Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Coffee Smells Like The Monkey Cage At The Zoo News

You want America to start taking Team USA more seriously? Then the pro clubs should stop scheduling games (preseason friendly's count) on a night when the USA is playing. We have the USA taking on Guatemala tonight in Dallas while at the same time we have MLS clubs New England, Columbus, New York, Houston, and Toronto (do they count?) all playing matches tonight. Couldn't they have played them last night, or tomorrow night instead? Seriously.


US Soccer - friendly v Guatemala - tonight at 8pm central time!
-Team USA will wear the Royal Blue with pinstripes shirts again tonight.
-Andrea Canales at Top Drawer Soccer talks to US Soccer President Sunil Gulati about Bob Bradley's job status. There is nothing new here, but it's a confirmation of what the real plan is for officially naming a head coach.
-Brian Ching is definitely NOT suiting up tonight. He has headed back to the Houston preseason training.
-Heath Pearce has a badly bruised foot and will not play tonight either.
-More interviews from US Soccer - Bob Bradley, Landon Donovan & Kasey Keller. Download or listen via podcast.
-The team blog.
-Jack Bell at the New York Times previews the game and asks again about the "interim" situation.
Tobias Xavier Lopez of the Fort Worth Star Telegram previews the match and focuses on Dallas forward Kenny Cooper.
-Gabriel Cabarrouy of the Dallas Morning News with the preview-Cooper combo too.
-Marc Connolly at the US Players Assoc with a nice story on midfielder Benny Feilhaber who is with the senior USA team for the first time and did very well in the game on Sunday.
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Mia Hamm gave birth to twin daughters on Tuesday. Waddaya think their names are?
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Luis Bueno & Andrea Canales at Sideline Views with an audio link to a 2 part interview they did with Cobi Jones a few weeks ago, talking about Team USA, and especially v Mexico. He really sounds fiery when talking about Rafa Marquez in part 2! Gee I wonder why? This is where those great quotes came from that were in the press.
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If people out there are interested in joining a fantasy league for MLS, some of my Minnesota Thunder fan friends have a Division you can join at MFLS- Minnesota Thunder. Sing up now!
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Soccer America's MLS Confidential is chock full of details on the New York Red Bulls chase for another international striker - this time it's Juan Pablo Angel from Aston Villa! And more news on San Jose re-re-animated.
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Bob Luder of the KC Star says the Kansas City Wizards just want the season to start. Will they be any good this year? They have missed the playoffs 2 years in a row, but their old questionable ownership situation has now been answered.
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The Charleston Post & Courier with a spotlight on Red Bulls midfielder Claudio Reyna. It's cool to see him getting more of the attention he has deserved and not gotten over the past decade.
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The new in-house promo spots that ESPN is going to be showing to pimp MLS are here for the viewing.
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Toronto does Colorado one better - They spell out their name and use their shield in the seat layout on one side of the field, then have a maple leaf on the other side, and their sponsor name on the enclosed end! Maximum coolness. Chicago?
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Tom Dunmore at the The Offside -Chicago Fire blog has an in-depth Q & A with former Chicago GM Peter Wilt. It's not hard to get Peter to talk, especially about his former team. You would swear he still works there. This is good stuff. Thanks Tom.
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It feels like Landon Donovan went out and got himself a press agent or something? 4 publications splash stories about the Golden Boy on the same day. (I bet he is gonna get sick of telling that lame story about how marriage is making him mature. If he ever gets divorced will he used that as another maturity ladder rung.)
-Jonah Freedman at Sport Illustrated.
-Phil Collin at the Daily Breeze.
-Steve Davis at Soccernet.
-Luis Arroyave at the Chicago Tribune.
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The New Orleans Time Picayune with a story on the New Orleans Shell Shockers PDL team who will play a friendly v New England tonight in Baton Rouge.
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FC Dallas is still taking a long hard look at Argentine midfielder Pablo Richetti. Odds are good that he will soon be on their roster. As I have written before, he played last year for Quilmes in Argentina. From MLSnet.
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Salt Lake is chasing after young Cote d'Ivoire defender Jean-Martial Kipre. (I am sorry to say that I can't remember where this came from, and right now I am too lazy to track it down. Plus, I am an amateur.)
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MLS CBW Don Garber was in Portland yesterday taking the cities expansion temperature.
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Your Captain Needs You, the blog that was started to build awareness of a potential Claudio Reyna documentary called The Goal, now has a My Space page.
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A great-stupid video clip from BobbyBowell.com of DC striker Luciano Emilio with his new (stolen) catch phrase - It's In The Net.
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DC played a scrimmage match against Tecos in Mexico last night. Steven Goff of Soccer Insider with details.
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Jeff Bradley's First XI: All-Decade Team. From MLSnet.
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Carolina Challenge Cup
Saturday's scores:
Houston 2-0 Toronto
Charleston 0-1 New York
Tonights matches:
Toronto v New York
Houston v Charleston
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The Sacramento Bee has a little preseason preview of the new California Victory of the USL First Division.
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Robert Zeigler of Top Drawer Soccer has a Q & A with young American striker Gabe Ferrari of Sampdoria.
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CONCACAF friendly matches and scores this week and last:
Thur Mar 22
Jamaica 0-2 Switzerland - Marco Streller & Goekhan Inler with the Swiss goals.
Sat Mar 24
Costa Rica 4-0 New Zealand - Alvaro Saborio with 2 goals, Alonso Solis & Bryan Ruiz with the other 2 for CR.
Panama 0-3 Haiti - goals by Eliphene Cadet, Fecien Brunel & Pierre-Roland Saint-Jean
Guadeloupe 2-2 Trinidad & Tobago - both Guade goals by Xavier Bematol, T & T goals by Christian Baptiste & Andre Toussaint.
Honduras 2-0 El Salvador - both Hondu goals by Carlos Olivia
Sun Mar 25
Bermuda 0-3 Canada - goals by Attiba Huchinson, Tomasz Radzinski & Paul Stalteri.
Mexico 2-1 Paraguay - both Mexi goals by Jared Borgetti, Para goal by Roque Santa Cruz
Barbados 0-0 Guatemala
USA 3-1 Ecuador - 3 USA goals by Landon Donovan, Ecu goal by Felipe Caicedo.
Mon Mar 26
Jamaica 1-1 Panama - Luton Shelton scored for Jamaica & Jose Luis Garces for Panama.
Tue Mar 27
El Salvador 0-2 Honduras - Both goals by Jairo Martinez
Wed Mar 28
Chile v Costa Rica
Mexico v Ecuador
USA v Guatemala
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Grahame Jones of the LA Times took a trek up to Oakland for tonight's Mexico v Ecuador match and talked to Mexicoach Hugo Sanchez.
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FIFA.com with an article on Stuttgart's two Mexican players Ricardo Osorio & Pavel Pardo. (Pardo is a big fave at du Nord.)
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Copa Libertadores - here are the week's matches:
Mar 27
Audax Italiano 1-0 Alianza Lima
Gremio 1-0 Deportes Tolima
-Match reports via Sports Illustrated.
Mar 28
Bolivar - Cienciano
Defensor Sporting - Deportivo Pasto
Internacional - Velez Sarsfield
Mar 29
River Plate - LDU Quito
Colo Colo - Caracas
-With 2 rounds of the group stage still to be played both Santos & Flamengo have already qualified for the knock out stages.
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Marcela Mora y Araujo of the Guardian writes about one of the great underappreciated hero's of Argentine soccer, Mario Kempes.
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Preview: This coming Sunday at the EPL Talk podcast, the interview guest will be du Nord fave writer Simon Kuper! Hooray Beer indeed. Thanks to the Gaffer for doing the interview, I can't wait to hear it.

7 Comments:

Blogger tom.elko said...

"Waddaya think their names are?"

Canned and Deviled?

4:13 PM  
Blogger Arelius said...

Joey Worthen was waived in place of Jean-Martial Kipre at RSL. However, it will take a couple of weeks to finish up the signing.

http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,660206816,00.html

5:49 PM  
Blogger Zach Dundas said...

Those ESPN spots are weak. WEAK.

6:00 PM  
Blogger Kevin-- said...

RE: MLS in PDX.

PGE Park *is* not only the most viable option in the metro area, it's the only one.

It's accessibility is second to none, as is it's atmosphere.

It currently holds 14k"ish," but as been done before, can be expanded to approx. 20K with no problems.

The field at UP is excellent, but only holds around 5k, with no room to expand, and it's not exactly in the middle of anything (it's on the north side of the city).

Other than that, the only stadium even close is in Hillsboro, which is roughly a 20 minute drive west of downtown...and that's without PDX's notorious traffic issues.

That stadium site has space around it, but would also need a massive makeover, as it holds around 5k as well-it was originally intended as a facility for high school football, and other events.

11:49 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Placing an MLS team in either Portland or Seattle and not promoting the existing USL teams would be a huge mistake and an abomination. Considering that, I expect that is exactly what MLS will do if they expand into one or both of those cities. That would be hugely unfair to the soccer fans in those cities.

10:18 AM  
Blogger Kevin-- said...

Ken--

I agree.

When I last lived in PDX (18 mos. ago), the soccer community was sort of split 50/50 on wether they preferred to stay USL or go MLS. The one thing almost everyone saw eye to eye on was that if one goes "up," both (if not Vancouver as well) should.

1:17 PM  
Blogger Allen said...

Expecting the Rapids to fill their new home? Why? KSE's done little previous to now to build the fan base.

11:31 PM  

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