There Goes Tokyo News

Potential MLS team owners in Las Vegas are quite serious! And Paul Caligiuri is the man making it go. Fantastic! From the Las Vegas Sun.


To give us all a better idea of what goes on in a training session with Team USA, US Soccer has broken the whole deal down for us to read, step by step.
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Some good photos from the last couple of days at practice too.
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US Soccer has video interviews with the American players who were just involved in English Premiership relegation battles.
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Andrea Canales at LA Soccer News talks to USA & LA Galaxy forward Landon Donovan about the Gold Cup & Copa America Rosters. Coach Bob Bradley has said that he expects Donovan to be on both squads. Donovan has stated previously that he does not want to play in Copa America, he wants to help the Galaxy win. Is there a showdown coming soon? In the immortal words of Cosmo Kramer, "God help us, Jerry."
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Canales also talks to Benny Feilhaber about the USA team, and playing for Hamburg in Germany.
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Jeff Carlisle of Soccernet examines the USA roster for the China match.
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The official Team USA blog.
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My shallowest and most insincere apologies to all DC United fans who were offended yesterday when I did not include your team on the list of MLS teams not losing any players to the Gold Cup. I'm unsorry. (especially you Zach)
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Ives Galarcep on his Soccer By Ives blog with an interesting Youri Djorkaeff rumor.
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Ives was also at Red Bull practice today, and has some injury updates and possible line ups for Saturday.
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Luis Bueno of LA Soccer News talks to Galaxy coach Frank Yallop who hints strongly that offensive help is on the way come the June 15 transfer window opening. And Luis uses the word "primordial" in the article. Excellent word!
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I gotta share this with you, but first I have to say that it's stolen from the Galaxy page at The Offside blog. Landon Donovan answered 10 questions for Dan Le Batard on his radio show the other day. Hilarious. Download or listen here.
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The Dallas Morning News says defender Adrian Serioux has begun training with FCD after recovering from knee surgery.
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Jeff Cunningham is now wearing #93 in Toronto. The number of MLS goals he has scored.
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Speaking of Cunningham, in an article in the Toronto Globe & Mail, he said, "I tend to not concentrate the whole 90 minutes." And you wonder why you can't get a gig with Team USA, teams keep trading you, and you whine about it all the time? Be a pro, moron! Concentrate. You have the skills, now shut up and do something about it. Damn. He is one frustrating player.
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I don't really know what to do with this one, but here goes. The Kansas City Star with an article on 4 KC players who are taking Salsa dancing lessons, and will be performing in public this weekend. And..... I don't know what else I can add. Some pictures are included, but they don't look like salsa or dancing to me.
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MLS's internet video talk show, Extra Time, has been on the web for a few weeks now, but I honestly can't figure out if it's worth watching. Hosted by Greg Lalas & Shep Messing. Check it out now.
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The Tacoma (Washington) News Tribune with a story on MLS expansion to Seattle or Portland.
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Long time MLS defender Steve Jolley has signed to play with the Long Island Rough Riders in the PDL.
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From the great folks who bring us the "EPL Talk" podcast comes the brand new "MLS Talk" podcast. Download or listen here.
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American forward Kamani Hill at Wolfsburg has a new coach, and it's Felix Magath, who was fired last winter from Bayern Munich.
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Glenn Davis of the Houston Chronicle looks at the Mexican team that will open the Gold Cup in Houston.
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Canada goes to play at Venezuela this weekend to warm up for the Gold Cup. Seems like a long way to go for a quickie. Couldn't they get Venez to come north seeing as the Gold Cup is up here next week.
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Copa Libertadores - Semifinals scores and matches:
Wed May 30
Gremio 2-0 Santos - goals by Tcheco (PK) & Carlos Eduardo.
-Match report via Sports Illustrated.
Thur May 31
Cucuta v Boca Juniors
Wed June 6
Santos v Gremio (0-2)
Thur June 7
Boca Juniors v Cucuta
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The new World Power Rankings by Jonah Freedman at Sports Illustrated.
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Manchester United have signed two young and very exciting prospects. This makes me a lot more excited than guys like Michael Carrick and Owen Hargreaves. Left midfielder Nani from Sporting, and attacking midfielder Anderson from Porto. Both are pretty raw but I have seen them do some amazing things too. We can only hope they progress and light up England.
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The excellent Fernando Duarte of the Guardian writes about the young Brazilian Anderson.
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And yes, Man U also made their acquisition of Owen Hargreaves from Bayern Munich official.
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Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune looks at the new FIFA policy banning games at high altitude, and other political situations in the worlds game.

Hippy Dippy Doo News

For whatever reason there is no Thursday night MLS game on ESPN2 this week. I guess the league thought it would be better to put three games on Saturday night up against the USA game v China. Smart people we got in charge of US Soccer isn't it. It's hard enough to get people to watch, so we might as well compete with ourselves. Luckily the league is back on ESPN2 next week to compete directly with the USA Gold Cup game on FSC. Brilliant people in charge. Absolutely brilliant!

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Steven Goff is reporting via his blog Soccer Insider that Kasey Keller and Real Salt Lake are once again negotiating a possible contract.


Here are some more fairly important notes from Bob Bradley's Gold Cup roster announcement press conference that I have not seen in (m)any other places:
-Neither Kasey Keller or Tim Howard will play in Copa America.
-Steve Cherundolo, Bobby Convey & Cory Gibbs are all out for Copa America to rehab injuries.
-Pablo Mastroeni still has to serve a suspension for 2 more games stemming from the World Cup game v Italy. Those will be served the first 2 games of the Gold Cup.
-The Copa America roster must be set by June 21.
-We could see Clint Dempsey at forward.
-About a dozen players from the Gold Cup roster will be on the Copa America roster.
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Watch it: USA v China -Sat June 2 - live at 7pm on ESPN2 from San Jose CA
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LA Soccer News has a great Q & A with Kasey Keller about today & tomorrow.
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Andrea Canales at LASN also has an article on Jesse Marsch who is looking for just his 2nd USA cap. Very cool for him.
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Top Drawer Soccer has a Q & A with USA & Heerenveen midfielder Michael Bradley.
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US Soccer has an audio interview with youngster Kamani Hill of Wolfsburg who will suit up for the USA this weekend v China. Download or listen here.
-Then they have an audio interview with old friends Sacha Kljestan of Chivas USA & Benny Feilhaber of Hamburg. Download or listen here.
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Here is the official Team USA blog. Some really interesting stuff today too. Seriously.
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The USA U20’s will play Chile on June 23 in their final tuneup before the U20 World Cup in Canada. Chile is also in the tournament. The game will be played at Giants Stadium, as part of a double header with the USA Women who take on Brazil.
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du Nord MLS Player Of The Week - Eddie Johnson - Kansas City Wizards
-After the first game of the weekend it looked like NYRB's Juan Pablo Angel had the dNPOTW all sewn up. 2 very cool goals and an assist in a 3-0 win made him look nearly untoppbale. Then along came Saturday. New England launched themselves into a 2-0 home lead after just 20 some minutes and were cruising. But since new coach Curt Onalfo came to Kansas City the team has made one very big change. They are on the attack! All the time! And it really is a huge change from the dull Bob Gansler days. Especially for a striker like Eddie Johnson. Like any good striker EJ relies on others to get the ball to him. And boy oh boy do his teammates like to get the ball to him. Three great chances in this game, and three great goals. Top that! Eddie was smooth, dangerous and deadly. What a performance. And on top of that they need all 3 to win 3-4 on the road.
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My MLS game notes from last weekend:
NE v KC
-Kansas City played without 3 starting defenders - Jimmy Conrad, Nick Garcia & Jose Burciaga. First year player Aaron Hohlbein started in the center with second year player Tyson Wahl, while first year left midfielder Michael Harrington dropped into the left back slot.
-KC rookie Kurt Morsink also started in the center of the midfield.
-New England has not beaten KC at home since 1999.
-Bolivia and Ireland played to a 1-1 draw prior to this game on the same field, which held up nicely.
-KC keeper Kevin Hartman was playing in his 251st MLS game, the most by any keeper in league history.
-NE got goals in the 11th & 23rd minutes from Steve Ralston & Taylor Twellman to make the KC back line look shaky at best.
-KC stormed back with goals in the 25th, 26th & 37th minutes to take the lead.
-KC striker Eddie Johnson ripped the NE back line to shreds, and his teammates made excellent passes to him from all over the field.
-NE defender Jay Heaps was beaten badly by Davy Arnaud for the first tally, and Johnson on the third.
-During the third KC goal, the NE TV production team was busy showing us viewers a cliche filled interview with NE's Ralston and missed the goal. What are they doing? Idiots!
-NE turned it up a notch or two to start the second half as subs Wells Thompson and Adam Cristman helped with the energy.
-Argentine midfielder Carlos Marinelli returned to the field for KC after a couple weeks out with a hamstring injury.
-Shalrie Joseph tied the game for NE with a PK after Jack Jewsbury was called for a handball in the box.
-Marinelli threaded a perfect pass to EJ for the game winner. Marinelli is really good!
-NE did everything they could to tie it up late including a huge shot from Twellman that forced an amazing save from Hartman in the 85th, but to no avail. NE could have made better choices with their passing and shots.
COLO v LA
-The game was sold out!
-Very dull game early on. Especially LA, who just looked flat.
-Terry Cooke was clearly on his game for Colo. His crosses were dangerous all night long.
-LA's Kyle Martino laid a very hard tackle from behind on Colo's Herculez Gomez and got red carded for his effort. Herculez got a yellow card for kicking back when they were both on the ground. I didn't think Martino deserved red personally, yellow OK, but not red.
-Herculez had 2 open headers on goal go high and wide.
-The red added 1 minute to first half stoppage time, but the red card alone took almost exactly 2 minutes to clear up. I timed it. Poor job by the ref.
-Cobi Jones subbed in to start the second half for LA. He replaced Santino Quaranta who was about as useful in the first half as a porcelain garden Buddha.
-Somehow with LA down to 10 men, the second half started even duller than the first.
-Colo finally broke through, and Herc finally put a header on target for the goal.
-LA made another sub bringing in Robbie Findley and started to come to life.
-Colo's Pablo Mastroeni got his requisite yellow card, for bringing down LA's Landon Donovan. It was actually a smart move by Pablo as Landy was about to break open a 1 v 4. Yes, Donovan v 4 Colo defenders (not even counting the keeper) and he almost beat them.
-LA really turned on the pressure, even with a man down. Why didn't they do that from the start of the game.
-Colo keeper Bouna Coundoul then stepped up to make several great saves on LA's very good shots.
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Steven Goff at the Washington Post with an article on the continued success, at multiple levels, for DC United forward Jaime Moreno.
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Dan Stienberg at the DC Sports Bog checks in with new Salt Lake striker Alecko Eskandarian, minutes after his plane lands in his new home town. OK, hours after.
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Tobias Xaiver Lopez of the Fort Worth Star Telegram with an article on Dallas's Colombian midfield marvel & hair farmer, Juan Toja!! (I missed this one from last weekend, but any story about Toja is a good one in my book.)
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Luis Arroyave of the Chicago Tribune on the arrival of Marcelo Salas in Chicago for a try out with the Fire.
-Arroyave has more quotes on Salas and other topics on his Red Card blog.
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Chris Gbandi of Dallas headed to Liberia this week to play for his country in their African Nations Cup qualifier against Samuel Eto'o and Cameroon on Friday.
-The Liberian Soccer website talks to Gbandi about the match.
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The US Soccer Players Assoc has a Q & A with Houston midfielder Brad Davis.
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Real Salt Lake has signed veteran defender Richie Kotschau. He was last with Columbus. He will not help.
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MLS is hooking up with YouTube.
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The San Jose Mercury News with an article on a new proposal to build a stadium in San Jose that is about to be officially discussed by city government.
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With MLS teams having played vastly different amounts of games so far (Dallas 10, LA 6) a straight table might not be the best way to tell who is doing well and poor. So how about a points per game average? Let's see what that table looks like:
2.125 NY
2.000 KC
1.889 NE
1.667 COLO
1.600 FCD
1.429 DCU
1.375 CUSA
1.222 CHIC
1.000 COLU
0.875 HOU
0.875 TFC
0.833 LA
0.625 RSL
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Ryan Hunt at Sports Illustrated with this weeks MLS news, notes and team rankings - Free Kicks.
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Grahame Jones of the LA Times with his weekly soccer news roundup - Corner Kicks.
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And LA Times readers send soccer questions to Jones and he does his best to answer.
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Jesse Erdmann at Blue Sky Soccer with this weeks USL First Division Power Rankings.
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The US Open Cup first round games are all set to start June 12. You can see them all here.
-My Minnesota Thunder take on El Paso Indios USA of the USASA league in St Paul at The Jimmy. The winner of that game will take on the winner of California Victory v BYU Cougars. Home teams for the second round have not been announced yet.
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Mark Zeigler of the San Diego Union Tribune writes about the tiny French island nation of Guadaloupe that will be playing in the CONCACAF Gold Cup. The French have typically raided the island for players. Who has come from there you ask? How about this quadrant - Louis Saha, Mikael Sylvestre, William Gallas & Sylvian Wiltord.
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Soccer America has a list of the 22 MLS players who are on Gold Cup rosters across the CONCACAF universe. It's very interesting that the top team in the league, New York, and the worst team in the league, Salt Lake, are the only two teams not losing any players to the tournament.
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Paul Kennedy at Soccer America takes a look at the squad Trinidad & Tobago is sending to the Copa Oro. It is weak to say the least. Why? Remember last winter when the team was suspended for a while due to a lack of funds? Well, it turns out that their World Cup roster players have still not been paid their earned bonus's so those players are not on this team. That is a huge bummer. Sometimes the small guys greatest challenge is the after effects of success. I have an idea for T & T though. Maybe Jack Warner's son can pay the bonus's out of his illegal profits from selling black market World Cup tickets.
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Rumor says that former Argentine coach Jose Pekerman is being hired at Toluca in Mexico.
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Copa Libertadores - Semifinals scores and matches:
Wed May 30
Gremio v Santos
Thur May 31
Cucuta v Boca Juniors
Wed June 6
Santos v Gremio
Thur June 7
Boca Juniors v Cucuta
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Wales Euro 08 qualifier against the Czech's on Saturday will be the last international for Ryan Giggs. He is calling it a day for his country.
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Luca Toni, the big Italian striker who scored a ton of goals for Fiorentina over the past couple of years has officially signed a deal to play for Bayern Munich next season.
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Jack Bell of the New York Times with a story on young Israeli & Chelsea phenom striker Ben Sahar.
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Alain Perrin is the new coach for Lyon, not Didier Deschamps as many expected.
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The Chicago Tribune has reported that the "Chicago Trophy tournament" will take place at Soldier Field this summer, July 27-29. The four teams will be Parma, Toluca, Cracovia Krakow & Sevilla. That sounds very cool. I wish it was at Toyota Park though. A lot more intimate and friendly. And isn't that why they built the place?
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Don Cuddy at Soccer 365 says that New Englanders did not turn out to see Ireland play last weekend as expected, and the Irish team did those who showed up no favors by playing a flat game.
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The excellent writer Alex Bellos looks at coach Dunga's current Brazil squad. From the Guardian. And check out Bellos's great book, Futebol, Soccer The Brazilian Way.
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Moritz Volz of Fulham is in Florida on a little get away and checks in on his diary.

Copa Minnesota Tickets In Special Section

Drop me a line if you want info on tickets in a special supporters section:
dunordfutbol at gmail dot com

Copa Minnesota
Los Angeles Galaxy v Opponent TBD
Wednesday October 10
Minneapolis
Metrodome

I Belong To Jack Sparrow News

MLS players will NOT play for the USA this weekend v China, except those from Chivas USA who have the weekend off from league action. The Euro line up will be augmented with other Euro based Americans not on the Gold Cup roster.
-Andrea Canales at LA Soccer News says Lee Nguyen & Kamani Hill are two of the young foreign based Americans brought in to face China. Hill is at Wolfsburg & Nguyen is at PSV. -The other 4 are Charlie Davies of Hammarby, and 3 Chivas USA players - Sacha Kljestan, Jesse Marsch & Ante Razov. (see the full roster below)

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The USA announced two European friendly's for October, but to say the games are underwhelming is an understatement. They play the non-country of Catalonia in Barcelona on Oct 14, and the neutral-country of Switzerland on October 17. I guess the Faroe Islands, Gibraltar, Liechtenstein & Maldives were sadly all booked. Yes, yes, yes I know Switzerland are rated above our team, but come on!

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Luis Arroyave of the Chicago Tribune on his Red Card blog reports that Chilean legend Marcelo Salas will be in Chicago training with the Fire this week. Could he sign with them?? They need the experience. But I am afraid he is past he "Sell By" date. He was released from his previous club Universidad in Chile back in December. It's not a good sign when your old club in your native country cuts you.


MLS scores from this past weekend:
-New England 3-4 Kansas City - NE goals by Steve Ralston, Taylor Twellman & Shalrie Joseph. KC goals by Davy Arnaud & 3 from Eddie Johnson.
Match report by Frank Dell'apa of the Boston Globe.
Match report from the Boston Herald.
Match report from the Kansas City Star.
Post-game story from Frank Dell'apa of the Boston Globe on the KC offense, and NE defense.
-Columbus 2-2 Toronto - Both Colu goals by Andy Herron. Tor goals by Danny Dichio & Jim Brennan.
Match report by Shawn Mitchell of the Columbus Dispatch.
-DC 2-1 Houston - DC goals by Christian Gomez & Ben Olsen. Hou goal by Dwayne De Rosario
Match report by Steven Goff of the Washington Post.
Match report by John Haydon of the Washington Times.
Match report from the Houston Chronicle.
Post-game notes and quotes from Steven Goff at the Soccer Insider blog.
-Colorado 1-0 Los Angeles - goal by Herculez Gomez.
Match report by Mike Chambers of the Denver Post.
Post-game notes from George Tanner at FC Rocky from the Rocky Mountain News.
-Chivas 2-0 Dallas - goals by Maykel Galindo & Ante Razov.
Match report by Grahame Jones of the LA Times.
Match report from the LA Daily News.
Match report by Joel Aceves of Los Angeles Soccer News
-Chicago 0-0 Salt Lake
Match report by Luis Arroyave of the Chicago Tribune.
Match report by Lacy Banks of the Chicago Sun Times.
Match report from Chicago's Daily Southtown.
Match report from the Deseret Morning News.
Match report from the Salt Lake Tribune.
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du Nord's MLS Coaching Hot Seat - I think it's causing some pretty bad blisters thsi week:
1. Dave Sarachan - Chicago
2. Frank Yallop - LA
3. Sigi Schmid - Columbus
4. Dominic Kinnear - Houston
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Not sure if this is a another hater converted, or just convinced, but we will take it any way it happens. A columnist from the Denver Post raves about the Big Dick. Excellent. (thanks to Luke for sending me this)
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Andy Herron of Columbus injured his quad muscle in the match v Toronto and was subbed out in the 38th minute, after scoring his two goals. He was also yellow carded for taking his shirt off.
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David Beckham has been called in to the England squad this week for the Euro qualifiers v Estonia on June 6, and the friendly v Brazil on June 1.
-So what does this mean for his games with the Los Angeles Galaxy should he be successful with England this week? Lot of scheduling chaos, headaches and broken promises for three. But that is the deal, and I say good. LA has put all their eggs in one basket while at the same time declaring they have not. We can see through that one can't we? From Soccernet. (thanks to BQ for the story link)
-Sid Lowe of the Guardian calls Beckham's journey to MLS "semi-retirement". Thanks Sid, glad you have checked things out before opening your mouth. Not that I am so deluded that I think MLS is top flight, but its a lot better than people like Lowe think it is. Shame on him. That is not how a journalist acts. Or is it?
-Also from LA, Billy Witz of the Daily Breeze looks at the impact of Beckham's recall to England.
-Grant Wahl of Sport Illustrated goes to Madrid to look first hand at the Beckham led resurgence of Real Madrid.
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Mexican legend Ramon Ramirez officially retired from Chivas USA on Saturday. He has missed the last season and a half with a knee injury.
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The Chicago Tribune with a feature story anticipating the arrival in their city of Temoc Blanco.
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Chicago's Daily Southtown with an article on the Fire's French forward Pascal Bedrossian.
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The Salt Lake Tribune talks to new RSL forward Alecko Eskandarian who is feeling some pressure trying to replace Jeff Cunningham in the lineup.
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Steve Goff at the Washington Post with an article on DC United player Marc Burch who is making the transition from offense to defense.
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New England had won a couple of games recently without playing very well, but it caught up to them this past weekend when KC stunned them by coming from behind by 2 goals to win. The Boston Herald looks at what the Rev's need to do to get it going in the right direction.
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Pete Gratoff of the Kansas City Star with a story on some of the very lowest paid KC Wizards players.
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The Toronto Sun looks at TFC's new forward pairing of Danny Dichio and Jeff Cunningham. I am gonna call em "Mutt & Jeff".
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Ives Galarcep of the North Jersey Herald News writes about local Jersey boy Chris Karcz and his chances of sticking with the New York Red Bulls.
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Bernardo Fallas of the Houston Chronicle says the Dynamo now must look deep to find answers after a horrible start to this season.
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Fallas also looks at the revived careers of Blanco & Beckham as they get closer to playing in MLS.
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Jeff Bradley at MLSnet with his First XI: It Only Takes One
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Steve Davis Soccernet wraps up the weekends MLS action.
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Soccernet's MLS Power Rankings.
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Marc Connolly & Ian Plenderleith of the US Soccer Players Assoc discuss the past weekend's MLS action and latest news.
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Frank Dell'apa at Soccernet watches Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait, then begs MLS to go sign him. Are their any soccer writers who have not written about MLS needing Zidane left?
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Don't forget: Sat Jun 2 - USA v China - live at 7pm on ESPN2 from San Jose CA
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US Soccer with video from the first day of this training camp.
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Greg Lalas at Sports Illustrated with his look at the USA hiring of Bob Bradley. And Lalas digs out a gem of a fact: No team has ever won a World Cup with a foreign coach!
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The USA roster to meet China:
G:
Brad Guzan - Chivas USA
Tim Howard - Everton
Kasey Keller
D:
Carlos Bocanegra - Fulham
Jonathan Bornstein - Chivas USA\
Jay DeMerit - Watford
Oguchi Onyewu - Standard Liege
Frank Simek - Sheffield Wednesday
Jonathan Spector - West Ham
M:
DaMarcus Beasley - PSV
Michael Bradley - Heerenveen
Clint Dempsey - Fulham
Benny Feilhaber - Hamburg
Sacha Kljestan - Chivas USA
Jesse Marsch - Chivas
Lee Nguyen - PSV
F:
Charlie Davies - Hammarby
Kamani Hill - Wolfsburg
Ante Razov - Chivas USA
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And the China roster to meet the USA:
G:
Zong Lei (Changchun)
Yang Jun (Tianjin)
D:
Xu Yunlong (Beijing)
Zhang Shuai (Beijing)
Zhang Baofeng (Changchun)
Chen Dong (Dalian)
Zhai Yanpeng (Dalian)
Zhang Yaokun (Dalian)
Ji Mingyi (Dalian)
Xin Feng (Shenzhen)
Sun Xiang (no team)
M:
Wang Dong (Changchun)
Du Zhenyu (Changchun)
Zhao Xuri (Dalian)
Cao Yang (Tianjin)
Hao Junmin (Tianjin)
Zheng Bin (Wuhan)
Shao Jiayi (Energie Cottbus)
Li Tie (no team)
F:
Du Wenhui (Beijing)
Wang Peng (Dalian)
Qu Bo (Qingdao)
Dong Fangzhuo (Manchester United)
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Grahame Jones of the LA Times with an article on Chivas USA keeper Brad Guzan who is going to be a part of the USA Gold Cup squad.
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Frank Giase of the Newark Star Ledger examines USA coach Bob Bradley's relationship with his son Michael who has been named to the Gold Cup roster. Is it nepotism? Some are saying YES quite loudly. I think they are fools cuz the kid has the goods and has already shown it plenty.
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Fox Soccer Channel will have a USA Gold Cup preview showing coming up. Details when they emerge.
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Steven Goff of the Washington Post on his Soccer Insider blog has info, but no real details, on US Soccer's new plan to increase the quality of youth soccer at the highest levels in America. The two biggest ideas are extending the US Soccer academy to younger players, and creating a national youth league.
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USA U20's with 2 friendly's v Canada:
-June 3 in Ottawa
-June 6 in Kingston Ontario
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A couple of nice rumors for Americans in Europe:
-Frank Simek going from Sheffield Wednesday to Everton
-DaMarcus Beasley going from PSV to Rangers.
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USL First Division scores from this past weekend:
Montreal 1-0 Miami
Portland 2-0 California
Vancouver 0-1 Carolina
Charleston 2-0 Atlanta
Minnesota 1-2 Puerto Rico
California 1-2 Seattle
Rochester 2-0 Miami
Portland 0-0 Carolina
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Vancouver had their 16 game unbeaten streak ended by unheralded newcomers Carolina, at home even! Wow!
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My Thunder started their match strong Saturday, but fell apart after taking a 1-0 lead only to lose in the dying minutes 1-2. I would call the effort piss poor. Sad. I really have hopes that this thing gets on track.
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USL 1D Standings:
17 Vancouver
14 Montreal
13 Carolina
12 Rochester
12 Seattle
11 Portland
11 Atlanta
9 Miami
9 Puerto Rico
8 Charleston
5 Minnesota
1 California
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Mexican Clausura Final - Pachuca are the Champions!
-Pachuca beat America 3-2 on aggregate.
-All 5 goals in the final series were scored by 2 players: Juan Carlos Cacho (3) for los Tuzos, and Cuauhtemoc Blanco (2) for los Aguilas.
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Luis Bueno at the Press Enterprise raves about the Champs, Pachuuuuuca! Los Grandes Tuzos!
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Canada's roster for the Gold Cup:
G:
Greg Sutton (Toronto FC)
Joshua Wagenaar (ADO Den Haag)
D:
Adam Braz (Toronto FC)
Marco Reda (Toronto FC)
Andrew Hainault (FK Siad Most)
Gabriel Gervais (Montreal Impact)
Paul Stalteri (Tottenham Hotspur)
M:
Ante Jazic (Los Angeles Galaxy)
Richard Hastings (Inverness CT)
Atiba Hutchinson (FC Kobenhavn)
Patrice Bernier (Tromso I.L.)
Martin Nash (Vancouver Whitecaps)
Julian de Guzman (Deportivo La Coruna)
Kevin Harmse (Los Angeles Galaxy)
Issey Nakajima-Farran (FC Vejle Boldklub)
Antonio Ribeiro (Montreal Impact)
F:
Dwayne De Rosario (Houston Dynamo)
Rob Friend (Heerenveen)
Ali Gerba (FC Goteborg)
Iain Hume (Leicester City)
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Copa Libertadores - Semifinals scores and matches:
Wed May 30
Gremio v Santos
Thur May 31
Cucuta v Boca Juniors
Wed June 6
Santos v Gremio
Thur June 7
Boca Juniors v Cucuta
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The German Cup goes to Nurmberg 3-2 over Stuttgart in extra time!
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One big Euro league race left to settle with two teams being eliminated from contention this weekend, and another goes to the end to decide who got relegated:
-La Liga-
(2 left to play in Spain)
Matches:
Real Madrid 3-1 Deportivo La Coruna
Barcelona 1-0 Getafe
Sevilla 3-1 Zaragoza
Valenica 2-3 Villarreal
Standings:
72 Real Madrid
72 Barcelona
70 Sevilla
No games in Spain this coming weekend due to international matches like Euro 08 qualifiers etc.
-Serie A-
THE END for 06/07
Scores:
Ascoli 2-1 Cagliari
Catania 2-0 Chievo
Inter 3-0 Torino
Livorno 4-2 Atalanta
Parma 3-1 Empoli
Reggina 2-0 Milan
Siena 2-1 Lazio
-8 teams were left fighting over 1 relegation spot, here is how it ended:
43 Livorno -13 goal differential
42 Parma -15 gd
41 Catania -22 gd
40 Reginna +2 gd
40 Siena -10 gd
40 Cagliari -11 gd
40 Torino -20 gd
39 Chievo -10 gd
-Relegated: So the Flying Donkey's of Chievo go down along with Messina & Ascoli.
-Inter won the league by 22 points, collecting 97 of a possible 114. Amazing. They finished the season with just 2 losses
-Roma, Lazio and Milan join Inter in next seasons Champions League.
-Fiorentina, Palermo & Empoli will play in the UEFA Cup next season.
-Juventus & Genoa have already been promoted to Serie A for next season. Leaving Napoli, Piacenza, Rimini, Mantova, Brescia, Bologna, Lecce & Albinoleffe fighting over the last spot with 4 matches to play.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Didier Deschamps has resigned as coach of Juventus. He is expected to replace Gerard Houllier at Lyon. And Marcello Lippi is rumored to return to Juve. While Houllier is rumored to be headed to ????, well, no one really knows yet.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The top 3 goal scorers in Serie A this season - Il Capocannoniere:
26 Francesco Totti - Roma
20 Cristiano Lucarelli - Livorno
18 Ronaldo Bianchi - Reggina
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The top goal scorer in Portugal was Liedson Muniz of Sporting with 15.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

FIFA has just concluded its annual conference and set out several new ideas and declarations. Read them here. A big one seems to be that official international games will no longer be allowed to be played above 8200 feet in altitude due to health risks. This affects very few places, but the ones being banned are not happy about it. An AP reporr on the altitude ban story from the Lincoln Nebraska Journal Star - why not? (thanks to Joe J for this one)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

But Rob Hughes at the International Herald Tribune becomes the latest to call FIFA on some of their sham business practices. FIFA can be an ugly greedy bunch and I am glad more journalists are stepping up to call it. At times FIFA gets it 100% right, then they manage to turn right around and get it all wrong. The hypocrisy is weird at best.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Derby County beat West Bromwich Albion 1-0 in the English Championship Division promotion playoffs final to become the 3rd team promoted to the Premiership for next season.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

This weeks interview on EPL talk is with former player Rodney Marsh. He played for Tampa Bay Rowdies, Queens Park Rangers, Manchester City and Fulham. Listen or download here.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Phil Ball at Soccernet sees 3 horses coming down the stretch together in La Liga, yet there are no games next weekend.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

FIFA.com has a Q & A with Venezuela & Mallorca star midfielder Juan Arango.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Ronaldinho was red carded in Barca's 1-0 win over Getafe after he kicked defender David Belenguer. He only got a one game suspension though. So he will play in the last of their two remaining league games.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Ireland and Bolivia played to a 1-1 draw on Saturday in Boston. Jaime Moreno of DC United played the first half for Bolivia.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Sparta Prague have won the Czech league title.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Brazilian midfielder Diego of Werder Bremen was voted Bundesliga Player Of The Year.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Lastly, the Times of London hired some scientists to do some sort of analysis of every player in the English Premiership this season and then rank them. Here are the results.
-How did some of our Americans rank? Tim Howard ranked #7 over all and tops at Everton. Brad Friedel was second best at Blackburn at #14. Carlos Bocanegra was the top rated Fulham player at #40. Marcus Hahneman was tops at Reading at #26. DaMarcus Beasley ranked 3rd best at Man City. Oguchi Onyewu was 5th best at Newcastle, maybe showing just how bad they were this season. But Brian McBride ranked very poorly in this system #374 overall.
-Here is the rankings Team Of The Year. And I think this is probably about the best list I have seen yet (I honestly don't know if Primus belongs on this list or not):
G:
Petr Cech Chelsea
D:
Nemanja Vidic - Manchester United
Rio Ferdinand - Manchester United
Ricardo Carvalho - Chelsea
Linvoy Primus - Portsmouth
M
Cristiano Ronaldo - Manchester United
Frank Lampard - Chelsea
Gilberto Silva - Arsenal
Paul Scholes - Manchester United
F
Benny McCarthy - Blackburn Rovers
Wayne Rooney - Manchester United

Mon - Day Off

It's good to have a day off now and then.
Merry Memorial Day everyone.

Piece Of Workography News

Former England captain Terry Butcher writing for the BBC: "There is no way a player plying his trade in the MLS can be considered for England."

~and~

From the editors of the Craven Cottage Newsround comes "The Fulham Review". A new book looking back on the past 2006-07 Fulham season. It's filled with essay's, stories, game reports, and rants & raves. Best of all the book contains an essay by yours truly. I wrote about the 3 Americans on the team and my view of them in the first part of their pro career, before Fulham. You can buy the book here.

~and~

Jonah Freedman at Sports Illustrated confirms that Lew Wolff is attempting to bring the San Jose Earthquakes back to life in MLS for next season, even without a new stadium deal being done.


MLS games this week (all times central):
-Thur May 24
New York 3-0 Chicago - goals by Jozy Altidore and 2 by Juan Pablo Angel.
Match report by Ives Galarcep of North Jersey Herald.
Match report by Michael Lewis of Big Apple Soccer.
Match report by Frank Giase of the Newark Star Ledger.
-Sat May 26
New England v Kansas City - 5:30pm on Direct Kick
Columbus v Toronto - 6:30 on Direct Kick
DC v Houston - 6:30 on HDNet
Colorado v Los Angeles - 7:30 on Direct Kick
Chivas v Dallas - 9:30 on FSC
-Sun May 27
Chicago v Salt Lake - 4pm on Telefutura

My MLS game notes:
NY v Chic
-NY lined up with 3 forwards - Juan Pablo Angel, John Wolyniec & Jozy Altidore. Altidore was supposed to be on the left wing.
-Grass was put over the fake turf at the Meadowlands for a friendly between Ireland and Ecuador the night before, and from the sound of things it will go away after this game.
-Brian Plotkin got the start for Chic on the right side of midfield.
-Before I could barely sit down it was 2-0 for NY!
-Two great NY goals at 0:55 and 2:14. The first was JPA on the left getting to the end line and sliding a pass to Woly camped in front of the goal, who laid it back to an onrushing Jozy, who freakin buried it low! The second goal was a burst of speed down the right from Dane Richards who crossed into the box, Chic defender CJ Brown can't handle it, the ball popped to Angel on the right, who settled the loose ball and knocked it home.
-Dave Van Den Bergh was at right back for NY. Todd Dunivant was injured in practice Wed.
-Chic was missing leading scorer Chris Rolfe, and midfielder Diego Gutierrez due to injury.
-Chad Barrett had his chances up top for Chic. He just didn't put them away. Three or four good chances throughout the game actually.
-The ball hit the referee 3 times in the first 33 minutes of the game. That's a lot of 3's.
-Chic forward Calen Carr was really missing his touch and passing in this game. He was just off. He appeared to be trying way to hard to do it all.
-TV Announcers Rob Stone and Eric Wynalda would not stop talking about Jozy Altidore's age. Please STOP! WE KNOW HE IS 17! STOP!
-Justin Mapp had a few chances in the first half for Chic too, but he needed to do better. The whole team needed to do better.
-Chic was just out of whack. They can possess the ball, and pass, and all that stuff. They just can't get that killer shot. They really lack experience up top. Too many youngsters.
-On yet another road game you could hear the traveling Chic supporters singing. Good for them.
-ESPN showed an Adidas Pop-Up advertisement during the game, and Stone said it was Jozy Altidore. No it wasn't. Good god man. That was Agent Zero. Don't you know your super heroes! Gilbert Arenas dude! Look him up! Maybe all black guys look alike to Stoney. I keeeed, I keeeed.
-Chic had better action to start the second half. But then again they were down 2 goals.
-Richards got booked for a hand ball, but Chic captain Chris Armas got in his face and pushed his head. Where is the yellow for Armas? Bogus.
-NY then got its thing going again and promptly scored a third goal. Off a corner kick that saw NY move the ball back and forth from flank to flank. Chic was scrambling to keep up. Seth Stammler got the ball on the right side of the box for NY and put in a cross for Taylor Graham. Luckily Graham plays with two corn stalks with horse shoes for legs & feet and could not control the ball which rolled thru to Angel. He knows what to do. He juked like he was going to shoot, taking Armas out of the play, then pulled it back and poked it home from 5 yards out. Game over!
-Carr finally at least put a chance off the post for Chic.
-Tiago was subbed in for Chic, and Markus Schopp made his season debut for NY.
-Later Mapp was subbed out.
-Clint Mathis did very little in the flashy areas during the game. But he didn't play bad either. He just helped his team with the grunt work and was a great leader. Amazing to type those words about Mathis. Is it amazing to read them?
-The loss was Chicago's 4th in a row. Coach Dave Sarachan is officially at the top of the hot seat charts. Number 1 with a bullet.
-NY must now go play 6 of their next 7 on the road.

Another New York MLS team really looks to be hotly on the horizon. The other day when LA pres Alexi Lalas was in town he mentioned it in passing. Saying it was looking very possible And during the ESPN2 telecast Rob Stone and Eric Wynalda shortly, but strongly mentioned it too. I think Met Stadium is going to play a part in this. Stay tuned. This could be huge. Especially if the Red Bulls can keep it on the rails and get some real excitement going soon.

Buzz Carrick of 3rd Degree took in a Dallas practice session this week.

Allen Hopkins of Soccernet with his latest blasts of rumors & insider info from around MLS. Including an Emile Heskey sighting at the Superclasico last Sunday.

Shawn Mitchell of the Columbus Dispatch on the return of elbowmeister Andy Herron to the Columbus lineup. They really do need his experience to go with Schelotto. Herron is also now making the claim that New England's Jay Heaps who was the recipient of the suspension bringing elbow actually grabbed Herron in the "privates" before the elbow. And then Herron says this is why he chose "NOT to appeal". If this is true, then you definitely want to appeal. Bogus.

Andrea Canales at LA Soccer News talks to Galaxy forward Nate Jaqua. He says he wants to score goals. No shit Sherlock! Get busy already!

Canales also for LASN talks to Rangers forward Nacho Novo and coach Walter Smith about the growing awareness of MLS in Europe.

Ryan Hunt at Sports Illustrated with his weekly MLS round up - Free Kicks.

MLSnet talks to Dallas defender Adrian Serioux who is returning from a serious knee injury. He is still a few weeks away from the action, but he can't wait to play again.

Tino Palace is on the scene at MLSnet with another edition of The Clean Sheet: Performance review. This week he was paid with a 44 pack of Generic Brand AA batteries, a used Yahtzee board game (missing 2 pieces), and a doublepack of Pineapple-Cherry Hubba Bubba.

Ian Plenderleith at the US Players Assoc hilariously mocks the players from Europe who think they can come to play in MLS, get big big money, and work on their tan. It's not the 70's dudes.

Ives Galarcep at Soccernet with his review of the USA Gold Cup roster, and a MLS weekend preview.

Jeff Carlisle of Soccernet with his look at the USA Gold Cup roster as well.

In the press conference to announce the USA team for the Gold Cup, coach Bob Bradley declared Tim Howard as his #1 keeper, over Kasey Keller.

USL First Division games this weekend:
Fri May 25
Montreal v Miami - 7pm central on FSC
Portland v California
Vancouver v Carolina
Sat May 26
Charleston v Atlanta
Minnesota v Puerto Rico
California v Seattle
Sun May 27
Rochester v Miami
Portland v Carolina

USL 1D Standings:
17 Vancouver
11 Montreal
11 Atlanta
9 Miami
9 Carolina
9 Rochester
9 Seattle
7 Portland
6 Puerto Rico
5 Charleston
5 Minnesota
1 California

Mexican Clausura Final:
Fri May 25 first leg
-America v Pachuca - live at 8:30pm central on Telefutura
Sun May 27 second leg
-Pachuca v America - live at 8pm central on Azteca

There is an interesting match going on Monday May 28 in Houston at Robertson Stadium. El Reto Final Nissan - an international friendly between legends of Mexico & Argentina. See the game live at 8pm central on FSC.

Luis Bueno at Sports Illustrated writes about the 3 Mexicans who won big silverware in Europe this season - Pavel Pardo & Ricardo Osorio at Stuttgart, and Carlos Salcido at PSV.

It's been confirmed now that Chelsea will play America on Sat July 14 at Stanford in Palo Alto CA.

The Toronto Sun with a story on the Canadian national team picture. They have hired a new executive to help get them on track.

Copa Libertadores - Quarterfinals scores and matches - Second leg matches:
Tue May 22
Nacional 2-2 Cucuta Deportivo - Cucuta wins 4-2 on aggregate
Wed May 23
Gremio 2-0 Defensor Sporting - tied of aggregate after extra time, with Gremio winning 4-2 on PK's.
Santos 2-1 America -Santos win 2-1 on aggregate.
Thur May 24
Libertad 0-2 Boca Juniors - Boca wins 3-1 on aggregate.
-Match report via Sports Illustrated.
-The Semifinal match ups look like this, on May 30 & June 6:
Cucuta v Boca Juniors
Gremio v Santos

German Cup final in Berlin:
Sat May 26
Nurmberg v Stuttgart

One big Euro league race left to settle, and another features an epic relegation battle. Here are the weekend's matches and standings:
-La Liga-
(3 left to play in Spain)
Matches:
Real Madrid v Deportivo La Coruna
Barcelona v Getafe
Sevilla v Zaragoza
Valenica v Villarreal
Zaragoza at Sevilla
Standings:
69 Real Madrid
69 Barcelona
67 Sevilla
65 Valencia
58 Zaragoza
-Serie A-
(1 left to play in Italy)
-8 teams fighting over 1 relegation spot
40 Cagliari -10 goal differential, at Ascoli
40 Livorno -15 gd, v Atalanta
40 Torino -17 gd, at Inter
39 Chievo -8 gd, at Catania
39 Parma -17 gd, v Empoli
38 Catania -24 gd, v Chievo
37 Reginna 0 gd, v Milan
37 Siena -11 gd, v Lazio
-Already relegated: Messina & Ascoli

Awesome midfielder Juninho signed a 2 year contract extension at Lyon.

Simon Kuper of the Financial Times is the bomb! He was in Athens for the CL final and sat watching the game with Marcello Lippi, Gerard Houllier & Arsene Wenger. Wow.

Gerard Houllier has resinged as manager of Lyon. From the BBC. Where is he headed?

Juventus coach Didier Deschamps is expected to replace him. So then who takes over at Juve? Watch the dominoes tumble.

The Guardian has a story written by a Liverpool fan about the ticket & gate madness at the CL final.

Sports Illustrated teams up with World Soccer to bring us a Q & A with Barcelona star Lionell Messi about La Liga's stretch run.

Zurich has won the Swiss league championship.

Lastly, the Toronto Star with an article on one of my heroes, Andrew Jennings, the investigative journalist who is hounding FIFA and especially Sepp Blatter & Jack Warner about inappropriate finances.

Team USA In Europe This Fall

On Friday US Soccer will announce two friendlies in Europe for October 14 (Sunday) & 17 (Wednesday).

We Want To Inflict Plain News

Bloomberg is reporting today that Lew Wolff who owns the rights to the San Jose Earthquakes franchise wants to start the team now and play next season, rather than wait for a new stadium to be built!

~and~

US Soccer has announced the USA roster for the Gold Cup in June.
-A press conference with coach Bob Bradley for you to download or listen to.


MLS games this week (all times central):
-Thur May 24
New York v Chicago - 6pm on ESPN2
-Sat May 26
New England v Kansas City - 5:30pm on Direct Kick
Columbus v Toronto - 6:30 on Direct Kick
DC v Houston - 6:30 on HDNet
Colorado v Los Angeles - 7:30 on Direct Kick
Chivas v Dallas - 9:30 on FSC
-Sun May 27
Chicago v Salt Lake - 4pm on Telefutura
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Jeff Carlisle at Soccernet previews tonight's NY v Chic game.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Len Ziehm of the Chicago Sun Times with a match preview for tonight.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Red Bulls midfielder Claudio Reyna will miss another game tonight. That makes it 4 missed league games out of the 8 his team has played.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Beau Dure makes a rare appearance for USA Today with an article on the Red Bulls organization.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Ives Galarcep of the North Jersey Herald has words with NYRB attacker Clint Mathis about his good looking season so far.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Michael Lewis of Big Apple Soccer with a story on NYRB midfielder nutjobfanfave Dema Kovalenko.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Dylan Butler also of Big Apple with a story on NYRB first year winger Dane Richards. I believe he is currently the front runner for Rookie Of The Year.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Grass has been laid down in New England's Gillette Stadium to cover the fake stuff for the upcoming Gold Cup matches.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Sahar Milani of the US Soccer Players Assoc does a Q & A with Colorado midfielder Kyle Beckerman.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Shawn Mitchell of the Columbus Dispatch with an article on the Crew's wretched goal scoring record.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

X-rays have revealed that RSL defensive midfielder Carey Talley has a fractured bone in his right leg (calf area), and will miss several weeks. Just what they didn't need.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Steven Goff with notes from today's DC United practice session at the Soccer Insider.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Soccernet says TFC's Ronnie O'Brien took a pass on being called in for Ireland's recent international games. He passed on it? Wow.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Another convert to the beautiful game. From the LA Daily News.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

US Open Cup - MLS qualifier, score from last night:
Colorado 2-1 Salt Lake - both Colo goals from Jacob Peterson. RSL goal by Chris Klein.
-The second Peterson goal came late in second half stoppage time.
Match report from Colo team website.
Match report from the Rocky Mountain News.
Match report by James Edwards of the Deseret Morning News.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

We will know all the other teams in the field for this year's Open Cup by the end of this coming weekend.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

2 MLS teams in international friendly's last night:
-Toronto 0-0 Benfica
Match report by Morgan Campbell of the Toronto Star.
-Los Angeles 0-1 Rangers - goal by Kris Boyd.
Match report from Scotland's Evening Standard.
Match report by Luis Bueno at the Press Enterprise.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

USL 1D team California Victory are so desperate and clueless for help that they just signed defender Ryan Suarez.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The USA U20 team will take 16 players to Canada next week to play 2 matches against the host country as they prepare for the World Cup (June 30 to July 22). The one game will be played in Ottawa where Team USA will play group stage games & the team will visit Montreal the home of another group stage match.
-US Soccer also has an interview (download or listen online) with coach Thomas Rongen about these two games. In the interview he reveals that both Dax McCarty & Michael Bradley will be on the 21 players roster for the World Cup, even though they are not playing in these games.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Monday night on Glenn Davis's radio show he talked to USA & Reading keeper Marcus Hahnemann who said that it took 2 steel plates and 16 screws to secure the broken bones in his hand.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Reuters has a report that says Venezuela is behind in finishing construction and updates on stadiums for the Copa America that begins just over a month from now.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Mexican Clausura Final:
Fri May 25 first leg
-America v Pachuca - live at 8:30pm central on Telefutura
Sun May 27 second leg
-Pachuca v America - live at 8pm central on Azteca
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

There is an interesting match going on Monday May 28 in Houston at Robertston Stadium. El Reto Final Nissan - an international friendly between legends of Mexico & Argentina. See the game live at 8pm central on FSC.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Copa Libertadores - Quarterfinals scores and matches - Second leg matches:
-Tue May 22
Nacional 2-2 Cucuta Deportivo - Cucuta wins 4-2 on aggregate
-Wed May 23
Gremio 2-0 Defensor Sporting - tied of aggregate after extra time, with Gremio winning 4-2 on PK's.
Santos 2-1 America -Santos win 2-1 on aggregate.
-Match report via Sports Illustrated.
-Thur May 24
Libertad v Boca Juniors (1-1)
-Who has advanced to the Semifinals: Cucuta, Gremio & Santos.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Champions League Final:
AC Milan 2-1 Liverpool FC - Both Milan goals by Pippo Inzaghi. And the Liverpeople goal by Dirk Kuyt.
-Not the most entertaining game I have ever seen. More like a typical Milan game. They used their usual amazing defense to control the game. Then got a lucky break right before half time to steal a goal. The second Milan goal & the Liver goal were both really great, but came at the very end, and only added a touch of flair to a pretty dull event.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The two goals scored by Super Pippo were the 37th & 38th of his Champions League career.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Many replays seem to clearly show that Pippo used his left arm to aid the ball into the next for goal #1.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Grant Wahl of Sports Illustrated with some CL post-game notes.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune with his story on the game.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Check Culpepper of the LA Times from Athens, on the fans.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The top 3 all-time winners of European Championships: Real Madrid has won 9, Milan 7 and Liverpool 5.

Team USA Gold Cup Roster

G:
Brad Guzan - Chivas USA
Tim Howard - Everton
Kasey Keller - Monchengladbach
D:
Carlos Bocanegra - Fulham
Jonathan Bornstein - Chivas USA
Jay DeMerit - Watford
Frankie Hejduk - Columbus
Oguchi Onyewu - Standard Liege
Michael Parkhurst - New England
Frank Simek - Sheffield Wednesday
Jonathan Spector - West Ham
M:
DaMarcus Beasley - PSV
Michael Bradley - Heerenveen
Ricardo Clark - Houston
Clint Dempsey - Fulham
Benny Feilhaber - Hamburg
Justin Mapp - Chicago
Pablo Mastroeni - Colorado
Steve Ralston - New England
F:
Brian Ching - Houston
Landon Donovan - Los Angeles
Eddie Johnson - Kansas City
Taylor Twellman - New England

Group stage game schedule is posted in the right hand column.
The first USA game is June 7, and team plays a warm up match on June 2 v China.

So who is missing from the squad?
The first name that appears in my mind is Steve Cherundolo.

Spotted Iambic News

After yesterdays announcement of the LA Galaxy friendly to be played here in Minneapolis, both Minnesota coach Amos Magee & Galaxy pres Alexi Lalas were interviewed on the local sports radio station 1130AM KFAN The Fan with Paul Allen & Jeff Dubay. It's good. Listen or download here.
-Ridge Mahoney of Soccer America talks to Lalas about the Galaxy's serious log jam of matches later this season. And the Copa Minnesota. Everyone raves about the hard work put in by Manny Lagos to make this match happen.


Real Salt Lake have shipped striker Jeff Cunningham to Toronto in exchange for forward Alecko Eskandarian. Wow. TFC gets a proven goal scorer, and maybe it helps RSL get rid of a guy that has never proven to be the best "team" player.
-The Toronto Globe & Mail says Eskie was shocked by the move.
-James Edwards of the Deseret Morning News on the story from the Salt Lake point of view.
-Edwards also says this moves gives RSL a bunch more money to spend in filling their 3 open roster spots.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

More of my MLS game notes from last weekend:
NY v Colu
-It was great to hear JP Dellacamera, Shep Messing, and Steve Cangialosi call a game again. They are the best.
-NO CARDS were shown in this game. Amazing.
-Jozy Altidore was not available for NY cuz he went to his High School Prom in Florida!
-Colu's Eddie Gaven was on the bench for the start of this one.
-Clint Mathis wore the captains armband for NY.
-Dema Kovalenko started at right back for NY.
-The first NY goal was nearly picture perfect. Go to MLSnet.com's video section and look it up. Wow. Dane Richards took the ball on the right wing, passed inside to Juan Pablo Angel. As Richards sprinted up field, Angel returned a perfect pass. Richards torched Colu left back Rusty Pierce to the end line and crossed perfectly to the back post where John Wolyniec charged in to slam the ball home. Absolutely perfect execution.
-Let's get this on record - new Colu signing Guillermo Barros Schelotto has a vicious mullet!
-On NY's second goal: corner kick to near post flicked on by Juan Pablo Angel, scramble in the box between Colu defender, NY forward John Wolyniec & Colu keeper Andy Gruenebaum. Then the ball pops to Mathis who heads it home. But I really thought Wolyniec fouled Gruenebaum on the play. He ran him over, giving Gruen no chance to go after the ball again. I call foul.
-Colu defender Markos Gonzalez must have had a total mental fade out as he passed the ball across the back line to no one, only to see Angel swoop in to steal, dribble and score.
-Schelotto put a great free kick off the bar.
-Colu had 11 free kicks to 0 for NY. Eleven-Zero, and you lose Four-Zero. How does that work?
-The young kid (with the old mans name) Sal Caccavale came on very late for NY and immediately scored. He put his shot right through the legs of Gruenebaum. I think Mathis screened Gruen on the shot and the keeper never saw it coming.
Hou v NE
-What was up with all the sand on the field in Houston. I thought they just laid down new sod a couple weeks ago. It looks terrible. The ball bounces like they are playing on concrete. Hou coach Dom Kinnear is all worried about Brian Ching's knees when they play on fake turf, hell, he should be worried about this parking lot they got at Robertson. And its not even hot summer time yet.
-NE got the early goal after a scramble in the box saw the ball come out to the top of the D where Shalrie Joseph closed fast and hit a great shot to the low far corner. But he paid the price for scoring. Hou defender Eddie Robinson cleaned him out as the shot left his foot. It didn't even look like Robinson tried to get the ball to me. He creamed Joseph. Knee up. Forearm out. Leveled the guy. Should have been booked. And I would have reviewed the tape and considered suspension for that garbage too.
-Robinson got away with a couple more bad fouls too. Hard tackles from behind, that kinda stuff. But was never carded.
-Brad Davis had a pretty miserable game for Hou. He takes most of their free & corner kicks. They were almost all low or short or high & wide etc. He was bad.
-Both Brian Ching & Dwayne De Rosario of Hou got yellow cards for descent. Ching slammed the ball down after a call went against him, and DDR kicked the ball away very hard after a call went against him. They are frustrated guys.
-Hou had almost all of the attack, but NE keeper Matt Reis had to make only one great save.
-That save came from the best player on the field for Houston, Ricardo Clark. He played his ass off. Late in the game Clark brought the ball straight up the middle of the field, passed to Ching at the top of the box, then continued his run. Ching tipped the ball over the NE defense where Clark ran on to it and chipped Reis, but the keeper got his fingers on it to slow it down, then spun and dove to snatch the ball off Clarks foot before the final shot could be taken. Save of the day by far.
-The other bright spot for Hou was the late debut of left back Cory Ashe. I had seen him play for the USA U17's & U20's and thought he was talented. He is small, but strong and feisty, with blazing speed. He caught NE off guard. The defense was used to slow Brad Davis and Wade Barrett coming up the left flank. Ashe's first involvement was to blow past everyone and put in a great cross that Michael Parkhurst had to clear for a corner kick. Ashe later had 2 more really nice crosses into the box that caused trouble.
-Brad Davis did finally put in a nice free kick.
-But the NE defense more than out dueled the Hou offense.
Colo v KC
-I did not see this match, cuz it was on HDNet. So if any of the 11 of you out there with HDNet care to comment on the match please do so.
-It was great to read that Jimmy Conrad was in the KC lineup despite fracturing his jaw just two week earlier.
Chiv v LA
-The Spanish speaking announcers love saying Abby Okolija. The say it over and over again.
-Cobi Jones got the start for LA.
-The TV camera's showed USA coach Bob Bradley and his son Michael in the crowd taking in the game.
-Chiv striker Ante Razov made a fantastic pass over the defense to teammate Maykel Galindo who beat the LA keeper Joe Cannon and scored.
-Chris Albright of LA went down with what looked like a bad leg injury. He was replaced at right back by Nathan Sturgis.
-Momentum really shifted a lot in the first half of this game. The first 15 minutes was for LA, the second 15 was neutral, and the last 15 was for Chivas, and they got the goal.
-Landon Donovan scored again for LA. He picked up a loose ball and fired through a lot of defenders to nab the goal. Chiv defender Claudio Suarez had tried to head a cross clear but put it right to LD. Suarez fell to the ground and buried his head when he saw what he had done.
-Chiv sub Laurent Merlin took a dive in the box. Loser.
-One announcer asked another if he thought Cannon looked like Roger Clemens. Hahahahaha.
-Chiv keeper El Guzano saved his teams bacon with an outstanding point blank stop on Landon Donovan. You could tell that LD thought it was going in!
-What the hell - Telefutura cut away from the game with two minutes to play in extra time due to a live talent show that came on next.
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Ives Galarcep on his Soccer By Ives blog has a really great practice report on the Red Bulls. Lots of exciting info for the teams diehards.
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Galarcep also has a mildly scandalous story in the North Jersey Herald about the recent hiring & nearly immediate firing of the Red Bulls new Youth Director. The word from Ives is that the dude "embellished" his resume.
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Luis Bueno at LA Soccer News reports on the severity of the hamstring injury suffered by Galaxy right back Chris Albright in Sunday's gave v Chivas USA. He is going to need surgery to repair it. Not good.
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Jeff Bradley at MLSnet writes about the power of the Colombians in his latest First XI: Colombians supreme
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Grahame Jones of the LA Times with his soccer news and notes - Corner Kicks
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MLS games this week (all times central):
Thur May 24
New York v Chicago - 6pm on ESPN2
Sat May 26
New England v Kansas City - 5:30pm on Direct Kick
Columbus v Toronto - 6:30 on Direct Kick
DC v Houston - 6:30 on HDNet
Colorado v Los Angeles - 7:30 on Direct Kick
Chivas v Dallas - 9:30 on FSC
Sun May 27
Chicago v Salt Lake - 4pm on Telefutura
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Chicago's Daily Southtown previews tomorrows Chic v NYRB match - Sarachan v Arena.
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DC United has been drawn to face Guadalajara in the Copa Sudamericana next fall. Again with the mother goats. No exact dates are set for the home and away series yet. Here is the press release from DCU.
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US Open Cup - MLS qualifier match tonight:
-Colorado v Salt Lake
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2 MLS team play friendly's tonight:
-Toronto v Benfica
-Los Angeles v Rangers
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Luis Bueno at LASN with a LA v Rangers match preview.
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Jesse Erdmann at Blue Sky Soccer with the latest USL First Division Power Rankings.
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The big First Division news of the weeks is that Puerto Rico has fired their coach Toribio Rojas, and replaced him with former Dallas, and short time Virginia Beach coach Colin Clarke.
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Yanks Abroad talks to young American defender Neven Subotic about his debut match for Mainz last weekend. It was a surprise start for him.
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Copa Libertadores - Quarterfinals scores and matches - Second leg matches:
Tue May 22
Nacional 2-2 Cucuta Deportivo - Cucuta wins 4-2 on aggregate
-Match report via Sports Illustrated.
Wed May 23
Gremio v Defensor Sporting (0-2)
Santos v America (0-0)
Thur May 24
Libertad v Boca Juniors (1-1)
-Who has advanced to the Semifinals: Cucuta & ???.
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Reading midfielder Steve Sidwell has signed with Chelsea on a free transfer. Hope he enjoys the bench. Cuz he will be about 6th in line for the playing field, instead of 1st at Reading.
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Champions League Final from Athens:
AC Milan v Liverpool FC
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Jack Bell at the New York Times on Liverpool midfielder Javier Mascherano.

Wet Teeth & Dry Whiskers News

There is a rumor floating around saying Jeff Cunningham is on his way out of Real Salt Lake. So where is he headed?

~and~

The Team USA Gold Cup roster will be announced on Thursday.


du Nord Player Of The Week - Ronnie O'Brien - Toronto FC
-All of us long time MLS fans have known the talents that RO'B brings to the team he plays for. He has great shots, great passes, great crosses, great free kicks, and a fierce determination. He also can be a crybaby and a locker room downer as witnessed by his exit from Dallas. But with this new team Ronnie gets to wipe the slate clean and start over. It had been a slow start for him due to a knee injury suffered in preseason training. Without him the team lost their first 4 games and did not score a goal. But since he stepped onto the field it's been a whole new world for TFC. Two wins in a row, where RO'B provided all his skills to his teammates cause. He even cleared a shot off the goal line v Chicago. About the only thing he didn't do was score a goal himself. But that is not the point. He made a massive difference just being on the pitch. Even in the losing effort this past week he was a handful for DC. Plus he looks kinda cyborg-y with the big leg brace on. Congrats to Ronnie O'Brien and Toronto.
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My MLS game notes - Tor v DC:
-Jaime Moreno joins the yellow shoe club.
-The announcers were making reference to "The Commissioner" being at the game. I assumed they meant Don Garber, but then they made a baseball reference and it got me wondering whether or not Bug Selig was at the game.
-DCU defender Facundo Erpen committed multiple fouls on TFC's Danny Dichio and was eventually booked for it. Erpen just could not handle DD, then got subbed out in the second half.
-DCU midfielder Fred was completely ineffective in the first half playing on the right side. He barely touched the ball except for a few nice defensive plays he made. In the second half he and Ben Olsen switched sides of the field and it opened up for both of them. Very good move by coach Soehn.
-I gotta say, Fred's speed of thought and reactions seem slow to me. Again though, he played some good defense
-You just knew Eskie was gonna score on his old team! Good for him!
-The free kick that DCU scored on was a classic Christian Gomez strike. Perfect speed and curl that caused major havoc for the defenders. Hence the own goal.
-Jaime Moreno is now tied with Jason Kreis for the all time MLS goal scoring lead at 108!
-The CBC production crew who did this game missed 2 or 3 very important moments by showing inconsequential TFC replays or lingering on players after plays. They blew it. Stop swooning over TFC players and show the damn game.
-I can't say enough what a great crowd they have in Toronto. I hope it stays that way.
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For being the "third place team" in this seasons CONCACAF Champions Cup, DC United have been given a slot in the Copa Sudamericana next fall. DCU had the better goal differential over Houston, and got the nod. When was that rule made up?
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James Edwards of the Deseret Morning News says Salt Lake coach Jason Kreis is out searching for players to fill 3 open senior roster slots.
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Kristian Dyer at Soccernet talks to RSL starlet Freddy Adu about today, tomorrow, and even a little yesterday.
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The Salt Lake Tribune looks at Freddy's growing attacking prowess.
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Ives Galarcep at the North Jersey Herald talks to another teenager who has not quite made the media splash in MLS that Freddy did, nor seen much time on the field, Danny Szetela of Columbus.
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DJ Walker at 3rd Degree with his view of the match - Stream of Consciousness: RSL vs FCD
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Juan Pablo Angel of New York was named MLS Player Of The Week.
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Michael Lewis at Big Apple Soccer talks to Red Bulls managing director Marc de Grandpre about the teams miserable attendance so far this season.
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Andrea Canales at Soccer365 has an interview with New York midfielder Clint Mathis about his seeming new lease on football life.
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Canales also writing for Soccernet wonders what kind of impact defender Abel Xavier can have on the LA Galaxy.
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The LA Daily News with a look at the many difference's (despite the similarities) between their cities two clubs, the Galaxy and the Goats. (thanks to the multiple readers who all sent me this link - I really appreciate it)
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Bernardo Fallas of the Houston Chronicle writes about the really poor results recently for the Dynamo, and wonders if that will harm any players chances of making the USA Gold Cup roster. I say no, cuz they haven't been terrible. Just a little outta sink and outta luck.
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Luis Arroyave on his Red Card blog asks MLS players who the WORST singers on their team are. Fantastic answers.
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The folks who brought us EPL Talk have launched Major League Soccer Talk.
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US Open Cup - MLS qualifier matches and scores:
Wed May 23
-Colorado v Salt Lake
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The Oregonian with the story on new ownership for the Portland Timbers. (thanks to Brian for this one)
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Steven Goff of the Washington Post with a story on Crystal Palace's Maryland based PDL team & youth academy. The story has a mini CP history too.
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NYRB midfielder Claudio Reyna, a former star player at Rangers, talks to the teams official website about Rangers friendly v LA on Wednesday night at the HDC.
-LA coach Frank Yallop also talks to the Rangers site.
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Adam Spangler of This Is American Soccer calls inner-city New York a soccer "artesian aquifer waiting to be tapped". Wow, I love the sound of that.
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Andrew Rogers at Soccer 365 rates the Americans who spent the past season in the English Premiership.
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Yanks Abroad has a Q & A with USA & 1860 forward Josh Wolff where he answers questions from readers of YA.
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Marc Connolly & Ian Plenderleith at the US Players Association sit down to discuss the upcoming Gold Cup.
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It looks, thankfully, like Grant Wahl is back on the soccer beat at Sports Illustrated. A week in soccer without the Wahl insight is like a month.
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Luis Bueno at the Press Enterprise previews the coaching future of Bob Bradley & Team USA, and makes his own Top 10 list of Bradley's games.
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Panama has named their Gold Cup roster:
G:
Jose Calderon - Chepo
Oscar McFarlane - Tauro
Jaime Penedo - Osasuna
D:
Reynaldo Anderson - Arabe Unido
Felipe Baloy - America
Luis Moreno - Tauro
Carlos Rivera - Tauro
Joel Solanilla - Plaza Amador
Roman Torres - La Equidad
M:
Alberto Blanco - Plaza Amador
Rolando Escobar - Tauro
Gabriel Gomez - Santa Fe
Luis Henriquez - Tauro
Amilcar Henriquez - Arabe Unido
Engin Mitre - Plaza Amador
Juan Perez - Tauro
Ricardo Phillips - San Francisco
Victor Piggot - Islanders
Juan Ramon Solis - Aguila
F:
Roberto Brown - Colorado
Jose Luis Garces - Belenenses
Nicolas Munoz - Aguila
Blas Perez - Cucuta
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Copa Libertadores - Quarterfinals scores and matches - Second leg matches:
Tue May 22
-Nacional v Cucuta Deportivo (0-2)
-Wed May 23
Gremio v Defensor Sporting (0-2)
-Santos v America (0-0)
Thur May 24
-Libertad v Boca Juniors (1-1)
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Top 3 goal scorers from the just ended Bundesliga season (stolen from Soccer America):
20 Theofanis Gekas - Bochum
16 Roy Makaay - Bayern
16 Alexander Frei - Dortmund
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Wednesday's Champions League Final from Athens:
AC Milan v Liverpool FC
-See it live in America at 1:30pm central time on ESPN2. Coverage begins at 1pm central with host JP Dellacamera, and commentators Shamus Malin, Eric Wynalda & New England coach Steve Nicol. Derek Rae & Tommy Smyth are in Athens for the call of the game. Post game show too. The whole deal.
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Frank Dell'apa of the Boston Globe talks to former Liverpool defender and current New England coach Steve Nicol about the final. Gee, I wonder who Nicol thinks will win?
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The Guardian talks to former Dutch & Milan great Ruud Gullit about the big match ahead. He picks Milan, duh!
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FIFA.com has a Q & A with Liverpool midfielder Javier Mascherano, who 5 months ago wasn't anywhere near being on a team playing for the Champions League crown.
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The Times of London talks to Milan defender Cafu who gives a player by player run down on his teammates.
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Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune previews the match: Milan gets its wish, but will it get revenge?
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Chuck Culpepper of the LA Times on the Liverpool fans who have headed to Athens, tickets or not, for the game.