Friday, February 23, 2007

There Is A Lot Of Music In There News

Ladies And Gentlemen! May I have your attention please! We have a new Fat Ronny in the house. Ronaldo has lost his crown! The Spanish press are now calling Ronaldinho fat. Yes you read that right. A big du Nord welcome to The New Fat Ronny.


Dylan Butler at Big Apple Soccer reports that New York coach Bruce Arena has changed track and is now saying his team is NOT going to be signing a big buck player any time soon.
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Steven Goff of the Washington Post says goalkeeper Nick Rimando has been traded from New York BACK to Salt Lake. So that makes it three teams in 2 months for Nicky. RSL needed a keeper in a bad way when their starter Scott Garlick retired suddenly on Tuesday.
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The US National Soccer Players Assoc has a Q & A with KC defender Jimmy Conrad.
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MLSnet checks in on the preseason progress of Dallas star striker and bigtime du Nord favorite El Pescadito - Carlos Ruiz.
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Indepth coverage from the Dallas Morning News on FC Dallas re-signing striker Roberto Mina.
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Bernardo Fallas of the Houston Chronicle on Dynamo backup keeper Zach Wells who stepped into the fray during this weeks Champions Cup match when Pat Onstad got hurt, and then had a great game to save his teams bacon.
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In the latest edition of The Clean Sheet, Tino Palace describes The Perfect Day. This week Tino was paid for writing his column with 2 cans of minced Scrod and a Tampa Bay Buccaneers velcro wallet circa 1988.
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RevsNet with a match report on the New England 3-1 win over Los Angeles in Bermuda. Several of the Revs trial players got to see action.
-And a match report on the same game from The Royal Gazette of Bermuda.
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The Galaxy take on the Bermuda national team tonight. New England midfielder Khano Smith will suit up for his country in this one. From the Bermuda Sun.
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Metrofanatic attended the NYRB practice session yesterday and got interviews with 3 players: Jon Conway, Dave Van Den Bergh & Jeff Parke.
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Steven Goff on his Soccer Insider blog has an interview with American & Everton goalkeeper Tim Howard.
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American striker Gabe Ferrari is expected to be on the 18 man roster named for Sampdoria this weekend when they play Milan. He will not start, but he could make his Serie A debut against The Old Fat Ronny.
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Steve Davis at Soccernet with more on the USA bid for World Cup 2018.
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Former Minnesota Thunder & Columbus Crew defender Mark Schulte has become the first signing of new Cleveland team, the City Stars.
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The USA U23 team drew 2-2 with Japanese team Rosso Kumamoto today. Adam Cristman got both the USA goals. Match report from US Soccer. CORRECTION: RK are in the Japanese 3rd division. Thanks to Jin for the info.
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CONCACAF Champions Cup - the final first-round first-leg was match last night:
Pachuca 2-0 Marquense - goals by Damian Alvarez & Gabriel Caballero.
-All 4 second-leg matches are next Wed & Thurs.
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The 2007 Copa Libertadores - the group stage is in full effect. Here are yesterday's scores:
-Thur Feb 22
Caracas 1-0 LDU Quito
Colo Colo 1-2 River Plate
-A report on both matches via Sports Illustrated.
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The UEFA Cup saw 16 teams advance to the next round series: Bayer Leverkusen, Rangers, Espanyol, AZ Alkmaar, Werder Bremen, Maccabi Haifa, Paris St. Germain, Benfica, Shakhtar Donetsk, Osasuna, Sevilla, Celta de Vigo, Newcastle United, Braga, Lens & Tottenham Hotspur.
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Big Euro matches this weekend:
Saturday-
Charlton v West Ham - relegation battle in England
Atletico Madrid v Real Madrid - the Madrid derby
Sunday-
Arsenal v Chelsea - the English League Cup final
AZ Alkmaar v Ajax - #3 v #2 in Holland
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Two stories today indicate that the 06-07 Inter Mystique may be cracking:
-On top of losing Patrick Viera for a month with a knee injury, Inter have now lost Cambiasso for at least that long with a thigh injury.
-And word has come out that the real reason Adriano did not suit up v Valencia is that he was caught out late celebrating his birthday, drinking and smoking cigarettes. I think this could be the last straw for him at the San Siro. What a fool, just when things were getting on track. I wonder how you say "Dumbass" in Portuguese?
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Some Euro 2008 games will be played on fake grass in Austria at the Stadion Salzburg Wals-Siezenheim. UEFA.com with the story. Thanks to BQ for sending me this.
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Thanks very much to M at Down The Byline for a video of the Bellamy goal v Barca. Around the 21 second mark you can see the "golf swing". Its not the best video but its what we have to work with. Thanks M.
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The Guardian with the story of one of the unsung innovators of English football - Jimmy Hill. I am not so sure he was much of a hero, but yes he was an innovator.
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Rodrigo Orihuela at the Financial Times reports on the relatively poor state of Uruguayan football today.
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Here is a very sad story from 25 years ago that has flown under most radar. It happened in Moscow when over 300 people were killed at a UEFA Cup match between Spartak and Dutch club Haarlem. The old Soviet government did everything they could to keep it quite. There will be a memorial match to remember the tragedy. From Reuters.

8 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

There seems to be a trend of Argentineans dominating the Concacaf champions cup...I can't imagine why...

6:07 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"bigtime du Nord favorite El Pescadito - Carlos Ruiz": How can you like a player who is famed for his diving and has led the league in fouls committed? A forward who has led the league in fouls!

9:35 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Just to clarify- the stadium in Salzburg that has artificial turf will indeed be a EURO 2008 venue, but the last line of that article states that a natural grass pitch will be laid for the tournament.

12:32 PM  
Blogger brucio said...

"Anonymous said...
"bigtime du Nord favorite El Pescadito - Carlos Ruiz": How can you like a player who is famed for his diving and has led the league in fouls committed? A forward who has led the league in fouls!"


guilty as charged
it is one of my many character flaws that cannot be explained by the laws of nature
or maybe nature explains it all too clearly - i am human too
i just know how i react to certain things and admit to them
i like el pescadito!

4:44 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Bruce, that is the perfect explanation/non-explanation. I hope you don't mind if I borrow it when I need to justify my numerous character flaws.

8:10 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Not a big Carlos Ruiz fan myself. The fact that Bruce will often state opinions that I disagree with is part of why I enjoy his company. How boring it would be if we agreed on or liked all the same things.

Sometimes I believe that Bruce is simply attracted to things which are passionate, because he is a passionate person. Carlos Ruiz is certainly passionate in the way that he plays the game. That's my best explanation...

1:48 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Brucio,

Carlos Ruiz is a dirty player.
He was the one who took that cheap shot at Kasey Keller in the qualifying match for the 2002 World Cup.

Ruiz is also a diver who flops anytime a defender sneezes within 5 yards of him in the penalty box.

Additionally, Ruiz gets frustrated too easily.
I prefer players with a little stronger mental constitution.

Let's face it, Brucio. You think Ruiz is cute.

1:15 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Has anyone actually seen that photo of Ronaldinho Gordito that everyone is talking about?

1:38 PM  

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