Aristocratic Inter-Planetary News

Just to put things in perspective for us soccer fans in America, there was a big article in the New York Times today about the building of new baseball parks for the both the New York Yankees and Mets. The article also talked about the sports facility boom in the area: New arena in Newark for the Devils hockey team, new arena in Brooklyn for the Nets basketball team, and new football stadium in the Meadowlands for the Jets and Giants. But the article made NO mention of Red Bull Park being built.
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Remember this name - Alex Nimo! He scored 2 goals to lead the USA U17's to 3-0 win over T&T in first game of CONCACAF Youth World Cup qualifying (see details below).


MLS game last night:
-Salt Lake 0-2 Colorado - goals by Roberto Brown & Kyle Beckerman.
Match report by James Edwards of the Deseret Morning News. - RSL defender Danny Torres took the loss personal and very hard.
More post-game notes from Edwards who says Colorado's Pablo Mastroeni continued to fan the rivalry flames after another win.
Match Report from the Salt Lake Tribune.
Match report from the Rocky Mountain News.
Post-game notes by George Tanner of the RMN blog FC Rocky.
Match report from John Meyer at the Denver Post. Said Pablo Mastroeni: "We got a great result and we did it in a place where the (Real) guys are more worried about us taunting their fans than they actually are playing the game." And said Kyle Beckerman: "We like to send them home unhappy. They run their mouth the whole game. If their team is mad when we celebrate, tell them to win the game."
-I have only seen the first half of this game so the notes will have to come tomorrow.
-Just launched yesterday FireEllinger.com (thanks to D for sending the linkage). My only problem with this blog is that they rally for Colin Clarke as their next coach. Sweet Sunny Jim that's a bad idea. He was terrible in Dallas. Just ask his former fans & players.
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MLS schedule this week (all times central):
Thu
-DC v New England - 6pm on ESPN2
Sat
-KC v Columbus - Noon on Direct Kick
-Salt Lake v New York - 8pm on HDNet
-Colorado v Houston - 8:30pm on FSC
Sun
-DC v Chivas - 2pm on Telefutura
-New England v Chicago - 4pm on Direct Kick
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Landon Donovan was named MLS Player Of The Week.
-We all go up and down in our fandom for Landon, but check this stat out - In his 49 games with the Los Angeles Galaxy, LD has 25 goals & 21 assists. That is incredibly impressive.
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Soccernet has a Q & A with Donovan.
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Bernardo Fallas at the Houston Chronicle talks to Dynamo midfielder Brad Davis about the teams less than stellar beginning to the 07 season.
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Ives Galarcep at the North Jersey Herald says New York is better off without midfielder Amado Guevara, who they traded last fall to Chivas USA for the roster spot they needed to nab Jaun Pablo Angel. I could not agree more. Good riddance to Amado.
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Michael Lewis of Big Apple Soccer on the unexpected great play of New York right midfield rookie Dane Richards.
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Andrea Canales at Soccer 365 with an in-depth look at the career so far of LA midfielder Kyle Martino.
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Dean McNulty of the Toronto Sun says TFC coach Mo Johnston is upset with his teams 0-4 & zero goal start, especially with the home loss. I would hope he is upset.
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The Sun also reports that a bunch of MLS & TFC exec's took public transportation to BMO Field for the season opener. Yes, they had a private street car (not gonna travel with the punters are they?).
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Toronto's BMO Field serves up the chip butty aka the french fry sandwich. Nasty stuff. And other delights.
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Steve Davis at Soccernet with a weekend MLS match wrap-up (from yesterday). Plus new Power Rankings.
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Jeff Bradley's First XI at MLSnet reviews the first month of the season.
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Chivas USA had some sorta team function at Disneyland in Anaheim yesterday. Luis Bueno has some pictures and other "goofy" stuff on his Sideline Views blog.
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Nick Green at the Daily Breeze looks again at MLS's so called parity.
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The CONCACAF U17 World Championship Group B Qualifying Tournament from Kingston Jamaica. Here is the match schedule:
-Sat April 28
Costa Rica 2-0 Trinidad & Tobago - goals by Jorge Castro & Diego Brenes.
Jamaica 0-3 Canada - goals by Daniel Tannous, Jarek Whiteman & William Hyde
-Mon April 30
Canada 0-0 Costa Rica
Trinidad & Tobago 0-3 USA - goals by Alex Nimo (2) & Ellis McLoughlin, who was also red carded.
-Wed May 2
USA v Canada - 5pm
Jamaica v Costa Rica
-Fri May 4
Canada v Trinidad & Tobago
Jamaica v USA - 7pm
-Sun May 6
USA v Costa Rica - 5pm
Jamaica v Trinidad & Tobago
-Standings (points - games played - team - goal differential)
4 - 2 Canada +3
4 - 2 Costa Rica +2
3 - 1 USA +3
0 - 1 Jamaica -3
0 - 2 Trinidad & Tobago -5
-The top 3 from this group will advance to the finals in Korea in late summer.
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US Soccer has post-game quotes from the coach and some players.
-Photos from the match.
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Robert Zeigler from Top Drawer Soccer is on the scene down in Kingston covering our boys journey. Here is his match report from game 1.
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The USA U17 qualifying tournament official team blog.
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2 Americans went head to head in England yesterday:
Marcus Hahnemann & Reading 1-0 Newcastle & Oguchi Onyewu
-Hahnemann went the full match as usual and got another clean sheet
-Onyewu was an unused sub
-A big story in the game was the return of Michael Owen to Newcastle. He has not played since suffering a bad knee injury last summer at the World Cup. He played the full 90.
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Yanks Abroad talks to USA & Man City midfielder DaMarcus Beasley.
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Ken Pendleton at the US Soccer Players Assoc. does a Q & A with the original man behind the New York Cosmos - Clive Toye!
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Mexican Playoffs - 10 teams qualify - the bottom 4 playing home and away with winners joining top 6. Here are those first matches:
Wed May 2-
Morelia Monarcas v Atlas Zorros
Santos Laguna Guerreros v San Luis Tuneros
-Return legs are on Cinco de Mayo
-The other 6 teams awaiting match-ups are:
Pachuca Tuzos
Guadalajara Chivas
Cruz Azul Cementeros
America Aguilas
UAG Tecos
UANL Tigres
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Paco Palencia has already left UNAM Pumas to join Toluca after just this one Clausura season.
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Soccer America linked to this great article from Reuters on the huge influence African players are having on the club level all across Europe.
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A big du Nord favorite Phillip Cocu has announced he will leave PSV this summer when the window opens.
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Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, Man City midfielder Joey Barton is in trouble again. He has been in many fights and even extinguished cigars in people's faces. This time he got in a fight with a teammate during Man City training and has now been suspended for the rest of the season by the club. The teammate was sent to the hospital.
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A hilarious headline from the Guardian today about the plight of Leeds: It's not that Leeds are paranoid, it's that everybody hates them
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The Guardian also looks at the strong and quick rebirth of Sunderland under the tutelage of Roy Keane & Niall Quinn
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AFP with the story of Schalke's long wait for a title. They are in first place in the Bundgesliga, but the race with Stuttgart and Werder Bremen is very tight with several games still to play. I personally have terrible memories of Schalke's stadium as that is where I sat through the USA-Czech Republic debacle at last summers World Cup.
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Germany & Chelsea midfielder Michael Ballack has had surgery on a bad ankle. It is not a major operation but he will be out of action for at least a couple of weeks. He is missing some big games right now for Chelsea.
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Moritz Volz of Fulham ponders cricket and other forms of life in his latest Jimmy Conrad-esque column for the Times of London. Pure quality.
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UEFA Champions League Semifinals - Matchday 12 (with first leg scores included):
Tues May 1
-Liverpool v Chelsea (0-1)
Wed May 2
-AC Milan v Manchester United (2-3)
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Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune with a CL semifinal second leg preview.
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Don't we all secretly want to see a Liverpool v Milan Champions League final rematch. Greg Lalas at Sports Illustrated thinks we do.