dressing room after the loss in Chicago.
~ ~ ~ ~
Dan Steinberg from the Washington Post went with the supporters groups on their busses up to NY for the DC United victory. His story is awesome.
~ ~ ~ ~
Luis Bueno on Chivas keeper Brad Guzan's huge game v Houston. For LA Soccer News.
~ ~ ~ ~
Ives Galarcep reviews the 2 Eastern Conference games for Soccernet.
~ ~ ~ ~
While his co-hort Jeff Carlisle reviews the 2 Western Conference games.
~ ~ ~ ~
A dude who writes a column for a small newspaper in the Northwestern suburbs of Chicago went to his first game at Toyota Park on Sunday. He gave his views. And I even gave him a little feedback of my own.
~ ~ ~ ~
New England coach Steve Nicol profiled at the BBC site.
~ ~ ~ ~
Jim Dow from RevsNet has his usual quality New England Revolution insights, plus an interview with the team's great midfielder Steve Ralston.
~ ~ ~ ~
Frank Giase of the Newark Star Ledger talks to Youri Djorkaeff about his last ever game at Giants Stadium.
~ ~ ~ ~
Steve Davis at Soccernet with a big feature story on Dallas forward Carlos El Pescadito Ruiz, who Davis calls "reformed".
~ ~ ~ ~
Columbus will play a friendly on Nov 8 at home against Carlos Ruiz's old club Municipal of Guatemala.
~ ~ ~ ~
The New York Times had a feature story the other day on young immigrants to America who are finding their feet (all pun intended) via soccer.
~ ~ ~ ~
Big Euro bouts this weekend:
-Werder Bremen 3-1 Bayern Munich - Things are getting juicy in Germany with Bremen now tied at the top with just Schalke (who beat Hannover 2-1) - Diego & Wome scored for Werder, while Makaay scored for Bayern, and a Lucio own goal gave WB their 3rd.
-Manchester United 2-0 Liverpool - Paul Scholes scored in the 1st half, and Rio Ferdinand scored in the 2nd half for a dominant Man U victory. Manchester is still tied for the top spot in the Premiership with Chelsea.
-Real Madrid 2-0 Barcelona - Barca suffers again, and RM gets some revenge for last years 0-3 home ass kicking. Raul scored after just 3 minutes, and Ruud van Nistelrooy made it 2 early in the second half. Barca stays #1 in Spain but are now tied with Valencia, while RM are only 2 points back in 4th.
-Feyenoord 0-4 Ajax - Oh how the mighty have fallen. Feyenoord lose bad at home as Klaas-Jan Huntelaar scores 2 more for Ajax. I think we can expect to see KJH on a much bigger team come January. Ajax are tops in Holland.
~ ~ ~ ~
Phil Ball on La Liga's El Clasico: A Classic
~ ~ ~ ~
Let's check in with our favorite Americans in Europe and see how their weekend matches went:
-DaMarcus Beasley - Manchester City - Did not dress for his team as they lost 4-0 to Wigan.
-Carlos Bocanegra - Fulham - Started again at D-Mid and played the entire game in a 1-1 draw at Aston Villa.
-Michael Bradley - Heerenveen - Started again and played the full 90 in a big 4-2 over Groningen. Teammate Afonso Alves scored a hat trick, and Bradley got the assist on this 2nd & 3rd. Bradley also cleared a shot off his own goal line.
-Danny Califf - Aalborg - Started and went the distance in central defense but were embarrassed 0-4 at home by Randers. Ouch dude, that's gotta hurt.
-Steve Cherundolo - Hannover - Played the whole game as usual, but lost 2-1 at league leaders Schalke.
-Bobby Convey - Reading - Still out with the ankle injury and did not dress for his teams 0-4 home loss to Arsenal. Probably better he sat this one out.
-Jay DeMerit - Watford - Jay went the full 90 in a 0-0 draw at Charlton. Watford are still searching for their first Premiership win.
-Benny Feilhaber - Hamburg - Benny got his first start, went the full 90, and his team got their first Bundesliga win of the season, 1-2 at Leverkusen! Oh Yeah! And US Soccer has a brand new interview with Feilhaber that you can listen to via podcast.
-Brad Friedel - Blackburn - Went the full 90 in goal, but lost 0-1 at home to Bolton, as not 1 but 2 of his teammates missed PK's.
-Marcus Hahnemann - Reading - Hooooooooooo. Yes, Hahnemann played as always in goal, but this one was ugly. They got whipped 0-4 at home by the Arse. Don't play with fire, boys.
-Tim Howard - Everton - Another clean sheet for Tim-may, this one a 2-0 win over Sheffield United.
-Kasey Keller - Monchengladbach - Of course he was the keeper, but lost 2-1 at Herta.
-Eddie Lewis - Leeds - Was subbed in at the 71st minute, as Leeds continued their long fall in a 5-1 drubbing by Luton. Not good for Eddie. Is he headed to MLS in January? Could be.
-Brian McBride - Fulham - Started, but was subbed out in the 72nd minute of a 1-1 draw at Aston Villa.
-Oguchi Onyewu - Standard - no game this weekend.
-Claudio Reyna - Manchester City - Did not dress for his team as they lost 4-0 to Wigan.
-Jonathan Spector - West Ham - Did not dress for anther loss by the Hammers, 1-0 at Tottenham.
~ ~ ~ ~
Will Man City coach Stuart Pearce last out the week after another drubbing? How about West Ham's Alan Pardew?
~ ~ ~ ~
Jermain Defoe of Tottenham bit, yes bit, West Ham's Javier Mascherano in the arm after a hard tackle. What the fuck is that?????? Defoe giggled and called it "mischievous"! While the Tot's manager Martin Jol called it a "comical nibble"! Are they both insane?!?!?! The other dude now has to get rabies shots ferchrisakes.
~ ~ ~ ~
The drama goes to a whole new level..... In a clear sign that Brazil & Inter forward Adriano has hit bottom, the club has sent him to Rio de Janeiro to recuperate and start a new training regimen. He will be there until at least the new year. I would expect to see him change teams in January.
~ ~ ~ ~
Italian World Cup winning coach Marcello Lippi says he will consider coaching again after the first of the year.

du Nord In Chicago For The Playoffs This Weekend

Just wanted to give everyone fair warning
That I will be in Chicago with my hoodrat friends
For the Chicago v New England match
Sunday
High Noon
Let me know if you are gonna be there
We can rock together

Steamed Up Window News

MLS Playoffs! Here are the first leg match-ups:
Saturday-
New York v DC - 1pm central on HDNet & Direct Kick
Colorado v Dallas - 8pm central on Fox Soccer
Sunday-
Chicago v New England - Noon central on ABC - I will be there!!
Chivas v Houston - 3pm central on ESPN2
-Second legs will be played Oct 28 & 29.
~ ~ ~ ~
Grant Wahl of Sports Illustrated previews the MLS playoffs, including a featurette on New England's Clint Dempsey.
-Luis Bueno also previews for SI.
~ ~ ~ ~
Allen Hopkins at Soccernet: 11 things to know about the playoffs.
~ ~ ~ ~
Grahame Jones of the LA Times with a feature story on the sports crazed Bradley brothers - Bob, coach of Chivas USA, Scott, former 12 season Major League Baseball catcher, & Jeff, journalist for ESPN Magazine and others (including the ghost written Logan's Revenge).
~ ~ ~ ~
New York midfield general Amado Guevara tells Big Apple Soccer that they know how to beat DC. But can they, realistically?
~ ~ ~ ~
And Big Apple's Michael Lewis talks to NYRB coach Bruce Arena about his teams lack of scoring threats.
~ ~ ~ ~
Lewis also has his list of 6 Things Red Bulls Must Do To Upend United.
~ ~ ~ ~
The AP with a story on 16 year old wonder boy Jozy Altidore, from the New York Red Bulls.
~ ~ ~ ~
Frank Dell'apa at the Boston Globe says New England is expecting to have the services of not only Shalrie Joseph, but Pat Noonan too, come Sunday.
~ ~ ~ ~
Len Ziehm previews Chicago v New Eng for the Chicago Sun Times.
~ ~ ~ ~
The Dallas Morning News asks, "Who's gonna start in goal for FDC - Sala or Hislop?"
~ ~ ~ ~
Brian Forbes of the Denver Post with a feature story on Colorado's Brazilian forward Thiago Martins.
~ ~ ~ ~
Colorado's best rookie Jacob Peterson is featured in a story in his hometown paper - The Kalamazoo Gazette.
~ ~ ~ ~
DC v NY preview by Steven Goff of the Washington Post.
~ ~ ~ ~
Beau Dure of USA Today previews the same match-up.
~ ~ ~ ~
Hell, even FIFA previews the MLS playoffs.
~ ~ ~ ~
Bernardo Fallas of the Houston Chronicle reviews the first season in the new town for the Dynamo.
~ ~ ~ ~
Grahame Jones of the LA Times looks at the Galaxy's re-tooling for 07.
~ ~ ~ ~
Matt Zimmerman of the LA Daily News with a look at Chivas USA's twin rookie stars Jonathan Bornstein and Sacha Kljestan.
~ ~ ~ ~
Luis Bueno of LA Soccer News writes about the sensational Kljestan too.
~ ~ ~ ~
Dan Loney at American Soccer News hands out his seasons-end awards: The Envelope, Please
~ ~ ~ ~
Yanks Abroad talks to American defender Danny Califf about life in Denark at Aalborg.
~ ~ ~ ~
US Players Assoc has a Q & A with USA U20 & Troyes goalkeeper Quentin Westberg.
~ ~ ~ ~
Big Euro bouts this weekend:
Saturday
Werder Bremen v Bayern Munich
Sunday
Manchester United v Liverpool
Real Madrid v Barcelona
Alkmaar v PSV
Feyenoord v Ajax
~ ~ ~ ~
The next round of the Champions League, Matchday 4, will be held Oct 31 & Nov 1.
~ ~ ~ ~
Inter's team owner Massimo Moratti has re-named himself as team President following the death of Giacinto Facchetti. I believe that this will prove disastrous like it did the last time he was Pres, and constantly meddled in the day to day running of the already unsteady ship.
~ ~ ~ ~
The Minnesota State High School Soccer tournament kicks off next Wed. My alma-mater, Rochester Lourdes, makes yet another appearance, taking on Hillcrest in the first round. More later.

I've Got Mice News

Troy Perkins of DC United has been named MLS Goalkeeper Of The Year

Champions League Matchday 3 this week:
Yesterday's scores-
Chelsea 1-0 Barcelona - Didier Drogba with the games only goal.
Bremen 2-0 Levski - Naldo and Diego with the Bremen goals.
Inter 2-1 Spartak Moskva - Julio Cruz with 2 goals in the first 10 minutes for Inter, Roman Pavlyuchenko got one back for Spartak.
Sporting 0-1 Bayern - Bastien Schweinsteiger with Bayern's goal.
Bordeaux 0-1 Liverpool - Peter Crouch is no slouch and got Liverpool's goal.
Galatasaray 1-2 PSV - Sasha Ilic scored first for the home team, but Jan Kromkamp and Arouna Kone scored to win it for PSV.
Valencia 2-0 Shakhtar - Both Valencia goals by David Villa.
Olympiacos 0-1 Roma - Simone Perrotta with Roma's goal.
-Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune recaps Wednesday's matches.
Tuesday's scores-
Dynamo Kyiv 0-3 Lyon - Juninho Pernambucano, Kim Kallstrom & Flourent Malouda with the Lyon goals.
Steaua 1-4 Real Madrid - Sergio Ramos, Raul, Robinho & Ruud Van Nistelrooy for RM, Valentin Badea for Steaua.
Celtic 3-0 Benfica - Two Celtic goals for Kenny Miller and the third by Stephen Pearson.
Man United 3-0 Kobenhavn - Paul Scholes, John O'Shea & Kieran Richardson with the Man U goals.
CSKA Moskva 1-0 Arsenal - Daniel Carvalho with the winner.
Porto 4-1 Hamburg - 2 goals by Lisandro Lopez, 1 by Lucho Gonzalez and the last by Helder Postiga for Porto. Hamburg's goal by Piotr Trochowski.
Lille 3-1 AEK - Lille goald by Mathieu Robail, Daniel Gygax & Jean Makoun. AEK's lone strike by Vladimir Ivic.
Anderlecht 0-1 Milan - Rikki Kaka with the games only goal.
~ ~ ~ ~
Mr Fish from The Kin Of Fish attended a meeting last night in New Jersey where the Red Bulls were pitching the new stadium to local businesses etc. He got to talk to some AEG, NYRB, MLS & SUM big wigs about the state of the game. He has some great info, as always! Awesome.
~ ~ ~ ~
New York midfielder Amado Guevara was named MLS Player Of The Month.
~ ~ ~ ~
MLS has announced their finalists for 2006 awards. The first award was given out today as DC United's Troy Perkins was named Goalkeeper Of The Year.
~ ~ ~ ~
And you can also view and vote for the MLS Goal Of The Year. There are some great ones.
~ ~ ~ ~
Andrew Hush at Soccer New England says that Rev's star Shalrie Joseph is officially back at practice and getting ready for Sunday in Chicago.
~ ~ ~ ~
Lars Lifrak of Soccer365 has a Q & A with DC keeper Troy Perkins.
~ ~ ~ ~
Luis Bueno of LA Soccer News checks in on a Chivas USA practice session to see how the preparations are coming along for the Houston series.
-Word is that Chivas defensive midfielder Jesse Marsch may not be healthy enough to play this weekend.
~ ~ ~ ~
Ian Plenderleith previews DC v NY: Out-of-Form Meets Inconsistent
~ ~ ~ ~
Jeff Bradley's First XI at MLSNet: First-round Playoff Drama
~ ~ ~ ~
Our man Demko has his playoff preview posted at the Live Nude Weblog. It's been so long since he posted on that blog that he must be well rested and ready to rumble.
~ ~ ~ ~
Bob Luder of Kansas City Star reviews the pot-holed KC Wizards season. With a focus on the highly unsuccessful strike partnership of Josh Wolfe & Eddie Johnson. Both went to the World Cup and played, but both stunk for their club - especially Johnson.
~ ~ ~ ~
Luis Arroyave of the Chicago Tribune previews the Chicago v New England playoff series.
~ ~ ~ ~
Glenn Davis of the Houston Chronicle previews the first round of playoffs too.
~ ~ ~ ~
The LA Times reported today that even if US Soccer approaches LA coach Frank Yallop to coach Team USA, he is not interested.
~ ~ ~ ~
MLS big cheese Don Garber was in Toronto yesterday and talked about MLS. From the Toronto Globe And Mail.
~ ~ ~ ~
The USL First Division will have a second new team next season (Carolina being added a couple months ago). The California Victory will play in San Francisco at Kezar Stadium. The team will be owned by Dmitry Piterman who also owns the Spanish team Alaves. He has a reputation for being a bit of meddler and lunatic. Should be interesting to see if he brings any of that to this team.
~ ~ ~ ~
Jonah Freedman's World Power Rankings from Sports Illustrated.

Flappin In The Freakin Wind News

Hey! Once In A Lifetime is on ESPN again tonight. 7pm central time. Tune in.

The always juicy Logan's Revenge says Lamar Hunt is looking to sell one of the two teams he owns: Columbus or Dallas.
~ ~ ~ ~
Adidas is trying to team MLS up with hip new music. October 21st will see the debut of a new website called MLS Mash Ups. Ad's are running all over the web for it. I am not so sure it's any good, but I will say it is one of the hipper looking things MLS has ever done. But being a total music snob, I will rest my real judgement until I hear it.
~ ~ ~ ~
Steven Goff of the Washington Post says DC United striker Alecko Eskandarian is ready to go for the playoffs. They will need him if they are to get back on their bigfastpowerfulhorse and ride to glory.
~ ~ ~ ~
NYNJ Soccer has Part 2 of their interview with New York coach Bruce Arena. By Jason Endres.
~ ~ ~ ~
Brad Rock of the Deseret Morning News reviews the Real Salt Lake season and says they are a "Big League" team - and that is not necessarily a good thing.
~ ~ ~ ~
Frank Dell'apa at Soccernet is joining the call for a new MLS playoff system.
~ ~ ~ ~
Jeff Carlisle also from Soccernet, previews the Western Conference playoffs.
~ ~ ~ ~
Bill Urban from Matchknight wonders if DC United has Petered Out.
~ ~ ~ ~
Brian Straus from the US Players Assoc says some players don't like the current playoff system either. Options anyone?
~ ~ ~ ~
The gossip columnist from the KC Star, Hearn Christopher (I knew this dude when he was a local concert promoter - man oh man, the stories I could tell!), says that Tony Meola is a candidate to become the next Kansas City Wizards general manager. That would shock me.
~ ~ ~ ~
Before next MLS seasons training camps open there will be an "Expansion" draft to help seed the new team in Toronto with players. Word has leaked out on how that will work: Since Toronto FC will begin play as the 13th franchise in MLS next spring, the league will host an expansion draft later this year. There will be 10 rounds, in which Toronto will select players from existing teams. Each club is allowed to protect 12 players; developmental players are not available for selection. Only one player classified as a senior international can be left unprotected. No more than three players can be taken from any one team. Once a player has been claimed from a team's non-protected roster, that same team may move an additional player to its protected roster. Canadian players will count as domestic players for Toronto FC, and the team will be allowed to carry three American players plus four senior internationals.
-The Toronto Globe & Mail has some more info & confirmations on the draft, these coming from MLS Commish Don Garber.
~ ~ ~ ~
Mark Zeigler from the San Diego Union Times on Chivas USA midfielder Juan Pablo Garcia. Plus his usual addendum's Sidelines, Red Cards and Trophies.
~ ~ ~ ~
Jack Bell at the New York Times turns his weekly column on Chivas USA rookie sensation Jonathan Bornstein.
~ ~ ~ ~
MSNBC looks at the next year for Freddy Adu. Will he stay in MLS, or will he be sold abroad? We will know for sure by the transfer window next August. How much money will it take? $10 million?
~ ~ ~ ~
Brown University's Daily Herald with a feature story on New England midfielder (and Brown alum) Jeff Larentowicz.
~ ~ ~ ~
Turns out that USA & Reading midfielder Bobby Convey has one of those distinctly British injuries (like deadleg) that kept him out of last weekends match v Chelsea. According to Yanks Abroad he has a "knee nag". Sounds serious. They hope he is ready this week for the match v Arsenal.
~ ~ ~ ~
Yanks Abroad talks to USA & Heerenveen midfielder Michael Bradley.
~ ~ ~ ~
Champions League Matchday 3 this week:
Yesterday's scores-
Dynamo Kyiv 0-3 Lyon - Juninho Pernambucano, Kim Kallstrom & Flourent Malouda with the Lyon goals.
Steaua 1-4 Real Madrid - Sergio Ramos, Raul, Robinho & Ruud Van Nistelrooy for RM, Valentin Badea for Steaua.
Celtic 3-0 Benfica - Two Celtic goals for Kenny Miller and the third by Stephen Pearson.
Man United 3-0 Kobenhavn - Paul Scholes, John O'Shea & Kieran Richardson with the Man U goals.
CSKA Moskva 1-0 Arsenal - Daniel Carvalho with the winner for CSKA.
Porto 4-1 Hamburg - 2 goals by Lisandro Lopez, 1 by Lucho Gonzalez and the last by Helder Postiga for Porto. Hamburg's goal by Piotr Trochowski.
Lille 3-1 AEK - Lille goals by Mathieu Robail, Daniel Gygax & Jean Makoun. AEK's lone strike by Vladimir Ivic.
Anderlecht 0-1 Milan - Rikki Kaka with the games only goal for Milano.
Today matches-
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
-Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune recaps yesterday's matches.
~ ~ ~ ~
A showing sign of the seriousness of Chelsea keeper Petr Cech's injury is that he has had two metal plates inserted in his skull.
-Frenchman Fabien Barthez who retired from the game last month has made himself available to Chelsea if they need another keeper. Do you think he would do this if they were a poor team with no spot light shining on them? Not a chance. It's all about ego.
~ ~ ~ ~
Steven Gerard will not play for Liverpool in the Champions League today due to a hamstring injury.

Out The Door And Over There News

New York midfielder Amado Guevara has been named MLS Player Of The Week.
~ ~ ~ ~
Bernardo Fallas of the Houston Chronicle grades the Houston Dynamo players on their regular season performance.
~ ~ ~ ~
Frank Dell'apa of the Boston Globe describes what it will take for New England to win it all.
~ ~ ~ ~
There will be some new sod laid down the middle of the field at New England's home stadium before their playoff match v Chicago on Oct 28.
~ ~ ~ ~
Steve Davis at Soccernet with an excellent MLS playoff preview, including his list of 5 players to watch.
~ ~ ~ ~
Scott French of the LA Daily News says Kenny Cooper gets his vote for MLS MVP. I think Scott French might be on the pipe.
~ ~ ~ ~
Luis Bueno of LA Soccer News looks at Chivas USA's playoff chances.
~ ~ ~ ~
And in is weekly column from the Press Enterprise, Bueno goes off on the MLS playoff system. I don't disagree, I just haven't seen anyone offer a better system yet. Like many others, Bueno suggests less teams, which is fine, but then the last few weeks of the regular season would have had almost no meaning at all. And if you have 6 teams go thru, then how do you line up the matches?
~ ~ ~ ~
Larry Morgan of the Whittier Daily News examines the changes ahead for the LA Galaxy.
~ ~ ~ ~
Nick Green of the Daily Breeze says Chivas wants more from the playoffs.
~ ~ ~ ~
Ives Galarcep of the North Jersey Herald says Amado Guevara is finally leading New York into the playoffs the right way.
~ ~ ~ ~
Tony Meola tells Frank Giase of the Newark Star Ledger that if he doesn't win back his starting goalkeeper job for the Red bulls, then he wants to go to another team next season.
-And Giase's weekly column, this one on New York's playoff preparations v DC.
~ ~ ~ ~
Our man Brian McBride scored Fulham's first goal (his 3rd of the season) in a 2-1 victory over Charlton yesterday. He started and played the full 90. Carlos Bocanegra came in late to help preserve the win. As Boca entered the field the English match commentator said: "...being replaced by Carlos Bocanegra, once of the Chicago Fire, a splendidly named side." To which his commentating partner punned, "They will need a bit of fire from him....." Excellent work gents.
~ ~ ~ ~
Jason Endres of Yanks Abroad says the future of American goalkeeping is very bright! Great report.
~ ~ ~ ~
Houston Chronicle's Week In Review
~ ~ ~ ~
Notre Dame's Joseph Lapira leads all college goal scorer's with 19 in 16 games!
~ ~ ~ ~
From US Soccer: U.S. Soccer President Sunil Gulati will be featured in an in-depth one-on-one interview in a stand-alone show airing on Fox Soccer Channel this Sunday (Oct. 22) at 7:30pm central. Among the topics discussed in the interview with Nick Webster is the performance of the U.S. Men's National Team in Germany during the 2006 FIFA World Cup and the search for a new head coach, the 2010 FIFA World Cup scheduled for South Africa, and the USA's potential participation in the 2007 Copa America, which begins just days after the team defends their CONCACAF Gold Cup crown in the 2007 competition. I would like to think there will be something new in this interview, but I fear there will be NOTHING to speak of.
~ ~ ~ ~
Two new video clips at US Soccer. 1) Highlights of USA U17 v Argentina. - AND - 2) Interview with American's Michael Bradley & Robbie Rogers on their club team Heerenveen in Holland.
~ ~ ~ ~
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
~ ~ ~ ~
Bora-mania sweeps Jamaica!
~ ~ ~ ~
Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune looks at the business connection between Russian oil company Gazprom & German club Schalke.
~ ~ ~ ~
Paul Gardner of the New York Sun thinks maybe more soccer players ought to be wearing headgear.

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?
~ ~ ~ ~
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.
~ ~ ~ ~
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.
~ ~ ~ ~
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!
~ ~ ~ ~
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.
~ ~ ~ ~
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.
~ ~ ~ ~
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!