Thursday, February 22, 2007

My Dog Has Fleas News

TV commentator Paul Caliguri was calling the Olimpia v DC United game for Fox Soccer Channel last night and said: "This is the biggest game so far in Tommy Soehn's coaching career." NO SHIT SHERLOCK! IT'S ALSO HIS FIRST!

Rumors from England say AEG could be bidding for Manchester City! St Phil is upping the ante!
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I got a lot of great feedback via email and comments on the idea of the USA men wearing pink shirts for a game to support breast cancer awareness. I would love to start a campaign and make this a reality. As a matter of fact I think I might push for our local club, the Minnesota Thunder to do the same. Whadda ya think of that?
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Bobby Convey's season at Reading is over! His recently repaired knee has not fully recovered and he is going to have more surgery to try and fix it all over again. What a huge drag for him. After having a breakout season last year, he has only played in 8 games this season. From Yanks Abroad.
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There is a huge article on near legendary American striker Brian McBride from the Fulham gameday magazine FulTime. Brought to us by the team's website. Excellent feature.
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Both MLS teams opened the 2007 CONCACAF Champions Cup down in Central America last night. And they did so in completely different fashion:
Puntarenas 1-0 Houston - a rough game on a rough field, but exactly what we have come to expect when American teams go to Central America. We had it all, injuries, acting, yellow cards, red cards, and a late goal.
-Match reports by both Bernardo Fallas - AND - Glenn Davis of the Houston Chronicle.
-I have seen nothing yet to explain why Brian Ching did not play yesterday. Does anyone know why? I assume its his knee that is still not 100%, but before gametime everything I read said he was going to play.
-What kind of field was that they played on?? It was the worst professional pitch I have ever seen. Some parts were bare. Some parts long & shaggy. Some were flat. Others made the ball roll in different directions. And how about the patch in the right corner of the screen that the TV commentators referred to as "the horseshoe"? What was that? It looked like a big dead spot where someone had left an old car chassis on the ground for a year or two, then moved it right before game time. On top of that the whole place was tiny and dilapidated. Weird, wild and perversely wonderful - Central American soccer.
-To me it looked like Puntarenas were wearing highway construction worker blaze orange vests over white shirts. Not a good look.
Olimpia 1-4 DC United - I did not see this coming. The home side showed a lot of energy and attack, but DC had poise and amazing skill in the form of Christian Gomez!
-Match report by Steven Goff of the Washington Post.
-Steven Goff also has other post match thoughts on his weblog.
-Word from Honduras is that Gomez received a big ovation from the Olimpia fans after the game. He was amazing wasn't he.
-I want to say that the singing from the Olimpia fans was awesome. It started before the game, and ended..... well, for all I know they are still singing right now. Amazing.
-Jeff Carlisle of Soccernet with a report on both MLS teams performances.
-Marc Connolly - and - Ian Plenderleith of the Players Assoc think both teams did fairly well for themselves.
-Tonight you can see the last of the first leg matches:
Pachuca v Marquense - live at 8pm central on Fox Soccer Channel.
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Real Salt Lake had two big roster shake ups yesterday. First and most importantly, starting keeper Scott Garlick stepped in out of the clear blue sky and said, "That's it. I retire." Secondly the team decided to release starting right back Kevin Novak who started nearly every game for them last season, and was good too. The team claims he has not recovered well from offseason surgery's. Hmmmmm. Now RSL really has to scramble for a keeper seeing as they traded away last years back up Jay Nolly and recently acquired Nick Rimando. James Edwards of the Desert Morning News with the story.
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Michael Lewis at Big Apple Soccer reports on the attempted comeback of Craig Capano with Red Bull. He had played for Chicago but has had two knee surgery's over the past two years.
-Lewis also has a great story on a kid from a small college that is getting a shot in the NYRB spring training.
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Frank Giase of the Newark Star Ledger talks to NYRB coach Bruce Arena about the club v country differences.
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It's gonna be New England v Los Angeles tonight in Bermuda. From the Royal Gazette.
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The Toronto Globe & Mail checks in on the TFC boys at training camp.
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The Toronto Sun with a better story: Where is Conor Casey?
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Andrea Canales at LA Soccer News says that most hardcore Galaxy fans are looking at a whole new world ahead, with team president Alexi Lalas leading the charge to build on their energy.
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It's good to see the Rocky Mountain News with something different (for them) in their soccer coverage. George Tanner does a great Q & A with former Rapids defender Nat Borcher, who currently plays for Odd Grenland in Norway.
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A potential organizer for bringing an MLS team to Phoenix has been very disappointed in the turnout for two exhibitions he promoted in the last week. He concluded: "I am devastated by the turnout. We're not ready." From the Arizona Republic.
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Celtic's Danish midfielder Thomas Gravesen wants out, and Frank Yallop would love to have him in LA. I guess this is a little better than Robbie Fowler and Patrik Berger. But not by much. From Soccernet.
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Coming Soon
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Like many other federations US Soccer has announced that they will begin employing their referee's on a full time basis. This is an excellent move. The first four in the program are Jair Marrufo, Ricardo Salazar, Baldomero Toledo and Terry Vaughn. Includes interviews with all 4 men.
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US Soccer has an interview with Houston & USA U23 defender/midfielder Patrick Ianni, who is in Japan with the U23's playing friendly's this week. Via podcast.
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Ben at Even Is On has two new interviews on hand for us. The first is with Adam Spangler who writes This Is American Soccer - and - the second is with Menno Pot & Jim McGough who run the Ajax USA supporters group.
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All USL First Division games will be available live online this season via pay per view. Great move.
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Copa Libertadores - the group stage is in full effect. Here are this week's matches & scores:
-Wed Feb 21
Nacional 3-1 Internacional - the defending champs get blown out!
Flamengo 3-1 Maracaibo
Parana 2-0 Real Potosi
Cienciano 1-2 Toluca - the third Mexican team to win this week!
Deportivo Pasto 0-1 Santos
-A report from all three matches via Sports Illustrated.
-Thur Feb 22
Caracas - LDU Quito
Colo Colo - River Plate
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Champions League games yesterday:
Wednesday scores-
Roma 0-0 Lyon - no goals were scored, but 11 yellow cards were shown. 8 to Roma. Lyon made accusations that Roma players tried to injure them intentionally.
Inter 2-2 Valencia - as much as I love Inter, I had predicted Valencia as the dark horse to win it all. They got two giant road goals by the two David's, Villa & Silva, to counter home goals by Cambiasso & Maicon.
Barcelona 1-2 Liverpool - Deco scored early for Barca, but the two Street Fighting Men, Craig Bellamy & John Arne Riise got the goals for Liverpool to win a huge one!
Porto 1-1 Chelsea - Chelsea got the road goal from Shevchenko of all people. Raul Meireles had scored early for the home team, but the visitors answered back almost immediately.
-Did ya see Craig Bellamy's "golf swing" celebration after he scored against Barcelona?! WOW WOW WOW! Unbelievable cajones that guy has got. If someone digs up a video clip please send it our way.
-Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune wraps up yesterdays matches.
-Matchday 8 - second leg from this weeks games - will be played in two weeks time on March 6 & 7.
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The war of words between Lille & Manchester United continues to build in fury over the ugliness in the stands and on the field during their Champions League game on Tuesday night in France. From AFP.
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Inter midfielder Patrick Viera will be out of action until around April 1 with a strain in his knee - the terms were very medical and unknown to me so I am not repeating them.
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15 UEFA Cup second leg matches going on today!
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Jonah Freedman at Sports Illustrated with his brand new World Soccer Power Rankings. Grande!

8 Comments:

Blogger Mike said...

Bellamy's goal. You can see the golf swing around the 21-25 second mark.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZkoglAxUDU

5:10 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Bruce, how can you say Gravesen is only a 'slightly better' deal than Berger or Fowler (who would be an awesome pickup as well). Thomas is only 30 and one season off playing for Real Madrid....I would be totally enchanted seeing him dress for an MLS team.

And what the hell is Salt Lake gonna do now? They are so stupid,
the leave Kreis unprotected and then have to fish him back from Toronto, then they let Rimando go to NY only to have this happen. Maybe Meola or Conway can go there.

5:17 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Is Ching fit? He said himself he hadn't done much training in the off season and came into preseason a bit behind the rest of the fellahs...

11:57 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

gotta admit. the bobby boswell thing confuses me.

12:27 AM  
Blogger brucio said...

the houston chronicle reporter was in costa rica with the team and basically said ching would probably not start but would play
the tv announcers (hahahahahaha) were surprised by this too
maybe having the keeper hurt early and then the red card is what kept him on the bench
but i am really surprise the chronicle reporter bernardo fallas made no mention of this at all - he is their biggest name player and the story is treated like he is a nobody
i just find it all quite odd

8:23 AM  
Blogger D said...

Bruce: I suppose Caliguri might have been indicating that this result was bigger than winning the 2005 reserve championship for United. Possibly. Maybe.

9:54 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Rather than pink shirts on the US MNT, they should wear red for prostrate cancer awareness. Prostrate cancer kills more men each year than breast cancer deaths of women. It's OK for men to raise awareness on our issues as well.

4:46 PM  
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11:20 AM  

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