Trimmed News

Internazionale Milan set a new European domestic league record this weekend by winning their 16th game in a row. 1-0 over Cagliari. The old record was established by Real Madrid 46 years ago. What a feat! And with Roma losing, Inter's lead in Serie A is now at 14 points. The one thing people are not talking about with Inter is their depth. During the game I counted 21 first team players on their roster. That's 21 that could start for most other teams in the world! They take on Valencia in the Champions League this week. This should be a great match up.
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Luis Arroyave of the Chicago Tribune talked to Chicago Fire coach Dave Sarachan & General Manager John Guppy and have both refuted the reports of AEG, the Fire's owners, talking deal with Zidane. From his blog The Red Card.
-And now Steven Goff at the Washington Post, who started all this, says on his blog that Zidane to Chicago is not looking probable. The key element to the deal is big big bucks. Shocking.
-The question now becomes ... does New York step up for Zidane?
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Michael Lewis at Big Apple Soccer with a feature on Red Bulls & American star Claudio Reyna's first days with his new team.
-Lewis also has notes from his last day at the team's training sessions in Bradenton Florida.
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LA coach Frank Yallop was in Spain this past weekend to watch his new star David Beckham play. What did Frank see? No goals scored for either team, and Becks get a late red card for an ugly slicing tackle from behind.
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Andrea Canales at LA Soccer News gets some chat time with Galaxy captain Landon Donovan, and they talk about the desrires for his team this season.
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Then Canales does the same with Chivas USA midfielder Panchito Mendoza, who has been with the club since Day 1.
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The word from Dallas is not good for their new center back Adrian Serioux. He needs knee surgery and will be out about 6 months.
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Andrew Hush at Soccer New England checks in with Rev's midfielder Andy Dorman. Dorman stepped up his game quite nicely last season, but without Clint Dempsey in the attack, and Pepe Cancela off the bench, the team will need even more from the Welshman.
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Ridge Mahoney at Soccer America interviews New England forward Taylor Twellman.
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Shawn Mitchell at The Columbus Dispatch with a great feature story on the Crew's new striker Andy Heron, the Costa Rican they acquired from Chicago.
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Houston forward Brian Ching with his first post of the new season on his Houston Chronicle blog.
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Glenn Davis of the Chronicle checks in with the Dynamo as they prepare for their first ever international match on Wednesday.
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Tobias Xavier Lopez at the Fort Worth Star Telegram with the story of young Guatemalan Eddie Santeliz who is trying to make the grade at FC Dallas.
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Our pal DJ Walker at 3rd Degree warms our heart with things he hates, in an offseason edition of Stream Of Consciousness: I Hate It
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Frank Dell'apa at Soccernet implies that the "Beckham Rule" to lure big money players to MLS is already a bust.
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On Friday, winger Ansu Toure, who played for my beloved Minnesota Thunder last season, scored another goal during his trial with the New York Red Bulls. But his team lost 3-1. I also confirmed with the Thunder that he is NOT under contract with them. I really hope Toure comes back here to play this season.
-The Thunder officially announced the re-signing of forward Leo Gibson, and the signing of new defender Derek Smith who played the past two seasons with Cincinnati in the Second Division.
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The USA U23's went to Japan on Friday and will play some friendly's starting on Wednesday. Three players were cut from and another played add to the team before they left. Cut: Chad Barrett - Chicago, Nico Colaluca - Colorado & Will John - Kansas City. Added: Sal Zizzo - UCLA.
-Chivas USA midfielder Sacha Kljestan does an interview prior to departure with the team. Download and listen via podcast.
-Andrea Canales at Soccernet doesn't think this team in Japan will look much like the one that tries to qualify for the Olympics.
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Here is a great and brutal story from Yanks Abroad about young American striker Rodrigo Hidalgo who was on Ireland on trial at Bohemians. He played in a friendly, ended up taking over the goalkeeper spot midway throughout the game when a teammate got hurt, but got creamed by someone on the other team. Hidalgo ended up with a broken nose, a missing tooth and 22 stitches in his mouth. Damn!
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YA also reports that American striker Jemal Johnson of Wolverhampton is heading out on loan to join Leeds and fellow American Eddie Lewis.
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Let's check in with our favorite Americans in Europe and see how their weekend matches went:
-DaMarcus Beasley - Manchester City - dressed but watched from the bench as this team won 1-3 at Preston in the FA Cup.
-Gregg Berhalter - 1860 Munich - did not play due to suspension as his team drew 2-2 at home with Duisburg.
-Carlos Bocanegra - Fulham - sat on the bench and watched his team lose 0-4 to Tottenham in the FA Cup. I have no idea why he didn't start, cuz they sure could have used him. Their team defense was awful.
-Michael Bradley - Heerenveen - came on as a late sub in his teams 1-2 home loss to Twente.
-Steve Cherundolo - Hannover - played the entire match as his team won at Leverkusen 0-1.
-Bobby Convey - Reading - started and went about 70 minutes in the FA Cup. Unfortunately for Bobby his team came to life when his sub Stephen Hunt entered the game. They came back with a late goal and a 1-1 draw. It was not Bobby's fault though. He spent his time on the field tracking and double teaming Man U star Cristiano Ronaldo. And I think he did a really good job of it.
-Jay DeMerit - Watford - went the full 90 as usual in the center of defense and his team got a last minute goal to win 1-0 over Ipswich in the FA Cup.
-Clint Dempsey - Fulham - came on with about 20 minutes left and his team down 1-0. Clint made 2 great crosses into the middle that took amazing saves from the Tottenham netminder to keep the ball out of the net. Unfortunately after the second cross he committed a stupid foul near midfield and Robbie Keane scored his second amazing goal of the game from the free kick. Fulham went on to lose 0-4.
-Brad Friedel - Blackburn - another clean sheet for Friedel, and this was a big one. At Arsenal in the FA Cup his team drew 0-0 and go to a replay back at their own home field next week.
-Marcus Hahnemann - Reading - watched from the bench as his team came back to snag a 1-1 draw at Manchester United in the FA Cup. I am sure he would have loved to play, but he got a well deserved day off.
-Kamani Hill - Wolfsburg - the young striker came on as a late sub and helped his team come back to draw league leaders Schalke 2-2 at home.
-Tim Howard - Everton - his team had the weekend off.
-Kasey Keller - Monchengladbach - in goal as always but lost 1-0 to Dortmund.
-Eddie Lewis - Leeds - played the full 90 but lost to Cardiff City 1-0.
-Brian McBride - Fulham - played for about an hour to no avail as his team lost 0-4 to Tottenham in the FA Cup.
-Oguchi Onyewu - Newcastle - his team had the weekend off.
-Jonathan Spector - West Ham - his team had the weekend off.
-Josh Wolff - 1860 Munich - played the full 90 minutes of a 2-2 home tie with Duisburg.
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CONCACAF Champions Cup first round, first leg matches this week. All games can be seen on Fox Soccer Channel:
-Wed Feb 21
Puntarenas v Houston - live at 1:30pm central
Olimpia v DC United - live at 8pm central
-Thur Feb 22
Pachuca v Marquense - live at 8pm central
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Atlas leads the Mexican Clausura. Here are the league standings after 6 games.
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Luis Bueno at LA Soccer News with his weekly Mexican league wrap up: JORNADA 6 REWIND
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The 2007 Copa Libertadores - the group stage is in full effect. Here are this week's matches:
-Tue Feb 20
Alianza Lima - Necaxa
El Nacional - America
Libertad - Banfield
-Wed Feb 21
Nacional - Internacional
Flamengo - Maracaibo
Parana - Real Potosi
Cienciano - Toluca
-Thur Feb 22
Caracas - LDU Quito
Deportivo Pasto - Santos
Colo Colo - River Plate
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The English FA Cup 5th Round was last weekend, and the winners were: Tottenham, Man City, Chelsea, Watford & Plymouth Argyle.
-The following games ended in draws and will have to be replayed:
Reading v Man U - Feb 27
West Brom v Middlesbrough - Feb 27
Blackburn v Arsenal - Feb 28
-This morning was the draw for the next round, the Quarterfinals, to be played on March 10. Here are those matches:
West Brom-Middlesbrough winner v Reading-Man U winner
Blackburn-Arsenal winner v Man City
Chelsea v Tottenham
Plymouth Argyle v Watford
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Tuesday's Champions League games:
Celtic v Milan
PSV v Arsenal
Lille v Man United
Real Madrid v Bayern Munich
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More excellent prose from Fulham's Moritz Volz. This guy is fantastic in his latest piece for the Times of London: Give me honey and a sticker
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This week's podcast from the EPL Talk weblog is an interview with ESPN's lead Champions League commentator Derek Rae! Excellent. I like his game calls quite a bit.
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Another great podcast is the Football Weekly from the Guardian in England. It's a round table discussion hosted by James Richardson of the weeks games across Europe from a great crew of Guardian writers including everyone's fave "minute by minute" match-tracker Barry Glendenning! Tune in to hear if Barry name checks Vic Mackey, Jimmy McNulty, Jack Bauer, Frank Pembleton, Jane Tennison or some other great TV detective, and uses the word "shit" at some point (he finds a way to include it every week). And in today's episode, Barry wonders if Craig Bellamy brought a caddy to his fight with Liverpeople teammate John Arne Riise.
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One of my all time favorite players, Italian great Roberto Baggio has started his own weblog, and opened it with a note on his 40th birthday. Hooray Baggio. Hooray Buddha. Hooray Birthday. Get busy.
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Craig Waibel's twin brother Iain Dowie has been given the managers job at Coventry City. Beats the hell out of the managers job at a TGI Fridays.
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Ronaldo nabbed a pair of goals for Milan as they stunned Sienna with a goal in the dying seconds of the game to win 4-3. Milan scored early and after that every time they got a goal, Siena answered. There was no time at the end to answer again though.
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Melbourne won the Australian A-League championship blasting Adelaide 6-0!
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The coach of Rosario Central has one of those hilarious 80's style giant fluffy curly mullets. He looks ridiculous. And he sports the Argentine "sexy man" look too, with the jeans, no socks, loafers, untucked dress shirt and sport coat. Oh what a look. He sadly lacks Ricardo LaVolpe's cookie duster mustache though. Don Johnson eat yer heart out.
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FIFA.com has a Q & A with Egypt & Tottenham's talented headcase Ahmed Hossam aka Mido.
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Simon Kuper needed little time to discover the key to the talent of football players in Cameroon. For the Financial Times.
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Phil Ball with his weekly La Liga column at Soccernet looks at the Barca (who lost)-Eto'o (who didn't even travel to the game) situation: Play it again, Sam