Friday, May 25, 2007

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.

6 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

i would totally disagree with jeff carlisle that right-mid is our weakest position. It is obviously left back where we have converted midfielder Jonny Bornstein and converted central defender Carlos Bocanegra vying for the spot. Honestly, if you want a spot in the USMNT you should try to play left back.

Even with the obvious left back situation, I think the most pressing need is starting forward. We got Ching, Johnson, Cooper, Rolfe, and Wolf. They do not strike fear into my heart and I'm just watching. Donovan is great, yes, but is he really a forward? Maybe a withdrawn forward... The US team goes from best to worst starting with the keeper and moving forward. This doesn't change at all for me in US Gold Cup 2007

5:33 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

LOL @ Terry Butcher. He HATES Beckham. HATES HIM!!!!

8:50 PM  
Blogger Gourcuff said...

does anybody know the name of the honda civic song they always play in their ads during MLS games?

10:33 PM  
Blogger kebmodee said...

regarding the us team, i agree with diego about the lack of quality up front. replacing mcbride will be tough. ching, twellman etal will be good enough for qualification but in the WC, it will be another story. if the red bull continue like i know they will with bruce at the helm, mathis might soon be on the nat'l team.

also i think we are quite weak in the middle. noone approaches the quality of reyna in my opinion. mastroeni is good enough defensively but who can replace claudio in the middle, possessing the ball and distributing like he could?

lastly, obviously, we have strength in spades in goal and on the flanks with beasely, convey and dempsey.

9:55 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Catalonia and Switzerland?

I thought Bradley was going to start introducing the team to tough Euro competition. Catalonia? Please?

With that friendly period and being that Beckham has been recalled to the National team, could this mean that he could miss the Galaxy exhibition game in MN Oct. 10th due to international duty?

12:48 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Look, Butcher's point about MLS can be taken very simply: even if LA makes the MLS final, Beckham is off from November to March or April. MLS' season doesn't cohere with most of Europe's, and the aside from the calendar, the length of the layoff is much longer than every highly regarded professional aoccer league. Those nearly five months are a very big deal.

11:38 PM  

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