Green Jean News
The USA U17 team finished first in their qualifying group for the Youth World Cup in Korea at the end of summer. While practicing for their final match on the home field of Jamaican club Tivoli Gardens local kids watched and shouted out "Go England!", then later asked "Are you Mexico?"
~and~
Clint Dempsey saved Fulham's season by scoring the winning goal (his first for the club) v Liverpool and ensuring the teams place in the Premiership for next year!
MLS scores from this weekend:
-Thu May 3
DC 1-1 New England - DCU goal by Jaime Moreno (PK). New Eng goal by Andy Dorman.
-Sat May 5
KC 1-0 Columbus - goal by Jose Burciaga Jr.
Match report by Bob Luder of the KC Star.
Post-game notes from Luder.
Salt Lake 3-3 New York - RSL goals by Chris Klein, Jeff Cunningham & Chris Brown (of all people). NYRB goals by Dane Richards & 2 by Clint Mathis.
Match report by James Edwards of the Deseret Morning News.
Match report from the Salt Lake Tribune.
Match report by Michael Lewis of Big Apple Soccer.
Colorado 1-2 Houston - Colo goal by Roberto Brown. Houston goals by Brian Ching, Dwayne De Rosario & Kenny Dalglish. (Officially they gave the 3rd Hous goal to DDR, but anyone who watched the game with replay capability will tell you the ball was already over the line when he touched it.)
Match report by John Meyer of the Denver Post.
Match report (in the vaguest sense) from the Rocky Mountain News. More of story on keeper Bouna Coundoul though.
Post-game notes from George Tanner of RMN's FC Rocky.
-Sun May 6
DC 2-1 Chivas - DCU goals by Christian Gomez & Jaime Moreno (PK). CUSA goal by Maykel Galindo.
Match report by Steven Goff of the Washington Post.
Match report by Grahame Jones of the LA Times.
New England 3-1 Chicago - NE goals by Jeff Larentowicz, Steve Ralston & Wells Thompson. Chic goal by Chris Rolfe.
Match report by Frank Dell'apa of the Boston Globe.
Match report by Mike Biglin of the MetroWest Daily News.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
A few of my MLS game notes:
-The league has to get rid of this exclusive HDnet crap. There are only about 11 soccer fans in America with this channel, and the rest of us are missing out on games. Especially people with Direct Kick. Hell, we don't even get to see highlights most of the time, cuz HDNet doesn't want their precious hi-def picture compromised by lo-def technology. Well, if no one see's the hi-def, then it might as well be no-def.
-And while I am busy complaining about TV, during the ESPN games when they cut away to give us some completely useless Sports Center update of seemingly day old highlights from OTHER sports, my blood just comes to a boil. They are going to miss something big very soon, and we will all be very upset!
-New York goes from no goals given up in 4 previous matches, to 3 surrendered in 1 game. 2 of them coming in the 90th minute and in stoppage time!
-Not a great start for new RSL coach Jason Kreis as his team pulled a 3-3 draw with NY out of very very thin air, but at least they fought back and salvaged something. I think that is an adequate start for a pretty sorry (so far) team.
-Houston is spending Monday & Tuesday at owner Phil Anschutz luxury Colorado ranch. Many of his other sports teams over the last few years have done the same.
-much more later
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
MLS has named Houston's Dwayne DeRosario as the Player Of The Week. They say he got the award after scoring 2 goals in Colorado. If that is the case then this is a fraudulent reason for the award because he did not score his teams third goal! I stand by that proclamation. That goal was either a Kenny Dalglish goal or an own goal. DDR touched it after it crossed the goal line. The league simply wants to pimp DDR by giving him this award. Just like the Eddie Johnson for player of the month in April when clearly that award belonged to Taylor Twellman.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Great news for New England and Shalrie Joseph fans. Mike Biglin of the MetroWest Daily News reports that "Shalrie Joseph and Major League Soccer have resumed talks about a new contract."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
9,508 at Gillette Stadium huh? What is wrong with people? You have one of the best teams year in and year out, but you give them no love. Sad, really sad. Those couple hundred die hards who would kill for their team have my sympathy, cuz they deserve much better fellow fans.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Steven Goff of the Washington Post had a story yesterday on DC United's young Ivory Coast striker Guy-Roland Kpene, who just last week finally received his international clearance and work visa.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Goff also makes note on his Soccer Insider blog of the woeful attendance at Kansas City's two home games so far. It is beyond embarrassing if you ask me.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Andrea Canales at Top Drawer Soccer asks very direct questions of both Salt Lake's new coach Jason Kreis & former coach John Ellinger.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
New York Red Bulls forward Juan Pablo Angel has received his work visa and is now cleared to play for his new club.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
As was predicted here (maybe a little too gleefully) Panamanian striker Luis Tejada was cut from Real Salt Lake today by new coach Jason Kreis.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Salt Lake will join the parade of teams in the USA taking on the Chinese national team. Team USA & Colorado had already announced matches. RSL plays them on June 7th.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Steve Davis at Soccernet rounds up the weekends MLS matches and looks at the coaching debut for JK of RSL.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The new Soccernet MLS Power Rankings does not punish New York for caving to RSL in the closing seconds.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The next round of US Open Cup qualifier for MLS starts this week:
-Tue May 8
Los Angeles v New York
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
USL First Division scores from the weekend:
Friday
Carolina 0-0 Puerto Rico
Rochester 1-1 Vancouver
Sat
Atlanta 2-0 Carolina
Miami 0-1 Montreal
Seattle 1-0 Portland
sun
Charleston 1-1 Rochester
Minnesota 1-2 Vancouver
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
John Wegner with a match report at Blue Sky Soccer from my Thunders 1-2 loss to Vancouver in their home opener.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
CONCACAF U17 World Championship Group B Qualifying Tournament from Kingston Jamaica.
-The USA advanced on Friday before they even took the field. Trinidad & Tobago beat Canada 2-1 leaving the USA in a spot to finish no worse than 3rd, with 3 teams advancing. Congrats boys!
-Costa Rica became the first team to qualify for the Youth World Cup from this group.
-And with a miracle win over the home team Jamaica, Trinidady & Tobago came back from the dead to leap over Canada and claim the third and final spot in the finals.
Here are all the scores:
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 2-1 Canada - USA goals by Billy Schuler & Mykell Baytes. Canada goal by Cedric Carrie.
-Jamaica 0-1 Costa Rica - goal by Esteban Lunar.
Fri May 4
-Canada 1-2 Trinidad & Tobago - Can goal by Randy Edwini-Bonsu. T&T goals by Leston Paul & Stephen Knox.
-Jamaica 3-2 USA - Jam goals by Shamari Brown, Ogrill Dever & John-Ross Doyley. USA goals by Alex Nimo & Sheanon Williams.
Sun May 6
-USA 2-1 Costa Rica - USA goals by Greg Garza & Ellis McLoughlin. CR goal by Marcos Urena.
-Jamaica 0-1 Trinidad & Tobago - T&T goal by Kevin Molino.
-Standings (points - games played - team - goal differential)
9 - 4 - USA +4
7 - 4 - Costa Rica +2
6 - 4 - Trinidad & Tobago -3
4 - 4 - Canada +1
3 - 4 - Jamaica -3
-The top 3 from this group will advance to the finals in Korea in late summer.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Official US Soccer match reports from the Jamaica game - and - the Costa Rica game. Both have links to post-game player & coach quotes.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Robert Ziegler at Top Drawer Soccer covered the USA U17 team and has match reports on both matches - v Jamaica - and - v Costa Rica.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Let's check in with our favorite Americans in Europe and see how their weekend matches went:
-DaMarcus Beasley - Manchester City - started and went the first 60 minutes of 0-1 loss to Man United who clinched the league with the win.
-Gregg Berhalter - 1860 Munich - played the whole match in a 1-0 win over Unterhaching.
-Carlos Bocanegra - Fulham - started in a 1-0 win over Liverpool. The victory and 3 points secures them a spot in the Premiership for next season.
-Michael Bradley - Heerenveen - finished the regular season in a playoff spot for the Eredivisie entrants to the Champions League and UEFA Cup. They open the playoffs at home Wednesday v Ajax.
-Danny Califf - Aalborg - another big 90 minutes in the center of defense as they beat league Champions Copenhagen on the road 1-2.
-Steve Cherundolo - Hannover - started and played 90 as always at right back in his teams 2-0 win over Cottbus. Hannover are 2 points out of the UEFA Cup spots with 2 games to play.
-Charlie Davies - Hammarby - play at Malmo on Tuesday.
-Jay DeMerit - Watford - did not suit up again this week, as his team won 0-2 at Reading.
-Clint Dempsey - Fulham - came on as a sub in the 53rd minute and got his first Premiership goal in a 1-0 win over the Liverpeople. The victory and 3 points secures them a spot in the Premiership for next season. Huge huge huge for the Deuce!
-Brad Friedel - Blackburn - of course he started in goal and also got the shutout, 0-2 at Newcastle.
-Marcus Hahnemann - Reading - started as always but lost 0-2 to bottom dwellers Watford. Reading sit in the final UEFA Cup spot and may need to win their final game at Blackburn to keep it.
-Kamani Hill - Wolfsburg - was a 63rd minute sub of a 0-2 home loss to Dortmund.
-Tim Howard - Everton - In goal again for a big 3-0 win over Portsmouth. The win clinches them a spot in next seasons UEFA Cup!
-Kasey Keller - Monchengladbach - out for the season with a hip injury, and the team have been relegated. They drew 1-1 with Bayern Munich. Where will Kasey suit up next?
-Eddie Lewis - Leeds - did not dress in the teams last game, a 2-0 loss to Derby. Leeds has been relegated to League One. I think its a safe bet that we can expect to see Eddie in MLS shortly.
-Brian McBride - Fulham - started and went 85 minutes in a 1-0 win over the Liverpeople. The victory and 3 points secures them a spot in the Premiership for next season.
-Oguchi Onyewu - Newcastle - started and went the distance in a 0-2 loss to Blackburn.
-Heath Pearce - Nordsjaelland - played 90 in a 3-3 draw at home v Brondby.
-Frank Simek - Sheffield Wednesday - did not dress for this team's last game of the season, a 3-2 win over Norwich.
-Jonathan Spector - came on as a 79th minute sub of a 3-1 win over Bolton that got them out of the relegation zone. Now they gotta keep it together for one more game.
-Brian West - Fredrikstad - played the last 20 minutes of a 4-1 thrashing at the hands of Tromso.
-Josh Wolff - 1860 Munich - still out due to injury.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Mexican Playoffs - 2 qualifiers join the top 6 teams now.
Sat May 5 - second leg matches (with first leg scores included):
Atlas 0-0 Morelia -after ending 1-1 on agg, Atlas advance with the away goal tie breaker.
San Luis 0-2 Santos Laguna - Santos advance 2-1 on Aggregate.
-The next round first leg match-ups will be played Wed May 9:
Atlas v America
UAG v Cruz Azul
UANL v Guadalajara
Santos v Pachuca
-Return legs on Sat May 12.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Copa Libertadores - Round of 16 second leg matches (with 1st leg scores included):
-Tue May 8
Colo Colo v America (0-3)
Toluca v Cucuta Deportivo (1-5)
-Wed May 9
Velez Sarsfield v Boca Juniors (0-3)
Flamengo v Defensor Sporting (0-3)
Gremio v Sao Paulo (0-1)
-Thu May 10
Santos v Caracas (2-2)
Libertad v Parana (2-1)
Necaxa v Nacional (2-3)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Two of the big Euro league races are still really tight. Here are the weekend's matches and standings:
-La Liga-
Scores:
Real Sociedad 0-2 Barcelona
Real Madrid 3-2 Sevilla
Deportivo La Coruna 1-2 Valenica
Zaragoza 0-0 Racing Santander
Standings:
65 Barcelona
63 Real Madrid
61 Sevilla
59 Valencia
55 Zaragoza
(5 left to play in Spain)
-Bundesliga-
Matches:
Schalke 1-0 Nurnberg
Stuttgart 2-0 Mainz
Hertha Berlin 1-4 Werder Bremen
Standings:
65 Schalke
64 Stuttgart
63 Werder Bremen
(2 left to play in Germany)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Manchester United have won the Premiership title! With 2 games still to play, including a head to head match up, Man U now have an insurmountable 7 point lead.
-Weekend scores that mattered most:
Man City 0-1 Man United
Arsenal 1-1 Chelsea
-Even Man U main man Fergie the Red Nosed Manager could not resist the allure of tuning in to see the end of Chelsea. From The Times of London.
-Charlton, Wigan, West Ham & Sheffield United are fighting it out to avoid 2 relegation spots.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Also in England, the Championship promotion playoffs are all set:
-Sat May 12
Southampton v Derby
-Sun May 13
Wolverhampton v West Bromich Albion
-Tue May 15
Derby v Southampton
-Wed May 16
Wolverhampton v West Bromich Albion
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The money/business has gotten so big in the top leagues that law suits are more & more becoming the common way to settle things - as opposed to on the field. Rob Hughes at the International Herald Tribune looks at this new breed of mess.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Glen Roeder has stepped down/been fired as coach of Newcastle. Expect Sam Allardyce to get the job.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Adam Spangler of This Is American Soccer see's both soccer documentaries that debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival, Sons Of Sakhnin United & The Power Of The Game and reviews them for us.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Amy Lawrence at the Observer examines the differences in the Premiership today from its origins in the Fall of 1992.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The Times of London with the 4th in their excellent series of reports on derby's from around the world - Sporting v Benfica in Portugal!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Greg Lalas at Sports Illustrated goes to the old world to see local football - Besiktas of Turkey.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Lastly, what's wrong with this headline? "Manchester United Wins U.K. Soccer Title". This comes from the New York Times website in the soccer section. It must stun the teams in Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland to know that they lost their championships to Man U. I have given up writing notes to the NYT sports editors cuz they never ever reply, obviously don't take the game seriously in their sports coverage, and even more obviously have their head way up their own ass. Now back to massive daily Kentucky Derby coverage.
~and~
Clint Dempsey saved Fulham's season by scoring the winning goal (his first for the club) v Liverpool and ensuring the teams place in the Premiership for next year!
MLS scores from this weekend:
-Thu May 3
DC 1-1 New England - DCU goal by Jaime Moreno (PK). New Eng goal by Andy Dorman.
-Sat May 5
KC 1-0 Columbus - goal by Jose Burciaga Jr.
Match report by Bob Luder of the KC Star.
Post-game notes from Luder.
Salt Lake 3-3 New York - RSL goals by Chris Klein, Jeff Cunningham & Chris Brown (of all people). NYRB goals by Dane Richards & 2 by Clint Mathis.
Match report by James Edwards of the Deseret Morning News.
Match report from the Salt Lake Tribune.
Match report by Michael Lewis of Big Apple Soccer.
Colorado 1-2 Houston - Colo goal by Roberto Brown. Houston goals by Brian Ching, Dwayne De Rosario & Kenny Dalglish. (Officially they gave the 3rd Hous goal to DDR, but anyone who watched the game with replay capability will tell you the ball was already over the line when he touched it.)
Match report by John Meyer of the Denver Post.
Match report (in the vaguest sense) from the Rocky Mountain News. More of story on keeper Bouna Coundoul though.
Post-game notes from George Tanner of RMN's FC Rocky.
-Sun May 6
DC 2-1 Chivas - DCU goals by Christian Gomez & Jaime Moreno (PK). CUSA goal by Maykel Galindo.
Match report by Steven Goff of the Washington Post.
Match report by Grahame Jones of the LA Times.
New England 3-1 Chicago - NE goals by Jeff Larentowicz, Steve Ralston & Wells Thompson. Chic goal by Chris Rolfe.
Match report by Frank Dell'apa of the Boston Globe.
Match report by Mike Biglin of the MetroWest Daily News.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
A few of my MLS game notes:
-The league has to get rid of this exclusive HDnet crap. There are only about 11 soccer fans in America with this channel, and the rest of us are missing out on games. Especially people with Direct Kick. Hell, we don't even get to see highlights most of the time, cuz HDNet doesn't want their precious hi-def picture compromised by lo-def technology. Well, if no one see's the hi-def, then it might as well be no-def.
-And while I am busy complaining about TV, during the ESPN games when they cut away to give us some completely useless Sports Center update of seemingly day old highlights from OTHER sports, my blood just comes to a boil. They are going to miss something big very soon, and we will all be very upset!
-New York goes from no goals given up in 4 previous matches, to 3 surrendered in 1 game. 2 of them coming in the 90th minute and in stoppage time!
-Not a great start for new RSL coach Jason Kreis as his team pulled a 3-3 draw with NY out of very very thin air, but at least they fought back and salvaged something. I think that is an adequate start for a pretty sorry (so far) team.
-Houston is spending Monday & Tuesday at owner Phil Anschutz luxury Colorado ranch. Many of his other sports teams over the last few years have done the same.
-much more later
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
MLS has named Houston's Dwayne DeRosario as the Player Of The Week. They say he got the award after scoring 2 goals in Colorado. If that is the case then this is a fraudulent reason for the award because he did not score his teams third goal! I stand by that proclamation. That goal was either a Kenny Dalglish goal or an own goal. DDR touched it after it crossed the goal line. The league simply wants to pimp DDR by giving him this award. Just like the Eddie Johnson for player of the month in April when clearly that award belonged to Taylor Twellman.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Great news for New England and Shalrie Joseph fans. Mike Biglin of the MetroWest Daily News reports that "Shalrie Joseph and Major League Soccer have resumed talks about a new contract."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
9,508 at Gillette Stadium huh? What is wrong with people? You have one of the best teams year in and year out, but you give them no love. Sad, really sad. Those couple hundred die hards who would kill for their team have my sympathy, cuz they deserve much better fellow fans.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Steven Goff of the Washington Post had a story yesterday on DC United's young Ivory Coast striker Guy-Roland Kpene, who just last week finally received his international clearance and work visa.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Goff also makes note on his Soccer Insider blog of the woeful attendance at Kansas City's two home games so far. It is beyond embarrassing if you ask me.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Andrea Canales at Top Drawer Soccer asks very direct questions of both Salt Lake's new coach Jason Kreis & former coach John Ellinger.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
New York Red Bulls forward Juan Pablo Angel has received his work visa and is now cleared to play for his new club.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
As was predicted here (maybe a little too gleefully) Panamanian striker Luis Tejada was cut from Real Salt Lake today by new coach Jason Kreis.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Salt Lake will join the parade of teams in the USA taking on the Chinese national team. Team USA & Colorado had already announced matches. RSL plays them on June 7th.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Steve Davis at Soccernet rounds up the weekends MLS matches and looks at the coaching debut for JK of RSL.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The new Soccernet MLS Power Rankings does not punish New York for caving to RSL in the closing seconds.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The next round of US Open Cup qualifier for MLS starts this week:
-Tue May 8
Los Angeles v New York
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
USL First Division scores from the weekend:
Friday
Carolina 0-0 Puerto Rico
Rochester 1-1 Vancouver
Sat
Atlanta 2-0 Carolina
Miami 0-1 Montreal
Seattle 1-0 Portland
sun
Charleston 1-1 Rochester
Minnesota 1-2 Vancouver
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
John Wegner with a match report at Blue Sky Soccer from my Thunders 1-2 loss to Vancouver in their home opener.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
CONCACAF U17 World Championship Group B Qualifying Tournament from Kingston Jamaica.
-The USA advanced on Friday before they even took the field. Trinidad & Tobago beat Canada 2-1 leaving the USA in a spot to finish no worse than 3rd, with 3 teams advancing. Congrats boys!
-Costa Rica became the first team to qualify for the Youth World Cup from this group.
-And with a miracle win over the home team Jamaica, Trinidady & Tobago came back from the dead to leap over Canada and claim the third and final spot in the finals.
Here are all the scores:
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 2-1 Canada - USA goals by Billy Schuler & Mykell Baytes. Canada goal by Cedric Carrie.
-Jamaica 0-1 Costa Rica - goal by Esteban Lunar.
Fri May 4
-Canada 1-2 Trinidad & Tobago - Can goal by Randy Edwini-Bonsu. T&T goals by Leston Paul & Stephen Knox.
-Jamaica 3-2 USA - Jam goals by Shamari Brown, Ogrill Dever & John-Ross Doyley. USA goals by Alex Nimo & Sheanon Williams.
Sun May 6
-USA 2-1 Costa Rica - USA goals by Greg Garza & Ellis McLoughlin. CR goal by Marcos Urena.
-Jamaica 0-1 Trinidad & Tobago - T&T goal by Kevin Molino.
-Standings (points - games played - team - goal differential)
9 - 4 - USA +4
7 - 4 - Costa Rica +2
6 - 4 - Trinidad & Tobago -3
4 - 4 - Canada +1
3 - 4 - Jamaica -3
-The top 3 from this group will advance to the finals in Korea in late summer.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Official US Soccer match reports from the Jamaica game - and - the Costa Rica game. Both have links to post-game player & coach quotes.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Robert Ziegler at Top Drawer Soccer covered the USA U17 team and has match reports on both matches - v Jamaica - and - v Costa Rica.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Let's check in with our favorite Americans in Europe and see how their weekend matches went:
-DaMarcus Beasley - Manchester City - started and went the first 60 minutes of 0-1 loss to Man United who clinched the league with the win.
-Gregg Berhalter - 1860 Munich - played the whole match in a 1-0 win over Unterhaching.
-Carlos Bocanegra - Fulham - started in a 1-0 win over Liverpool. The victory and 3 points secures them a spot in the Premiership for next season.
-Michael Bradley - Heerenveen - finished the regular season in a playoff spot for the Eredivisie entrants to the Champions League and UEFA Cup. They open the playoffs at home Wednesday v Ajax.
-Danny Califf - Aalborg - another big 90 minutes in the center of defense as they beat league Champions Copenhagen on the road 1-2.
-Steve Cherundolo - Hannover - started and played 90 as always at right back in his teams 2-0 win over Cottbus. Hannover are 2 points out of the UEFA Cup spots with 2 games to play.
-Charlie Davies - Hammarby - play at Malmo on Tuesday.
-Jay DeMerit - Watford - did not suit up again this week, as his team won 0-2 at Reading.
-Clint Dempsey - Fulham - came on as a sub in the 53rd minute and got his first Premiership goal in a 1-0 win over the Liverpeople. The victory and 3 points secures them a spot in the Premiership for next season. Huge huge huge for the Deuce!
-Brad Friedel - Blackburn - of course he started in goal and also got the shutout, 0-2 at Newcastle.
-Marcus Hahnemann - Reading - started as always but lost 0-2 to bottom dwellers Watford. Reading sit in the final UEFA Cup spot and may need to win their final game at Blackburn to keep it.
-Kamani Hill - Wolfsburg - was a 63rd minute sub of a 0-2 home loss to Dortmund.
-Tim Howard - Everton - In goal again for a big 3-0 win over Portsmouth. The win clinches them a spot in next seasons UEFA Cup!
-Kasey Keller - Monchengladbach - out for the season with a hip injury, and the team have been relegated. They drew 1-1 with Bayern Munich. Where will Kasey suit up next?
-Eddie Lewis - Leeds - did not dress in the teams last game, a 2-0 loss to Derby. Leeds has been relegated to League One. I think its a safe bet that we can expect to see Eddie in MLS shortly.
-Brian McBride - Fulham - started and went 85 minutes in a 1-0 win over the Liverpeople. The victory and 3 points secures them a spot in the Premiership for next season.
-Oguchi Onyewu - Newcastle - started and went the distance in a 0-2 loss to Blackburn.
-Heath Pearce - Nordsjaelland - played 90 in a 3-3 draw at home v Brondby.
-Frank Simek - Sheffield Wednesday - did not dress for this team's last game of the season, a 3-2 win over Norwich.
-Jonathan Spector - came on as a 79th minute sub of a 3-1 win over Bolton that got them out of the relegation zone. Now they gotta keep it together for one more game.
-Brian West - Fredrikstad - played the last 20 minutes of a 4-1 thrashing at the hands of Tromso.
-Josh Wolff - 1860 Munich - still out due to injury.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Mexican Playoffs - 2 qualifiers join the top 6 teams now.
Sat May 5 - second leg matches (with first leg scores included):
Atlas 0-0 Morelia -after ending 1-1 on agg, Atlas advance with the away goal tie breaker.
San Luis 0-2 Santos Laguna - Santos advance 2-1 on Aggregate.
-The next round first leg match-ups will be played Wed May 9:
Atlas v America
UAG v Cruz Azul
UANL v Guadalajara
Santos v Pachuca
-Return legs on Sat May 12.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Copa Libertadores - Round of 16 second leg matches (with 1st leg scores included):
-Tue May 8
Colo Colo v America (0-3)
Toluca v Cucuta Deportivo (1-5)
-Wed May 9
Velez Sarsfield v Boca Juniors (0-3)
Flamengo v Defensor Sporting (0-3)
Gremio v Sao Paulo (0-1)
-Thu May 10
Santos v Caracas (2-2)
Libertad v Parana (2-1)
Necaxa v Nacional (2-3)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Two of the big Euro league races are still really tight. Here are the weekend's matches and standings:
-La Liga-
Scores:
Real Sociedad 0-2 Barcelona
Real Madrid 3-2 Sevilla
Deportivo La Coruna 1-2 Valenica
Zaragoza 0-0 Racing Santander
Standings:
65 Barcelona
63 Real Madrid
61 Sevilla
59 Valencia
55 Zaragoza
(5 left to play in Spain)
-Bundesliga-
Matches:
Schalke 1-0 Nurnberg
Stuttgart 2-0 Mainz
Hertha Berlin 1-4 Werder Bremen
Standings:
65 Schalke
64 Stuttgart
63 Werder Bremen
(2 left to play in Germany)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Manchester United have won the Premiership title! With 2 games still to play, including a head to head match up, Man U now have an insurmountable 7 point lead.
-Weekend scores that mattered most:
Man City 0-1 Man United
Arsenal 1-1 Chelsea
-Even Man U main man Fergie the Red Nosed Manager could not resist the allure of tuning in to see the end of Chelsea. From The Times of London.
-Charlton, Wigan, West Ham & Sheffield United are fighting it out to avoid 2 relegation spots.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Also in England, the Championship promotion playoffs are all set:
-Sat May 12
Southampton v Derby
-Sun May 13
Wolverhampton v West Bromich Albion
-Tue May 15
Derby v Southampton
-Wed May 16
Wolverhampton v West Bromich Albion
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The money/business has gotten so big in the top leagues that law suits are more & more becoming the common way to settle things - as opposed to on the field. Rob Hughes at the International Herald Tribune looks at this new breed of mess.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Glen Roeder has stepped down/been fired as coach of Newcastle. Expect Sam Allardyce to get the job.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Adam Spangler of This Is American Soccer see's both soccer documentaries that debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival, Sons Of Sakhnin United & The Power Of The Game and reviews them for us.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Amy Lawrence at the Observer examines the differences in the Premiership today from its origins in the Fall of 1992.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The Times of London with the 4th in their excellent series of reports on derby's from around the world - Sporting v Benfica in Portugal!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Greg Lalas at Sports Illustrated goes to the old world to see local football - Besiktas of Turkey.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Lastly, what's wrong with this headline? "Manchester United Wins U.K. Soccer Title". This comes from the New York Times website in the soccer section. It must stun the teams in Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland to know that they lost their championships to Man U. I have given up writing notes to the NYT sports editors cuz they never ever reply, obviously don't take the game seriously in their sports coverage, and even more obviously have their head way up their own ass. Now back to massive daily Kentucky Derby coverage.
posted by brucio at 16:58
12 Comments:
I am confused by the England relegation battle. I keep reading that for Wigan to stay up, they need to beat Sheffield and get help. I don't understand why this is the case. As far as I can tell, if Wigan beat Sheffield by 1 goal, they will have 38 points and a -22 goal differential, leaving Sheffield with 38 points and a -23 goal differential. Charlton can only get to 36 points. Isn't Wigan safe with a victory?
I have HDNet and its my favorite way to watch MLS. Besides the crystal picture, for most of the second half, there isn't even a score on the screen to distract from the action.
We're getting really close to the point where not having HD tv is no longer a valid excuse (that being said, if its a cable operator issue, than that is a problem).
With the start of this season and the slough of boring matches being played, I realize that my mental capitulation over the winter was foolhardy at best: This league needs relegation and promotion as badly as it needs more talent. I realize there are only 13 teams right now, but chrisalmitey can't we figure something out? Those RSL players who sat back for an hour, do you think they'd be so content to lose if they knew that a loss now would mean three more points they wouldn't have to keep them from the drop at the end of the season?
Can we American soccer fans please get somebody working on this?
adam - i have no doubt that hdnet is great
what i am saying is that the 47 of us with direct kick want to see the games that the 11 of you with hdnet are seeing
and major league soccer is doing themselves a huge diservice by making those games exclusive at this stage of the game
down the road, fine
now, bogus
first: i didn't realize i was one of only 11 with HDNet. how privelaged i am! great way to watch MLS, btw. besides the fact balboa is completely useless and annoying.
second: my relegation idea (probably a stupid one).
-let there be a core group of MLS teams that never are relegated (a by product of the American sports scene)
-let a certain number of current USL teams play with the big boys
-let relegation occur amongst these USL teams.
-ie, say, there are 4 current USL teams that get to play with the big boys. the bottom 2 among these 4 teams gets relegated. The top 2 from USL gets to play with the big boys next year.
-kind of a hybrid Open cup & European system
-why this might work: even though this doesn't force a crappy team like RSL to face relegation, it would give them the shameful opportunity to finish below USL teams. Course, what is pathetic attendance would probably drop even more.
I realize this probably wouldn't work, but, aside from straight-up relegation, this is an idea i think might be interesting.
Charlton are now relegated. Should be interesting to see who gets the dreadful 18th spot.
And which team needs Eddie Lewis most? I agree that he has played his last game for Leeds.
I get HDNet as well. I like it.
Not that I am defending less than 10,000 people showing up for the Revs' game, but if they had a soccer specific stadium closed to the city of Boston (Foxboro is over an hour away), I think they would attract more fans. Part of the reason I don't go to more games is b/c it takes forever to get there.
I think it would be better if they were much closer to Boston, where more of the fans are. As it is, they are closer to Rhode Island.
Elmer, don't they run trains direct to Foxboro? I know when I was in town for the '99 WWC I just had to get myself downtown and there was a soccer special that dropped us off behind the stadium. I loved it! I don't know if they'd do that for regular season games though.
well said, kely.
They do run trains to Foxboro from downtown, they definitely do it for the Pats games but I'm pretty sure they don't for the Revs.
Regardless, if the stadium were more accessible the attendance would go up.
Good call on the Sportscenter mess. I am watching the RSL/COL game, and Herculez Gomez just scored as I was listening to nonsense about Dale Earnhardt's stepmom... in the end HG was offsides... but maybe ESPN learned a lesson. I can hope.
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