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.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
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.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
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.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
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.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Jeff Bradley at MLSnet writes about the power of the Colombians in his latest First XI: Colombians supreme
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Grahame Jones of the LA Times with his soccer news and notes - Corner Kicks
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
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
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Chicago's Daily Southtown previews tomorrows Chic v NYRB match - Sarachan v Arena.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
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.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
US Open Cup - MLS qualifier match tonight:
-Colorado v Salt Lake
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
2 MLS team play friendly's tonight:
-Toronto v Benfica
-Los Angeles v Rangers
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Luis Bueno at LASN with a LA v Rangers match preview.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Jesse Erdmann at Blue Sky Soccer with the latest USL First Division Power Rankings.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
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.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Yanks Abroad talks to young American defender Neven Subotic about his debut match for Mainz last weekend. It was a surprise start for him.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
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 & ???.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
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.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Champions League Final from Athens:
AC Milan v Liverpool FC
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Jack Bell at the New York Times on Liverpool midfielder Javier Mascherano.
-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.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
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.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
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.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
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.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Jeff Bradley at MLSnet writes about the power of the Colombians in his latest First XI: Colombians supreme
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Grahame Jones of the LA Times with his soccer news and notes - Corner Kicks
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
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
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Chicago's Daily Southtown previews tomorrows Chic v NYRB match - Sarachan v Arena.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
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.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
US Open Cup - MLS qualifier match tonight:
-Colorado v Salt Lake
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
2 MLS team play friendly's tonight:
-Toronto v Benfica
-Los Angeles v Rangers
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Luis Bueno at LASN with a LA v Rangers match preview.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Jesse Erdmann at Blue Sky Soccer with the latest USL First Division Power Rankings.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
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.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Yanks Abroad talks to young American defender Neven Subotic about his debut match for Mainz last weekend. It was a surprise start for him.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
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 & ???.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
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.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Champions League Final from Athens:
AC Milan v Liverpool FC
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Jack Bell at the New York Times on Liverpool midfielder Javier Mascherano.
posted by brucio at 11:30
1 Comments:
Eddie Robinson is a goon. He seems to get away with murder on the pitch. It's an overall issue MLS will have to address as you can't bring in high priced talent and allow them to get clocked regularly.
Post a Comment
<< Home