Creepy Baby Talk News

Toronto FC's Carl Robinson talking to the BBC about his new team: "My first worry was what the standard would be like but I've been to the States and Canada on pre-season tours with Sunderland and both times we got thumped by teams below MLS level."


US Soccer prepares for friendly's v Ecuador & Guatemala:
-Bruce Arena will again be a part of the ESPN2 broadcast team for the Ecuador match, but his job as coach of some other team will keep him busy during Wednesday's Guatemala game.
-The US Players Assoc has a Q & A with Frank Simek who is attending his first ever Team USA camp.
-Official interview with West Ham defender Jonathan Spector that you can listen to on line or download via podcast.
-Quote sheets of both Bob Bradley & Oguchi Onyewu from yesterdays press conference.
-The team blog.
-I noticed this on the blog - "Clint Dempsey, Landon Donovan and Kasey Keller are talking EPL shop". How much would you pay to hear that conversation???
-Ronald Blum of the Associated Press talks to Kasey Keller about the No. 1 shirt. (I also see where the answer to that brilliant question about Pablo Mastroeni's health that was asked during Bob Bradley's press conference yesterday made it into this story!)
-Ryan Boyd of the Bradenton Herald writes about Keller too. Another "old guy" story. Why are these people so unoriginal.
-Bill Ward of the Tampa Tribune with the Jay DeMerit story. You know the story. But most people in Tampa probably don't.
-Andrea Canales at Soccer365 says US soccer is looking for genuine home team support.
-Here is the Ecuador roster:
G:
Rorys Aragon - Standard Liege
Geovanny Camacho - Barcelona (of Ecuador)
D:
Oscar Bagui - Olmedo
Segundo Castillo - Red Star Belgrade
Ulises De La Cruz - Reading
Giovanny Espinoza - Vitesse
Jorge Guagua - Colon
Ivan Hurtado - Nacional
Neicer Reasco - Sao Paulo
M:
Luis Caicedo - Olmedo
Edison Mendez - PSV
Luis Saritama - America
Edder Vaca - LDU Quito
Luis Valencia - Wigan
F:
Felix Borja - Olympiakos
Felipe Caicedo - Basel
Carlos Tenorio - Al-Saad
Edmundo Zura - Imbabura
-A special note from that US Soccer blog: A first-hand account of this morning’s journey to and from breakfast as written by the driver, Mr. Jimmy Conrad: My alarm went off...again…so I put on my clothes, grabbed the keys, and headed to the parking lot. My 12-passenger maroon van with tinted windows loaded up and off to breakfast we went. I sped through the short cut, a back alley behind a grocery store, and Catfish Carl, T-bag, and Sven dared me to tag a helpless shopping cart with our big-ass bumper. When I swerved towards the target and barely missed, I got met with a number of expletives that indicated I am quite the coward. But what do they know? Sniff, sniff. I’ll show them.
On our way back from the land of eggs, bacon, and orange juice I was determined to prove that I wasn’t scared. So I put aside reason and common sense to make sure that the shopping cart was going down! We came around the corner and I stepped on the gas to let my passengers know I was serious. The blue plastic square with wheels came into sight and I lined up my plan of attack. As the van got close, some ducks waddled in front of my peer-pressured goal, but I was in it to win it so I continued my rate of speed. I was within striking distance and from the back of the van I heard the Catfish, T-bag, and Sven yell, “Watch out for the ducks! Please don’t hurt them!”
I jerked the steering wheel, averted the threat to avian lives, turned around, smiled, and said in an effeminate voice, “Watch out for the ducks!”
What a bunch of $%@!?# …
-OK, so from the previous story, Jimmy Conrad gives nicknames to three of his USA teammates - Catfish, T-bag, and Sven. Who do you think those three really are?
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Oh yeah, its a great day when you read The DCenters and their first story is about a brand new blog called Ben Olsen's Beard - absolutely brilliant! Thanks for this great named blog.
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Great picture of Dicks Sporting Goods Park with the lights on, and the "lettering" seats in place. AWESOME!
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Michael Lewis at Big Apple Soccer with an article on New York's desperate search for goal scorers. It's a great article with some juicy rumors, including Alecko Eskandarian asking Toronto to trade him.
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Lewis also reports on our former Thunder striker Ansu Toure - it looks like it will go down to the wire for him and his chances of making the New York squad. I would like to believe that Lewis is reporting this story just for us Thunder faithful.
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And thirdly Lewis attended the Red Bulls "Media Day" and comes back with even more little tidbits that us diehards love to lap up like "sweet creamery butter". Thank you Michael!
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Frank Giase of the Newark Star Ledger looks at New York's young star striker Jozy Altidore.
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Metrofanatic was present at Red Bulls Media Day and got no less than 11 player interviews! This one link will take you to a page linking them all. The players are: Claudio Reyna, Ronald Waterreus, Jeff Parke, Seth Stammler, Jozy Altidore, Jerrod Laventure, Dema Kovalenko, Marvell Wynne, Joe Vide, John Wolyniec & Tim Regan. Now that is what we like to see! 11 is also the number of time zones in the old Soviet Republic.
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Ives Galarcep previews the 07 Red Bulls for Soccernet.
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The Dallas Morning News tries to figure out the FDC starting line up. It looks like a work in progress, which is sad for a team that fired their coach last fall and then had the team GM Hitchcock make the statement that they were only a few minor tweaks away from being a top notch team. I guess major senior player removal is part of minor moves.
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The Sun Chronicle paper of Massachusetts with a story on New England's two young & talented but totally inexperienced strikers Adam Cristman and Chris Loftus.
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Chivas USA general manager Whit Haskel has resigned. Phil Collin of the Daily Breeze says Haskell is "starting a consulting firm for sports entertainment properties in the Hispanic market".
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Looks like young defender Hunter Freeman is being shipped by Colorado to the Red Bulls. No word on compensation yet.
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Dean McNulty at the Toronto Sun checks in with TFC coach Mo Johnston and asks how the team building is coming along.
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Toronto has released goalkeeper Jon Busch. He will now get a shot to catch on with Chicago.
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Andrew Hush of Soccer New England talks to Rev's keeper Matt Reis, and then goes over the teams injuries with coach Steve Nicol. No Shalrie talk though.
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I know you all will find this hard to believe, but Eric Wynalda and Alexi Lalas had things to say about Cobi Jones's retirement announcement. From Andrea Canales at LA Soccer News.
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On top of the rumor that Josh Gardner has been cut loose from Los Angeles (which the team has denied, but not really denied), there is another rumor that Alan Gordon was shown the door as well.
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Tino Palace's The Clean Sheet: Around The World. For this edition of the column, Tino was paid with a signed double LP of the Best of Oasis. Liam wrote, "Piss off you fookin toss pot" as his message. He always was the more foul mouthed of the Gallagher brothers, and this way you know the signature is authentic. Honestly, what else would you expect him to write? He is Liam Fuckin Gallagher - Man City fan.
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ESPN claims that all of their MLS games will be shown in hi-def.
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Kevin McGeehan at the US Players Assoc gives his thoughts on Fort Lauderdale's Lockhart Stadium which is scheduled to be torn down later this year. (The old place has a lot of sentimental value to some, and not so much to others.)
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The now annual Carolina Challenge Cup is happening this weekend. It pits the local Charleston Battery of the First Division against 3 MLS opponents. This year's participants are Houston, Toronto & New York. If you live near there, and you are not attending the matches, then you are a total loser. Reader Eric says: "My wife & I live a couple of hours away in Columbia but we always make it down for this preseason tournament. The Battery's stadium is one of the best in the country and the Three Lions pub above the stands has an unbelievable collection of football memorabilia."
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The Virginia Beach Mariners of the First Division have never set the league on fire before, and there is even less chance of them doing it now…. With the start of the season only a month away, the owner Mike Sidebottom shockingly pulled his financial backing out of the club yesterday, leaving all the players and staff stunned about what to do. The team had also recently hired former Dallas manager Colin Clarke to run the squad. Sidebottom only bought the team in mid-November. From the Virginia Pilot.
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The Trinidad & Tobago government has stepped in to fund the national soccer teams. But now it turns out that none of the players from last summers World Cup were paid their bonuses. Oh that loveable Jack Warner, good thing nothing controversial ever happens around him.
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CONCACAF Friendly's this weekend and next midweek:
Sat Mar 24
Costa Rica v New Zealand
Panama v Haiti
Guadeloupe v Trinidad & Tobago
Honduras v El Salvador
Sun Mar 25
Bermuda v Canada
Mexico v Paraguay
Barbados v Guatemala
USA v Ecuador
Mon Mar 26
Jamaica v Panama
Tue Mar 27
El Salvador v Honduras
Wed Mar 28
Chile v Costa Rica
Mexico v Ecuador
USA v Guatemala
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Copa Libertadores - here are the week's matches:
Mar 20
Cerro Porteno 2-1 Cucuta Deportivo
Real Potosi 2-2 Maracaibo
Caracas 0-4 Colo Colo
Mar 21
Flamengo 1-0 Parana
Banfield 3-1 America
Necaxa 1-1 Sao Paulo
-Match reports via Sports Illustrated.
Mar 22
Libertad - El Nacional
Boca Juniors - Toluca
Gimnasia - Santos
Emelec - Nacional
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The draw was held for the Spain Copa del Rey semifinals. Here ya go:
April 18 - first leg
Barcelona v Getafe
Sevilla v Deportivo La Coruna
May 9 - second leg
Deportivo La Coruna v Sevilla
Getafe v Barcelona
-Final will be played on June 23
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Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune previews the Euro 08 qualifiers slated for the next 7 days.
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And Simon Kuper at the Financial Times looks at how many people will be watching those qualifiers on TV.
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There are lots of African Nations Cup qualifiers being played over the next week. Here are the games schedules and group standings.
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You ever hear of an elite athlete missing a drug test, and then later blaming everyone else. Well after the last Champions League round Bayern keeper Oliver Kahn was picked at random to pee. Two hours later he still couldn't get a trickle going so he threw a hissy fit about the timing, saying he had just emptied his bladder before they told him he need to drop his drawers. The story goes that he went absolutely nuts on the doctor doing the test. A couple weeks later he apologizes. Why? Cuz UEFA was deciding whether or not to punish him. I guess he figured the apology would get him off the hook. No dice! UEFA has suspended him for 1 game, which will be v Milan. Silly boy.
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Tottenham are claiming Paul Robinson's goal last weekend v Watford was from 95 yards! Unbelievable. Actually, I don't believe it was that far out. Well I guess it could have been. What the hell do I know. Hopefully they used a laser for accuracy.
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Jonah Freedman at Sports Illustrated with the new World Soccer Power Rankings.
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Boca Juniors beat Gimnasia La Plata on Sunday, and my man Martin Palermo scored 4 times!